Blaze Your Own Trail - The Journey of the Real Life Wizard of Oz with Steve D. Sims

Episode Date: July 19, 2021

About Steve: Entrepreneur Magazine labeled me as “The Real Life Wizard of Oz” because I have developed a reputation for making the impossible, possible. I founded the first high-end luxury concierge, through which I've arranged things like private dinners at the feet of Michelangelo’s “David” while being serenaded by Andrea Bocelli. I published a best-selling book, “Bluefishing”, documenting how I’ve built a business on social currency. I have spoken for Harvard, The Pentagon, and Fortune 500 Companies. All coming from a young lad that was only qualified to lay bricks at a construction site. I've spent 20+ years falling on my face to learn the lessons that you can implement into YOUR career ambitions. In this episode we discuss: Steve's upbringing His early jobs as a bricklayer Some lessons he learned at a young age Hustling his way to China Getting kicked out of his Apartment A job that changed everything His entrepreneurial journey And much more!! Connect with Steve: https://www.stevedsims.com/ Connect with Jordan: LinkedIn: ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/jordanjmendoza/⁠ Instagram: ⁠https://www.instagram.com/therealjordanjmendoza/⁠ Clapper: ⁠https://clapper.vip/jordanjmendoza⁠ Join my Facebook Group: ⁠https://www.facebook.com/groups/linkedintrailblazers⁠ Website: ⁠https://www.blazeyourowntrailconsulting.com Installing strategic sales systems & processes will stop the constant revenue rollercoaster you might be facing which is attainable through our 6 Week Blazing Business Revenue Coaching ProgramBook a discovery call with Jordan now to learn more! Are you an entrepreneur?Join my FREE Group Coaching Community where we have live calls, Q&A and more! Our Trailblazer Ecosystem also enables you to network with other entrepreneurs and creator hub eliminates multiple subscriptions and logins creating a one stop shop to take action!Use code: FOUNDING100 for 12 months access FREE and Founding pricing for life! (While Supplies Last)Join now! Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Are you ready to find out how to blaze your own trail? Welcome to the Blaze Her Own Trail podcast with your host, Jordan Mendoza. In this podcast, Jordan interviews people from around the world to find out about their journey to success. If you're looking for valuable content with actionable advice, you've come to the right place. And now your host, Jordan Mendoza. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the Blaze Your Own Trail podcast. My name is Jordan Mendoza and I'm your host. And I've got an incredible guest today.

His name is Steve Sims. And I'm going to give him a minute to tell you who he is and what he does today. Wow, a minute. I get you out of your own way and I get you to go for stupid. I'm a coach, a speaker, an author, but I'm probably more well known for working with people like the Pope, Elon Musk, and Sir Richard Banson. Awesome. Love that intro. And we're going to get into all that a little bit later in the show.

But my favorite part, Steve, is we get to rewind, my friend. We get to go back. We're going to find out about little Steve. So for the audience, where did you grow up? And let's give some context on the early years, like elementary to high school years. Sure. I was raised up in East London. We didn't have any money.

So I was a little bit of a bitter kid growing up with what I thought. was, you know, well below the poor line. I finished school at the age of 15, and I had one day that my dad let me sleep in, and then the following day I was on the building site. So at the age of 15 years old, I'm working on the building site in East London, getting rained on crap,

getting my hands cut up, getting bashed, and I thought, this is it, you know, this is my life. You know, my dad's there, my granddad's there, my uncle's there, my cousins. This is it. But I believe there's something in every single entrepreneur, and I don't want to get macab. But I reckon if you cut us in half and dissected us,

I reckon there's like a little purple blood cell or something that unites all entrepreneurs. Because as you know, we can actually go into a room full of entrepreneurs, regardless of what industry we're dominating, we can feel at home, can we? You know, we can connect because we're all creative disruptors. without me realizing it, I had that DNA in me. So I went on a journey to try and find where I could fit in,

where I could better my life. And along the way, I tried a million jobs which I failed at, until funny enough, the worst job I had turned out to be the best one. I was a dormant of a nightclub in Hong Kong. My job description was physically to slack people and throw them out of a club. but from there, I got to see humanity. I got to see how rich people acted and I got to see how pretend rich people acted

and I got to communicate with people that won that night out that had money. And I realized early on in my life, if I surrounded myself with successful people, not rich, successful people, I would become successful. Because at the moment, I'm hanging around with a bunch of bikers because, hey, that's what I am, and that was as far as they were going.

So that's what I did. I went on a journey, and along that way, I ended up working with the Grammy, Survelling John's Oscar Party, New York Fashion Week, Kentucky Derby, and the bottom line of it is the most affluent people in the planet. And I'm talking about people that own things like countries were my clients. Amazing, amazing. And let's back up a little bit, because I think we can probably extract some really, really good lessons that you had at 15. I mean, we're talking about construction folks. We're talking

about getting rained on slipping. Like, I don't know if there was hazard pay involved. There may not have been, right? So what are some lessons that, that really you could share with the audience that helped you build some tough skin that still translate to today? Because there had to been some things that you learned being in that environment that really have helped you on your journey. you could not have asked a better question. And I am so proud that you actually discovered that. It actually says a lot about you. If you rewind this, you say, you'll hear that I said I grew up poor and I was bitter.

We never had a such thing as a new car. Okay, you know, I live in L.A. now and, you know, my kids come out of college and we run down to the local, you know, Chev or GMC or something like that. And we get a new car. We're used to getting new cars, especially with leases. here in America. We never had a new car. And I remember one day my dad went out and I heard my mum saying he's very happy

because he's getting a new car. And I'm like, oh my God, for the first time in our life, the back seats aren't ripped up, the cars aren't miscolored, you know, all of that kind of stuff. We had windows you couldn't wind down. And I remember my dad came home

and the car was like 15 years old. But to them, that was a new car. Yeah. And I grew up, as I say, bitter, which wasn't good for me. But I was getting up at 4.30 in the morning, going on to a building site, working through the rain during the day,

coming home, cold, wet, beaten up, like 6.30 at night, undressing in the garden so we didn't bring the dirt into the house. You know, bath, shower, eat, and then go back to bed and wake up again in the morning. You know, that was my life.

And I thought to myself, I hate my life. You know, I'm, I, I, I shouldn't be living like this. My parents shouldn't have a kid if this was how you're going to treat your kids. Now, those are very horrible things to say. It wasn't until my late teens and early 20s that I suddenly realized how wealthy I was.

You see, now, if I've got to get up at 4.30 in the morning to speak to a billionaire in Japan to close a $2 million deal, that's not hard work. All you've got to do is get up at 4.30 in the morning, Okay, which again, I've done before. You see, I never realized, and I'm glad I realized it when I did. But in my 20s, I realized, hang on a minute, I've been bred superhuman powers.

I'm empowered. I know what it's like to get up at 4.30 in the morning. I know what it's like to get your hand caught in a pile of bricks and no one else is around you. I know what it's like to get smack in the nose, fall over, fall off a ladder. I know what it's like to have had a pile of. tough life. But you know something? We never had money, but I was never cold. There was a night that I went to bed that I wasn't told I was loved. I was never not hug before I went to bed. I was never not given a Christmas present. I was never not given a birthday present. Now that it wasn't cars,

but I was never not loved and protected. And I grew up realizing, hang in a minute, I've been given a gift. And I'm glad that I realized that I realized that I realized that I really, it when I was younger. Now, if I've got to get up and do something, and I teach my kid this, don't tell people to go and do something, you know, lead by example. If I've got to pull a wheel off or something, right, roll your sleeves up, kids, this is what we do. If I've got to pull a tree out of the garden, right, this is how we do. I know what it's like. So I'm very, very fortunate that my education and PhD came from hard work that I've been able to translate in today. And now I enforce it onto my kids. And again, my kids are like, why are we going?

getting up for five o'clock in the morning. Why are we doing this? Why have I got to do that? But again, I'm trying to give them that superpower that basically I was given as a kid. I love it. I love it. And what a story and what a way to bring it around full circle to your kids, right? Now you get to impart those important lessons and principle. I do the same thing. My oldest son is 16. And, you know, he's the guy that's cutting the grass now. He's the guy that's doing this. And so when he hits a rock with my dang lawnmower, you better believe I'm be like, bro. you hear that sound that's called a rock what you need to do is walk the yard before you mow and pick up all of those rocks yep and guess how I'm gonna know if you did it or not

I'm gonna hear that noise again right but like they have to be shown that they have to be told and instructed we've got to be the example like you said it's so important it's got to be so let's talk about you know after after the construction because I know you went into some of these incredible things. A bouncer in Hong Kong, which I've got a million questions about, you know, like, first off, like, what were, what were the qual, let's go into that story. So what were the qualifications to get you a job? And how did you end up in Hong Kong in the first place? Let's, let's shed some light here. This is all, this is all bad. This is your worst podcast episode ever. No one's ever going to believe this shit. So I was, I was, I'd left the building site.

and I was trying to get loads of jobs. And of course, I wasn't doing very well with them. I tried truck driving. I tried insurance sales, book sales, telephone rooms. I tried so many different jobs. And every time I would fail, I'd go back to the building site to get some money because, hey, I could do that. One day I was on a train and a friend of mine that I remember from school, he actually was a stockbroker. And I thought to myself, oh, my God, there I am, just about to go and get covered and shit and rained on.

And this guy's wearing a suit. He's got a nice watch. To me, he was Gordon Gecko. He was like, the man. And he told me that his company were actually hiring for interns and trainees for stockbroker positions in Hong Kong. And Hong Kong was on the last five years before he went back to China ownership. And so he said, come in and I'll put a good word in for you. Now, bear in mind, I had no qualifications, none at all.

But I borrowed my dad's suit that was falling off the arms. It was, I looked terrible. And I went along for this interview. Now, thank the Lord. It was a mass interview of like about 200 people in a room that the guy was up at the front and was doing all the talking. And I went up to the girl at the back and I said, I don't know why I'm in this. I've already been approved to be in this position. And I blacked my way.

I said to her, drag my details in there. And she's like, no, no. no, no, I don't. And I went, this keeps on. And she's like, no, no, let me take. So she took me down my details. So I convinced the girl to the back that I should have been in the room because I'd already been approved. And we didn't have, you know, too much security at the time. Obviously 9-11 and that hadn't happened then. The dumb thing is, two weeks later, somehow I had slipped through this net and they were sending 80 trainee stockbrokers to Hong Kong. and my name was in there.

So I ended up getting a one way to it was an open ticket, which means it was a one way destination but open to return. I was told the apartment I was going to be. I was told I was sharing it with three other guys. So on the Friday, I left London from being a literally that morning

I had been bricklaying. That evening I got on a plane to go to Hong Kong to be a stockbroker landed in Hong Kong, got drunk with the guys, on the Saturday night, got drunk with the guys on the Sunday night, because hey, I was qualified to do that. On the Monday, I went to orientation, and on the Tuesday, I was fired. So they realized that I had slipped through the net, and I had no qualifications, so they fired me. And they said, look, and I thought it was good because they went, look, we got you over here, so we've got to give you

two months basic pain. So I ended up with like 5K, which I thought, whoa, I'm rich. That doesn't go far in Hong Kong. And I was allowed the apartment for three months. Now, of course, the guys in the apartment, they thought I was a Ford. They wanted nothing to do with me. I was like cancer. So what I did was I used to go out at night. I would still look for jobs, couldn't get it.

And I'm now in a foreign country, even though it's pretty much British owned. I'm trying to get a job. No qualifications. Look like shit. But I would stay out all night so I would avoid the guys. and then I would go back to the apartment and sleep during the day. So one night, I'm at this bar, and I'm sitting outside drinking my whiskey, thinking, my world's over. You know, I've got nothing.

I failed. I'm going to have to go back to England. All my mates are going to go, well, what did you expect, Steve? You're a bricklay. You're a dumb ass. What did you think was going to happen? I knew I could do that, but I didn't want to do that. And I'm sitting outside, drinking my whiskey.

I won't do the impersonations because I don't want to get sued for racism or anything like that. But this little Chinese lady that looked about 900 years old was the owner of this bar. She comes over to me and literally forcefully pokes me on the shoulder and she went, you. And I looked at her thinking, what the hell is going on here? And she said to me, your boys are inside causing trouble. If you don't sort it out, my people will go and take a moment. out. And I'm thinking to myself, why is you poking me? And more importantly, who the hell are my boys? So I got up and I went to the door and there was like a curtain. I opened up the curtain to see who

my boys were. And there's three big white fellas at a table. You know, they've obviously had a bit too much liquid in them and they're getting a bit lairy and shouting at the girls and all this kind of stuff and causing a bit of a scene. And I could hear all of this from the curtain. And I said to her, they're not my boys. I don't know who they are. They got nothing to do with me. And she said to me, she said, well, you go and take them out. You go and tell them to leave. And I'm a big fella. And I said to her, and before I said anything, she turned around and she said, you do that. I buy all your drinks. So I was like, well, okay then. I'm done because I'm going to drink this place out of alcohol tonight. Because my life.

over, it's in the shit. So I went and saw these guys and I said to him, look, I'm not being paid, but you either walk out the front door, calmly pay your bill and you can come back to roll and get free beer, or you can stay here and a bunch of guys are going to come out of this curtain in a minute with a bunch of bats and you ain't going to see Tuesday. I hope you make the smart decision. I'll see you walk out. And I went back, my whiskey was still where it was. I sat down on my chair and about two minutes the guys walked out. And she came over to me and she went, you work on the door, you know, you work tomorrow, you work on, and I thought, yeah, okay, fine. So that's how I got my first job as a door. Now, here's the funny thing. Those

buggers came back the following day and they said, oh, thanks a lot, man, for last night. Yeah, we got a bit out of hand, but we do remember that you said you were going to give us the first free beer for the night. So I turned around to her and I said to her, oh, I said to these guys, they would get a free beer if they paid them. And she said, yeah, you said they would get a free beer, so that comes out of your money. So my first pay, I had to buy these guys beer, but that's how I got the job working on the door. And I was very good at talking my way out of a fight. You know, if the guys were a bit drunk, eh, you didn't really have an option. But, you know, I was always the kind of guy, and I realized very early on, that if you push someone

into a corner, they only have one way to go. But if you go up to someone, go a little, you go up to someone, go, look, I don't want to be talking with you at the moment. I certainly don't want to dance with you. But you're getting a bit out of hand. I've been told come over here. Is there any way you could do me a favor and just kind of like, you know, leave it alone for tonight? You know, just help me out. And if you put it like that, nine times out of ten, they're just trying to save face. But if you go up to someone, you're wearing that face and I'm like, you're getting out. Then you're confrontational and bang you into a fight. So I learned that trick very, very early on, which meant that I got to do the doorwork for some really good parties.

And of course, these really good parties, they had rich people. So I started talking to these rich people going, hey, are you going to the opening of this event? Are you going to, and I was the dormant of it. So I used to start getting them in and I started to become like the Google of Nightlife. And I'd say, while I thought it was my low point, again, like all entrepreneurs, we try to find the old. opportunity even in a rainy day, don't we? And my opportunity was I knew that rich people wanted to go out and have good nights. And it started from then.

Then I started throwing my own parties. And then I started throwing parties, you know, in major locations like Starr, Polo and Formula One Monaco and New York during the fashion week. And it just grew and grew and groomed. And as richer, they would say things like, oh, I'd love to meet Sarelt and John. Oh, I'd love to, you know, hang out with Guns and Moses backstage. And I just became the man that could because I didn't take no for an answer. And I knew there had to be a way to get it in.

There's always a way to get anything. And, you know, Forbes called me the real life Wizard of Oz. I've been called the nice version of Ray Donovan. And the one I really liked was the Make a Wish Foundation for people with really big checkbooks. So, you know, I just became this guy that could suddenly do all of these things, you know, over 25 years. Yeah, well, I definitely love that. And listen, if you can, you know, talk your way onto a flight, you can talk your way out of a fight. I mean, you know what I'm saying, right?

Like, you literally talked your way on, not just onto a flight, but literally flying you to another country, paying for your hotel, paying, like, your salary. You know, like so if you think about everything, your, your genius is, you know, when, when you're up against the wall, when it's that pivotal moment time, you hit another gear, right? It's like another gear. You're able to shift into another gear and turn lemons into lemonade, right? But I think you said it. A lot of us entrepreneurs, we're like that. It's like those most pivotal moments, there's some type of breaking point. And all of a sudden, we just figure. a way out. You figure out a way to survive another day because that's essentially what you did, Steve, is you bought yourself some free drinks and you know, you already were there. You already were going to wallow in your sorrows. So you might as well do it. And then it turned into a job, which turned into this amazing wizardry that you get to do now today. So what was the first big client or big event that you got to host? And what was the first big client? And what was the first big client?

the feeling like when you got that like did because I'm sure just based on everything that I've learned about you in in the time that we've been on this episode you probably knew you could do it already right because listen I don't care what you're doing in life if you don't believe that you can if you don't have this subconscious thing in your mind that says I've already see myself getting that it's very hard to to realize things so what what did it feel like for you to get that first big deal and who was it so two answers and I'll give you my second answer first. I live here in Los Angeles and I've always been this, this five-year-old Irish kid. You know, I'm still very curious. I will still be in a room and go,

oh my God, I can't believe I'm here. Or I'll be talking with someone and I'll be like, oh, I can't believe I'm doing this. You know, I still find it very funny and humorous the kind of things I get up to. And I had a dinner party about, oh God, I think it may have been like, five or six years ago, and Marvel was doing really well with the Marvel movies, like Ironman and all this kind of stuff. And I had a dinner party, and I had about 12 people at the dinner party, and I had three of the main actors from the Marvel movies. And I had some, you know, business icons and some, you know, very famous. This dinner party, I looked at it, I was like, I've got Hollywood A-list, and I've got business rock stars, and I actually had a rock star there.

And I'm like, this is pretty cool. Now at my house party, you know, I must be, you know, I'm doing alright. It certainly beats the biker bars that I used to hang around in, you know, which I still do sometimes. But, you know, I was thinking, you know, I must be getting somewhere. And as we were sat down having dinner, one of the guys from the Marvel movie actually said, all right, all right, he said, let's play superhuman, you know, superheroes. If you had a superhero power, what would it be? Now, I was opposite him, and he turned around and said, right, let's start on our left.

And we went around the table and everyone had to say what that superhero power was. Now, some of them were joking and the power of power, or the power that whiskey would never be empty, stuff like that. But when it was going to get to me, I wanted to have a really intelligent answer. I wanted to be able to kind of like, I want the ability to remove pain. You know, I wanted something quite simply that would make me look smart, you know. We all get that imposter syndrome every now and then. And these people were at my party, but I still wanted to sound super smart in front of them. So anyway, I'm thinking of all of these kind of really crap, lame answers.

As it gets around to me, and he looks to me and he went, all right, Sims, superhero, pal, what is it? You know, you kind of go, oh, let me think it would have to be. as I'm doing that, my wife, who bearing in mind has been with me for 35 years, she was with me as my girlfriend when I first went to Hong Kong. So she's been with me through this entire up and down journey. She turned around and she went, oh, I can answer that. So I went, all right, babe, you know, what is it? Thinking that she's got a better answer, you know, because she's smarter than me.

She turned around and she said, Steve's superhero power. He has the power of ignorance. and I looked around the table and everyone was like, and I thought to myself, I'm getting divorced. My wife is literally just in front of my friends called me ignorant. You know, this can't be a good thing.

Now, she realized the tone of the table had suddenly changed. And she went, no, no, no, hang on a minute, hang on a minute. A lot of people here have known Steve for many, many, many years. How many times has he pulled something off and you've gone, my God, how the hell did he do it? She said the reason he's pulled it off is he's ignorant to the chance that it could fail.

He's ignorant to the chance that they could say no to him. He is ignorant to the possibility that it could go any other way than the way he's envisaged it. He is totally committed because he's seen it and that is the only opportunity that it's going to go. He's ignorant to every other scenario. Now, she saved it, but I realized I'm not smart. Jay Abraham, a friend of mine, once said to me that I have a greater I can than an IQ. I don't think about what I'm going to do. I do it. Now I may fail, but then I've just learned how not to do it.

So that's been how it's got me through my life. I've been ignorant. I've been stupid. I've been uneducated. And I've been, I've been fearless because I have. haven't been given any kind of trepidation or any kind of paralysis by overanalyze business situation. So that, I believe, ignorance is something that every entrepreneur has to have, okay? They need to be completely ignorant to it, possibly going any other way

than the way they're envisaged. So that's the first bit. I remember I held probably my biggest event that I kind of like went, oh, and I've had two, but one of my ones that I can't believe I did was I've always had a saying, and this will help entrepreneurs out there, never give a client what they ask for, give them what they lust and desire for. Two different things, okay? If you've given what they ask for, you've just completed a transaction. Amazon completes transactions. What Amazon doesn't do is think, create and dream. That's your job. So when a client says, hey, I'd love to do this. That's your time to turn around and go, really?

Is that good enough? Is that really what you want to do? Or could we kind of make it a little bit brander? Because most people actually dream small. Again, I'm ignorant. I joke, one of my sayings is go for stupid. I had a client that wanted to have a dining experience in Florence. That was his mandate to me.

I want a dining experience in Florence. It's going to be with my mother-in-law, my future mother-in-law and father-in-law, and I want to show him how powerful I am. Now, this guy, billionaire, filthy Mitch, one of the most powerful people in Eastern Bloc, you know, former Russia. So, you know, powerful, strong,

very kind of macho man kind of thing, needed to show how powerful it was. Now, I could have done a whole host the thing but the first thing you do go for what's the most ridiculous so i actually went for the academia de galeria which is the museum the houses michael angelo's david the most famous statue in the planet now if i failed to get that i'd have gone for penthouse i'd have gone for a cathedral i'd have gone for a tuscan villa i could have gone for many other things but guess what i've got it So I ended up actually shutting down an entire museum from three o'clock in the afternoon till two o'clock in the morning, setting up a table of six at the feet of Michelangelo's David so they could enjoy their past.

Had a string quartet and a piano. And I decided, okay, I've got that. How can I make it more fantastic? So halfway through that dinner, I had Andrea Bacheli coming and serenade them. And as, you know, I'm 50 years old. You know, I'm now 55, but when I was doing that, it was like 50, 51. I remember standing at the side after leading Andrea Bacheli in. He's now serenading the clients.

There's Michael Angelo's David. I'm in a foreign country for my ability of communication and connectivity. I closed down a museum in a completely different country that had never had a dinner party ever. And I was the one that did. it. But guess what? Steve? Nobody else asked. Nobody asked. Right? That's so powerful. And for everybody that's listening or that's watching this, you know, I had some guests on recently and they wrote a book called, you know, ask, right? The bridge to you, from your dreams to your destiny. Mark Victor Hanson and it's

my boy, Crystal. Yeah, so I just had them on the show and we just, they just talked about their book. And man, your whole life has been about asking. And you have a lot. And you have a You haven't been afraid, and you haven't been afraid of the answer. Like, you know what I'm saying? I mean, that's so powerful, brother. Yeah, no, Mark's a great guy. Mark was actually on my podcast, and he was at my speakeasy event, which is my private events the other week.

And we were actually saying that complete thing. I have just always gone in for what I wanted, and I've asked. And a lot of people don't ask. And so, yeah, that's a good plug for Mark's book. It's well, well worth it. Yeah, listen, and you never get what you don't ask for. Like, that's just a flat out truth, right? Because listen, like you said, you already had four or five other backup plans, right?

Yeah. But you went for the gusts. And so let me ask you this, because I think this would be good insight for the audience. Did you go after Bacheli first, or did you go after the museum? Because I would have probably leveraged Bichelli, got him dialed in, and then went after the museum. But which way did you do it? I got the museum remarkably quickly, which kind of like surprised me. I had the mandate request on a Sunday that he wanted to have the dinner on the Wednesday.

So I went to Florence on the Monday. So I literally had 48 hours to pull it together. So I went for the academia. And even when I was in the waiting room for the academia, I was still making a note of where else I could go to once these people told me to get out. Okay? but when I got it, I was like, oh, so I remember by one o'clock on the Monday, I already had the location. So then it was a case of, okay, and like all entrepreneurs, once we've got something working,

we go, how can I make that better? How can I scale that up? How can I take it? So I was already, by mid-afternoon on Monday, I'm already thinking, well, I've got the world's most famous statue. How can I make this better? Now, I could have stopped there and the client would have been happy, but I wanted to see how far I could take it. So that's when I got Bacheli.

Now, when I got Bacheli, and I told the museum I got Bacheli, they were over the moon. Now, I'm sure that's opened up other doors for me because now I can go along and go, well, look, I would like to do something in your venue. By the way, the last time I didn't you think it was with the Michael, Andrews, David and Bacheli. I've already got that to open up other doors for me. But no, I got the museum first, and then I got Buccelli. Bichelli. Awesome. And so having, did you use the museum as leverage or did you already have some connections

to Bichelli prior to that? So I'm a great believer in connections. I never introduced myself. I always try to find people that know people that can introduce me because then you ride in on that credibility. Love it. So I knew some very, very powerful people in Florence and when I made a contact with them saying, hey, do you have any connections?

The first one I contacted did not. Second one was actually very well connected with the museum. he led me in so I had his credibility. I've worked with everyone from Guns and Moses' Journey, Erosmith, Surre, and John. I've worked with a whole host of major iconic music acts. So I was able to use one of their leverages to introduce me to Bacheli because I'd never worked with Bacheli before.

And so I was given that introduction. I was able to use my relationship with them again as leverage. So I'm a great believer that your network is your net worth. And I've always, always, always focused on my relationships. Love it. Yeah. And that's what I focus on, too. If you build relationships, you're going to have long-term, sustainable fruit.

If you go for transactions, you're just going to, it's a one and done, like you said earlier, right? And that's not what you want to look for in business or in life, for that matter, right? So what would you say to people that, you know, because I have a lot of aspiring entrepreneurs that listen to show. I've got ones that are maybe in their first year. I've got ones that are seasoned. So if you don't have the network yet, right? So what would your, like, let's say that Steve just started entrepreneurship in 2021, and we've got this new social landscape.

We've got all this social media stuff. So if you had none of your network today, Steve, where would you start to grow it? Would you use direct messaging? Would you put out video? Like, where would you start if you didn't have any of the connections that you had today and you had to start all over? knowing all the stuff we have available to our disposal in 2021. Well, that's the thing.

What we have available to us today is far superior than what we had available to me in 1985 when I started. I'm a great believer that you are the room you're in. The first thing I would do is join a group of other creative disruptors and other misfits. I have a, it's free of charge, so there's no pitch. I have a Facebook group called an Entrepreneur's Advantage with Steve Sim. Get in people's rooms. get in communities because as entrepreneurs, everyone around us is looking at us going,

you're doing what, you're what? We don't fit in. We need to find our own Hogwarts. And you can do that through social platforms. That's why I created an entrepreneur's advantage. I want people to get into a room and to realize that they're not misfits. They're the actual dominators. They're not meant to fit in.

And from there, they can ask questions. You see, on a good social platform now, you can go ahead. hey, how do I get into a museum? How do I brand myself? How do I get my message out there? How do I create impact? How do I define the solution that I am to someone's problem? You have that ability now by so many social channels.

So that's the first thing I would do. Show what you're doing. Show what you're passionate about. And then you can reach out once you've defined yourself and go, hey, how do I get in touch with this person? How do I get in touch with that? How do I get that venue? So I'm a great believer now that it's far greater, far easier for you to get into the right networks today than it's ever been.

But you've got to show up with value and intent. Don't join a group and then go, hey, can anyone give me Elon Musk's email address? That ain't going to happen. That's awesome. And yeah, I think value is so underrated, right? but it can it can change your world you know I think back to like two years ago I created a lot of content I gave away a lot of free advice and I remember people they're like why are you giving people advice I'm like because it's the right thing to do if I have knowledge about something I want

to share it with people because if they can learn from it guess who they're going to come back to they're going to come back to that source and now I look at two years later I just hit a year anniversary of the show 80 episodes in I was a guest on 40 plus shows seven weeks ago launched my business and you know doing over a hundred k in revenue in the in the first month so listen you have to plant the seeds and then you've got to cultivate the seeds and then the harvest will start to show up yeah because i think for you even you've a lot of your relationship building steve would you say that you give a lot more than you take oh yeah because again i i don't give people what they ask for um like at the moment i'm i'm coaching i'm training i'm

I'm speaking. And my goal is to be ripped off. It sounds silly, but when I charge someone to go to one of my, my events are $2,000 and I don't tell anyone who's turning up what you're going to learn. I tell you nothing, okay? And you've got to be quite open and wild and crazy to even want to do those things. But my goal is to make sure that you leave my events or you leave my coaching or you leave Sims Media and you go, Whoa, I ripped Steve off.

You know, I got way more value than I paid for. And as long as you work like that, then you can never be undermined and you can never leave a client unhappy. So focus on giving more than what you've been asked for by never giving them what they ask for. Love it. Yeah, I love that advice. And so what are some, I know we had talked about Mark. So are there some books that you have in your library that you recommend to people that are maybe

starting out in their entrepreneurship journey or maybe the, you know, maybe they're they're stuck. Are there any ones that you, maybe a couple titles that you recommend? Well, I suppose I would have to kind of like say this one, the greatest book since the Bible, bluefish in the art of making things happen because it's mine. But Mark's got a great book. So Mark Victor Hanson was well deserved to be given that. There's two books that I think are very valuable today, even though one of them was actually written a little while ago, quite a while ago. Ryan Holliday wrote, trust me, I'm lying. which is a great vision of the manipulation of media today,

both on how it works, but also how you can use it. Okay, so Ryan Holiday, trust me, I'm lying. Naia Aal did a book called Hooked, and it's really good and very well focused on how they build rabbit holes for us to actually take our distraction. And once you know the tricks, you can actually operate against those, but then also design them for funnels and for your clients. So I would say those were the three books there.

Mark Victor Hansen, he asked, Naira A. Al hooked, and trust me, I am lying by Ryan Holiday. Those are my three favorite books at the moment. Awesome, awesome. Yeah, I'm doing a group right now with this book, Think and Grow Rich, which... Oh, God, classic, classic. Yeah, it's classic, and it's so funny. You know, the context that this is written,

it happened right after the Great Depression. Yeah. But if you read the text today, it's so makes sense for today. Right, because we just went. In that book, they were actually, in the book, they were saying about how scared they were of radio. And it's changing the dynamic. So it's very funny. There's a lot of stuff in there.

Because funny enough, when COVID happened, my first thoughts were, I don't know how long this is going to be. I'm going to read more. And a good friend of mine, Greg Reed, got me into Think and Grow Rich and got me an original copy. Yep. And so it was just, it's an old. old old book, which is accurate today. Because all it does is gets you prepared for change. And that was the Great Depression.

And today, things change overnight. 100%. Yeah, that's why I was reading. I was like, this is so valuable to today's readers. You know, it made a lot of sense. Like, what are you going to do? Are you going to have faith? Are you going to have desire?

Right. Are you going to tell yourself you can do it before you can? So, yeah, for anybody that has that problem, like controlling that inner game. What a great read, right? Yep. And so what I'm definitely going to do is make sure that we link your book down in the show notes so we can get people access to that. What else do you want to let the audience know? Is there any other projects you're working on that did you want to plug today or feel free to just share the best place to get to Steve? Yeah, I'm not quite sure I want to plug anything. We've got an entrepreneur's advantage with Steve Sims. That's that free Facebook

group. We've got one that I actually host videos and lives with a lot of my friends like Mark Victor Hanson at Simsdistillery.com, which is my private inner circle. But really, if you just head over to Steve D Sims, there's only one M in Sims. Steve D Sims.com, you can find my videos, you can find my book, you can find my events at Sims Speak Easy. So you can find all of that stuff there. Perfect. And I'll make sure we link all of that down the show notes. Well, Steve, you are a true trailblazer. That's why you're on the show. And I have no doubt in my mind you're going to continue to blaze your own trail in business and in life.

So it was a pleasure and honor to have you on. Thanks, man. Appreciate it. Thanks for having me.