Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Unlocking Communication's Hidden Depths with Erwin McManus

Episode Date: June 17, 2025

Renowned futurist, philosopher, and spiritual architect Erwin McManus joins us for a thought-provoking exploration of communication artistry. Together, we unravel the myriad factors that contribute to Erwin's captivating public speaking skills, questioning the role of nature versus nurture in the development of such talents. From introversion to eloquence, this episode highlights how dedication and the right environment can transform latent abilities into powerful tools for connection.   Journey with us as we traverse personal tales of faith and the pursuit of purpose. We delve into the transformative moments that arise from embracing belief systems, even when they challenge our initial skepticism. Alongside Erwin, we grapple with the apathy that defined the COVID-19 era, contrasting it with the relentless pursuit of passion and purpose. This reflection on finding meaning amidst chaos becomes a guide for those seeking to ignite their inner drive and overcome inertia.   Our conversation doesn't shy away from life's challenges, exploring the nuances of resilience, self-confidence, and the ever-present shadows of doubt. Through personal anecdotes, we highlight the importance of aligning one's communication style with authenticity, recognizing the shadow sides of our traits while striving for growth. From the intriguing concept of the "Seven Frequencies of Communication" to the profound impact of gratitude, this episode offers a rich tapestry of insights for our listeners to reflect upon and engage with.   CHAPTERS    (00:00) Mastering the Art of Communication (03:50) Unlocking the Art of Communication (12:09) Life Transformation Through Faith and Purpose (19:09) Awakening Purpose Through Obsession and Communication (28:24) The Seven Frequencies of Human Communication (37:50) The Psychology of Communication and Trust (45:24) Inner Struggles and Self-Confidence (49:26) Overcoming Loss and Drifting Towards Purpose (01:03:22) Engaging With Escaping the Drift   💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #escapingthedrift #erwinmcmanus #communication #artistry #erwinmcmanus #publicspeaking #naturevsnurture #introversion #eloquence #faith #purpose #passion #covid19 #chaos #resilience #selfconfidence #shadowsides #authenticity #sevenfrequenciesofcommunication #trust #intuition #narcissism #selfawareness #failure #success #mementomori #drift #gratitude #engagement

Wow, that is a great question. First of all, I'm rarely caught off guard by questions. Good job, Jeff. GPT. Good job. Man. Um, I'm just going to, I shouldn't say this out loud. And now escaping the drift, the show designed to get you from where you are to where you

want to be. I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you on a path to greatness. So stop drifting along, escape the drift, and it's time to start right now. Back again, back again for another episode of Like It Says in the Opening Man, the podcast that gets you from where you are to where you want to be. And today, dude, I'm so excited about this. I've been trying, trying to land this for a long time.

This is a guy that is in the studio today that I met him at a couple of events and it was an event. I've been at events where he's speaking and I'm in the audience. I've been at events where he's speaking, where I'm backstage in the green room. And every time this guy goes on the stage, I, if I'm in the back, I go to the front cause I, I'm, I want to watch him speak because his delivery, he doesn't just just speak to audiences. He actually shakes them. I mean, of all of the guys that I see that do what we do, he is by far the best.

He's a futurist, a philosopher, spiritual architect and one of the clearest voices out there right now, probably cutting through the noise of modern culture. He's the founder of Mosaic, which is a wildly creative community in Los Angeles. He's bestselling author of books like the Genius of Jesus and the Artisan Soul. And you know, whether you're chasing meaning, trying to build legacy, or you're just trying to make sense of the chaos out there right now. This is your guy. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the program. Thankfully, Erwin McManus. Erwin, how are you? Man, I'm doing great after

that introduction. Yeah, you know what? I'm excited to hear me. No, really. It's so funny. The first couple of times I saw you speak, right, I got captivated. You get captivated by the message because your delivery is just so unbelievably skillful and the way that you're able to reach people in every seat is really, it's magical. And I don't just say that this isn't going to be a, just a compliment fest because the reason I say the first couple of times I saw you speak, I heard every word. Cause then I started really studying the delivery. I wanted to study the speech patterns. I wanted

to study the inflections. I wanted to study the way you moved around the stage. And I think I know what it was the time that when I really flipped that switch to watch just the genius of how you deliver things was at boardroom, I think. I can't close the love. Yeah, Ken Steele. And I was at, I was at that and I was sitting in that audience and you were talking about, I don't remember what it was. It was a seven principles or seven frequencies of communication. Yes. Which I will get to. And you were talking about that. And I just, it was, it was just magic watching you do what you do. It was, it was, it was as good as watching Tigers swing a golf club.

It was as good as watching Jordan shoot the ball. It's that good. So my first question, I know it was a long buildup to that, but my first question for you is, how much of that is innate in you and how much of that is just repetition in practice? Well, I think there might be a third option. Okay.

All right. You know, scientists tell us that about 60% of who we are is genetic, that it's in our DNA. And then 40% is shaped environmentally. And so from a biological perspective, I can say some of it is innate, some of it is genetic, but none of it was obvious and I think that's the more important thing. I grew up incredibly like introverted, really reclusive, painfully shy, didn't speak

almost at all. I had relatives who would make fun of me because they said I would never talk and I lived inside of my head, I lived inside of my imagination, and I was not a person you would ever select and go, oh that guy, that guy's going to spend his life speaking on stages across the world and speak to millions of people. So when people talk about something being innate, we assume you could see it from a young age. The answer is no. It was something, I think the better word is no. It was something I think it was, I think

the better word is latent. It was latent inside of me. There, there, there were certain giftings or maybe, um, a talent that was there that had not been developed and may have never been developed if I had not moved myself to different environments. And then there's another part of it is,

is skill. I've spent my life studying human communication. I think words are an art form and one of my team members asked, I think it was Chad GBT, to describe me and it, Chad GBT described me as a poetic philosopher or a philosophical poet. And I, I, I love that description because I, I think of everything poetically. I want words to be beautiful. I want the sentences to have a, a melody to them.

I, I want the words to have a resonance that goes beyond the transference of information. And I also really see this as a, as an art form, as a skill, that there's a craft to be learned. There are things that I had to stop doing. Like I had to stop swaying back and forth. I had to stop saying like, like, like there, there are some real basic things

like saying, you know, you know, you know, that people do early on. And I, I put myself through a ruthless personal filter to try to have an economy of words where everything I said mattered and every word belonged there, earned the right to exist. So is this something you used to coach for early on or would you just watch back your performance and just pull it apart? I didn't have a coach but I have a BA in philosophy and psychology and then I got a master's in theology.

And in that master's degree, they offered courses on communication. And I took every one of them I could. I just flooded myself with every single class that had anything to do with communicating and I would put myself through the gauntlet. And so I, and I took probably six different professors who all had different philosophies of communication, all had different approaches toward communication because I didn't want to learn under just one approach. And so I just really quickly began gleaning that, but I think there's

another thing I, I love story. So I started watching, I love standup comedy. At first I was pretty much a standup comic. I spent a lot of my time on stages holding an audience for 30 to 45 minutes, doing almost pure comedy. And, and I, so I studied comedic personalities because I knew that holding people captive in that arena was one of the hardest things in the world to do.

Yeah. I also studied film and story and read an endless number of science fiction and novels because I wanted to know what is it in a story that holds me captive? When does a story lose me? When do I get lost in that story? I would even talk about films and say there's kind of three different kinds of films. There's the film that you're aware you're watching and you can't wait till it's over. Yeah, sure. Sure. I get trapped into those every time I daughter picks.

But then there's also the film that you're enjoying, but you're aware that you're watching it. And then there's a third kind of film where you forget you're watching the film and you're inside of the story. And when it's over, you feel like you've been jarred out of a reality you were living in. And I broke communication like that and began giving myself like a personal mission. I want to communicate in a way where people are wrapped inside of the story. and began giving myself like a personal mission.

I want to communicate in a way where people are wrapped inside of the story. I want it to be that third kind of film where you no longer are a hear or a listener and you're no longer simply observing it, you're now experiencing it. You're in it. Are you crafting like elements from like the hero's journey into what you do?

Is that, is it that scientific or? I was never playing with that at all. No. No, it's so funny because I developed my own methodologies crafting like elements from like the hero's journey into what you do? Is that, is it that scientific or no? No, it's so funny because I developed my own methodologies and because of my psychology background, you know, early on studying Freud and Young and Adler and all these different ideologies of human identity, I realized that what they all had in common that really attracted me was that they were all trying to understand human motivation. Why do humans that what they all had in common that really attracted me was that they were all trying to understand human motivation. Why do humans do what they do? So I may not agree with Freud's conclusion, but I think the question was really important to explore. So I spent quite a few years

studying and determining what do I believe are the intrinsic motivators of all human beings, and they influence everything I do. I think every human being across the entire planet throughout all of history of any generation, economic class, educational system, ethnicity, language, every human being has the exact same human intrinsics. We all have a desperate need for meaning, a need for progress, and a need for intimacy. And all the human story can be understood in the interweaving of these three human intrinsics. So in my talks, those human intrinsics are always being directed throughout the conversation. Yeah.

You know why I love, you know, even the first part of this conversation, I love that you spend so many hits a stage at so many entrepreneurial events because The message that's out there was so many of the entrepreneur bros. I love you entrepreneur bros So I'm friends with a lot of you guys but the message in a lot of these conferences is like college is a scam college is this and Your gift your talent your skill set was really crafted at a university So obviously you have a high regard for education. Well, no. No?

I'm sorry to destroy that bubble. Okay, let's destroy the bubble. And I was a straight D student, first to 12th grade, and didn't go to college. Didn't? I eventually went to college because I was just drifting through life and had no purpose or meaning.

Escaping the drifter in the right place. Yeah, man, so I was the drifter. That's why I do love the title. I begged my way into college. I walked into the administrative office and said, I need you to look at a human being, give them a chance. That's how I got into school. And then I stumbled into philosophy and, and, and it worked for me.

Philosophy was really important in my life. Um, but I would say that most everything I learned in college was irrelevant, except for one thing. I learned how to learn. And that is the important takeaway. So I don't care if it's college or trade school or, you know, learning on the streets, you need to learn how to learn. Where I learned how to communicate was on the streets.

I spent 10 years working with gang bangers, with drug cartels in the world of drugs and prostitution. I spent 10 years taking a basketball to government projects, playing their best athlete, earning the right to be heard, forming a crowd in those projects and talking to people, being a musician, going into the Vucaray and the Mardi Gras, and going into restaurants and asking if I could perform

for free and then after I would do a concert, I would talk to all of them about life and meaning. And I learned how to communicate in the gritty space. I found people throw things at me, yell at me, argue with me, and I learned how to respond in the moment because I was always dealing with really antagonistic audiences, I had to learn how to win them over. That's actually where I learned how to respond in the moment. Because I was always dealing with really antagonistic audiences, I had to learn how to win them over. That's actually where I learned how to communicate.

The clock is ticking when you start. It was never in the classroom. I think when you learn how to communicate on a stage, you become domesticated as a speaker. I learned how to speak in the jungle. How do you go from the introverted kid to doing that? Like, was it, did you feel a calling? What happened? Well, I mean, for me, it was, How do you go from the introverted kid to doing that? Do you feel a calling?

What happened? Is there a moment? It was very personal in that. I grew up very irreligious. And not anti-religious, just irreligious. And I was in college, I was studying philosophy, I was really searching for meaning. I mean, the reason I poured my life into the the works like Socrates and Plato and Aristotle

And you know Marcus Aurelius and just everyone in that era and then also modern philosophers Wasn't because I'm an intellectual it's because I was searching for meaning in my life I was hoping one of those guys had stumbled on the meaning of life and I was willing to work through all their horrible writing with the throw Meditations is a little slow stumbled on the meaning of life. And I was willing to work through all their horrible writing with like Thoreau. Meditations is a little slow. Yeah, you know, I'm going, you know, like anyone who works through Walden is just really committed.

Yeah, a little slow. And so it wasn't that the reading was scintillating to me. It was just, I wanted to know if we were here by accident. And then I had a faith encounter where I became a follower of Jesus. And it radically changed my whole view of myself and the world and life. What was the event?

Um, it was a series of events. My mom called me and said that she'd become a Christian, but I had no idea what that was, but she was happy. So I was happy for her. She'd been through a few divorces, a lot of pain and anything that might give her happiness. I was four.

And then we would go home and see her in the summer for, you know, school, university break things. My brother was an atheist and we were home for the summer working construction and he started going to church and I thought, this is really weird. You're an atheist. Why would you go to church? I confronted him. I said, you're a hypocrite. You're an atheist. You're going to church. You're even reading a Bible. What are you doing? And he said, you know, if I become a Christian, it's going to be an intellectual decision. I remember looking at my brethren and saying, you're lying. You're just about to fall.

And you're trying to set yourself up to look like you're not collapsing under this religion. And so, I kind of saw, like, coming to faith as a collapse of your will. And so my whole family became people of faith and because of them I started meeting people who believed in Jesus and I actually really liked them. And it was kind of troubling for me. You know, I would argue against God to people who believe in God and argue for God

with people who didn't believe in God. I just God with people who did, who, um, didn't believe in God. I just liked the argument. I liked the conversation. Just liked the debate. I just liked the idea. I just liked to see, you know, where it went. And I would argue with these Christians and I pretty much always won the debate. And then when it was over, they would say, I would say, well, then you have to stop believing. And they would go, nah, just cause we can't win the argument doesn't mean you're right.

They said, cause what we know is that, you know, we've been loved by God and that Jesus died for us. And I'd go, nah, just because we can't win the argument doesn't mean you're right. Yeah. They said, because what we know is that, you know, we've been loved by God and that Jesus died for us. And I'm like, this is so irritating that, that they're not surrendering to, to the argument. Um, but what really struck me was I like them better than I like me. And they, they had something that I was searching for. And it wasn't perfection, it was just a sense of peace or a sense that they had value and worth. And that was very

attractive to me. And so I remember the day, I had not read the Bible, I didn't know much. I just kind of laid out a prayer going, Hey God, if you're out there, like, you know, I'd love to know. And Jesus, if you're real, like I'm in, you know, but I don't know how to validate that. You know, I was a little bit too logical for someone to say, well, the Bible says this, because why would I believe the Bible? And they would say to me, yeah, but look right here, the Bible says it's God-breathed. And I go, yeah, but look right here, the Bible says it's God breathed. And I go, yeah, but if war and peace said it's God breathed, does that make it God breathed?

And so none of the arguments actually worked for me. Yeah. It was more a, I wish I could say it was this intellectual moment where I finally- But I think you have to let go of it. But you had to let go of your intellectual kind of side because you were seeking with a scientific brain through stoicism and all of that stuff that happened there,

looking for the answer and the answer was to let go. Yeah, I think the answer was to trust, right? And all I can tell you is that when I did that, my life changed. And it was instantaneous for me. Some people, I know it's progressive, but for me it was like, maybe it's just the way I'm designed. I'm extremely obsessive. I'm intense. I'm intentional and passionate. And so the moment I said, Jesus gave you my life, I went, all right, what does that mean? I'm just going at it. And somebody handed me a Bible. I read

the opening of the Bible and I really and they told me, hey you know we're all called to you know to live our lives out following him. So I just said okay this is what I'm gonna do and I just I just from zero went from zero to a hundred right away and it did and that's where I started communicating. I would have never become a public speaker except that for the first time in my life I had something that I felt was worth sharing. And there's this interesting verse in the Bible in the book of Jeremiah. I didn't know we were going to go here, but... Hey man, that's the beautiful thing about this. We go wherever it goes.

It just says what it is. There's a verse that says, or Jeremiah says, but if I say, I will not mention him or speak any longer in his name. His word is in my heart like a burning fire, fire shed up in my bones. I'm weary of keeping it in. I cannot." And that verse became my life verse. I said, I want to be a person who has a fire that burns so intensely inside of me that I can't remain silent. And it created a psychological shift inside of my life, which ironically sent me to work with drug cartels

and gang bangers for 10 years. Is that still the purpose that burns inside you today? Well, it's that. What you just said. Yeah, it just, but it's much broader because like I, my relationship with Jesus affects everything in my life. But I'm not a person that, like I was just an event and the person said, all that matters to me is heaven and hell. And I know I'm supposed to resonate with that, but I don't at all.

Like life matters to me. Like the fact that people are waking up every day without purpose and intention, drifting through life matters to me. The fact that people are not stepping into loving deeply and risking to give themselves completely to something that matters, those things matter to me. And so in that sense, this life really matters to me. I did not give my life to Jesus so that I wouldn't worry about life after death. I gave my life to Jesus so that I could have life before death. And I think a lot of times people miss that point.

You know, I love that you're, we are in complete agreement about people that are drifting through life. And that's the mission of this podcast. It's the mission of my book coming out in November. It's kind of a war on apathy because for me, I think that the turning point, I think, for a lot of people in this country was COVID. And the reason being is because what did we do during COVID? What did you do? When they first locked us all down, you had to stay in your house.

What did you do? There's one word, you did it all day long. You waited. Oh, I didn't. You didn't during COVID? Most people did. During COVID, I started a fashion company. I wrote a graphic novel. You did all this.

I wrote a book called The Genius of Jesus. I bought an industrial-sized smoker and started cooking dinner for 50 to 100 people every Friday, and they could come and grab their meals, either eat with us secretly or take it to their homes. And so I actually turned those 18 months because we were shut down in LA for 18 months. I turned them into 18 of the most productive months

of my life. Yeah, we did pretty well business wise during it too, but I found that, but I think a lot of people were waiting. Yeah, that's true. You're at home, you're waiting for your of people were waiting. You know, you're at home, you're waiting for your show to come on. You're waiting for dinner.

You're waiting for lunch. You're waiting for this because there wasn't a whole lot else. You couldn't go anywhere. You couldn't, like Vegas was a ghost town. So we were locked down. And I think that the apathy that ran through that is still permeates everywhere.

I think about it like, and this is not picking on our friends in the hospitality industry, but before COVID, like I never really saw when I had exceptional service at a restaurant. It didn't jump out at me because pretty much you got great service everywhere you went because there was a lot more caring. There's a lot more, a lot more thought in what everybody did with the craft of what they did. Now it just seems like if you see you get amazing service somewhere, you're like, wow, that was amazing because it does stand out because the standards of everything in every industry and our industry in real estate, it's shocking to me. You know,

I told a story a couple of weeks ago. I have a client shopping for multimillion dollar houses and here our standard is if you take a listing over a million bucks, you're showing it, there is no lock box. It doesn't exist. And we went and saw multiple, multiple houses that were just on lock box with the lights off. And I'm thinking to myself, if this sells, you're gonna make $100,000 and you can't come over here to open the door?

And I think that that level of apathy just permeates through everything because people are just waiting. They're just drifting along waiting for something to happen. And I've made it my mission to try to stop that. And I know that's your mission as well. What's your idea? The sad thing is when people were in that vacuum,

because it felt like people were existing, not living. And the paralysis, the apathy, the lethargy that still remains to this day created so much mental health issues. If we could do an experiment and say, let's see if humans are happier with less pressure. They're not. They've done this. They've done this. No, that's what- With the mice. They did this with the utopian mice. Right, and the experiment was COVID. Yeah, yeah.

So in LA for 18 months, you don't have to go to work. You don't have to pay a bill. Everything's gonna be taken care of. All you gotta do is stay home and watch Netflix. And the depression went through the roof. Human beings are not created to quote be taken care of. Yeah, well, do you know the study I'm talking about with the utopian mice?

Do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah. For those of you who don't know what we're talking about, they took, I think it was like 500 mice and they put them in a little city, created like a mouse utopia where they got everything they wanted, all the food, everything.

Like these mice wanted for nothing. And after a period of about eight months, they stopped reproducing, they just stopped breeding. And then the whole society just, they turned on each other. The strong ones decided to beat up the week. And it just, the whole is imploded because you've got to have a sense that you're doing something and purpose. So let me ask you this. How, what's your message to guide people to find that purpose?

Cause I know it's great. Cause you know it's what? Cause I know it's great. I don't know if I always have a, like a general or generic message. I think people are uniquely different, but, um, it just depends. I spend a lot of time with people who are already very self-motivated because entrepreneurs are really self-motivated. They just usually confuse outcomes with goals. Yeah.

They, they, they think that success and fame and possessions are goals. Those are outcomes. Fame is a great outcome. You know, success is, wealth is a great outcome. They're just terrible goals because if your identity is rooted in them, you're in trouble. And so a huge part of it for me is you're designed to actually be fully alive. And when you choose anything less, your soul begins to diminish. And you have to find that thing that wakes you up in the morning that you want to go

fight for. I think I'm going to say this is especially for men. I think we're designed to go fight for. I think, I'm gonna say this especially for men, I think we're designed to fight. Yeah, you know, we're designed in a sense to go to war against whatever we consider to be the enemy in front of us. And whether it's loneliness or apathy, whether you know, it's you know, being mediocre or accepting the status quo or maybe it's fear and insignificance. But I think we're at our best, we're fighting for something that actually matters to us. It's a huge part of it for me and I talked about it today. I know it's not PC, but I think obsession is a good thing.

And you know, everybody asked me like, Irwin, how do you have work-life balance? Look, I've been married 41 years to the same woman. me like, Erwin, how do you have work-life balance? Look, I've been married 41 years to the same woman. Uh, our kids are 36 and 33 and they both chose to buy houses within walking distance of us. That's how good of a relationship with our family. Well done. And I've always lived a life of obsession and I never tried to be balanced.

When they would come to me and go, how do you find balance? I would say, I'm not Mr. Miyagi, you know, I believed in a skewed life. I think you should find what you're good at that you can do the most good in the world and give yourself fully to that. And then build the universe of your life around that intention. And so Kim and I have lived a really intentional life. And my kids were in our intentional life. And it took me all over the world, but both my kids, by the time they were 18, had traveled to over 30 countries, both of them together. Yeah, it's amazing. You know, and, and if I had been balanced,

I would have made sure they were in school every day. And I remember when I took Aaron out of, I think it was third grade or second grade and he goes, dad, I can't leave. I'm going to, I'm not going to get the perfect attendance record. And I looked at, I said, buddy. I'm not gonna get the perfect attendance record. And I looked at it and I said, buddy, you are never going to have perfect attendance. He said, you're getting on an airplane with me and you're going to Tokyo, Japan.

We're gonna go learn something. And we went to Tokyo, made an understanding of Japanese culture, Shintoism, the economy of that part of the world. And as we were there, I made a re-catcher in the rye, which I realized now was too young, I was nine or 10, but it was one of the books that-

A little aggressive. A little aggressive. But I wanted my kids to understand that life is to be lived, not to be studied. And now they have beautifully obsessively skewed lives. Yeah, I've got a 17 year old that had some issues, played sports younger, but couldn't because just some medical issues that he has.

And he got obsessive about his grades. And it's like, all right, you know, I'm going to support you. I'm kind of with you. I'm like, I'd rather take you to Egypt and let's go see some stuff. But he was obsessive about these grades. And I will say this, came out yesterday, number one in his class.

So, so yeah, number one, he thought he'll be valedictorian next year. So only obsessed people become the best. Yeah, you can't, you can't do that. Yeah, you can't. You can't do that. Right. But without being that way. So I completely agree with that. Let's talk a little bit about. Let's talk about the seven pillars, pillars of communication,

because I did love that talk. And I think people I I think it's, I love that it's becoming more in vogue to want to be a better communicator. What's his name? Jefferson, the attorney that just is blowing up everywhere on social media, just strictly telling you how to be a better communicator.

And he's gone from zero to massive reach, just because I think people are thirsty for that knowledge. So let's give him some. How do you become a better communicator? Well, I mean, there's so many different aspects to it. But the first thing to be a better communicator is you have to have something to say. And a lot of people want to be speakers without having something to say. And if you want to have a more interesting message, you need to live a more interesting life. And so whenever, you know, we have a master class called the art of communication and my team always wants me to start at times with like techniques and methods. I go, no, really it starts with essence.

And you have to be willing to change your inner world if you want to be a lifelong great communicator. And I can teach you how to move your hands and how to stand on a platform and how to own a stage and, and the physicality of all that. I, you know, I can teach you all the techniques of that simply because I've learned them over a lifetime, but I learned them the other way around. I didn't learn the techniques and then became the person. I became the person and the techniques came naturally out of that process.

And, and so I think that, you know, to be a great communicator, you have to realize the entire purpose of communication is human connection. And if your goal is simply a transmission of information, you'll never be a world-class communicator. But if your goal is human connection, you have a chance of getting there. And communication is an organic part of the human

experience. It's not just what we do on stage. It's what we're doing right now. It's what you do with your wife. It's what you do with your kids. And the one predictive ceiling in every area of your life of how good your marriage will be, of how good your parenting will be, of how good your business will be is your ability to master communication.

If you don't learn the art of communication, you will have a low ceiling in life. So for me, the reason I focus on helping people with communication is that it actually destroys the ceilings in every arena of our lives. Now, the book itself is called The Seven Frequencies of Communication. And I know frequencies are kind of, they feel almost like a metaphysical, like, you know.

I love that word, because for me, like, they're, like, I'm very much, I think cities have a that word because, because for me, like there's sit, like I'm very much, I think cities have a frequency. Yes. Yeah. Everything has a frequency, which is why New Orleans is my favorite place in the world. For whatever reason, that frequency just resonates with me. And we spend a lot of time in New Orleans, but yeah, but, but you're 100%. No, you're right. Because like when you're looking at cities like London and Paris and Rio de Janeiro, they all have very different frequencies. And, uh,

cause cultures have different ethos. They have an essence that you can experience when you're there. And, um, I was just seeing today how, um, plants actually have like telepathic capacity, where if you're the person who waters plants every day and takes care of them, they can actually, they make a, an electronic shift when you're within a mile and a care of them, they can actually, they make an electronic shift when you're within a mile and a quarter of them. And so they can actually tell when you're within a mile of their presence. Now if plants are that connected to humans, can you imagine the connection we're created

to have as human beings? And most of the time our disconnection is because we're on the wrong frequency, we're on to have as human beings. And most of the time our disconnection is because we're on the wrong frequency, we're on the wrong wavelength. And so what I did to try to help people is identify seven primary frequencies of human communication. And this is just a communication style.

It's connected to your neurological process. It's the way you perceive reality, the way you process information, and the way you transmit it. And so we just basically broke down to seven. The motivator, the challenger, the way you process information, and the way you transmit it. And so we just basically broke down to seven. The motivator, the challenger, the commander, the healer, the professor, the seer, and the maven. And each one of these is a different, unique,

distinct human communication process. Just to shortcut this in some ways, my wife's primary frequency is commander. And I've been married for 41 years. I know that wife. And what's so funny is that every night before she goes to bed, she always goes to bed about four hours before me. Um, I, the last thing I say to my wife is I love you.

And the last thing that Kim says to me is lock the doors and turn off the lights. Every night she gives me those two commands as if I'd never thought of it before. And every night I want to say, well, that's a great idea. I never thought of that. And, and she psychologically cannot go to bed with peace of mind without telling me to lock the doors and turn off the lights. She has to end the day with command.

Now she wakes up every day about four in the morning. And if I'm awake, I just pretend I'm asleep because the moment she catches I'm awake, here comes the first command. You know, let's make the bed or let's do the, and, and I'm like, you know, I just want to kind of chill my first hour, just do whatever I want to do. But because her frequency is command, even suggestion comes across like command. My son's my business partner now, his number one frequency is command.

So I live in a world where I have no confusion about what I should do. Yeah. Because commanders are very utilitarian, very direct, very point A to point B. My daughter's primary frequency is called the challenger and she's amazing and she's beautiful and we're so close. But even her texts come across as challenges, even when she's trying to encourage me, like I'm 66 now, almost 67. And so she says, dad, you're at the age now where you should only do what you love.

You should only do things that make you happy. Because she knows me and I've done a lot of things in my life just for other people's happiness or just serve other people, even though it didn't give me fulfillment. And so she's trying to hold me to the principle of only if you're happy. But when she asked me, she goes, dad, are you happy? I could feel the challenge. Like, Dad, are you doing this because you love it? And it always comes across like a challenge. It never feels warm or soft like, you know, I just want you to be happy, you know. And- I know that daughter too.

I know that daughter. So each frequency has a very different dynamic to it. And you need those frequencies throughout life, but every frequency also has a shadow, the commander is the dictator, the challenger is the manipulator. The motivator is the performer. Uh, the healer is what's called a cipher. The professor is a diminisher.

The seer is a perfectionist and the maven is a nihilist. And what the challenge in life is that your shadow frequencies can actually make you successful. And so I wish I could say you can only succeed if you use your authentic frequencies, but it's not true. Right. We have a mastermind called the arena that we do online with people all over the world. And when we came out with the seven frequencies, I said, pick a TV show and I'll break it down based on the seven frequencies.

They pick two friends and secession. I didn't wanna do friends, so I did secession. Yeah, well why not, man? That's a lesson in modern psychology if there's never been one. I just don't know an entrepreneur who has not watched a session. Unbelievable.

And so I watched a session and I cannot find a single one of the seven frequencies. And so I freak out, right? I'm having a little panic. Cause they're bouncing around so heavily. Yeah. Yeah. And I I'm like, Oh no, it doesn't work.

This paradigm doesn't work. And then this little inner voice said, go back and listen for the shadows. And I went back and I realized there are seven main characters and they all have a perfect frequency from the seven frequencies only in the shadow. So the commander's always a dictator. What's the worst version of that show? So I've made it through every episode now through every season and they never leave their shadow. And so a couple of things come to mind is it's a reminder that you can become a billionaire and live your entire life in the shadows.

You can have great wealth and power and be eaten away in the shadows. But also we have an entire generation that's being taught how to communicate almost dominantly from shadow frequencies. How so? Because that's what they're learning on television, through film, through culture. This is how people talk to each other. This is how you talk to each other. And so then, and then also social media and the disconnection of face-to-face interaction allows us to operate in our shadows with impunity.

I tell my kids all the time, the number one skill you can develop over the next 15 years is the ability to connect with another human being one-on-one, eyeball-to-eye to eyeball because your entire generation has their face down in the phones and you will eat your generation for lunch if you can do that one skill. Yeah. Because it's just it's going to be short order. No it is and and you know it's just a good reminder going in a text is that how you would say it face to face? Yeah dude as some of the coach of sales a lot, I it's, it's stop texting your clients. There's no context. There's no context to those words. There's no color to it.

There's no meaning to it. It just, uh, there's, there's a key and peel, peel sketch where they're texting each other and it's like, you want to go and he's like, Oh, do you want to go? And he's like, you want to go. And it's like just completely misinterpreting each text back and forth. But that solidifies it. It's funny you talk so much about frequency and feeling. Do you consider yourself an empath? Why do you ask me that?

I'm just asking. It seems like you it seems like a good question based on what you said. It is. I do. And probably about 20 years ago, I was invited to be a part of something at the Gallup organization, where they graph like the top leaders in the world. And, and I had the highest score and empathy that ever tested. And I remember when I was young, I used to say, I can see emotions the way people see furniture. And I didn't understand how everyone else couldn't see them because for me, what's happening inside of a person is as visible as what's happening outside. And it's not a, it's not an ability you want. And I can tell

when people are lying to me. I- Well that part, that part would be helpful. It is, except we lie to each other far more than we think. And I sometimes I just want to pretend they're not lying to me, you know, or lying to themselves. Which is worse. Which is worse, right, you know. And as a speaker, it became incredibly helpful to me

because I can feel everyone in the room. Well, that was my next question based on that, which is obviously everybody's at a different place. So as you're speaking, does that make it easier or harder because you're like, I got you, I don't have you. You can just, you can feel where people are. I can, I can feel, I mean, you could be 300 seats back and I'll feel your sadness. Wow.

And, and then I'll focus on that person and speak to them. And I also know when you're doing that, it's also connecting to a lot of other people. Yeah. Yeah. And I remember when my daughter Mariah, she travels with me for months and months and months when she was probably 12 years old, 11 years old. And after we'd finished a lot of travels, we were sitting at a Chinese restaurant. She said, Dad, can I ask you a question? I said, no, of course. And she said, you can read people's minds, can't you?

And, uh, and I said, no, sweetie, I can read their hearts. And she said, uh, you know, you're scary daddy. And, um, and, and I, and I just tried to explain to her, you know, that, uh, people will tell you more than they even know they're telling you. And it was probably a couple days later, she said, you know, Dad, I said that you can like see inside of people. And she goes, I can do that too, can't I? And I said, yeah, you can. And I think there's an awareness. I think humans communicate in so many different ways. And some of it is just making sure that your antennas are up so you can perceive and hear

and understand. And by the way, I don't know how you can stay married if you don't learn how to read the frequencies and not the language, right? Read the room. Does it, because of that skill set, does it hurt more when you're wrong? I've been wrong so much that I don't know. That's a bruise that just doesn't heal. I have a really high trust in people and my kids and my wife, we just took this assessment

together. I create a lot of assessments because of my psychology background. And so we love a lot of these. And my wife and my two kids both came out low trust. Like they're the people where they go, I don't trust you until you're in my trust. I'm high trust.

I trust everyone until you prove to me you can trust it. We give reason not to. The reason I ask that is because obviously now in the entrepreneur world, it seems like every day I turn on and so and so got indicted, so and so got arrested. It's like, good Lord, this is becoming an epidemic. And a lot of these guys that I've sat at dinner tables with

and all of a sudden it's like, oh, that's not a good look. So many people right now. Does that jade you? Because you're in it with entrepreneurs. All the time. It has to jade you to this a little're in it with entrepreneurs. All the time. It has to jade you to this a little bit. So has that shifted with some of this?

I go with my intuition. Yeah. Like I, because trust and intuition are not the same thing. Like I have a view that I trust humanity because I want to believe in a trustworthy world, but my intuition, it tells me, hey, something's off. And you get it right away. You just have to pay attention to it.

Well, or you can do what I did. You marry it, because my wife is very much an empath. And I have had, I've been really lucky, right? I've been very, very successful. A lot of stuff we've done. I've had two deals go very, very poorly. Like seven figure loss deals, right? And both times my wife was like, don't do this deal.

I don't like these people. I do not do this deal. No, no, no, it'll be fine. Cause again, I like to see the best in everybody. I think the numbers work. It's great. These are good people. No, no, don't do the deal.

So now after the last seven figure loss, which was a couple of years ago, we have a deal. I don't do anything unless she says it's okay. And there's been times I've been at like events or conventions and I'm talking business with somebody, I'm like, you know, hang on one second. I just gotta go get somebody. I'll go get my wife and I'll say,

I just need you to be around this person for five minutes. But people will tell you who they are. Oh yeah. And you really- She's got it. You just have to pay attention. No, they'll always disclose themselves in the statement that you think is arbitrary. How so?

Great example. I don't know why it just came to my mind right now. It's an early video with Joe Biden, former president Joe Biden, where they were talking about, you know, corruption and government and all that. And they made him the exception saying, well, we know you're not corrupt, but how do you deal with all the corruption in politics?

He goes, don't assume too quickly. I'm not corrupt. And then he goes on. What? Like, why would he say that? Because people tell you who they are. Because we can't help it. And, and especially when you, when you're even bordering to a bit of narcissism,

you want to get people clues so you can show how smart you are that they couldn't find you out. God, it is something that speaks from somebody that speaks from stage and has a lot of people that listen to you. Do you ever at all, does it, does, does narcissism ever worry you? Cause I know for me I'm like dude am I narcissus like I like I go Like I I try to constantly check that to make sure that I'm not slipping in I can give you an assessment that I use My personal coach. I love that Here we go, I remember all psychological designations are descriptions, not definitions.

Okay. We can, we are so arbitrary. We go, you know, Oh, I'm bipolar or I'm schizophrenic or I'm man compressive or no, those are, uh, they're descriptives of symptoms. They're actually not diseases. So when you call someone narcissist, um, there are some people who are clinical narcissists. I think I've dated a few.

But there's also narcissistic tendencies that we can have that we war against. And one of the ways of knowing you're not a narcissist is that you don't want to be one. Oh, fair. We're winning today on the podcast. Outstanding. You know, it's like, it's the line near the end of season one of Billions. And I don't know if you ever watched it.

Oh yeah, great. When Axe asks, you know, am I a narcissist or an associate path? And she says, you're a narcissist with a God complex. Whether you're associate path or not is up to you. Yeah. He goes, well, I'm concerned because my best friend just died and I'm not worried about it and that concerns me. And she said, if you're a sociopath, that wouldn't concern you.

Yeah. And so it won't concern you that you're not concerned. Yeah. Yeah. And so there, and I know we're daving off a little bit here, but yes. Um, well, I was having this conversation today. The last five years I've probably spent a huge amount of my time studying how can you achieve the same level of success that requires a level of narcissism to achieve it.

Because so many people who break that 50 million mark are inherently natural narcissists. But it doesn't mean that's essential for success, but it does mean there are certain characteristics inside of that that are essential for success. And, and so if you're not a narcissist, you have to figure out how to develop an insane level of self-confidence while you still know that you're flawed. How, how do you, um, shift out of a sense that you're not, that success for you is not legitimate or worthy of it?

Because a narcissist will never question that. Like there's never a point where a narcissist is rich enough that says, I have too much. It's more, more, more. It's not even the greed, it's just, I deserve more. So it's different when people think, it's not like I need more, I want more. It's like, I more more. It's not even the greed is just I deserve more. Yeah, so it's it's different when people think it's not Like I need more I want more. It's like I just I deserve more You know, of course I'm gonna have more. I'm just I'm not good. Yeah, you know, it's just we're like I breathe

No, and if you're not one you have to find the right psychological tools to replace those things and And so, you know and obviously I've had other people come into my life to give me tasks. Cause the worst thing in the world would be to test yourself. Right. Sure. And, um, and, and I've used certain formats with, um, about a dozen multimillionaire billionaires. And, and a part of the agreement is I show you mine, you show me yours.

Like I, we put everyone's grade on the wall and all of them were shocked. multi-millionaire billionaires. And a part of the agreement is, I show you mine, you show me yours. Like we put everyone's grade on the wall. And all of them were shocked that my structure was the exact opposite of theirs. Like how are you doing what you're doing if you're not built the same way we are? Yes. And were they similar?

They were all identical. Yeah. You would have thought they came out of the same cell. Identical. Wow. So, you, you would have thought they came out of the same cell. Identical. Wow. So I do know the characteristics that make people highly successful. And I also know the shadow of those.

And, but see from the flip side, I go, I have, I have my own shadows and I have to figure out how to put light on my shadows. And then what are your shadows? Oh my gosh. You know, um, I, so many issues probably from growing up and things like that. And I'm an immigrant from El Salvador. I never knew my real father.

My grandparents raised me for the first years. And my mom came and took me back. Um, my mom married a guy in creative underground economies that needed an alias to run from a very tight-knit family out of Chicago, mostly Italians. And so I became a McManus overnight and I had an alias all my life. Are you kidding? I am the recipe for psychosis. I was in a psychiatric chair by the time I was 10 years old. I was in and out of hospital for six months. And for what they told me was psychosomatic illnesses.

And so I was so shattered and so broken that I never had a sense of value that I could ever do anything that mattered. I don't know if you know who Ed Myled is. Oh, of course. So I did Ed's podcast. The last time I did it, I'd done it a few times, but he asked me a question that kind of threw me off a little bit. You ever get complimented and you know something's coming? Yeah, here it comes.

Yeah. And he said, Erwin, you're like, we have a group of friends and he said in that group, everyone considers you a genius, the smartest person in the room, the best communicator. And he went on through a long thing. He goes, but you always seem to have a lack of self-confidence. And he goes, can you explain that? And I remember saying, yeah, you're right. I don't wake up in the morning going, I'm the best person for this. Or I got this or, you know, I, I wake up in the morning going, I have the capacity to fail 10 more times and I'll get up 11.

Like what I have confidence in is my ability to overcome failure. Yeah. Your resilience is super resilient person. Yeah. But I've never had a perception of having more talent than anyone else. Or, um, I mean, I was raised believing I'm basically I was retarded. It took a psychological intervention for someone to tell me that I had an inherent genius and even in that, see that makes me really uncomfortable to say that.

Yeah. Because it didn't change my self-perception, but it did help me. Someone telling me there was something inside of me that was valuable. See, you don't find that the external input there dwindles down that opinion in your own, I mean, because dude, everybody's gotta tell you what I told you when we started this today. Well, it's, yeah, it's, because when it's in you,

you know, those inner voice, that's how I know how to fight. You still fight, even though you hear it every day, you're still, you still suffer with those demons. Yeah, I still wake up going, oh, today everybody's going to figure out that I'm not very bright. You know what I mean? Yeah. Today's the day everyone's going to pull the curtain back today. You know, and, and it's, you can't, you can, you can't silence the voices you can overcome them and so a huge part of what I do with people is I I Don't try to help people get rid of negative internal emotions I try to help them take that fuel turn into positive energy

Yeah, because it's like I don't know how to not feel fear sometimes. I know how to turn fear to your advantage Mm-hmm. You know, to turn fear to your advantage. You know, I'm not one of those people, in fact, I was just in a conversation today, versus, you know, L is not a loss, it's a lesson. And I go, no, L is a loss, it's just not terminal. Yeah, yeah, you're not done, you're not out of business. Yeah, you know, I don't like when people say,

oh, you never fail. I'm like, no, I failed a lot. It's just that failure is not defining. Like we want to redefine the negative experience. I actually want to own the negative experience and go, and I'm tough enough to get through that. Yeah. I mean, I lost about six to $10 million in one day and I lost a lot of money.

That's a tough clip. That's a tough one. And, uh, I couldn't eat for 30 days. I lost so much weight. I looked awesome, but, you know, I got down to 169. For me, that was like super low because I couldn't hold food down. It was a real loss. I had to fly home and tell my wife I lost everything.

That was more humiliating than losing the money. My wife is an orphan raised in a foster home at the age of eight to eighteen. My whole like psychology of being a husband is she's never going to have to worry about not having a place. And I remember sitting down with Kim and saying honey I lost everything without blinking an eye. My wife looked at me said I thought I was your everything. Man. I'm like where did you come from? What else do you need? Let's get a can of Vienna sausage,

this isn't planned tomorrow. Let's go, like, come on. And I didn't have a great response. I just said, well, I lost my other everything. Yeah, yeah. Everything that finances my everything. I lost everything that pays for everything stuff, that everything.

And she said, we've been poor before and you've always found a way. You know, this is just the beginning of something new. And coming out of that year and it was brutal. And you know, I'm a person of faith, I kept praying for a miracle, you know, and I felt like what God was saying to me is that you wanted me to meet you in your faith,

but I met you in your faithfulness. And sometimes faithfulness is the great miracle that you become a stronger person. Then coming out of that, I loved going, I lost like $10 million in a day. I'm still here. I'm in like the 1% of the world. You can't lose that much money and not be elite. Yeah. Yeah. That's true. That's true. And it was all because the betrayal of a business partner. And that was actually the more, that's why. So you missed on that. Ah, you missed that.

I did, but I saw all the signs. Ah, that's gonna stay with us. Did you choose not to see it? I did. Yeah. I did, you know, that's why. You get a weakness for people and you just want, you want to, even if it's the smallest glimmer of good,

you want to see it. I don't have a perfect record. Yeah. You know, but I actually love reminding myself and other people, we're in the middle of an NBA, it's the Pacers, it's the Thunder. And in the normal human construct, there's going to be a winner and a loser. But the truth is that one team will lose the championship, but no one walks away as a loser. Those are some of the greatest athletes in the

world, accomplishing what not even 1% or 1% or 1% of the world can accomplish. And we're going to describe the team that doesn't win four games as a loser. We have really unhealthy mental constructs. You know, I have something that I use to try to break that down to myself, which is when I deal with risk aversion,

my totem or my talisman, whatever you wanna call it, way around my neck, which is this, is memento mori, you'll appreciate that from your stoicism. But on the back of it, I've had now seven guys that at one time in my life, I would consider in that top, the top three best friend or right there in that crew,

seven of them are gone. Oh wow. And I wear that on my neck and whenever I'm worried about stress about something, I look at this and I just go, any one of these dudes would be going to anything to be here doing what I'm doing, you know, and they're not here. So, you know, what are you worried about? What's the worst that could happen? You know,

you're going to get up tomorrow and, and, and figure out a new way to fight if this doesn't go right or goes south. You know, I have to say something about the title. One I'm fascinated by drifts and began studying drifts probably like 20 years ago. And part of the reason for that is that drifts create an illusion of momentum. And because when you realize I'm stealing this, when I go on my podcast or for the book, I'm going to steal everything you're saying. Because when you're drifting, you are moving.

Yeah. And so it's an illusion of momentum, but you're actually being moved by the environment around you rather than you moving the environment within you. And what's really fascinating about this is that it's a but you're actually being moved by the environment around you rather than you moving the environment within you. And what's really fascinating about every virtue or vision that a human being has, we always drift to the lesser version of ourselves. You cannot drift to greatness. You can't drift to your highest expression of talent. You can't even drift towards your character.

I've thought to myself, why is character so hard? Right? You know, you know, character is hard. You know how we know very few people have it. Right. Yeah. Everything that's easy, everyone has, you know, it's, it's hard to be physically healthy. It's easy to be overweight.

Sure. Like I don't become overweight healthy. It's easy to be overweight. Sure. Like I don't become overweight when I make a decision to be overweight. I don't wake up going, you know, I think I'm going to gain like 20 pounds. I, I just decide not to be healthy. And so the drift happens when I stop fighting for the higher version of myself. And so there is no neutral. You can't go, well, I'm not gonna be great, but I'm not gonna drift.

Because the drift happens when you stop pursuing the best version of you. And so if you think about it, every emotion that is negative comes easy. And every emotion that is positive takes work. Hate is easy, love is hard. Work builds self-esteem, which pretty much all positive emotions, in my opinion, are built off self-esteem.

That's right. If you don't have that, you got nothing. You're never going to be happy. You're never going to have pride. None of it. Because you don't have to work being bitter. You just have to not forgive. Yeah, just be bitter.

Yeah. And so I started looking at it going, we shouldn't expect character to be any different than athletic greatness or academic greatness because the highest version of you is going to take work because greatness never comes with that work. And so ironically like escaping the drift is not a place where the drift is impossible because the drift is always possible the moment you stop moving forward. Well again, like I talked, we talked earlier about the purpose was the apathy running through and that suggests the under performer Yeah, right. I know a lot of high performers that stop paying attention

Stop focusing and they get sucked right back in. Yeah, and even though and they may be sick. I call it failing successfully It's what there is what essentially they're doing They're failing successfully because they just don't even realize that it's happening. Yeah. A lot of times the drift is you're pursuing financial success and you lose your marriage and your kids. Yeah. Yeah. You know, and so the drift can actually happen inside of

like the swim. Yeah. You know, and I remember my brother and I and my brother-in-law, we were out in Florida years and years ago and there were signs, you know, the undertow was too dangerous. We went out anyway, you know, because that's what dudes do in their 20s. But you do.

You know? And so we went out and we got sucked into this undertow and just kept pulling us out further and further and further out. You got to swim sideways. You swim sideways. We were trying. Florida boy, you swim sideways. Yeah, yeah, I'm here in Miami, you know?

And they were like bullhorning, you need to get out because it was super dangerous. And we're like, we're trying and we're going to send out, lifeguards were like, no, we're just too proud. Like we're going to fight our way back in. Eventually had to bring the little boats out there, you know, speed boats, whatever it was and jet skis. And we did not want our way back in. Eventually had to bring the little boats out there, you know, speedboats, whatever it was and jet skis.

And we did not want to help back in, but we went so, we traveled probably a mile. But what's interesting is that when we did nothing, we went where we did not want to go. Yeah. And that's the danger of the drift is that you, you have to be so intentional or you end up where you don't want to go Yeah, and so many people end up saying I don't know how I got here Well, and I think we're about to have an epidemic of people with AI taking low-end jobs and eliminating things left I mean a good friend of mine that You know as an author

It just goes writing copywriting work and he just hit me up the other day out of the blue and he's like, hey, I'm looking for, you know, a friend of mine owns a very large company and he saw an ad there and he's like, oh, they have this job, can you refer me? And I just said, dude, nothing for nothing. You're applying for copywriter jobs.

Like you need to pivot. Like, even though it's not as good as you, all these companies just assume that the AI is good enough and it's just gonna be good enough. So you need to pivot now and I just think there's gonna be a sea of these people that are not living with intention that are gonna be lost very soon. And I plan on fighting that back as much as I can. I'm one of the people, I'm not afraid of AI.

I'm actually really excited. I love it. Me too. I love it. It's, I excited. I love it. I love it. It's um, I Cuz I love it for several reasons number one. It's like For what we do here in the real estate industry and yes, there's a there's a million bad realtors. I understand that I've got five hundred eighty-five good ones that were for us here. That's what I like to believe But I think that again, it's that human connection with people that AI will not be able to replicate. And you know, they said when, when, when Expedia came out and, you know,

orbits came out or not at orbits, when Zillow came out and said, Oh, you know, just like the travel agent got killed by the computer and orbits and Expedia, you guys are done. Real estate agents are going away. Well, no, because there's still a certain group of the population that needs somebody to look across from them as they're making the largest single Financial transaction of their life and say this is okay. Yeah there and that need will never go away And a robots just not gonna get on there because when you're buying and selling it, you know as a person who's just a customer I've bought and mmm several homes and sold several homes, but you're looking for someone you can trust

Yeah, you're not really looking for you feel it You're not really looking for, you're not looking for information because you feel like everyone has the information. Like in a sense, every realtor can access the same data, but you really want to find this person you can trust. I'm gonna take, you're looking for certainty is what you're looking for. And somebody in any field that sales, if you can, like you just said, the data's out there,

you need to sell certainty and that's what we sell here. I love that. So let's do this. My random chat GBT odd questions to ask you. We're gonna go lightning round, right? We're gonna go fast as we wrap this up. We're gonna go fast, you ready? What's one book you wish people would stop quoting?

Oh, wow. That is a great question. First of all, I'm rarely caught off guard by questions. Good job, Jeff. GPT. Good job. Man. Um, I'm just going to, I shouldn't say this out loud.

Um, I have a book that I wrote called the Barbarian Way and it's coming out right now as it's 20 year anniversary. So I shouldn't say this, but I have more people still quoting that book to me 20 years later. I'm like, I've written 14 other books. I've done other things. Could you stop quoting that one? Okay, fair.

What is the most overrated leadership trade? Oh, the most overrated leadership trade I would say is charisma. Charisma. Okay. What's something people assume about you that is completely wrong? That I'm extroverted. You're extroverted. Okay.

What scares you more? Success you didn't earn or failure you didn't see coming? Success I didn't earn. Okay. One lesson your younger self was too arrogant to hear. You need to put the work in. You need to put the work in. Okay. If Jesus had an Instagram, what would his bio say? Oh, well, it would say private link click to join.

All right, last one. Last one. What's one question you hope nobody ever asks you on podcasts, but they always do. The one question I always, I find, I don't know why it drives me crazy is, what would you say to your 25 year old self? There it is. And there it is. Well, if they want to find you, how do they find you?

You go to my website, erwinmakemanagers.com, and you can learn about the arena, which is our online mastermind and some of the events we do. And that's probably the easiest place you can find me. I love that. Well, this we could, I could go literally on for two hours here if we could, but dude, thank you so much. You're more than welcome to come back.

It's great to know you. Anytime you ever want to come back, man, I would love to have you back. Guys, here's the deal. If you, I hope you're listening to this still, cause that means you got a lot out of it, cause I got a lot out of it. And you know, communication is so important to what we do.

But at the end of the day, if I learned anything today from Erwin, which is if you don't have anything to believe in that's driving you, what comes out of your mouth doesn't really matter anyway. We'll see you next week. What's up everybody. Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift.

Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com, you can join our mailing list, but do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you, hopefully you'll be here for us. But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.