The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 163. Dean Graziosi: The ‘7 Levels Deep’ Exercise That Transformed His Life And It Can Transform Yours!

Starting point is 00:00:00 When you face rejection, conflict, when you face problems, instead of retreating, you might not love it, but you run into the fire to fix it. And people say, find your purpose, find your passion job. Sometimes you got to get dirty, fail and be in it enough to go, damn, this is worth fighting for. My dad used to say, life is what happens to when you're on your way to doing something else. Get in there, roll your sleeves up, fail a little bit, because I think we all crave that safety. We don't leave the nest unless we have a fully baked plan.

Starting point is 00:00:28 So if you don't have a strong enough purpose and why, the outside world will control you. You'll play small. You'll sit on your hands rather than saying, now is the time. Not tomorrow, not next week. This purpose is so strong, nothing in my way. I got to go. When you find something that you would otherwise do for free,

Starting point is 00:00:43 that you love to do, you really don't feel like you work a day in your life. If you look from the outside in, it seems like I'm working my ass off, but that's what I love to do. Like when I'm on vacation, I wanna do this. If you think about it, most of us get hit with stuff. It's not your fault, but it is your responsibility to do something about it.

Starting point is 00:00:59 If someone's listening to this right now and they just feel sort of stuck and maybe overwhelmed, what's a shift that they could make that could change that direction? I would love for you if take nothing else in this podcast is every time you think you have the answer. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human podcast. I'm your host, human biologist, Gary Brekka, where we go down the road of everything,

Starting point is 00:01:32 anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And today's guest is a very special guest. I've actually stalked him from afar on social media. I've been to a number of events that he's spoken at. He's an impactful speaker, an entrepreneur, multiple New York Times bestselling author. And he has recently become a very good friend of mine.

Starting point is 00:01:53 Welcome to the podcast, Dean Graziosi. So good to be here, Gary. Dude, I'm so excited that you're here. And you know what happens to me so many times when I have guests over, and I should have a rule that you have to go from the elevator to the podcast room, because we ended up doing a podcast.

Starting point is 00:02:06 Oh yeah, we did a podcast just now. Yeah, for two hours off camera, and finally we both stood up and were like, we should probably go in the podcast room. Exactly. The whole reason why we came. But, and we were talking about everything, regenerative farming, stem cells, blood.

Starting point is 00:02:21 Yeah, we covered it all in about an hour and 45 minutes. I think we solved the Russian-Ukraine crisis. We covered it all. But I'm so excited to have you sitting in this chair. And I think my audience is going to get so much value out of this because there's a common theme that seems to run through the majority of my podcast guests. And that's that they are where they are and they're making such an impact and they're so passionate and so purposeful because they solved the problem in their life.

Starting point is 00:02:51 And when I, you know, I obviously knew who you were and your work with Tony Robbins and, you know, what an icon you are for so many entrepreneurs. But when I started to peel back the layers of like, who is Dean Graziosi? You didn't really have like a privileged upbringing by any means, right? Probably as privileged as yours. And you know, it's always exciting for me to talk about, you know, what was the problem that you solved? I've had so many people sit in that chair that they were a soccer mom and they were plagued by Lyme disease and they became a citizen scientist and they solved their Lyme disease and now they're one of the most impactful speakers or they were a drug addict or an alcoholic and they overcame the addiction and now they're one of the biggest voices

Starting point is 00:03:40 in that industry. So what was your journey like that set you on the path to where you are now? Really great question. And first off, before I get started, I just want to say, I have the same for you. I've been watching you. My wife fell in love with how you speak and how clear you are and how you give transferrable information so freely.

Starting point is 00:04:01 Meaning, when I say transferrable, there's a lot of great people. Doctors, physicians, and people out there, they're helping. Sometimes it feels so out of reach. And what you're so good at is taking complicated things and making it simple for all of us to go, I could get healthier doing that. And I just wanna say watching you grow

Starting point is 00:04:16 has been a privilege and a pleasure. And we had passed each other a million times. So I was glad we finally got to meet. Yeah, I mean, some of the same events on the stage, a lot of the same events. Amazing stuff. Yeah. A lot of the same events. Amazing stuff. And it's a privilege to be here. You know, if I think about it,

Starting point is 00:04:29 not to go too deep on my story, I'm here for you guys that are listening and watching right now. But if you think about this, there's a philosophy that I didn't say this for the last 40 years of my life, but it's something that hit me a couple years ago. And if you're watching right now, listening right now,

Starting point is 00:04:42 you know you're someone that's meant for more. You wanna do more. You wanna be healthy. You wanna live into your full potential live longer impact more just do more Right, right. But if you think about it Most of us get hit with stuff Yeah, right Whatever that stuff is and there's a philosophy that I've been living by and probably have lived by it for a long time But now I say it is it's not your fault It might not be your fault that your parents

Starting point is 00:05:07 didn't tell you they loved you. It might not be your fault that you got Lyme's disease. It might not be your fault that no one believed in your dreams. It's not your fault that the economy could go a certain way or tariffs or inflation, but it is your responsibility to do something about it. And I think those that have the opportunity to live into their healthiest self, their

Starting point is 00:05:26 most successful self, to live into where they're meant to be, not settling to be, realize it's on them. Right? It's not your fault those things happen. But how do you take that and make that into fuel in your life rather than the anchor? I know this is a made up story. And then I'll get to my story really quick. But did you ever hear that it's probably a made up story. And then I'll get to my story really quick. But did you ever hear that? It's probably a made up story about twins.

Starting point is 00:05:45 No. And so one twin is a drug addict in and out of jail. And they say, how did this happen to you? And he said, my father was physically abusive and drank too much. And he was so mean to me. How else could I turn out? And they went to the other brother

Starting point is 00:06:01 who was massively successful, happily married with kids. And they said, hey, how did you become so successful? He said, my father was a drug addict in and out of prison. What else could I be? Wow. Right? Yeah. So one found a way to use it as fuel as the wind behind their sail and the other is an

Starting point is 00:06:19 anchor. And I think that's our job in life. How do we, how do we take what happened to us and make it the inspiration, not the anchor? Do you think it's a difference between a victim mentality and I've heard Victor and victim, but you know, very often we start to repeat patterns in our life because we feel like things are happening to us. Like they're out of our control. Yeah. And you know what I think? I probably would have said victim or the opposite side mentality years ago,

Starting point is 00:06:46 but what I realized now is some people just aren't taught how to think differently. How that they can actually change their childhood. They can change their past. They can change the meaning of things. So you asked me a little bit about me, what was that thing? If I go back to my earliest memory, I mean for you,

Starting point is 00:07:02 there has to be a new compelling future that you create for yourself every year. You've already passed. I guarantee you far surpassed anything you thought was possible. Oh, no question. Right. So if you don't have a new compelling future, then you're just the good old days and you're not a good old days guy. Yeah. Right. It's like, you know, for a fact, next year is gonna be better than this year. True. Yes. So true. But not everybody has that. And it's one of the things my partner Tony Robbins does so well and I try to do. He does it in the personal development world.

Starting point is 00:07:29 I do it in business and crafting a business and making it successful. You do it in health, it's a bigger future. So if I think about when you asked me that question, I don't think it was one moment. At seven years old, I realized my dad and mom split when I was three. And I realized probably seven eight

Starting point is 00:07:46 That my mom was working three jobs. You don't know the difference. She was cleaning houses. She was cutting hair She was painting houses come home nine ten o'clock every night Wow to make nothing I mean there we lived in the only trailer park. Yeah, I live in trailer park and the only trailer park in our town We lived in that until my mom couldn't afford it. We moved in with grandma, right? Wow So I remember I don't know if I was seven ten fifteen I just remember thinking I need to get insanely successful for a couple reasons one Money controlled my mom. She didn't control it She wanted to be there for our baseball games and and try to take us to school and all that

Starting point is 00:08:19 But she couldn't my grandmother ended up doing all of it because my mom was working her tail off, right? So I realized money controlled my mom. She didn't control her own life right and secondly. I just wanted to retire her I mean I remember I remember being 10 years old I remember my uncle Larry who is very college-oriented asked me at like 12 years old. What are you gonna? Do I said I'm gonna be rich and the first thing I'm gonna do is make it so my mom never has to work again And remember him saying to me I remember him saying to me, I remember him saying to me, well, that's a great dream. But what college you want to do? What's your profession?

Starting point is 00:08:50 Right? And I think the why behind you want something is way more profound and important than the how. I totally agree with you. I mean, I really, really agree with you. So if someone's listening to this right now and they just feel sort of stuck and maybe overwhelmed or like, they don't know how to make that switch.

Starting point is 00:09:12 Like they know that they're capable of more and they know that what they're doing is not working. What's a shift that they could make? Yeah, great question. It could sort of change that direction. Right, and whether this is leading into the healthiest version of you, the most, you know, the healthiest version of you the most prof

Starting point is 00:09:25 You know the most wealthy version of you, right? It's all the same. Mm-hmm, right? So If you think about it, sometimes we don't realize it's the questions we ask ourselves It's like how come I could never get healthy, right? I've heard Tony do this so well or saying the question is who do I need to model to become the healthiest version of myself? So sometimes you just got to watch the questions we ask ourselves because we can give ourselves Bad questions therefore we get a bad answer right in my 20s I would say as long as you do what the best in the world do and you model proven practices How could you not be successful? But the problem is you could give a

Starting point is 00:10:03 Business on how to sell $20 bills for 10 bucks to a lot of people and they'll still mess it up. Yeah. And nobody wants $20 bills anymore. You know, they're kind of old. These are kind of crinkled. I didn't get a good batch. They showed up late.

Starting point is 00:10:17 My wife thinks it's a dream. I don't think, you know what I mean? It's like. You know, I saw you and Ed Milet talking one day. I think it was out on a bluff in California because I didn't recognize the background. And you were just talking, it was a very simple story that you told.

Starting point is 00:10:31 And you're like, if I'm in a restaurant and I order, you know, well done steak and somebody brings me chicken, I'll just eat the chicken, right? It's like, I got bigger problems to solve. Yeah, I got bigger problems. And it reminded me, you're like, I don't get all wound up in, you know, and fire up the waiter and then bring the conversation down at the table.

Starting point is 00:10:51 Look at this. They screwed up. I want to get fired up over in your terms would be, I want to get fired up and upset about if I can't live to 110. Yes. I want to get fired up about a hundred million dollar business or a billion dollar. And I'm just saying, you just realize all problems can feel the same weight, but they aren't. Solve bigger problems, get bigger results. It's what you do so well.

Starting point is 00:11:12 So at this phase of my life, I realize that if the mindset isn't right, that it doesn't matter about the opportunity. So I want to share a little something with you. I, about 15 years ago, I had something so profound shift my life. I hired a consultant, his name was Joe Stump, and I hired him and said, I want my students, people who follow me, like yours, you would want more of your people to actually do the stuff you teach

Starting point is 00:11:38 so they can actually get healthy. Join your VIP, buy your supplements, not because, I mean, I know the passion you have for people. I see it when the cameras are off and you talk about how to, like you're on this earth to change lives. Like that's someone you follow. That's someone you model, right?

Starting point is 00:11:52 So I hired him to come in and said, how do I get more of my students' results? Because like, I know this thing works because I spent 15 years figuring it out. And people say yes, but then they actually don't do it. And they still are upset that they're not getting results. So I hired him and said, how do I get more results? And he said to me, I want to do this seven levels deep exercise on you.

Starting point is 00:12:13 I'm like, no, you don't have to do it on me. Just give it to me. If it's I paid you 10 grand for half a day. Just give it to me. He's like, no, I can't give it to you. I got to do it with you. And it's shifting my life. Like, I would ask you why.

Starting point is 00:12:23 Okay. You still work like you broke. I said that to you. I mean, I life. Like I would ask you why. Okay. You still work like you broke. I said that to you. I mean, I'm so true. You like you work. I sort of, I literally just landed after a 15 hour flight. I know I said, do you want me to come back? No, I feel amazing.

Starting point is 00:12:33 Well, I just saw it in the cold plunge, but I'm now back to life. But yeah, let me say you work so hard. If I said to you, why do you work so hard? What would your answer be? Um, two, Two two two reasons one because I believe that my my purpose is way bigger than the problems that I have my life And secondly, I know that I'm on God's plan for me because I feel that and it sounds so cliche I used to think that this saying was just something you put on a sign you sort of hung it on your office because it was Sort of supposed to be there like like an Ansel Adams picture or something and

Starting point is 00:13:12 You know when it on your office because it was sort of supposed to be there like an Ansel Adams picture or something. And you know, when you find something that you would otherwise do for free, you love to do, you really don't feel like you work a day in your life. So if you look from the outside in, it seems like I'm working my ass off because I travel so much and I keep an insane schedule and I speak so frequently and I read incessantly. But that's what I love to do. Like when I'm on vacation, I want to do this. Yeah, I get it. I get it. I can't wait to wake up every morning and then I stretch it. So I'm like, how can I get up a half hour earlier? So there's more of the day. I only say that because for you to work the way you work, have the success that you have, the depth of caring, congratulations on this podcast being one of the top

Starting point is 00:13:47 podcasts in the world. Thank you so much. Well deserved. Yeah, it's because of the people that are listening right now. Yeah, well deserved. And you're listening to the right guy. But there is something in your soul bigger than the fear, bigger than what's going on in politics, bigger than inflation, bigger than tariffs,

Starting point is 00:14:04 bigger than politics, bigger than tariffs, bigger than politics, bigger than the news being negative or what it is so they have clickbait. There has to be something bigger, your reason for doing it has to be greater than the reason not to. And I wanna oversimplify it. And what Joe Stump gave me that day

Starting point is 00:14:20 was such a profound shift. I was already successful, already had a great company, but it shifted everything for me because I understood with clarity why the heck I did what I did. So I wanna tell you, you just gave me a great reason why. Your purpose, God, healing, I know you wanna impact people, I know you wanna make this world a healthy place.

Starting point is 00:14:39 I know you're doing it bigger than most people realize behind the scenes. I know what you're doing behind the scenes to make this country a healthier place. It's know what you're doing behind the scenes to make this country a healthier place It's amazing what you're doing. I see it But that comes along with something that when you face Rejection when you face conflict when you face problems instead of retreating you might not love it But you run into the fire. Yes, if you want protein to build lean muscle

Starting point is 00:15:03 But without the caloric impact or need to cut, you need perfect amino. It's pure essential amino acids, the building blocks of proteins in a precise form and ratio that allows for near 100% utilization in building lean muscle and no caloric impact. So we build protein six times as much as whey, but without the excess body fat we normally get during bulking. This is the new era of protein supplementation and it's real. If you want to build lean muscle without having to cut, you need perfect amino. Now let's get back to the ultimate human podcast. So I want to I'd love to give everybody listening. If you if

Starting point is 00:15:40 you take nothing else from this podcast, take this Joe stump, this guy Joe, I'm sitting in front of my team. I got about six of my team members and I'm waiting for him to give us gold to get more of our people to do the things that we know will change their life. It's like, if I say- One, two, three, yeah, yeah.

Starting point is 00:15:54 What's one thing everybody should do right now to be healthier if they're not doing it? Like- Sleep. Sleep, right? Yeah. So it's like, you give them this process to sleep. You know if they sleep, you know all the benefits of it, but they still don't sleep. It's like, what can I do to get your butt in bed

Starting point is 00:16:09 and do the thing, right? So I'm just waiting for the, oh, this will help me. And he said, Dean, why did you spend 10 grand for me to come here today? And I gotta tell you, when you start, he calls it seven levels deep because you ask yourself the reason why seven times. And I have to tell you, it's crazy.

Starting point is 00:16:28 Five's not enough, eight's too many. He's right on point because the first five or so questions come from your head. So he asked me, he's like, well, I said, well, I want more of my students, my clients, to have the results I got to have. He goes, great, that's such a noble reason. Why do you want them to have success?

Starting point is 00:16:44 I said something like, I want to leave a legacy. I want this industry to step up. You know, it's like, it's either do better, right? I'm sure you hate when somebody's just hocking a vitamin that they don't even know what it is. It's built with horrible products. It's got worse ingredients in it. It's got to drive you crazy.

Starting point is 00:17:00 Well, now, I mean, Tony's my partner now, but I look at Tony as grade A, and there's so many people It was just like step up or step out right so I said some things like that that came out of my head I don't even know what I said for the first four or five times But man when he got to the fifth time he goes why is that important something shifted? And this is the part everybody should hear something shifted from my head to my heart. It was like Like I physically changed I felt like you know you get the goosebumps Yeah, and I said something I had never said I felt like, you know, you get the goosebumps.

Starting point is 00:17:26 And I said something I had never said. I said, I don't ever want to go backwards. I'm sitting in front of my team. They're probably like, and I'm like, I remember being broke as a kid. I remember not being able to go to restaurants. I remember my mom struggling for money. And in this moment talking about why I hired a consultant

Starting point is 00:17:40 with my team around, I'm like, I don't want to go backwards. And he's like, thanks, Dina, you're in in your heart I feel that he was that that's really I really appreciate you and he answered it just this is what he did really in a soothing voice like he was like Matthew McConaughey he's like but why would it be important for you not to go backwards and I said I want my kids to have choices now as a dad you know exactly what I'm talking about now I'm emotional I got a tear running down my eye all I remember is I didn't feel like I had Now as a dad, you know, exactly what I'm talking about. Now I'm emotional. I got a tear running down my eye. And all I remember is I didn't feel like I had choices

Starting point is 00:18:07 as a kid, right? I wanted my kids not to be entitled. The world doesn't need more entitled children. I wanted them to have more choices in the world. Now I'm in my heart. I got tears running down my eyes. He goes, Dean, that's only number six. And you were a hustler before you had kids.

Starting point is 00:18:21 So I got to ask you the final time. Why is it important that your kids have choices? And I said the thing that shifted my life, I said, I need to be in control. And for me, not a control freak, what I realized at that moment, I'm an adult with children sitting around a team, I realized the reason I work so hard

Starting point is 00:18:37 is because my parents were married nine times between the two of them, five and four. Wow. I moved 20 times by the time I was 19 years old, right? I never felt in control. Gary, I had a step grandfather, Leo Rizzo. He was the greatest guy in the world. He taught me how to hunt, took me fishing, come home from school one day.

Starting point is 00:18:53 Our stuff's on the front yard in a moving truck. Never seen Leo again, right? Step sister, step brother. Gus Valentino was a step brother of mine. We were like buddies, we shared bunks. Dad got divorced, never saw Gus again. And all these things come racing in my soul and I realized I work so hard because I want to be in control of my decisions. I want to raise my kids in a different way.

Starting point is 00:19:14 I want to be the husband to my wife in a different way. I dress in a black t-shirt every day in my life. I want those choices. And that day, so again, I just shared about me. I'm not trying to make it about me. But I would love for you if take nothing else in this podcast is find someone to do it with or do it on your own. And every time you think you have the answer, you got to go deeper into your heart. And it's usually seven times. And when it clicks, you feel this you feel it through your body. So to this day, I mean, we all face adversity. People think as you get more successful, it gets less. It just, you just deal with bigger problems. When I

Starting point is 00:19:48 hit adversity, hundreds and hundreds of employees, the things we get to do around the world, partner, like all this great stuff, I literally go back to, Hey, if I just wanted to make more money, I'd quit. If I just wanted to make my students, even though I want them to be more successful, I quit, but I'm never gonna go backwards. I am never gonna let my kids down. And no one is ever gonna tell me what I'm gonna do with my time. Like I still take my kids to school. I still get to ballet.

Starting point is 00:20:12 I still get to jujitsu. I still go to tennis practice. Imagine if someone said, no, sorry, Gary, you gotta finish that project. You can't go watch that ballet session of your daughter. That would, like to me, I'd choose death before that. So get out of my way, right? So just all I know is in times,

Starting point is 00:20:30 and I'm gonna keep going, but I'll share this. In times of uncertainty that we have right now, we don't know where the world's going, there's lots of stuff could go amazing, who knows? Anything that's negative in your body is compounded. So if you don't have a strong enough purpose and why, the outside world will control you, you'll play small, you'll sit on your hands, you'll do what most people do. You'll wait to see what happens rather than saying now is the time, not tomorrow, not next week. This purpose is so strong, nothing in my way. I got to go. Like, you know, because for me it took until I was in my like mid 40s, you know, I was I was making decent money

Starting point is 00:21:12 I had a nice the decent house. My kids were you know, all in school a great family life You know, we didn't want for a lot of things But I think very similar to the transitions that you made I felt Like I wasn't on the path to anything great and I wasn't Fulfilling you know, there was you were living a life that wasn't yours. Yeah, I wasn't on the path to anything great and I wasn't fulfilling any kind of purpose. You were living a life that wasn't yours. Yeah, it wasn't mine. And now I'm twice as busy and I am a hundred more times more things on my plate and I am as content and satisfied as I've ever been.

Starting point is 00:21:39 I think from the outside in, it might look like chaos, but to me, it's the only, I wouldn't give it up for a moment, because it's purpose-driven. But I think a lot of people identify with that, but don't know how to find that purpose. I think if you separate it, one is the reason why you want to live

Starting point is 00:21:58 into who you're meant to be, whatever that is. And the second is the vehicle to get there. So I think they're not the same. One is, you found your purpose, and then your why kinda creeped in. Yeah, very true. But imagine if you did the exercise first, and you're like, I'm supposed to have more time,

Starting point is 00:22:15 I'm supposed to impact people, I wanna change lives for a living, or whatever it is that you wanna do, and I want more freedom, then it's time to go research and find the vehicle. And it doesn't mean they're gonna hit it out of the park on the first one. Right. Right. But it's supposed to suck in the beginning. And the other thing I'd love to say to people is when people say, find your purpose,

Starting point is 00:22:33 find your passion job, you're like, I think we're waiting for like clouds to open, sunshine pop out of the box, heaven's part. Yeah. And like be Britain. Like this is, this is, ah, like sometimes you gotta get dirty, fail, and be in it enough to go, damn, this is worth fighting for. So you really just line your ship up in the direction you think you wanna go, do the research on it, model people who've already been there, like don't try to figure it out on your own,

Starting point is 00:22:57 somebody's already done what you wanna do. So just find somebody who's already done what you wanna do, model what they do, and roll up your sleeves, get dirty a little bit, get in it, fail a little, right? Confidence comes after courage. Yeah, my dad used to say, life is what happens to you when you're on your way to doing something else.

Starting point is 00:23:13 Which I thought was- Oh, that's such a, that's, oh my God, so good. Yeah, he's a very simple, like Captain John Brack, a big shout out, dad. He's, you know, my mom and dad are still with us by grace of God. Oh, that's amazing. And he was, you know was like a simple guy, very disciplined,

Starting point is 00:23:29 military guy, but he would say, life is what happens to you when you're on your way to doing something else. And I was like, I didn't realize how profound that was until I was an adult. Beyond profound, yeah. But it's so true. Cause don't you hate it when you're like in high school and your parents are like, well, what do you wanna major in?

Starting point is 00:23:43 What do you wanna go to college for? I don't know what I want for lunch. I have to college for? I don't know what I want to have for dinner. Exactly. Exactly. Um, so sometimes those, those sayings just, they just go right through until you get to a certain age. It's like, do you ever hear the saying when you have kids, you wait about six months and you call your parents and say, thank you. And I'm sorry. I had no idea. I had no idea what you went through to keep us alive. It's funny, your dad saying there's a same Ogman Dino,

Starting point is 00:24:12 there was a section in his book. It's kind of old school therapy. Old school therapy is don't let your emotions dictate your actions, let your actions dictate your emotions. So true. How can you be depressed and sad when you're on the move? So sometimes we got to get on the move and then we find the thing we should be doing

Starting point is 00:24:31 along the journey. Just what your father said, beautifully said by your dad. Yeah, yeah. No, it was beautifully said and it was very simple and like in simplicity, it was really profound. And it's so true because, well, I actually went to undergrad and grad school for human biology and human biology. I never really realized how much of an impact that that was gonna have because it was years later

Starting point is 00:24:53 that it came around and found it to be really very useful. But I think it's like you were saying, get in there, roll your sleeves up, fail a little bit because I think we all crave that safety. Right. We don't leave the nest unless we have a fully baked plan. You know, the meme where it shows, be careful what you wish for. And it shows three meals a day safe, protected, all this stuff.

Starting point is 00:25:18 And then it shows a lion in a cage. Right. He's safe. He's protected. He gets three meals a day. Can't be hunted. Can't be killed, and he's in a cage. Right. You know?

Starting point is 00:25:28 Yeah, so true. You got to get out of that comfort zone. And so what are the exercises that somebody could go through? I mean, how do you start putting yourself and putting one foot in front of the other and taking that path towards success? You talk about courage, not the definition of courage that we find in the Webster's Dictionary, but I've heard you talk about your own version of courage before. And what does that mean to you?

Starting point is 00:25:49 What does courage really mean to you? How does somebody find the courage to do that? Yeah, really great question. You know, courage is not moving forward in the absence of fear. Courage is moving forward even though you're scared to death, right? And how they all stack up. If you got a good enough purpose, then that pushes you to be courageous. Right.

Starting point is 00:26:11 And people say I need confidence. Confidence to me doesn't really come until you actually in the game. Right. You have the courage to start the game. You learn how to play the game when you're on the field, like the Theodore Roosevelt quote, the man in the arena. Right. And you're on the field bloody and marred.

Starting point is 00:26:23 You don't, you don don't wanna be in the stands with someone else's name on your jersey, cheering for them. You're horrible, you suck, but you're sitting in your chair doing nothing. I wanna be on the field, even if I fail. You're learning, right? So courage is that thing that you need to move forward

Starting point is 00:26:37 so you can see if you like it, right? And so there's a couple of reasons you need courage. So I'll try to answer both the questions. Like, what are some steps you should take? One thing you ought to realize, and I know we're on a pod, you have the absolute best podcast in the world on health and longevity.

Starting point is 00:26:53 And we're talking about success. I get that it's a little- No, I love this. But it all goes, at the end of our lives, we want to be successful and healthy. Yeah, the first course module that I built for my VIP community was mindset, because I think a lot of people

Starting point is 00:27:05 struggle with mindset, meaning they struggle with just the simple ability to put themselves first, especially women, without putting the needs of other people before theirs. And eventually what happens is this act of being so selfless comes back to haunt them. They believe that self-care is being selfish when really self-care is being very selfless comes back to haunt them. They believe that self care is being selfish, when really self care is being very selfless. Right? You're a better version of yourself for everybody.

Starting point is 00:27:30 Put the oxygen mask on before you assist your own child. You know, if the plane depressurizes, which isn't, you know, a mother's first instinct, it's to try, right? Not to help themselves. But I think there's a lot of truth in that, you know, you're a much better person and can show up better for your spouse, for your career, for your kids, you know, for your co workers, for your peers. So what I would start, if I again, if I could answer both those questions, like, how would you start? One thing we don't realize it, but we fall in a hypnotic rhythm, we fall in a routine,

Starting point is 00:28:00 right? What's probably the biggest thing to get somebody healthier is to get out of the current routine that they have. Even if it's not a good routine, I wake up, I have my first cup of coffee, I eat this certain thing, I do this certain thing. And you got to shift that morning routine is hard enough, not even your whole life, just shift the first thing you do in the first 45 minutes of waking up is hard, right? But if you can get them to shift that little bit, then you go, Oh, you got that. How about you doing this once a week? How about three times a week, right? So it's these, so first off, it's like Kaizen.

Starting point is 00:28:28 All shifts start with micro shifts that lead to bigger shifts that lead to bigger shifts. Everybody who starts in the year's resolutions, I'm gonna do all this stuff. Never gonna eat bread, no more sodas, no more thing. By January 1st, January 15th, it's all gone, right? It's too big. Yeah. So one thing to realize is say you're in a career and it's unfulfilling and you know, you're meant for more I love using that term like you you're enough. You know enough you could do more you could impact more

Starting point is 00:28:50 You're just not quite sure where to go. But without realizing it in a career. Sometimes we start that career thinking hey I'm gonna I'm gonna get this career. I'm gonna get promotions. I'm gonna get raises I'm gonna knock it out of the park and in in a, in a, in a, you know, hierarchy of a business, sometimes you don't get recognized. Your lessons aren't heard. Your ideas are over or passed over. And over time, you start shrinking on the inside. Okay, nobody listens anyway. It's a safe spot.

Starting point is 00:29:18 That's it. I get my check. I get my check. Everybody my family tells me I should be lucky to have this job. It's okay. But then there's one day, right? We all wake up and say, I'm like, I watched should be lucky to have this job. It's okay. But then there's one day, right? We all wake up and say, I'm like, I watched the Steve Harvey interview just this morning. I was on the treadmill this morning.

Starting point is 00:29:30 I thought it was so good. There's a day you wake up and go enough. I need to be healthy today. He heard about you on a Friday. He was here on a Monday. I love that. Because we all get to a moment where you go,'m not doing I'm living someone else's life and and whether it's Because you're let go or AI replaces you or you decide there's got to be that definitive line

Starting point is 00:29:53 Say today enough is enough. I'm getting healthy. I'm starting my own thing. I'm gonna I'm gonna shift my financial future, right? When that happens what you don't realize is the years of maybe a career mindset Made you turn down your innovation, turn down your drive a little bit. And you got to find a way to wake it up and you got to be courageous to do that. Yeah. Right. And you got to realize that maybe the guardrails go away, but you were meant to drive with no guardrails.

Starting point is 00:30:17 You're meant not to be in that cage. Right. Yeah. But what are some of the ways that people can shift that that inner monologue? Right. Yeah, but what are some of the ways that people can shift that inner monologue, right? Like that dialogue, because I think that, I talk about, for example, keeping little promises to yourself. Yeah, love that.

Starting point is 00:30:32 Okay, so you, and when I say the promises that you break are the promises that nobody else knows about, because you don't tell your spouse, hey, I told myself I'm gonna go to bed at 10 o'clock tonight and then you go to bed at midnight You just make a promise yourself, you know, you you got home from work today I like tonight I'm going to bed at 10 o'clock and you only shared that with yourself you go to bed at 1130 No, you know tomorrow morning. I'm getting out for a 30-minute walk first thing in the morning You don't really go for the walk. Nobody else notices but you and what I believe happens is that

Starting point is 00:31:04 You keep breaking these little promises to yourself and you actually lose trust in yourself Nobody else notices but you. And what I believe happens is that you keep breaking these little promises to yourself and you actually lose trust in yourself. It's so true. And you actually truly don't believe yourself because your actions don't fall in line. And I- You lose faith in your own- Yeah, so I'm like,

Starting point is 00:31:22 we're not this collection of goals and this collection of priorities, we're not this collection of goals and this collection of priorities, really a collection of habits. And, you know, if you want to lose weight, and you don't develop the habits of somebody who's going to lose weight, the goal of losing weight or the priority of losing weight isn't you're never going to get there. So if you if you don't get into the habits, so if you don't have the habits of someone who's successful or the habits of someone who wants to lose weight or the habits of a champion or the habits of somebody

Starting point is 00:31:48 who wants to be financially successful, I don't know any other way that you get there without developing those habits. But it has to start and you know, like in my course, I always start with the mindset shift. You have to. So how do people begin that shift? How did they start to change that monologue?

Starting point is 00:32:05 Because the older we are, the stronger that monologue is. It's like the calcium, it gets harder, right? And then I think it's sort of a double-edged sword for younger people. And I noticed this in my son and my daughter's generation, not with my son and my daughter particularly, but in their generation, is that they truly want instantaneous gratification.

Starting point is 00:32:24 Like, they're willing to try jiu-jitsu for three classes and if they're not a black belt by the fourth class, they're kind of out. And I think that society has set that framework up or they're looking at Instagram and they're like, well, this kid is making millions of dollars a year doing stupid videos and gambling. So maybe I just want to do stupid videos and gambling. You don't realize that's the one in the million that broke through. I love this question. First off, I tell my kids that all the time.

Starting point is 00:32:53 I'm like, don't say you're going to make your bed every day and then you don't because you're lying to yourself and then you'll get in that habit. Right. And even though that's a little thing, I like to think about it is here's three things that I'll give you a tool that I use like a tool in the toolbox, right? The more tools you have, the more further you can go, right? Is we can talk about this later.

Starting point is 00:33:12 But first, if you're gonna, you want to do your own thing, then you need to spend the time understanding the industries that are going to be here and grow in the future. Right? You might say I would never invest in a taxi cab business. It's over. Right? But would you even invest in an Uber business right now when they say within two years, 90% of the cars are going to be autonomous?

Starting point is 00:33:33 Right? So you have to, you got to make sure you could be the best in the world, best Uber driver in the world if it's replaced by a machine and there's driverless Teslas and Waymos all over the country, it doesn't matter how good you get. So you got to spend the time to find an industry That's growing and that we could talk about that a little bit Number two is you got a model proven practices don't we don't have time in today's world. Everything's moving exponentially Nothing's linear anymore AI has changed everything. There's no like oh in three

Starting point is 00:34:02 It's like no we can figure out what took three years in three seconds Right. It's so true. So you have to find somebody who's already done what you've done and do what they've done So you could start off where they left off And the third thing is you got to have that purpose strong enough that you take Uncomfortable action because it is uncomfortable to do something new if you do something you've never done before it's gonna be uncomfortable Most people retreat if you don't want wanna be the person that retreats, you gotta take uncomfortable action. So I don't wanna oversimplify success,

Starting point is 00:34:28 but if you're an emerging company, you model someone who's already done it and you keep persisting, I don't think there's any way you don't succeed, whether that's with your health or the business you wanna start. So if I add a tool in our toolbox, courage is a big thing to me.

Starting point is 00:34:41 It's a word I use often with my kids. I use it in my own vocabulary to myself is I wanna have the courage to move forward. And one thing I think about, I shared this once, I'll always ask, we're doing an event, I'm so glad you're coming. Oh no, I'm so excited for this. I'm so excited for the end of the year this year,

Starting point is 00:34:58 working with you and Tony, I'm so excited for it. Oh, me too, we'll talk about that in a minute. But you'll see there's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people live. And I love, because we'll talk about that in a minute, but you'll see there's hundreds and hundreds of thousands of people live and I love because we got this big chat wall where you the chats come in Oh in the on these events and these virtual events you're gonna freak out you see because you get instant feedback Right, so I'll say hey What is the thing holding you back from living into your full potential in In your world, you might say being your optimal health.

Starting point is 00:35:25 In me, it's like most people there will have 800,000 people that are all saying, I wanna do my own thing. And I say, what's holding you back? It'll be things like my family doesn't believe in me, it's kind of embarrassing, it's hard to start small, my husband thinks I'm crazy, I wanna wait till we have a different president.

Starting point is 00:35:42 Like it'll come in, but'll see it like like our data And then we take that and run it through AI and I know the top things You know one of the top things is the fear of looking small the fear of starting over the fear of failing like all these things So I've taken them through an exercise and I'm not an exit I'll do it in two minutes here, but I say okay So think about that fear and what is that fear on a scale the one to 10 that your husband doesn't believe in you? Your friends will think you're crazy for starting your own thing.

Starting point is 00:36:07 You're already paid for college, so why should I do it? All these things. I'm like, what is that story? Cause that's the story holding you back. Like there's nothing else. That's the story. I'm not good enough. I'm too old.

Starting point is 00:36:17 I'm too young. My husband, that's the story. So on a scale of the one to 10, how strong is that holding you back? And everybody will do a seven to 10, seven to 10. Like, okay, great. Now stop for a minute. Now it's the end of your life.

Starting point is 00:36:28 You lived in 90 years, 95 years, and you're sitting next to your maker, you're sitting next to God. God pulls out his iPhone and plays you a video of the woman or the man you could have been. And you see this life of living into what, it scared you, but you did it. And you had a breakthrough.

Starting point is 00:36:44 Then you failed three times. Then you had a bigger breakthrough. And you watch this version of living into what, it scared you, but you did it. And you had a breakthrough. Then you failed three times. Then you had a bigger breakthrough. And you watch this version of you that you didn't even, you knew it existed, but you let that story of your mom, your sister, the age stop you. I said, now I wanna tell you, tell me what that feels like on a scale of one to 10. And it's like a hundred, a thousand, a thousand, a thousand.

Starting point is 00:37:02 I'm like, and what is the only thing you would say to your maker? And everybody writes, go back, go back, go back, start over, start over, go back, go back, go back. And I look at the camera and I say, wish granted. You're here today. Today's the day you could start over. Today's the day you don't let that story stop you anymore because your family doesn't believe in you. If you're're gonna show them what you're made of Because you're older you have wisdom not just information Because because you could shift that story and that motivation because then I sometimes go back and I say okay now rate the first

Starting point is 00:37:35 Story and it's like one one one Yeah, that's stupid little thing my family doesn't believe in me and that might sound like yeah, yeah, but Dean How do you actually make the money? This is the foundation to have the leverage, right? It's the leverage to go, I'm freaking doing this no matter what. I fail, I'm getting up. My parents criticize me, I'm getting up. My family thinks I'm up.

Starting point is 00:37:54 I'm getting up, I'm going. Because when you have that, you can give a person with that much reason to do it a B opportunity, a C opportunity, and they'll make it work. Give somebody without that passion and A plus opportunity, they fail every time. One of my favorite biohacks outside of breath work by far is mineral salts, Baja Gold Sea Salt.

Starting point is 00:38:15 It's got all of the trace minerals that the body needs. You know, most of us are not just protein deficient, meaning amino acid deficient or fatty acid deficient. We are mineral deficient. So a quarter teaspoon of this in water. First thing in the morning, we'll make sure that you get all of the essential minerals that you need. It tastes amazing. In fact, I made a date today.

Starting point is 00:38:32 I actually made a grass fed steak with grass fed butter and I put just mushrooms and a little bit of rosemary and I sprinkled Baja gold sea salt all over the top. Try it. It'll be your new favorite for cooking too. It's the cheapest and one of my favorite biohacks. I don't know, a 15 or $20 bag of this will probably last you five years. This is literally the world's best biohacking secret. Now let's get back to the ultimate human podcast. That's so true. Gosh, it's so true. And, and you know,

Starting point is 00:38:56 for someone like you, that's, that's you've impacted millions and you've made millions. Now that you've achieved that level of socioeconomic success for you, what's on the other side of that? Like what's next for you? Like what's still getting you out of bed? Impact at this space. Really?

Starting point is 00:39:16 Yeah, and somebody can say- I hear Tony talk about that a lot. I think about it a lot too. He's my dearest friend, right? I was with him till midnight last night. I'm in Florida because I spent the last three days with him and I get to hang out with you two. So what a great couplearest friend, right? I just was with him till midnight last night. I just I'm in Florida because I spent the last three days with him and I get to hang out with you too. So what a great, what a great couple of days, right? And I'm a biohack like a mad man.

Starting point is 00:39:31 But at this phase is you always need that compelling future. Right? So Tony and I co-founded, we own multiple companies together, but we co-founded a company called Mastermind. And we started Mastermind. We're on a golf course. We just talked about yesterday on a golf course seven years ago. We were already friends for five years. And I watched so many people. Before you had any business to get to. You know why? Because we started to become friends. And every time I'm with them, we have a meeting, everybody's pitching them. And you see this, especially with your podcast, but you're going to have 100 times more in the next thing. So I'm like, you know

Starting point is 00:40:02 what? I don't want to do business with this guy. He's becoming my dearest friend. Let's just be friends, because I was doing well, he was doing extremely well. But then about seven, eight years ago, we were on a golf course, and we said, if we were gonna start a business, what would we start? That's how the conversation went. Literally like that.

Starting point is 00:40:15 We were gonna start a business, what was it? And he said, you know, he went to a Jim Rohn event, old school personal development, Jim Rohn event when he was 17 with his last 40 bucks, fundamentally shifted his life. He started teaching Jim Rohn stuff and then he became Tony Robbins. Really? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:40:30 I didn't know that. For me, I was already, I had a car business, a collision shop and auto sales. I buy Tony Robbins stuff 27 years ago. I jumped into this industry. So we just decided why not show people how to do what we do, how to take your life experience, what you do right now with your VIP program, with all the things you're doing all over the world. This podcast, you're delivering value to people so they can condense time.

Starting point is 00:40:53 If you model proven practices, it could take you 10 years to figure it out on your own. I do what Gary did. I can do it in a year. Right? I could do it. Tony took 40 years to do it. I could do it too. Right?

Starting point is 00:41:03 So, so we decided why not create a company that pulls back the curtain and shows people that their life experience might be the most valuable asset you own. So then we said, this will be our passion project. We'll show people what we learned. I have 28 years, he has 48 years. We've got 76 years of combined in this industry. We're like, we'll show people.

Starting point is 00:41:22 You don't realize it, but the skill you have at work, it's valuable. The mess you went through and you're on the other side, it's valuable. The passion you have that you learned so much about, somebody starting day one on the passion, it's valuable, because they want to condense time.

Starting point is 00:41:35 So we started a company called Mastermind. Now it started, we launched it and it became a movement. This is going to be our seventh event that averages almost a million people event. That is incredible. We're getting people all over the world. Yeah, I'm speaking at your... Yeah, and I can't wait for you to be there. It is going to be our seventh event that averages almost a million people event. That is incredible. Right? We're getting people all over the world. Speaking of your.

Starting point is 00:41:48 Yeah. And I can't wait for you to be there. It's going to be amazing. But the cool part about it is it's so mission driven because now Tony's got a really good way about him. He's like, brother, you know, he got to invent this industry in so many ways and create it. And it's been a legacy for all of us to model. Right?

Starting point is 00:42:03 I get to I've been doing it probably second longest to him, almost 30 years, but he's like, hey, when we're gone, we can't help people anymore. So if we show people how to do what we do, we can make millions of people armed with the tools to live a fulfilled life, to live into their full potential, an industry that's always gonna keep growing. And we're going, like, he found a way to make it

Starting point is 00:42:23 about a legacy, about impact, and the byproduct is the company's growing exponentially right but we get up every day we again we I'd say that you you work like you're broke Tony and I were joking we both work like we're broke same here because now he's like we got more things to do and the byproduct you know he's he fed a billion people in eight years one billion people provided one billion meals through feeding America he wanted to do it in 10, he did it in eight. You were telling me that, I mean a billion people. A billion meals.

Starting point is 00:42:48 I mean that's, you wanna talk about making an impact. I don't know another human being that can. Somebody fed him when he was a kid at Thanksgiving when he had nothing, and it just left this lasting impression on him. But the things that he gets to do, right, you asked what drives me. Those are chicken soup for the soul things.

Starting point is 00:43:04 Oh, I know. Those are chicken soup for the soul things. Oh, I know. Those are gratifying. He does those on a regular basis. Regularly, he's doing things like that without telling anybody. I'll give you an example. When the fires happen in California, he calls me disturbed by it. Brother, there's a lot of people with money.

Starting point is 00:43:19 They go wherever they want. There's a lot of people without money. They lost their houses. They lost everything. They can't even afford an Airbnb. He's like, what are we going to do? They go wherever they want. There's a lot of people without money. They lost their houses. They lost everything. They can't even afford an Airbnb. He's like, what are we gonna do? He takes it, he's like, what are we gonna do?

Starting point is 00:43:30 I don't know, what can I do? What can I help? It's an injustice, he can't live with it. And he donated millions of bucks, and he calls me back and he says, hey, let's put another million and buy Airbnbs and just give open tickets to people who can't afford it. I'm like, tell me where to wire the money.

Starting point is 00:43:43 And having that ability to send money like that in a moment, or build schools in Africa, or help kids out of slavery, all these things you get to do in the invisible goes right back to why I get up every morning. Because our business, Mastermind, gets to show people how to start, scale, live into their full potential. And the byproduct, we get to do this cool stuff for people.

Starting point is 00:44:03 I get to meet awesome people like you. We're building a friendship. We're not just doing a podcast, which is totally awesome Yeah, right. It's like man. I want everybody to experience that 56 like I don't have a lot. I got I gotta go fast So and I'm so excited you're speaking at this event people are gonna absolutely love you You know, I think it's it's so Extra 30, and I'm so excited you're speaking at this event. People are gonna absolutely love you. You know, I think it's so powerful for people to hear ways to quiet that voice of fear and doubt, because I think, you know, there's a famous story

Starting point is 00:44:35 about Oprah Winfrey, when she tried all of these diets and tried all of these different ways to lose weight. I guess she tried Weight Watchers, and she might be a shareholder now, but she tried Weight Watchers, she tried all of these different ways to lose weight. I guess she tried Weight Watchers and she might be a shareholder in hell, but she tried Weight Watchers. She tried all of these different exercise regimens and she just couldn't lose weight. And she met this philosopher named Gary Zukov and who wrote the book Seat of the Soul. And I think he wrote another book called Soul Stories.

Starting point is 00:44:57 And Seat of the Soul was great. Yeah. And so he was credited with getting hurt for the first time to getting Oprah and went for the lose weight. And I remember reading this story and someone asked Gary like what was it that you did to get her to lose weight? He said, it was very simple. I had her stop seeing herself as a fat person. And I was like, wow, that's really profound.

Starting point is 00:45:23 You know, I mean, you're a smoker, you see yourself as a smoker, you never stop smoking. And I think sometimes this subconscious way that we see ourselves is what manifests itself in the real world. And when you do these things like break a little promises to yourself, it just, it sort of reiterates and gives a voice to those kinds of things. And I think a lot of people,

Starting point is 00:45:48 yourself included, doesn't sound like you were surrounded by, by a lot of mentors. No, right. You didn't have like the rich uncle that had figured it all out. That was your mom's brother that was driving a nice car and built a business. And it was like, Hey, Dean, I'm going to teach you, I'm teaching you how to do it. So I think, you know, very often people fall back on that crutch too is, is like, Dean, I'm gonna teach you how to do it. So I think, you know, very often people fall back on that crutch too, is like, well, I don't have anybody to show me. But what you're saying is, it really is within you.

Starting point is 00:46:14 It is. And once you find it within you, then the mentors appear. You didn't even know there was all that. And the mentor could be the book, could be the podcast, could be the interview that you listen to, right it's like when you when you buy a car You think nobody has it right? I bought a white Ford pickup truck. I love it And it's the same way sometimes when you shift when you go I don't want to get to the end of my life and realize I missed it Oh, I got to take action today, right? I do have a purpose I want to be in control my time or whatever that is all of a sudden you get hungry

Starting point is 00:46:51 Like if you look at the common thread for the people who get healthier. Yes that finally do their own thing It's it's a depth of hunger. What does that hunger come from? It comes from a purpose It comes from running away from something Whatever it is you use use it to get that momentum and all of a sudden I believe the white Ford pickup truck starts showing up all over the place, right? There's a mentor, there's an event I should go to, there's a speech I should listen to,

Starting point is 00:47:15 this is a book I should download, right? Yeah, but along this journey of yours, because it seems to me like you've really developed a very conscious mindset, like you're very present, you're very in touch with how you feel, who you are, where you wanna go. But along your journey somewhere, there had to be some setbacks. Even success had to bring a whole new set of...

Starting point is 00:47:39 Without a doubt. Yeah, of setbacks. Yeah. Are there any that particularly stand out to you? Tipping points that you recall. Yeah, what did you do in those and they never Everybody's yeah. Well, thanks. Thanks. Gary Dean. You make me feel so good about success Bring you right back down the earth here. Yeah Not only do they continue to come they get bigger

Starting point is 00:48:04 Yeah, they get bigger. Yeah, they get more complex. The one that I thought I couldn't get through is so you gotta figure, I did own a collision shop. I own Dean Collision Center at 19 years old. Really? That's awesome. It wasn't a monster, but in my little town,

Starting point is 00:48:19 I had Dean Collision Center. I had about 15 apartments. I would buy rundown apartment houses. So I would work on cars during the day and I'd go home and eat and I'd work on my houses. I learned how to be a plumber or a carpenter. So I had 19 apartments and a little collision shop and I bought a tow truck. So long story short, and I watched Tony Robbins on an infomercial and I was already doing well. But when I listened to Tony, I bought his whole course. And I remember listening that life happens for me, not to me.

Starting point is 00:48:45 Like, I could use my past as the wind, not the anchor, all the stuff we've been talking about today. Foundationally, I got a lot of that from him 27, 28 years ago, right? Long story short, not only profoundly shift some things in me, I was already having success, but I knew I was meant for more, just like what you said. I was living someone else's life.

Starting point is 00:49:02 I wasn't supposed to be painting fenders. I'm not knocking that, but that wasn't where I felt that you said. There was something, I was living someone else's life. I wasn't supposed to be painting fenders. I'm not knocking that, but that wasn't where I felt I belonged. But the second thing that happened by buying this course is I said, wow, I gave Tony Robbins money for information. Like think about it. It's inflation proof. You don't have to store it.

Starting point is 00:49:19 You don't have to warehouse it. He just shared with me stuff to be better and it worked. Yeah, exactly. So I went in that that so I decided to go in that business So the two things is shifted. I could I decided to go in that business and create a course I did an infomercial people like why did you an infomercials? Because there was no internet when I started Sorry, I just older right but long story short picture this blue collar guy in a little town. Mm-hmm I have two desks in my collision shop One is my new business creating an infomercial on a product

Starting point is 00:49:47 I had no clue what I was doing look back now, but that was your favorite desk because I know what you mean Yeah, so like I have a desk with all my yes I like this somebody come in for an estimate on their car and then the other phone. Oh my god I got like this is my future right so long story short. I start getting momentum. I produce a product I produce an infomercial I put weight Back then to do an infomercial and buy media, it was a couple hundred grand, which I didn't have.

Starting point is 00:50:09 I put a lot of it on credit cards. So I'm launching this. And then I find a company out in Arizona who knows more than me about this space. So now picture, I go about two years working in New York and upstate, my collision shop, I sold cars, apartment houses, flipping houses. I'd go back to New York, upstate my collision shop. I sold cars apartment houses flipping houses I'd go back to New York three weeks being that guy I'd make money

Starting point is 00:50:29 I take it with me to Arizona and I dump it what seemed like this bottomless pit of this infomercial Like I put 25 grand. I'm like, oh, we're good Mailers actual mail. Yeah, and it's like two days later. They're like it's gone. I'm like, oh, you know I'm hustling back and forth and I'm finally getting momentum Gary. I'm like, I finally you know, you know the breakthrough You've been there a million times when you're like, it's the moment before you quit Yeah, just say one more go and that's the thing. I wish everybody could have is like Sometimes we quit inches from the touchdown the field goal or whatever you want to say, right? I'm about like can I really do this?

Starting point is 00:51:06 In my mind, the story my sister told me, I'm not Tony Robbins, you're five-seven, he's six-seven. He's got friends, he's got money. He's five-seven, he's six-seven. Like, I remember all these things, right? Of them trying to protect me. And right before it's quitting, Gary, I'm starting to get momentum.

Starting point is 00:51:21 And I see it, I see people are starting to say, thank you for the product. And we're getting momentum. And me going back and forth, I hire someone who's at this time is probably the age I am now, at the older, wiser, I hire him as like CFO, help me much as I could afford. Help me run this when I'm not here.

Starting point is 00:51:38 Cause I gotta go back to New York and actually make money to fund this whole, right? I start getting momentum. There's a little money in the bank. We're getting success. The infomercial is starting to rank like I'm the fourth infomercial in the country. Tony's number one, my mentor,

Starting point is 00:51:52 that he didn't even know it back then. I'm like number four or five. And this guy at 56 years old never gambled a day in his life. He gambled his wife's retirement money away. And when he lost that, he drained all my bank accounts, went to the casino, put it all on the color. It was a CFO, it wasn't a CFO, back then it was an accountant.

Starting point is 00:52:11 So I wasn't for me. He took all the money out of all my accounts, went and gambled to try to get his wife's money back and he lost mine. So I'm just barely afloat, right? You gotta think, and I got people saying, you're a dreamer out there in Arizona, infomercial guy. And back then it wasn't, it was like,

Starting point is 00:52:27 you were called the infomercial guy. Like, you wanna be the infomercial guy? And I go out there one day thinking we're doing good, and he calls me and he just, he says, kinda talked to me, he says, it's all gone. I'm like, what do you mean it's all gone? He said to me, we don't have $1, we can't make payroll on Friday.

Starting point is 00:52:42 Like, we finally put a cushion away, go get the cushion money. And he told me the story. Crying. He told you the story? Yeah, crying like a baby. He just threw himself at the mercy of the court. Oh my gosh. And I just remember leaving there again.

Starting point is 00:52:52 I remember it was back when cell phones were those big, not cell phone, a home cordless phone, the big antenna that you pull out. Yeah, I remember that. And threw it so hard against the wall, it stuck in, it went straight in and stuck. I went to the floor and cried and This is the part. I want everybody here the human part is

Starting point is 00:53:09 All of it came back. I said my sister was right. I didn't go to college I don't have a business degree. I don't know how to run businesses. This is for people way smarter than me This is for people who have money backing. This is for people who weren't blue-collar I'm a damn car guy like I remember just saying you should have never left Marlboro You should like all these things no matter how much I didn't work on myself as much back then But I remember all of those things and I thank God that something shifted I don't know if it was a day three days or five days something shifted and I just said if I can get through this I

Starting point is 00:53:42 Bet you I can get through anything that was that was honestly a shift I'd love to say it was miraculous it was praying and I probably did all of that but I just got this thing in my head I'm like well what if I could get through this hmm like I bet you if I got through this nothing will ever stop me again yeah just the switch of the thought Gary went from crying in my soup I woke up the next morning like, I'm like, how do I fix this? How do I fix this? I mean, I did things like applied for 10 credit cards

Starting point is 00:54:08 at once so they wouldn't all see my credit card, get a check, the credit check. And then- You used to be able to do that. Right, you can't do that anymore. Right, AI, they can find it. I applied for all these credit cards. Soon as I got them, I went to the bank

Starting point is 00:54:19 and got cash advance on all of them. Made payroll. My dad had a house with no mortgage on it from years prior that I helped him get. I'm like, dad, can I do a home equity line of credit on your house, but I need to do it right now. I'll pay the whole thing. He's like, do it, do it.

Starting point is 00:54:34 He got me 100 grand off his house. And then all of a sudden I'm like, I got 80 grand here, I got 100 grand here. What about this? I sold the house I was living in. I sold the house I was living in. I moved into a $1,200 a month house rented down the street I got 400 300 grand in equity or 200 grand equity in the house I put all that in

Starting point is 00:54:52 and all I kept saying is imagine if I get through this yeah and and that's that's the gift I hope we inspired other people to see you know what I think too I think that a lot of the best things in life come from perspective. And I think that when you have that perspective, and then you succeed, even if you marginally succeed, even if you just don't die. Yeah, exactly. You just stay alive. So you know, I look at a lot of the negative things that have, you know, looking back,

Starting point is 00:55:22 you would consider be negative things, you know, litigation, divorce, bankruptcy, you know, all of these things. I walked out of Louis Vuitton store one time with pair of sunglasses on my head and I ended up actually calling the store to report it, but I got arrested the next day for walking out of Louis Vuitton as a zero tolerance policy and they actually arrested me. And my mugshot was in the paper. And the case got thrown out and it was a no-lo process. And I got a lawful denial letter from the court and everything else as soon as the state attorney got it, she was like, you didn't actually steal these.

Starting point is 00:55:56 You reported them before they found out. But I'm just saying, I look back at a lot of these things, divorce or bankruptcy and got help if you've ever been arrested, it's the worst feeling in the world. But, and the shift, the momentous shift that happened in me because of that event, because if you just don't stop, and you get beyond that.

Starting point is 00:56:19 And you get more tolerance. You get, you build this resilience, right? And then if you start thinking, what if God, I know your beliefs. I'm a huge believer. What if you had to experience that to be the Gary you are today? I see the relationship you have with your wife.

Starting point is 00:56:36 And I feel blessed to say that I have that with mine. Yeah, amazing. I'm not saying not critical, but I know a lot of people that it looks like that, but behind the curtain, it's not., but I know a lot of people that it looks like that but behind the curtain it's not What if you had to go through all that? Yeah to be the man you are to your wife What if you had to go through all that to have the resilience to impact so many lives? What if you had to do that to do this podcast?

Starting point is 00:56:57 You're yeah, it's all worth it right then then you look you have an ability I know this sounds crazy, especially if you're young you might think I'm nuts But you have ability to change your past. Everybody says you can change your future, can't change your past. Not really true. You could give a different perspective to the things that happened. Like why the hell? I forgot the damn sunglasses on my head.

Starting point is 00:57:17 I walked out, it wasn't my fault. But I guarantee if you had a way to look at the dots, when you get to your maker at the end of your life and say, why did that happen? He's like, oh wait, let me pull out page 47 And you're like, oh my gosh Yeah, I was trying to tell you to make the left gary you weren't so I made a hard right for you, right and you're like Oh my gosh, right? Yeah, whether it's true or not if you believe it's true

Starting point is 00:57:41 It feels just the same like many of you The hardest thing for me is to shut off my mind at night when I wanna sleep. And it's funny because sometimes I'll wake up tired, already thinking of when I'll get back to bed again, but exactly the moment that I lay my head on the pillow, it feels like the machine of crazy what if thoughts is turned back on.

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Starting point is 00:59:05 Let's get back to the ultimate human podcast Yeah, you know, but I think there's so much power in and this is so off my normal topic that I usually talk about but I don't want to get back to health here in a minute, but You know, I think there's so much power in just the ability to reframe things You know to like you're talking about, going back into the past and just reframing that. Absolutely. I have a friend, they call him Dr. Rewire.

Starting point is 00:59:32 And I actually watched him one night. We went to one of his events at the St. Regis in Salt Lake City. And he brought all these people out around the fire and people were disclosing some very dark things that had happened in their life, and it had to do with very tough breakups or tough relationships, tough emotional journeys

Starting point is 00:59:58 that they'd been on, different forms of abuse. And I watched him actually go into that moment with them and reframe the way that they talked about it and actually walk them from that moment to where they were now. I would love to watch somebody as a skilled master at that. Yeah, his name is Dr. Alut Trivoti and they call him Dr. Rewire.

Starting point is 01:00:22 But it was, Sage and I were sitting around this fire, I'll never forget. and I was watching these people go through what seemed like a torture session, right? Because they were deep in this traumatic period of their life. I remember one girl in particular, her boyfriend had actually put a pistol in her mouth and he had cocked the handle of the pistol back

Starting point is 01:00:41 and he was threatening to kill her. And you know this massively traumatic event but what it caused her to do was take her kid and leave and finally leave him and stop with the trial of abuse and that's a really intense story but my whole point is that I watched him rewire these people from some of the darkest moments in their life into these very positive launching pads where they were almost like, thank God that happened. Right, exactly. Thank God that moment actually happened to me. And, you know, not consciously doing it, but sometimes I,

Starting point is 01:01:19 now that I look back on some of these other little tipping points in my life, like, you know, you losing everything with your partner stealing from you. I mean, a lot of people would have gotten really pissed off and they would have gotten really angry and they would have diverted all of their energy towards holding that person accountable. You know, it's like it's like focusing on the spilt milk. It's already spilt. Doesn't matter whose fault it is. Doesn't matter if it's going stay in the carpet, it's already spilled. Might as well get a towel and a new glass of milk and try to fix it. Exactly, a new glass of milk. I love it.

Starting point is 01:01:50 Dean, this is amazing. I wanna shift gears a little bit because I know that you're in good shape, you're in really good condition, obviously you're taking care of yourself. What kind of role for you, does fitness, wellness, you know, we talked about your diet a little bit beforehand because I think the fuel that obviously goes into our bodies matters.

Starting point is 01:02:09 Absolutely. And I think that your mindset has a lot to do with how you feel physically. And you know, sick fat tired people don't build empires. True story. And what is your routine look like? What are some things that you do? And this is not a biohacking question. You have to be super insightful.

Starting point is 01:02:26 The thing is to be the father I wanna be. I have an 18 year old, 16 year old, five year old and a two year old, right? So I got a big spread there. And my two year old, I wanna be here for a while, but how can I impact the world at the level I want? Or just impact the world might sound like a big, how do I live into the best version of me?

Starting point is 01:02:46 But the only thing I can do is be, I wanna be better today than I was last week, last year or last month, right? So it's a culture of progress, not perfection or comparison, right? If you just compare yourself to who you were last year and you're better, you're moving. So for me, I don't feel I could be the man, the husband.

Starting point is 01:03:04 I want my wife to look at me a certain way. I want my kids, my older kids just work out. I never asked them to. I just see dad working out. They started working out. They're both in great shape, right? So I don't get to have the energy, be the man. I want to be the husband, the leader I want to be.

Starting point is 01:03:19 And I need the energy at this age to go at the pace I go. I run hard. So therefore I need to have my body as optimized as possible. Like my next year, I wanna work with you. I wanna go from being in good shape to the best of my life, right? To be the ultimate human. You're my next superhuman project.

Starting point is 01:03:37 Yeah, so I say that. So therefore, it pushes me to take care of myself. And one thing I wanna share, I know this is, I guarantee you got the psychology on a way different level than me and then I'll tell you my routine. But everybody says, you know, I do work out seven days a week. I don't miss it. I, there's nothing. I can be up all night.

Starting point is 01:03:56 I can fly. Like I don't miss it. Right. And that's just a routine for 30 years. Right. And when people say, God, you must love to work out. The fact is I don't love working out. And people say, it must be nice to have your own business and have your own world.

Starting point is 01:04:13 Here's what I know. Nothing great comes easy. But if we focus on the task, if I focus on, I got to get up at five again so I can make everything work. Then I got to, you know, I got to get ready. I got to go out in the gym. Oh, I gotta get up at five again so I can make everything work. Then I gotta get ready. I gotta go out in the gym. Oh, I gotta, today's leg day. I don't love legs the best, but I should do that.

Starting point is 01:04:30 Like if you think about the doing it, it's hard. When I have days that I don't wanna do it, all I can think about is, I want my kids to see by example. I want my wife to still look at me with the eyes that she looks at me that way. I wanna live a long time. My two-year-old, I had her when I was 54 like I want to be here when she gets married Yeah, so all I do and I think about how much better I feel my clarity is there

Starting point is 01:04:53 I feel more alive when I'm done working out. I'm like ready to Right, so all I do is think about how I feel at the end how my kids are gonna be how my wife will look At me better and if I think about the outcome and therefore I'll at the end, how my kids are gonna be, how my wife will look at me better. And if I think about the outcome, then therefore I'll do the work. Wow. So it's like starting your own business. It's like, oh man, I gotta figure out the first step and the next step and do I do an LLC?

Starting point is 01:05:15 And it's kind of a lot. But are you gonna leave yourself in a job that's slowly killing you? Think about the two years from now when your business is thriving, when you're in control of your decisions, you're in control, like all the things you wanted or happen. I need to focus on where I'm gonna be So the moment doesn't seem so hard

Starting point is 01:05:31 So if you ask me why I how I work out consistently is I'll focus on how I'll feel and the things that will come after And therefore it gets me to do it. My routine is I do the same thing. I get about 430 every day I get up I do a green jink and some fish oil and some other stuff that you're going to make better for me. Yep, I am. And then I do about a half hour of catching up on creative stuff that I like. I don't look at stuff that brings me down a rabbit hole. So my 430 to 515 ish is my creative stuff, thinking about the day,

Starting point is 01:06:02 having fun, like looking through those lens. And then I go work out about 5.50 in every day. So three days a week is three or four days a week. So you have like an hour easing into the morning. I do. Yeah. And then... And is this like an hour?

Starting point is 01:06:13 Do you reflect? Do you practice gratitude? I do. Okay, meditation? Not meditation. I would love to say I meditate. I can't meditate either. I don't, but I'll think about three things.

Starting point is 01:06:23 So in the morning, I try to think about one thing I'm grateful for I know but it's like practice gratitude Sometimes you run out of things to be grateful like if you ever tried to a gratitude Gratitude journal yeah, like I think I wrote everything down Right, so I I try to like lower the bar of gratitude Like I will some mornings. I'm like 170,000 people a day die if you Google it. Yeah, like some days I'm like hey,000 people a day die if you Google it. Yeah. Some days I'm like, hey, I woke up today. Golden. That's all I need.

Starting point is 01:06:48 If I'm in the right mood, that's enough. Or I slept good, or my pillow felt good. Right? You got to just lower it. You're way down the gratitude chart. My kids didn't get up last night. Damn, this is good. If you got a two-year-old, that's a good one.

Starting point is 01:06:59 Yeah, exactly. And then I think of one win from the day before, because a lot of times as someone listening, if you're still listening right now, you're a hustler, you never give yourself credit for the things you accomplish. You'll beat yourself up for what you miss. So I just say, what's one thing I accomplished yesterday

Starting point is 01:07:15 that's cool? And sometimes it's business and sometimes it's monster deals. And sometimes it's, I made it to Jiu Jitsu and when my son did good, he looked up and saw him, I was there and he smiled. That's enough of a win from the day before and then I'll think of one win. I want that day Right. So that's that's the little routine soon as my eyes open up is a little gratitude lower the bar of it a win from Yesterday a win. I want today Sometimes I'll also like send love to maybe my mom or send somebody like appreciation in the air

Starting point is 01:07:44 Right of like yeah send love to maybe my mom or send somebody like appreciation in the air, right? Of like, thank you for that. And it just, it sets the clock a little different for me. It puts me in more of an offensive way to approach the day rather than defensive. Like I think a defensiveness, if I woke up and looked at all my emails and I found the one bad one, like, oh, I got it. It puts me in a different state. So I want to avoid that in the morning. Right.

Starting point is 01:08:02 And then I do, you know, I drink this concoction in the morning that I can't wait for you to make better. And then, and then I move. Yeah. Right. Then I move. Then I go exercise. If I do that, which I do most days, I start the day ready.

Starting point is 01:08:17 Like, oh, you're just bringing good habits. Bring it alone is a great habit. You're in the you're in the 1% of 1%. And I just make so I never diet. I just make smart choices with my food for years. I do the same. I went probably two decades with barely eating anything bad. I didn't eat a dessert for two decades. Then I met my wife and she always has issues like we don't deserve a lot, but when it's the right, like I'm like, babe, it's always the right time for you so last year I probably cheated a little bit on

Starting point is 01:08:48 desserts but other than that yeah that's the routine that's amazing man Dean I we're gonna do a series of these first of all because I'm definitely gonna have you back for my audience that is not familiar with you how do they find you where can they find you online where and which of your books do you think they should start with? So Millionaire Success Habits is a great book. It's over a million copies. It was from years ago. It just consistently sells on a regular basis. It's a great book. I'd love to invite everybody to come to the event you're going to speak at. That'd be great.

Starting point is 01:09:22 It's on May 15th through the 17th. If you liked anything we shared today, if you like my partner Tony Robbins, Gary Brekka is going to be speaking. Jay Shetty, Matthew McConaughey, some other amazing guests are coming and everybody's there is going to be talking about how they took a life experience and turned it into a product. Wow. Turned it into impact. So Tony and I believe with the company we founded Master, that every single person listening has an experience, a skill, or a message they can turn into a message that is valuable in the marketplace.

Starting point is 01:09:51 And once you realize that that could be a side business or the full-time business, and you realize the leverage of a business, an industry that's at a billion dollars a day right now, heading towards a trillion a year, they predict. So this is one of those industries that's growing. If you're intrigued or ever thought about doing that or being a creator, May 15 through 17th, we're calling it thrive in 2025.

Starting point is 01:10:12 It's our seventh one. We'll probably have about 800,000 to a million people joining over 100 countries. And you can log in and take them remote. So thrive 900.com thrive 900.com. I'm sure you'll put it in the show notes as well. But go register reserve a spot if you if you if you if you if anything I said today was intriguing you'll really enjoy it's the only time a year we do three days for free. Really no charge. So that and and at Dean Grazio see on Instagram. Dean Grazio see on Instagram. Amazing. Well,

Starting point is 01:10:40 I want down every podcast by asking my guests the exact same question. So if you watch my podcast and made it to the end, you know This question is coming and there's no right or wrong answer to this question But what does it mean to you to be an ultimate human? As it's a it's so funny, of course, I've seen you ask that question, but when it's asked to you I know you know You know what honestly some of the best answers weren't like the most wildly philosophical I'll tell you what the first thing came to me.

Starting point is 01:11:08 At the end of my life, I could close my eyes and if my wife's still with me, which I'm sure she will be in my kids, I can feel like I did everything in my power to be an example, to show them how to be contributing humans and live a fulfilled life. Like literally when you said it, the first thing that came to my mind is if my kids were like, man, my dad set us up, not money, but set us up to be good humans and live a resourceful kind of life. That's amazing. Well, I also have a VIP community, so we're going to head over to my VIP community now. I let them know before the podcast who's coming on.

Starting point is 01:11:47 They've got some questions waiting for you. If you're interested in becoming an Ultimate Human VIP, just go over to theultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP. You can sign up to be a VIP for 97 bucks a month. I pour myself into this community. In fact, today, I have a two hour live Q&A with them right after this podcast answering any question that you have on health, on diet, lifestyle, spiritual wellbeing, biohacking tools, supplements.

Starting point is 01:12:09 You should be doing it. You took all these years to, you've failed on so many things that made you win. There's no reason other people should fail. Yeah, so true. Go jump on that. I'll shortcut it for you guys. So go over to theultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP.

Starting point is 01:12:25 And until next time, that's just science.

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The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 163. Dean Graziosi: The ‘7 Levels Deep’ Exercise That Transformed His Life And It Can Transform Yours!

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