It’s so funny to watch people walk around on a cloudy day with dark glasses on. It makes absolutely no sense at all. They can’t possibly need the sunglasses, there’s no sun out. Especially inside the airport. Ever been in LAX? That place is dark, gloomy, and outdated in every which way.

Living in L.A. is a real comedy sometimes. It’s a real circus parade. I know that for many of you a celebrity sighting is a fun thing, it’s like spotting a wild bird or an endangered species. But in Los Angeles, these celebrities, no matter what level they are, whether it’s a B-list, C-list, or D-list quasi-celebrity, will always mask themselves in public because they feel that the world is constantly chasing them and looking at them. But in reality, the majority of people won’t even recognize who somebody is until they put on the dark glasses on and the scarf.

Celebrities

Because here’s the deal: when it’s a cloudy, rainy day, and you’re walking into the supermarket with dark sunglasses and a scarf on, everybody is going to look at you. So I think what they’re actually doing is the exact opposite of what they’re pretending to do, and they’re doing it for a reason: they really want people to notice them. By masking themselves, they actually want to be noticed.

I have found that the majority of people I’ve met who are so-called celebrities are some of the most insecure people in the world. A lot of them are narcissists who want others to look at them constantly, asking, “Who is that? Ooh, is that a celebrity?” A lot of them really love the attention 24/7. So it’s a pretty ironic thing to be able to watch the circus parade all the time.

So many people just want other people to look at them. They want to be noticed. A lot of them come here to Los Angeles just to be noticed, just to be famous. It’s amazing when you drive around Los Angeles. There are just so many wannabe celebrities.

Josh: I felt like we were doing pretty well with the women from the triathlon. There was one woman that I had a really good connection with, and I was about ready to ask her for her number, but then they left.

If I saw her again, what would you do to keep the conversation going the second time? How would you follow up?

David: We talked about that, with the whole blog on follow up we just did. I’ll answer it again because I think it’s a great question.

There is something about coaching and learning about repetition – I will repeat the same things today over and over again in different ways. Why? There are studies from sales trainings that show that you have to tell someone something six or seven times to get it to become a part of the person’s thoughts and behavior.

This is all very repetitive – everything we are going to be doing, from the places we go to the tables we sit at will be repetitive. When guys buy my products, I tell them all the time to listen to them over and over again. My voice will become your voice. Of course, you’ll process it in a different way.

So, let’s do it again. Follow up is very easy. The next time you see her, bring her back to the moment when you met her the first time.

When I ran into the couple from LA in Barney’s, I remembered they were from LA because I had already talked to them. I already knew where they were from, along with five or six other details about them.

I see them in Barney’s, and I think to myself, hmm, what do we have in LA that we also have in Seattle? Barney’s. So I walked over to them and asked, “what are you guys doing in Barney’s? We have this in LA!” and this started a whole new thread of conversation.

She replied, “oh my god, you’re right! But I hate the one in LA because I hate shopping with Beverly Hills snobs,” and BOOM! – we had a whole new conversation topic. I asked, “what about the Beverly Hills snobs do you hate? And by the way, you live in Beverly Hills! You live among those snobs!” I teased her a little bit and that got the conversation rolling again.

You’re going to see that you’ll run into the same people throughout the day and that is how you follow up with them. Even if you don’t see the same person for another week, you can still bring them back to the moment by saying, “oh my god, Barney’s girl!” “Oh my god, Pomeranian girl – how’s your dog doing?”

You can bring them back with that follow up. What makes top salespeople amazing is that whenever they go to a meeting with someone they remember details about that person. They remember things from that first conversation.

Whenever you talk to someone on the phone, find out things about him or her. I used to teach sales seminars, and I would always teach that the object is not to sell something, but to relate and to bond with someone and to sell yourself. We all want to do business with people that we like.

There is a reason why I will never take money from anyone for coaching him or her until they call me. You remember this from our phone call, when I talked to you during a hail storm in Santa Fe – if I don’t like you, I don’t care how much money you have – I’m not going to work with you.

I have to relate to you and spend a weekend with you. I’m giving up my time to spend a weekend with all of you guys. I have to like you. You have to fit in and be part of what I want to coach.

In the early days when I was still building my business, I would take anyone in. After the first 20 minutes of the weekend I’d want to jump off the escalator because I just didn’t click with the client.

So when it comes down to it, you want to do business with people that you like. When I was teaching sales, I used to tell guys to go into an office and look at the personal photos and begin to bond with someone.

It’s all about abundance again. There are plenty of people that I can coach, and there are plenty of sales deals that a person can close. I fill up bootcamps every month. I could probably do two per month but I like to do my own thing the other three weekends! My coaches in LA always want to do them more often, but I like my life the way it is. I like the balance I’ve struck with everything.

Chris: I’ve seen a lot of different stuff in personal development – lots of small transformations – and when I was talking to you on the phone you weren’t trying to close the deal on me. You were just being laid-back and cool and you were very straight with me. Not everyone is like that, and I really admire it. It’s one of the reasons I wanted you to coach me.

David: Well you were also thinking about doing the more expensive weekend, and I told you it wasn’t worth it.

Chris: Yeah, you were just straight up with me.

David: He wanted to do my 101 weekend and I listened to him and found out what he needed. I’ll do 101 weekends with people that really need it. I tell every single guy that calls me up about the bootcamp – I think the bootcamp dynamic really teaches you a lot.

There are guys who just need that 101 handholding all weekend. It’s 48 hours of very intense training. And I listened to you and where you were at in your life and I said, “no! Do this bootcamp first and if you want to do 101 down the road, sure, but I don’t think you need it.”

Chris: Yeah, I appreciated that honesty. I appreciate that ethic. It’s one thing I really admire about you.

David: When I started this business ten years ago, I didn’t have this abundance. I had to learn about abundance. I lost $300,000 in 1997, which is a lot of money. And I have no problem talking about it.

That was the worst year of my life. I was young, I was at the point where my business life was on this escalator going up and I made three of the worst decisions ever. It was just one after another. I could not believe I made three awful decisions like that in the span of like three months. I went from being very smart to being ridiculously stupid all of a sudden.

But I did it, and I needed to learn those lessons. Those were important lessons for me at that time. I also didn’t have abundance, so I was trying to be very greedy. I was trying to do things I didn’t really like and trying to make money however possible. I learned an incredible lesson.

I learned about abundance from taking on business in the beginning that I wasn’t really interested in. Life is abundant. There is always another one.

If you see a pair of jeans you like, but you miss it – don’t worry! There is always another pair. If you travel the world, there is always another place to go.

Women? We’ve been sitting now here at the escalators for about 45 minutes and there has been an abundance of women going up and down the escalators. We could sit here all day long, and I guarantee that every one of you could have a dinner date by the end of the day.

I believe in abundance in everything. I’m looking for that house right now. Someone else could put a contract down on that house today. I’ll find out on Thursday, and I’ll say to myself, there will be another house!

Todays podcast is all about how to get clear about life. Have you heard of the term optical illusion?

Today we create a whole new meaning of the term.

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