January 29th - Tony Robbins Moves

I told myself that 2022 needed to be a year where I stepped up. At that time, I had practiced my 18th take of my “Power of Visualizing Big” speech, but I was still seeking clarity and direction around what was truly next.

It’s important to note this truth: people have skills, talents, and ideas, but almost everybody, including the best in the world, is still figuring it out as they go. It’s through trying, failing, and succeeding that you discover what you’re meant to step into next.

1/24 I attended Tony Robbins’ Breakthrough to Success Challenge.

1/29 I bought a ticket to Unleash the Power Within. This had been a goal on my vision wall, and it happened faster because it stayed top of mind.

“TBH money is low. All my hustles have slowed down. I am all in on ******* and ***** waiting for it to 10x. Portfolio is currently at an all time high, but spending it defeats everything.”

Recognizing my potential but also admittedly not executing, I sought an edge. I wanted to speak in the future, and I also knew that once you see certain things, you can’t unsee them. Some of my greatest experiences have burned images and moments into my mind that drive me every day.

I was trying to create a new level of motivation by asking Tony Robbins if I could simply stand on the sidelines of his studio for 20 minutes. I made it clear I didn’t need to meet him or shake his hand. I just wanted to be exposed to greatness at the highest level. I knew that if I stepped into one of the biggest studios and witnessed the best in the world speak, I would make sure I got back there again.

To start things off, I launched a massive action plan.

200 letters written and stamped to Tony Robbins. I sent them out in batches each day with the goal of getting his attention in a crowded world.

2/12 Big break. Jen Gitomer sees my goal and invites me to her mastermind with her and Jeffrey Gitomer to introduce me to her friend Wyatt Woodsmall. Wyatt is on the thank you page of Tony Robbins’ second book. He is the man who taught Tony Robbins NLP. I expected nothing and made an incredible impression in 10 minutes. He said, “I believe you will do it, but if you don’t I will get you an introduction to Tony Robbins.” Wow.

2/24 I’ve sent letters, Instagram posts, and stories. I made major asks to Tony’s peers and got my messages seen, but no help. I also got my first no.

A member of Tony Robbins’ team saw the bulk of the letters and I spoke with him for 12 minutes. I only realized later he was in Tony’s inner circle. He said my letter wasn’t great and not how to go about it. That made me rethink everything. What if my message was undeniably good?

The next day I pivoted. New idea: cardboard signs in Charlotte promoting Tony’s new book Life Force.

On the first day, a girl loved my sign and made a reel with me on the spot to help reach Tony. Later she bought 10 copies of my book. These were new results. I decided to stick with the sign approach.

3/9 After 10 days of signs, I felt capped in growth. At 5:30 AM I flew first class for the first time to New York City to take things to the next level. Cardboard signs on the airplane and all over the city.

That day, Tony Robbins shared a picture of me and my cardboard sign to his Instagram stories. He also viewed all my stories. At this point, I was starting to get massive support from my network.

3/17 UPW virtual event. Very powerful. I tried to reach Tony there.

3/19 Video series: “Lessons I Learned from Unleash the Power Within.” I plugged his event after each video and made 25 total.

4/5 Next level: promoting Tony’s book Life Force by spelling it out with miscellaneous items. I also donated to Feeding America using items like donuts and Solo cups.

4/15 Instagram and Twitter giveaways giving winners copies of Life Force.

4/20 I made montage videos compiling all my signs as the campaign built momentum. I posted them on Twitter, tagged Tony, and shared them in the UPW group.

5/3 I got my second no. An email from the vice president of one of Tony’s companies. It essentially said they do not allow guests in the studio and asked me to stop tagging them on social media.

I followed up with one more heavily detailed email, laying out the full timeline of wins, photos, and progress. I explained how the greatest in the world never gave up and that I was living Tony’s message of massive action. I acknowledged the request was something only Tony could decide. I said I would respect a no, but he had not said no directly yet, and what if the answer was yes.

5/6 Follow-up email confirmed Tony had seen the messages and asked for them to be passed along.

It was a win and a loss at the same time. Loss: I didn’t achieve the goal.

 Win: I grew through the process. I proved the power of massive action. I left without regret knowing I followed the instinct fully. I got out of my comfort zone, created momentum, and found direction for what came next.

Serious entry. Pain is building. Success, execution, you hear your own words and ambitions out loud and they start to feel like lies. It is in your heart to be great. Do you have a great body, great money, great speaking ability, accomplishments? It can feel like delusion. We need execution daily. Ride the Tony plan until success. Get structured. Corruption is a distraction but the world is a mess.

The first time I ever held up a sign in Uptown Charlotte, I sold 10 books and created content with a random stranger.

After the Tony mission ended, I thought, let’s keep the momentum going.

We can inspire, meet like minded people, and grow.

Speakers included Dean Graziosi, Ed Mylett, Eric Thomas, Andy Frisella, and more.

I ended up going solo. It was a great event, and I was the last person in the entire building to leave, trying to chat with a few of the speakers. It was a strong momentum booster.

This year I learned a lot about aging. Like retirement and many other assumed “rules,” age is largely a constructed measurement of time. Your age has the meaning you give it.

After 25, every milestone often comes with negative connotations about getting old. It is rarely seen in a positive light, and there seems to be little benefit to tracking it in that way. On the flip side, I have learned that aging is partly mental.

The mind is a command center, and it responds to direction. The placebo effect is a clear example of this. The mind accepts what it believes, and if you believe you are getting older, your mind may respond accordingly in how you feel and how you show up physically. There are studies suggesting that mindset plays a significant role in health and aging outcomes, including observations where individuals with serious illnesses sometimes outlive expectations in unexpected ways.

This is something Prince adopted. Below is a study referenced in Tony Robbins’ book Life Force, where participants who acted as though they had gone back 20 years for five days showed measurable physical changes in their bodies.

Still in my 20s, my goal is to truly lose track of my age.

Becoming Uncommon, hosted by my friend Dave Horvath in Canada, was filled with other thought leaders, coaches, and authors.

I spoke on the power of belief.

Krupp International LLC. What has been great about this year is that I currently have clarity. A big goal of mine was to become “great.” I never knew how it would come about, but this year I feel I identified the source.

What I’m doing today, moving toward coaching, speaking, training, and inspiring, is just a smaller foundation for the bigger picture.

Five to ten years in that direction should set me up for my long term play. 

Note: things can always change, but right now I feel my purpose is building a life around the concept of dreams and helping people make them come true.

Brainwashing Yourself for Success: How to Create an Unshakable Belief That Fuels Your Success. This is a must have source for building your belief system.

Your belief system fuels everything in your life, and mine is one of my greatest superpowers that I love to teach about. Price: $24.99.

Sidenote: journal entries before this were more negative. This is part of the journey. You may think these things were good progress, but I had been writing a lot about stress, struggling, evaluating life, and calling myself out for a lack of consistency and discipline. Consistency is the biggest problem in my life right now.

Check out this story.

I was doing my signs in Uptown Charlotte. Two guys stopped to chat and loved them. They later headed to the gym and ended up telling the general manager, who they were friends with, about what I was doing. He connected with me on Instagram and told me to stop by.

I met him and he bought my book, The Direct Line. Great conversation, great guy named Apostle.

I made a habit of stopping by periodically to talk with him. One day, we discussed politics and it came up that he is a personal friend of Donald Trump.

He asked if I was going to an upcoming rally in North Carolina and I said I had never been. He responded, “No way?” and messaged someone on the spot, saying, “Done. I just got you VIP access.”

Very grateful for the experience. Love him or hate him, he is one of the most influential and well known speakers and figures of our time. Most importantly, he loves our country.

First I leveled up my content potential by getting a GoPro and a chest harness. Then I went to film my first new video with my sign: “What’s your dream? Let’s talk about it.” Ten minutes in, a guy pulled up at a red light and waved me over. He said, “Hop in, let’s make a video.” We drove around Charlotte talking about dreams for an hour, then we got lunch. Shout out to Sladeen.

Since then, I’ve been making short videos on TikTok, YouTube, and Instagram capturing people’s dreams and challenging them to take the next steps toward them. These have received the best traction of any videos I’ve created. Progress.

A lot more journal entries didn’t make the cut because of space, but this is 2022. 2021 was the year of crypto, and 2022 was a very different chapter. But this year brought growth and more clarity.

Not every year can be a home run, but each one can teach building blocks that help you form your dream life.