EP39 Interview with Craig Holiday

EPISODE 39

 

[INTRODUCTION]

 

[0:00:14] KC: Welcome to the Business of Life podcast, Keith here your host and as always, grateful to have you on the show. For those of you who are new to the show, welcome, it’s an honor to have you coming over swinging over and checking things out and for everybody who is a loyal listener of ours, thank you so much. The growth that we’ve had over the last couple of months has just been awesome where we’re really hitting that critical mass.

 

So many people are finding value in this show and I’m finding so much value in it and the most value I get is from interviewing people who I admire, people who I respect and that’s what we have today. Craig Holiday, he is a mentor of mine, Craig was the first mentor I had when I signed up as a Beach Body coach. So a lot of you guys know that I work with Beach Body and I give a little shameless plug here.

 

You can shoot me over a message, find me on Facebook if you’re interested in learning more about that. When I first got started with beach body, I wanted to do this 100%, I wanted to make sure that I was successful in the business, I wanted to learn the correct philosophies, I wanted to learn about it. I hired Craig as a mentor and he mentored me for the first two years in our business and really laid the foundation to it and was, I would say, directly responsible for teaching me the philosophies that we use, that help us to build a business that literally gave us walk away incomes.

 

Gave us the ability to do what we want, when we want with who we want for the rest of our lives and really building a strong sustainable business, investing in people and helping people to — or being there for people to bring out the best in them, to help them reawaken a vision and a dream that they’ve always had for their lives but it got beat up and beat out of them and that’s the ultimate thing that I learned through working with Craig, it was the relationships with human beings.

 

It was being a leader of leaders and again, I could go on and do a whole podcast here with the different nuggets but another thing that I really learned from Craig was not being a leader of followers but being a leader of leaders and for those of you that are out there growing your own business or looking to make an impact on the world, you can meditate on that phrase, think about that phrase, pray on that phrase. A leader of leaders, it’s much different than a leader of followers.

 

Without further ado, my good friend, my mentor and someone who I learn so much from and love dearly, let’s go ahead and get Craig Holiday on.

 

[INTERVIEW]

 

[0:03:10] KC: All right, I am super excited, pumped up to invite today’s guest, a dear friend of mine, Craig Holiday, Craig, welcome to the show.

 

[0:03:19] CH: Thanks so much Keith, man, it’s great to be on bro and get back to hearing your voice again man, it’s been quite a while since I tormented you.

 

[0:03:27] KC: It’s great to have you on too and prior to us getting on, I did a little introduction, more of a bio introduction but really wanted to, before we get started here, take a few minutes and thank you for really the role that you play to my life so I know that we still connect as friends now but it was about five years ago that you and I connected when I first started with Beach Body and the network marketing company that you were consulting for at the time.

 

You know, you and I connected and really helps me to get the business started but deeper than that, helped me to understand the difference in this type of industry and understand the principles behind it, which really wasn’t building a business at all, it was building a man. Just want to say a heartfelt thank you to you brother and I love you and appreciate all that you’ve done for me and for me as a man, as a husband, as a father as a mentor, as a leader. So just want to start by saying thank you.

[0:04:28] CH: You’re welcome buddy, the greatest blessing in my life and the greatest blessing that comes in our industry at least, because in our business, if you can’t be significant in the lives of people then you don’t see success, that just kind of had a whole formula works. But my greatest blessing is never the amount of money I’ve made or the lifestyle I’ve lived.

 

It’s really hearing a guy like you and watching you, you know I watch you all the time and from the beginning, the kind of dreams that you have and I remember painting that vision for you of the kind of income and where you go if you’re willing to change and become the person you need to become. And then to see that happen and see Amy, and I’ve always told you you were over your skis on your wife.

 

First time we were on that boat out there in the middle of the Caribbean I think it was and I met her for the first time, I said, “Oh brother, you’ve done well.” She’s a blessing in your life and your kids and just to see their dad and the leadership. I’m just proud of you buddy and it just makes me feel good to see that I had a small part in it.

 

[0:05:21] KC: I appreciate it, I appreciate all of it and I was thinking about, and we talked a little bit prior to hitting the record button and really focusing in on the network marketing industry and sort of the common thread between the two of us but I’m going to ask you a big question that I don’t know that I’ve ever asked you and I guess we could start it off this way.

 

You were consulting with Beach body and you and I worked really close together and a good friend of ours Bob Lucido, we worked close together and you worked with a lot of the men with Beach body. Then there was a decision that you got to the point you were going to, I guess there was a few things.

 

You were considering doing just consulting and doing that and then you had the option to sign as a Beach Body coach, you had the option to sign with Secret. And I guess the question was, what was the deciding factor that you decided to go the path that you’re going now and watching you as well. Just changing so many lives with that company but what was the tipping point or the deciding factor in that?

 

[0:06:33.2] CH: I think the biggest thing was I was finishing up with Beach Body, I’ve been with them three years, I fell in love with so many of the top leadership and I got a chance to actually work individually just with Christine Dwyer, I know who was one of the top earners just for six months and the relationships I built with all those people. It was difficult decision not to stay with Beach Body even in the consulting position but I think it was the time for me to move on from that perspective.

 

I really wasn’t even thinking about getting back into network marketing. It was my passion, I built an Amway business for 25 years, I had 80,000 people in my business, made millions of dollars but it wasn’t something — because I had gone into ministry I was working with fathers and sons and reconciliation, actually I was doing that before I got into Beach Body.

 

But I got introduced to the owner of this company’s secret that I’m working with. He’s an orthodox Jewish family and they had gone from a billion dollar company that was kiosk business in 40 countries, 900 kiosk and they were the American dream story. My buddy who actually sponsored me in Secret, Tie Win called me one day and he and I have been friends for years, I kind of trained him in network marketing.

 

And his dream was to go back to Vietnam and to feed the poor and he helped the homeless and that was always his passion. He always said, “If I ever find something, I’m going to share it with you.” He called me up and that guy had just spoken at a summit out for Beach Body out in Vegas and I took off and I jumped in the car and drove to Phoenix and it was supposed to be an hour of meeting with Isaac, the owner of this company and I spent eight hours with him.

 

There was a certain formula that had to be there for me, number one is I had to be involved, if I was ever going to get involved with a company again. I wanted to be almost a startup company or one where I could really drive the culture of the company and be part of the formula to create a fertile ground for success because I think there’s a certain mentality that has to be there between the corporate and the field.

 

And when I sat down with Isaac, one of the things I asked him was, I said, “Why did you do this Isaac? Why did you decide to go, here you are, you guys are multimillionaires, your family, 200 family members all over the world,” and I said, “Now you’re going to go into network marketing,” I said, “Why?” He said something to me that just was kind of my foundational roots, he said, “Craig, what I have and what our family has will never be our legacy. Our legacy will be the number of people’s lives I touched and the community of wealth that I help build.”

 

 

When he said that that day I thought, I want to be a part of something that’s starting out like this, I want to be a part of it, the foundational leadership of a company like this. Then also just the whole, the corporate in the field like — I say with Secret in the field that I haven’t seen in many companies is I say there’s one heart — or many hands, one heart. There’s a connection between the corporate and the field like I’ve never seen before. They get what goes on because in a lot of companies and I was on the board of directors with the Amway corporation and a lot of companies, there’s the field and then there’s the corporate and the corporate never really gets the field.

 

Because you and I are the guys sitting at — we’re sitting at Starbucks with a divorced mom, with three kids who is just trying to make $500 bucks a week and the passion that takes and the connection that takes. And then the corporation, a lot of them are sitting there saying, “What’s the profit, how much do we sell this month, what are the numbers?” And they’re never able to get that feeling of what we have to do every day to change lives.

 

When I met Isaac, just the passion and the way this family is, they got it. I said, “Man, I could go out and I could build something, a legacy that connects those two and that we don’t have to worry looking over our shoulders, are we going to do stuff differently?” If I drive in this kind of relational business, connecting with people, changing lives, being significant, is the company going to be worried about nothing but profit? And part of it was because their wealth is so enormous that they don’t need to make money from the network company.

 

So it’s given us freedom as leaders here to go out and to drive business, drive life change. It was really that and I’m not going to say. I mean I looked at Beach Body and I think it’s a phenomenal company but I think for me, what sort of my ministry is that I’ve been called to is just, it was a different mindset for me. I was very drawn to it, it’s been an incredible experience and just to know that we have leadership with that passion and heart.

 

That’s what it takes to build this business and you know that Keith, we talked about that, I remember our first call together and I’m laughing because I was sharing it the other night. I spoke at this even and I was talking about life change and I was talking about how much we need to change and I was talking about the personality styles and stuff. And I was talking about, it was you, I said, “I remember getting on a phone with this guy and we were going to do this mentor calls and I said, the first call, we started talking.”

 

I said, “I know he was planning on finding out how to drive volume and how to build a business and for the first four calls, we never talked about his business, we never talked about the company, we talked about him. And I remember him just by the time we got off the first call, he didn’t have much to say, he was just kind of sat there and hung up and I guess trying to figure what the hell just happened?”

 

[0:11:07.8] KC: I remember that call.

 

[0:11:09.9] CH: I totally remember it.

 

[0:11:12.0] KC: I went downstairs after that call, we were living in a condo and we had a loft within the bedroom and it was like one of those stacked four floor condos and I went downstairs afterwards and Amy, my wife, knew that I was so excited about the call. And she was like, “How’s the call?” And I was like, “I don’t’ know. I feel like I just got beat up.”

 

[0:11:34.8] CH: I remember that bro, I shared it the other night and I said, some people want to enter a call and I think because I was talking about self-discovery and I said, “For us, if we don’t allow ourselves to go for self-discovery to find out and,” — because if you discover things about yourself then that creates conviction, if I tell you things about yourself then that’s void, that’s not going to come back the same. I’ve got to help you discover things about yourself as a leader that it’s almost like yeah, you think of it yourself, you really don’t.

 

I know what it is but I want you to say it because it’s going to create conviction and you’re going to change because of it. That’s a hard thing you do as a leader but it’s something as leaders in this industry and probably any business where you have employees or whatever. You have to learn to be able to do that because we want to tell people to change, we want to tell them what to do instead of helping them discover what it is that needs to change and that’s going to create conviction where they now will make the decisions to change your life.

 

[0:12:25.9] KC: That’s a great one man and sort of going off of that theme, one of the big things that you really have this ability, this natural ability and this calling that you’re able to really speak truth in the lives, speak truth into men and have men receive that because I felt like a lot of — I shouldn’t say feel, there’s a culture in our culture here.

 

Men are really closed up and they’re tough and we have these shells and we don’t want to let anybody in. I was wondering if you could just share a little bit with maybe why you think that is and then how you go about — I’ve never seen anything like it, how fast you break that shell down and get men talking about what’s really going on versus all the macho stuff.

 

[0:13:19.3] CH: Well I think men have huge egos right? We have this role that the world’s given us men, don’t be sensitive, don’t emote, all these kinds of things and it’s kind of the world image of us but no men want that. I know from the heart of men that they want to change, that they want to be great dads, they want to be great husbands.

 

The problem is, they don’t know how to do it and they don’t have the tools to do it. We can say, “Hey, you need to change, you need to do these things,” but without the tools to do it — a lot of it is because unfortunately, in our society, a lot of us where I grew up without a dad, a lot of people now I think it’s like 60% of the men grew up with boys grow up without a father in a permanent bases in the home, either divorced or just working or whatever.

 

We don’t have this image, we don’t have this person to follow, we don’t have the skill set that hopefully I was able to give to my own two boys and my own family. But without that, we end up kind of crippled. We withdraw, we stay back and we end up being islands and I say, the wolf loves the lone sheep and a lot of men just, that’s where they end up in. They don’t know how to talk to their wives, they don’t know how to relate to their kids, they don’t know how to get close to their children.

 

I remember there was a scene in a movie and I can’t remember the movie, you might know it. It was the life story of Chuck Yeager. I’ll never forget this and it was his life story and he was going out to test this new plane and they didn’t think it would fly but he was so brave and such a courageous guy, he was going to test anything.

 

He was standing in the bedroom with his wife, I’ll never forget this scene, he was standing in the bedroom with his wife and she looks him in the eye and she says to him, “Are you afraid?” Jack Yeager looks seriously and he says, “There’s only one thing in my life I fear.” She goes, “What is it?” He goes, “It’s you.”

 

It was such a strong statement because men, they fear women, they fear that relationship with their wife because they’re vulnerable. They’re afraid, they don’t feel capable to lead that’s why even, I talk to a lot of, when I do Christian retreats with men, very few men can pray with their wives because their wife knows them so well, their mistakes, all the things, the insecurities, all the things they’ve done wrong. To be vulnerable and pray, like you deserve to talk to this God. Most men can’t do it and that’s why you see churches today driven by women.

 

Women who are in the leadership roles, women who run the prayer groups. Because men just withdraw from that. One of the things I loved about network marketing and I loved about this industry is the fact that I get to sit down with men and they respect me enough because of my position or just the relationship that I’ve been able to build with. They want to hear the truth but we got to be willing to speak that and the men, what men today think that if you have men, you have to speak softly to them.

 

Men are men, men want to hear, that’s why I love you guys are doing this 500 guys coming in for this men’s weekend, that’ll would be the most powerful week if you communicate the right things, it could be the most powerful weekend you guys have ever had in this industry or in your business. Because men want to hear from men the truth, they want to be talked to strong, they want to be kicked in the face.

 

They don’t soft talk, they don’t want the little wimpy stuff going on. They want to know the truth and when you talk to them, that way they respect you and when you get that respect and that trust from a man then they’ll become vulnerable with you, then they’ll open up but most men don’t have strong relationship with other men at all.

 

[0:16:33.3] KC: Yeah, and I’ve also, as you’re speaking, one of the other things that I’ve also observed you do is you come in vulnerable as well. You don’t come in with that perfect type person with the perfect background, you come in sharing your own insecurities and things that you struggled with in the past and things that you’ve had to overcome in the past.

 

[0:16:56.6] CH: That’s so much. Especially as a leader, especially as like for you and your industry and the leader that you become and if you’re on stage, information moves no one. As leaders, as speakers, especially if you’re a public speaker, if you want to make a point, if you drive it home with an emotional story, if you drive it home with vulnerability, if you drive it home with something about your life where this people now see you as real, whatever point you’re going to drive home will be absorbed.

 

If it’s just taught, I don’t care if it’s taught, you take a point like empathy and you just talk about empathy. If you don’t share a story of your own personal life, it creates an image of vision for people about what empathy really is and that word will mean nothing to them. We have to learn that whether we’re sitting down one on one with a person. Whether we’re sitting down with one of your leaders across having a cup of coffee or you’re standing up in one stage in front of 5,000 people, we got to know that the only way that the emotion is only thing that people will absorb when they walk out of that stadium or out of that one on one with you.

[0:17:53.4] KC: Yup. That sort of leaves me right in to one of the next questions that I had. You’ve been doing this for — how many years has it been since you initially got started in the industry?

 

[0:18:05.1] CH: 1979, it’s 35 years.

 

[0:18:07.5] KC: 35 years. I guess you’ve seen so much change but I would assume that one of the biggest changes has been the use of social media and I was just curious, how much your business you use social media, now or is it something that you’re still building 90% of the time face to face.

 

[0:18:30.9] CH: I think it’s a combination of both. Even if I do a one on one with somebody that’s at a distance and I want to share my business with them, I’m going to try to get on FaceTime or I’m going to try to get on Skype or something where I can see them, I could see the body language, I can see their eyes when I’m talking to them.

 

I love that part of it, we built our business and I don’t want to be like “I walk 50 miles in the snow” but we had rotary phones, I’m talking about we didn’t have computers. I mean when fax machines came out, that was a huge thing for us in the industry. I learned my business, I touch people, talking to people, being face to face with them. That’s my style, but even with social media, there’s a way, a combination pulse.

 

Anytime, if I use social media, Facebook or something to reach out to somebody, to connect, to maybe get to show my business to them. I’m immediately going to connect as fast as I can either on the phone, face to face, meeting with face time or whatever. I want to be able to see them because people today, even though social media has become our way of life, people miss connections. They miss those relationships.

 

In fact, in Amway, about 12 years ago in Amway, they went from really I think a relational marketing business to online business. They launched a company called Quick Star and they went from Amway to quick star. What had happened is we had the first generation Rich and Jay who started Amway in ’59 then they had turned it over to the second generation, Doug DeVos and Steve Van Andel and Steve and Doug, they were silicon kind of guys, they were the X generation. We’re going Internet, we’re going online.

 

And honest to god Keith, my business dropped in half because I had so many people that were so connected, coming to meetings, being with people, being around people and Amway comes in and sells to these people that we don’t have to do that anymore, you don’t have to go to events, you can get trained online, you can do everything online.

 

It devastated the Amway business, in fact, the Amway business has been flat now for 10 or 15 years, they’ve had a flat line in the US, they’ve grown internationally strong but not in the US and because they changed it. I don’t think it’s possible, I don’t think it’s possible to build a sustainable, long term business in this industry without strong, physical connections and strong connections. So yes, social media, great for connecting, great for bringing in prospects, great for, like I use obviously use it to — we got a Facebook page for my team so I’m constantly communicating, that’s amazing, that stuff’s awesome.

 

But as far as — if you want to build leaders, you’re not going to do it by sending them videos online and getting online, you’re going to build them by being on the phone, having your meetings, get together, you need to have leader meetings three or four times a year where your guys and gals come in and you can touch them and you can feel them and you can be there. It’s the only thing that’s going to sustain the generational leadership you need to create in this industry.

 

[0:21:08.5] KC: I think it’s been a few years since you and I have worked together but I don’t think I’ve ever told you this, we’re seeing the fruits of the labor and you instilled that in myself and the other men and women that you worked with. It wasn’t necessarily about — and I think this is a big misconception about the industry that you have to go out and you’re continually looking for more and more people when it was really looking for the right people that are looking for the right opportunity that are looking for change in their life. Then investing deep in those people and…

 

[0:21:47.0] CH: Absolutely.

 

[0:21:50.4] KC: I remember for the people listening that I remember the first, one of the real first leadership things that you had really instilled in me and you had said that it’s great when you get on stage but when you see your people up there on stage, there’s nothing like that feeling and I always remember that I always remembered, always focusing on that becoming a leader of leaders, not a leader of followers.

 

I think that from the way that you teach and the way that, because for people that are not in the network marketing industry, it may not make all that much sense. But for people in the industry, there’s a few different ways that you can build and I think the easiest, the most stable, the funnest, the one that promotes the most change is exactly what you’re talking about developing leaders and building depth.

 

[0:22:44.6] CH: Yeah, it’s all in what the goal is, I know there’s people are successful in network marketing companies in the industry now that have built all leads online, they sponsor online, they do everything online, there’s no real connection but they put massive numbers in but the thing I’ve seen through the 35 years in the industries, the rotating or the revolving door there huge, they’re in or out.

 

I just read an article not long ago and it said, “The three greatest needs of mankind is they want to matter, they want to feel valued, and they want to be significant.” Well if that’s true then in my business, if I can give that to them, if I can make them feel those three things in my business, why would they ever leave, right? Why would they ever want to go somewhere else because nobody has a place that, not even in a lot of churches, not even in their synagogues, people aren’t feeling that kind of connection where they feel like they matter.

 

They don’t get it in the job, when was the last time you went to a job and you felt significant or you felt like you mattered or you felt valued? So the people out there that we’re going to sit down with as we recruit, as we build our down line, people we sit down with that way, if I can be the person in their life that gives them that content and makes them feel those things, then they’re going to want to listen to you.

 

So you’ve created the trust factor, now they’ll listen. When they listen, they’ll change and if they change, they’ll succeed in the industry that we’re in. If they put in the work and they do productive things that it takes. It takes that beginning thing because you know, if I met you at Starbucks and I sponsored you in the business and whatever business we were in, you’re not going to necessarily trust me, we just get to know each other. But where does trust come from? It’s consistency over time.

 

You know that if someone’s broken faith with you and someone’s in a friendship and something’s happened. You can forgive them but what’s going to build that relationship back is consistency over time of the trust coming back in the relationship. When I can go with trust relationship with you or with someone I’m working with, they won’t question what I tell them, they know I want the best for them, they know I’ve changed your life, they know I’ve been an impact player in their life.

 

And once you build that, and that kind of loyalty, then you have a significant partner for life in this industry and that’s what you need. Those people aren’t going anywhere because no one’s given them that kind of connection in their whole life before and you’ve also helped make money on the journey, changed your life, changed your lifestyle. If we become that people’s lives, if you take 10 to 12 people and you know I’ve always used this number even with you, you find 10 to 12 people and you become that person in their lives, I promise you, you’ll have a 25, 35,000 person organization, there’s no question about it.

 

[0:25:19.3] KC: I think the trust piece is such an enormous factor because when you and I first started working together, I’m sure you felt this, I didn’t have that trust because my imprint from a male was not to be trusted was not to, not that there’s not going to be follow through, there’s not going to be consistency that your word isn’t your word.

 

Really I couldn’t do anything until that trust was there. It was like you had said, the first month or so and it was probably even longer than that of us working together had nothing to do with network marketing but just getting to the point that I believed and trusted what you were saying.

[0:25:57.4] CH: It’s almost like you have to earn that and the way you earn it is it takes time to feel the sincerity, it takes time to know someone really cares. Again, that’s consistency over a period of time but the most powerful thing for us, especially when we talk about men. The most powerful thing for men is if we can have a mentor in our life that we’ve broken through all these barriers with and that we trust them enough that when they speak to us, we listen and we know they’re speaking trust into our life because they care about us.

 

Most men never have that in our lives and so if you’ve got that, whether it’s one or two or three people in your life. If you’ve got that person and everybody listening to this podcast today, as men, we need to find that person in our life that we trust enough because what we’re doing is, “there’s counsel in the wisdom of many” the proverb say and to have so many in your life that’s been down a certain road that made all the mistakes you don’t have to make because as men, we just decide we’re going to amok them all ourselves if we have such big egos.

 

[0:26:54.2] KC: Yup.

 

[0:26:54.2] CH: If you’re blessed with a man in your life, that’s a mentor that you trust enough to speak truth into your life, you have the most valuable tool you could ever have for success, especially when you find someone who is maybe where you want to be in life. Because a lot of people have mentors, it’s not just one mentor. You’ll have a spiritual mentor, you have a Bob Lucito, you’ll have a business mentor, you might have a marriage mentor, whatever it is, it’s never using one person.

 

But man, if you can have that in your life from man to man and that’s what my ministry and my Mariah ministry which I’m passionate about, the heartbeat of my life and for those men to come in and to break down those barriers so that they find someone they can trust in their life, it creates a community form of, they become empowered, they just become empowered, it’s crazy what happens is, they become better husbands, they become better dads, they become better leaders, they’re better in their business, they’re better in their jobs. There’s so many men who are crippled today.

 

[0:27:54.3] KC: Yeah, it sort of brings me to another thing that, and sort of a trend that I’ve seen not only within our industry but sort of an industry as a whole. I’ve noticed that whether we call it a religion or a spiritual path or people have some type of higher power that they believe in, have you noticed that people that have, I’ll call it a spiritual path, but people that have that connection, they have something that’s the cornerstone of who they are. Something that they lean on that’s bigger than them. For me I’ll use the word god. Find that like a drastically increased rate of being able to work with that person?

 

[0:28:41.2] CH: Yeah I think so because if we have eternal values, that’s what I talk about, in other words, if I make decisions in my life that are eternal decisions, in other words, when I say that I define it by saying, decisions that are going to affect what’s here when I’m gone. If I can make business decisions based on eternal values, if I can make lifestyle decisions based on eternal values then I know I’m trying to make — I’m not just trying to do something that can help me the next month or what’s the best thing this year? I’m trying to make decisions that are going to be here when I’m gone.

 

A story I used to use of the old man planning, a really old man bent over planting this tree and this little boy comes up and says, “Why are you planting that tree? You’ll never see it grow,” and the man said, “It’s not for me.” I think we live our lives that way and if we have — I see people that have a strong spiritual base, where they have values, they have a frugal thinking, they know that there’s a place for them, that this is just a visiting place.

 

Eventually we’re going to hit a higher power, we’re going to hit form the relationship with god where I’ll be in his presence. When you know that, everything you do, every decisions you make daily, they’re different kinds of decisions, in our business, I think it’s important because we have so many people following us. So many people looking up to you and so many people that want to know you or want to know what you’re like and know the things that you do.

 

If we’re not making the decisions that are best for those people today and when we’re gone, especially in our business, then you will never have a legacy business. You might build a business for a while and make a lot of money and do well but you have no followers, you influenced nobody’s life and our industry, our industry, I think this is another reason why you see people that have a spiritual foundation that seemed to do pretty well in our industry and part of it is because the foundational — the truth of the universe is, you give and you receive. “If I give first.”

 

My motto has always been in network marketing is it’s not about you. If I go out to build my business, if it’s not about me then I don’t fear rejection, I don’t see failure because that’s selfishness, that’s inwardness, that’s not a godly thing. If people that already have this desire to change lives, they know they’re here on earth, their purpose is to make a difference in the world, make a difference in people’s lives, when you think about that mindset coming in to our business, that’s exactly what drives did.

 

As you get up and you go out and do something you don’t feel like doing so that someday that little insignificant moment will create that experience for you as you sit in an audience and you watch someone on stage, mention your name because nobody else showed up in their life. I think the eternal perspective for us, I try to influence that, I don’t preach it, I have a strong Christian faith but I don’t preach that. I find it influencing people’s lives because the foundational eternal values that we have and the more values that we have.

 

I think without that, you don’t get trust and without trust in our business, you have no influence. We have to create it because there’s no authority, we don’t have authority over anybody. We’ve got to create an influential leadership which is much more difficult because you have to follow me because I influenced your life not because you have to and from then, that’s a very difficult thing. and for men, if we don’t trust, it’s hard for us to trust, we spin so much of our wheels in this business. Women seem to trust more, women seem to — they’re catty and they fight and they go through all this stuff but they seem to have this openness to follow somebody easier where men take longer and I know that’s why even in Beach Body when I work with them, there’s a lot more women than men.

 

If we can create that and help men to have those, to breakdown those barriers, they’ll become the strongest, most amazing leaders because that’s their desire, as men I think we were put together to be on teams, we’re put together to count on this brother to have my back. It’s back to back, one of the things we used to say in Beach Body, remember that? Back to back.

 

[0:32:29.1] KC: Yeah, B to B.

 

[0:32:30.2] CH: You want that, you want that guy in your back and when you have that and you trust it, my gosh, it frees you up to go out and do great things.

 

[0:32:38.6] KC: Man I miss talking to you Craig, I’m having fun today.

 

[0:32:41.2] CH: Yeah, me too buddy.

 

[0:32:44.1] KC: Now, in this industry, when you’re talking to a man or you’re talking to a woman and just take a quick step back there, there’s sort of two different ways that the business can be approached and for those who are newer to this, it’s either you’re leading with the products and what I mean by that is whenever you’re talking to someone, you’re always sharing the products first.

 

The second way is you’re sharing the business opportunity first. One of the ways I’ve built my business is exactly how you try and make Craig and really leading what the business opportunity and for me that was just a fit, it was just this industry and so comfortable. You’re talking to a man or you’re talking to a woman, is your approach different or is it the same when you’re talking to a man or a woman?

 

[0:33:39.5] CH: No, I think it’s pretty much the same, I mean I’m always looking to lead into — it doesn’t matter if it’s a man or a woman or if I’m at a coffee shop and I’m standing next to a woman. If I’m prospecting, my prospecting is always the same and I’ll just say, “Hey,” maybe she’s dressed nicely early in the morning, I know she’s going to work, I’ll say, “Hey, my name is Craig, what’s yours?” “It’s Sally.”

 

“Hey, what do you do?” “I’m a pharmaceutical rep.” “Really? Do you love that? I bet you it’s a great job,” and they always — most people, 80% of the time don’t like what they do so they’ll say, “Yeah, it’s okay but I’d rather be doing something else,” or, “Yeah it’s all right.” “What would you like to do?” Then I just wait and listen for an answer right? Usually they come up with something, “l like to be home with my kids, I miss them, I’d rather…”

 

I say, “You know what?” I said, “You seem like an awful sharp person, I’ll bet you anything that you’re probably got some irons in front of me but accomplish that over the next year or two.” They usually say, “No, I really don’t.” “Great, let me have your card and let’s sit down and talk some time,” I’ll give you a call and meet together. If it’s a man or a woman, that’s kind of my approach but when I sit down with them, it’s different because when I sit down with them I think, women are great dreamers.

 

Women are very visionary where men really are as hard to get as a man than a woman. I find myself with men, I talk more about different things. I’ll say to a guy, “What would you love to have in your life?” They’ll say, “More time.” I say, “Why do you want more time?” “Well because I work all the time, I don’t have any time with my kids.” Well instead of me coming back and saying, “well I’ve got the business for you,” you know what I say? “How does that make you feel?” Then I pause.

 

Because for a man, feelings, they’re not used to saying feelings. All of a sudden they freeze, “How does that make you feel as a man?” “I’d like to be able to provide for my family, I don’t’ have my kid’s college education set up.” “How does that make you feel as a man?” I try to get with guys, I try to break down pretty quickly this barrier where women will just share anything, they’ll tell you stuff, you don’t have to try to dig. But with men, if I can connect with them on more of an emotional level and I get — I kind of get in to them with some more truthful type questions.

 

I see them leaning forward, I see them all of a sudden, I’m doing things that they want to talk about these things but nobody’s ever done it. I think my approach when I sit down with them is very different with men and women. Because I know with men, if I can get them to open up, if I can get them to be truthful, if I can ask the questions that are tough ones, “How does that make you feel as a man? Did you ever expect to be in this position?”

 

Like I said I’m with a guy the other day and he had a ton of money and he lived in a big house and a car. He was very successful and I said. I said to him, try and get a dream at him, I ended up showing in my business anyway. We sat and after the visit he goes, “Craig, look around, look what I got, why would I do something like that?” I said, “Let me ask you a question, how many men and wife have you ever helped to have what you have?”

 

He paused for a minute and he said, “Not very many,” and I said, then I ask him this, I said, “Is that important to you?” I waited and listened and he said, “Yeah, it really is.” Because see, I know most of us spend our life especially men being successful but we rarely feel the significance and we talked about this a long time but Robert Buford’s book where he talks about half time and spend half our life to be successful then the second half we try to find a way to be significant.

 

Men want to be significant, they don’t want to be just successful and I saw it with the kind of income I created and being around people, especially outside of my circle of people. I’d go to meetings and I get invited to these events because I made so much money in all this stuff. I meet these men and they had so much success but when it came to significance, being significant in people’s lives and transforming and the day they die, who shows up kind of a thing.

 

They’re just missing on it, that’s why I believe that I love to sit down with people, I don’t care how much money they’re making because I know they run hard, they made a ton of money but a lot of times if it’s in a traditional business, it’s been about them, it’s been about them being wealthy right? That’s not enough for us and that’s not enough for men and all of them come to a point in our life where they’re going to eventually going to see that, they’re going to understand that.

 

[0:37:39.8] KC: I love how you really — you go through it and like I said, we haven’t talked in that long but it brings me right back to all of your teachings and the most important thing was being significant in the lives of others, if there was any one piece that I learned, that was probably the most important piece that’s never left me. If you’re willing, I want to go back way back to the beginning and what was it like for you when you were first getting started in this industry and trying to build your business?

 

[0:38:18.2] CH: Wow, it was crazy. I almost have to go a little bit further back band I think you’ve heard some of my story but I grew up in a really dysfunctional home and I grew up, I was obese as a child, I was 85 pounds overweight, I had a mom who drank for 30 years and I had a father who left when I was seven, I had all these crap that was going on in my life and in the midst of all of that, I don’t know what it was, I call it DNA now, this national ambition that certain people are born with.

 

I found out, especially in our industry I found that many people have it and many people don’t. You know when you have it because you can’t settle for it, you can’t — not that you’re not content with life but there’s something greater here to do, there’s something bigger you’re supposed to impact, you’ve got to be on the field and in the game, you can’t just settle for being at the bench where a lot of people can sit on a bench and be fine. You knew that as an athlete.

 

Keith there was no way was I not going to be that guy on the field, I’m not going to sit on the bench, it was just my — it’s our DNA and when I first met you, the first conversation we had, I knew you had that DNA. Anyway, I had that, I just knew that someday I was going to do something great with my life. I didn’t know how I was going to do it but so much in my life was spent saying why me? This pity party, wallowing in this mire, living this quiet life of desperation until I added this, “Well why not me?”

 

All of a sudden I just decided that you know what? All of what happened to me, if I can’t take that and use it to bless someone else’s life, I can’t overcome that and I’m going to go to my grave feeling sorry for myself about my life. I decided, this was before I saw the business. I decided that it’s time for me to quit having a pity party and its’ time for me to use my past and use it to someday I’ll be able to stand in somewhere and I’ll be able to say that was a great blessing in my life.

 

Because of people’s whose lives I’ll impact, who will say, if you overcame Craig, so will I. That was my mindset and this was crazy, then I see the Amway business and my sponsor calls me up and says, hey, I want to show you this business, we sit down. I’ll never forget, he draws six circles and he says, “If you can find six people and change their life and be this,” — in fact, he said, “If you find six people that will cut their right arm off for you and you got to be willing to cut them both off for them,” he said, “You’ll be a millionaire in this business.”

 

I remember him saying that and at the time I was $250,000 in debt, I drove a beat up truck, my wife at the time drove a beat up car, we weren’t doing… I had made a lot of money but I had three homes to try to sell, they were million dollars each, that’s 30% interest. I was dying financially.

 

[0:40:52.8] KC: Hold up. Did you say 30%?

 

[0:40:54.8] CH: 30% yeah. It was a crazy situation but anyway. I was at this vulnerable place, the minute he showed me that, I said, “This is it. This is what I’ve been called to do.” For some reason, I got it, I got from day one, I understood the industry and it was people, it was changing people’s lives, it was finding those men that I worked with at the police department, finding those guys at work with construction that said, “I’m so tired of my life,” and complained.

 

I became this avid guy that if you complain around me I said, “Hey, you want to change out or are you just complaining? Just give me the truth, are you complaining or you want to change your situation?” “No, I want to change it.” “Great, we’ll get together.” I just became, I didn’t have a lot of skills with people, I was a cop, I worked construction, I was the boss all the time, I didn’t have any influential type of skills but I went to work and I believed that this was for me, I believe we’ve worked that God had called me to do.

 

This was my life that I was going to impact people’s life because I was going to find people just like me that were wallowing in the mire of their past, dying with a pain in their life and I was going to help give them some hope that their life could be different. Cause I always say, if you don’t like where you’ve been and you don’t like where you are, you better have a place you’re going because otherwise you’re going to be a miserable human being.

 

There’s a whole lot of those people out there so I just set out to find him, you know what? It was always from the beginning for me, it wasn’t about me. It was about them because I got it, I knew this industry, I could be a millionaire in network marketing if I found enough people and I became involved in the life change and gave them some hope and value to their life. That’s how I hit it. I went to work and my first month, I sponsored 10 people, I made $9.35 and I sponsored them because I believed in myself and I believed in the business and I knew I’d been called to be a life changer.

 

The second month I sponsored 20 more or 10 more, I had 20 people, the next 25 years or 24 years I sponsored 10 more people, only put 30 in my business and out of those first, in the second month in Amway I made $40 bucks. I made $49.35 cents in two months and sponsored 20 people and out of those 20 people, nine of them became seven figure earners okay? Out of the first 20 that I sponsored and I only made 40 bucks. People in my industry and you hear it all the time, if I made the money, you made me make that, I could sponsor everybody right?

 

But wait a minute, that’s not what sponsors in, your conviction, who you are, the person you’ve become, the challenge that you become in their life. It’s all those things that we can all gain without making any money yet. I always try to teach my leaders, if you become this person, the money will come and then our business is the truth. It’s changing that mindset. I was just there day after day after day. I was working nights, graveyard shift at the police department I’m working day, running my construction business and I was working 20 hours a week. Out there sharing the business. You’ve heard me say it, it was two decks of cards faced down, I’m finding aces. I’m turning till I find ace.

 

[0:43:52.3] KC: Yup.

 

[0:43:54.1] CH: The aces were the DNA people. I can sit down with someone in 10 minutes, I know if they have the DNA and if they do then they have the potential and the ability to do major things with their life because they have to. They got to. You didn’t have any choice, you had no choice because you were designed and built and born with this DNA that said, “I’m going to be, God’s called me to be an impact player.”

 

Now you found it on opportunity to be able to do that but the greatest satisfaction for you and everybody in our industry is the number of people who thank you every day, the number of people who look up to you, that’s your blessing, that’s your greatest prize. That’s not the money, and you know that, that’s why you have a significant income because you understand that.

 

Anyway, yeah, I just went to work and I got so excited because I saw people’s lives change, I built an organization, my third year in Amway I made a million dollars and I went on to make 2 million a year, the money never became — was that important to me, it was just watching people’s lives, growing, change. You see them on the stage and nobody remembered them the first night that you saw them and thought, “Oh my god, can this guy ever do anything with his life?”

 

It’s a Tony Furtado right? It’s a guy like that. That guy is a crazy sucker but a guy like him — you know he has a DNA, he has it right? You know that Bob Lucito, you, people like that. You got to go find those DNA people and if they’re not, you don’t worry about them. You never, you got to stay unattached emotionally to the outcome in our business, it’s very important as leaders, we got to stay unattached emotionally, what does that mean?

 

Well that means that every no I get, I can’t be attached emotionally to it. I will never create the kind of strength I need to break to be successful. I have to stay removed to a certain extent and I stay back from my leadership until they — this sounds really weird, I know people that are listening and never been in our industry, it’s almost like they earn that relationship with you because you stay back so that you learn to trust them.

 

Once you trust them, because their word is good to you and your word is good to them, then you have what I call your inner circle. Your inner circle will be about 10 to 12 people that will be your inner circle that will drive and be your best friends and the people that you spend changing lives together and that’s the blessing part.

 

[0:46:08.7] KC: That’s awesome man. There’s another question I want to dig a little bit deeper into when you first got started but as you were going through it, it brought something up and one of the questions that I always like to ask and this is sort of really niching down to who may be listening right now but one of my favorite question to ask people that have been in the network marketing industry for a long period of time.

 

Actually I want to sort of phrase that a little differently. People that have had a lot of success within the industry and people that have observed those having success, what are the things that can — what are the negative parts that you would caution people to watch out for? For people that are having a lot of success, they probably haven’t experienced success in their life before and now all of a sudden they have this income, they have this fame, they have this different lifestyle. What are the things you would caution somebody about?

 

[0:47:09.2] CH: Wow you know, that’s a great question because I was talking to a guy the other day and he said, “Well, if I could make a million dollars, I’d be set for life.” I said, “You know what Mike? When I made my first million dollars in Amway, I spent three million dollars in three years.” People said, “You did not.” I said, Yeah I did.” I just wasted it, I bought cars, I bought a house, I’ve got all these things and I look back now and people think you could never spend that money but you obviously can.

 

One of the things I always talk about is, as your income grows, especially for people that have never made a lot of money, there’s a certain point, you and I talked about these people, there’s a certain point where you will live your life at. Maybe you have an incredible lifestyle, you love to travel, maybe it’s $250,000 a year, maybe it’s $100,000 a year, maybe it’s $150,000 a year. Whatever that is, where you know this is what my lifestyle’s going to be at right now.

 

Because of the way our business grows, next year, you might make $300,000, next year you make $500,000. Most people do is they just buy up right? In other words, if I’m making 250 and I spend 250 next year, I make three I’m spending three. What I caution against is figure out what your greatest desires are, the things that you feel like you need college for your children if they want to go.

 

You need a beautiful home for your family. I had a 14,000 square foot, $5 million dollar house but I can tell you all through high school, everybody lived at my house, all the football team, it was the most greatest tool I had for seeing who my kids were with. Seeing who they were around, ebbing the host for everything, knowing there was no alcohol in my home. Things that were really important to me.

 

I always say, affluences is influence. Affluence is influence. I know, the more successful you are, the more opportunities you get but I think the biggest caution for people is, one of the things I love about Isaac and his family is they live incredibly conservative lives. They don’t fly in private jets, because their whole foundational roots, especially a lot of it comes from their orthotics Judaism is just conservative.

 

It’s like, to help my people, look at where their lifestyle can be, what they want it to be and then as the business grows man, you take that money and you invest it or you look at the financial adviser who knows what they’re doing. Because I wasted a lot of money in my young years that right now I could even have more than I have right? Because I just did it but that’s mentorship again, I think as leaders, we need to help our people and understand especially as they start climbing that ladder of income is being conservative, Dave Ramsey has great stuff on that and there’s guys out there that are great on the financial part of it.

 

It’s really important that you can live a life that you love and the one that you deserve. As your income grows because it does. It’s crazy, I remember making $100,000 a month, $100,000 a month,every month and then I’m going up to $150,000 a month. The way our business works is it’s insane, it’s the only exponential growth that you see and yet you can still enjoy your life. It’s very tempting, especially the younger people in our business to go after all the toys, go after all the things.

 

And I think it’s important as leaders for us to be the ones that if they trust you to do council through all that. Make sure that they don’t end up — because you can’t believe, it’s amazing how many people I meet right now as I’m out there active in the industry again that had made millions and are broke and they owe the IRS and they’re broke. They’ve made millions right? You got to look at what’s really important to me long term. To be able to give money away, I know Rick Warren is one of the guys — because I went to his church, I mean he gives 90% of his income away and keeps 10% and lives on it.

 

That’s your greatest blessing and you can’t out give God. So I mean if you find yourself feeding homeless, whatever it is that your passion is, the more money you can give away, the greater the blessing that’s going to come in your life. So I try to teach that to people and I think in our industry and you know it, you have to be a giver, you have to have a heart of giving or you wouldn’t even be in this industry, it would not interest you at all.

 

[0:51:07.1] KC: That’s awesome man, I think that the most important thing, it’s interesting that you said that because there’s usually two or three things that everybody says and that’s always number one. For everybody listening, the course that you mentioned or Dave Ramsey so he’s got a few different courses and a few different books, we’ll provide a link for that in the show notes and then Craig, is there any specific resource for Rick Warren that you would recommend someone?

 

[0:51:36.2] CH: Yeah, if you go to Saddleback.com, that’s his church but there he has a lot of his resources and you get plugged in to it, he has a daily devotional he sends out, which is really good. The thing I love about Rick is he’s very social conscious, you’re not getting just spiritual stuff from him, you are but you’re also getting what’s going on and how to deal with things in the world.

 

And in fact, he was the only, he was just invited to a marriage seminar in Rome Italy and he’s the only US Christian pastor that’s been invited over to this world wide marriage seminar that he’s going to be speaking at. Because he has a lot of respect in the world just from the kind of person he is from a social perspective and the amount of things that he’s doing in the AIDS, he’s huge on the AIDS epidemic stuff overseas and stuff. He’s a great guy to follow and really good in it. If you got to Saddleback.com, you’ll be able to pull up all of his stuff on there.

 

[0:52:24.5] KC: Awesome. I want to go back now to, it’s one of my favorite stories and I’ve only heard you tell this story once. There’s a story you tell about when you talk about the outfit you are wearing and one of your first presentations. I don’t know if you still have it up there but if you are willing to share that…

 

[0:52:46.4] CH: It’s funny because I still tell that story and people die laughing. Yeah, because my sponsor, it’s funny, back in those Amway days, it was like, you wore a navy blue blazer, you wore a white shirt, you wore red tie, you wore grey slacks and you wore black shoes. That’s what everybody wore when you get a one on one, it was this duplication thing and if you went into an event, you wore a navy blue suit with a red tie and a white shirt. That was just what you did.

 

I had none of that stuff right? My sponsor said, “You got to dress nice, you got to go into this meetings looking good.” I’m thinking, “That’s great, I got no money.” I start digging through my closet, figure out what I got. I got a blue blazer, I don’t even know when I got it, it’s probably a long time ago but it was in there and it was when small lapels were in. Men’s lapels get big, it was small lapels were inside.

 

I didn’t have money to have it altered, I just took a set of sheers and shaped that sucker down. It kind of had threads on it and stuff hanging off but I got them out, each time I’d have to trim them as I went in and then I had a one white shirt, you had a button down collar, it didn’t have a buttons on it, it was just kind of flat a little bit. I had one tie and it red, it was a mermaid, tie with a mermaid dancing on it.

 

That’s what was the only tie I had and honest to god, I didn’t know how to tie a tie because I never wore one, I had this buddy of mine tie it and I was so afraid the knot was going to come out because I would never be able to put the thing on or tie it again. I remember leaving it hanging in my closet and I would call home a couple of times a day, her wife at the time, go check my tie to make sure they hadn’t come out of it.

 

I was freaking out because I had to show up with this tie. And I had this pants that I seriously, they were pants that I wore in the disco era and they were the same pants that John Travolta wore in Saturday Night Fever and they had the biggest bell bottoms you’ve ever seen and they were called cheap pants because there was no pockets in the back but the damn pants were so tight you could read the date on the buffalo nickel in your back pocket.

 

That’s how tight the pants were and then I had a belt, the only belt I own said Jesus on it, I couldn’t take my jacket off, I didn’t want to offend anybody when I’m in the meeting and stuff. Yeah, and then I had a pair of shoes that I graduated ninth grade in. Now, I’m 29 okay? Ninth grade would have been what? 14 or 15, they had stacked heels with striped shoe laces, they were a disco type shoes again. When I showed up at your house to do a one on one, that’s what showed up, that’s what walked in through the door.

 

Keith I remember going, “Hey man, if you do this, you can be just like me,” and they’re looking at me, “Are you kidding me right now?” I had to do house meetings and I was scared to death to talk in front of people. I would literally drive to meetings and I would park down the street and I would get on my knees and pray to god not one person would show up at that meeting because I didn’t want to — and when a car would drive up, I’d say, “Oh no, now I have to go in and talk in front of somebody.” I had the runs all the way to the meeting, I had to stop by.

 

I’m so afraid to show up there and I go in and I’d start sweating profusely right? We had a white board and with colored markers right? I don’t know why I kept knocking the darn eraser. Finally I said, screw it with the eraser, I wipe the board with my hand to go to the next part of the presentation and I’d forget, start wiping my face and I had marker all over.

 

I look like probably your sun down thing with the chief or something you know what I’m saying? People on the front row are dying laughing because I had no idea I look like a clown, this is the way I started the business bro, seriously. It’s scary man and I remember, I was a cop and I had a tendency to change my whole language to be able do meetings because the F word was kind of my part of my vocabulary.

 

I remember one of the first meetings I did, my sponsor he calls me up and after the meeting he goes, “Hey, come here, I got to talk to you. You can’t be dropping F bombs while you’re presenting the business opportunity.” I said, “Dan are you kidding me? If it’s good, it’s good, if it’s Fin good it’s like outrageous. Talking about.” Let’s just say I had a lot of changing to do bro, a lot of change man.

 

I had that beat up Volkswagen and I would drive it in the damn thing, I’d shut it off and it would keep running, you ever had a car like that? Go in to show the guy the business, he goes, what’s that noise and I just try to convince him I had a hybrid Volkswagen so it took time to tame down. That was it. But I had an — I’ll tell you though. I had confidence and I had an attitude, I was wearing a tuxedo on the outside.

 

I was wearing a Hugo Boss tux with my attitude because I remember a guy who came to my meeting, I’ve only been in the business about a month and a half and he came to my meeting and I was so excited and so convicted and so powerful and so much believed in what I was doing. People used to say to me, “I’ve seen Amway,” I said, “No you haven’t, not till I show it to you.”

 

I had that kind of attitude and I remember I did a meeting and you had me do what it is, he introduced me, he goes, “I’d like to introduce Craig Holiday, he’s a multimillionaire in this business,” and I’m thinking, “Are you kidding me right now? I made nine bucks last month,” right? My attitude in my presentation, I had conviction, I remember, it’s like this story I heard about the two guys and the pastor is just preaching and the guy next to his buddy that says, “Hey, do you believe that stuff? He says, “No, but he sure does.” I think it’s the same way about our conviction to business.

 

People that get in, if you believe in you and you believe in what you’re doing. You can sit across from people that make 10 times the amount of money you were making right now and they’re going to believe in you because you got — everybody needs our business, because why? They want to matter, they want to feel valued, they want to feel important. They want to help other people’s life change. Their greatest significance will come from the life change of others and we offer that every day in our industry and that’s what I love about it and that’s my passion.

 

[0:58:32.9] KC: Awesome man, I love that story. There’s so many people that I feel that could be listening in right now and maybe that life hasn’t gone the way they’ve wanted it to go, maybe they’ve given up on life, maybe they thought they had that DNA that somehow, some way they were supposed to do something different than what they were doing, that they’re destined for something more.

 

I was wondering if you’d be willing to s hare, maybe either, I don’t know how to word it correctly but the best turnaround story or the best life changing story that you’ve been able to be a part of?

 

[0:59:10.3] CH: Oh boy, you know there’s so many of them Keith and my own transformation obviously was a huge one and being able to do that, but I’m just trying to think of so many different stories. There’s a guy, this is a funny story, there’s a guy, I was driving, I don’t know if I’ve even told you this, I was driving back, I was a diamond in Amway so I was making a lot of money, driving a Mercedes, I’m driving back from Palm Springs, I’m doing a meeting in Palm Springs. I look over the side of the road and there’s this broken down 18 wheeler.

 

There’s a little guy standing outside the door and he’s about four foot 11 and he’s jumping up and down and acting crazy. I’m driving along and I’m going I got to get home, I’m so tired, I got meetings tomorrow and I look over at him and it’s almost like this word from God said, “Pull over,” and I’m going, “Oh no God, I got to get home.” “Get over and pull over.” I pull over, I get out and this guy’s got his truck door open and he’s got a tape going of Zig Ziegler motivational tape.

 

So I go up to him, his name is Jimmy. I go, “Hey, what’s your name?” He goes, “Jimmy, I’m Jimmy.” He’s got hardly any teeth in front, he’s spitting at me the whole time he was talking to me. I go, “What are you doing Jimmy?” “My truck broke down,” but he goes, “I don’t care, I got a dream, I’m going to change lives.” And so Zig Ziegler’s going on the background and this guy’s bouncing up and down, “Oh my god I’m going to change the world.” I’m going this guy, he’s either on drugs or got a plant form one of the guys from my team planting it.

 

[1:00:37.2] KC: Messing with you.

 

[1:00:39.0] CH: Messing with my — I say, “Jimmy,” he goes, “I’m okay. My truck broke down but I’m okay, I’m not going to be driving this truck that much longer.” He was just so fired up right? “What do you need?” “Give me a drive down to the gas station.” “Okay, Jimmy.” He goes in his truck and he pulls, he goes, you got a cassette player? He pulls out the Zig Ziegler and in my car right, you can’t be without it. We drive down there.

 

I go, “Jimmy, what are you doing?” He goes, “Well you know I lived out here in Palm Dale and I drive my truck around,” but he goes, “I’m not going to drive it forever because you know? I’ve got a dream, I’m going to do something great with my life,” and I’m going, “Wow, this is like a plant for sure right?” Anyway, long story short, I wasn’t going to try to prospect him but I did. Here’s my card, I want to setup a time and sit down and talk business with you. Are you kidding me? He’s like spitting. “Are you kidding me?”

 

Long story short, I was not going to do it but I call, I said, “Jimmy, listen, where do you live?” He said, “I live out in Palm Dale,” I said, “Great,” I said, “I want to show you my business. He goes, “Oh my god, are you serious?” I said yes. I go out there, I drive all the way out there, he lives in a double wide trailer in the middle of nowhere, desert, middle of nowhere. I get to the front door and knock on the door, I open the door and this is where the emotion starts.

 

It’s unbelievable Keith, I open the door, he’s got a suit on and it was almost as bad as what I was wearing right? What I was wearing in the beginning. Anyway, he had a little tie on, his wife standing next to him, she was about the same height, she was missing teeth like crazy too. She stood next to him and you could see, she had her best dress on.

 

At this point in my life, I’m starting to think, “Wow, this is like, this is what this is all about.” We go inside, he’s got six kids running all over the place, hardly any furniture, they’re running all over and he goes, “Hold on,” he grabs a bag of lays potato chips, it’s the biggest one he can buy, he rips the top of it off, he opens the bedroom door and he throws in the chips and he go, “We got about 30 minutes until they’re done eating.”

 

All six of the people go running into the room and the kids, he shuts the door, we go over, we sit down, I say, okay Jimmy, what’s your dream. Well he and his wife, we’re talking about putting their kids through college and doing all these amazing things. I said, “I got a great dream, let me show you what we’re doing, I don’t know if this is for you,” I’m looking down at my paper Keith and I’m going through the presentation, 642 me, you 642, the whole presentation.

 

I look up and I’m done and he and his wife are sobbing both of them. Literally tears running down their face. I go, “Jimmy, what’s wrong?” He goes, “We prayed our whole life for a shot, for an opportunity.” He said, “We can’t believe you’ve taken the time out of your life to come here tonight and give this to us.” He goes, “We owe you everything.” You know Keith? That guy five years later stood on the stage, he was a millionaire, he stood on the stage with his beautiful wife next to him in a beautiful gown, it was very expensive.

 

He stood in an incredible tuxedo, they all had their teeth fixed, all their teeth are made, six kids on the stage next to him, they lived in a beautiful home, their kids were — many of their kids were in fact they ended up going to college, all over the country and I remember sitting in the audience that day and looking up at that guy and just watching him share his life story and knowing that the people around me are going that can’t be true. There’s no way that can be true.

 

But it was a blessing for me that God gave me a chance to sit there that night in that double wide trailer with a man who had so much hope and so many dreams that his life could change and know that you were the one that stopped long enough to just — I mean most people would have got driven by them, most people, once they saw, they would have just given up and he’s my story in this industry of people where you can’t ever walk away from anybody.

 

If someone’s got DNA, you may never know it on the outside. You’ll find out real quickly that it’s on the inside and he shared his story that night and I remember after he got off stage these people ran up to him, he’s signing autographs and I just sat there and I literally cried like a baby because I thought, “This is what we do, this is what our business is about.”

 

You know what? There’s other stories, that’s a pretty dynamic powerful story but there’s so many stories like that and people that just, because when you show up in someone’s life, you just show up because people say, “How do we build our business?” We show up. If we’re willing to keep showing up, we find those DNA people and the DNA people spent their lives looking for that one shot and when you give it to them, you move aside because they’re going to change their life and then they’re going to take thousands and thousands of people with them.

 

[1:04:59.9] KC: That’s awesome man, that’s such an amazing story. I don’t think I asked you this before we got on or I think we talked about it a little bit but I never got 100% clear, are you still doing mentorships for people that are outside of your business? So if somebody was already in the network marketing industry or are you still training them?

 

[1:05:23.1] CH: Yes, in fact my website is Craigholiday.net and I’ve got stuff on there for different mentor programs, different trainings, I’ve got my Rhino Renegade series which is my 12 part series is on there. Then just recently because I spent the last, about 30 months now building my business and it’s pretty significant and grown quite a bit.

 

I’ve actually taken more — in fact I’ve worked with three different Beach Body coaches over the last six months of just it came back. People I kind of work with before that I just loved and they came back and their business, kind of have gotten where they wanted to be. So I did some training for them and stuff. Yeah, obviously I charge for it but it’s like, it just depends upon how much time and what the expectations are and those kinds of things but I’m definitely open to doing that.

 

Because I think there’s some strong foundational things that people can learn in this business. Especially what we talked about before because I see a lot of people, not just Beach body but in the industry that don’t look at their business as a business. I see people post — I see Beach Body coach’s post, I work for beach body. No you don’t, you don’t work for beach body. You’re a 10.99, you own your own business.

 

And when people take responsibility for their business, this is my business, in other words, Callahan consulting, whatever your business is. That’s your business, you’re going to create the team that’s going to move Beach Body products through your business but it’s your company, you own it, you’re the CEO. If it’s a hundred dollar company, it’s a hundred dollar company. It’s a multimillion dollar company. It’s because you built that.

 

It’s taking pride and ownership in being in business for our self but so many people get into network marketing and they feel like they work for the company. They feel like they work for the company. Pitching company products but now, once you own it, take pride in the fact that I own this business, I always ask people, “How’s your business doing?” “Oh Beach Body’s…” — “No, your business?” Carl doesn’t come and do meetings for you. Carl created this incredible product, this incredible opportunity but is what you’re doing with it right now, it’s the same with my company you know?

 

I don’t work for secret right? They create this great skin care product and I have a great relationship with the ownership. I built a multimillion dollar business and it’s my company. I think when I can help people think differently, when they’re really in a product riven company, they can start to take ownership, they realize that I’m the CEO, what does my business look like? What’s my company look like? When they evaluate it, they know there’s a need for change and a need for growth.

 

[1:07:41.4] KC: Yup, can you share a little bit about the 12 weeks, like a few of the topics that you cover in the course?

 

[1:07:47.3] CH: Yeah for sure. I got one on time management that I think, I’m not saying it because it’s just my topic.

 

[1:07:54.2] KC: It’s awesome.

 

[1:07:55.1] CH: My content but I mean, what I’ve seen, even just — I thought that over the last few months a lot and it’s a transforming thing, it really deals with your priorities compared to your daily activities and the way to take a calendar and open it up and manage your time and be able to be in control of your time. Realizing that a lot of us would rather live a spontaneous life but knowing especially when you get in to the network marketing, you got a job, you’ve got a wife, if you’re married, you got family.

 

If we don’t manage our time and we aren’t disciplined every day in our time for the first 24 months in the business, you’re never going to grow because if you can’t tell me if I asked you, “How many hours you work your business last week?” If you don’t know the amount of hours, you’re not in control of your time. I always say, the way you live your day is the way you live your life.

 

I think it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done on time management and how to manage your calendar. I’ve got one on the starting a new distributor, coach, whatever we call them effectively, how do we effectively start a new coach? Because most of us don’t do a good job. When we look at expectations, if I start you, if I sponsored you in my business, what are your expectations of me, what are my expectations to you? Where do you want to get to and when do you want to get there right? That whole starting a whole new distributor is a real powerful one too.

 

I’ve got one on 10 points of leadership, what are the 10 points that make a leader? Because we tend in our industry, we tend to say, “That’s one of my leaders.” Let’s define leadership here because we tend to — if somebody’s out doing anything, we call them a leader, no. Leaders, there’s 10 points of leadership and a lot of us will have three point leader, they’re only good at three things but they got seven to work on. If we don’t’ know that, if I don’t know my guys intimately. I don’t know where they’re missing, I’ll take my 10 points of leadership and I give them a test.

 

I say, “Read each one and then give yourself zero to five grade.” Then I have them turn it back to me because once I get it back I know if I spend time with them in mentoring, I’ve got to hit these other things that they’re not good at, what they’re not doing well. I’ve got that when I’ve got one on discipline, the whole — there’s one in there on attitude, there’s one on the power of relational marketing. Its 16 points of relational marketing that make our business different than anything in the industry.

 

You can take this 16 points, sit down with any business owner and say let’s take .1, how do you fare there? Let’s take point two, what does your business look like? And they will just be a matter of five or six of those points and they’re going to know that what they have has no comparison to relational marketing. Then there’s I have one on “What are the 11 things or 12 things you do every single day on the productive side to have success.” Those are some of them, some other ones in attitude, goal setting and that kind of stuff. There are 30 to 40 minute audios, there’s a homework assignment that goes with each one and there’s an outline that goes with every single one of them.

 

When in fact the last one I did with Beach Body, we had 900 people on my training and I think the right events was crazy because people finally start to — my first one is this 10 questions of discovery which really like, what is your greatest fear? I go through these 10 levels of discovery and then I deal with them if I’m mentoring someone, we walk through them and where your greatest lies you continue to tell yourself? There’s questions here which is what a lot of we covered in the beginning with you Keith is, what’s my hold back?

 

What are the things that are holding me back because most of the people that get in your business aren’t ready to build it. I’d say your birthdate, the day you get in and the day you start and they’re never the same. How do I help speed that up is some of the discoveries we need to do to find what the whole — why are they afraid to fail, why are they afraid to, why are they afraid of rejection, all these kinds of things? Anyway, it’s a great package, I’ve seen a lot of people, it’s 35 years of information. I had a lot of people who have success with it.

 

[1:11:34.6] KC: Yeah, I highly recommend it. I’ve gone through it myself and I just want to make sure that I’m 100% clear for the listeners. You have that group work and then you’re also open to working with individuals and…?

 

[1:11:50.3] CH: Yes absolutely. I have different mentoring trainings that are on there, one of them, if somebody wants a weekly call, weekly assignments, weekly accountability, some people want just a monthly accountability kind of a thing. Someone wants just one or two calls, they’re going to create an evaluation of where they are to help them kind of decipher through some of the places they are. There’s different packages that are on there, but yes, I’m willing to — for me, I love mentoring people, I love getting on phone calls with them, I love getting through all the crap we need to get through so they can have success and then seeing them move on.

 

So it doesn’t really matter what company they’re in. I’m just passionate about this industry but I know most of the people are… a lot of them are really incapable of building right now because I don’t’ understand, what does it take to build a network business and it’s not just peddling product, it’s not just sharing product, it’s because — until people connect with you, until you have that ability to connect, you’re not going to drive a big business.

 

[1:12:45.7] KC: Yeah, then what about if someone’s listening to this right now and they’re like, “I want to partner with that guy,” would they go to the same place, CraigHoliday.net or is it a different place that….?

 

[1:12:57.5] CH: What would be best is for, if somebody wants to say look, I’m interested in what you’re doing, I’m interested in working together personally with you in your business. I would say C.holiday@live.com is my personal email — C.holiday@live.com. That would be the best place to reach me or even on Facebook if they just message me on Facebook, I can get back to them and talk to them personally. I also have a Facebook page that I love, its’ called men of courage, Mariah Ministries, I’ve got about 250 men on there, it’s just for men, not for men, not for women. I’m not trying to separate women up but this is just a men’s page.

 

What I’m going to start doing is I’m going to start doing weekly webinars on there on this whole idea, one of the whole batch of men’s lives, “What does it take for a man to get the kind of courage to change his life? I’m going to start doing weekly webinars on there. Probably in April, anybody can jump on, just put a request to join Men of Courage, Mariah ministries and I put spiritual stuff up there, challenging things for men. Just kind of relatable things, talking about men’s relationship with their dads and those kinds of stuff. I’m always posting on there but it’s a fun site.

 

[1:14:06.0] KC: Awesome man, just for everybody listening, we’ll have all the links to that in the show notes too. Craig, just sort of winding things up both for our listeners and for me, what are you reading right now? What’s inspiring you?

 

[1:14:24.7] CH: There’s a book I’ve just finished, in fact I’ve been through it two or three times, it’s called people follow you. It’s one of the best books I’ve ever read on connecting with people, how to listen, how to emotionally emote with people, how they emotionally attach to people. When it comes to my focus in the business, it wasn’t written for network marketing but it is a profound book by Jeb Blount.

 

I’m recommending it to everybody and handing it out to everybody because I just feel like it’s a powerful book. I think again, it’s not just a men’s book but boy oh boy, it’s just — The Art of Listening for instance. Most people, we sit down, I always tell people, if I do a one on one with you Keith and I leave, I better have listened more than I talked okay? If I’m with you on my down line and I’m mentoring you or we’re doing, I’m up line, we’re doing a communication talk about whether your business or whatever it is. I better hang up saying, “I listened more than I talk.”

 

We have a tendency in our business to want to talk, we want to give them the information, we want to feel like they need the knowledge I have. Really what we do and even sitting down, whether we’re doing prospecting or whether we’re doing one on one. We’re consulting. If I’m going to consult your life in your business, until I know about it, I can’t consult it. We have a tendency to sit down and have this pitch or a script or this outline that we want to give somebody.

 

A lot of times when people ask me all the time, “Well how do I share the business, how do I share Beach Body with people? How do I share a Secret with people?” Well you ask this question, “What kind of information would you need to know to make an educated decision about what we’re doing and you let that drive go.” Now I’m going to listen right? I really need to know a plan, that’s a real analytical, you know you’re dealing with an analytical immediately and they want to know on the compound.

 

Somebody might say, well tell me about the company, the ownership, what do you guys do? Do you go on trips and stuff? That person is very expressive personality, they’\re not going to be caught up on the details. If I sit down and try to give him the details, they’re going to be bored. If I’m asking questions right? I’m going to connect much greater with someone. Listening is probably the most — it is the most profound tool that we have in our business.

 

Most people aren’t really good at it because they listen long enough to get somebody to stop talking and then they start talking again because we like to hear ourselves talk, we think it makes us feel smarter. The greatest listener, the greatest successful people in our business are listeners, they learn to listen. I think there’s a whole chapter about that in the power of that and what it does and how people feel with you listen to them and those kinds of things.

 

Somebody will ask you for a sip of water when you’re doing a one on one and you open a four inch fire hose on them, right? You’re going to tell them about all of it, tell them about everything you’ve got. That’s not what they want right? That’s not where they’re at. You know the old saying, “They don’t care what you know until they know that you care.” I know when I leave that meeting, if I’ve listened more than I’ve talked, I have no doubt in my mind I’ve had a good connection.

 

[1:17:25.6] KC: All right yeah. That was an awesome book and you’ve recommended that to me a few times and I actually bought it but it’s still sitting on the shelf. Today, I’m pulling it off the shelf today and going to start it. One of the other books that as I’m asking you for a recommendation and I was just going back to one of the really just book that I love was Og Mandino, The Greatest Salesman in the World that you had recommended to me. What was the other one that he did too that you recommended? I couldn’t remember.

 

[1:17:58.3] CH: Greatest Miracle in the World.

 

[1:17:59.9] KC: Yeah, both of those were just awesome books.

 

[1:17:59.9] CH: Yeah they are, it’s simple reads but just amazing books. Yeah, any Og — he has University of Success which is about a total thick book but it’s got Earl Nightingale, there’s a chapter from all these really famous people in there, it’s another great book to read by Og Mandino.

 

[1:18:19.9] KC: I’ll check that one out. How about anyone you’re following online, on social media or any websites that you’re following right now?

 

[1:18:28.1] CH: Let’s see, we have so much of our own training and stuff going on right now that I focus probably if I’m online I’m mostly following it all. I would follow some of — there’s a guy, Steven Furtick, he’s a preacher, he’s a young guy but he’s a pastor out of North Carolina, he does some amazing stuff on YouTube and stuff. He wrote a book called Sun Stand Still about the old testament and Joshua when he asked god to make those sun stand still so he can fight this army.

 

I read a lot, I follow a lot of his stuff online, he’s really good. A lot of this stuff I’m doing is our own stuff for our own leaders in the company, a lot of the stuff we have from our own business now and stuff. What I’ll do, if I’m on really following stuff, it’s more of a spiritual side because I’m trying to keep that cup filled for me on the spiritual side. Rick Warren stuff, a lot of Rick Warren, Steven Furtick stuff is another one of the spirit on the spiritual side for me.

 

[1:19:18.8] KC: All right, got it. Just wrapping up here. This podcast is really about the business of life. Really focusing on business but focusing on creating the life you want to live as well. It’s awesome just talking to you and connecting with you and that’s sort of what our industry is, creating the life you want to live, creating the life you desire and giving you that power back. So if you’re willing, if you just close us out with one statement of how to start doing that for yourself, how to start creating the life that you love to live.

 

[1:19:56.8] CH: Well you know, I think the biggest thing is one of my mantras over and over is struggle is less painful than regret. I think for most people, they sit around in their life and they see the struggle of their life, the daily struggle, the struggle from the past and those kinds of things and we see it as, even in getting in our business because it’s a struggle. You got to become disciplined, We go through disappointments we go through people who disappoint us, all those kinds of things.

 

When we start focusing on that struggle, instead of where we’re going to go, the place we’re going to be, the purpose of our life and all of a sudden, it’s the holdback for us. That’s us DNA people, that song inside, that voice inside, that DNA thing that’s been implanted in your soul, it’s not going away. You’re either going to go out and do the great things with your life that you know you’ve been called to do or you’re going to turn around and you’re going to be 55, 65, 70 years old and just living this life of regret.

 

One of the exercises that I do and I want to challenge the listeners to do this because this has become a really profound exercise for people I work with. What I want you told is I want you to imagine that you’re 100 years old, you passed away and your best friend is going to stand up at you funeral and they’re going to read the eulogy of your life.

 

What I want you to do is I want you to sit down in the next couple of days and I want you to take some blank paper and I want you to write your eulogy. We all know what a eulogy is, it’s someone telling the story of what you were like, what were you like as a mom, what would you like as a dad, what were you like as a parent, what were you like as a business owner.

 

How many lives did you touch? What difference did you make? Because people say to me, so much of the time Keith, “What’s my purpose, I can’t find my why. I can’t find my purpose for my life.” What I found is when someone write this eulogy of what their life’s going to be like, what it was like, how they lived every day. All of a sudden this whole blur of our life comes into perspective.

 

I believe this is my belief that whether you believe in higher power of god, when you write that out, what you were going to be given is the vision for your life, this is who you are to become. This is the way you’re to live you’re life because we all know in our heart of hearts what we want it to look like, what kind of mom we want to be, what kind of dad we want to be, what kind of son and daughter we want to be to our own parents? What kind of world impact personally do we want to be?

It’s inside of us but we don’t take the time to really visually write it down and come to grips with it and read it every single day. If you’ll do that in the next couple of days, if you’ll take this exercise and you’ll say, I’m going to write my eulogy that somebody is going to open up. When I’m 100 years old and they’re going to stand in front of hopefully hundreds of people and they’re going to say about who you were and what your life was like.

 

When you do that, you’re all of a sudden going to number one, you’re going to realize, “This is where I need to go,” and number two, the things that are holding you back now, the little struggles in life, they’re going to become much less. Because when you’re focused on that person, you’re going to become that vision for your life, I promise you, the boulders in your road right now will become pebbles.

 

We’ve got to be able to finally see that and every one of you know what it is, it’s a gift you’ve been given to be able to sit down and write that because in our heart of hearts, we know what that person looks like and it takes our eyes off the struggle, we have a place to go, we have some great things to do in our life.

 

That’s our willingness to get up now and say, “You know what? I’m going to do that. I’m going to accomplish that.” Sure I’m going to go through struggles, sure you’re not going to have a perfect marriage to build your business, you’re not going to have perfect kids to build your business but you now have a reason and you know I’ve got to be that person, I‘m going to live my life that way.

 

If you’ll do that exercise over the next couple of days, I promise you and you read it every single day, you’ll begin to live life differently, you’ll be getting he look of every single day when you get up in the morning because you will live that life, you will have that impact, you will become that person if you decide to. That’s kind of what I feel that exercise has become so powerful for so many people that I work with.

 

[1:23:55.9] KC: I appreciate it Craig and really appreciate you taking the time out to share with us and I love you brother.

 

[1:24:02.0] CH: Love you too buddy, I miss you man. I’m always here for you, whatever you need, whatever you want and I just want to tell you bro, I’ll tell this audience, I am so proud of what you’ve done, where your heart’s at and to see your maturity, not only just as a leader but see your maturity in your passion for people and that your focus and where you’re going in the kind of organization you built. Knowing that your priorities are so right in your life.

 

You and Amy, I love you both, for the kids and the family, say hi to Bob Lucito, he’s one of my heroes and a guy I love passionately. Let’s get back in touch soon and it’s been a honor to be a part of this with you.

 

[1:24:36.6] KC: All right, thanks brother.

 

[1:24:38.1] CH: All right brother.

 

[1:24:40] ANNOUNCER: Thank you for listening to the Business of Life Podcast. Apply what you learn today and you’ll be one step closer to creating the life you love to live.

 

[END]