Welcome to Inside the Green Room with Peevey three each week, Pete Vargas, a third. Yes, that's me. Lets you inside his virtual green room to hang out and learn from the meeting planners who control the most prestigious stages in the world and from the speakers who use those stages to increase their income and impact. Now let's dive into the griever. Ray Higdon. He started out in corporate America, but quickly realized he was missing out on the most important thing in his life, family father, before he decided to make a change, which led him to a network marketing company where he became the number one earner.

Today, he's a network marketing trainer, keynote speaker and best selling author. In addition, he co-hosts they meet the Higdon's podcast with his wife, Jessica. Their company has been named to the Five Thousand List as one of the fastest growing companies in the United States.

Welcome, Ray. Hey, thanks for having me.

Absolutely. Ray is a good friend of NYR, is one of our clients, and we're so excited to chat with him today because he's got a lot of really great stuff to share with you guys. He's built his career around being a master speaker and getting out there and really sharing his story and training others to do the same in all different platforms and media. So I'm excited to dive in. But interesting story about how you got started. So tell us a little bit about what made you decide to make this shift.

What were you doing in corporate America? And then and then how did you transition over into a network marketing company?

Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of different stories there. But I think for the purposes of this audience, I think I'll share my speaking experience. I don't know if you know that story or not, but so I had I was I had worked my way up in the corporate world and was making a pretty good salary. I remember my boss asking me to do a do a just do a little update for the department. And I'm like, what do you mean update?

And I said, well, you know, just get up in front and prepare a presentation or something. And, you know, she's saying and nonchalantly and I had never done this and it terrified the hell out of me. And and so I'm like, wait, like like speak in front of everyone. And that was like my my biggest fear. And so I didn't sleep for three days. I read The Idiot's Guide to Speaking. I read The Dummies Guide to presentation or presentation or something like that.

And I almost just quit the job like I was so nervous and so scared to present in front of others that I just didn't want to go in. And so my hand was on the phone. This was back when you had a landline right in my hand was on the phone and I'm looking at it and I'm just like, I'm just going to call in, I'll be sick. But then I'm like, you know, they're going to make me do this.

And so I go in. And one thing that was prevalent in every speaking book I ever read was they don't know if you mess up. Like if you forget something they don't know, the audience will never know. I clung to that. And so I go and I do this presentation and I somehow develop a stutter. I spelt water all over my shirt, all down my pants. And but I was done. I was done on a crew man, thank goodness.

And but afterwards and this boss, her name was Maggie. She asked me to come in her office. And I've met to this day, I've never had a boss that I looked up to as much as her. Like she gave me a chance when I wasn't experienced enough. And she really I just really looked up to her. And so I go in there and and I'm wondering, like, you know, is it going to be good or bad or.

I wasn't sure because this is how goofy I was. And she asked me, Ray, are you on drugs?

And I'm like, So those books aren't always accurate. Sometimes they do note when you really screw up. And so I was terrible. And so I remember sitting in the car afterwards and my hands are on the steering wheel. I was back then I drove Hyundai Sonata, this fourth green Hyundai Sonata. I'm sitting in the parking lot and I'm just like, I'm I'm I'm just not coming back. I mean, now these people know how dumb I am.

They know that I'm not good. They know that I'm you know, I got to a position I didn't even deserve. So I got all the stuff going through my head. And but then there was another voice that said, you've got to overcome this. And so the next day I enrolled in college and I said, put me in every class where I have to speak in front of the room and the facilitator or whatever. She said, wow, that's weird, because that's usually the last class people take.

And I'm like, put me in all of those. And so she put me in strategic thinking speech, of course. And I think there's one other class. Right. I had to get up. And of course, it was pretty terrible in the beginning, but I got over that fear. And I think the largest audience, live audience, like actual people. People, right. I think the largest audience was in Louisville, about twenty three thousand people that I've spoken in front of.

And so it's it's kind of wild. I did end up leaving the corporate world, went into real estate first, got wiped out from that, and then went into network marketing and found some major success with network marketing. That's awesome. So speaking, did you feel like.

Learning to feel more confident in speaking is what made you interested in real estate and network marketing because you had that experience kind of getting up in front of people and not pitching, but sharing whatever information you're supposed to share or how did that come about? Is was it just more of like the industry was attractive to you?

What I like to show speaking didn't necessarily have exactly to do with real estate or really any of the choices after that. But it was the confidence I gained by tackling that fear, because by tackling that fear, I realized, like, man, I'm more powerful than I thought. I can overcome stuff.

And it gave me the confidence. I left that job maybe maybe two years later, something like that. And and then I went to and then I went out on my own probably three years after that. And so it was that I look at that moment and that was a big fork in the road like that was either I shrink and just say I'm not an overcomer and I play as small as I had been playing or I went this way, which led to all kinds of wild things.

I remember irrationally because at the time I was actually working for county government. I remember irrationally I went to this Microsoft convention in Vegas because I was in the IT department and I remember setting an irrational goal of one day. I want to speak on the Vegas Strip. I'm working for county government. That doesn't make any sense. Like I'm working for county government. Not in Nevada. Right. I'm in Florida. It makes no sense. And but I set that as a goal.

And I think it was like two years. I was I spoke at Planet Hollywood and so speaking wasn't necessarily the thing. It was overcoming my fear. It was overcoming that that that gave me all that made me make all those decisions to completely change my career and go in a different direction. Wow.

Well, I mean, any speaker that gets paid to speak will eventually be speaking on the Vegas Strip. Maybe not this year, but in the future. That's that's awesome. So tell us about kind of like your journey in network marketing. I know, like when we talked before, sometimes there's network marketing can be kind of like a dirty word to some people because they're like, oh, like when to introduce that way. But but it's made a lot of money for a lot of people and have provided a ton of opportunities for for countless people, especially right now with everything online and all of that.

So tell us about how you grew through the ranks yourself and what you found along the way that has led you to now being one of the biggest trainers for people in this industry?

Yeah, you know, and it does it does have a bad stigma. And I know that, you know, some people, they hear that. And I remember when Russell Brunson asked me to speak at one of his mastermind's and he was like, and I'm having a Buddy Reagan speak. And he specializes in training network marketers. And you could almost you can almost hear the groan like a and so I I got up and I just shared a couple of things.

You know, one thing that I wish more entrepreneurs embraced is that a lot of people that go into network marketing were hairstylists the month before, were a mechanic a month before. A lot of them have never read a book on psychology or sales or business, never watched Shark Tank. They don't get entrepreneur Forbes Fortune magazine's. They are because it's so low risk and so low overhead. You have an extreme amount of untrained individuals that don't know what they're doing.

They don't know what hype even means. Like they don't know that their approach is is really terrible because they haven't been taught a different way. And so there's a few things about network marketing that that we really love. And I no longer actively build a team, but I work with a lot of companies and work with a lot of leaders. I mean, right now I have one leader that brings home over a million dollars a month. And that's not volume, not funny math, but actually a million dollars a month.

I have another leader that has as a client that has seven hundred fifty thousand people in his organization, probably five that have over one hundred thousand in the organization. And we coach and we intimately coaching our mastermind about fifty six and seven figure earners and network marketing. But network marketing on the whole is the lowest risk, lowest overhead way for the average ordinary person to start a business. You have people in business that would never buy a franchise because they just don't have the money.

They would never start a restaurant because they they don't have the capital or knowhow or the connections. And and this is something that it really is. An amazing infrastructure, it's an amazing profession, and I've seen people go from truck driver to millionaire, I've seen people go from mattress salesman to millionaire, I've seen people go from homeless to Joe Millionaire. So the possibility is incredible, but it often gets overshadowed by these non trained individuals that are out there making promises or just don't.

They just don't know what they're doing now. Network marketing is an amazing gateway drug, too, because not everyone stays in network marketing. I mean, how many people learn from Jim Rome? Well, there's no one profession that he work the closest with was network marketing. A lot of people learned from Jim Rohn and applied it to their insurance business or applied it to the real estate business or applied it to fill in the blank. I mean, I was just reading his quotes yesterday.

And so it's an amazing industry, an amazing profession. And as a speaker, it's actually very intriguing because if you look at all the other industries. So look at Internet marketing. Right. What events do you have out there that are pretty big? You got traffic. You got Ryan Dice's event. Right, which gets three to five thousand people. You get Rosell, Brunson's Aben, this gets around 5000 people. You look at Tony Robbins. I mean, he runs some big events for sure.

Network marketing every month has an event with over twenty thousand people in it. Now, that's pre covid. But now there's these are virtual events that are still very, very large. So as a speaker, it's actually pretty intriguing. And you can be in front of some very large audiences very often. It's unlike any other space that I'm aware of, of the masses gathering for that. And so we don't we don't we don't go out there and say network marketing is better because I don't I don't think that's the right language to use.

But it is an amazing option for people that otherwise would never start a business. They would never invest in real estate. They don't have the how for other businesses, but they can afford a couple hundred bucks to start a home based business. And with the pandemic and everything, there's a lot of people looking to make extra money from home that used to do the gig economy, that used to do Uber or used to do something else. And now they're like, dang, I don't even want to go out.

I want to make money from home. And network marketing is a great option for that. Wonderful.

You know, a lot of people, I think, assume when they think about network marketing, they might think about like supplements or beauty products, but it really spans a lot of industry. Is there any industry, I'd say kind of surprise you that have come up out of network marketing and that are really innovative or doing something that isn't what people would assume is is falling under this category of network marketing?

I mean, I've seen some awesome ones. I have I have a client right now that is in a crypto cryptocurrency network marketing company, makes a lot of money. I spoke for a company that they are their public adjusters, and so they will go to homes and negotiate insurance claims and they have such a humongous success rate. And then there there are people like earn a percentage of that, like that's really innovative. That's really cool that they have these teams of people that after a hurricane or something like that, they will go into that area and negotiate with insurance and always get more than what the homeowner would have negotiated.

I've seen obviously CBD has been very big in network marketing and health and wellness and beauty and and all these different things. But it's it's it's incredible. Like the different industries I've seen thrive in network marketing. Yeah.

I think that's that's something that's really opened up my eyes. It's just how many industries this touches, how many people are involved in. And like you said, that huge amounts of audiences and that they that they generate for their events. I don't want to circle back to what you're saying. You said you've seen people that have gone from truck driver to millionaire and others that have had just great success. What do you think differentiates them from the others, the untrain folks who are getting into the business who never really make it up the ranks?

What, in your experience helped you advance? And what do you think is really kind of what makes those folks successful?

Yeah, I mean, I think it has to do with a few things. I would say the number one killer of someone who could be successful in network marketing is they seek acceptance, approval and agreement. And this is really it's it's a little bit different, but it's not that much different from just starting a business. You know, when when I wanted to leave the corporate world and I went to people I respected, looked up to, etc. and said, yeah, I'm going to go into real estate.

I mean, I remember my professors like, what? And throw away your career. That's like this was someone I really respected and looked up to. He said, you'll be. And so many people were like, well, what about the benefits, what you can do about benefits? And so, I mean, people I wasn't even going into network, Mark, I was going into real estate, which is it doesn't have as much of a stigma, I don't think.

And yet people were trying to talk me out of that. And so if you're someone that is always seeking the acceptance, approval and agreement of those around you, then you're probably not going to make it in network marketing. You've got to be willing to to move forward without acceptance, agreement and approval. And and so, I mean, I used to tell people when I started and in network market, I'm like, listen, I'm going to do it with or without you.

I'd love to do it with you if you're open to a great if not no deal. And that's just how I roll. That was my posture. Didn't care if they thought it was a good idea or accepted or approved or agreed of it. That didn't bother me. So I would say that's the number one killer of someone who could be successful. And the real key to those who succeed is just like any business, really its consistency. So the quick question here is, and this is any business, not just network marketing, but does your daily method of operation make success inevitable?

And that's a very specific question if I keep doing what I'm doing every single day. Does that make success inevitable and if it's like maybe if I get lucky, then that's not a good diplomatic operation. So when when I got serious about network marketing, I was on July 15, 2009, I decided I was going to do three things. I'd read a book called Go for No. And it's all about getting over your energy to rejection, like basically embracing rejection, being OK with it.

And so I read that book and I'm like, you know what, this makes sense. I'm going to go for 20 hours a day. And so before my head hit the pillow, I had to get 20 hours a day. Now, I've heard sales people say things like, well, I prefer a yes. Well, yeah, yeah, you do. I get it. But I've never met anyone that gets a hundred percent. Yes. I mean, I've met certified gangsta's of communication that don't get 100 percent.

Yes. If they went for 20 no's they would ten times their business because they get a lot of yeses. And so it's an interesting thing that when you go for no, the more skilled you are of actually, the bigger you grow. It's kind of wild. And so I went for 20 hours a day. I hated prospecting. I knew I had to do it because I'm dead broke. When I got serious about network marketing, that was after I lost it all in real estate.

So I'm in foreclosure. I'm dead broke. I'm trying to sell my furniture. I'm being chased by bill collectors and I'm over a million dollars in debt. So it was not the ideal situation for me to be in your business mind. Right. And and so I hated prospecting. I did it because I had to. But I dreamed of a day where I would have people reaching out to me. And so on July 15, 2009, I dedicate myself to do at least one video a day, and I've never stopped.

So over 11 years, I've never missed a day whether my tummy hurt or it was raining outside or I was on my honeymoon. I did it before she was awake. Right. And so I've never missed a day in over eleven years of doing at least one video a day. Most videos, I mean today will be five. I think most most days are like three, but not one day in eleven years of not at least doing one, because I dreamt of a day of funneling leads to me, get people to reach out to me.

And then third was self development every day. And so back then because I was broke, it was YouTube and whatever library books and free stuff I could get my hands on. And that transformed into mastermind's mentorship coaches, some courses. And and so I still I still do that as well as self development every day. And so what is your daily method of operation? If someone just prospects every now and then, then they're probably not going to build a really successful business.

If someone is is, hey, I do this no matter how I feel, no matter if I want to do it or not. And they do that every single day, they will create success.

I love that. I think the three the three things that you're talking about, first sounds like mindset. Second is the consistency, but also discipline, like you mentioned. And then the third would really be the education part, the self improvement and actually moving from you could be a brilliant salesperson with charisma, not know that you're employing all these tax tactics. You move from unconscious competence to conscious competence to really bring your game to the next level. But I want to circle back to that first one.

So how do you get people to adopt this mindset that it's OK to to be rejected and it's OK in shifting from that discomfort of rejection and failure?

I think there's two things. There's two methods. One is, is sharing stories. I just I just actually found this while moving. I had written down some stories. So, you know, Samuel Jackson, Samuel Jackson was twenty three years until he had a starring role. Harrison Ford was thirteen years. AC DC was forty years until they had a top ten hit. Forty years, Grateful Dead was twenty two years, Springsteen was 16 years, Johnny Cash was 15 years, Bob Marley was 13 years.

And so sharing stories of people that also faced rejection. I mean, Elvis was was told to go back to driving a truck when he performed at Opryland the first time, they said you need to go back to driving a truck. And and so, like, if if if they if it was OK for them to be rejected, why is it not OK for us to be rejected? And so sharing stories is one of the most powerful way. For example, we have a client that struggled in network marketing for 17 years and her husband made her pinky swear that she would never do another network marketing company.

She broke that pinky swear she's now a million dollar earner. She found some of our social media training and applied it and crushed her. She's now a main earner in her company and she's heralded from all the stages. They lower from the sea ceilings and doves fly out. I mean, it's it's incredible. So if all of these rock stars and amazing actors, actresses, musicians, et cetera, if they're if it's OK, if they got rejected, why is it not OK?

If we do so, that would be number one. And number two is to alter the actual approach. So most people that struggle in sales, they struggle because they don't understand PROSPEKT positioning. So if you're approaching someone, that is not the time to close them is the time to see if they're open. And so if you change your energy from I got to close Blair, I'm going to close Tony to I just want to see if Blair is open.

Blair, you open to take a look? No. OK, no big deal. Right. If you just change your energy from I'm trying to close people over here to I'm just seeing who's open and who is open. I'll move forward with, then you will just feel better about your journey and you're not going to turn people off. Like if I'm trying to close someone, then it definitely feels like a rejection. If they say, no, I don't want to do it, man.

I know it's ground floor and patent pending an amazing. But I don't want to do it. Well, I'm just saying here you open and take a look. If not no big deal. And they say, nah, I'm good. I'm focused on what I'm doing. Okay, no problem. Do you know anyone that does want to make some extra money? And so changing from attempting to close to just seeing who's open is a very powerful energy shift.

Yeah, I think that's brilliant. I think people often are just trying to get to the end. Right. So and both of what you're saying, not having to face rejection and not having to struggle too hard to get to that end goal. I love what you're saying about all the people who work so hard and then and face all that rejection. I've seen these names recently where they're saying, I'm so sick of these 30 under 30, 40 under 40 list.

So I want to hear about the debut novel is at 70 and all that. And I think I love that it's inspiring that there's no age limit on pursuing your dreams. But I think what people miss that is that it doesn't mean you you should wait. It doesn't mean you should wait. Right. To start, because that doesn't mean you're going to be successful just because someone else did it at 78. But so I think what I love about the stories you shared is like it shows the people who kept trying.

They were rejected. I think they talk about Abe Lincoln lost like how many elections before he was elected to something and a lot of these examples. So I love that. I think that's a great way to think about mindset and shifting that when it comes to discipline and consistency. Do you find that it's that there's just a kind of a set regimen that really works across the board? Or does it have to be really custom to what you're doing and what the product is and et cetera, like that?

How much variance do you think there really is?

Yeah, I mean I mean, I think I mean, this this could certainly vary by position in a company. But if you are I mean, there are two ways to two main ways to build a business marketing, prospecting. That's I mean, that's that's the two ways marketing is passive. I do something I hope someone reacts to. So it's an ad. It's a billboard. It's a flyer. It's a Facebook status update of Facebook, live blog post, whatever.

I do something I hope someone reacts to it. Prospecting is you reaching out to an individual and seeing if they're open to your service, product or opportunity. And so if you if you're a business owner, you need to at least have somebody doing that. You need to have somebody reaching out and seeing if your target person is open to your product, service or opportunity. And then you also want to be doing marketing. And the best type of marketing is information marketing, education, marketing, et cetera.

And so we teach to put value into the marketplace. But what I found is that people don't really understand that term. It's been bandied around for ever. We define value as does someone gain something, whether they purchase from you or not. So if I'm running a weight loss clinic, me going on. Line and stand by one kid, get the second one half of is not actually value, I mean, it's Cuban, right? It's nice and a promotion, but that's not actually value.

If I go on and say, hey, here's a seven day meal plan, really easy to make it home. Here's the ingredients and the recipes. And I just teach that and they get that, whether they purchase or not, that's value. And and so are you providing value to the marketplace? Jason Fried, one of the founders of Basecamp, said our teacher competition. That's something that we really, really live by. And that when I'm saying I do a video a day, it's it's it's an educational video.

It's not just, hey, we got this for sale today. And I'm not saying not to do that. Ever promote because you should. But are you educating people? Would you follow you? Are you doing things in a manner that attract people to you just to learn from you? And so that's the type of stuff that every business owner should be doing. I remember I spoke at a high school a couple of years ago and they would always bring in different occupations to speak to the class.

And so sometimes it was a CPA, sometimes it was a realtor. And this one time it was it was a plumber. And I'm like, OK, I'll be a plumber. All right, cool. And I'm like, So how do you, like, get business? Like, what's your favorite thing? And you network or YouTube? I'm like, Really? How does that work? He goes, Well, when I go to fix a problem, I always catalogue how I fix the problem.

And I put it up on YouTube and that's how I get so much business. People see me unclog a drain using whatever it uses and people becoming. And and so like any there is no I don't I just don't believe that there's any business that doesn't benefit from educational marketing. And obviously, if you're a Series seven holder or, you know, doing financial planning or something, you have different restrictions and things, but you can still be educational. And I just think education is what wins in today's marketplace.

Yeah, perfect.

And you say Wade right into the third one we talked about with the self improvement side and why it's important to educate yourself and why I'm sure some of the most successful people are the ones who've really taken it upon themselves to learn and grow from others in their space and find those mentors and coaches in training, but then turning it around and sharing what you've learned, like you said, is this how you bring people to you? And I love that we've talked about content marketing on this show before, but but really not as much in the sense that it really should be educational.

I love what you're saying about that. People assume you can't give away what you do. You don't want to give it away for free. You don't want to tell the plumber. I'm sure there's a lot of people who fix the drain themselves then, but there's probably a whole lot of others. There's a great you know, how to do this can do it for me because I'm not really equipped. I'm not really going to do that. So I love that.

I love. Yeah. And or each other. Yeah. And speaking of content marketing, a really, really simple concept that I talked about in the rise rise up world challenge is Iltis. So we came up with this concept called ILT, Invest, Learn, Teach. So you invest your money or time to learn something, then you teach it. And this is something that we found can help anybody like anyone can ILT. And so that may mean that I read a book and then I go on a video and I and I share my takeaways from that book.

It's not plagiarism because I'm I'm giving them credit. Hey, I just read this book. It's amazing. Here's three tips from this book. And so what teaching it has done has taken people that maybe weren't experts or weren't gurus or weren't the number one educated person in their field and help them provide more value to their marketplace. And I know that anyone can do this. I remember my step dad passed away or some piece, but I remember he he watched a he came over one day and he started hammering me on environmental facts.

And he's a blue collar dude, like it just came out of nowhere.

I'm like, this is strange. I've never heard him talk about the environment. And I'm like, OK, where'd you learn all this? He goes, Oh, I watch a Matt Damon documentary yesterday. And I'm like, dang, he's teasing me. He's never read a book. He's never read a book on business or marketing or sales or any of these things. But he can do it. Anyone can do Iot. And and so that's just we're just really, really big fans of teaching people that you don't have to come up with your own amazing Shakespearean work.

You can read an article, watch your documentary or read a book. And no one, not one time have I. And I remember attending adventure reaches classes going up to Colorado and and going through all year. I think I've been through every class you guys ever offer. I'm just. You guys have my. All add on file, and every time I'll come home and be like, Hey guys, you know, I just came back from Maschmeyer and I've never had someone say, Oh, just read your notes.

Why don't you come up with your original stuff? Like, No, they appreciate it because I paid for it. They didn't pay for it and they're getting a snippet of it for free. And and so I've never had someone hate on me for sharing my notes from something that I learned from somewhere else. They actually appreciate it. Absolutely.

Because you're doing the hard work. You're you're interpreting it from what really you gleaned and communicate to people who already speak your language. So I think that's the most valuable way to actually share information. I love that. And we have talked about how a lot of times that these MLM events, that the speakers are very motivational, they might be very raw, raw, energy driven or very emotional, very like kind of tear jerking stories that kind of just both sides just to really evoke emotion.

But we talked about how the content, like we're just saying, is really what's most important. And you want to make a connection with the audience. Of course, that's really important. That's what we teach. They are the story behind framework and connecting to the heart and had been taught just a little bit more about how you started to shape your presentations, knowing that content is really going to be the core thing that people need and need to walk away with if you're going to be making a lasting impact.

Yeah, you know, networking is kind of known for having RA events, right, where they're tossing around the beach ball or shooting out t shirts. And it's a lot of you can you can do it in a lot of stories, which are great. And I mean, there have been trainers that have built humongous businesses of your RA Ra flashy kind of stuff. And and so we just we just wanted to do it differently. We wanted to actually alter the profession, not just meet it where it was at.

And so when we started teaching scripts, when we started teaching exact follow up strategies, exact closing objection handling and closing, when we started sharing a Facebook live formula, how to generate leads, people were like blown away. And it's always it's an interesting reaction when myself or one of our speakers speaks for a company for the first time because people are like, oh my God, that's what I've been looking for. And I thought you would just come on and tell your story and get us all fired up like everyone else does.

But you actually said do this, this, this and this. And and I think that that's because we're so specific on. Yeah, I'm going to share stories that get people fired up, but that's not enough. You have to also help the behavior because if you just fire people up, then they're just going to go do the same concepts and strategies that they've been doing, which may be hype and spammy and and just not great. And so teaching actual real strategies to help that behavior is very powerful.

And that's one of the reasons that I believe we've created so much production. We actually track our production. So I have a membership group. It's twenty bucks a month. We are about fourteen thousand people in there. And in the last two years of tracking, they've brought in two hundred eight thousand new customers, forty nine thousand new reps and achieve nine thousand one hundred seventy five rank advances, like we're the only trainer that tracks production. And and that's that's what we drive for, because I know that production and network marketing means families are impacted.

And so you got to you got to give them the goods. You got to give them what to actually do because you may be the only person that's telling them that everyone else may be just hyping them and get them excited and telling them a great story which will keep them in the game. But if they're not using tactics that will increase their chances of of selling and promoting, then that only goes so far.

Yeah. And having being able to track that and having that data and those stats just really proves you're our ally, which is something that's really difficult for speakers. You know, I've been in the speaker industry for my entire career and people have paid thousands and thousands, hundreds of thousands of dollars to have a speaker come. And and it's always been kind of difficult when we have the conversation around, like, well, what impact is this going to have on the organization?

You know, oftentimes there's really no way to measure that. But you guys have found a way to measure it. And that's incredible. That shows people really how this works and that it's valuable content that is actually helping grow companies and like you said, help families. So that's that's great. And we also talked before about how does this relate to all speakers and speakers that you've coached? I know you've you've coached other speakers and not just in the network marketing space, because I think a lot of what you shared today can apply to anyone who's getting out there and speaking and just what they should think about and with audiences and promoting themselves.

But what are some things that you've coached other speakers on and what do you think that a lot of people maybe aren't as adept at? That you've really learned to to master? Yeah, you know, it's I mean, one I learned I mean, the person that I learn I got the most succinct advice from and speaking is Pat Quinn. And I've been through a lot of speaking training. I've been through a lot of different courses and VIP days and this and that.

And Pat is absolutely incredible. So that's so cool that he's so closely associated with you guys. I would say a lot of times a speaker. So I remember one of our events, our first million dollar speaking pitch. It was 2015 and we had three hundred twenty people in the room and I was selling a mastermind. I had to two levels and so three and twenty in the room sold it and we sold one point one million dollars worth of coaching in that one bitch.

Right. And I remember going to my my sons were actually in the audience and I said, hey, do you remember when I used to work at that insurance company, which was my last job that I have used? And I said, well, we just made what I would have made in 12 years full time there. And I was like, wow, that's so crazy. But I remember when people started hearing that story and I had some speakers reach out to me.

I'm like, dude, how'd you do that, man? You know what? Can I get your dick? Can I get your PowerPoint? Can you tell me, like, what is it? Can I see the contract? Can I see. And so here's the thing. By the time I got to the presentation, a lot of people were just ready to buy because of what I did before the event. So the caring of people year round, not just when you have a pitch, is a big deal.

And and so we provide value every single day. We pumped value into the marketplace. Every single day. We share stories of success. We love people that are products of the product and we highlight them. So when someone comes through one of our programs and they do, they accomplish something amazing. I like them and showcase them. And so it creates this feeling all throughout the marketplace of man, these guys have good stuff. So when you do that, you don't have to be amazing at your pitch.

You have to have a pitch. Because I think one mistake that some speakers make is they they don't make enough offers, like they just don't go to their audience enough and say, hey, would you like to purchase this or you want to try this? And so I think just thinking bigger, thinking that it's not a grand slam home run because you have an amazing presentation, but it's all those it's all those other things. How are they made to feel?

I'll give you one example. So one thing that I never agreed with was I would see trainers that would they would launch this new course. And the new course was, whatever, a thousand dollars or three hundred dollars. Five hundred dollars. And if you waited about six months, they put it on sale for twenty bucks or fifty bucks. Right. So like in my head, it's like so basically you're punished if you're a fast buyer of theirs.

Right. Because if I see something I bought for a thousand, for fifty bucks, I'm like, why did I buy fast?

So we just decided since for ten years we decide to do the exact opposite. So we may launch something to our audience, to our members for like, you know, thirty bucks and it'll go up and go up and it'll go up and it will never come down. And so we have programs that we sell every single day right now for one ninety seven that are fast buying members got for twenty seven. And so like I want to reward fast buyers, but see all of that as part of a psychology of how do you treat the people that are in your community, that are in your tribe.

Do you, do you make them feel good and rewarded. And like me and I'm really smart for being a fast buyer or that might I do this? How come I didn't wait? I should have. And so there's just a lot of things around that. How how are they made to feel? How do you take care of them? How do you listen to them? We do a lot of Q&A and all of that leads into makan. You can have some errors in your pitch.

You can have some not perfect thanes in your presentation when they know that you care and love them. So that's that's fantastic. I think people really neglect that that the beginning part of leading into events or even just how they maintain relationships over time. But you're talking about an event that you put together yourself, right? This event where you saw one point one dollars million coaching was one of your events. So tell us about how you moved from working in network marketing and promoting other companies events into now planning your own event because you've got your big event this week, depending on when you're listening to you might have missed it, but hopefully you all caught it and are able to participate, are going to figure out, get some more content from that after.

But tell us about creating rainmaker's live and how you guys transitioned into building your own events and generating that audience.

Yeah. So, you know, like I said, July 15, 2009, when I got serious about network marketing and I had one goal, I wanted to become the number one anchorman of that company. And so I'm just working with America going crazy. And and I mainly use social media, which nowadays that's like, yeah, that's what everyone does. Right. But 10, 11 years ago, that wasn't the case. And so I was kind of the black sheep of network marketing.

There are there are a lot of trainers today that that embrace social media, but back then kind of bashed it and said it didn't duplicate it was too complicated, too technical. And we just believe that we could make it happen. We just see it as an extension of communication. And so became the number one a.m. that company my wife joined a few months into that journey, she became the number one female here. And here she is. I mean, at that point, she was twenty one years old.

And I think ninety five percent of her success were strangers on Facebook because all of her friends wanted tequila in party and they don't want to do a business. And so she had to go outside of her circle and go recruit cold messaging. And so we're rock and roll and companies and leaders started paying attention and they're like, how are you guys doing this? Because back then no one was teaching it and no one no one was doing it. And it was kind of like, oh, and we would I mean, think about this.

We would have companies hire us to go speak at their event knowing that we're number one income earners and in a different company. Now, that's rare. That's rare for that to happen because usually companies are very nervous about someone stealing their people or something. But the desire for social media training back then was so high. And and so we didn't intend to build a coaching training business. But that's what happened. And so and twenty sixteen. Just so fast forward a little bit.

We have our team is rocking and rolling, so we're making good money there. And things are things are pretty good. Our coaching and training is just off the hook. I mean, we just can't it's just sucking up so much resources. We love both of them. But we had to make a choice. We felt like we weren't doing either of them to one hundred percent. And I'm an all in kind of guy. Look, I like all and I don't like being split.

And so we decided in twenty sixteen to go all in on coaching training. We retired from network, from building network marketing organization and focus on, on coaching and training. And so with that we had actually started doing events, smaller events in twenty thirteen and and it, it was amazing. It was, we were having a lot of fun. We were training not just our team but people in all different teams, all different countries and and just having a blast.

And so the the next interesting thing that happened was when when the pandemic hit. So I'll tell you from someone that got wiped out and the real estate crash, I was as nervous as you can possibly imagine. And so like this or the quarantine and stay at home. And I'm like, oh, my God, am I going to am I going to lose this again? Am I going to, like, totally go broke again? And so we like we negotiate with some vendors.

We we go to our staff. We had and I'm just so I mean, I just I'll get teared up thinking about it. But we had four of our staff reach out to us and say, hey, if you need to reduce our salary, we understand. I mean, who does that like? That was incredible. And so we're just and so that that first two weeks of the quarantine, like, we are so nervous and we're we're reducing expenses.

We're cutting some of our marketing, but not all of it. And then it's like, wait a minute, we're being reached out to from companies we never hear from. So in two weeks, I did seventy five Zoom's for Italy, for Portugal, for so different parts of Asia, Ireland, all over the world. I'm on the Zoom's all day long, all throughout the night. And people are just like, hey, what? We haven't embraced social media fully.

We realize we need to. Can you help us? I'm like, yeah, let's do it. And so I did seventy five zooms in two weeks and we actually five times are our business in April. And and so and what I mean is over over the April last year and so it was just it was just crazy. It was just wild. And so but now it's just it's interesting because over the last ten years we've been teaching social media strategies and there has never been a time where more people are interested in that exact thing right now.

And so that's one of the reasons that we've structured our upcoming event in the way that it is. It's called the Social Media Super Summit. And we have brought together the best of the best of the best of the best. We have adventure, reach his own Vargus, going to be speaking there on how to get on more stages virtual and when when the other stages start coming back. We have Charlene Johnson, who is one of the biggest Instagram influencers in the world.

She's the only female to ever have to number one, producing infomercials. And I mean, she's just absolutely incredible. We have Tim Storey, who is who was Oprah Winfrey's coach and was named the comeback coach by Robert Downey Jr.. So life goes, I hope to have a nickname buy from Robert Downey Jr. at some point in my life. But Marina Simmon, Diane Hockman, Courtney Epps, we have so many amazing speakers with one goal, and that is how exactly to profit in today's marketplace on social media.

And so, yes, there will be I don't know exactly how much, but there will be some information that is one hundred percent toward network marketing. But I would say 90 percent of it is going to apply to any business. So I know I have realtors go in and speakers, authors, we have a lot of people that are attending that three day virtual experience event. And we hired the same team that worked with Tony Robbins and helped him with his big event.

And so it's going to be Amobi in front of all these screens and Amobi in an actual studio. And so it's a virtual experience. It's not just a webinar resume or something like that, but we're really excited for it. That's awesome.

I mean, it's tailor made for you guys. You went like you said, you started out using social media on the Internet. I love what you say. You're the black sheep. I often like to say I was the black sheep that became the golden boy. It sounds like that's your your journey as well. So we're getting towards the end. And I want to make sure that people know where they can find out more about the event and you.

But first, I want to kind of close this out with hearing about another speaker or someone that inspired you along the way. You mentioned a couple of the books that you read and things, but was there any speakers that impacted you personally or professionally that really stood out along your journey?

Yeah, there's there's a couple that come to mind. I remember when I was really early in the game and the game of being an entrepreneur, I was in real estate and I was running real estate events and I ran across an old DVD of Marshall Silver. And I'm like, oh, man, this guy is so good. And so, like, he really inspired me to be a better speaker. And then I remember the the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, tenth time that I heard Les Brown tell his, you got to be hungry.

Story gets me every time, just stirs up that fire man. And so I would say I've seen a lot of amazing speakers. I'll tell you, when I first saw Tony Robbins, I was a speaker at an event and then he was keynoting and, you know, I'd never seen I'd seen some of his DVDs. I'd read some of his books and like, yeah, you know, it's good stuff, good whatever. And so I was kind of coming in and I don't say a hater.

I wasn't a hater, but I just didn't get it. And I think that that's everyone who's never seen him alive. And so I see him live and I'm not a get out of my seat dance around kind of guy. But here I am dancing around and going crazy. And and so, I mean, Tony, tough to beat Tony, but I would say three that were very impactful martial. So we're very early on.

Les Brown, incredible love hearing him and and Tony Robbins love that great and great people, you know, and really about role modeling, what they want the audience to feel. And do they do it themselves? They don't look they don't feel like they're goofy or silly doing that. They you know, they make you feel that way, too. So thanks so much for joining us, Ray. How can people find out more about the event and and about working with you or chatting with you?

Yeah, the event, it's at Reinke Makers Live dot com. It's kind of a play on rainmaker's, but it's Reinke R8 and cake makers live dot com that will tell you all all you need to know about it. Hope to see you on there. And if you want to connect with me personally, I'm among most of the standard social media platforms, but we're pretty proud. Went on Facebook, I do a free coaching Friday on there where you can ask questions, but just look up Reagan on Facebook and you'll you'll find me awesome.

Well, thanks again for joining us, Ray, and thank you all for joining us. Inside the grainier on Blair, Brian Nichols, your co-host. And we've been live with Ray Higdon inside the Green Room in our Facebook group. Your events matter. So if you are meeting planner, event organizer, please apply to join our group so you can join our next conversation if you can find more episodes and catch up on anything you've missed. If you look up inside the greeting with PBH three, anywhere you listen to podcast and check out our free resources at our website inside the Gregan podcast Dotcom.

Thanks again. And we'll see you next time.

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