Focusing Your Way To Millions (Ryan Angelo)

If you are an entrepreneur, you are aware that you must overcome several hurdles before experiencing satisfying success. In this interview, I learned the significance of focus. I grasped the idea that success will come once there is no longer a frantic race to every new trick, gimmick and secret. Desired results will occur through motivation and determination.

Moreover, Ryan Angelo will teach how the person with the proactive mindset gets things done as oppose to the person with the reactive mind set. In order to remove negative influences such as worry, fear, procrastination, doubt and laziness, you must mentally replace them with positive ideas and experiences.

You will see how free knowledge has its place when it comes to building your business but shouldn’t be solely relied on for personal growth. Once you have acquired knowledge, you must integrate it and tailor it so that it fits your voice. This will make your approach authenticate and produce phenomenal results.

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To download the entire transcript and/or audio interview, scroll to bottom …

Hey friend, this is Ryan Angelo with AlphaInfluence.com. This conversation is with a gentleman named Daegan Smith, who is a very chill guy. The greatest thing about Daegan is he takes a step back, and really looks to understand other people and this becomes very evident in both his message and how he conducts teaching his message.

His ability to attract the ideal following and prospect is really remarkable because Daegan is so very present, and that will become very evident to you as we continue into this conversation.

Daegan is extremely powerful water elemental. Because of that he’s very grounded and steady, so when life throws him frustrations or challenges, let’s just say that Daegan’s not too concerned about it. He has the ability to maintain his calm, his presence and awareness. Ss you listen to this call, I’d like to encourage you to contrast his mindset with your own.

See what parts of this conversation come out. Take some notes. See what elements here really resonate with you and what elements you’re resistant to, because in doing so you’re going to gain a little more insight into yourself and that’s where it really ultimately begins. Your ability to understand people begins with your ability to understand yourself, and how your mind, your personality and how all that you are, is built the way that it is.

Ladies and gentleman, thanks again for coming and hanging out with us for this conversation with my good friend, Daegan Smith. Daegan, thanks a lot man for hanging out. You got a lot of wisdom and insight to share with us today.

Daegan: Absolutely. I totally appreciate it. It’s an honor. I’m actually sitting in the backyard on my hammock. So, this is just a relaxing little break and so I’m appreciative to be able to share a few thoughts or ideas that can hopefully help a few people.

Ryan: I have no doubts.

I’m curious at that backyard is it in some boring place, what are you looking at right now?

Daegan: I’m looking at the pool, and behind the pool are some nice little palm trees which obstruct my view, but if they weren’t there, there’s the ocean right behind. I actually not too long ago moved to Maui, Hawaii on the Wailea side.

Ryan: Nice.

Daegan: Yeah.

Ryan: Very cool.

Daegan: Living in paradise.

Ryan: I want to hear how you got there man because that’s a pretty awesome accomplishment. I’m going to ask you about your story, but I want to jump right in and ask you this.

How important is it being an entrepreneur as in just being a person, to become an alpha influencer?

By that, I mean a person who has got a strong mindset, strong inner game, has developed a powerful presence like an outer game, understands and can relate to people, and has the ability to influence others and outcomes.

Daegan: It is of ultimate importance because if you can’t influence others, then what that means is you can’t even really influence yourself. The only way to influence others is to first influence yourself. So, it’s all part of the same hole. It’s all part of growing into who you are, creating your own ethical and philosophical construct that drives you toward success, and without it you have no success. So, it’s of the ultimate importance.

Ryan: I completely agree with you and I’ve noticed, and correct me if I’m wrong, there are a lot of individuals out there who somewhat overlook that because they’re focusing on other things.

Typically this is the main reason why they don’t reach levels of success they want, or even potentially run into some failure or would you disagree with that?

Daegan: No. I definitely agree. Every entrepreneur is different, but I would say after working with a lot of people on an individual level, most people, their eyes are focused on money.

They buy a book, and the book says you can make money using this special trick, which inherently removes their own value proposition from the equation, where all they want to do is learn the trick and move from trick to trick when that’s not how you can ever succeed. You can create a little bump here and there, maybe a little, I don’t know short-term win, but you won’t win the war.

That’s why people generally fail for a period of time, but most that succeed eventually wake up and say hey, it’s not about all this info it’s about me and my focus.

Ryan: I concur. Tell us Daegan, you are a very successful individual; strong wealth and you are living in paradise.

Was all that just given to you on a silver platter; tell me about your story .

Daegan: Yeah actually, it was. I won the lottery two years ago and I pretended to have a business. Honestly, everything I’ve accomplished has been pure luck. I love life and I’m grateful for that luck. No. I’m like everybody else. I am the every day man.

I had a job I didn’t like and a vision of a future to walk into that made me a little scared. So, with no experience, like a lot of people that jump into becoming entrepreneurs based on a desire and curiosity at first more than anything else, I ventured into discovering what marketing was and what the internet was and that curiosity just persisted, becoming an obsessive curiosity more than anything else and taking risks.

Taking risks and believing is what led to success, so no silver spoon here. Just trying a bunch of stuff that people told out of curiosity, paying up front for the knowledge and keeping what worked, integrating it into who I am and my own philosophy and sharing that out through my own filter.

Ryan: A couple things you just touched on– actually, a few really powerful things.

First, paying for the knowledge up front, versus free knowledge.
Second, integrating stuff instead of just learning it.
Third, your filter, applying it in a way that best relates to you.

Let me ask you a question. There are a lot of people out there who offer a whole bunch of free information or individuals have lots of suggestions and what not to give. I’ve noticed this, and correct me if I’m wrong, but free advice, unless it’s from a very skillful person who’s very compassionate which can be rare in a lot of places, typically isn’t that valuable.

Investing in yourself, in knowledge and in developing skills, would you agree that that’s a vital thing for any entrepreneur, even a person to do?

Daegan: Yes. If we’re going to speak from the perspective of the entrepreneur, free advice plays a part in your business in that it buys the attention of your target market, so it has a place.

Ryan: Yes.

Daegan: However, from the standpoint of the person growing, you can’t really value what you don’t pay for. This is a question I’ve asked people a lot. Who are the people that they look up to the most? I know when I ask that question of myself in terms of my business, it’s always the people I’ve given the most money to.

So, belief has a lot to do with what you’re willing to risk and what you’re willing to risk with any particular individual, is like a value statement to yourself, I believe in myself so hard that I’m willing to spend this money, and I’m going to make it work no matter what.

So, there’s no value unless you spend and take on risk for the acquisition of the information that can change your life. Does that make sense?

Ryan: That makes perfect sense. It’s absolutely true. The next part you touched on, the idea of integrating the information. I’ve noticed that a lot of individuals will buy a bunch of books or courses and they might skim over it or plan to read it tomorrow, but they don’t.

How important is to actually take time to integrate information, to let it kind of seep in and become a part of you or can you just get away with like cramming for an exam like people used to in high school is it the same kind of game?

Daegan: I think that’s a question of mastery. My own opinion is I don’t think you need to learn the in-depth nature of all things before you can go and apply something. I think the faster you can get the basic concept and actually just go and try, the more you’re going to learn. But the integration comes over time.

Let’s say you learn how to do teleseminars. Like one of my mentors, a guy by the named of Michael Cage – really good at doing teleseminars. The first time I did a teleseminar I took his basic construct and put it into play. Only after I had done that could I come back and really absorb all the finer points. Integration is part of action, so you’re not going to get much if you just skim and do nothing you’re not going to get anything.

Secondarily, you’re not going to get anything if you have to understand everything before you’re driven to action. It’s a balance. Learn enough to go do, go do and then come back and do some deeper learning. Ask yourself the questions that will make you better.

What was I weak on?
What did I feel uneasy with?
How could I have maybe done this part better?
Is there a part that I’m missing, a point of leverage in all this that I’m missing?

That’s my take on all that.

Ryan: Dude, those are very wise questions to ask. The last element you tapped on was the idea of putting it through your filters and applying what you see fit. In a way you almost already answered that, but I want to ask you if you can maybe take it even one layer deeper.

Daegan: Okay. Here’s what I mean by that. As entrepreneurs, we get to create our own reality. When you create your own reality, why would you create one that isn’t the ideal one for you?

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Ryan: Good question.

Daegan: Yeah, so let’s go back to teleseminars because I just brought that up. If I learn a construct, but I don’t integrate it and do it my way, I’m doing it in a way that isn’t authentic for me, am I really creating the life through that medium that I should be creating? I mean, it goes even deeper than that.

I really think that the more you are yourself with the people that you communicate in your marketplace, the more you’ll resonate, the easier that communication will be and the more authentic you will come out. Integration is about ownership, is about making whatever information you’re putting yourself your own so that you can leverage it through your own unique set of tools and talents.

Ryan: I couldn’t have said it better. That is excellent wisdom, brother thank you for sharing that. Now I want to kind of shift our gears a little bit. I want to talk about the importance of the inner game. We’ve already started touching on this and the desire to evolve oneself, to improve and to ask these kinds of questions is a huge part of that.

One thing I’ve noticed is that a lot of entrepreneurs face fears that they don’t know how to overcome and I wanted to ask you to talk a little bit about the subject matter of fear as an entrepreneur and what advice you want to give on that.

Daegan: There are a couple things I can say.

The first thing that comes to my mind is a training that I went through from another one of my mentors.

It was on the topic of developing confidence. How do you develop confidence? The answer was simply, get good at something. When you get good at something, now you feel comfortable in what you’re doing, which can lead to positive reinforcement. It’s another level that can lead to you opening up your mind to the possibility that you can be good at other things.

I think the best way to attack fear is to find one thing you want to get really good at and devote yourself to it until you are, because that’ll spring confidence that you can then sprinkle on other areas of what you do. Now in terms of fear itself, fear is what you make of it. I mean, there are times that I’m scared and I think there are times when we all get scared about things because you don’t know.

So, the other thing is check your mind.

Another important point in terms of fear and all these things come from the voices of people I’ve learned from, is wherever there’s a negative influence, you can’t really push it away, at least that’s what I’ve learned. Replace it and put something positive there instead.

If you fear something, I’ve found a better way to overcome that fear than battling it is to pick up something positive that you can put in its place. So, for me it means listen to a lot of personal development, thinking actively on that subject and putting myself in a place of where I want to go. You can’t succeed if you’re scared. That’s the bottom line.

Everything about being an entrepreneur is about becoming comfortable with uncertainty. So, the degree to which you’re willing to live your life in a state of the unknown is the degree to which you will succeed. So, if you’re scared, that means you’re uncertain and you have get comfortable with being uncertain. You have to either, get comfortable with the fear or find a way to replace it with something that’s empowering.

Ryan: Well said, friend. Fear doesn’t exist it’s kind of a void, but it’s so powerful that the mind creates a powerful prison to keep everybody inside of it and the trick is that there are no bars. You can either, stare at the bars or focus your energies where the bars are not there.

A friend of mine once said ‘if you’re focusing on something that you’re afraid of, you’re going to head right towards it, but the second you look away, even if it’s only one degree away, the fear can just completely vanish.’

It’s that ability to direct one’s mind that truly decides if someone’s going to fail or succeed, and that immunity to fear like you’re talking about– the ability to replace the fear with a strength, it’s just ancient principles of the mind. Your mind can only focus on one thing. You let it focus on the fear and what you’re worried about, typically it will come true.

Make yourself focus on something that you’re more comfortable with, something that you have a strength in, something that you’ve learned, a skill or learn a skill that you can focus on, it completely changes the name of the game because your mind starts to be more obedient and the fears have no chance of grabbing a hold of it.

Daegan: Yeah and the one thing I’d add to that is if there is a fear that you have right now, bring it into like the rational side of your mind and think about it. An example is I used to be very fearful of picking up the phone because I didn’t want to get rejected anymore. But now that I look back on that fear and anxiety, there was no real pain. There’s no pain from someone hanging up the phone on you. There’s no pain from doing wrong or not succeeding.

It’s not like someone’s chopping off your arm, so what are you really scared of?

Ryan: That’s one thing about fear is there’s nothing to fear but fear itself, but boy can it be an enticing illusion.

We’ve already touched on this, but I want to go directly after it. There’s a big contrast I’ve noticed in successful entrepreneurs and less than successful entrepreneurs, and it’s the contrast between the proactive and the reactive mindset. With the proactive mindset you make things happen, it’s exactly what you’re talking about, Daegan. You take control of your mind, and you put it where you want it to go.

The reactive mindset are the ones who basically succumb to these fears, worries, thought patterns, limiting beliefs or whatever the case may be for them. So, if you would, talk about the vital nature of the proactive mindset in contrast with the reactive mindset as an entrepreneur, even as a person.

Daegan: This is a good question and one that I somewhat question myself, because I think being reactive is somewhat subversive. What I mean by that is sometimes you don’t even know you’re being reactive. In a dynamically changing world that’s changing quickly, sometimes it’s hard to know if you’re moving forward or you’re reacting to a scenario or if there are some of both. Ideally, of course, you’re always building towards your dreams.

I used to wrestle. Let me give you an example from there. If all you do is wait for the other guy to take a shot on you and you react, you have an opportunity to not lose, but you can’t really win.

Ryan: That was well said, dude.

Daegan: So, reacting can maintain you. It’s stressful, you’re waiting, but if you look at any sport, it’s not the defense, not the reaction that wins the game, despite what you may think, it’s always the more aggressive and the more finely tuned aggression, the proactive nature of a team or person that creates success.

There’s uncertainty and there’s all that sort of stuff, but it’s at the same time still kind of subversive because you don’t know sometimes in a drastically changing environment whether or not you’re reacting or being proactive.

So, it’s something you have to think about yourself and I think it’s an emotional thing. If you’re feeling stressed, then most likely you’re being reactive. But if you’re moving forward or if you’re feeling like you’re on track, even though it may look like you’re reacting, you’re still in a proactive state. I think it’s an emotional thing more than anything else.

Ryan: I concur. I mean in one way, essentially if you’re reactive, you’re sacrificing power. You’re assuming that your world dictates the outcome and you have to respond to it, just like the wrestler who waits for the attack. But in a proactive mindset, you take control, whether it’s directing your mind, taking action and going after the wrestler. In that, you have the ability to alter the outcome instead of just responding to what’s happening to you.

It comes down to the ability to control the emotions. Emotions really are very skilled at overwhelming one’s mind, which is why, a moment ago you said it’s important to take our fears and drag them over into the rational side of our mind because emotions can’t survive there, for very good reason.

The importance of being able to control emotions is absolutely vital, but I’d like to ask you to go ahead and elaborate a little bit more on that cause you have a very strong control over your emotions. That’s obvious in just a few minutes of conversation with you, but even more obvious when you have challenges handed to you.

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Ryan: What would you say or contribute about the idea of controlling one’s emotion?

Daegan: I think controlling your emotions isn’t about cutting them off, but about taking the energy and turning it into something positive instead of negative. Anger can be seen as a negative emotion, but if you’re a competitive person, being angry that your competitor’s beating you can be the impetus for positive change.

Any emotion has two sides to it and I don’t think it’s about eliminating emotions so much as it is about asking yourself how can you use this emotion to drive you forward from who you are, from your standpoint of who you are?

Ryan: I was going to say, so essentially proactively guiding and directing the emotion, not necessarily blocking or dimming it, but to directing the currents where you want them to go.

Daegan: Right. I think, it’s hard to work and be passionately persuasive if you don’t have emotion. Like, how can I persuade you if I’m not talking about your life’s dreams and how I can help you achieve those dreams? If I’m just talking about, this is a good investment. Let’s look at the math and I think this is a sure bet. You can tap into a little bit of people, but it’s about when you can use your emotions to excite the emotion of another person.

You can’t blunt yours. You just have to be more aware of them and ask yourself questions that allow you to use them in the right way.

Ryan: I completely agree with you, which leads us into the next element of this conversation and the importance of presence, especially when it comes to awareness. Most people that I’ve come across are lost in their minds, lost in their thoughts, their fears and their mind has control of them. They’ve not established anything that we just talked about, their inner game owns them, and they have no awareness whatsoever.

As an athlete, a person who had to be in the moment and as a person who’s an entrepreneur and is very successful, you have a special appreciation for awareness. I’d like to ask you to elaborate a little more on that and how invaluable it is to entrepreneurs.

Overall awareness, awareness of self, of people, of the environment; awareness is essentially the absence of the thought, to be in the moment, to be able to control and direct your emotions, to have the ability to see the fear and drag it into the rational mind. Like an observing ego essentially, a meta cognition aspect.

Daegan: Okay. This is a question that I don’t know if I ask myself very much, but it’s an important one, because I tend to be more of an internal person than an external person. I’m far more introverted than extroverted.

I think awareness of who you are, what your strengths are, what’s going on in your life, what’s going on in the economy, what’s going on in the marketplace, and what you can do in your position and what opportunities you have is a mindset. A lot of people tend to think oh well, this person has this advantage, or has that advantage and that’s why they’re successful, but everyone started from ground zero.

When you start from ground zero, how do you create that first success? It’s being aware of that first opportunity that comes your way. So, here’s an example. When I had my first success online in a home business opportunity, it was after not succeeding for a while. I stopped and asked myself, why am I not succeeding?

I’m not succeeding because I’m not really doing something that I like to do, which was calling leads, I don’t like that. I see that others are online succeeding, growing opportunities, using the Internet and leveraging it as a media and that’s what I want to do. If I want to do that, what do I need to have in order to do that effectively? What does the business I need to be a part of look like?

Then I listed out all the qualities. It’s got to have a lead capture page. It’s got to have this email sequence. It’s got to have this sort of a direct response marketing sales presentation. Video, webinar, whatever, and it’s got to have these components or else it’s not going to work for me.

So, I quit that business I wasn’t succeeding in, but I had started to ask these questions and really finitely researched and put a plan into place for what I was looking for. Once I knew what I was looking for, I was in a forum, clicked on someone’s link in a post and I found a business that fit all the criteria that I was looking for that would be the right business for me to succeed.

Had I not stopped to ask those questions, I would have seen that business as just like all the rest. But because I had these specific criteria that I was looking for, it was the perfect business. I was aware that it was the perfect business for me.

So, another part of awareness, I guess in that example to pull out, is focus on what you want, how you want to do it and defining those points in terms of your success. If you sit down and do that on a regular basis, then awareness is just keeping your eyes open, being in the right place at the right time. If you don’t do that, you think you’re aware of the opportunities that are coming around, but you don’t know because you haven’t defined them for yourself.

There are two sides of it.

Focus, and

Keeping your eyes open

Does that make sense?

Ryan: That makes absolutely perfect sense and what’s really interesting is typically I notice that people either, do one or the other but they don’t have their eyes open wide enough. Essentially, what you did in essence was you became aware.

You got outside of your mind, got above it and were very cognizant and very aware of what you wanted to accomplish. You looked outside yourself by being in the moment, by being present, and you solved the problems for yourself basically from outside of yourself by focusing correctly and opening your eyes to everything that’s there, that’s possible.

Whereas, a lot of individuals maintain that reactive mindset we talked about a moment ago typically maintain their own thinking patterns. They stay inside their mind thinking the same circles, and the same limiting factors, and the same I cant’s, I’m not good enough’s or I don’t know how-to’s. It’s the ability basically silence the mind in essence, to be present, to look at things as they are instead of how the ego tries to filter them and allow yourself to solve problems that might otherwise be impossible.

I think you answered that beautifully. I want to shift towards one other element in presence now in the outer game and that’s dealing with critics. I’m sure you can probably appreciate the value and importance of critics, and I say that completely laughing.

Have you come across a handful of critics as you built yourself into a successful entrepreneur, how have you dealt with them and what would you suggest for our listeners?

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Daegan: I believe there are two types of critics, when you’re trying to create your first success that positively reinforces you bigger, better things.

There are the critics of the family, the friends and the people that are saying you can’t do it.

Those people you’ve just have to prove wrong, but it’s a different sort of a critic. My father when I started online in my business was adamantly against it. He was like this is going to destroy you. You’re going to ruin yourself and all these bad things are going to happen. I took it as a challenge. You don’t think I can. I do, and I’m going to prove you wrong. That was my approach there.

For others, it might be totally silencing the critics. It might be a path of removing all negative influences, saying look, there are critics and I’m going to create an environment where none of that gets to me, because that affects my mindset. It always comes back to questions at the end of the day.

What am I like? How do I react? What’s going to give me maximum leverage in terms of how I can respond the most positively? If you react to challenge with vigor and passion, use it. If it scares you, if challenges make you doubt yourself, remove yourself from the environment of challenge, of critics challenging you and work in a vacuum. Look only at successes.

The other type of critic that comes along, which I still have work to do on, in terms of dealing with it, is just people that when you’re successful, try to rain on your parade.

Those guys, maybe for some folks here are a little bit away, but they’re a little harder for me personally to deal with. Because, when you put your passion and your heart into something and someone’s crapping on your parade that doesn’t now you, it’s a different sort of a critic than someone that does, and is looking out for you.

Honestly, for me, it’s the opposite approach which is removing them from sight. So, for me, one thing that my support guys do for me is, they send out emails. Of course, there’s always someone that loves to be angry and that’s like the state that they live in so they react to everything with anger, and respond with hate in emails and my support team knows not to let me see that stuff.

So, there are all sorts of ways to deal with problems. That’s how I’ve dealt with critics in two different phases of my business, so hopefully that’s helpful.

Ryan: That’s very helpful. I like that you have so many different ways doing it based on one’s personality or unique style. So there are critics in the world and they’re there because most critics can’t accomplish anything on their own, so they’ve got to attack those who are. It’s different than critiquing. I mean, if you get good friends who are wise allies, you want critiques.

But criticism is never going to come from somebody who’s in a place of power. It’s a person who’s in a place of weakness and critic’s, typically all they’re doing is telling you what’s wrong with themselves. They just don’t know how to deal with it, and so they project it on you, and it’s folly, but they do so relentlessly because the only way know how to feel better about themselves. They can’t create, so they have to attack what does and what’s unique to them, which is quite pitiful in my mind.

Daegan: I think it’s also important that you think about who you are. I know as far as my business, I’m a very open, honest, giving person and I’m always willing to look at another person’s scenario if I can. So what I tend to do when I have a critic in terms of a customer is to try and understand, which is really what I shouldn’t do. So, if that’s the sort of person you are you have to think about what’s going to be the best route of action to keep you positive.

Ryan: I agree, because I do the same thing, friend. If I get critics, I analyze them and sometimes even try to help them. At the same time you have to be very careful and conscious of where you put your energy because critics typically are coming from a place of pain and wants, and some critics are like black holes. Give them any attention, they’ll take everything they possibly can from you, and that will be their success in their mind

Let’s shift gears a little bit and talk about the importance of understanding others. I’ve noticed a lot of individuals who want to get wealthy fast, people in general who typically don’t take a lot of time to try to understand people or humanity. I’m fascinated by this because it is the most ultimate and most powerful skill anyone can ever gain.

Obviously, it requires a strong mindset and a strong presence to do this, but once you’ve accomplished that inward work, the ability to understand and communicate with others effectively like you’re doing right now is invaluable and decides everything.

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Ryan: So, you’re a leader, a teacher and an entrepreneur who speaks to a lot of your customers and clients.

How vital is to have the ability to effectively communicate with your audience?

How important is it to actually understand who your audience is so you can communicate with them in a way that they really receive you, especially coming from like an authentic place, which you do.

Daegan: Well, in direct response or any marketing, in any place where you’re building a business, speaking to your audience is where all the money comes from. So, you can think of your business as, let’s think about the earth, which is pretty big and goes deep, but all the life happens on the surface. So, the communication that you have between you and your prospects is like the surface of the Earth. It’s where all the life is.

It’s of ultimate importance. It is the most important thing. It is the live or die thing of your business. In terms of understanding your prospects, it depends on where you are and what you’re doing in your business. If you are like I, and you’re a home business entrepreneur, than likely a lot of your prospects are like you when you were struggling.

A lot of what I’ve drawn on over the years has been thinking about me and what I really would have loved to have had but wasn’t available or what I would have loved for someone to tell me and give me insight on, but just wasn’t there in speaking to that person. So, you want to create what’s called kind of an avatar, which is an idealized version of your customer and speak to that one person, but everyone’s different, so you can’t speak to everyone at once.

I’ll go on and say a couple more things, but let me stop and say this. My business and most of my communication is done via email. I know if I have a list of 100,000 or 200,000 people, they’re not all just like me when I got started. So, the communication I do can’t be just to that guy, it has to be to the person that’s more challenge oriented sometimes. The message has to be, I just discovered something and I challenge you to prove me wrong, and if you do, then I’m wrong, you’re right. But I challenge you not to succeed.”

Sometimes you have to talk to the person that likes to have fun. So, sometimes the emails, hey I just came from a party and hanging out with Mr. Mike Dillard and his team, and those guys throw a great party. Man, we were out on the lake and it was like 114 degrees. Everyone was in the water. So you have to talk to those guys.

Sometimes you have to talk to the analytic. Let me show you a way to increase your conversion rates by 15%. You have to talk to community people. Hey, you may not know this, but the real core of my business isn’t about just making money.

One thing that we do that no one sees is we contribute here, here and here. It’s really important because of this, life and business isn’t about money, it’s about what you can do to change the world and help others.

No one shoe fits, but you’re one person and if you think about it you can speak to all different types of people, just not at the same time. That’s one piece of communication I think is important, having an avatar and idealized person, but understanding that there’s really four or five different of those hidden within that one.

The other thing in terms of communication that’s important is telling stories. I’m sorry I haven’t told enough stories in what we’ve been talking about, but stories transcend book knowledge. If I can tell you an example of when I walked in a blizzard, I went out in the cold to the corner store because I needed to get something and some guy in line asked me for a dollar.

This is in email…and I decided to give him a dollar, but I asked him why, out of curiosity and he says, I just got out of prison. I say, what’d you do? And he said, I used to run drugs from New York to D.C. we were in one of the biggest cocaine distributors. We ran more drugs than anybody else, but one time we got caught and got sent to jail. I was going to be in jail for 30 years, but I got stabbed and almost died and the warden let me out and now I’m homeless.

If I can tell that story and then bring it back to a point of, look at this man. This man probably made more money than I’ll ever make for a period of time, but all he did was he was in the pursuit of fast cash. If you want your business to thrive, if you want to live an empowered life, it’s got to be about more than money. So what’s your business really about?

If you can do that, that message is going to carry far longer and far deeper than if you just say focus your business on something you’re passionate about because that’s where energy comes from. You get me?

Ryan: Yes, I’m absolutely aligned with you in this.

Daegan: So communication is important, stories, avatars and different people out there. The other thing, the challenge of communication is as you progress as an entrepreneur, you’re naturally going to want to talk about things that don’t necessarily connect with your original target market. You want to talk about all the new cool doohickeys that you know how to do and you think are really valuable, but it may go right over the head of who you’d be sharing it with.

You have to be careful and I go against this rule sometimes myself every now and then and really staying with and on target with that market. And the way that you do that is you don’t talk about the tangible stuff in the sense of, here’s a way to do X, Y, Z. You don’t focus on that you focus on the person.

Look, I know you’re starting your business, not so you can make a million dollars maybe you will or you are, but at the end of the day you just want a better life. You want certainty, you don’t want to answer to anybody, and I’d like to share with you today something simple that I think will help you do that.

So, if you connect more with that side of a person, you can always connect. But if you try to connect from where you are in an intellectual standpoint, as you progress, sometimes it’s harder to connect. So you have to make sure you stay with the core desires. So, it would be the question of, they want to make money to do what?

Well, so their wife doesn’t have to work anymore.
So they can take care of their aging parents.
So they can finally retire.
So they can send their kids to school.
So they can travel the world like they wanted to.
So that they can prove all their nay-sayers wrong.

That’s how to really connect.

Now internally and this is what I’ll end on. With your team, as you develop just be yourself and make sure that you all have an aligned vision, in terms of what you want to do with the company. Communication is key. Even if you’re an introverted person like myself, you have to extend yourself to communicate on the right level and this is great for folks that are new, is it’s not about saying, hey here’s how I made a million dollars that connects with people. It’s not.

It’s about the simple things. It’s about empathy, connecting with where they are, and understanding, understanding of look, I’ve been there and I think this will help you too. That doesn’t have to be on the level of, here’s how to make $100 tomorrow or anything like that, a story or connection that’s all it’s about.

Ryan: It’s interesting you talk about the idea of being the introvert, having different communication styles and how extroverts typically just talk their thoughts. If you’re an introvert I want you to pay very close attention. If you’re an extrovert, I’d like you to listen also.

There’s a big contrast in this approach then what you typically see in a lot of places. The desire and ability to actually take time to understand the layers of your customer, your prospect, your clients, your wife, your brother, your sister, your friends or anybody; human beings, is something that’s very seldom practiced. Let me ask you as you listen to this conversation.

If I try and pitch you on something really fast, do you feel connected to me?
Are you appreciative?
Do you appreciate when other people only talk about themselves?
Or, do you feel more connected to somebody when they’re asking you questions about yourself trying to understand who you are at the core level?

I’m not talking about superficial questions like, hey, how was your day? But like what Daegan was saying. Things like what is the mission of the company? What is the mission of our team? What is – what’s the main goal? Sure, you want to have wealth, but why do you want that wealth? What’s behind that wealth? There are many layers to people and very few people ever go past the first one.

Most are just skipping stones in the water’s surface. It’s when you explore the water that you see there’s a lot more, and you can use that to effectively communicate because everybody’s got their own communication styles. There are so many different personalities, in so many different places, with so many different backgrounds and so many different ways of thinking, and so many factors to people.

The more you understand them, the more you understand that as you said the avatar. As you understand that core person you’re trying to help, you’ll notice that the more you understand that individual, there will be more and more ways for you to help them, and you’ll be able to communicate to them in a way that no other can.

They’ll come running for you, which leads me to the next question I have for you, friend. You use this skill effectively and you attract ideal candidates and prospects to you effortlessly, because you take the time to understand who they are and to help them solve the problems that you experienced. But then you tweak it in such a way that different personalities can still get the same solution, but through the communication medium that’s best for them.

You’ve already hit this on the head, but I want to take it a little bit deeper because it’s such a powerful point.

The idea of attracting people to you versus pursuing and selling at them – the idea of attraction marketing– how critical is that as an entrepreneur?

That can even be applied to life in every possible way.

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Daegan: It’s critical because you want good customers or you want good teammates and the way that you find those people is by being you and speaking to the type of person that you ideally want to get to know you.

Now, when we talk about this idea of attraction marketing, to me it’s not that secret sort of stuff where you just believe and so people will come. It’s a direct application of direct response marketing. Meaning, I’m going out and whether you’re doing things that are free or paid in terms of marketing for exposure, you’re identifying the person who you can help the most. You’re stopping them and saying hey, I know you have this. I think I can help you get out of this. I think I can help you get this and I’d like to give it to you.”

It’s attraction marketing, and I think most people get this. It’s not magic it’s communication. It’s saying things that allow the right person to say yes and come closer to you through your funnel, but you’re still proactively seeking them out. The attraction process is when they see your front door, whether they come in or they go away.

So the name of the game is to have a door that only lets in people you want to hang out with, people you want to be associated with, that you know you can help.

Ryan: Well said. Now let’s turn our interest to influence. Essentially, if you apply anything you’ve talked about so far, you’ve already influenced you’ve created that connection and report, so people have no problem doing what you ask because they trust you.

I still would like to ask you though, Daegan, talk about the importance of being a strong influencer, but an ethical, genuine influencer, and what that could mean for a person in their business and in their life. Influence, I mean, I’m sure you’d agree with me is the most vital skill for success.

Daegan: Let me think about that question from a different angle first. The importance of influence I think is pretty apparent, but let me talk about why people lack influence to a great degree. It’s because they lack focus.

This is where 99% of people go wrong. It’s where I went wrong. It’s where everyone goes wrong until they figure it out. Until you figure out who you want to be, how do you know who you want to influence?

The way that I became successful was I said I want to be able to recruit people without picking up the phone. I want to teach others who don’t like using the phone to grow their business how to do the same thing too. It doesn’t have to be complex for you to create a specific focus. It doesn’t even have to be highly unique, but you have to start somewhere so that you can find a group of people who are influenceable, because you know at their core, they want what you have.

That’s where people lack. A lot of people just, in my opinion, want they just nice people into their business. They want to espouse personal development philosophies; f you’ll believe hard enough, you’ll achieve and all that sort of stuff which is true, but not without application.

There is no influence if you’re just saying, just sit back and relax, and think about the perfect you without a context. Now, if we put that into a context of, I am here to teach you how to put people into your business without picking up the phone because I’ve done it and I can help you do it. What I need you to do right now is close your eyes and think about ideally what your business looks like when that’s happening. Now I’m influencing you.

So, influence is important, but people lack influence because they’re lazy at the beginning. Some have heard this message, some just don’t know yet, but you have to have one specific thing that you want to start with. You want to be one thing to one group of people, and from that point you – then you can start being as crazy as you want.

Then you can start talking about if you’re a Jedi and you can move things with your mind. That’s cool, because if I’m teaching you to recruit without picking up the phone and I’ve got a Jedi mind trick that will have people from mind power alone join your business, now it makes sense. But you have to start from somewhere. You have to know who you are and to who you are that, and then speak to them from there. It’s a one to one conversation.

I’m talking to the guy at McDonald’s who’s selling me the burger because he’s got the burger and I want it. Or, I’m going to the car dealership because I want to buy a car and the guy selling me the car knows that I’m thinking about it, and he’s trying to help me choose the right one. When we just think in this world of, oh there’s the gigantic Internet with all these people and I could just get a few to join my business without thinking about what value you have to give them, you’re lost.

Influence is more about focus, and choosing a direction and here’s the thing about that and people fear, what if I’m not the best in the direction that I choose or someone else out there is far superior to me? What if I choose the wrong direction? Neither matters. All that matters is that you choose one way, you start speaking to one group of people with one message and there is where influence is born.

Ryan: I agree. You’ve got an excellent understanding, Daegan. One of the more impressive ones I’ve encountered in a lot of people that I’ve talked to.

Daegan: Thank you.

Ryan: It’s essentially you’re capturing the core essence of what Alpha Influence is, the reason I created. Alpha typically is thought to be like this big warrior, but Alpha really just denotes the first in the series, where the most powerful presence and influence typically is an internal element, something that creates a change.

The goal isn’t to have a few influence tricks, or as you’re saying, like understand these little things. It’s actually to become influence, a lot of that really is based on how you choose to mold yourself and that’s the whole reason behind the proactive mindset we’ve been talking about.

The importance of being able to control the emotions, the ability to be more aware, and to direct yourself and then expanding that awareness to other people to understand them so you can communicate with them in a way that’s enticing and intriguing, but also helps solve their problems, and does so in a way that it takes consideration of all their unique traits and personalities.

Then the application of the influence is almost like a symphony. If a single instrument is out of place, people notice that instrument more than anything else. Influence really isn’t necessarily your ability to read an influence book, and use a simple technique. True influence, alpha influence, like true leadership is really becoming and personifying influence, becoming something that creates change almost instinctually. And like you say it comes down to one’s focus and where they put their mind.

Your goal, and correct me if your wrong, your goal is to really help a lot of people. You come from a very genuine place and so a big part of that desire to help people is your ability to understand people, which is why you put so much time and energy into it.

Then, if you’re going to help people, if you understand them, obviously you’ve got to have strength within yourself, which is why you built yourself into the person you have, and why you look at the challenge you face and you figure out ways to solve them. But the way you go about your influence is very unique, as it is with any kind of an alpha influencer.

Daegan: I’m pragmatic. Everything I’ve learned I paid for, and then I’ve had to think about it a bunch, try it a bunch and then come back and say it in the words I’ve just said.

Ryan: So it comes back to the first three things you touched on in our conversation.

Pay for important information,
Take time to integrate it, and
Apply it in the way that’s best for you

You do a good job with that, brother. We have had a really good wisdom- packed conversation.

If you have one last piece of wisdom that you’d like to impart on the individual who’s listening right now, what would that be?

Daegan: Let’s put it in context of what we’re talking about. If we’re talking about influence, we’re talking about becoming an alpha. That is you being the best you. You believing that you deserve success. You believing and knowing that that success is a certainty. Now, you can appear to be crazy to all those around you before you’re successful if you have these beliefs, this emotion and this passion, but who cares that’s all that matters.

Let me say it like this. The most successful entrepreneurs that I have met or studied under are not the most – always the most, balanced people – but they all have one thing in common. They all have a very rigid, philosophical and ethical code that they follow as it relates to the area of success that they embody.

So, here’s the thing. You choose an area that you want to be really good at, something you want to influence people and help them to become better at. All you have to do is choose that group, believe exceptionally strongly; it could be totally irrational what you believe, but if you believe it and you share it with passion through what we call attraction or direct response marketing, you will create a following.

You can be crazy, believe me, some of the people that I have learned from are insane. It’s not magic. It’s not incredibly technical, but it is about you releasing fear and being the core you no matter how crazy it may be, even to the point sometimes where you’re like a steroid pumped up version of your own persona. That actually, to a great degree, works better.

And the other side of the spectrum is as I’m not overly philosophically rigid. I’m kind of middle of the road, but I know. I’ve learned a lot. I’ve studied a lot. I’ve helped a lot and I’ve noticed trends. If you want to be massively successful – billionaire, millionaire, whatever it takes – all you need is to believe, have a group that you’re focused on, understand direct response marketing and communicate with fury and passion from the standpoint of your belief.

You will create a cult. Isn’t that what I just kind of described for you? You don’t have to be sane. Cult leaders, so this idea can be used for good or bad, but those who lead cults aren’t necessarily balanced individuals and do generally cause harm to others. But they gain influence over others because of their certainty, absolute, finite certainty in their belief about reality and their version of the world.

People cling to that certainty. So, you can bring certainty of reality just through your emotions. People will be attracted. People will want to know more. Use it for good, not for evil, the degree to which you put that out there you will see a massive magnetism towards you come back. Does that make sense?

Ryan: Makes perfect sense. I completely agree with everything you’ve just said. Where can our listener find you? Where do they go to learn more about you and what you have to offer because friends, I want you to study this guy.

Daegan: You can either go to Maximum-Leverage.com, DaeganSmith.com or you can just hit me up on Facebook. That’s how to find me.

Ryan: Very cool. I appreciate you hanging out and having this conversation, dude. Thanks for sharing what you’ve shared and for personifying what you’ve shared which is probably the greatest part of this entire conversation.

Daegan: Wow, thank you! Like I said, I’ve been on the hammock the whole time, so it’s been a fun little intellectual exercise. I hope people get a lot of value out of it. Pull some points. Don’t take it all just take what works for you. Thanks so much for having me.

Ryan: Thanks a lot. Be well. Talk soon.

Daegan: Bye-bye.

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