011: Get Around People Who Are Growing And Learning The Accent Of Success with John Di Lemme

Hi everybody, its Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me here today on the entrepreneur way. The entrepreneur way is about the entrepreneur’s journey. The vision, the mindset, the committment, the sacrifice, failures and successes. I am so excited to bring you our special guest today, John Di Lemme. The entrepreneur way asks the questions, and gets the insight and the inspiration and the ideas to apply in our businesses. So John, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

Absolutely, and the question I have, I want to make sure people are ready to receive it. We are on a journey, and we are on all way, we want to make sure everyone today. Grab a pen that writes, and lets get on our way.

Fantastic John. Now John Di Lemme went from a clinically diagnosed stutterer to an international speaker. High end business consultant and strategic business coach, That has changed lives and exploded businesses world wide. Through his teachings, live events, his club and his consulting. John, can you provide us with some more insight into your business and personal life? To allow us to get to know more about what you do, and who you are?

Sure absolutely and the only request that I have, and I know that everyone is listening to this obviously virtually through the pod cast. I want everyone to grab a piece of paper right now, and a pen that writes, and I want you to print the date. Whatever date you are listening to. Could be ten years from now, could be ten years from the time I am recording it. Or it could be 2016/17/18. Whatever date and specific year it is, write it down, because one thing Neil, you are going to really hear me teach today is note-takers are history makers. The more notes we take, the more history we make. And I believe entrepreneurs want to make history. Obviously we know many entrepreneurs through all of the specific different niches in businesses, have created some incredible journeys and some incredible success stories. So, grab a pen and I want you to write down my story, in the first person guys and it has nothing to do with John Di Lemme, I am going to share with you my story, but all of you have a story also. And I believe the greatest chapter of your future is about to written.

I have written 23 plus books, and as an author I can tell you, I remember the last chapter, and I remember writing the beginning of the next chapter. And I believe today, you are going to be able to extract information from Neil’s great questions and from the other interviews he has done. To begin to write the greatest story, and the greatest chapter in your life. So to share more about my story, as you can hear from my accent, I was born and raised in Manchester. No I was not Neil ha ha ha ha. Obviously you can hear Neil was raised in the UK. And I live now in beautiful West Palm Beach Florida, but I was born and raised in New York. As all of you can hear my accent. I am from New York and I want you to write down the first massive success nugget to date. Success is an accent. And you sound like who you listen to, and it is so important to listen and learn from champions and entrepreneurs who have achieved what you want to achieve. So I come from a very loving family. As a matter of fact, this upcoming weekend, I have one of my inner circle champion mastermind club events. My bootcamps, and my mom and my dad will be there, and my mom will be 85. Actually tomorrow, as with time since of recording this. So I come from a very loving family, my parents have been married 66 years. Born and raised in New York. I come from a very large Italian family, alot of noise, alot of screaming, alot of love among all of us.

What they start to notice, and this is very important guys, people will notice things about you, they notice since the age of four, I was not speaking like all my brothers, like my cousins, and our very large family. So what they did was they took me out to Lawrence Hospital, where I was born. I was born 1965 8.35 am. Room 404. A very specific time in history all of you were also born. I know for a fact, everyone listening today has a heartbeat and has a birthday. Thats all I need to know. You have a heartbeat and a birthday, the greatest years of your life are now ahead of you. Its all a matter of choices. Age four, I remember for 30 minutes, they put this big ear muffs on me and every time I heard a whistling sound in my ears, I would have to knock on a table, top of the table, to signify to the doctor that I can hear it. So, and I still remember this as if it was a second ago. The Doctor walks out of the ‘investigation room’ the room investigating my hearing and my speech. They thought I was mute.

Mmm hmmm

and they thought I couldn’t hear which made me not be able to speak, so long story short, they said, ‘your son can hear fine. He has a speech impediment.’ That means I was afraid to speak. Because fear creates results in everyones life, you have to realise that. For me it was an outward tangible, it was very noticable, my lack of speaking. You guys will even hear me stammer today a little bit. When I talk or do interviews, and all the classes I have done. So long story short, age of four, then my parents because they loved me dearly, put me into speech class, from age 4 – age 18. I went to speech class, I went to reading class, I went to special education classes, I was a very bright student. I got straight A’s in high school. I had a full scholarship to three colleges, I graduated a number two business student in college, yet at the age of 18.  For those of you that may know the state education system, in New York State, up in New York, there is a specific Resus Diploma. And there are different teachers and professors that come in and will test us. And believe it or not, it was Italian class, I took Italian for four years and I came in and the way that my life was just going down a certain entrepreneur way, they actually tested me on, see I went to an old catholic high school, thats another whole boot camp in itself. They tested me on saying the ‘our Father’, in Italian, in Italian class.

I got up there, I said positive feel good .. for those who may sonnet classes, the name of the father and holy spirit, after that I was done. I just started stammering, freaking out, and then the teacher said, ‘are you with us or against us?’ and I remember that, and he sat me down. And I got the little check next to my name. Diagnosed stutterer, stammerer, failed oral report – to continue with speech class. I’m 50 years of age right now, and in 50 years young, I have spoken in now over 30 countries. I have produced over 350 cds, dvds, written 23 plus books, obviously I didn’t have a speech impediment. I had a fear impediment. Fear was a blocker. Flipping forward very very quickly, age 24, that entrepreneur juice was flowing in me. And my family owns art businesses in New York, we have always done upper middle class, working really hard, I was raised in the retail entrepreneur business with my family. And I saw an ad that said, ‘make $10,000 dollars a month, wear tailor-made clothes, drive a Mercedes-Benz’ now I was bored in my life. Long story short, that is a direct selling, for a direct selling company. But over and beyond that, I went after the event, and I got introduced to self-developments.

That night, and I went out the next day and it was March 15th 1990. I remember the day, I showed on my planner, my events now, and I am really digging into my story because I want you guys to realise there were times in life you can either choose to work by faith, choose to make a decision, or choose to procrastinate and stay stuck based upon those who are around you. Long story short, I purchased a book ‘Think and grow rich’ which obviously all of you listening to this, most like it, read it, know it, if not, homework assignment number one, get a hold of it, it was written by Napoleon Hill. He interviewed multi billionaires, kind of what you are doing right now Neil. Interviewing entrepreneurs with and you find that common thread for everyone. So I read the book, and I got inspired about achieving miracles. I got inspired about achieving miracles. I got inspired about the possibilities in my life and that started my journey of self-development. 7 years later, I earned over one million dollars in direct selling, but beyond that in 6 1/2 years  I overcame my speech impediment. And as I speak today, I  am not a perfect oratator as they say, I am not a perfect speaker, I stammer every once in a while, I have a very distinct strong New York Accent. But obviously I can communicate and I can teach and fifteen years ago I realise, so every body is stuck. All business owners, entrepreneurs stuck. And I said, ‘the missing link is what is going on in your head.’ So I started to teach success principles and actually I am doing this interview from my office here in South Florida.

On my office desk I have my first cassette tapes. So I been in this game, ha ha ha a long time. Thats kind of my story, where I have come from, and how that was a life-altering time in my life.

Thats fantastic John. I found that really interesting, so what do you enjoy most about what you do?

Right now, what I enjoy most is the satisfaction and the enjoyment of my clients, now from a business perspective now, I am a high-end business consultant, strategic business coach, what that means is, I consult for relators, doctors, lawyers, entrepreneurs. People that are on courier companies, people that are on AC Heating companies, individuals in network marketing, so any type of industry I consult for. What satisfies me is when I see someone free of what to do next. Now one of my top clients, his name is Michael Zapot. He is a physiotherapist. He has been a physiotherapist for 16 years. And 2015 his business went up 600% and he is now famous for saying, this is his testimony he shares about how we are going to introduce to me of what he is implementing now. What he said, ‘I don’t have a fear of what to do next, I have specific directions.’ So it gives me excitement, is people living a fun life. You know I have a book titled ’31 attitudes of a self-made millionaire’ and an attitude is a mindset. And one of the attitudes is fun, I believe life is meant to be fun, enjoyable, so what gives me joy is the satisfaction of the clients that I mentor and people that grab hold of my material and read it. They are inspired, they are moving forward, and then the ripple effect. Which is very powerful.

What happens after is their clients are having someone do business with who is fired up, focused, excited so we have mom and pop businesses, small businesses, one is about to go to a billion dollars, very successful companies, but what drives me is that their businesses are fed by clients that could be trusted. Because we are in the economy of trust you know, .. so that gives me joy when one of my clients’ business explode and they have satisfied clients, and they in their life in that specific niche they are in business with, they never have to be concerned about having a horrible customer service experience. Or horrible follow-up. So that gives me joy.

People being satisfied in life, from all angles, from customers, and obviously my clients. Being able to trust what we teach and operate at that next level.

John, you sort of touched on my next question, so what is it that drives you? I think you might have partially answered that with what you said before.

You know, what drives me is I believe everyone is born a champion. You know my second book I wrote was ‘champions are born, losers are made’ I believe all of you are on this earth, for a reason. I believe you are all here for a specific reason. No matter what, maybe a family member or a friend told you and they create this emotional disfunctionality in life, you know everything is a thought process. So what drives me is to see people succeed and to see people wake up each day with direction. And not deal with fear and not talk about the past, you know. Used to be’s, maybes, and wanna be’s do nothing. Today’s actions predict tomorrow.

I  You made me think of something by Jim Rohn there, I think he says, ‘the past is a school not a stick’ something like that.

Yeh. I mean what was exciting was I had the opportunity of sharing the stage six times with Mr Jim Rohn during my speaking career. And I was honoured to speak with Mr Rohn. And I remember when he saw me speak, the first time I spoke, and at the end he had his little baseball cap on him, he was in the back row and I say this humbly for all of you that are getting into the speaking world. If you are a speaker, take this wisdom from Mr Jim Rohn. This was back in 2003, and it is the first time I spoke with Jim Rohn. And I was sitting there and taking notes and he looked over and he said, ‘John,’ you know Jim Rohn’s voice, ‘John, you stay clean.’ I didn’t know what that meant back then, he said, ‘you stay clean, you keep learning, you will be one of the most successful speakers because you are a student of what you teach.’ And at the end of the event he said to me, he said, ‘John take a look around at the event, take a look at who took the most notice in this room.’ and I said, ‘why I believe Mr Rohn, you and I have been in the room most of the time.’ he said ‘yes, take a look at the other speakers. They are too busy talking about themselves and not listening to wisdom, this is, the day you think you are beyond learning, is the day you stall.’ And I have taken that, and that is why I am up. Any time I speak at seminars, I am there, if it is a 2/3 day event, I am there the entire time taking notes. I am always learning. So Jim Rohn is, to me the grandfather of self-development. There is no question, is to me.

I totally agree, amazing guy. I loved listening to him. How do you relax when you are not working in your business?

Excellent, you know for all the entrepreneurs, you should love what you do and this question is always asked to my wife, who I have done many interviews and they always ask me ‘what does your husband do to when his business mind is turned off and?’ I am actually fascinated with self-development and fascinated with marketing. So we just spent the week up in New York between Christmas and New Year. So I went to see one of my clients, in upstate New York, he’s a relator. Besides that, I went to see my brother and then we stayed at the Ritz Carlton. In the marketing realm, I teach from five companies. The Ritz Carlton, Amazon, Home Shopping Network, Starbucks and Disney. Multi-billion dollar companies that created niches within niches. So what I do, is I actually learn, I actually right now, this isn’t working to me. I love speaking, I love teaching, I love sharing, so in all the entrepreneurs, any time and I have a chapter in my forthcoming book called the ‘top ten worst words to use’ and one of the worst words is working.

I use the word buildings. I believe we are all buildings, so for me, I love what I do, I love reading, I love learning, I love writing. I am writing my 24th /25th / 26th book right now. As you are interviewing me. So, I kind of love what I do, I love teaching, so I am 50 years young, I exercise, I am in great physical shape. I am an athelete, so I do alot of exercise, and so I do work out every day. I have done some crazy fitness challenges. I am known for doing 45 mins box jumps. I love everyone from the UK because I just completed a one million metre row, I am a big rower, I love rowing.

Yeh I do that.

So I am very in to fitness and even when I’m, I just finished exercising today, and I got my ipod on, I was actually listening to a Jim Rohn teaching from 1992. Ha ha ha on my ipod today, so and I believe for all of you listening too, love what you do, I mean just love what you do. I believe Bill Gates even though he is not with Microsoft, I believe he is still loves programming. Ha ha ha.

I’m sure he does. I’m sure he does. So John, do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

My Grandfather. My Grandfather came from Italy with nothing and he went to like third grade education. And he was born in 1900 and actually my 24th book I am writing is called ‘Poppa’s wisdom’ unbelievable amazing man. Came over to the United States in 1900 and he was in Manhattan during the depression for the 1920, 1930, during the depression times. He started to realise he had a ten, he said, ‘I will never take money from the goverment,’ he said, ‘why should they give me something I should go and produce? even at that time. I did not know what the word entitlement meant back then, but that is the unique word they use these days. But he started to know that in his early 20’s, at 21 years of age, god gave him a gift to be able to paint. So he would go on the streets of Manhattan, and take a little canvas and paint on it. And he would sell the paintings for five cents, 8 cents, ten cents. They didn’t know people already liked them, then he went to the lumber yard and took wood and made the wood and made a frame around them. Lets flip it forward Neil to when I graduated at college, we had one store, we had one art gallery, my grandfather, I mean talk about timing guys. My grandfather was born in 1900. He opened his first art gallery in 1965. 65 years young. I was born in 1965. My brother Phil who runs the art galleries now in York has been here since 1967.

So I was born and raised in the entrepreneur way, I used to walk from grammar school to the art studio. And I used to see my grandfather sitting in front of blank canvases, and tell all of his students. He would say, ‘this is like your life, its a blank canvas. You are an artist, whatever you create is your masterpiece, don’t let someone else’s value give you the perception of what something is worth or not. And I was born and raised around extreme integrity. And I teach right now, I have books about extreme customer service. My grandfather was extreme customer service. He was always paying attention, it is interesting we talked about being on time. We would always get, Saturday was a big pick up day for custom. Framing custom, mats and hard work and restoration work for the art business. My grandfather from day one would say, ‘we always took if people could be off work on Saturday, pick it up on Saturday.’ And he would always say, the pick up date is Saturday but when I started working here, to this day right now, my brother still does it. Even though something is going to be due Saturday, its ready on Friday, because people are thinking about their family, picture their family portrait, their wedding, their certificate, their diploma, whatever, and they are going to call on the way home from Friday, we want to say YES to a customer on the phone. Yes its done for you, Neil, so you can come in right now. My grandfather, integrity, family friendly values, focused, caring about people, loving his family. My grandfather told me two things, and this is very important for all the entrepreneurs.

He goes, ‘every night you go to bed, there are two things that will go on with or without you. Is your reputation, and what you tell people.’ and he says, ‘everything you tell people, tell them the truth, even if they don’t like it,’ like right now as a strategic business coach and a consultant, sometimes I tell people things, like I identify the elephants in the room, they don’t want to hear it, but its the truth. So thats my grandfather. He is absolutely, and my dad who is 85 years of age right now. Is obviously one of my top mentors also and he is known as fully d – he comes out to my advance and he is a fireball.

Wow, John, are you ready to now throw your mind back to the time before you were an entrepreneur?

Sure.

Ok, what difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

The number one difficulty was and I look back now and trying to convince people what I was doing, what I was into. I was telling entrepreneurs now, you are not in the business of convincing, you are in the business of replacing. You are in the business of replacing dissatisfaction with satisfaction. So my first million dollars I earned, the first company I built a million in the beginning, just trying to force people to get ahold of product or service that they did not want. Thats the biggest promise alot of people, and now as I teach now, I have a book about marketing words and I talk about the word dissatisfied.

Yeh

What you are looking for, is dissatisfied people to satisfy them. So I believe all of you, don’t force people to try to grab a hold of your product or service, people who are not interested.

Yeh and did you make, did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business. The biggest doubt that I had for me personally, was I was very into self-development, I was not into making a lot of money, as I said earlier, I come from a loving family, I was, we weren’t multi-millionaires, but we were ‘putting a hard days work in’ we were living it up in middle class. I worked 80 hours, thats one thing too, I see people 40 hours a week for entrepreneurs. You can just bank that one and forget about that. It becomes a lifestyle. You know the number one doubt I had in the beginning was my own journey, it was my own belief structure, that is why I read ‘think and grow rich’ and Earl Nightingale ‘Lead the field’ and the magic of thinking big and the psychology of winning, I had to re-develop what already existed, so all of you thats why my company’s name Di Lemme Developing Group is, you know we are developing what already exists, that is the key. Is that your entrepreneur building is already there. Its just a matter of developing it, it is some of you guys and I say respectfully, you have to lose the ego, and realise the more you develop your confidence, your belief structure, your self-esteem. The higher and stronger your business will be.

So I think a lot of people, Neil, doubt that, they don’t understand and I combine motivation plus marketing you know I marriaged the two, motivation really is internal confidence, belief structure for you to be able to market to a client, be confident. Follow-up, be on time and so forth so. That was my biggest issue was my eternal doubt which I developed over six years and overcame stammering and now I won’t shut up, so ..

Yeh, I think you have conquered it. Ha ha ha John did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

I have to say no, I don’t not at all. No.

Thats good. and what mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

In my second company that I built to all goes to a billion dollars shortly, is firing people quicker. Right now, I have an awesome team and in my teachings now, but years ago, I felt bad for people and I think all of you that realised and this is something that I teach all the time, is that the experience of your consumer, is only known by your team member, that why the Ritz Carlton is known for extreme customer service. And you know my cousin Peter, I was actually on the phone with him today, he talked about mentorship, he is my marketing manager, he has been on a home shopping network for 21 years. He has done hundreds and hundreds and millions of dollars on air live. And he has never showed up late once. Because guess what? you’re fired. So I believe now, I have zero tolerance for employees, which would probably cost me upwards ten or fifteen million dollars not firing people quick enough.

Yeh and what are some of the things you did before you started your business that would be helpful tips for some of the listeners? who haven’t yet taken that first step of the entrepreneurs way?

Two things, I want to identify right now, because so many businesses are failing, identify why businesses are failing. I will tell you a number of reasons why they are, its customer service, we are in the economy of customer service. Its not Amazons fault. Its not Apples fault, Blackberry lost out listening to the consumer, you know give the consumer what they want. Don’t give them what you think they want. Listen to what they want and give them what they want. And then when you provide with someone who wants, all you are doing is just solidifying and giving him a solution for a product that they want also have zero ego when listening to your consumer, look at Blackberry versus Apple and Samsung. Look at Amazon.com versus Walmart.com. Walmart is now spending two billion dollars in the next two years to try to catch up to Amazon. And let me, if anyone from Walmart.com is listening to this, it ain’t happening. Amazon has created the niche for ten years, They call Jack Bazar the Wall Street Renegade. Because he was barely making money, because he always took the long-term mindset.

Yeh its amazing what Amazon has done. So now what I would like to do is move forward and talk about your entrepreneurial journey a little bit John, so when you have started working in businesses or having your own business, so in business, is culture important from the beginning do you think?

1000% culture is everything, that is why I have a very distinct New York Accent, you have a very distinct UK accent, because you were born and raised in certain cultures, and the number one culture for your business should be customer service, going beyond the call of duty. And paying attention to your customer. Culture is the key, whatever culture you are going to be very diversified. You got to have culture I think its very very important.

Yeh, great answer. And knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out, would have helped you to short cut the learning curve?

Absolutely, studied people outside my industry, this is the issue, and I say this respectfully, totally respectfully. I earned a million dollars in direct selling, I made some great real estate investments, I have spoken at close to 75 real estate investment seminars, I made some great real estate investments. I believe gods making no more land, I believe your investments will always appreciate. The in land. So when I got into speaking, in 2001. Long story short, I started to speak at this kind of seminars and I would see these speakers on stage all fired up and riled up up up up. Then I get to know them going, they are broke, they got no money. I am like, I am confused. So that is when I flipped a switch and I started to study, businesses outside your niche, and all of us, and the reason why I mentioned those five companies, Amazon, Home Shopping, The Ritz Carlton, Disney and Starbucks.

Yeh

When you guys know those companies, they did not create the niche they are in. All they did was satisfy the niche that the consumer was already in. That is huge marketing wisdom. Your consumer is already in a niche, just satisfy like never before then you can convert them into being a satisfied customer of yours, so, for me, I spent too many years at the beginning Neil studying, I respect Jim Rohn, I respect him for his speaking ability. But now, from a business perspective, I built my business and it all goes to go to the first billion dollar self-development company. I studied operate my companies based upon multi billion dollar companies. And I believe that is a big belief mindset entrepreneurs have to shift from and when your industry is specific, you are too worried about your competition. First be concerned about your consumer. You can get concerned about your consumer, you get concerned about your consumer, I get a little passionate about that. Because I see so many businesses drop in prices, ever use a little side note to not throw right back for your next question. I want you guys to take a hold of this, every single one of my entrepreneur clients from constructive company owners to painters to contractors to relators, to auto-buy consultants to chiropractors, acupuncturists, everyone of them, all entrepreneurs. Independent people earning income.

Everyone of them, raised their prices in 2015. That does not make any sense according to their industry, but guess what? when you build a bond, when you build a rock-solid relationship with a consumer, and I teach something that is called creating value that exceeds price. I believe that if there is one thing you guys get from this today, study the consumer and study companies growing. Amazons growing. Home shoppings growing, The Ritz and Starbucks is obviously growing. So study those companies, they got all excited about that.

I don’t mind, carry on. I am enjoying listening to you, I think its great stuff. How much does gut feel influence your decision in your business?

I believe it is very important, go with you gut. I talk about that as one of the attitudes of self-made millionaire, in my book is gut feeling. And when you got the feeling, go for it. You know everyone, irregardless of what one’s faith is, everyone says we got butterflies in our stomach. You know god has given us a butterfly spirit. A woman says, ‘I got a cockroach in my stomach, no I got a butterfly in my stomach,’ meaning that I am getting fired up. I am getting excited about something. A butterfly, remember the beauty of a butterfly and I talk about this, the butterfly in another one of my books.  When the butterfly goes through this process, I talk about the purpose of problems, the whole chapter on it. That just when a caterpillar says ‘oh how can it get any worse?’ It becomes a butterfly. So some you may be at that in your life and go, ‘you know what? I’m at a certain phase in my life, how can it get any worse?’ guess what, you are ready to break out of that cocoon. And that is when the butterfly just soars like an eagle. So that it is so important. So important. That is a gut feeling. Thats what is in your gut, butterflies.

Life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not. And the only constant is change, I think it is, and one of the only constants John. How do you try to keep up with change?

You know inside that challenge is change, and I believe that every day we want to challenge ourselves to be better and I mean, goals. You know goal setting long-term will always assist you changing. And I always say physically and success comes in, success is a puzzle. And there are three parts of success, physical, emotional, financial. You know, I believe all of you should be in great physical shape, great emotional shape and great financial shape. And I believe change, when we do something different, fire someone, hire someone, increase your marketing, get your schedule down, get organised. Get focused. Thats change. Changing for the better. Changing for your goals. Changing for your family, changing for your society, you know change your business based upon your consumer.

Mmm hmmm.

So change to me is exciting, because if you are not changing, you are not growing, and if you are not growing,you are dead.   Your business is either two ways, its either growing or slowing. If its slowing, drop the ego, figure it out, get some consulting, gets some mentor’s share, get around some people who are growing. You get around people who are growing. The slowings over. But growing takes some challenges, and inside challenge is change.

Change is opportunity as well, isn’t it?

Absolutely. 1000%

Especially now, because everything is changing quicker I think, with technology moving quicker and quicker, so there is always new change. And so there is many new opportunities out there.

Thats right. What is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism?business, personal development, leadership or motivation, and can you tell us why you have chosen it?

Well my favourite book is ‘uncommon friends’ by James Newton. Uncommon friends, is the book written with the story of Henry Ford, Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone, Alex Carrell and Charles Lindberg. Its an absolutely incredible book, written by James Newton who used to work for ASM. So its a great book about obviously the multi-billion dollar industries created and actually its on my desk as one of my top ten books. Its right here, its just you know, wisdom does not change. Obviously there was no technology, Edison created the lightbulb. Which still, the mind capacity, and mastermind of being around people, going back what I said a few minutes ago. People who are growing, you want to make sure you around people who are growing. If not, nothing changes at all.

Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time that you may be doing other things. Such as driving or when you are at a gym. We have a special offer for you of a free audio book of your choosing. To choose your free audio book, go to www.freeaudiobookoffer.com as long as you have not already signed up then you will qualify. John, what I would like to do now is fast forward to the future a little bit, so doing this a bit gradually and then zooming out a bit further, so what one thing would you do with your business if you knew you could not fail?

I would start immediately and on tv live success channel. Me teaching people business success starts with self-development combined with marketing principles. … works by the way, channelforsuccess.com is in the works. Because I want to get to the math, I don’t like to see people full of fear.  I don’t like to see people depressed, confused, because dysfunctionality affects the relationships. So for me its massive, the entire world to know about real self-development, combined with real marketing. That is the journey, that is where the entrepreneur way, thats whats on our work, I just rolled out Di Lemme economic report. And Di Lemme is starting a new station reporting the economy. What is really going on?

Yeh its a noble cause that. That is excellent. So what skill if you were excellent at it, would help you most to double your business?

Organisation and focusing your time. Stop wasting time and throw stuff out. Thats a big skill. Just get rid of it, I call it the just in case file, Neil, like I am going to say this just in case. Well just in case, is living in your past. Get organised, get focused. Maximise your, once again I will say it again, I appreciate you, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 emails reminding me about our class today. I think it is great. And that is one thing in my closing book, one of my books I wrote many years ago. 80,000 copies have been sold. One of the strategies is, ‘always be early’ you know to me, 50 minutes is early because you are prepared. If you are coming to an event and you are few minutes late, you are not two or three minutes late, you got to get set up, get organised. Guys get that stuff and remember an app cannot organise you. I am old school, I have written my paper planner today, Tuesday. 5pm entrepreneur interview. I’m an old school guy, I got a paper planner.

Yeh sometimes the old ways are still good as well aren’t they?

Thats right, I agree.

John in five years from now, if a well known business publication was publishing an article on your business. After talking to your customers, and your suppliers. What would you like it to say?

John Di Lemme has created one hundred six figure givers. Which means I have created one hundred million dollar businesses. I teach giving goals. I believe our heart of our finances controls the heart of our consumer relationship. That I teach, like this year we have set giving goals. I have students that have a goal of giving 80,000 away this year based upon a 10% giving goal as you know Jim Rohn always talked about that ‘Richest man in Babylon’ so that mindset that, that means if they would have generated $800,000 dollars in business to give 80,000. My goal is one hundred – $100,000 dollar a year givers which is one hundred one million dollar businesses which means theres tens of thousands of satisfied clients.

Wow thats awesome.

Thats the goal. And that is something that is very well known, I say it all the time. We are actually ahead of schedule on that. We are on track. Guys, you have to have big audacious goals, you know, what are the attitudes in a, in my book the attitudes of a self-made millionaire, its crazy. If people are not calling you crazy at least once a day in your entrepreneur way, you are not thinking big enough.

Absolutely. I totally buy into that, if you tell people your dreams and they don’t laugh, they are not big enough.

Thats right.

John, what I would like to do now is move onto the next section, which is where you give us three golden nuggets. So the first one of those is, what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it?

Well my favourite quote is actually by Alt Williams and Alt Williams is a multi-billionaire who started a company called Primerk and bought it by City Bank. Inch by inch its a cinch. Yard by yard its hard, mile by mile its a trial. Right now, I teach all about forward moving. I believe moving forward one step at a time is the key, I believe people try to do too much at once and then my own quote, I have written a whole quote book. Is ‘faith doesn’t make sense, thats why it makes miracles’ you know it does not make sense why are you going to start that business? It doesn’t make sense why you are going to disengage a relationship with that person. It does not make sense why you are going to throw all this junk out. Faith does not make sense. Thats why it makes miracles. So it may not make sense to begin this journey but thats where your miracle lies.

Great advice, and do you have any favourite online resources that you can share which will be useful to our listeners?

No

What about google, thats a good one?

Well from that perspective, I mean I do a whole teaching about google versus yahoo. But I believe all of you should study home shopping network. Should study Amazon.com obviously. Should study the Ritz Carlton, should study Starbucks and Disney. Those are companies that have, I guess thats a way to answer that question, is 99% of what I purchase is on Amazon. I am an amazon fanatic and I say that, 21 different Ritz Carltons round the world, I studied 5 star extreme customer service, we do mastermind events there live, because I think its a marriage of online and off-line resources in that arena.

Yeh. And what is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

Commit long term. Just commit long term, get around people. Make sure you are around people, you are learning the accent of success, they go back where it began. Get around people who are growing. And its very important, if someone is not growing. You don’t want to get around somebody who will come into agreement with your excuses. Remember, an excuse is defined as to release from an obligation, thats the root of the word excuse. So get around people who are change makers, who were making a difference. Don’t get around excuse-makers and thats why I talk about, the real coach comes out in me. Get in that field, lets go. Lets not sit in the sidelines, lets go. Get around people who are going. Thats why I have ten live events. Get out of your comfort zone. You know take tons of notes today, listen to the interviews that Neil has put together for you guys. Its awesome. So just commit long-term, go for it.

Yeh absolutely. Folks, if you did not manage to get a note of John’s favourite resources or his favourite book, then you can find links on John’s shownote page. Just go to the entrepreneurway.com and search for John or John Di Lemmi in the search box. John, is there anything else that you would like to add about your business?

Oh you asked me the question before about the resources, to find my material?

Yeh

That was, I was so fired up on the interview, I am thinking about what I can, other stuff. Oh thats awesome. Thats a live blueprint, which is great. So if you guys want to get some of my bonuses and books and giveaways and all that stuff I have, and you want to see a little marketing here, for those of you that do interviews and you get your website out, make sure that your website is explainable and understandable by people. So I actually have a website, it is pretty awesome, for those of you that want to find out more about me. You can go to findjohnd.com it goes out to my main website, and you will see I give away a boatload of motivational marketing. Instant mp3 downloads, I give away about 7 of my books online, so www.findjohnd.com. I apologise for that blueprint that  question. Ha ha ha.

Wow thats awesome. John its been an absolute honour having you on the show today, you have blown me away certainly with the things you have said. You have given me some really insightful things and some great things to think about. So thank you for coming on the show today.

Thank you very much for what you are doing Neil, and I want everyone to listen to this and really appreciate what Neil is doing and let him know that, I mean it takes out of his schedule, working, editing, auditing, connecting with all of us. I am excited you are bringing great questions, I have been interviewed over a 100 plus times, great questions and great threads you are developing with all the entrepreneurs. So its excellent, I appreciate it.

Thank you John.