055: Uncovered Your Passion and Live On Purpose with Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show

The better you can become at communication, the better chance your business is going to have, if you are the face of your business, in terms of both winning people over, negotiating, and even when it comes down to getting your message out.

#00:00:50-7# Neil : Hello its Neil Ball here, thank you so much for joining me 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, Corey Poirier, but before I introduce you to him, I have a quote for you, Robert Plant said, ‘you have to ask these questions, who pays the piper? and what is valuable in his life? The entrepreneur way asks the questions, so we all get the insight, inspiration and ideas to apply in our businesses. Corey, welcome to the show, are you ready to share your version of the entrepreneur way with us?

#00:01:36-6# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : I sure am Neil.

#00:01:38-5# Neil : Thank you for coming on the show Corey.

#00:01:42-1# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Well thank you for having me, I for a second there I almost thought when you asked the question, I would say, ‘no not really, can you try me back later.’ Ha ha ha but yeh I am a 100% ready.

#00:01:54-7# Neil : That’s the comic coming out in you there, isn’t it? Ha ha ha

#00:01:56-6# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Ha ha ha perhaps a little bit,

#00:01:56-6# Neil : Corey Poirier is an award winning key note speaker, having presented to over a 100,000 attendees. And having shared the bill with Deepak Chopra, Steven M R Covey, television personalities and General Rick Hillier. He is an award winning executive, a broadcaster, and a host of the top rated conversations with Passion Radio Show. He is also an international best-selling author with his book, Share your message with the world. He is a regular columnist with over 900 articles in print, and he has had television specials on easy link TV and tele television. And has also been seen on CBC, CTV, Global and has presented TEDx and Mo Mondays talks and is the founder of an established media company. Corey, 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?

#00:02:57-9# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh I sure can. So I guess on the business side, first, my core business for the last I don’t know maybe fourteen years is been that of a professional speaker. And so this is while being an entrepreneur, running other companies, I had a business publication monthly publication and its print, so its a print publication, not just digital for the better part of seven years. And ran that at the same time while running my speaking business. And then when I decide to make a .. there we went into a radio show, with sponsors and the whole meal deal. So I have been an entrepreneur the entire time but the speaking business has kind of been I would say the core essence, of who I was and who I am on the business side. It is definitely my biggest passion, and then if I go to the personal side, I am somebody who is raised by a single mother and that heavily plays a big part in who I am. I am definitely a person that I would say that I am an animal lover, you know right now I have cats and a puppy dog. And I definitely have an appreciation for the unconditional love that animals share with us. I am a yogi I guess, at heart and I go through certain spurts where I am practising yoga daily and then other times we are not as frequently, but definitely still a yogi for the last 20 years. I meditate, so those are kind of some of the things in terms of where I spend my personal time. And also a big concert goer and I love travelling to new locations, so I think that’s kind of me on the business and personal side.

#00:04:41-9# Neil : Mmm so where do you make most of your, where does most of your income come from then in what you do?

#00:04:47-9# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Well I have to say its probably, its definitely not an equal split so I would say the speaking has kind of been first and foremost for a long time, I am sort of shifting that a bit, I am sort of shifting more and more online. Even the radio show, you know we have taken it to a digital format as well and it is we have sponsors involved, so there is definitely a revenue stream coming in from that. It has not matched my speaking yet but it is definitely a very nice supplemental income. And I will say too Neil, that its not like I won’t say its like playing around, you know when I look at the sponsorships we bring in, its bigger than what I made as an income before becoming an entrepreneur at any point in my life.

#00:05:35-5# Neil : Mmm and what do you enjoy most about what you do Corey?

#00:05:40-0# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : You know I probably enjoy the ability that both I guess every business that I have been involved with since I launched my speaking career, I think I really enjoy the ability it gives me to impact other people’s lives. I have to say there are not many ways unless you are kind of a lifestyle entrepreneur that you can see the direct impact you have on people’s lives. Then being in a business where you are sharing wisdom, knowledge, information, hoping to maybe transform somebody’s life. So I feel that’s what the best part is, that you get to impact other people’s lives in a positive way, and then at the same time get to see the difference that you are making with them.

#00:06:22-6# Neil : Mmm and what is it that drives you?

#00:06:26-8# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : You know for me, I guess the driving force is probably the chasing of that impact. The goal of constantly trying to improve other people’s lives or its not that I have all the answers, or even just maybe share some insight or wisdom with them that maybe they have not heard before, I spend a lot of my time, interviewing what I call enlightened super achievers, much like Napoleon Hill did back in the day if you will. So I guess I really try by gaining that exclusive wisdom and insight that it has taken somebody thousands of hours to learn and then sharing the high notes or the highlights with other people. And that, it kind of drives me to know that there is always something new we can learn that will impact our lives, and there is always opportunity for me to perhaps reach more people and maybe just change one life. Even if its once a month or once every year, that would be substantial in terms of the impact it has on the world.

#00:07:22-0# Neil : Mmm and how do you relax when you are not working in your business?

#00:07:23-3# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : you know what? ha ha ha its funny I always tell people if you catch me working, let me know and I will stop. I truly love what I do, so I think that I am sort of relaxing when I am doing what I do. Its funny I had this interview one time with David Foster, the producer, musician and he asked Darren Hardy of Success Magazine, ‘Darren when do you think that I am going to feel ok just going to a beach and relaxing, like most people do?’ and Darren said something that I thought was really profound, he said, ‘I think when you are in the studio with a Whitney Houston or Seal, Celine Dion, that is your beach. That’s when you are relaxing.’ So to me, they do not have to be separated, I, we always hear this talk about having balance and in a lot of people’s minds that means separating work from play. And I like to entwine the two and mix the two, so the first part to that answer I would say is that I am constantly I feel always playing, so that is kind of my down time is doing the thing that I love, and sharing messages and impacting people. At the same time, to give you I guess a more concrete answer, I like spending time with my girlfriend, with my family, with the pets that I just mentioned. I mentioned yoga, meditation, I have not performed stand-up in a while, you mentioned my stand-up time, her career earlier, so I spent nine years performing around 700 shows and stand-up and what I did in the past was when I wanted a break, I would go and jump on the stage and perform. I also played music in clubs, so that’s, when I get into that mode, for a few months and start taking on gigs, that allows me to get some down time from the work of sharing a message and impacting lives, so I definitely have lots of past times and lots of ways that I sort of enjoy my time off or time sharpening the saw.

#00:09:16-0# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : I even play video games, I loved Lego PlayStation 3 games, that’s been my kind of guilty pleasure recently. So those are just some of the ways I guess I spend my spare time, if I actually have any or whatever that is to me.

#00:09:26-6# Neil : Yeh I think when you enjoy what you do, its very difficult to, the line becomes very blurred between what you enjoy and what you do not enjoy, doesn’t it? Because you enjoy all of it.

#00:09:38-5# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh absolutely, and that sort of you know its funny because you heard me talking about well at one end, well I live for what I do, I mean this is my passion and when you are at play with your passion, is not really working. But then I also tried to talk about the other areas where I spend some of my down time. But as you could probably tell, they are interspersed, its not abnormal. It would not be abnormal for me to be working with a client as a speaker and then come home on a break before going and working with other clients, and pick up the guitar and play for half hour. You know to me, there does not have to be a separation between the two.

#00:10:16-2# Neil : Mmm and do you have any entrepreneurial role models?

#00:10:20-4# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh I sure do so if I go back in the personal side of my life, I would say somebody like my grandfather, who was my first I guess example as an entrepreneur. And one of the things he did, was he built the fibreglass space shuttle, one of only six replicas in the world and this was a carpenter with a bag of nails and a hammer, who was used to working with wood, so as an entrepreneur, taking that on, stepping outside his comfort zone. He became a hero to me that way, and showed me what’s possible, and I was only 7 years of age at the time, and then at the other end of the spectrum if I go to the business side, I would say somebody like Richard Branson, who follows his passion, does not seem to slow down, and just seems to find new ways to re-invent himself on a regular basis. So from one end of the spectrum to the other, I would say my grandfather all the way to Richard Branson.

#00:11:11-2# Neil : Corey, can we talk about the time before you were an entrepreneur? what difficulties did you have to overcome when you started your business?

#00:11:21-1# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : I think the biggest difficulty for me and I feel that this is a difficulty for a lot of entrepreneurs, is accepting that you may have to do some things that you don’t like, especially at first, in the nature of running your business. You know so if you are lucky enough to live your passion, and that involves running your business, to may be parts that you don’t like especially when you might not have the resources to get somebody else to help you do that. So an example could be the accounting. You know, I did not realise how much was involved in the accounting, and how much I was going to dislike doing that accounting on a regular basis. But that became a challenge for me because it starts making you question ‘is this worth it?’ when the accounting was maybe 30% of what you are doing, and you dislike that strongly and I actually have an accounting diploma. And what I learned by taking a two-year programme and actually going and working as a bookkeeper is that, that’s not my fit, that’s not passion. So I think that’s a big challenge for me is to know that I was going to be doing some things that I did not like, to be able to do what I really loved.

#00:12:18-1# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Then I think the secondary part was being able to slow down, and realise you can actually get as much done without working all day and all night and all weekend.

#00:12:29-9# Neil : And did you have any doubts that delayed you starting your business?

#00:12:34-8# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : I don’t feel I did, I feel I was pretty much ready to rock and roll with it, in fact me and a business partner, started the first business and he recognised within the first month and a half, that the business was not for him and told me point blank that he wanted to go and find a different cause and a different passion. And I will say that that cost me dearly in the business financially, because I had to buy him back out a month after he brought in, and we had already spent a lot of the money, so that was a major challenge, but for me personally, I went all in. So when he decided that it was not for him, and it was not really his fit, I even went further in so this was right from, I am talking from day one, until he told me that a month in I was every day I was up and ready to rock and roll. And I was going over to his house and we talked with us now, and laugh about it but I would have to like knock on his windows, knock on the door and try and get him up. He would only start the day around ten and I had already started at 7 and he would ask me to drop him back off or drop him off at the beach around 3. So we were not really ideally set as business partners, but I really believe now its because I had found a passion and it was not his passion. So for me personally, that it was not that hard to jump right in because it obviously was something I was passionate about and I knew that right from the start.

#00:13:50-1# Neil : What type of business was that?

#00:13:52-5# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : It was I mentioned having a business publication, well this was a pre-cursor to that, this was the first publication I ever put out so when I was about 19 I put out a business publication and it was similar for people listening who know of success magazine, it was similar to success magazine but more regional type publication. So it was roughly 20-32 pages newsprint, sharing inspirational business stories. And so that was my very first business with that business with that business partner I mentioned, and we launched it and I ran it for about a year, and there was a whole other story there about what I learned from that experience and how humbling it was to know that the business was not going to survive in the way that I thought it was, but yeh I ran that for a year, and then fast forward a bunch of years later I felt I would never close the door properly on that paper, so that was why I actually re-launched the publication I was talking about earlier.

#00:14:47-9# Neil : So other than choosing the wrong business partner, what other mistakes did you make that slowed your journey?

#00:14:54-8# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : You know, I don’t know if it slowed my journey, but it definitely put a halt to it whenever I finally decided to walk away, was when I started with a lack of cash flow. It was not by choosing, it was not by planning, there was no, I want to say there was no real blame to anybody or you know, if I can even dare say that, maybe no even blame to myself. I just started the business, without knowing I was going to be going into business, and did not have the cash flow at the time, we went through an entrepreneurial programme, where they basically gave us weekly, I am going to say a weekly almost like a honourarium, it was pretty small and it was barely enough to pay your bills, so then, at the end of that programme we knew then we were going to be starting our own business, but of course that, when you are running with a limited lack of funds in the first place, it does not give you a lot of time to put any extras away, and then we started the business, we each got seed money, $2500 dollars each, but to put that in perspective, every issue of the publication cost around $3500.

#00:15:51-8# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : So by the second month if we did not sell any ads, we were already going to be running in a deficit, and so I want to say I was under cash flow ready, whenever I started the business so that was really something that was not a set back but it definitely put things to a halt, once I realised that to keep running in that fashion I was always going to be running right to the penny so if any unforeseen things happened, it could sink the business and that was kind of why I decided to walk away before that occurred.

#00:16:22-5# Neil : Yeh I think that is quite a common thing for start-ups isn’t it? I think a lot of people go into business without sufficient funding, and sometimes they have got a perfectly valid idea that it just fails because they have run out of cash before they can get enough momentum to it.

#00:16:37-2# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh and there are a lot of variables that happen Neil in our case, like as I mention that business partner walking away, that cost me more than the seed money we had to start. So all of a sudden, we were selling a lot more in the way of ads than I thought we were going to, so that’s how we pay for the publication was through advertising sales. We sold a lot more than I planned or thought we would, but the problem was even though we, we had never lost money so we never actually lost money on an issue. But I actually had to spend three months paying back the loan that him and I took together, because of the fact that he was leaving the business and I had to buy him out, based on equity. So really it was almost like we started under let’s say funded, and then by having to pay him back again, I was under-funded again three months into the business. So it was a weird scenario that it said to me, that you know things were happening the way they were meant to. For those two things to happen that early on, I said you know what, let’s just ride this wave and see where it takes us but know that we may have to pull the trigger at some point and its ok if we do.

#00:17:41-6# Neil : Yeh, I think that is sort of brings to light the thought that you obviously need to have some kind of agreement that is time-based as well when you are going to partnership with somebody like that, don’t you I think because someone is putting money into something, and then they have changed their mind two months later, it really messes up all your plans doesn’t it I suppose.

#0 #00:18:00-0# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh it absolutely does, especially like I say when you do not have a whole bunch of excess cash flow to just kind of say, here is your bio’s.

#00:18:05-2# Neil : Mmmm and what are some of the things that you did before started your business, that would be helpful tips to some of the listeners who have not yet taken the first step on the entrepreneur way.

#00:18:16-9# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : You know ITribing have to say, this is sort of in-between businesses, but it is definitely before I started my main core businesses, its kind of a, I guess we will say it is a weird, I guess maybe say tip, but at the same time, it will sort of make sense. But I mentioned the stand-up comedy, and the stand-up comedy I feel really gave me a lot of experience and communication and speaking let’s say professionally and in public, but when I say this, it does not have to be stand-up comedy, another thing I did around the same time is I joined a group called toastmasters. And then I spent time in rotary, and all three of these, well comedy and these two groups, you learn about speaking in public, you learn about communication, and so one of the things that I would say that I guess is probably one of the most beneficial things that I did in between my minor business venture that I started with and then my real business ventures was learning about the importance of communication, and finding a way to practise, practise, practise my communication. So what I feel people could take from that, is find a way to whether its like I say, join a group like toastmasters, or whether its find a way to just speak in front of a group of people, but the better you can become at communication, the better chance your business is going to have, if you are the face of your business, in terms of both winning people over, negotiating, and even when it comes down to getting your message out.

#0 #00:19:42-7# Neil : Mmm I think communication really is the key to success in virtually everything isn’t it? if you think about it because all great leaders are great communicators, virtually. I can’t think of any that are not.

#00:19:54-6# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh absolutely, and I spent too, I should add that I spent the years in between, I spent about ten years in sales. So I work for Toshiba, Canada for the first five years, of my corporate sales career and then Konica Minolta for another five years, and for listeners that may not be as familiar with one of those two companies, I think Toshiba is pretty well a world-wide name, you know being cameras, TV’s, lap tops. But I was in the industry that Xerox sort of created, so the Xerox and cannon world, those would be the kind of two big names. So I spent ten years in sales in that world, and the lessons I learned being in sales in general, all I can say is they were invaluable to running your own business. So communication obviously is a big part of that, being in sales, but also learning how to read customers, learning how to read situations. Learning how to negotiate, learning how to understand benefits of how you can approach clients, and show them the benefits of either working with you or taking on your product. So I guess I will say in between, those are some of the skills I learned too the importance of those skills as well.

#00:20:59-5# Neil : Can we just talk about the entrepreneurial journey a little bit Corey? Do you think culture is important from the beginning in a business?

#00:21:10-4# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : So first, the answer is absolutely yes. I have to say that I approached my businesses a little bit different than let’s say than Apple Computers, where thousands and thousands of employees, right from the jump, if I am working with somebody that might be a freelancer for me, or my assistant right now. Or when I had the first publication and the second one, we had a lot of freelance writers, I had my designer, printer, so I mean whether it was a supplier partner relationship or whether it was like a freelance writer, being essentially employee relationship. In every aspect of that, I felt culture was crucial to the extent that I felt that if you did not create a culture where I felt that people could approach you, they could tell you where you made a mistake and you know especially when you think about in the publication world, you know if you have something wrong in your article. And let’s say its my feature column, you know if they do not feel like I say a freelance writer does not feel on reading it, that they can tell me or my designer does not feel because I am paying them that they can tell me that there is an issue there that something needs to be changed, then its only going to impact the publication, the clients, the readers, everybody, even the employees.

#00:22:23-3# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : So from a culture point of view, whether you create a culture where people feel they can approach you, people feel they can have fun, people feel that it does not have to be work, work, work. My answer is absolutely, I think its crucial.

#00:22:35-9# Neil : Knowing what you know now, is there anything that if you had known it when you started out, would have helped you to shortcut the learning curve?

#00:22:42-7# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : There is so much, so I mentioned cash flow you know, you know start of cash flow, which if you can. I did not mention, another thing I learned is that lifelong learners are leaders. So I did not read my first book until I was 27 years of age, and I do not mind if you decide to ask me what book changed my life or what my favourite book is. I will tell you that book. But as far as learning, the power of learning, so I read the first book at 27, podcasting did not exist, radio shows really for the large part were not available on personal development. You could not get audio books, I mean, so really reading in a book form was one of the only ways you could feed your mind regularly. I mean it was not the only way, but it was the best ways I guess at that time. And so I had not read a book until I was 27, so even after starting my businesses, I still had not read a full book, and so what I would have done sooner, had I known better, is I would have started reading sooner because once I read that first book, I am going to say it was switched on, I have slowed down in the last couple of months, but normally I would read about 3-5 books a month. I listen to podcasts every month, I watch Ted Talks, I read success magazine, and on and on and on so one of the things I wish I would have known sooner is the power of feeding your mind. And turning your car even, into what Brian Tracey calls your mobile library. You know so the time you are spending in your car driving places, why not find a way to feed your mind? with audio programmes and podcasts and what have you.

#00:24:13-6# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : So I just really would have spent more time feeding my mind earlier in life had I known what I know now and had I learned that a little bit earlier.

#00:24:19-8# Neil : Mmm I will come back to your favourite book shortly, but my next question for you is, how much do you think gut feelings influences your decisions in your business?

#00:24:30-3# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : You know, I can’t speak for everybody else but for me, I would put it up in the high percentages, so like maybe an 80% 85% I will say to that I have a little system that I use Neil for making decisions and its pretty easy and basic but that does not mean that it is simple. So what it is essentially is I have this little test and I have the five things that are part of my mission or personal statement. Sorry, purpose statement. So I have a mission statement/purpose statement whichever the two you want to call it, I use mission because that is what people recognise the name of. But I usually call it my purpose statement. And that statement, how that reads out for me is I want to be the guy who donates, motivates, inspires, educates and entertains. And that is kind of my 5 point test, so somebody asked me to make a decision on something, I weigh it against that and say, ‘how many of those is it?’ and if its two or less its a pretty easy no or its a close to an no. Now if its a three then it becomes a let’s think about this at least for a couple of hours, let’s sit on this, and if its four or above, its the easiest yes I will ever make. And in each case without any regret, so I have to say, I am the one when somebody asks who puts the test to it. So I have to feel that’s pretty much a gut decision, and so if that’s a gut decision I use that system for probably 85/90% of my decisions, so I have to say the gut comes into it a lot. And for people who are listening say, ‘you know how can I use that system?’ its simply sitting down and saying ‘what is your personal mission statement? or what is your purpose statement? what do you want to be known as? in terms of what impact you make? what is the thing that you do really well?’ And then when somebody asks you to take something on, ask yourself ‘does it align with that mission?’ and if it does, you know if you can take it on, jump in, if you cannot, jump out.’

#00:26:15-1# Neil : Mmmm I have had someone else have a similar philosophy on answering questions like that. Corey, life is made of constant change, whether we like it or not. In fact some people say the only constant is change. How do you try to keep up with change?

#00:26:32-1# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : I just try to be somebody who is open to being adaptable and flexible. And even open to seeing the possibilities, so I feel sometimes a change, sometimes we cannot see the potential or the future of what this change could mean. Sometimes it could be a bad change, sometimes it could be a good change, but I feel I usually like to look at every angle and say ‘what could be the positives of this?’ and if there are enough positives to give it a chance, then I will usually dive in, so if I use a weird example or a quick example, let’s use something like PayPal. You know Universal Way, people used to accept and send payments, well I had a cash flow situation early in my career. And one of the ways I levitated that, because I was waiting for people to send cheques and they were busy and they did not have a chance to sign it and they were thinking about all the things they got to deal with so that’s the last thing on their mind. And on the accounting side, they had to wait for two signatures and things like that. But it turned out in a lot of cases they might be able to pay by credit card, especially if they are going to get a small discount. Well when I first was approached with the idea with pay pal, most of the people I talked to said ‘oh that’s just something used to pay on eBay.

#00:27:39-8# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : They did not see it as the potential for receiving quicker and more seamless payments. And being able to accept credit card payments without having to go through a merchant account where you can only accept one or two different types of credit cards. So you know that is an example where at first they came to me and I had to decide ‘am I willing to adapt to it and see how it could benefit me?’ or am I going to ignore it? and 14 years after I started accepting payments via PayPal and I have to say transfer my cash flow in my business and now there has been new ways that I have been able to things like email money transfer which is popular in Canada, there are other things that I have been able to take on that have continued that process, and had I not taken on the first one I might be still kind of shying away from it and yet I know, all these years later I know, clients who tell me they have cash flow problems, and yet they have never even tried an auction like a PayPal which is secured basically by eBay which is I mean you cannot get much more secure. So I kind of guess to answer the question is Neil is that I try to look at what are the possibilities? I try to have an open mind, and then if it seems like there is more I guess benefits or positives than negatives in the long-term potential of this change that I will have to make. Then I dive in and test it. But I always make sure that I can steer the ship back, if it does not work.

#00:28:51-7# Neil : Mmm hmm. And what is your favourite book on entrepreneurialism, business, personal development, leadership or motivation? and can you tell us why you have chosen it?

#00:29:03-4# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Ha ha well that is an easy one. It is the one I alluded to earlier, so it is How to win friends and influence people by Dale Carnegie. And I chose it for two simple reasons, the easiest answer would be because it is the game changer book for me, it is the first book I ever read, it made me realise what is possible, when it comes to books and then on the flip side, the second reason I say that one is because whether you are a business professional or whether it is on a personal basis, you can apply that book to your life, in so many ways, and if you read that book, years after reading it the first time or the last time you read it, it speaks to you where you are at now. So those would kind of be my two big reasons why that book is a ‘go to’ book for me.

#00:29:45-0# Neil : Yeh I have read that a long time ago, I think it is time for me to read that again. Everyone, when you have a busy life, listening to audio books is a great way to expand your knowledge in the time when you may be doing other things, such as driving or when you are at the 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. Corey, what I would like to do now with you is speculate a little bit about the future with you. What one thing would you do with your business, if you knew that you could not fail?

# #00:30:24-5# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : You know what I would probably do, if I knew it could not fail, I think that what I would do is I would try to take the business itself, completely online. So 100% online, so that I could reach a lot more people, and at the same time, be able to choose that I am going to do x amount of speaking engagements only for a year. So when I say that, I know that that part would not fail, because I am already doing more than I would take on for speaking engagements, but I mean to be able to select these specific x number of talks. But at the same time the business other than that completely online, rather than partially. I knew that could not fail, I would go all in with that, quicker and sooner than the kind of staggered process that I have been doing that in.

#00:31:20-5# Neil : What skill if you were excellent at it, would help you the most to double your business?

#00:31:27-8# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Well if I can say one that I already shared and if I am talking in general, that could double our business, I would say of course, communication. But if I talk about what’s I am already seeing over the years, what’s kind of helped continue to grow my business at such a rapid rate, its striving to deliver massive value, without excepting to receiving anything in return.

#00:31:53-4# Neil : And in five years from now, if a well-known business publication was publishing an article on your business, after talking to your customers and suppliers, what would you like it to say?

#00:32:05-5# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Well I would like to say that, I would like that article to say that this person transformed or changed my life. Their company transformed or changed my life, this is a company you want to deal with because they are striving to move people from A-Z. They are trying to effect and impact change, in both people and in the world, so I really think it still comes back to that whole idea, of creating lasting impact, and maybe significance if I can. So those are the two things I think I would like to see that article say and then the article I would maybe like to see it say that, ‘he did that by going back to the whole idea of delivering massive value on a regular basis. And he had a skill for doing that and measuring it and making sure that that value was delivered.’

#00:32:56-0# Neil : We are now at the part of the show where you share three golden nuggets with us. Corey what is your favourite quote and how have you applied it in your life?

#00:33:04-2# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Favourite quote is probably, its a Zig Zigler quote, and I am going to paraphrase it best but essentially it says, ‘you can have anything you want in life if you will just help enough other people, get what they want.’ And this really goes back to the other whole idea of delivering values. So being able to get to the heart of what other people want, and then helping them get there, I feel will help you try to get to wherever you are trying to get. So that quote, I try to apply it in my life, like even the new book launch, that you and I are chatting about, by putting it out free and putting enough work into it that my assistant said to me, ‘you know this book should not be free’ I mean to me, that was the goal right? when somebody says ‘you should not give this book away for free, absolutely not.’ that is the goal and so how I try and apply that quote that I mentioned, is that I am trying to get other people what they want through the book, that I am giving them for free. And the end result will hopefully be that they say, ‘well I want to follow Corey on his journey, and maybe dive deeper with him at some point and learn more about how I can work with him in the future.’ If they don’t, at the very minimum, I am just glad that I have been able to help them get what they want or at least deliver more value.

#00:34:16-4# Neil : And do you have any favourite online resources that you can share with us?

#00:34:22-1# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh I have, I guess we will say various ones, but probably the big ones, you know you and I were talking and we were talking about podcasts and shows. So I love Stitcher Radio and I love iTunes, you know those are two great ones because you know I find that if you want to look up a certain topic area, that you really want to dive into, its usually as simple as a search, that you can follow and subscribe to and follow. People that are kind of delivering the kind of content and message you want to hear, you know so right now of course I am in the process of a book launch. So I listen to recently while driving, podcast by Pat Flynn, who has smart pass of income, a show, and I listen to a podcast where Pat talked about how to build a street team for your launches. You know and I took some stuff away from that podcast, so I just think it is amazing that we are able to essentially, on whim, 24/7 able to dive into something like a podcast or a show on our demand and learn stuff that can transform our own lives, or learn stuff that we can use in the business that we are running to apply and grow that business that the very next day, so I would say probably a big resource for me is podcasting, whatever way you want to choose to listen to it, you know whether its blog talk radio, Stitcher on the persons website in general. Whether its the iTunes, I just think that’s a great online resource, is the ability to listen to a podcast.

#00:35:46-2# Neil : Yeh I agree, I think there are so many people who have not really discovered that as well, isn’t there?

#00:35:51-4# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh absolutely, I heard a number recently, like only 15% of North Americans, and I do not know how they did this study, but the number I heard was that only 15% of North Americans have ever even heard of a podcast, like heard of it.

#00:36:04-7# Neil : Yeh so there is massive potential there, isn’t there?

#00:36:06-7# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Absolutely.

#00:36:08-8# Neil : What is your best advice to other entrepreneurs?

#00:36:13-5# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Best advice, I would say, is to uncover your passion. So if you are an entrepreneur, so we have interviewed now over 3400 enlightened super achievers. And I ask the question a lot, what is the common trait? and the number one most common trait is that they have uncovered their passion and they are living on purpose. So I would be remiss not to say that that’s the advice I would give to entrepreneurs, is that they need to make sure that what they are doing is in line with their purpose and passion. And then I would go one step further and say, whenever they are taking on different things, into their business. You know whether it is taking on a task, taking on a new project, a new product, service, or even taking on a new partner. Make sure that everyone aligns with their goals, mission and purpose. That would be the advice I would give them because if you are not following your passion, or the people that you are working with, are not also align with that same passion and purpose. You are going to have a major challenge overcoming the obstacles you are going to deal with on your road to entrepreneurial success.

#00:37:14-2# Neil : Everyone, if you did not manage to get a note of Corey’s favourite resource, or his favourite book, you can find the links on Corey’s show notes page, just go to theentrepreneurway.com and search for Corey or Corey Poirier in the search box. Corey, is there anything else you would like to add about your business?

#00:37:35-1# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Well obviously I mean, you heard me Neil in terms of the sort of cheap plug for the book, where it is free, I do not think it is like a plug to get somebody to jump on and buy a 1000 copies or anything. But what I would say to listeners about the book, and by the way I should mention to you last year, six months ago we put in a book called ‘Tribing’ and we decided to re-release it for free at the same time, so basically one book is over 100 pages, the other one is over 200 pages, both free, so what I would say to people is that really at the end of the day, life-long learners are leaders, if we spend time growing and feeding our mind, that is how we are going to get outside our comfort zone and tap into our passions and reach our full potential. And I like to think that either of those two books, you know we spent hundreds of hours on each of them, we have insights by over a 100 thought leaders in both of them, that’s separate from the book, core book itself and these are approved by people like Zig Zigler, Jack Canfield. These are some of the people who share their insights in the book. And so what I would say is that in terms of my business, if you want to get a better feel for who I am, but at the same time have the potential to find ways to grow and change your business maybe go over and grab a copy of the book for free. If you are cool with it Neil, I can tell them how to get a copy.

#00:38:50-1# Neil : Yeh go ahead.

#00:38:52-4# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Yeh its pretty easy, the websites that are for the books are thisisthebook.com. When we originally set it up, we did not know we were going to release the second one. So we did not have the plural, but this is thebook.com. And when you get on to that page, the enlighten book right at the top, it asks for a code, that code they need to know is best view ever. And that’s all spelled out, so best view ever. And right if they go further down the page, the thriving book it tells you the code right there, and I guess that is what I will probably share about my business because again they work free right now so I have no vested interest other than I want to help people grow and maybe introduce myself to them maybe a little bit further.

#00:39:29-9# Neil : Corey, its been an absolute honour having you on the show, thank you so much for coming on here, you have really provided us with some great insight into what it takes to be an entrepreneur. And you have certainly inspired us with some of the stuff that you have said, so thank you very much.

#00:39:44-8# Corey Poirier Founder of Conversations With Passion Radio Show : Thank you Neil, its been an absolute pleasure and thanks for all you are doing, I do not think there can ever be too many insights available to entrepreneurs, you know I think entrepreneurs are what make our world go round, and make this place magical so the more advice we have for entrepreneurs the better, and I love what you are doing with the show. So thank you and keep on doing what you are doing.

#00:40:05-0# Neil : Thank you Corey, you are welcome.