ASA 41 | Power Of Proximity

 

As the saying goes, birds of the same feather flock together. Alex Mandossian challenges that notion with proximity’s power. In this episode he talks about influencing and being influenced within a flock of your own choosing. Alex brings light into why it’s important to surround yourself with the correct people and expounds on the thought of having the environment’s effect on who we become as individuals.

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Why Proximity Is Power

In this episode you will learn three key insights which are critical to making you a highly-skilled ethical influencer. You will discover why being in the proximity of other leaders can change your life. Tony Robbins taught me that and I want to teach you why that’s important. You’ll also learn why who you spend time with is ultimately who you become in your life. Tony taught me that as well.

Finally, how your environments will influence your future more than your personal willpower to become an ethical influencer or persuader. This episode could have a significant impact on how you can quickly and easily win the hearts of others.

The Tony Robbins Story

This is the story of Anthony Robbins. Anthony J. Mahavoric was born in North Hollywood, California not far from where I was born. I was born in Hollywood Presbyterian Hospital. I don’t know where he was born, but it’s close to where it’s stated in Wikipedia. He was born on February 29th, that’s a leap year 1960, four years before me. He was the eldest of three children and his parents divorced when he was seven.

His mother then remarried more than many times. It included a marriage to Jim Robbins who was a semi-professional baseball player who legally adopted Tony when he was twelve years of age. Tony was raised in Glendora, California. If you’re not familiar with who Tony Robbins is, he definitely has had the most profound influence on the coaching and consulting business since the late 1980s. He has changed personal development the way we know it.

He’s had a huge impact because of his marketing ability, his sales ability and his teaching ability. Glendora is not far away from Pasadena where I grew up. He attended Glendora High School. He was elected student body president in his senior year. While growing up, he worked as a handyman to help provide for his siblings. During high school, Tony grew over ten inches just in those four years. The growth spurt later was attributed to a pituitary tumor.

I don’t know if that’s true or not but that’s what Wikipedia said. He has said about his own home life growing up that it was chaotic even abusive. When he was seventeen years old, he left home and never returned. I believe that Tony Robbins first inflection point in his career happened when he met and started to work for Jim Rohn, who was a mentor of mine. He’s a great business philosopher, storyteller and salesperson. He did that at age seventeen after he left home.

An inflection point is a point where things change immediately. There’s a point of momentum where if you looked on a graph, it just goes straight up. The second inflection point in his career was in the early 1980’s when he met the Neuro-Linguistic Programming co-founder John Grinder. Richard Bandler was John Grinder’s partner. They started at the University of Santa Cruz, which is a University of California. That is about 100 miles from where I’m sitting here in Northern California.

At the time when he met John, he started teaching NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming and Ericksonian Hypnosis. I think they were partners at the time but I’m not sure. What’s important for this story is the third inflection point is where I came in contact with Tony’s work. The third inflection point of his career happened when he met Bill Guthy and Greg Renker and this was in the late ‘80s, early ‘90s.

A Leader’s Effect

ASA 41 | Power Of Proximity

Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive: Outsell, Outmanage, Outmotivate, and Outnegotiate Your Competition

I was buying media in 1991 at WNR Direct Response which is in the Valley in Southern California about 40 miles away from where I lived which is Pasadena, California. I was living with my mom because I just lost over $240,000 in my first business venture. If you go back to episode one, you’ll learn my hero’s journey going through Polar Frozen Yogurt in Long Beach, California and then moving back home with my mom, Caro.

I was buying for my first mentor Gary Wetter. I lost touch with him. I don’t know what he does now, but we were doing what’s called per inquiry advertising. Back then, there were these super stations like WNR, WOR and WGN. They were these super stations that were cable networks. There was no satellite TV and there weren’t as many TV stations as there are now. There was no YouTube and no social media.

Gary was good at what he did. Personal Power I had people in it who I would later meet. Fran Tarkenton is one. Martin Sheen is another. Harvey Mackay, who became a mentor a few years later, and I started a Mastermind with him. What I remember is how much of an impact Personal Power I, and then there was a Personal Power II as well, had in taking Tony’s message to the masses.

John Grinder and Richard Bandler, as brilliant as they were, they didn’t have the marketing and sales know-how or expertise or execution intelligence to take it to the masses. Tony did through television and through a 28-minute and 30-second infomercial. I remember buying it and studying it. They were in cassette tapes back then, then CDs. I don’t know what form they’re in right now.

What I do know is that third inflection point in the early 1990s helped make Robbins gain not only wildly successful exposure, visibility and marketing reach. In selling these audio tapes back then, he was now known as a peak performance coach. He has influenced many other peak performance coaches in the wake of his success.

What I know is his early infomercials featured celebrities such as I mentioned, Fran Tarkenton who was a Hall of Fame quarterback for the Minnesota Vikings, actor Martin Sheen, and Harvey Mackay who is the author of seven internationally best-selling books. Swim with the Sharks Without Being Eaten Alive was his first big hit.

Tony was one of the first who I had seen because I was in the infomercial business. I sold the products from infomercials to QVC and HSN which were Home Shopping Networks. If something is sold on television, it would sell even better on the Home Shopping Networks because that was like a catalog on television. By 1991, when I was buying media for Guthy-Renker, they were selling the Tony Robbins’ Personal Power I.

It’s estimated that over 100 million Americans in over 200 media markets had seen Tony’s infomercials and the rest is history. That got him the exposure he needed. Neuro-Linguistic Programming which he didn’t make a big deal of it on the infomercial, but the technologies that he taught utilized NLP as a source of making a difference in other people’s lives. Which ultimately made him the world-renowned peak performance coach that he is now.

My favorite saying of his and he says it often is, “Proximity is power,” three words. He says, “If you want to turn your dreams and goals into reality faster that’s the key, then you got to get yourself in the proximity with people who are playing the game at a higher level than you are.” In other words, someone who has a higher status than you do, who makes more money than you do, who has more success than you do. If you get in their physical proximity, it makes a big difference.

[bctt tweet=”Surrounding yourself with people in places who are already successful allows you to model what is proven to work.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

Whether it’s in your business, health, fitness or relationships, whatever environment that you want to improve. Surrounding yourself with people in places who are already successful in those areas allows you to model what is proven to work. Which what NLP is. NLP is modeling. My understanding of how NLP, Neuro-Linguistic Programming, originally started is the Marine recruiters in different cities were modeled.

Some recruiters in recruiting new Marines to come into the military services where more effective than others. The founding fathers of NLP would go and check out what they were saying. How are they saying it? In what context were they saying it? How were they framing things? As a result through modeling those marine recruitment centers, NLP eventually was formed through the University of Santa Cruz. If I’m in error, you can send me a note and tell me otherwise.

The goal is to model what’s working because success leaves clues. It can compress decades of trial and error into days and that’s what Tony says. I don’t know if this is true or not but in the early days, when Tony was filling seminar rooms, proximity is power. That three-word sentence came true when instead of knocking on the doors of homes to bring people into his seminars, he would knock on apartment doors because the doors were closer together.

He could knock on more doors and get more yeses and more nos. That’s another way that proximity is power. I want that to be a mantra for you because it’s worked for someone who has led the charge and has been the number one leader in the high achievement world. If it’s good enough for Tony Robbins, it is good enough for you. My hope is that it will be. Who you spend time with is who you become.

The People Around You

Let’s look at people. Harvey Mackay is a best-selling author. He’s built an envelope manufacturing company to over $100 million a year in the Minneapolis, St. Paul area. By spending time with him physically, not just on the phone, it’s changed my life.

Jack Canfield by spending time with him, by consulting him, by going on stage with him and assisting him changed my life. Roy H. Williams, one of my marketing mentors, had more impact on me and on my copywriting career than anyone else in the world.

He runs Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas. You can go to MondayMorningMemo.com and get about five to seven minutes of him every single week. He’s a brilliant radio marketing maven but also goes after the applied psychology of marketing. He’s had a great career. He has been a mentor of mine for years. I’ve dedicated a lot of time and money to Wizard Academy.

Harv Eker is a great friend. I supported him for his book launch, Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind. I was one of his top book sellers. As a result, he invited me to be an elite trainer at an event called the World’s Greatest Marketing Seminar, which was the first one he had.

Eventually, to Guerrilla Business School which was in the United States. I met him in 2005 but in 2007, World’s Greatest Marketing Seminar, which was in North America, and Guerrilla Business School blended together for a Guerrilla Business Intensive, GBI.

ASA 41 | Power Of Proximity

Secrets of the Millionaire Mind: Mastering the Inner Game of Wealth

I’ve been teaching that for over a decade on six different continents so proximity is power. Being in the proximity of Harv and building a curriculum with him for a project we had called the Ultimate Internet Bootcamp and the Ultimate Membership Seminar series. Going to his Hawaii home, going to a Scottsdale home, proximity is power.

Joe Polish, I have known him. He’s developed Genius Network, going back over a decade. That’s $25,000 and Genius X is $100,000 Mastermind. By being with him, by going to his events and by becoming a master of ceremonies for his events, proximity is power. These people had made a big difference in my life.

Dan Sullivan of Strategic Coach. By going to Strategic Coach every quarter for three years, getting to know the community, the mindset and the lifestyle of what Dan Sullivan teaches has changed my life. Look it up, StrategicCoach.com. Physical proximity makes all the difference.

Patrick Gentempo, a dear friend and a mentor. He’s even been a student. He’s not only a world-class chiropractor, he’s been a leader in that field. He’s also led many business campaigns as well as business concerns with associations within the chiropractic field. Now, he’s a movie maker. If you don’t know who he is, look him up. I meet with them every Wednesday at 4:00 PM Pacific and when I see him, it’s like we start where we left off.

Roland Frasier, I met him over a decade ago. Not long after I met him, he met up with Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher. They were having some challenges confusing profit with revenue with Digital Marketer. Roland became a partner. He put some money into the company and help build the Traffic and Conversion Summit that brings over 6,500 people every year. It’ll probably be over 10,000 in the years to come.

It doesn’t matter who it is, whether it’s Harvey Mackay, Jack Canfield, Roy H. Williams, Harv Eker, Joe Polish, Dan Sullivan, Patrick Gentempo, Roland Frasier, Ryan Deiss, Frank Kern, Brendon Burchard, many other people. I want you to know that there are proximity people who can turn the dial and move the needle for your business. For example, Joe Polish and Tony Robbins are proximity people. They go to a lot of events. They press a lot of palms. They do a lot of hugs with people that they see.

That makes a difference from just getting to know someone by phone, video chat, Skype or Zoom. When you have two people who are proximity people. They know how powerful proximity can be, then they can make a huge impact on someone else. My good friend, Dr. Peter Martone who was referred and introduced to me by Dr. Patrick Gentempo who I already introduced to you as one of my proximity friends.

I was at a mastermind that I have and I host every year at Wizard Academy, Roy H. Williams in Austin, Texas. I’m blessed to be one of the few who gets Roy to speak for me. I get to rent the campus after two and a half days. I have this one session called the Unreasonable Request. Everyone in the room makes an unreasonable request and they say, “This is my unreasonable request.” These are high-bandwidth results leaders in their industries. They’ll make some requests that’s crazy.

Dr. Peter Martone said, “I know that Tony Robbins is suffering from something. I can tell and I don’t know him and I’d like to meet him.” The point of the session is, and I hope you use this if you have workshops or intensive, Joe Polish said, “Tony is a good friend of mine. Why don’t you say that again?” He took a video with his mobile phone. Peter said what he said, Joe took the video, Joe sent it to Tony. A few days later, Tony reached out to Peter. He’d never met Peter.

Peter is now connecting with Tony Robbins who has been the topic of this episode. That was an unreasonable request if there were no proximity people in the room, but Joe is a proximity person and so is Tony. I hope you will be too. I’m an introvert and I am usually reserved except when I’m on stage. I’d like to generate energy on my own. When I’m on stage, I go to the green room and I regenerate energy and I come back on stage.

[bctt tweet=”Your environments influence your future more than whatever willpower you have.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

That’s not so with many other people. They hang out with the crowd. They energize with people and those are called extroverts. I’m hoping to be more of a proximity person by joining many Masterminds which brings me to how did proximity start for me. You might want to look at your history like where does your evolution of where you are now. In 1999, I went to an Internet Super Conference held by my good friend Carl Galletti, another proximity person.

At that event, I met the movers and shakers of internet marketing and this is almost pre-Google. Google was no big deal, there was no Facebook, Twitter or LinkedIn back then. At that event I met Bret Ridgway who was the guy that sells all of the books for the digital marketers and the personal development people. I went back there and I bought over $1,000 for the books. I met Bret that way and he’s a proximity person. He goes to all events within the industry. He started introducing me to people.

Within a few years, I found myself at the System Seminar by Ken McCarthy. We went to Australia together and we were with a group of people such as Yanik Silver and Perry Marshall and others. In 2003, I did my first Big Seminar with my former partner Armand Morin. He made a big impact.

He did many Big Seminars and he’s going to bring it back eventually. In 2005, Mark Victor Hansen with the Mega Events through some other proximity people. Who you spend your time with is ultimately who you become.

I want this to be clear. Your environments influence your future more than whatever willpower you have. I could want to be the biggest influencer, the most effective influencer and efficient influencer of all time. Unless I’m in those people’s proximity, even if I know them, I don’t have the same impact. I was the master of ceremonies of many mega events, mega speaking, mega book and there were many megas. I made a lot of money.

I had my first experience of selling from the back of the room and we did well. I met Jack Canfield there and that spawned a lifelong friendship and almost 100 interviews to date. That led to me meeting T. Harv Eker. He had me do his first World’s Greatest Marketing Seminar as the lead trainer as well as enroll people on stage into my own training courses. The Guerrilla Business School which ended up becoming GBI when he blended both of those overseas.

I continued to do that in Brazil, Europe, India and in other parts of the world that I would have never attended or visited such as Malaysia and Singapore unless it weren’t for Harv. Harv also has introduced me to many other thought leaders that are too numerous to mention. In 2011, after being mentored virtually by Roy H. Williams, I did my first Wizard Academy event.

I’ve been doing it ever since. I go back every single year and I’m one of the few who does that and he speaks there. If you go to WizardAcademy.com or MondayMorningMemo.com, you’ll see who I’m talking about. There are people and there are events. What about proximity with groups? Armand Morin and I had the first high-end mastermind for digital marketers called AM2, Armand Morin and Alex Mandossian. After I sold it to him and I moved on, he called it AM2.0.

The Harvey Mackay Round Table. Harvey Mackay never had a high-end mastermind. He wanted to run it at $25,000 a year. I told him I’d help him design a $75,000 a year one. We ran the Harvey Mackay Round Table and we ran it for several years at $75,000 a year with many new proximity people I met as a result of Harvey’s influence. Now, he has $10,000 intensives that run for two days. Genius Network, that’s Joe Polish.

The War Room, that’s Roland Frasier, Ryan Deiss and Perry Belcher. They’re originally from the Digital Marketing family. Entrepreneurs Organization which used to be YPO of this stitch which is made up of CEOs of like mind. Business Network International from my good friend, Ivan Misner who I met through the Transformational Leadership Council, TLC which I’ve been in since 2006. That’s something that Jack Canfield started.

ASA 41 | Power Of Proximity

Power Of Proximity: Who you spend time with physically is ultimately who you become in your life. Who you admire and respect is ultimately who you’re going to become.

 

With proximity and with groups, that’s called belonging. Belonging to the right group that meets frequently, let’s say twice a year, puts your power of proximity at the palm of your hand literally with a handshake, with a high-five, with a hug. Whether they’re people events or groups, you want to get in the proximity of others.

This episode is going a little longer because the three most important words that can redefine your life comes from Tony Robbins. That’s who I heard it from first, “Proximity is power.” I’m hoping I have proven why proximity is power.

Quick Review Of This Episode’s Insights

A quick review about the insides you and I rediscovered in this episode. Number one, why being in the physical proximity of other leaders can change your life? I hope I’ve made a clear statement and stated enough facts for you to believe that. Number two, who you spend time with physically is ultimately who you become in your life. Wouldn’t you agree? Who you admire and respect and spend time with is ultimately who you’re going to become.

Number three, the environments that you get in, the physical environments between the people you know, the events you attend, the groups that you are a part of and belong to, your environments influence your future personal and professional more than any willpower you could ever have wanting to influence others.

These insights will only work for you if you choose to work them. Please make sure you execute and even give a shot at applying what you’ve learned for this episode because if you do, your future will be bigger, brighter and you’ll get to create it on your own terms.

Speaking of reviews as I’ve done with every episode, I hope you go to other ones and listen to them but for this one I want you to go to AllSellingAside.com/iTunes and type in your biggest takeaway or a-ha moment you experience for this episode alone. That’s only if you haven’t done so.

If you haven’t done it, it’ll mean much to me when you type in a review in the iTunes review section. Give me your biggest takeaway as the review for this episode. After you’re done, iTunes will ask you to rate this episode. My hope is I’ve earned five stars from you and I hope you’ll do it. Will you do it? If you’ve already done it then just put your a-ha moment or takeaway on an index card and keep it somewhere so you can go back and review that as well.

Go ahead and declare your one big takeaway in the iTunes review section. It’ll take three minutes out of your day but what you declare could provide you a lifetime of learning. I’ve taken 25 years of my marketing knowledge and know-how all the mistakes that have cast aside. I’m only giving you the nectar that I’ve learned that works as ethical influence moves on in your life.

You can sell if you know what to say, when to say it, and how to say it. You get these 25 years of knowledge and know-how in 25 minutes chunks every week. As a final gift, I want to give it to you in honor of this 41st episode. It’s the complimentary access for a video eSeries that you can simply go to MarketingOnlineMentor.com.

That’s a special entry to it because you’re going to sidestep the $197 tuition everyone else pays because you got this far and you’re reading. You’ll learn how to identify clearly your target market. You’ll learn how to create an irresistible message to that market. You’ll learn how to capitalize on the most lucrative media sources that are available to you. You can efficiently and effectively create recurring income month after month.

I hope our paths cross again. This is the show dedicated to making ethical influence within your reach so that you can achieve and even exceed your sales potential even if you hate to sell right now. I’m hoping you’re going to get to love it soon. Do whatever it takes to join me because our topic is going to be about reminiscing about the future. Imagine if you could reminisce about the future and be that level of visionary.

I want you to visit us. I encourage you to invite a friend or bring a study buddy because it’s more fun to learn this together and take notes because it’s a public service from my heart to yours. I want you to visit and subscribe, rate and review so that you can learn and earn without risking personal rejection or getting crippled by it. I can’t wait to connect with you, it’ll be super fun and I really want you to join us with your study buddy. I hope our paths cross again.

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