Why Technology, Science, and Art Must be Mastered to be Massively Successful with Mark Victor Hansen: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Boom! Shake the room, Fire Nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire. Brought to you by the HubSpot. Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like The Hustle Daily Show. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives and we'll be breaking down why technology, science, and art must be mastered to be massively successful. To drop these value bombs, I brought Mark Victor Hansen into EO Fire Studios. Mark is co-author of Chicken Soup for the Soul and the author of Power of Focus, The Aladdin Factor, Dare to Win, and One Minute Millionaire.

0:35In today's foundation, we talk about how when someone starts talking heart-to-heart, soul-to-soul, then you really have a deeply penetrating and meaningful conversation. Number two, ask the right questions. And number three, when you write what you want, it is your prediction of your future. And every time you write it, you synchronize it with time and space and oh, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Mark and our sponsors. Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals.

1:07Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship. A recent episode discussing the billion-dollar health secret with the founder and CEO of Whoop is a must-listen. Listen to Success Story wherever you get your podcasts. Fire Nation, you have a book inside you, and it's time to share your message with the world. That's why I created Author 100, a 100-day program where I will personally guide you one-on-one to create, write, publish, and market your book. If you want daily guidance and mentorship from me, JLD, then head over to author100.com to sign up for a free call with me to chat about the details.

1:51Mark, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Most people don't understand that success is an inside-out job. It starts with you, like the kingdom heaven is within. That means it's within you to up your self-awareness, your self-expression, your self-mastery, and get to self-realization. That's what I believe about success that most people do not even surmise or surprise most. How's that? Well, luckily, after listening to this interview, you, Fire Nation, our listeners here, are going to understand this, are going to summarize this, are going to make this a part of your life.

2:33So let's just assume, Mark, that all of our listeners want to have exponential growth in life, in business. What would you recommend we ask? I would ask that because we get the hottest selling, longest selling book, Ask the Bridge from Your Dream. Don't get one, what we've discovered because of COVID and find the cocoon. You gotta get two. One for you and whoever matters. It matters whether it's your spouse, your spouse equivalent, your business partner, your mastermind partner, your church, temple, ash, mosque partner, whomever it is, and go over every question. And if you've got teenage kids, what we've discovered is that you've got to go over it with them, just like when we did Chicken Soup with a Teenage Soul.

3:17We said, let the kid read you the book stories and then talk because it opens up their heart. Well, what happens is we got 130 kids committing suicide a day in America, which is tragic, unfortunate, unnecessary for a whole assortment of reasons, which we'll probably not get to go into. But the point is, once you start asking them and talking heart to heart, soul to soul, you really have deeply penetrating, meaningful, provocative, evocative conversations. So becoming a visionary, frankly, that's the goal of a lot of people. How do we ask ourselves and use those answers to help become a visionary to others?

3:58Well, what we're teaching in our book, Ask, is you've got three channels. You ask yourself, ask others, and ask God. And I'm saying those who have a spiritual orientation, no matter what they call God, or universal intelligence, or infinite intelligence, that you go deep in your mind, because we've all got so many distractions in life now more than ever. and you say 400 times before you go to sleep, God, what's your destiny for me? God, what's your destiny for me? God, what's your destiny for me? And it'll pop out, but you've got to have pen and paper ready because it's going to come to you probably in the middle of the night and you can't say, I'll remember in the morning because you won't.

4:32And when Jack and I were trying to get the perfect title for Chicken Soup and Salt Jack Canfield, in our respective homes we did that, he calls me before cell phones. This was 1989. And at 2.58 in the morning, I remember because I have a digital clock, we said make a best-selling title, make a best-selling title, make a best-selling title make a best-selling title and it popped just like it did for Napoleon Hill when he was going to write I think we were rich it was called How to Make a Boodle with a Noodle his publisher said look come up with a new title he came up in the middle of the night Jack Calls says Chicken Soup I said for the soul we had it we nailed it we still got turned down by 144 publishers and then our agent fired us and then our all kinds of crazy stuff happened but as you know we've sold a half billion books so this stuff really works if you give yourself what's called a in psychiatry and psychology a thought command and it's best before you go to sleep because that's when the mind is most open to waking up to your visionary nature because i believe in what our subtitle says you're coded with a destiny of birth to go do something magnificent something wonderful something unique something transformative something inevitable that only you can do and And that's why each of us is so critical, John, to the world and humanity and the world and the universe.

5:47You just shared one of the many breakthrough ideas that you've had over the course of your life. Can you share with our listeners how they can maybe get to their breakthrough idea through learning how you got to yours? You've got to ask yourself exactly what you want. And then number two, you've got to put it in writing. And, you know, I went through a horrific divorce decades ago, and I wrote down what I thought was impossible. I asked myself, what do I want in my soulmate? And I wrote down 267 things I needed in my ideal woman. And never told Crystal, my beloved wife, that until after we got married.

6:24But I wanted, we had to have the same values. She had to want to travel. But both of us had kids because we were a little older. Our kids had to get along. All kinds of stuff like that that no one thinks about. when you're 16 and you want a hot babe, a guy who wants to be magic, stole a dog and handsome or lives in Puerto Rico, whatever they want. But I wanted a soulmate, and actually I got a twin plane. And I say, once you set your goals, don't ever cross one like you got milk, eggs, and butter. You write down victory in God's highest color, which is purple, lavender. Because that's the top of the electromagnetic spectrum, top of the rainbow, top of all that stuff.

7:04And I can go deep on any of this stuff you might want. But when you figure out what you want, which is the hard question, which is why you got to buddy up, why you got to have the next point, a mastermind, a partner, that you really go over the depth of your thinking. And that's why I did with Jack the Chicken Soup and with our book, Ask the Bridge from the Dreams to Your Destiny. My wife and I poured our heart, soul into it. And that's why the book's like chicken soup on steroids right now and literally selling around the world thanks to Amazon delivering everyone. Now, you've had many breakthrough ideas, as I mentioned previously, and you kind of just went through a process of how our listeners can get their breakthrough idea.

7:42I mean, one thing you mentioned was writing things down and like really just getting things from your head onto a piece of paper, seeing it, visualizing it. What are some other personal strategies that you've done over the years that have really worked? And as far as asking yourself the right questions, like let's really do a deep dive on that and maybe give us an example or two of how you've made that happen in real life. Okay. So first of all, when I went bankrupt in 1974, I was trying to be my teacher with Dr. Arbubman, Mr. Fuller, and I built the Wall Street Racket Club, Botanical Garden, Xavier, and the oil embargo hit.

8:17And I ran out of money all in one day. And I would go to the biggest library in the world, New York Public Library, and I checked a book out, How to Go Bankrupt by Yourself. So if you ask a wrong question, you go south. Now, long term, that was the best thing ever because it got me out of what I shouldn't be doing into what I should be doing. Now, when you're trying to do what you should be doing, once you know what it is you want, what your destiny is, and my destiny, I had written, as you know, my goal because you and I have been friends a long time. I wanted to be world's best-selling author.

8:43So what I did is I interviewed, as you know, the 101 best-selling fiction and non-fiction authors. I didn't ask, how do you write? That's what everybody asks me. That's a dumb question. I said, how did you market and sell more books than anyone's ever sold, whether it was Dr. Wayne Dyer or Dr. Barbara DeAngelis or Louise Hay or, you know, any name all the people, you know, fiction, Clive Kessler, you know, in fiction. The point is, they all told me and I wrote it all down. I wrote a magnificent business plan. And I said, I would sell a billion books. And I'm at a half billion now. So I'm halfway to go.

9:19and a lot of people say, well, you'll never sell a billion. But I was just on the biggest podcast with Amazon, Amazon Best Seller, which I hope you've been on, with Mark Devereaux. And he started by saying, hey, you are the Roger Bannister of books. John, do you remember who Roger Bannister was? The guy who broke the four-minute mile. Right. He did it in 1953. And I said, Mark, what's true, though, is do you know what happened the next week? He said, not a clue. I said, 119 people ran a four-minute mile because before Bannister did it, there was a glass ceiling, a barrier, an invisible barrier.

9:52Everyone knew your heart would jump out of your chest, you'd die. Well, he was a medical doctor, didn't believe that. And I said, so what I've done is I've set a benchmark for everyone to sell a half billion books. And now if I sell a billion, even better, because my position is I want a billion people on the planet that can't read, and I want to change that so everybody can read, because I think we can only be freed if we all learn how to read. And by the way, if you have any objection to that, as also a bestselling author, I will gladly hear it now. Zero objections there. And what I want to know, Fire Nation, is are you listening to the words Mark is sharing here?

10:30Are you asking the right questions? I love how he didn't just ask people, how are you writing? He said, hey, how are you marketing your books? Like let's talk about actually getting books in people's laps, read by individuals, recommended by individuals. I mean, one thing that I know for sure is the first time I heard about Chicken Soup for the Soul, it was recommended by a friend. And guess what? That's how it works. So the more times that you can get people to read your book, the more times, especially if it's a great book, it's going to be recommended to other people. And it has this compounding exponential effect.

11:08And Mark knew, Jack knew, they had a great book in their hands. And just because it was a great book, it didn't mean it was going to have that exponential snowball effect that it did have if they didn't market it correctly. So he asked the right questions to the right people, the top 101 authors in the industry. I mean, think about that. And we have a lot more that we're going to be talking about when we get back, Fire Nation, from thanking our sponsors. If you're a marketer, then you know what it's like to feel like you're moving in a hundred different directions at any given time, like you're spread too thin.

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12:24Stop spreading yourself thin and start making major moves with HubSpot. Visit hubspot.com slash marketers to learn more. We've managed a lot of projects here at EO Fire. And one of the most impressive pieces of software we've seen to help you keep your workflow tight is Notion. We first discovered Notion thanks to one of our sponsors. And it made it so easy to track talking points, due dates, deliverables, and more. Every time we had a question about the sponsorship, all we had to do was check Notion and all the details were laid out for us. It made the entire process simple and straightforward.

12:55That's because Notion combines your notes, docs, and projects into one space that's simple and beautifully designed. and now it has the power of AI built right inside of it, which means you don't have to jump between your work and a separate AI power tool to make magic happen. Notion AI helps you work faster, write better and think bigger, doing tasks that normally take you hours and just seconds. Try Notion for free when you go to notion.com slash John Lee Dumas. That's all lowercase letters, notion.com slash John Lee Dumas to try the powerful, easy to use Notion AI today. And when you use our link, you're supporting our show, notion.com slash john lee dumas mark we're back and let's take a minute here i want to talk about you asking god or a higher power for others how to maximize your abilities your unique talents your skills how does one go about asking god for this well let me do it as a preface first that is crystal are falling in love we are we lived back in california then now we live in scottsdale arizona and love it.

14:00But we were at Mother's Market having a great green meal, which, you know, if you and I get together, I'm sure we'll do something similar. Anyhow, sitting across from us was a man of the clock. I mean, turns out he said he was 92 and he said, I see you guys are so in love. Do you mind if I tell you what it will take to stay in love forever? Now, that's the way somebody else provokes you to ask a question. Brilliant on his part. And he was a master, obviously. I said, OK, I didn't want to really get interrupted. I was just indignatively in love with my wife-to-be. He said, I said, okay, what is it that keeps you happily married?

14:32He said, I've been head of Billy Graham Ministries for 70 years. I'm starting at 22. I'm 92 years old. And what we've discovered is only one thing, and that is you've got to pray out loud with your spouse or your business partner each and every day. And Crystal and I have prayed in church. We've prayed out loud in groups and Holy Man Jams, but never with each other. And we've gone, wow, what a colossal idea. So every morning when we wake up, we pray and meditate for an hour together as basically our first thing. Now, once in a while, like today, we started, we've got eight podcasts, so it's a little busier.

15:08But otherwise, that's our first thing. And we sculpt our day. We talk about who we're going to talk to, what we're going to say, what we would like is our desired outcome, and how to make our days more fruitful. Because what we're teaching in our book, Ask, is who do you want to become? because you're not a human being, you're a human becoming. And then what do you want to have in that order? Because most people want to have without doing, without being. You've got to be at first. I mean, you're rich because you are being rich. I don't know enough about you, but in your mind, before you did the work to get the experience, before you got one of the biggest podcasts in the world, am I sort of correct in that, John?

15:47You are correct. Yeah. So the point is each and every one of us needs to say that. Like I did the seminars around the world with Jim Rowan, as you know, We were with TPN, the People's Network, and had one of the first TV shows that went everywhere. And Rowan would always say, if you get a million dollars, you better quickly become a millionaire. Because the reason you go to get the million dollars is not for the million dollars, but who you become getting the million dollars. And that's why I say the process of life is becoming. And the goal, I said, is to have self-awareness, self-expression, self-mastery, and get to self-realization.

16:23and we can do that in a lifetime, but you probably cannot do it, cannot. In my impression, I've never seen anyone do it if they have a J-O-B, which means they're just overgrowth. That's why you and I love the entrepreneurial spirit, because an entrepreneur finds a problem, fixes it, scales it, makes a vast profit, which I'm now doing in the energy business at the biggest level ever with pop-up windmills and pulsating waves in the ocean, all kinds of cool stuff at naturalpowerconcepts.com. but you and I are here to make a monumental difference that's why we said hey look everyone's got a destiny you were coded with it at birth and you are to fulfill your destiny because life lasts spirit lasts forever the physical body may not last but your life spirit lasts forever and you came in by choice into what Crystal and I are calling life university to go make a monumental difference to be a record breaker uh record setter and I got three Guinness book of records and I think I'll end up with 10 or 12 of all the things I think I'm doing now will come to pass.

17:24How's that? And I'm not bragging. I'm trying to say, hey, everybody, wake up. You're here to set a Guinness Book of Records too. That is fantastic. I have no doubt you are going to break into double digits when it comes to Guinness World Book of Records. And one thing I love about you, Mark, is that you just are able to share a very huge message, but in a very understandable and it just feels like people can actually accomplish it, which I think a lot of people, after listening to this, are going to be like, you know what? There is a Guinness World Book of Records out there for me, or there is a book that I can write, or there is a destiny that is out there awaiting me that I can now go and accomplish.

18:03So as we start to kind of wind down here, I want to hand the mic over to you because you're a master storyteller. Like you know how to tell stories. You put a ton of them in this book, which is a fantastic read. Pull out just one of the stories that you really think Fire Nation will resonate with. Let's end with a bang. Thank you. And thank you for that great compliment because my teacher said the difficulty in the world is to take complex and make it simple. And that's why I try to do it. And not elemental, but understandable and instantly usable, content-rich and usable. You succeed, brother.

18:38No, thank you. So one of the stories we have in the book is by a guy who I just met finally in Tulsa, Arizona, but Tulsa, Oklahoma, sorry. And the guy's wonderful, but he's growing up. His whole goal is to be big, strong, fast, have endurance, and be an NFL player. He's 19. He finally gets recruited, and he goes to the medical, and the doctor comes back shaking his head and said, kid, this is the worst news I've ever given anyone in my whole life. Forgive me, but you're going to be totally, absolutely, permanently and forever blind. And he told that to my friend Jim Stovall. Stovall is trashed, as you would be.

19:13I mean, this guy had everything going for him, and now he's locked in a 9x12 room in a home, and he's got a telephone, a television, and a typewriter, and he goes, God, this is awful. And he's complaining, so he's in an echo chamber, so his mom says, go down to the blind meeting and see if they can get you out of it. Well, it was just an echo chamber down there, too, of negativity. But he had always loved watching TV because he didn't start out being blind. and he knew what he wanted so he sits next to a blind woman who is a court stenographer Kathy and says somebody ought to do something about that so we blind people could see what's happening on tv and in movies she hits him back in the ribs and says asks the question why can't we do something Jim long story compressed to make it fit this narrative time we got they started narrative tv now 14 million people watch that every day they're blind in America and he's trying to get it to the 150 million around the world, he said, they're blind.

20:11So where I met Jim is Charlie Tremendous Jones. You may remember him. He said you'll be the same person you are today, five years now, except the people you read, the books you read and the people you meet. Anyhow, he sends me a book and says, I know you're selling 15 million books a year and haven't got any time. You've got to read and do an endorsement and afford to this book by Jim Stovall called The Ultimate Gift, and I hope you've read it and watched the movie. Anyhow, long story short, I did, and I said in the back cover, this has got to be a movie. it is so crystal clear, best I've ever told by a blind guy.

20:41Well, Stovall ends up making $100 million on that movie. Instead of, I live to be$100, I'll thank for picturing into my cribs every day because he woke me up to my full potential. I may be blind and I now write books I can't read and I make movies I can't watch. What that means, John, is whatever your pity party is, and we all got them sometimes, you've got to transcend it and take your adversity, turn it into asset and advantage and overcome it and then find out what was the payoff in it. Because all of my bankruptcy was my payoff in forcing me to become a writer that speaks. And I love both challenges and I do it every day as you know it, like you do.

21:24And a lot of people get good results from me. It is time to transcend Fire Nation. And if you think you're getting inspired by the short time that we have Mark here today, just think about what his entire book will do. And let me tell you, it will take you to that next level. So Mark, let's end with a bang, brother. Why don't you share with us where Fire Nation can go to learn more about you, to pick up all of the great material and content and books that you've done over the years, to get you to those 10, 11, 12 Guinness World Book of Records. Let's make this happen. Take it away. You're the first guy I've said that to, too, about the Guinness Book of Records.

22:00So I've got it written. So it's true. And by the way, the minute you write it down, ladies and gentlemen, it's your prognostication, your prediction of the future. Everything you write, the Bible says, write a thing, make it clear, it'll be established on you. You will synchronize in time and space with it, not maybe immediately, but eminently and ultimately. Anyhow, get a copy or two copies of our book, Ask the Bridge from Your Dream to Your Destiny, and share it with another person in your life. Get a couple if you want. Go to Ask the Book Club, and it's free. We're teaching people how to become master askers because that's the only shortfall in the world.

22:37And God only gave humans two things nobody else got. One, the ability to ask and two, the power of imagination. And imagination is front end of materialization because most of you on here want to have more money and realization. But what we're talking about from the very beginning, and John and I are great friends in this, is realization of you becoming all you can become. Become a master asker, Fire Nation. why would you want anything else for your destiny? You're the average of the five people you spend the most time with and you've been hanging out with MVH and JLD today. So keep up the heat, Fire Nation.

23:13Head over to eofire.com, type Mark in the search bar. Listen to this episode again, read the show notes. Links to everything that he mentioned are in the show notes. Plus you can just go ahead and listen to our other interview, which will be linked up if you go to the search bar and type Mark. It was a fantastic interview we did about eight months ago. Both are fantastic. Have a little back-to-back MVH JLD session. It'll be the best decision of your day. And Mark, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

23:51Thank you, John. Hey, Fire Nation. Today's value bomb content was brought to you by Mark and Fire Nation. And successful entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in 100 days. And we're talking step by step. So visit thefreedomjournal.com and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. Success Story, hosted by Scott D. Clary, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Success Story features Q &A sessions with successful business leaders, keynote presentations, and conversations on sales, marketing, business, startups, and entrepreneurship.

24:31A recent episode discussing the billion-dollar health secret with the founder and CEO of Whoop is a must-listen. Listen to success story wherever you get your podcasts. Fire Nation, you have a book inside you, and it's time to share your message with the world. That's why I created Author 100, a 100-day program where I will personally guide you one-on-one to create, write, publish, and market your book. If you want daily guidance and mentorship from me, JLD, then head over to author100.com to sign up for a free call with me to chat about the details.