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Robin Elliott started helping individuals, professionals, and the owners of small and large businesses to use Joint Ventures and collaborative, leveraged marketing to create financial freedom in 1987. He is the author of 15 books, and he presents seminars across North America and the United Kingdom. His website is LeverageAdvantage.com and he has also built a Team of over 6,000 people in more than 45 countries in this business.
He practices what he preaches and runs his business with no overhead, employees, cost, or risk, and he has retired twice.
He works with his wife of 29 years, Rika Elliott. They live happily in Vancouver, Canada, and they have four children and six grandchildren. Robin enjoys travel, reading, biking, hiking, downhill skiing, and kayaking.
Stefan Aarnio: Ladies and gentlemen welcome to the show Respect The Grind with Stefan Aarnio. This is the show where we interview people who have achieved mastery and freedom through discipline. We interview entrepreneurs, athletes, authors, real estate investors, anyone who has achieved mastery and examine what it took to get there. Today on the show I have a good friend of mine, a dear old friend, Robin J. Elliott, who’s well known for being a joint venture master. He’s a businessman, a speaker, he’s an author of more books than I can count. A good friend of mine on social media. Robin, welcome to the show Respect the Grind. Thank you so much for joining me.
Robin Elliott: Thank you very much Stefan, I appreciate it.
Stefan Aarnio: Thank you. Now, Robin, you played a big part in my development. You got me at the young tender age of I think I was 21 when I attended your Dollar Makers’ seminar way back in the day. I was just this young kid, I think I was a guitar teacher. I think I might have even had long hair at the first seminar, first time I met you. And you introduced a concept to my mind at the tender age of 21, which was joint ventures. Could you tell the people at home a little bit about you, a little bit about your story, and how joint ventures have changed your life?
Robin Elliott: Sure Stefan, my background is always been sales, but I actually went to hotel school and I ran hotels and restaurants for many years. And then I was fortunate to get into my own business at the age of 32, or 33, and I decided I’d had enough working for bosses. I worked for three that I ever respected. And I decided it was time to make some money and to work for myself. And I was fortunate enough to have a mindset that works on leverage and collaboration. To me that’s the smart way to work. And, as I went along and evolved at times, I was very fortunate to meet some really smart people, including Jay Abraham. But one of the fellows that I worked for was a very wealthy man who … a very interesting story, but bottom line is, he owned a Redkin hair products franchise for South Africa. And he had me doing work for all those hair dressers, keynote talks and things like that for them.
But also, I did work for him in his other companies, training his employees and his managers. And he said to me, “Robin, there’s one book that you have to read. It’s called Horse Sense. And Horse Sense by Al Ries and Jack Trout, you’ve got to read this book.” And I read that book four times and it really had a massive impact on me, because it spoke about find a horse and ride that horse. Work smart instead of just hard. You have to work hard, don’t get me wrong.
The average person has to put in 10,000 hours to become an expert in anything, and that’s been proven over and over and over, even going back to Beatles. So, unless you’ve really put in the time and the work, it doesn’t happen by attending one seminar. You’re an exception, you’re a man that does what you read and what you learn. And you actually implemented it, and that’s why you’ve been so successful, and that’s why you’re a shining light among people that have actually walked the talk, because not a lot of them do. With that kind of information I found that I could really do something for businesses.
One of them was to dramatically reduce their acquisition cost. To help them to get a lot of free leads, or referrals, which they would not otherwise have got; and do it all in a win/win collaborative way, with other people who were already working with their databases, with people they wanted to do business with. And we’ve continued to do that, but collaboration and leverage is really in useful joint ventures is really the only way to grow, and all the big companies are doing that. They’ve been doing that for years.
It’s the small businesses that don’t get it, because we tend to want to do everything ourselves. We’re not good at delegating, we want to be the sole entrepreneur that wants to do it himself. And I found that the entrepreneurs, no matter how successful they are, 99% of them are not using collaboration and leverage to the extent that they can. That they can add massively, direct to their bottom line, with virtually no acquisition cost by using these systems.
And, if you think that the average business in North America is doing between 6 and 10% net profit, well this is 90% net profit. And so, when you work smart it’s a lot easier to accomplish your goals, and a lot faster, and a lot cheaper, but you can also help a lot of other people along the way because it has to be … it’s got to be reciprocal.
Stefan Aarnio: One thing I learned from you Robin, I remember I was 21 years old, I’m sitting in that seminar in some basement hotel in Winnipeg and you’re teaching us about leveraging, and you’re teaching us about how to get resources from other people that you don’t have. I used joint ventures in the real estate context. What are some of the other maybe contexts someone could use a joint venture in, because as you say, I think it’s what, 2% of entrepreneurs understand joint ventures? Some horrible micro-fraction of the population. What are some common joint ventures that the average guy could use who’s listening to this kind of podcast?
Robin Elliott: Well, any business can use this, it’s really not limited. Take for example I was working with a dentist. This dentist wanted to expand from British Columbia into Washington state, and he didn’t know how to expand, and they’re … you know, the so-called PR people and so-called advertising people were quoting him a lot of money to do that, and he’s a wealthy man, so he was really considering that, and I said, “No, let’s leverage this.” So, we found a guy that was doing eye surgery for people so they don’t have to wear glasses anymore. This was an American company and they also had a big branch in BC, so the guys in BC said, “Look, we’ve got a lot of American customers coming up.” And the dentist said, “Well, what do you want?” He said, “Well, we need something, some sort of … something to set ourselves apart and to get them to come to us for this laser eye surgery instead of our competition.”
So we said to them … or I said to them, but on his behalf, “What can we offer? If we could offer you something that would set you apart from your competition at no cost to you, what would that be?” Long story made short, we paid him $10,000, we wrote a letter to his customers offering them a free tooth cleaning, free medical examination, and free stay in the Sheraton Guildford Hotel if they came up; and we would do it all for free. No cost, no obligation, and so, they sent us out to all their American customers. And these Americans swarmed up, stayed in the Guildford Sheraton, came along, had their teeth cleaned, had their teeth whitened. Did all the whole thing and 92% of them became customers. Well-paying customers because the American dollar was stronger and still now is again, than the Canadian dollar.
As a result of that $10,000 investment, not only did they have something to offer their customers, and not only did they have a USP, but they also made $10,000 and we worked out that these 92% of people that became customers for this dentist, that it was worth hundreds of thousands to him. So, what happened was a win/win for both parties, and we’ve done that in so many businesses, I could talk about it all day. But, any business, and you’ve got to start off with not what I want, but what does Stefan want? How can I help Stefan to get what he wants, and in the process I’m going to get what I want. And you know the old Zig Ziglar thing, you can get anything you want out of life if you open up other people get what they want. You’ve got to start off with what can I do for you? So the pitch is always, if I could show you the way to do this and this, and this and this, and it didn’t cost you anything, would you be interested in considering?
And it’s got to be specific and tailored to meet Stefan’s needs, and then it’s a win/win; but one of the problems with joint ventures is people don’t know how to track, they hook up with the wrong joint venture partners that don’t pay you, or don’t continue to pay, or pressure the customers. We found, eventually, after many years of seminars across the US and Canada and a lot of training and coaching, that the best thing we could do was do this in our own business, as well. Because if we do this in our own business, and my business partner and I started the company and the whole company is based on leverage and collaboration. Our distributors, our sales people, everybody in IPS Safety Incorporated, and IPS Wellness Foundation, we all work on the same principle of leverage and collaboration, so our company is growing fast and growing well, simply because we practice what we preach, because it works, and it’s fun, and we get to meet wonderful people.
Stefan Aarnio: Well, that’s such an important thing. You said in there that you’ve got to focus on what the customer wants, not what you want. The marketing costs for a business are insane. I’m in the marketing business and we spend horrendous amounts of money. There’s also joint ventures on that side, as well. It’s a small thing. Now, Robin, what I was going to ask you is, you had life before joint ventures, and life after joint ventures. What was life for Robin Elliott like before you unlocked this kind of leverage and joint venture power? What was life like for you before?
Robin Elliott: Well, before I understood this concept I sold insurance, life insurance. I sold houses, I ran hotels, I ran restaurants. And it was always a case of selling your time, so you’re really an indentured slave, that’s what you are. When you work for a boss, even as a coach, unless you have a good backend, and most coaches don’t have that, you’re selling your time.
Even a realtor, you know a realtor that is selling houses is essentially selling his time, he gets paid for results, but he doesn’t leverage that. And I said to a realtor once, I said, “You know, you sold me this place and you asked me, ‘What are we going to do? What are we going to change?’”, and we said, “Well, we’re going to paint, we’re going to do the floors, we’re going to do this, we’re going to do that,” and he said, “Oh, that’s nice, how jolly.”
And I said, “How about if you said, I know a good painter you should talk to. Mention my name, you’ll get a really good deal, and his name is Bob, and I know a guy who does great flooring, mention my name and you’ll get good service from him. I’ve got another guy that does plumbing, and whatever else you want to do, and you could be getting a 10% commission back from all of those businesses.”
They’d be happy to do that, because they’re just getting the business handed to them. Their closing ratio is going to be massive. Their acquisition cost is 10% literally. They’re paying for results instead of promises. So, I was selling my time before that, and I realized if you’re a coach, you’re essentially selling time. If you’re not leveraging something alongside that coaching, you’re basically just a slave. You’re going into slavery on a temporary or permanent basis, and this is not a smart thing to do.
Stefan Aarnio: Right. Leverage is something that I’ve looked at in my business in the last year. I went fasting in the jungle in Costa Rica over Christmas. I spent 15 days on water, just water. Last year was 30 days on water, and one thing that popped into my mind was, “do less”. The voice said, “Do less,” and I love the thinking you have there, Robin, with how does it scale, how does it leverage. In my own business, I’ve started taking back things that don’t have leverage and replacing them with things that have leverage, much like this podcast. Your very first joint venture, can you tell us how the very first one went so the people at home can see how good or bad the first one went for you?
Robin Elliott: Well, it’s interesting because the first big one, was one for Jay Abraham. Jay Abraham is in Los Angeles, he’s very good with joint ventures. The man has made billions of dollars for his customers, very smart man, and I wanted to travel from South Africa to Los Angeles to attend this 3-day seminar for 5,000 US dollars. I wanted to fly there, check into a hotel, and I didn’t want to pay for it.
So, I discussed this with a friend of mine and we were doing some work for a government department. We were training their employees at the Science Museum, of all things, and we persuaded this fellow, this doctor to have the government pay for the three of us to fly to Los Angeles, stay in the country, in a nice suite in the Double Tree, and attend a seminar for three days, for $5,000 each and the government would pay for that, and we’d pay that back in training. Now, we knew that this training is all very well, but training only lasts for so long.
They’re not going to get $10,000 worth of training out of the two of us, they could go for it, but chances are they’d get tired of it, so we said, “We’ll do some training for them, but this is what we want.” Now, the training, just the home-study course that was sent to us by Jay Abraham, I used it. A lot of people didn’t, but I did. The home study course, made me something like 20 or $30,000 already, just on the home study, before I even left for Los Angeles, and when I was in Los Angeles I flew down, I drove down to Orange County and I got a contract there with Wella and … what was it? Colton hair, which was a big hair company that was represented in Orange County and also in South Africa. I signed two big contracts in Orange County while I was there. The training that I did afterwards was minimal compared to the result that we’d got out of that.
And then, as a result of one of the seminars that I did with the home-study course, I got a new business partner in South Africa and we did very well, so leverage is how can I get no money, no risk if possible? And then, how can I leverage what I have so that it’s residual, so it goes on and on, so it leads to new stuff that many people benefit? And again, it’s how many people can you benefit? It’s not all about me.
Stefan Aarnio: Right, right.
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Stefan Aarnio: Robin, here’s an interesting question for you. I ask this to most of my guests. Do you think success is more talent, or is it more hard work?
Robin Elliott: I think you can have as much talent as you like, but if you don’t work hard, and if you don’t work smart, as you mentioned, less is more; but, if you don’t work hard and smart, you can have as much talent as you like, nothing’s going to happen. And, in our society, I find that this entitlement mentality, this lazy mentality, quickly, you know, quick fix microwave, remote control mentality that we have, especially with young people, it’s just shocking.
Here in Vancouver … Vancouver property is now more expensive than Manhattan in New York, and our gas price is the highest in North America. They say BC now stands for Bring Cash. They’re not qualified for anything but a minimum-wage job, complaining if they’re not making $15 instead of $12, and that they can’t afford a $2,000,000 dollar house in Vancouver. They’re complaining that they don’t have the right to do that, although they haven’t ever made money, so they don’t have this concept of hard work. They don’t understand the concept of hard work.
I had a client that had a real difficulty getting good sales people. And I said, “Do yourself a favor, make your appointments for 4:00 in the morning, and if they guy can’t show up at 4:00 in the morning, he’s a loser. If he can’t get himself out of bed, if he needs his mother, his wife, mother, step-mother to wake him up in the morning, he’s a loser, right?”
So, the people that showed up at 4:00 in the morning, they got the jobs and they did very well. I worked for a big car dealership in South Africa, I was doing coaching and training for them, and we had a guy with a full beard. Now, I know I used to have a full beard and I had an operation and had to cut the beard off. My wife nearly left me, the kids ran away. I had to cut the … if you think I’m ugly now, you should see me.
Stefan Aarnio: Robin, the wife left you because you didn’t have a beard anymore? The beard was the source of your power, or what?
Robin Elliott: She almost did, but you know, I get uglier the less hair I have on my face the uglier I get, it’s just shocking, but I found that my sales went through the roof when I cut the beard off. So here I’ve got this big car dealership, they actually moved to Canada later, the big Nissan dealership. I said to the sales guy, the sales manager in conference, I said to him, “Look, you’ve got this guy with this big, bushy beard, his sales are not good. If he cuts the beard off, his sales are going to go up. Can’t help it, it’s going to happen.”
Then, he said, “Why don’t you tell him.” He’s a little timid boy, so anyway, I told the guy the next day, and he didn’t cut his beard off. The sales manager said, “What should I do?” I said, “Fire him, he’s not committed.” I once had a sales guy, he said, “What should I do to improve my sales?” I said, “Have a haircut.” This guy was so enthusiastic that he shaved his eyebrows off. We were falling out laughing, but you know what? This was my best salesman, he was that committed.
You need committed people that are prepared to do whatever it takes, and work hard. Damn hard work, and do what they’re … You know, we’ve got a distributor who hasn’t a business background. Guy is doing exceptionally well because he listens. We coach him and he listens. But ask what they want? For example, in our company we serve seniors, disabled people, and the vulnerable, and we have different products for them.
One of the products is a trike. It’s a pity cab, and this is used by seniors’ homes to give the seniors a break in monotony. There’s a lot of depression, loneliness, isolation in seniors’ homes, and in all these facilities. And giving them a ride on this trike, taking them out, you know, guy pedaling in front, two people in the back. It’s wonderful for them, but a lot of the seniors’ homes don’t have the budget for that, so we said, “How can we get around this?”
So, we said to businesses, “You spend a lot of money sponsoring events, advertising, doing all these things. Here’s a way for you to get a lot of exposure, a lot of ongoing exposure. This is what you do, you buy a trike or 10 trikes, as many as you like. We’ll give them to the seniors’ homes or the disabled facilities, you can choose which ones you’re going to … you have a choice. And, not only will you have a huge presentation ceremony, where you will be the center, the focus of the attraction, but photographs, the press, the whole deal, you’ll be presenting it; but, ongoing, we’ll advertise you on the backs and the sides of these trikes. And the people pedaling them will have to wear your outfits, your jackets, your t-shirts, your caps. Whatever you’ve got.”
The business benefits, we benefit, the person bringing the donor benefits, by getting 10% of the donation, and the seniors’ home or the disabled home benefits as well, so it’s win/win/win/win all the way and we’re leveraging their advertising dollar.
Stefan Aarnio: I love the creativity you bring there, Robin, because a lot of guys come on this show and they just talk about hard work, hard work, hard work and I think there’s always a grinding aspect, respect the grind; but then, there’s also this dualist aspect, which is use your brain more and I love the residual you’re creating there for the business, where that bike’s going to be out there for quite a long time.
Now, years ago, when I attended your seminar, I think I was 21, I’m 31 dude, it’s been 10 years. 10 years older, I know, I know, I used to be so much prettier than I am today, but 10 years ago, you were talking about how to recruit top sales people.
For the people at home, can you tell us a little bit about your recruiting process to recruit top sales people?, because there’s so many business owners, myself included, looking to recruit top people. Tell me a little bit about the process to recruit those committed top people.
Robin Elliott: One of the things is when a guy is focused on his base salary, you know that you’ve got a loser on your hands, because he’s going to work out that he can live on that base salary. He probably has more than one base salary that he hasn’t told you about. He wants as much freedom as he can get, and he wants a base salary. I would not hire those guys. You want somebody who believes in himself sufficiently and the commissions are high enough that he can live better making commissions than with a base salary, but a guy that relies on the base salary, you smell a rat right away, so base salary is the first red flag.
The second thing is most sales people want leads, they want referrals and if you can’t give them referrals you need to show them a way to get them easily, because, if they’re going to spend their time trying to get referrals instead of closing sales, that’s a problem. You can test them on DISC, I really believe in DISC, D-I-S-C the Dominance Influencing Cautious and Steady. And you’re looking for a DI, an ID/DI. It could be DC, if the guy’s really … there’s a lot of detail involved, but there’s got to be enough D, if you want to closer you need a D. If he can’t close, he’s got no D, he’s not going to close, so he’s going to talk to people a lot but he’s going to be scared of rejection. So, you can test him on DISC, make sure it’s not all about the base salary, make sure the commissions are significant enough that he’s not going to run away to the competition, and then find a way to give him leads. We specialize in that, we specialize in finding ways to get those referrals.
I belong to four different groups, one of them is our group in Calgary, which is run by our distributor there, but these are business owners that have networking groups, that only serve seniors, or their main focus is the seniors’ market, so there is hundreds of businesses that serve seniors primarily. It’s a massive growing market.
So, of those four groups, in each group there’s 20, 30 people that are all serving seniors, and we all refer each other; but not just that, we have … and I’ve got a mock up of it here somewhere. We have brochures like this, this is for the Trike, but it’s a three-fold brochure. And it basically explains the group. It’s listed, all the members of the group are listed inside the folder, the brochure. So, instead of handing out your business card, if you belong to one of these clubs, instead of just handing out your business card, you’re handing them a brochure, which has your information in it, as well, and the websites and information of all the other members. So, all the members are being leveraged every time you hand out a brochure, which is a very smart idea, it wasn’t my idea, somebody else thought of that, but it’s brilliant because when I hand them that brochure, they’re going to say, “All of those people think that Robin’s legit. They don’t think he’s an old car salesman.”
Not that there’s anything wrong with car salesmen, I love them, but it gives you legitimacy, it gives you credibility. So, you’ve got four groups, all handing out these brochures, and we’re listed in all of them. In the group in Vancouver, for example, we have a booth at the Zoomer show, Zoomer is like boomer/zoomer. There’ll be 25,000 people there next month. And guess what? We’re going to have a trike in the booth, so of these 25,000 people, many of them will get to see the trike and receive our brochure and our flyer, as well. It’s all about finding a way to get those salesmen leads, to get them quality leads, and not cherry-picked leads. Right, the cherry-picking of leads is very dangerous and it always backfires.
Give them leads, give them good commissions, give them the support they need, but allow them to do what they’re supposed to do. Even with us, with our distributors and our sales people, the company, our company handles customer support, warranties, licensing, insurance, shipping, money, all that stuff. We handle all of that stuff. All they have to do is focus on marketing, and we coach them how to market, so it’s not a … Keep them away from all the paperwork and all that boring stuff, because the sales guy doesn’t like that, generally, if he’s a real sales guy. He doesn’t like the paperwork, he wants to get out there, hit the bricks, see quality leads, and make those sales. Finally, it’s also important to have strict … what he needs to accomplish, because even if your sales person isn’t making any sales, he’s costing you money.
It costs you money to have a sales person. He’s wasting your leads if he’s not closing them. He’s wasting your time, he’s basically a drain on your resources, so he has to know that the minimum amount of sales you need to make over an average of two months for example, has to be a minimum of that amount for us to justify having you onboard, even if you’re on commission only. If there’s no standard, you’re in trouble.
This car dealership for example, the average … I can’t remember the numbers, but let’s say the average sales person was selling four cars a month. And, we decided, we conspired together, me and the sales guys I was training that everyone, when a new salesman came on board, we were going to lie to him. We were going to tell the new salesperson that the average sale is 10 cars, so it’s more than double. We agreed to do that because we were doing an experiment; so we got new sales guys coming on board, we would all tell them that the average sales are 10. And guess what? They sold 10, because the expectation was 10 sales.
We know that we will achieve what we are expected to achieve, we know that we will tell ourselves stories about our circumstances. We need to manage the stories they tell themselves, we need to manage their expectations, and we need to give them support in doing that. When they find out the average sales is actually four, we said, “Well, didn’t we do you a favor? You made more money than you were going to make, right?.” We had it all set up in advance, so they weren’t going to feel that they’d been taken advantage of, but we’d actually done them a favor, but it’s got to be done well, and the atmosphere’s got to be positive, but really, to find good sales people is a very hard thing. Here’s the last thing about good sales people. Really good sales people usually leave and start their own business.
Stefan Aarnio: That’s what happened to me.
Robin Elliott: I’ve got a friend now, Ali. This guy’s got a really successful wheelchair servicing, wheelchair fixing, wheelchair selling, and these things that ride up the stairs, very successful. He was the top, top salesman in his business, so if you’re going to recruit top sales people, you have to have a way to lock them in, to keep them there. It’s got to be so attractive to them that they don’t leave. You got to think about that, because the really good chances are they’re going to leave. I did that, you’ve done that, we’ve all … You know, good sales people tend to do that, so think about that in advance.
Stefan Aarnio: I like that. Now, Robin, in your journey throughout life, did success change you? Did you become a different person through that process?
Robin Elliott: It didn’t change me. My wife and I are really frugal, down-to-earth people, but I’ve seen it change a lot of people. They get … I had one guy that I worked with, [higheye 00:29:56], which is you know, party animal, right? To other people, very impressed, important to him what other people think of him. I really couldn’t give a good damn what everybody thinks about me. I think you know that. I’m not politically correct. I just don’t care.
This guy, it was very important to him, so he would spend, as he made the money he would spend more than he made on a new roof, entertainment, and very expensive meals and bottles of wine and all of this stuff to impress his friends, and when the popo hit the fan, because it doesn’t always go smoothly. Fact in life, we have ups and downs, and you got to plan for those downs, and he wasn’t doing that. He wasn’t putting money away, didn’t have a cushion, he only thought things would just get better, and better, and better, and it’s got to be an optimist, but you got to be a realist.
He went bankrupt. Wife left him, ran away, well she was pretty much … She was well rid of her french, but you got to be realistic, so it doesn’t change me, but it’s changed a lot of people that I know, unfortunately. Good people, but goes to the heads. Their philosophy of life is wrong, and your philosophy guides your life. You can call it your religion, you can call it your Welt anschauen, you know your world view, you can call it whatever you like, but your philosophy basically, or the way that you think things work, that’s what governs your life.
For me, business partner and I had a very, very similar philosophy, and that’s why I approached him about this business, and if you don’t have the same philosophy in business, you’re not going to stay in business for long. Even the sales people, you should have the same philosophy as they have, and your philosophy should protect you from arrogance, greed, that kind of thing.
Stefan Aarnio: What’s the philosophy that successful salesperson, successful entrepreneur needs to have, Robin?, because, Jim Rohn says, “You are your activity, attitude, philosophy,” or sorry, yeah, “Activity, attitude, philosophy.” You got three things. What’s the philosophy? What’s the winning philosophy for somebody?
Robin Elliott: Well, I think they need to look at the priorities. Tony Robbins spoke about your hierarchy of priorities and your hierarchy of values, and so you want to look at somebody’s hierarchy and values, and see what is important to them. If what’s important to them is looking important, if they want to be important, if that’s high up, they’re pretty much in trouble. For me, I’ve got a very clear view of what’s important to me, and why I want to make money, or why I want to grow a business, or why I want to do what I do; and my main focus is freedom. That’s my highest priority, it’s freedom, and freedom for me is achieved in this world by making money, because if you’ve got enough money you’ve got freedom, but that money has got a purpose.
It’s not about the money. It’s never about the money. It’s about having enough money to be able to help the people I need to help, to be able to give my wife security in our old age. I’m 65, we got to be aware of that, but the money is to buy freedom. Freedom from being controlled too much by government, which specially in Canada is a big deal these days, but freedom is a high priority for me. And then, underneath that, family is important, these things are important, so you want to know what some of his priorities and his priorities are. It’s easy to establish that.
When somebody comes onboard with you, if you share their values, if you share their philosophy, chances are you’re going to be together for a long time; and even if he can do better on his own, if you show him the win/win, get his head around this whole collaboration thing, he’s less likely to leave you and start off on his own.
Stefan Aarnio: Robin, switching gears a little bit. What do you think is more important these days? Is it more important to have a great brand, or a great business?
Robin Elliott: Depends. You could have a great, a very successful plumbing business that your local environment knows about. When I look at you, Stefan, you’re growing so fast, and you’ve done so well, and you’ve got such a good brand; but your vision is big, so the bigger your vision is, the more important your brand becomes. That they know who you are and what you stand for. You know, somebody once said to me, “Oh, you think a lot of yourself, because you’ve got your picture up there, and you do all this,” I said, “No. It’s all marketing and branding. It’s got nothing to do with that,” I know who I am, I’m a funny-looking, old, bald guy, with a weird accent. I know where I come from. I grew up poor. I know exactly where I come from, so I’m not trying to be something I’m not. I think you’ve got to be able to look in the mirror, but your brand is important simply from the marketing perspective. They’ve got to know not only who Stefan Aarnio is, but what he stands for.
I had a guy one day, he said to me, “Oh, I think,” I quoted him on coaching and it was quite expensive, and he said to me, “I’m not sure if I’ll go ahead on that,” so I said, “Well, do me a favor. Tonight, go to leverageadvantage.com, look at the testimonials, if you’re happy with the testimonials, then you can decide to hire me. If you don’t like the testimonials, then don’t call me back. All right, call me back 12 o’clock tomorrow, because if you can’t make a decision by 12 o’clock tomorrow, you’re probably not going to implement the ideas I gave you. You’re going to waste your money.”I really meant that, because my testimonials speak for themselves. It’s real people. It’s not … You know some of these characters they grab all the TV stations, and Starbucks, and they’ve done business for everybody, but there’s no specifics.
Stefan Aarnio: Right. Featured on NBC, Fox News, and MSN.com.
Robin Elliott: It used to be coaches were really good at what they did. Nowadays, if you can’t get a job, you’re a life coach, or a business coach, and the guy who drove a truck for 20 years and now he’s suddenly your coach.
Stefan Aarnio: Oh, boy.
Robin Elliott: Yeah.
Stefan Aarnio: I have a special word for those guys, I call them “Virgin sex therapists.” Never had sex, but they’re here to teach you all about it.
Robin Elliott: That’s amazing. A lot of them around.
Stefan Aarnio: Switching gears again, Robin. You’re a successful guy. What’s your obsession? Everybody’s got an obsession. This could be business, or on life. What’s Robin Elliot’s obsession?
Robin Elliott: I think my obsession is truth and freedom. I’ve got a wonderful wife. It’s my second marriage. I’ve been married to her for 32 years today, actually. We went out for lunch. It’s our wedding anniversary, and I said to her, we were saying, “What are you grateful for?”, and I’m most grateful for my wife. I’ve got an incredible wife. She’s really my obsession, but outside of that, I would say truth and freedom. It worries me what’s going on in the world today, with the amount of fake news, not to use that term, but really people are so brainwashed, the schools have turned into indoctrination camps.
It’s strange, and I think if we know the truth, we’ll make better decisions, if we know the truth about things. And there’s a lot of guys preaching the truth, like yourself, like Jordan Peterson, people like that, Stefan, and all of you that are telling the truth, and people need to hear the truth. Truth and freedom go together because if you don’t have the truth, you have no freedom. You might think you have, but you don’t. That’s really my obsession, and with the business, it makes me the money that I need to help the people that I need to help, and I have some people that really do need help, and I’m really committed to helping them. That’s important to me, because sometimes people can’t always do it themselves.
Stefan Aarnio: I love what you said Robin. Truth and freedom. I’m wearing my America sweater. Now, I’m Canadian-born, Swedish blood, but I got American heart. America’s all about freedom, or used to be. I don’t know what it’s about now. How does the average guy find truth?, because I think it’s harder and harder these days to find truth. When I was in university, and I was saying this to my young friend Christian who helps with my podcast, he just left when we started.
I said to him, “When I was 21,” he said, “I’m not interested in politics. I’m not interested in,” whatever, politics and something else. And I said, “Well, look, dude, when I was 21, I was a communist. I was in the communist factory called the University of Manitoba, I had a Che Guevara shirt, I had long hair, I was a musician, because that’s what they served. That was the breakfast served, breakfast, lunch, and dinner at the University of Manitoba was communism. And when I went out on my own in the real world, I learned that here’s a couple different philosophies out there, and if you’re a communist you’re never going to be a business owner. You’re never going to be rich, you’re never going to have those things, the freedom you want in life.”.
How does a young man, or a young woman, or anybody out there find the truth and how things actually work?, because there’s so much garbage being served out there, and people put this garbage in their brain. The news is garbage. I’m writing this book right now, Hard Times Create Strong Men, about how men have become weak, and we’ve become weak because of the garbage. I talk about Donald Trump in the book, he’s a president, and he’s a strong man, and you can love him or hate him. He is strong.
It’s interesting because my editor’s a very brilliant, smart, female attorney, and Donald Trump has 500 plus business, I think like seven of them failed. She says, “Oh, he’s a failure,” and I’m thinking like, “Hold on. The math here,” that’s like a 1.2% failure rate. That’s pretty good, if you get that mark in school you’re like the king of school. So, this intelligent woman, smart woman, she’s reading my facts about Trump, and she says, “Oh, this isn’t true,” or she was talking about fake news.
How does someone even find the truth these days?, because it’s so buried.
Robin Elliott: Well, I think it’s less buried than we think, Stefan. You and I have both read 1984 by George Orwell, Ayn Ran Atlas Shrugged. If you’ve read those two books, you can see what’s happening in the world today. You don’t need a lot to understand the collectivism system that’s going on now, the parasites, who’s getting looked after, the producers are being attacked. We live in a socialist country right now and that’s the way it is.
You got the liberals, which are basically cultural Marxists. They don’t fight, that’s not the truth, but the real world, and the evidence of that is overwhelming. You know, the evidence is not hidden, but unpopular lies, and unpopular truth is what it’s all about. People want to hear what they want to hear. We seek evidence to support our dominant beliefs, so if you’ve got a dominant belief that a business is bad, you’re going to find the evidence, you’re going to filter that, your activating system is going to go to work, and it’s going to filter all that information coming in, so that you can find evidence to support your dominant beliefs, and you’re going to stow away any evidence that is contrary to that.
We know that’s how our brains work. Well, you got to feed your brain with truth, and so that you can change the evidence. If you change the evidence you’ll change the belief, and the belief’s got to be helpful. If the belief is truth, that’s going to be helpful. It’ll get you where you want to go, it’ll give you the freedom that you need. I really think there’s enough books out there, and a post, a thing on Facebook by Jordan Peterson. Very few people will notice it, and yet that’s truth.
As A Man Thinketh, that little book, As A Man Thinketh, you can download it for free and you can read it when you’re waiting for the doctor. You can read it when you’re … It’s a short little book, but I read that book over and over, and over again, because it’s like having a shower. If you’re reading As A Man Thinketh, and Atlas Shrugged it’ll keep your brain straight.
I’m a Christian. I read the Bible because they keep me on track regarding my philosophy, but whatever your philosophy is, it’s got to be, it will be truth for you, but you can always look at the evidence of when you do this, what does your life look like?, and what does a country look like that espouses that? What did America look like before? What does it look like now? Thank God for Trump because I think he’s a great guy and people don’t like it because he tells the truth.
Of course, they don’t like it when he’s outright, and when he’s outspoken. They don’t like it because he tells the truth. There’s always some kind and … You got to be cruel to be kind sometimes, and you got to tell the truth, and so yeah he’s outspoken because he’s not a politician.
Stefan Aarnio: One thing that I see right now, Robin, is there’s just such a change in philosophy, and even the last ten years in our western society. Philosophy has changed and it’s interesting to see. I don’t think it was like this before, but we’ve stopped believing in cause and effect.
Robin Elliott: Yeah.
Stefan Aarnio: Cause and effect is like, “Oh, you’re sick? Well, you ate too much pizza,” or, “You’re broke. Well, you spent too much money on shoes,” like, you know, in the old days … It’s almost like this need-to culture that’s out there. I don’t even want to bring it into sex, but you have all these women coming out, “Oh I was raped 40 years ago,” well you know, in 1950 if a woman was sexually assaulted or alone with a man, society would say, “You slut, you weren’t supposed to be alone with this man.”.
And, nowadays, we have this thing where it’s like you don’t even take responsibility of anything in your life, and there’s no cause and effect. What do you think happened to cause and effect? Why do we have all the victim mentality nowadays where everybody is saying, “It’s not me. I didn’t put myself in that compromising situation,” every single person has … It seems that there’s no more ownership mentality today, it’s all victim. Where do you think that came from?
Robin Elliott: Well, they say 11,000,000 Canadians either have diabetes or they’re in pre-diabetic state. That’s nearly a third of the population. Well, nearly a third of the population is also obese, so if you’re going to be obese because you can’t control yourself, because that’s the reason why 99% of them are obese, no matter all their excuses and all their reasons. You know it is because you eat too much and you don’t get enough exercise. That’s why you have this. There were no obese people in Auschwitz, right?
Stefan Aarnio: No, there weren’t.
Robin Elliott: Hard truths, but it’s real. It’s true, right? I just say to people, “There’s no excuse, so if you stop eating guess what? You will lose weight. Get some exercise and stop eating. You’ll lose weight,” and so if you don’t lose weight and you become morbidly obese you could have knee problems, hip problems, diabetes, all the other things are going to follow, and now you can see the results. Nearly a third of the population is diabetic or pre-diabetic, but I mean this is a big problem.
It’s the same with the gun problem. Most people are killed by tobacco and, you know, guns, compared to knives, compared to assault, compared to tobacco, compared to medicine and drugs, guns are the least. Why do they focus on the guns?, because that’s how they can control you. Bring people into the country that are too stupid to vote, that never intent looking after themselves, that need the government, because they will vote for the government, and you’re bringing new voters.
For everything that people do, there’s a consequence and there’s a reason behind it. It’s not popular to look at that, but if you’re looking at what’s going to make you popular and how you’re going to feel comfortable, well, then you’re looking at the wrong stuff, and unfortunately most people do. Most people they deny IQ, they deny all these things. A fellow the other day said to me, “Oh, IQ is not real, and race is not real, and sex is not real,” and all that stuff. And I said to him, “Did you know that for the last 30 years or more, much more than that, the American Army will not recruit anybody that has an IQ below 83?”
Because you can’t use them, especially in war situations. Below 83 they’re too stupid, so an IQ below 83. Now, if the American Army has been doing that for all these years, do you think IQ may be real? Again, it’s just the flavor of the month, is deny reality, break down the family, break down individual individuality, make them dependent on the government, take away their guns, and then we can control them. And that’s unfortunately, when it comes to business, you see this filtering into business, as well.
You can see businesses just going down because of their philosophy. They’re so busy trying to please and being politically correct that they’re not making good choices, and the government is stopping them from firing people, stopping them from doing this, stopping them from, so unfortunately they fake business and then taxes, right? Taxes is a big deal, and that comes from socialism.
Stefan Aarnio: It sounds like Atlas Shrugged and 1984 happening for real.
Robin Elliott: Yes. I think so.
Stefan Aarnio: In front of our face. Now, on a personal level, Robin, we’re going down the rabbit hole a little bit here. What do you believe is the biggest cause of failure in people?
Robin Elliott: I think the biggest cause, and I think of the people that I know that are failures, that we always tease and we say, you know they’ve got an imaginary list on the wall of their office, and it’s all out Gurus, we call them our Gurus because these are guys that have taught us what not to do. These are losers, basically. When you look at them, they’re still losers, I want to say to myself, “What is their commonality? Why do they fail in life, and why do they try and drag other people along?”.
Well number one, they don’t take responsibility. They don’t have goals, they’re not driven, but not taking responsibility, blaming, naming, complaining, you know it’s always somebody else. The government, it’s the weather, it’s this, it’s that. There is a big problem with them, but they’ve been taught to do that and unfortunately when you come along and you’re given a good opportunity.
We had one guy literally say this to my business partner. He said, “Okay, so now I do this with you. Are you going to make me a millionaire?”. We’re not going to make anybody a millionaire. We’re going to give you the opportunity to become a millionaire, but you have to make yourself a millionaire. We can’t do that for you, and he thought, “Well, if I give you all this money to buy the stupid issue, then I’m automatically. You’re going to make me a millionaire,” no, no, no. We’re not going to make you a millionaire.
A lot of it is … We say, “If it’s to be, it’s up to me,” if I’m going to make it work, or I’m not going to make it work then it’s my fault. It’s my choices, so I think that’s a big problem. People fail because they don’t take responsibility. They blame other people, but also because they’re not driven. They don’t have a goal.
I spoke to a guy once, not that long ago, and I said to him, “What is your major goal in life?,” and he said, “I don’t really have any goals,” I said, “Why not?,” he said, “We’ll, we’re comfortable financially. We’ve got enough money, pensions are enough, or are going to be enough. Everything’s going to be fine, so we don’t really need the money, so I don’t have any goals.”. He just focused that all’s got to be about money. Well, it doesn’t have to only be about money.
If you’ve got enough money, well, there’s millions of other things that you can get excited about, set goals, you know change people’s lives, change things, so they’re not goal-directed, and they don’t have … There’s no mission. There’s no vision going forward. In my office where I’m sitting now, everything that you see anywhere in this office is designed to be there. Nothing is here by mistake.
If you look around my office, everything that you see is there for a very, very specific reason. I’ve got … Lots of stuff, but whatever you see you know that it’s there for a reason. It’s to motivate me, to keep me on track, to remind me. It’s things that are there for a reason. It’s not just randomly put there, and most people don’t have random lives.
Stefan Aarnio: I really love what you say about randomness. There’s no vision, they’re not thinking, there’s no cause and effect. Powerful stuff, and that seems to be what we’re selling in the schools, and the universities these days, is, “Hey, it’s just going to work out for you.”.
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Stefan Aarnio: Robin, if you could go back in time to Robin Elliot at 18 years old and give yourself one piece of advice, what would you give yourself?
Robin Elliott: 18 years old. I was in the army. I was in combat. South African army, you know we were there for a year, and I spent some time in combat, not all the time, but I was 18. I just wanted to finish with the army, get a car, live my life, right? I used to think, the advice that I would’ve given myself is to become an accountant or a lawyer, because you’d be better in business, but I found you don’t need to be an accountant or a lawyer, you just need to hire an accountant or a lawyer and you’ll be fine.
I think the advice I would give myself now is, “Find yourself the most successful people you can to mentor you,” but I’ve always done that anyway, but I think if you can find-One fellow, I belonged to a rotary club many years ago and I said to him, “You know, I would like to take you for lunch,” this is the most successful guy I’d ever met in a rotary club. In South Africa it was elitist, you really had to be wealthy to become a rotary.
I was doing well, but this guy was doing exceptionally well, and I took him for lunch, and he said to me, “Robin, well thanks very much for the lunch,” and it wasn’t soup and sandwich, this was real lunch. Soup and sandwich to me is not a lunch, it’s an insult, but this was real lunch, you know the starter, main course, the whole thing. And he said, “What’s the occasion?” And I said, “The occasion is Robin Elliot university. You know, I want to learn from you, about what makes you successful.”.
I ask people that. I interviewed a woman the other day, I said to her, she was in Ravensbruck. Ravensbruck was the biggest women’s concentration camp in Germany during war, and she was actually a catholic, who had been in the Warsaw ghetto and she was in Ravensbruck and she survived. A very small amount of people actually survived Ravensbruck, I read a blog about it. And I said to her, you know, she goes to swimming with my wife at the aqua center, I said to her, “Please tell me what were the most important things that you learnt in Ravensbruck and survived?,” she said, “Well, the most shocking thing for me, I was 16 years old and I had very long hair, and they cut my hair off, then that brought me down to earth.”.
I mean, think about it, a woman’s long hair, that’s pretty much her identity at some stages over their lives, cut her hair off. She said, “But I went to a catholic school, and it was a good school and we had good nuns there, but I learned dogma and doctrine. I never learned that relationship with Christ, that I learned in the concentration camp,” she said, “And also, we used to talk about recipes and about food, so that we could forget about the burning bodies, and the starvation, and the dying, and all that stuff.” She said, “To this day, I can’t even stand the smell of a candle.”
I ask people, “Tell me, what did you learn? What’s the most important thing you learned?” One of the last times I saw my dad before he died I said, “What is the greatest lesson that you learnt in life? If you had to sum it up, what would you say?,” and he said, “Be good to others, kind, and true, and always onto others do as you’d have others do to you,” that was his summing up of life. He was a very, really, well-read, very intelligent man, but that was his simple summary of life, and I ask this one about their summaries of life, and their concept.
I think, “Find the most successful people”, that would’ve been my advice. Find the most successful people in your city, in your town, in your business, wherever, and spend time with them; because we become like the people that we spend most time with.”. For me, it’s a privilege to spend time with you Stefan, because I see your rise and what you’re doing in your life, and how you’re branding yourself and doing exceptionally well, and I really admire you for that.
You can be a mentor to a lot of people, and that’s a huge responsibility. People watch your life, they watch you. They want to learn from you, and even if you don’t know you’re being watched. You are being watched, by many, many people in many different ways. They see you when you’re not doing podcasts. They see you in the mall. They see you with your girlfriend, or with your wife, and they see …
You know, I built a rest stop with somebody that I’m thinking of doing some business with. I watch their eyes. If a man can’t keep his eyes off every woman that walks past him in the rest stop, I don’t want to do business with him. He’s weak. I don’t want to do business with weak people, and a man that can’t keep his eyes off every woman that walks past him, can’t stop flirting with a woman, he’s weak. I look at his habits, his addictions, what he talks about, those kind of things are important to me, so people are watching you.
As a role model, you have a huge responsibility, and I’m very impressed with the way that you’re handling that because it’s unlimited what you can accomplish, because you have a big vision. You’re not limited to … Not putting the local plumbing down, because they do very well and help their families, and a lot of people; but his plumbing-shop, local visions limited to his local geography. Unless he franchises, or something like that, then it expands, right?, but, you’ve got a global vision, and that’s a huge responsibility, a huge opportunity, and I think you’re the right person for it; and I think you’re doing a great job.
Stefan Aarnio: Thank you, Rob. I’m a dedicated student, just like you are. I love what you said about being 18. You got to find those mentors, and when I got out of music school with my English degree, barely able, BA stands for barely able, was making 10 bucks an hour in the job that was supposed to be the dream. I just started finding mentors, and you were one of them, so thank you so much for being part of my journey.
Robin Elliott: My privilege.
Stefan Aarnio: Now, we’re going to wrap it up here pretty soon, Robin, but Henry Ford says a bad business only makes money. What’s some ways that you give back? You’ve had some success, how do you give back to people?
Robin Elliott: We give back to individuals, specific individuals, not parasites. We don’t serve the parasites. The government does a good job of doing that, but specific individuals, very specific in that way, and then we serve the senior’s market, by giving … Our business is about helping seniors, because the government is interested in every, seems to be they’re interested in every sector of the community except seniors, and there’s a massive need with seniors, and it’s growing exponentially.
We know seniors that go down to Mexico just to have their dental work done, because it’s $2,000 in Mexico, and it’s $10,000 in Vancouver. It surprises me that dentists haven’t seen the light yet, and that somebody hasn’t said, “I can be busy 24/7 if I just cut those prices down,” but maybe there’s some kind of price control on them, I don’t know. But, a lot of seniors from Canada are moving to Mexico, just to escape the taxes, just to escape the high cost of medical. Medical, as you get older, medical becomes a big issue for you.
You can live in a shoe box, but the medical, you pretty much can’t avoid it, so for me, helping seniors with our business is very important to me, and we believe in it. My wife had a hip replacement, she was in a wheelchair for two years, you know we went through that, friends have got dementia, we see it happening and we see the need is massive. And, the more seniors we can help the more we can relieve them of the kind of things that they go through, the more we’ll do. We have products for them, and we’re open-minded about that, but we’re looking to partner with companies that want to help seniors, whether it’s through the trikes, our products, or whatever. We join venture then, because that way, together, we can achieve amazing things.
Stefan Aarnio: I like that. Robin, what are three books that changed your life? Top three books.
Robin Elliott: I would say, Atlas Shrugged, 1984, and the Bible.
Stefan Aarnio: Those are big ones. You got the Bible, number one most influential book in America, Atlas Shrugged number two, and 1984. Let me ask you this, why does 1984 make the top three?, because that’s a surprise. A lot of people on my show say Think and Grow Rich, they say Rich Dad, Poor Dad, why 1984?
Robin Elliott: Well, I think … Another one is The Fountainhead of course, but if you understand Iran’s philosophy. You know, a book that is most misunderstood and most important in this world is not even Atlas Shrugged, it’s The Virtue of Selfishness. Selfishness has changed, and it’s changed so much because we’ve moved from a philanthropic society to an altruistic society, and altruism means a cancer on society.
They don’t like the word “selfish”, that it’s got a bad connotation, but, the way she interprets selfishness is completely different. It’s got to look after myself before I can help anybody else, so The Virtue of Selfishness is a good book, but I think 1984, the way he tells the story of the very practical issues for somebody that’s caught up in it. Atlas Shrugged is a guy that’s not caught up in it, besides of the government, you know Osho said that criminals are bad but the real criminals are the politicians, and that’s true.
The biggest criminals in our society, and the biggest narcissists and psychopaths are the politicians, but it’s not just the criminal. Criminals are not as strong as politicians, but he’s talking about the people that suffer under that, suffer under this thing that’s going on, and it’s happening right now. Look at Google, and Twitter, and all these things, what they’re doing. Facebook. It’s happening. It’s incredible what’s going on.
Stefan Aarnio: What I find amazing right now, Robin, you’re right, Google, Twitter, Microsoft, Apple. I’ve been an Apple user my whole life. I loved Apple computers even when they sucked, and I have a $3,000 MacBook Pro in my bag, and I was outraged the other day, this was like a 1984 moment right here. It took all my proprietary documents off my computer, put them in the cloud, and I no longer have my own documents, and it just automatically did that with a software update.
I couldn’t believe it. I wanted to scream, I wanted to walk into Apple and just go postal on those guys, but we’re in a technocracy now. Much like in 1984, you got the screen you can’t turn off. You can dim it, but you can never turn it off. They’re always listening to you, if you’ve seen that movie Snowden? Edward Snowden?
Robin Elliott: Yes, yes.
Stefan Aarnio: You know? It’s unbelievable. They say that they’re not keeping records. It’s tough, man, to look at this. We’re all in the glass fishbowl these days, and it’s amazing because the consolidation of power there, you can stop a descent before it even starts. There’s a real dis balance of power there between the technic crowds and the average man.
Robin Elliott: I think you have a window for businesses and for individuals that want to start businesses to do exceptionally well, in this window, and it’s a wonderful opportunity right now to take advantage of that, while everybody is dumbing themselves down and getting scared, and not saying anything, they’re holding back. For courageous people, now is the time to build your business. Now is the time to establish yourself and to think ahead.
You know, if you like at Russia, Putin’s pretty much not scared of losing his position. Same thing with China. The guy’s not scared of losing his position. He’s not trying to just be re-elected, like we have the Obamas and the Trudeaus of the world. They’ll do anything just to be re-elected and they’ll import their voters, as well, under the guise of the refugees, but …
What are Russia and China doing that the western world is not doing? They’re buying gold. They’re stockpiling gold. They’re buying gold mines all over the world, they’re reducing their debt. Makes you think, if you look at the bilkers of IQs and the aliens are really smart people. They know what they’re doing, they’re doing it for a reason. They’re not buying gold by accident, so if you look at what really successful people are doing.
You know, Jewish people are very successful. Ashkenazi Jews have the highest IQ in the world, they’re followed by the east Asians, but if you look at what are … When did the Jews start leaving South Africa? 1976.
Stefan Aarnio: I’ve heard they’re the canary in the gold mine for a civilization. When the Jews leave, that’s when it’s going down.
Robin Elliott: They started leaving when it was 1976, I left in 1997. I couldn’t have left in 1976, I wasn’t ready, but now the people that decided they’re too smart to leave, they can’t get out, and nobody wants them. And now this country’s collapsing and they’re being, there’s wide genocide going on there, but the media won’t talk about it because it’s black on white, so you got to look at what are the smartest people doing. What do they do?
I had a friend. He was a Greek businessman, a really smart guy, and he said to me, “Robin, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to go to the club,” I said, “Gerald,” Gerald was his name, I said, “Gerald, you don’t own a club,” he says, “Oh, yes,” he says, “You know what? We’re five brothers. Each one of us has a business. Each one of the others has equal shares in each other’s businesses, so when the club has a problem all five brothers have a vested interest in helping the club. We’re all there. We all have different skillsets, different strengths and weaknesses.”
He had an auctioneer business, when the auctioneer business has a problem, all five brothers are there to help. Now, that’s like a built-in family joint venture, given that all the family members are winners, which unfortunately they’re not always, but in that case all his brothers were good guys, smart guys, but having shares in each other’s business is a brilliant idea. That’s collaboration and leverage. As the smart guys, like in Atlas Shrugged, when the smart guys saw John Gold’s collection get together, it’s amazing what you can achieve.
Stefan Aarnio: Yeah, having the five people around you who are going to make you successful. Three more quick questions before we go, Robin, super quick. What do the young people need to succeed nowadays? I think the cards are stacked against young people more and more, because the schools … I look at it today, they’re worse and worse than when I was there. I was graduating university in 2008. I see some of the assignments these kids are getting now, they’re teaching them math in all these weird ways, and some of the subjects are totally nonsense. What does a young person have to do to succeed these days?
Robin Elliott: Well, I think they got to get away from … As we said, get the right mentor, number one. Number two, read the right books. That’s important. Number three, parents need to get their kids out of schools and home-teach them. My two granddaughters are getting home schooled and you can see the difference. It’s an amazing difference. So, they need to get good mentors, they need to read the right books, they need to associate with the right other kids, right people, and then they need to develop passion. They need to develop some focus on what they want.
You know, I was a drummer in a band when I was a kid. There’s nothing wrong with being a musician, but how many musicians statistically are going to make money and become Bruce Springsteen, not that you’d want to become Bruce Springsteen, but how many of them statistically are really going to make money? How many artists make money? Very, very few people. I just heard my wife peeping in the back.
So, you know, statistically you have to say, “How many people have become artists? How many of them are really going to make money?,” so you’ve got to look, get a view of the big picture, and again, associating and learning from smart people like yourself. Reading your book. I think your book is going to be fantastic. I can’t wait for it to come out because I think it’s going to incorporate all of these good ideas, and it’s going to bring in that work ethic, which is so far into so many people. People, they don’t know how to work anymore, but if you can find the workers, and there are some of them around, those are gold. We want to look after the workers. The good, the honest people, and they prove themselves over time.
Stefan Aarnio: I love it, Robin. Yeah, Hard Times Create Strong Men. It’s going to be a good book. 600 pages long. No cakewalk but it’s going to be good. Are there any resources you recommend for people starting out and wanting to become successful these days?
Robin Elliott: Well, there’s a lot of free stuff. There’s a lot of free books available that people don’t have to say, “Well, I’m a young student, I don’t have a lot of money because I, you know,” like when you talk about joint ventures always tease us, and in DC when you talk about a joint venture they think it’s something you smoked, but if they started spending resources on the right things, and books being number one.
I spoke to a guy the other day. He doesn’t like reading. I said, “You go to the library. You can take out 1984 on CD, and you can listen to the CDs if you don’t want to read the book,” you know, Atlas Shrugged, I don’t think that’s on CD, but there’s a lot of other stuff you can listen to, and books on tape. There’s a lot of audiobooks, you can listen to that, so if you’re in …
Jim Rohn, I think it was Jim Rohn that says, “Your car should become a library for you,” I think it was Denis Waitley or one of these guys, he said, “Every time you’re in your car, you should be learning. You can be rocking out to the music like a pothead, or you can be listening to a good book.” There’s a lot of stuff, you’re not going to learn much listening to rock music. It’s good for you, it’s fun, but it’s not … It could be better.
So, how are you spending every minute of your time, and get a list of the things and then find them, those resources they will change your brains. There’s going to be books and your mentors will prescribe the right books to you, depending on your meaning, what do you like, what do you want to do, what do you want to accomplish, but if their philosophy is right, they will make it. Whatever they do, they’ll be successful.
Stefan Aarnio: One final thing, Robin. Do you have any programs, or causes you’d like to promote before we go?
Robin Elliott: No, I just think seniors, seniors is the thing really to look at and IPS Safety, and IPS Wellness Foundation, that’s what we focus on. People can work with us. We pay, we don’t … It’s interesting that these groups that I belong to, I seem to be the only one that stands up and says, “Listen, you bring me any business, I’ll pay you for it,” you got to pay. You can’t walk around with your hand out expecting people to give you stuff because you’re a nice guy.
Working with seniors is a very satisfying thing to do, very important in our society, and the fact that you’re not a senior, guess what? If you’re lucky, you might become a senior one day. You might die before that, but if you do become a senior, you want to have learned from seniors because the wisdom of the world is not to be found with 18-year-olds, it has to be found in seniors. That’s where the wisdom is.
And there’s some really good seniors. They got the time, they got the wisdom, they got the knowledge, they got the experience. We can learn a lot from them. We tend to [poopoo 01:12:07] the seniors, and really it’s a huge, helping seniors you benefit tremendously from it.
Stefan Aarnio: Well, they used to be the most valuable people in society, and today, in our backwards society they’re the least valuable.
Robin Elliott: The whole triangle is being put upside down. The values are being turned upside down, but you’re right. It used to be seniors were respected, and looked up to, and looked after, and in some societies they still are to some extent, but with the Caucasians it’s just a joke. They get warehoused, the kids can’t wait to take their house, put them away somewhere so we can move into the house with our offspring and … Our sons are not going to leave until they’re 35 years old.
Stefan Aarnio: Or they take their inheritance ,and they buy a new car within 14 days statistically. It’s crazy. “Dad, I hope you die, I’ll buy a new car.” That’s backwards.
Anyways, Robin, thank you so much for being on this show, real different show for me. I think we went in a little bit of a different direction. I love that, I love the originality of it, I love the truth, I love what you’re saying about being obsessed with truth and freedom. Thank you so much for being on the show.
Robin Elliott: Thanks, Stefan. Thanks for the privilege of spending time with you. Have a great afternoon.
Stefan Aarnio: Thank you.
Robin Elliott: Thanks.
Stefan Aarnio: Hey, it’s Stefan Aarnio here. Thank you so much for listening to another episode of Respect The Grind. If you love what you heard here today, I want you to check out my brand new Wealth Potentials test. If you’ve ever wondered what the next step is in your game, your entrepreneurial game, your wealth-building game, if you want to know where you’re at and where to go next, Wealth Potentials measures your habits, your talents, and your leadership to show you where you are today in your wealth-building and where you need to go tomorrow.
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