Leave Nothing To Chance

 

There is a lot to learn from Og Mandino. It seems like every time you read The Greatest Salesman in the World, you learn something new. It just has unlimited interpretations of moral, spiritual, and ethical guidance. Join John Solleder as he talks to Dave Blanchard about Og Mandino and his scrolls and a little bit about his own works. Dave is the CEO of The Og Mandino Group. He is also the author of books such as Equanimity: Conquering Mt. Entrepreneur and The Observer’s Chair. Learn how to live through life despite all the struggles. Find out his writing process and some of his favorite books. Discover peace and equanimity by listening to today’s episode.

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Dave Blanchard, “How Og Mandino Can Change Your Habits”

It is beyond a privilege to introduce somebody who I’ve got great respect for. Many of you know him. You certainly know his company and the work of art that he works with. I want to tell you a little bit about Mr. Dave Blanchard as we get started here. With an extraordinary background in sales management, networking, commercial and residential real estate, television and film, Dave is a consummate renaissance man of business. He was also a middle linebacker in high school and a free safety at Ricks College. Dave has never failed to hit the real issues head-on and does so with extraordinary clarity and accuracy.

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Welcome to the show. How are you?

Thank you. It’s a privilege to be here. To add to that, I’ve been married for many years to my sweetheart, the mother to our 7 children and grandmother to 27.

I have read this book nineteen times in my life since I first saw it back in the 1980s. Every time I read it, I get something that I missed. I’d like to think I’m a smart guy and a good reader. I even use my highlighter. Is that everybody else’s experience with The Greatest Salesman in the World?

History-wise, The Greatest Salesman in the World was written in 1967 and published in 1968. Og had written the beginning and the end. The ten scrolls were not written. He was struggling. He set himself up as a writer. This is supposed to be the wisdom of the ages. He took three days off of work. On the third night, he tucks the boys in bed, goes and lies down for a few moments and all of a sudden, it comes to him, “Today I begin a new life. I shed my old skin, which had too long suffered the bruises of failure and the wounds of mediocrity. There, I’m born and new. My birthplace is a vineyard where there’s fruit for all.”

I’m a writer. I know what he’s going through. This is going through his head as he’s racing to his typewriter because back then, it was an IBM Selectric. He starts pounding. At 9:00 AM the next morning, he walks into the bedroom and says to his wife, Betty, “It’s finished.” He collapses on the bed and sleeps for a day. It was a spontaneous download. That’s important to know.

 

This is a very precious book. Scientists would say it is written in the language of the intrinsic, which means it has unlimited applications and interpretations. You don’t have to go to it. It comes to you wherever you are and because of that unique characteristic, you may not have heard that line before the way you hear it now because it’s speaking to your now. I love studying the scrolls. It has been many years. Every time I get into a scroll, I have a similar experience. I’m ready to hear something different. I’m like, “Was that in there before?” I’ve got some of them almost memorized from experience and still have that experience. It is miraculous.

I would characterize it as almost a living book in the respect that, to your point, it’s almost like something comes to life and manifests itself at that moment that’s going on in your life, career, business, marriage, kids or whatever it is that is in need almost that day. I’ve shared that with Dan and so many other people like my son, everyone else who knows this book inside and out and my oldest sister who is a big fan of it. It’s amazing work. Let me ask you this. What’s the impact of this on Dave Blanchard’s life?

It’s everything I did until now. We started many years ago with this company. Everything until then was a preparation for this moment. I can’t imagine because it has influenced everything I share with my children. We were paying back $1 million in debt from the collapse of the real estate market in California. We were coming out of that experience about seven years in when I found the book. I started studying it toward the end of that journey, which was very painful but hopeful. All of a sudden, it has impacted my life.

I wrote out the last $14,000 check in August of 2000 and put it in the mail. It was impossible. I almost took my life in 1993 to cash in on a $1 million life insurance policy to solve that problem. It was traumatic and then, all of a sudden, it’s over. Bette Mandino calls me and says, “The rights to The Greatest Salesman in the World are not being renewed.” I’d written the feature film script for The Christ Commission, another one of Og’s favorite books. She said, “I wanted to call you first. Would you be interested?” I was standing in the cancellation line of The Lion King in New York. I said, “Is this a rhetorical question? Do you have any idea what that book has done to me? I wrote about it in Today I Begin a New Life.”

The first thing I said was we have the same teacher and it was like an old shoe that was so comfortable to put on. It’s like it had always been part of my life but now, it has become my life and career. I told her, “Absolutely.” We cut the deal standing in line with my attorney in California, hers in New York, and publishing in Florida. I came home, left the film business and we started the Og Mandino group. That was many years ago.

We’re going to talk about some numbers that have impacted so many people around the world. Let’s talk about your book, Today I Begin a New Life: Intentional Creation. If there were three major lessons to be learned from that book, what would they be?

People who want to create more in their life have the gift to vividly visualize. And, they should that gift to create, not escape. Click To Tweet

I write about them and sometimes, they get tested. I remember in a dark hour, I’m going, “I didn’t take my life.” I got up the next morning and was angry. I long to cry to the God of my youth but the God of my youth will not hear my cry. I must change my God or change my cry. It still rolls off my tongue. It was my cry that needed to change. One of the most important things that came out of writing that book came from doing several hundred thousand assessments. It’s an assessment where we don’t measure personality but the habits of thinking that drive that.

It became obvious that for people who want to create more in their life, 93% of them have the gift to vividly visualize and effortlessly think. As a result, they go into the future. If they have any inclination to want life to be easier or less stressful, they use that gift destructively to fantasize. They get norepinephrine, which would be a controlled drug if it were a prescribed substance. They get euphoric and then life shows up differently. They go into this dark dungeon of despair and discouragement and back into fantasy or catastrophe. They hate their lives and as a result, they beat themselves up.

What drove the book was a 55-year-old man. The first time I was doing his debrief of his assessment, he was in tears. He said, “David, I can almost touch it and taste it. Why can’t I have it?” He started to cry. He was like, “What’s wrong with me? Does God not love me?” It was so clear. It wasn’t about whether God loved him or not. He was using his gift of vivid visualization to escape instead of creating. The very first lesson was, what is that thought process designed to do? How can we use it to create life? Get an inspired idea. Take what is. Move it forward 1 millimeter and celebrate instead of keep holding life hostage to an expectation. That concrete condition for happiness would be one.

Two, we can’t throw up on people with our ideas. We can’t be transactional with human beings. Dr. Perry and his book with Oprah, What Happened to You? diagrammed it for us. We go through our cortex down through all of our crap, trauma triggers and stress points and then we go back up through the other person’s cortex. What does it take to create a safe enough place to get through and navigate those landmines so that we can finally have a conversation? It is intrinsic validation and an inspired idea.

I observed great listeners. We broke it down into understandable pieces. Third, you can’t create in your head. You can get a vision in your head that will ignite your passion but we create intangible reality. Creators are going to want to spend more time here in the creation than in their head thinking. Those are the three most important things I learned during those ten years and that’s why I wrote about them.

Isn’t it amazing when we communicate what we think is for other people, we’re communicating it for us?

 

That was my journey for those ten years. For the next twelve with the Og Mandino group, I started writing at eight years in. It took four years to write it. What I had learned was validated in the application with real human beings and here are Og’s scrolls supporting the whole thing. It was magic.

You’ve coached 60,000-plus people and 4,000 of them individually. Some were very heavy-duty people. I know you can’t talk about specific people. I have an idea of some people talking to you, to Paul and Dan. It’s that fundamental question because as we teach, we learn. What are the three things you’ve taken away in this long career helping well over 60,000 people? That’s just in coaching and millions of people with the foundation. What have you learned that you’ve taken away in your life, be it your personal life or business life, from teaching all those folks?

The greatest thing is empathy. It’s when you step into another person’s role and find out what’s happening to them. I wrote about something called the Chicago dream. If you take those things out and put them in your heart instead of dragging them around, you can listen differently. It’s like your character has been forged in the furnace of adversity. You know what pain feels like. Can you take it back? No, but you can choose to use this as an empathetic reference point to understand better what somebody else is going through. If you do that, there will finally be purpose in your suffering, joy in your journey, and much-needed healing in your soul.

By applying these principles to people’s lives, the greatest thing is that we can become a better version of ourselves. We have the capacity to do that. We’ve got unhealthy habits of thinking. We’ve got stress points and trauma triggers that are getting in the way but we can work through those pieces and become the very best version of ourselves.

I’ve watched so many people that just by simply listening better, using their minds more constructively to get inspired ideas and then acting on them, their lives shift and success increases. Self-improvement may be at that level. It’s in the moment of making a different decision. Everything we call self-improvement is preparation for that moment.

We do coaching, read books and watch podcasts. Those are all helpful to prepare us for the moment but self-improvement is in the moment when we make a different decision. To watch people do that and create new habits of thinking is throwing. Not everybody’s ready to do that but for those who do, it’s miraculous.

The greatest thing is empathy. Really stepping into another person's role and finding out what's happening to them. Click To Tweet

Let’s face it. Most of the time somebody comes for coaching because they’re not at the top of their game. They know that there’s room for improvement in some areas. When they come back and say, “You said this at this time and I applied it. It made these changes in my life. Thank you so much,” how does that make you feel? I would imagine that has happened thousands of times over the years.

It’s simple. I always respond, “Thank you. This is what I live for.”

Let me ask you this. Habit Finder is something I’ve used, I’m a member of and I’ve shared with my downline organization, friends of mine in the network marketing space that I’m involved in, friends that are involved in sales and some people that are not involved in anything but need Habit Finder. Talk about that and the science of it, its application, how they can use it or anything you want to share on Habit Finder because it’s a gift that you have given to the world that they need to know about.

I’m a bottom-line guy. Og talks about shifting habits. I said, “There’s got to be a way to measure what we’re working on.” We found the formal science of actual logical mathematics at the University of Tennessee. It is crazy, cool mathematics. I’ve had nothing short of spiritual experiences with mathematics or some dreams to figure out how to do things differently than they’ve ever been done before. It must be working. They asked me to be the opening keynote at the Hartman Conference in 2021 with all our PhDs. It was awesome.

We spent $2 million and had 250,000 people going through it to get here. Imagine this. We measure personality. Joe Dispenza calls that memorized emotions. We’re trying to shift personality or more harmfully, we try to manage it. That’s how they are. We start managing personalities. We’re like, “I’m a D. I’m this on the StrengthFinder. I’m this on the Enneagram.” Those are great inductive assessments for measuring what they measure. My question is, do you want to manage behavior that might be inappropriate or would you like to help that person become the best version of themselves and then manage that?

It’s a different science. It’s called deductive science. It’s mathematics. It’s transfinite calculus. It takes us back to the headwaters and measures the very habits of thinking that drive our emotions. It’s the emotions that memorize our personality, then our behavior and actions. If we want to shift any of that, let’s go back to the source.

 

There are powerful places for personality tests. I had a company do a whole bunch of those to find out they’d lost everybody with a certain personality and that’s why the company was struggling. That’s important to know but if a person wants to improve, I don’t want them saying, “What did you expect? I’m a red.” Let’s get to the bottom of what’s happening and ask yourself, “Am I maximizing that natural gift? Would it serve me if I shifted that unhealthy habit?” Provide them with the tools to make that happen.

The Habit Finder measures it with accuracy. We hear that all the time. They’re like, “How do you know that?” It’s so simple to take. I will give you a little spoiler alert. Can you imagine going into a metaverse and meeting your habits of thinking, acting the way they’re thinking in a gamified environment where you work on shifting them and then you come out into the world to practice what you’ve learned?

Big changes happen.

There’s much more to that than I’m sharing but to be in a virtual reality working on a habit of thinking, we could speed up the shift.

They can get that Habit Finder.

We give it away for free. The reason why we do is almost everybody in the personality world understands that place. They’ve taken some of the best ones like the Enneagram, StrengthsFinder, DISC and Myers-Briggs. Those are all-powerful and inductive assessments that are trying to induce a diagnosis through a series of questions. Hardly anybody has been in this space. They’re not even aware of their habits of thinking. It’s a weird place to go by yourself so we give it to you.

Some believe that they're going to be exonerated from the need to struggle. The struggle is a journey. Where dry desert ends, green grass grows. Click To Tweet

We say, “Spend twenty minutes with one of our Habit Finder specialists for free in that space to see if it’s resonating with you. Are you ready to make those shifts? If you are, here’s an introductory way to do it all the way through to personal coaching with a trained Habit Finder coach to intently work on it but let’s find out if it’s even of interest.” We give it away. There’s no fee for it.

It’s such a gift. I took it the first time years ago. Dan reminded me in a conversation, “How about you take it again?” It reads your mail. I’m like, “I’m not going to give it away.” Go take it.

You don’t know what we’re asking for so it can’t be manipulated. I love what Paul said spontaneously. He said, “It makes your brain play its cards.” I go, “How does it do that?” I don’t talk about it but there it is.

Our habits create everything that’s going to happen, good, bad or indifferent. It’s an incredible and valuable tool. Here’s the next question. I’ve never shifted off of my favorite scroll. My case is number three. I will persist until I succeed. When I first read this book, I was in a place where I wasn’t succeeding, frankly. The old athlete in me, the old competitor or the guy that gets his juices up says, “This won’t defeat me. I’m going to overcome it all. I’ll figure it out, go from a different angle and work harder.”

If I got to work 18 hours a day and I’m only working 17, I’ll get up 1 hour earlier. That’s how I’m wired. That one always hit me and I’ve never changed it. What’s your favorite and why? Over the years in developing a company, dealing with thousands of people and raising your family and grandkids, have you shifted or is it always the same?

Let me talk about that one for a moment. It’s so powerful. It is, “I’ll persist until I succeed.” Phil Stutz and Barry Michaels wrote a book called The Tools. In that book, they said we all seem to believe that somehow someway, we’re going to be exonerated eventually from needing to struggle. Og made it clear that we learn how to struggle well. It’s a journey. He says that where the desert ends, green grass grows. He could say, “When there’s more desert and green grass, we learn to persist no matter how we’re feeling. We keep our eye on the goal above our head, ignore the obstacles on our feet and keep persisting.” It’s a powerful piece.

 

My very favorite scroll is Scroll 9, I will act now, which says, “I hunger for success. I thirst for happiness and peace of mind. Lest I act, I will perish in a life of failure, misery and sleepless nights. I will command and I will obey my own command.” That is an incredible sentence for 1967 because we understand the ability to be metacognitive, step back and reflect on our own thinking. I will command and my habits of thinking will obey my command. It’s one of the greatest gifts in metacognition. We didn’t even get into this space until the ’90s and here’s Og teaching us.

There are so many quotable quotes in that scroll. We could go on for a half-hour quoting the quotes in there and talking about them. I will act now is a great scroll. If you read it 3 times a day or say 3 weeks, you’ll hear it talking to you. You’ll go to procrastinate something and it will say, “Act now.” You’re like, “I don’t want to do it.” It will say, “Act now.” You finally do it and feel better. Here’s the secret. The voice saying, “Act now,” is your balanced measurement in your Habit Finder assessment. The voice saying, “I don’t want to,” is an unhealthy habit of thinking but we’re so identified with it that we’ve often listened to it. That scroll will talk to you.

Let me give you back something on this. I interviewed Ben Gay III in 2021. I said to Ben at the end of that interview, “In the 2 years you were eating lunch with Dr. Napoleon Hill every day, can you wrap up 3 things? You had two years of conversation about everything from the weather to the Super Bowl and to things that don’t matter versus the things that you and I know matter. You can’t always be in the middle of heavy stuff. There’s a lot of light stuff around the heavy.”

To that same point about Scroll 9, I will act now, there are three things to take away. Integrity and focus are important but most importantly, action. It’s the same thing. Whether it was Mr. Mandino or Dr. Hill, it’s the same thing. We got to get busy. We can’t just know something. We got to take action and do something. Let me ask you this. That’s your favorite now and that’s changed from time to time. What would have been years ago?

It’s I will greet this day with love in my heart. When people read that, we get to learn how to use our life experiences. “I love the rain for it cleanses my soul. I love the sun for it warms my bones. I love the light for it shows me the way. I love the darkness for it shows me the stars.” It’s an incredible paragraph that tells us, “How will I do this? How will I love these people? How will I melt hearts?” Og makes it clear. Use your life experiences as empathetic reference points to do it. That’s how you’re going to do it. You can’t miss that.

In Scroll 2, when he wrote them all that one night, Bette made him amend it. Not only did she have it amended. He amended that one because it was too complicated for 1967. “I’ll greet this day with agape of a heightened level of awareness and not warm and fuzzy. Most of all, I love myself for what I do. I zealously guard what I take into my mind, heart, body and soul.” It’s a cool scroll. I fall in love with that one. Scroll 4 is I am nature’s greatest miracle. Scroll 5 is I’ll live this day as if it is my last. We can keep going. It depends on where I am in my journey and which one’s speaking to me.

Peace that transcends all understanding is equanimity. Click To Tweet

I’ve got a wall of fame on my computer of some of the people that I’ve interviewed. There is a part that has the word equanimity on it. I asked your son, “All of this great stuff that you’ve been around and introduced to, all the great people you’ve worked with and everything else, give me that one word somebody could lock into and why.”

In my case, it’s the word tranquility. For some reason, I heard that from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale many years ago when I was at a dark time in my life. I was seventeen at the time. I had a physical problem. I had a double spinal cord surgery. I was in the hospital and wondering if I was ever going to walk again. I read the book that my dad gave me. I heard the word tranquility for the first time. It gave me tremendous peace. I know equanimity through Paul. What would Dave Blanchard’s be?

The last book I wrote was Equanimity: Conquering Mt. Entrepreneur. Equanimity is tranquility. It is defined as peace of mind but a different kind of peace of mind than the world tries to sell. It’s not easing my stress. It’s from fully maximizing your gifts, bringing them to the lives of other people and making every minute count in the day. At the end of that day, you left a footprint on that planet. It mattered that you were here and there was a sense of overwhelming tranquility and peace of mind that transcends all understanding.

I got a good friend who said that once. A peace that transcends all understanding is equanimity. That’s a great word. Another word I love is inspire. It means to breathe life into people. Expire is to take life from them. It’s not to motivate because to motivate means to push. If we stop pushing, they stop moving. Inspire is to light a flame inside of them. That’s my favorite word.

You’re on my hall of fame, which means that I’ll be quoting you to somebody and say, “Dave Blanchard’s word was trust and inspire.”

Even Stephen Covey’s Trust and Inspire. He’s using the word. It’s awesome. Trust and Inspire: How Truly Great Leaders Unleash Greatness in Others.

Let’s talk about some of the other books you’ve written and then books you read that are your go-to places, as we all have. Let’s start with yours. Let’s talk about some of your other titles and where they can get them.

They’re all on Amazon and I’ve narrated all of them. It took a few years to do that but I finally took my advice, set a date in the sand and got it done. Today I begin a New Life is so timely because some people are reaching that limit. They’re like, “What do I do now?” I very transparently take them through my journey. It’s not so it’s about me. It’s so they can get honest about their journey. We then go through the three major things to assist. It’s connecting with people, using your mind constructively and being present in the now. Here’s what you can do to get back on track.

The second book is called The Observer’s Chair. That’s the metacognition stepping back and observing your habits of thinking. It’s all on the topic of self-esteem because a lot of people are struggling in this area, questioning their worthiness, ability, character, the value of their contribution, the value of their ideas or the past mistakes they’ve made. They’re burdened and when we’re burdened, we’re not available.

We talk ourselves out of our inspiration. We need to be in love with ourselves, not in the sense of making it about us. It’s so we don’t have to make it about us. We’re so okay that we can be available to serve others. That’s The Observer’s Chair. It walks through how to break some of those patterns. I then wrote Equanimity. I’ve joked around for years that some people say they want to climb the mountain but they spend the whole time in the parking lot fantasizing about being there.

This is a journey where the reader is pulling into the parking lot. The reader has an encounter with people parked in the parking lot. The reader gets out and gets on the path that has an experience with mentors who walk them up the mountain to the peak. It is a unique way of writing a book but it’s not about a character.

The reader becomes the character in the journey on how to get onto the path to conquer Mt. Entrepreneur. What are the decisions that you want to make before you start the journey? What are the critical parts of the journey? That’s a fun book. I’ve got a couple more in me. I can feel the boiling up. This is what happens. You can’t stop them. They start coming out to dedicate the time and start writing.

Some people say they want to climb the mountain, but they spend the whole time in the parking lot fantasizing about being there. Click To Tweet

I have authored a couple of books. I’ve got the books that I got to advertise. My wife says I have to. I’ve got to figure out a way to pay for these shows. I wrote Moving up: 2020 and Beyond in 2019, having no idea what will happen in 2020. The world shifted. I then wrote Leaving Nothing to Chance in 2021, which is why the show is called what it is. You can get them on Amazon as well. They’re specifically on network marketing. I also got a lot of stories in there. I’ve done it four times and one was a remake. I took parts out and put parts in.

Leaving Nothing to Chance was a different category. I know how many hours it takes. I know that process where you say goodnight to the wife and kids and you go to sleep. You put the dogs out, bring them back in and that’s it. You go to sleep. At 2:00 AM, you go, “What if I said this? What if I changed what I wrote at 5:00 PM?” You write on airplanes, on the weekend and when you get a chance. You’ve done this repeatedly with so many great titles through the years but how have you found the time to raise a family, manage a very large business and deal with the coaching of well over 60,000 other human beings? It’s fascinating.

You get up in the morning and reflect. You get revelatory ideas that ignite your passion and you’re driven by passion so you don’t count the cost or track the time. Today I Begin a New Life was written between 4:00 AM and 8:00 AM for four years. There was a rewrite done. In the last week, I coach all day and write almost all night. I get a shower and sleep for an hour. It was from Sunday night until Friday at 1:22 PM to finish the rewrite. I had 100 pages taken out and added 3 chapters. It was an incredible download.

While you were speaking about your experience, I know you’ve had this. It’s 2:30 AM. You’re so tired and in tears. You’re like, “What am I doing?” All of a sudden, the heavens open and there’s a download of information. It ends up in the book verbatim without a word changed. Writers live for those moments. Those are precious.

In my experience, those are the times I look up at God and say, “At 2:30 AM? You couldn’t manage it to be at 4:30 PM?” We have a lot of authors that read the show so you guys know what I’m saying. If you’ve never written, I would encourage everybody to. Everybody’s got at least one book because every life is a unique story. Do it even if you just write it for your kids and grandkids. Self-publish it and give it to them as a gift. I’ve had those moments where I’m going like, “You could have given this to me earlier,” but I’ll wait until the morning.

You’re right. There is something about that. As we get into the mind science, which you understand a great deal more than I do, I read a lot about the human brain and its capacity and how we unused so much more of it than we use consciously. Something is going on there that we don’t understand that’s working while we think we’re being passive, be it that we’re sleeping or engaging in an activity. Otherwise, something else that’s working there knocks on you at that time of the day and says, “I got something for you.” That’s my take on it.

Let’s say that you get home from the office. There’s a knock on the door and they say, “You and Mrs. Blanchard should pack up a bag because we’re going to take you to a beautiful island where there’s plenty of food, water and sustenance for a little vacation. However, you’re limited on what you can bring. You can bring your clothes and the stuff that you need but we’re only going to allow you, besides the Holy Bible to bring three other books with you by other authors. They can’t be yours.” I’m going to guess if I was in your library, there are probably 10,000, 20,000 or 30,000 books by all sorts of people. I’m probably not understating that. How do you pick 3 and which 3 are they?

I’d probably pick the three that I go to often. I need to buy a new copy of one of them because there are so many notes in the margins. It’s Social intelligence by Dan Goleman. It’s a little technical but it is a brilliant book. He also wrote Primal Leadership, which is also a great book. I love the tools. These are two atheists who help their patients get into action and have a technique for getting people into action. It’s miraculous. When they get into action, it’s like they’re in alignment with the force that orders the planets. I love that book.

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss is the weaponized version of intrinsic validation and connecting with people. He applied it to an FBI profiler brilliantly. He teaches us so many lessons in that book. I could keep going but I don’t know which three I’d pick. That would be interesting but certainly, the scriptures would come and probably the book that I’m reading, which is Stephen M.R. Covey’s book. I get into it and go, “This is cool.”

Bruce Perry’s book with Oprah Winfrey, What Happened to You? It has been one of the most therapeutic books I’ve ever read. Here’s the therapist who’s saying, “What’s wrong with you?” The person will say, “I’m suffering from anxiety.” The therapist will say, “From a scale of 1 to 10?” The person will answer, “Six.” The therapist goes, “Here’s your medication.” He’s going, “What trauma trigger or stress response is creating the anxiety? Let’s resolve that.” It’s brilliant. He does it in a way that a person who’s reading this that has any stress responses and trauma triggers, which I have a lot from my youth, listen to and process. It’s been so beautiful. It’s a great experience.

I’ve listened to it and then I’m reading it because there are so many things I want to have underlined and marked so I can come back to them. Sometimes, it’s the latest one. I’ll give you my formula. I open a book, read the first chapter and always ask the same question, “Do they have the same teacher?” Two of my favorites are written by atheists. They don’t believe the same thing I believe but they had the same teacher. If they do, I consume it. If they don’t, no matter how clever or popular it is, I don’t read it. I don’t want it.

That thought process is so profound. It should be a college course taught at every college in the world. Do they have the same teacher? I wrote that down. We talked about Mandino and Hill. I don’t even know if those two gentlemen knew each other or knew each other existed at that time because social media wasn’t what it is now. They were probably aware of each other. Who knows? They may have known each other but to that point, did they have the same teacher?

Open a book, read the first chapter, and ask if you have the same teacher as the author. If you don't, just don't read it. Click To Tweet

He had a hard time promoting The Greatest Salesman in the World. He would say, “I was there but I just took dictation.” That’s what inspired the book. He couldn’t sell himself. What a great comment.

I shared this with Paul and Dan in the past. I’d love your thoughts on this. I come from a family that has had some people who were members of an anonymous society that helps people stop drinking. We all know Og’s background in that situation. One of my family members doesn’t mind me saying it. I’ve got her permission. I’ve asked her in the past. It’s my oldest sister.

When I first was interviewed on Dan’s show, I mentioned it to her. He said, “Do you know how many of us in the program have read that book?” I’m thinking of it from my filter, my little lens and my universe, network, marketing and direct sales. Inspire people. Read the book. Get the meat from the book. Apply it in your business and to your life. There’s a whole other bunch of people that have been influenced so positively by this work of this one man. At the time he wrote it, he probably didn’t ever foresee that but here we are many years later.

How many people has he helped during their troubles? They’re not geo-distributed where you show up for a meeting and be like, “I’m depressed and mad. My check went down. The economy got bad. Fewer people were buying the product,” versus thinking, “Maybe I’m standing at that bridge and considering throwing my life or family away.” There are real critical life decisions that that book has impacted on so many people. I would love any comments or thoughts that you have on the use of that book by people that are in that dark place.

First of all, it’s no accident that it resonates with Alcoholics Anonymous and its members. Og was an alcoholic. In the original hard copies of the book, there’s a story. It’s about twelve pages long. He tells the story of losing his wife and his daughter to his alcoholism, staying in a cheap hotel, going for a walk and seeing a gun in a pawn shop. He had enough money in his wallet to buy it but then he had the impression to go to the library instead. He started reading books and it changed his whole life.

Listen to the blows that were struck and the pain that was caused. “Can I take that back?” He was estranged from his daughter for his lifetime. He never was allowed to see her. Interestingly enough, when she got cancer later in her life, Bette, Og’s widow, took care of her until she died but he never got to see her. When you read some of those lines and know it’s no mistake that someone’s in a very dark hour, it relates to what he’s saying because he knows what that dark hour feels like. It speaks to the person at a dark hour.

It’s been such a gift to so many people including yourself, myself, our families, businesses and the people that are around. We read with our filter all the time. We’re like, “What am I getting out of this that I can apply for my life and business?” We’re not necessarily thinking that there’s somebody else who might not be thinking in those terms but thinking in terms like, “There’s a gun. Maybe I end in whatever pain I’m in.” It’s a short-term answer to a long-term problem.

I don’t want to lose sight of those folks who are reading. The impact that Dave Blanchard and his family have had by taking this book and getting it out geometrically, not only in a direct selling world, we’re just one little facet of humanity but in all of these worlds where people are able to gain from this wonderful book. I want to thank you for that on behalf of all of our audience because I don’t know where they’re all at.

I had one lady on the show in 2021 who was driving down a highway in Nebraska. Some things had happened in her life. Her daughter had been murdered a few months before. She was in a very dark place in her life. There were two semis on the side and she said, “I’m going to drive between them and let them finish me,” but she looked in her rearview mirror and saw a family in another SUV behind her.

In the car were the mom, the dad and some kids. She then said, “If I do that, I’m going to kill them too.” She made a good choice not to. Now, she’s building a business and putting her life back together. We don’t know where somebody is when they get this book in their hands. I want to thank you for that. Most importantly, how do they get some more information about the foundation and anything else that they want to partake in?

Go to HabitFinder.com. Take your Habit Finder. Ask for a free consult and let us serve you. If that’s all you need, that’s great. We’ll guide you to a book. Get a book. There’s a lot more of this that is available. We’ve got programs that are so inexpensive that help goes into deep situations for people. We want to help people get to the next level.

We are running a successful company doing it but our mission is always leaving value. The books Today I Begin a New Life, The Observer’s Chair and Equanimity: Conquering Mt. Entrepreneur are all on Amazon. The audio is there. If you want to hang out with me for a few hours, buy the audio. We’ll hang out and go through the book together. That would be fun.

Here’s the fun question. I’m a big fan of that guy’s jersey you have. Tell us about that.

That was a gift. There are about 22 of those. I had the privilege of speaking at the SMU football team years ago. June Jones was the coach at the time and Leigh Steinberg came. Leigh Steinberg is Jerry Maguire. Put it together. He wrote the book, The Agent. He was there and I said, “What are you doing here?” He said, “I had done his Habit Finder that was referred from somebody.”

It was a great day. I was meeting June after a very public bankruptcy and alcohol charges. He was finishing up his rehab at the time. I was sitting on the back porch with June and got this strong impression. It was like, “You’re supposed to help Leigh start his practice.” I was like, “Me?” I met with his attorney. I wrecked my car coming out of the garage. I was so frustrated that he was dealing with this character and got him a new attorney who’s the Attorney General of the State of Utah, Sean Reyes.

We put together a team of great people. We got a fund that got him organized and back in practice. He’s a great human being. Patrick is one of his first big clients. The investor came in and bought everybody out. We were like, “We have one request. Can we have one of these?” Those were made for all of us. It’s a treasure. There are lots of memories looking at that.

I know some people here in Dallas that are related to him. He’s a fine young man. He has done some great things in his life but he’s going to do a lot more. Dave, this has been a privilege. I appreciate the time so much. I know how busy you are. I want to thank you. This has been wonderful. I learned a lot, most importantly, as I always do. I learned so much during this process of interviewing great people. Thank you so much.

It’s a privilege for me too, John. Thank you.

 

Important Links

• Dave Blanchard
• The Greatest Salesman in the World
• The Christ Commission
• Today I Begin a New Life
• What Happened to You?
• Habit Finder
• The Tools
• Ben Gay III – Previous Episode
• Equanimity: Conquering Mt. Entrepreneur
• Trust and Inspire
• The Observer’s Chair
• Moving up: 2020 and Beyond
• Leaving Nothing to Chance
• Never Split the Difference
• Social intelligence
• Primal Leadership
• The Agent

 

About Dave Blanchard

INTENTIONALLY CREATE YOUR LIFE

► WHO I AM
My core belief is inherently connected to the personal motivation from within myself and my life experiences. Through the years I have had the privilege of working in the corporate world with an international background in motivational speaking, sales, management, networking, commercial & residential real estate, television & film. I created the Intentional Creation Assessment, the legendary personal development program for achievers and have had the privilege of mentoring over 3500 clients striving to better their lives with excellent results.

► OUR MISSION
Our thoughts Impact every facet of our lives. Our emotional state, the decisions we make, the actions we take, and ultimately the results we create. Take control of your thought process and take control of your goals in your business and personal life.

► HOW I HELP YOU
Personality Assessments, Leadership Development and Personal Growth to help you move forward to a better life professionally and personally with unique tools and experience. I use particular proven techniques to save marriages through awareness, and the intimate sharing of my own experiences. Along with the teachings of Og Mandino I coach small business owners, CEO’s entrepreneurs how to hire employees with the most potential using the employee assessment test I created. I have identified the patterns that limit and restrict business growth and I can assist in facilitating critical improvements in your organization’s mindset. On a personal level I can show you how to save your marriage with innovation, common sense and knowledge about you and your spouse’s inner thought process. I am ethically and morally committed to teaching you how to improve all aspect of your life.

SPECIALTIES:
Coaching | Entrepreneurship | Motivational Speaking | Team Building | Leadership Development
Marketing | Public Speaking | Executive Coaching | Work & Life Balance Personal Development

☎ 800-701-2394 dave@ogmandino.com