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Sam Taggart 01:14
Hey everybody, this is Sam Taggart with the D2D podcast, and I am here with Hal Elrod, one of our keynote speakers at D2DCon4. And he is a direct sales phenomena like he has built his business back in the day going in cold calling people selling knives, right like you cut your teeth in the Cutco world. I had a Cutco knife in here just a second ago dang and I’ve given it away as a prize for my Christmas party but somebody price stolen calibers out. You can’t You can’t anyway, so he is an author, multiple book author. He has written the Miracle Morning that’s what he’s most famous for. And other series that has stemmed off that now his most recent book, The Miracle equation, and now just publishing a documentary, which is kind of a cool deal. I signed up for your documentary when did that goes live This Month? 12 2020. Yeah, live live world premiere. I’m excited now to record and we’ll have to talk about that in a minute. And anyway, so I’m super excited to have you in January at our event and share the stage with David Goggins john Maxwell Bradley. Tim story, really cool lineup. And, yeah, I’m pumped to pick your brain. I’ve read your book. I had my whole mastermind group read your book and they loved it. That’s awesome, man. Thank you. So when did you get recruited into Cutco? How did that like were you like one of those young high school kids is just like popped into this or What’s your story?

Hal Elrod 02:38
So I had just finished my first year of college, I was 19. And I was I had just got a job on the radio. So as a DJ on the radio, and it was my second gig. I had a nine month gig when I was 15 years old on a local am radio station, which we turned into a hip hop station. And they didn’t ask for us back because it was like a country, an old Western station, and we played hip hop and all like they got so many complaints, but that’s where I cut my teeth. And then at 19 I was on 97.1 FM in Central California. And a buddy of mine sold Cutco cutlery, and I always thought it was funny. Like I was gonna tease him about it. I’m like, dude, you sold knives, like What a weird job. And I was with him. We went to the office one day, long story short, I met the manager and and i just i had a conversation that really opened my eyes to direct selling and to the idea that said, Wait a minute, there’s no ceiling on my income, like I can earn as much as I want to earn, you know, and I was like, That’s fascinating. And then and then just understanding like the experience that I would get in terms of business and self reliance and communication skills and sales skills and all these things. I decided to give it a try. And I went through the three day training. And on my second day of training, we learned about the company records the fact it was called the Fast Start record the first 10 days of your Cutco career. There’s all sorts of incentives to get you off to a fast start. And the highest level of sales of course, is the record, right like the all time record, and it was weird. But something inside me like my whole life I was really mediocre. I didn’t get good grades. I wasn’t an athlete, like I’ve never really achieved anything. And something inside me on my second day of training was like, why not me? Like if somebody else that just went through a three day training and they went out and sold $12,000 a kitchen knives that was the record at the time in their first 10 days. I could do that I could figure it out. I could go beat that record. And I went out my first 10 days I did 62 presentations, there an average of 90 minutes apiece. So it was nine hours a day of presentations plus drive time in between about 20 or 30 minutes per appointment. So it was like 12 hour days. And I ended up I had 42 sales and I sold $15,000 and I broke the company record I quit my job on the radio. I was like I am full time Cutco. And yeah, and I begin what ended up a six year career in indirect sales.

Sam Taggart 05:02
That’s awesome. That is awesome. I have a lot of close Cutco friends. I mean, heck, one of our jPr leads the one that recommended us and yeah, cut us and yeah, you know, I appreciate Cutco. Even when you say the fast start, I have a playbook somewhere in here, where I teach and consult a lot. And I still implement this whole element of the Fast Start into companies where I say, hey, what is your 14 day first sprint? What is this like? on board, make them go two feet and make them do the 12 hour days see success taste success, because most people they get sold on direct sales, this limitless potential, this crazy good opportunity, but they dip their toe in and see they never see full success. They net like, they’re like I didn’t work. It’s like Well, yeah, if you worked one hour a day for three days, of course it’s not going to work. Yeah. So I love their system or Cutco system of the faster and I make all of my clients create one moving forward. So I love that.

Hal Elrod 06:04
Yeah. And on that point, you know, I went Oh, for three on my first day like I left the office gung ho like, I’m gonna do it. I’m gonna break the record. I’m gonna do it. I was all optimistic and inspired and positive. And my first day I did three appointments, which were like my three best prospects. It was my grandparents, it was their neighbor. Like it was family friends, like people that I thought would buy out of sympathy. And they nobody bought anything. And so like, to your point, you know, a lot of people do three appointments their first week, and they’re like, I tried it didn’t work. Like That was my first day. I dusted it off. I went, you know, to nine appointments The next day, you know, and then I was off to the races. But yeah, so so everything you’re saying is so true.

Sam Taggart 06:41
So you so you did that for six years, obviously built a good book of business, you built a big clientele. You know, teams, I’m assuming you ran teams. What and then where did you transition after that? We’re just kind of the next journey for you.

Hal Elrod 06:59
Yeah. So where where it started, what kind of laid the paved the way for the transition? When I was so 19 years old, I started Cutco. A year and a half later, I was giving a speech at one of our events. And driving home that night, I was driving a brand new Ford Mustang I just bought like, you know, my dream car at 20 years old. And or the affordable one it wasn’t the Ferrari but right the you know, the within the budget, and I’m driving home that night, and I was in a head on car crash, I was hit head on by a drunk driver at over 80 miles per hour. And my car spun off the drunk driver and the car behind me crashed into my driver’s side door at 70 miles an hour and crushed the car into the left side of my body. And instantaneously, I broke 11 bones. I began bleeding and lost a lot of blood and actually bled to death. When they finally were able to cut me out of the car An hour later, they being the fire department. I bled out and I was clinically dead for six minutes. I wasn’t breathing, my heart had stopped beating. And they revived me on a helicopter airlifted me to the hospital. I spent six days in a coma I underwent like, I don’t even know how many surgeries, eight surgeries or something. I flatlined twice more during that coma. And when I came out of the coma, I found out that I was told I would never walk again. You know, I’d broken my femur in half, I’d broken my pelvis in three places. They said I would never walk again. And I had permanent brain damage. And I always joke my wife and kids will vouch for the brain damage or anybody that knows me, you know, they’ll tell you that’s true. But um, but yeah, I just you know, I think that for all of us, obviously, that’s a pretty extreme adversity. But I made a couple of decisions that I think we can all make, even right now with what we’re all going through with, you know, COVID the whole world being in a different place. Number one is I accepted what I couldn’t change unconditionally. I didn’t feel sorry for myself, I wasn’t angry. I didn’t wish it didn’t happen. Because that wishing and wanting that something in our lives were different. That is out of our control, that wishing and wanting is futile. It doesn’t actually change the things that are going on in our life that we can’t control that we can’t change. It just causes us emotional turmoil. And so I decided I can’t change it. I can’t change that I was in a car accident. So I might as well be the happiest and most grateful I’ve ever been. While I heard the most difficult time in my life. And the doctors thought I was in denial because I was so positive. They thought this kid’s faking it like but I was genuinely at peace because I learned in my Cutco training something called the five minute rule. And the five minute rule said that when things go wrong, and again, this was the context of Cutco of direct sales. But when things go wrong, it’s okay to be upset, angry, feel sorry for yourself, but not for more than five minutes. And we were literally taught to set your timer on your phone for five minutes and you get five minutes to bitch moan, complain, cry, vent, whatever you got to do. But when the timer goes off, you say three really powerful words can’t change And you acknowledge, I can’t go back in time, five minutes and make that customer by, make that customer show to the appointment, make that cut, right, I can’t make my goal have been hit, I cannot go back in time and change the past, the only logical, intelligent choice I have is to completely accept my circumstances as they are, and focus on what I can control. And so I applied that sales training to my most the most horrific experience of my life. And I went, I can’t change it. So if I’m in a wheelchair the rest of my life again, I’ll be the happiest, most grateful person in the wheelchair because I will never let my emotional well being be dependent on my circumstances.

Sam Taggart 10:40
I love that. It’s it’s like, yeah, bitch for five minutes, but then nobody cares after that. Like, you know, I mean, like, you can tell yourself, I’ve heard people tell the same sob story for 10 years. Yeah. Oh, yeah. And it’s like, I’m sorry that you had a crappy sales career. And this guy screwed you or stole money from you, or this guy, you know, hit you by a car, this dude, like, I broke my pelvis as well. So there’s one thing that we got in common. And it was the same thing. And maybe this is a personality trait of successful people. But I assure my family was always like, I’m Mind blown that you have the attitude you have. And I was like, Well, I’m stuck. I have to get homeschooled. I’m gonna well, wheelchair for three months, like, and I just remember, I was like, What can I control and I learned how to crochet, I learned how to do origami, I learned to do is just like, well, I’m here to bed like, doing my hands. You know, so I, I just I love that the five minute rule. So let’s, let’s, let’s shift gears a little bit. And I love your book, The Miracle Morning, I actually then challenged my mastermind group to wake up at 5am for a month, and I did that challenge with them. And and when we think of the Miracle Morning, when you say like a high level overview, Why call it the Miracle Morning, and what are the side effects of having a killer morning?

Hal Elrod 12:06
Yeah, well, it’s funny the so this whole thing, the Miracle Morning book and this whole movement, none of this was planned. In 2008, when the United States economy crashed, I crashed with it. I was coaching direct sales people. And obviously everybody, you know, everybody tighten the reins on their finances, they weren’t spending money. And so over half of my clients quit on me, they couldn’t afford to pay their coaching. So I left over half of my income in a matter of months. And every I you know, I tried to get more clients, nothing I tried worked. And it was a six month downward spiral. Were losing over half of my income. I couldn’t afford my bills. I had just bought my first house, I lost that house to the bank, right? They foreclosed on the on the home. As a result of that I got really kind of depressed and scared and nothing I was doing was working. I cancelled my gym membership, physically, my body fat percentage tripled in six months. And in the six month period, I got depressed, I was broke. I mean, it was really you know, I know it sounds like a sob story. But it was really like the lowest point that I had ever been in my life. And now the car accident, obviously physically, I was lower but but mentally and emotionally, I had never been lower than when the economy crashed. And a buddy of mine, john Berger, who’s also in direct sales, you know, a legend. He, he gave me some advice. And he said how if he goes every morning, you need to get out the front door and get on the pavement and go run and get some blood and oxygen to your brain so that you have more energy you think clearer. And he said while you’re on that run, listen to an audio book, listen to a podcast, listen to something that you’re going to while you’re in that peak physical, mental and emotional state because of the running, you can learn something that you can go back home and you can put into practice and you can apply and you can turn your financial situation around. And so I went on a run the next morning I hated running by there was not a runner. It was like, ah, I can’t believe I’m doing this. I should be in the office making calls or something right? But I’m like, Alright, I’ll give it a try. And I was listening to this Jim Rohn audio and Jim Rohn said a quote that I’d encourage anybody listening to write this down. This was the catalyst for the Miracle Morning. And Jim Rohn said your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development. Because success is something you attract by the person you become. I’ll say that again. your level of success will seldom exceed your level of personal development. Because success is something you attract by the person you become. And instantly I paused it, I replayed it. And I quantified it. I went Okay, wait a minute, that makes sense. If we’re measuring success in our lives, in terms of the success that we want, in any area of life, not just in our business, but health, happiness, finances, relationships, you name it, on a scale of one to 10 it’s it’s really safe to say everybody wants a level 10 success right? We want level 10 Health level 10 happiness level 10 wealth level 10 spirituality level 10 relationships. So we all want level 10 success, but I realized I asked myself what’s my level of personal development in terms of my knowledge and my skills and my beliefs and my habits? And my right. And honestly, I was honest, I thought it’s like a two or three, you know, at that point in my life I was depressed

Sam Taggart 15:24
or would have been coaching sales reps, you had been an all star in your field, like, you know, I mean, this is what’s interesting is coming from I’m sure you’ve taught that many times over, but in this moment in your life, you’re like, wow, like, it’s a two. That’s interesting.

Hal Elrod 15:39
Yeah. Well, and I think what it was is because once I started, like, I’m not even think I can tell you what it was. When I started losing money. I stopped sharpening the saw, and I just started trying to chop the tree and I was chopping the tree with a doll axe that right that analogy, I think fits there. On so for me, yeah, it’s like I knew better but I was so in desperation mode for financially. I’m like, dude, I I’m drowning, I’m drowning in debt. I you know, I had gone from being debt free to I had $52,000 charged on my credit card and personal credit card in those six months. So I’m like, I’m charging eight grand a month in bills to my credit card, you know, and so I was in scarcity mode. So I woke up at the last minute, you know, snooze a few times. Went into my office and just grinded. But in effectively grinded, right grinded with a dull axe, until I was exhausted. And then I watch TV and went to bed. And that was my rinse and repeat every day. And so and I think it’s, you know, it’s like, I couldn’t even see, you know, what, how I was behaving, I was so in it. And so I decided I’ve got to create the most effective personal development routine, you know, known to man or woman, right, like, and I went home, I ran home immediately after hearing the quote, and I just started looking online. What are the best personal development practices of salespeople of millionaires and billionaires of World Champion athletes? Like, what are the most successful people do in the world? What are their daily rituals and practices that enable them to be successful, and I was looking for like the top one, or maybe two, and I had a list of six practices. And I almost threw in the towel, Sam, because I was kind of overwhelmed. Like, I can’t do all six of these, like, which one’s the best. But I kept going back over these articles, and none stood out above the others. And the Epiphany was when I went, wait a minute, what if I did all of these? What if I woke up tomorrow morning, and I did the six most timeless, proven personal development practices, that the world’s most successful people swear by it, you know, in the history of humanity. And I got excited, I woke up the next morning, and I was it was like a kid on Christmas. By the way, I went from being dreading waking up because I was depressed. And I was struggling to going, what if I, you know, I’m gonna start the day like this, I woke up, I did all six practices, it was meditation, affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading, and journaling, nothing new. Right. But the combination of these six practices, I felt incredible. And I went, if I do this every day, it’s only a matter of time before my personal development goes from a two to a three to a four to a five all the way to a 10. And I become the person that I need to be that can create and sustain the levels of success that I want every single area of my life. And I was thinking that would be probably a year off six to 12 months at least. And it was in two months, in a declining economy. And mind you this was 2008, the economy continued to get worse. And I doubled my income in two months. Keeping the same career, I didn’t change jobs, I didn’t change fields. And my depression went away in a matter of days. And I went from being in the worst shape of my life physically to committing to run a 52 mile ultra marathon that I completed that year. And I went to my wife and I go sweetheart, it was the I remember, I remember the day I signed two clients that day, and I go to my wife, I’m excited them all later, they go sweetheart, we just signed to clients, we have officially more than doubled our income. And the new everybody else, like the news, everyone’s falling apart. And I go it’s because of this morning routine I am be I’ve become the person and develop the skills and the knowledge and the qualities to create the success. I go, it feels like a frickin miracle. And she goes, it’s your Miracle Morning. And I go,

Sam Taggart 19:17
Yeah,

Hal Elrod 19:18
I love that Miracle Morning. And then I started teaching it to all of my coaching clients. And almost every single one of them said, I’m not a morning person. But you’re my coach. I’ll try it. And almost every single one of them that 13 out of 14 clients came back two weeks later to our call and said how I’m having the best week in my sales career that I’ve ever had. You know, I’m reading more I’m exercising, I’m meditating, I’m journaling. I am on fire this Miracle Morning things incredible. And that’s when the lightbulb went off. And I went Wait a minute. If the Miracle Morning changed my life and I’m not a morning person I well. I’ve never been a morning person. And it’s the same for all my clients. This could change anyone’s life. And that’s when I started writing the book. It took three years, we self published it on 12 1212. And, you know, two and a half million copies later and 37 translations in the movie coming out like, it’s, it’s, I’m not this master, you know, like author marketer, it’s word of mouth, like the Miracle Morning works so simply and so effectively for people that and you think about it to answer the second part of your question of, you know, why is this so important, how you start your day sets the tone, and the context and the direction and the quality of the day that you’re able to create. And if you win the morning, you and you put yourself in a position to win the day. And that’s how you string together, you know, day after day after day that are exceptional. And that’s how you create an extraordinary life. And so that’s the Miracle Morning. And that’s where it doesn’t matter. If you’ve never been a morning person. That’s the majority of our audience, you know, the Miracle Morning, can it applies to everybody.

Sam Taggart 20:58
That’s awesome. So let’s walk through. So you said I’m really fast. You’re like, yeah, you’re like affirmation, journaling exercise. So, you know, and one of the things you said in your book, and I really like this, you said, it doesn’t matter if you meditate, I think where people get wrong is they’re like, I’ve got to meditate for 20 minutes, and I’ve got to read for 30 minutes, and I don’t have an hour and a half set aside. One thing you said, You’re like, what if it’s a two minute meditation, what if it’s a five minute walk outside, whether if it’s a you know, and you You broke it down to where you’re like, it doesn’t have to be this daunting, intense thing. It can be as simple as that, like, um, but I guess, walk us through kind of how you’ve helped implement because I think everybody listen to this, their, their problem is, hey, I want I’m not a morning person, I can’t get up at five, I can’t get up at six, I can’t get up at seven, like, you know, I mean, or whatever that is, like, how do we implement this? And how do we how do we have success with this? If and how do we shift our relationship to the morning, because one of the things you said, and from your book, and you could probably quote it better than I could, but you’re just like, you need to pop up like Christmas morning, every morning. And I love that, and being able to wake up out of bed and say, I’m so excited to tackle the day where I think most Americans, most people, they’re like, Oh, can I hit snooze three or four times? And it’s like, you know, how you have that shift?

Hal Elrod 22:23
Yeah, so let’s talk about the mental shift. And then I’m going to talk about how to logistically beat the snooze button. And then let’s go into the savers. Alright, those six practices. So the mental shift, there’s a few things. And the first is what I already mentioned, which is how you start your day sets the tone and the context and the direction for how you live your day in your life. So the morning is crucial, right? And if you study the world’s most successful people in all walks of life, one thing that most of them have in common is they have a morning ritual, right? athletes wake up, you know, Michael Phelps woke up at 5am and swam every single day. And he had the same exact ritual every single day in the morning. In fact, we talked about him in the Miracle Morning movie, as somebody who showed that when you have a ritual every morning, where you start your day, the same way and you’re doing the practices that enhance your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being right, then you become the best version of yourself. And then that version of yourself goes out into the day, and you win the day. The so the first thing is that shift of understanding the value of how you start your day, most people as you mentioned, they start their day with resistance, like the alarm goes off, and you’re literally like, Oh, no, it’s already 6am. And then you hit the snooze button. And if you think about what that’s doing, you’re literally resisting life. You know, in essence, your actions are saying, Yeah, I know, I say I want extraordinary life, but not as much as I value nine more minutes of being unconscious. And then nine more minutes of being unconscious, like whoa, you could have used those nine minutes to become a better version of the person that you were when you went to bed the night before, how much how committed are you to the success you want in your life. And I think here’s a big paradigm shift around that. We’ve been conditioned to think and especially in direct sales, that if you want to achieve more, you have to do more. And while there is absolutely truth to that, if you double your calls, you’re going to most likely double your sales. The real secret to success is that it’s not about doing more, it’s that if you want to achieve more, the real secret to that success is to become more because when you become more as you become a better version, you enhance your skills, your knowledge, your mindset, you’re able to achieve more literally by doing less. Great example is indirect sales. You know, I figured out that the average order in our company was $150. And so I started studying how can I increase my average order size and my average order size my first 10 days was more than double over 100% more than the company average. So every appointment I did, I earn twice as much income as the average sales rep did, I didn’t have to do more, I became more I learned I grew, I improved. And then through that knowledge, I was able to create better results. I continued on that journey and I ended up doubling my average order size again, in fact, my average order size when I when I stopped doing Cutco was five times the company average, right. And that’s not a bragging of I’m special. That’s a, that’s a Hey, I studied, like I dedicated time to learning how to get better at my craft, right. And the Miracle Morning enables you to get better at the craft of being you. So that you can show up more effective as a parent, as a sales rep. As a friend, as a human being right, in every single way your you can sharpen your mindset, all of the components of being a human being, it’s about being the best version of yourself. So when you start the day, as opposed to starting with the resistance, the alarm goes off, and you get out of bed, and you actually dive into your Miracle Morning, you’re being proactive, you’re sending a message to your subconscious mind and to the universe, if you will. All right, I want to get esoteric, right, that you’re literally committed to becoming the person that you need to be to create the success you want in every area of your life. Now, if you’ve struggled with waking up, and you’re like, I’m not a morning person, before I give you the strategy here the logistical change to make it easy. I want to share this with you. I was asked in an interview a couple years ago, what percentage of the Miracle Morning community were already morning people. So this wasn’t hard for them, they just decided to do their Miracle Morning instead of like checking email for staying or going on social media are watching the news or whatever. And they said, and what percentage had never been a morning person. So this was like a radical paradigm shift. And I didn’t know the answer. I was kind of like, I should know that, you know. So we surveyed our community, which back then was probably a few 100,000. You know, it’s in the millions now, but it’s very few 100,000. And I was blown away. 72% of the people surveyed said they had never in their life been a morning person until they read the book and apply the you know, the strategies in it. So the point is, if you’re not a morning person, right, that’s literally a limiting belief. To say, like, it’s not you can’t be a morning person is that you’ve never committed to it. A great example is I used to hate running. I wasn’t a runner, then I started running. And I became a runner.

Sam Taggart 27:33
identity to it.

Hal Elrod 27:34
Exactly. That’s a big Yeah, you literally change your identity. And so and in the Miracle Morning book, I think the reason it’s been successful for people is it wanting to hold your hand and walks you through it. One of the components I’ll give you right now, there’s a chapter in the book called the five steps, news proof wake up strategy. And it’s five really simple steps that you could teach like a third grader. And they if they implement them, they’re gonna win on the most important step is to move your alarm clock across the room as far as you possibly can. And the reason for that is most of us have our alarm clock within arm’s reach. And I don’t care who you are, myself included, the amount of discipline you have in those first few seconds when you’re deciding between reaching over and turning off the alarm, or getting out of bed. Nine out of 10 times. I will snooze, if that if that if I forget to move my alarm clock, right. So I keep my alarm clock in my bathroom. And what happened is I have to get out of bed to turn it off. And when you get out of bed and you’re upright, you’re now fully awake. It is 10 times if not 100 times easier to stay awake. So that simple shift and I was giving a speech once in New York and the CEO of a company called lawline introduced me He goes, I hope he is going to teach this one tip but in case he doesn’t. Moving my alarm clock across the room was a game changer for me. I could never beat the snooze button until I simply moved across the room. Now I get up, I turn it off, I brush my teeth, I wash my face, drink some water, and I’m ready to go. And it’s easy. So that’s arguably that’s one out of the five steps, but it’s the most important. And then if you want if you have any thoughts or questions, or we can dive into the sabers and give people some strategies on that.

Sam Taggart 29:16
So let’s Yeah, let’s go to savers. We’ve only got a couple minutes left. And honestly, this has been awesome, by the way, like I’m just like nugget, nugget, notes and comfort to meet you in person and start working with you a little bit more. So yeah, let’s dive into the savers and finish with that. And if you’re if you’re listening guys, and you’re enjoying this, share this like this and come to door to our con meet Alan person, see a speech and 18 other great workshops and other keynotes and network with some of the greatest minds out there in direct sales. And we’re really strategic upon who we aligned with and who we have speak and who we want to kind of jump on board so we’re honored to have you there so let’s kind of let’s kind of dive into the the savers man tell tell us about Yeah,

Hal Elrod 29:58
and thank you for This because these are the six practices that make up the Miracle Morning. And, and if you if anybody listening is going Wait, what do you mean savers savers? Like we haven’t read? We haven’t explained what that is yet. When I was writing the book one day, I had these six practices, meditation affirmations, visualization, exercise, reading and journaling. And I was trying to figure out how do I make these all cohesively fit together in a way that people will remember them, or they flow in some way? And I couldn’t figure it out, and I went to my wife, and she goes, why don’t you get at the Saurus. And see if there are synonyms for some of the words and create an acronym that people could remember. And then they just flow through the acronym one letter at a time I go, you’re brilliant. And meditation became silence. That’s the first essence savers. And then you’ve got a for affirmations, V for visualization, E for exercise are for reading. And then journaling became scribing, which is the final s in savers. So there’s your savers and those six practices, you can do you mentioned this, they’re scalable, you can do in the book, there’s a chapter called the six Minute Miracle Morning, which is literally how you do all six savers one minute each, and you can still get 80% of the benefit in 1/10 of the time, meaning compared to an hour long Miracle Morning, which is what most people end up doing. Because you find it so valuable, you actually do want to spend more time with it. But the first s in terms of silence, that’s your meditation and or your prayer time, I want to give you guys a strategy on meditation that, for me is really effective, because I want to say this, one of the things you’ll find, if you read the Miracle Morning, or if you come to door to door con, you’ll find that the way I teach all of these practices, they’re very practical, and results oriented. I don’t just want to feel good. While I do these things in the morning, I want to actually see the things in my life that I’m applying my Miracle Morning to such as an improved relationship or increasing my income, I want to see tangible, measurable outcomes. So in terms of meditation, normally, we’re taught to just quiet our mind and just follow our breath. That’s great. And some days I do that, but my favorite form of meditation is what I what I would call state optimization meditation, meaning you’re optimizing or mental or emotional state. So the way that works very simply, you could do this, you could try it right now or right when we’re done, on ask yourself, what emotion would best serve me today, or in this moment, or at this time in my life, you know, I need I need to be more at peace, I need to lower my stress I need I need more, I need to be happier, I need to be more grateful, I need to be more confident, right? You choose what mental or emotional state would best serve you. And then you think of something that puts you in that state for me if I want to feel gratitude, or think of my kids, right, and it’s easy, I smile, and I just I picture him smile and laugh. And I feel grateful, I can get in that state very quickly. And then I set the timer on my phone for five minutes or 10 minutes, however long the meditation is, and I just marinate in that state. And what’s happening on a scientific level is I’m literally creating new connections in my brain that enables me to harness that state whenever I want, it becomes part of who I am. Again, I’m becoming the person that I want to be, I’m becoming happier, more at peace, more grateful, more confident. And I’m kind of like working out of the gym, you’re working out your mental and emotional state, so that it becomes stronger and stronger and stronger. And it’s amazing how fast the changes in your brain happen. But within a week of doing that, you will see that you will become an embody the emotional or mental state that you’ve learned you’ve practiced every day during meditation.

Sam Taggart 33:47
That is so good. I, I never looked at it like silence or meditation as a practice of like working out. You know what I mean? Like it’s not like, like, it’s the same effect. It’s just working on our mind and slowing it down and getting more dialed I guess you could say and sharper. And, you know, sometimes you just like, Okay, I’m going to do the headspace for 10 minutes and like, check it off the list, but we’re not intentional about the outcomes of it. So that’s good. I like that.

Hal Elrod 34:17
So yeah, let’s dive into affirmations. I know we have a limited time. So Monica through all of them. But this is my favorite one. If you walk away with nothing today other than this, I think you’ll get your money’s worth, um, the affirmations I believe it’s the most misunderstood form of personal development. We’re taught to either lie to ourselves by saying I am blank, whatever you want to be that you are not yet. So if you’re overweight and you want to be thin, you say I am, I am thin, I am fit. But if you’re not, then you’re lying to yourself, right, you’re speaking something that is not yet true. And the truth will always prevail. And so essentially, you’re going to have that internal conflict. If you go I am wealthy, I am wealthy but you’re struggling financially. You your brains gonna go, dude, no, you’re not, you know, you’re like, shut up. I’m a millionaire, I’m a millionaire. And it’s like, You’re not even a thousandaire. And you’re like, shut

35:07
up.

Hal Elrod 35:08
I’m doing my affirmations. Right. So you’ve got to affirm something that is true. And we’ll get down to that in a second. The second problem with affirmations is we affirm this flowery passive language that promises a magical result, independent of our effort. I’ll give you an example. You’ve probably heard the affirmation along the lines of I am a Money Magnet, money flows to me effortlessly and in abundance, right? That’s not how money works. Right? Show me a drink sales rep that sat back on their couch, looked at a vision board and just pretended they were a money, magnet and money flew through the door, right? Or, you know, you’ve got to put forth effort. So those are the two problems with affirmations, I’m going to give you three simple steps to create affirmations that will align your subconscious mind your conscious behavior in a way that will produce measurable tangible results in your world. Number one, affirm what you’re committed to. I am committed to blank, no matter what, there is no other option. Right? That’s the that’s the template, if you will, I am committed to blank no matter what, there is no other option. Because again, in life, we don’t get some magical promise just because we say it, we don’t get what we want. Just because we want it, we get what we’re committed to because we follow through with our commitment. So step number one, affirm what you’re committed to no matter what there is no other option step to affirm why it is crucial for you to make that commitment or reality. affirm why it is crucial for you to make that commitment of reality. So for me, that looks like bullet points of like, what what what are the what are the benefits? What are the reasons? Why are you doing this? How is this going to benefit you or the people that you love? Or the people that you lead? Right? So I’m committed to blank no matter what, there’s no other option? Because dot dot dot, right, because it’s going to give me financial freedom, because I can, I can let my wife stop working, because I’m leading a team and they’re counting on me to lead by example, like whatever it is, what are the reasons I put at least three, like it could be one, but at least three I recommend that will give you that fuel, where when you read those, you’re like, yeah, I’m committed, I am committed. That’s what fuels number one, and number three, have firm specific specifically which actions you will take and when affirm specifically which actions you will take. And when. So my last year, my company with Cutco, my my my bit, my goal was to double my best year ever. I had been in direct sales for five years. At that point, I was one of the top reps in the company. And I was trying to double my best like increasing your best by like 1020 30%, you know, 50 like, but I was trying to go all out my last year. That was terrifying, right? Like Sam, I was, you know, it was so scary. I’m like, how am I going to double like that’s out. It’s just so bad. But I wanted to go for it. And I figured even if I failed, I’d at least sell more than I ever had before, right? So but I affirmed, I’m committed to doubling my best year ever, no matter what, there’s no other option, I’m committed to doing that, so that I can become the person that I need to be to achieve every other goal in my life. And so I will make 20 calls a day, five to six days a week minimum, no matter what, all I did is live in alignment with that affirmation that I read every single day. And by living in alignment with that affirmation, I ended up achieving my goal by surpassed it by a little bit. And so you can apply that to every area of your life, right? Whatever your ideal outcome is, how committed you are to it, this, why it’s crucial for you and the specific actions that you’re going to take and when you’re going to take them. And there are four more of the savers and you’ll have to come to door to door con two to get the other four cuz I know we’re out of time.

Sam Taggart 38:58
How this is good, I’m stealing all this I’m I eat it up. Like it’s so funny. Like, every one of these podcasts. I’m always like, a kid in a candy store, like personal development, like what you said, You’re like, if you want to achieve more, you got to become more and I’m reading a book I’m writing my book is called the achievement framework. And so I’m gonna quote that in there because I’m like, dang, that is so good. Because I think a lot of times we we fail to put frameworks to how to achieve more and I love just like that, that Jim Rohn quote about like, really, it’s just you can only elevate it at the level of your self development and or what I you know, I didn’t quote it word for you. You got it, you got the essence. But I think No, honestly anybody that’s listening to this, if you did not get a lot of value, and you’re not inspired to go wake up earlier, spend some more time doing the six savers. I invite you guys to just try it for one week. And I promise you because we did a month of 5am wakeups. And it was like I got like five chapters my book done and I was like on fire exercising wise and then you’re done by seven and that’s it. Oh, I wouldn’t have have woken up even yet, like, days young. Let’s go. And I appreciate this. And I appreciate the relationship. And it’s I’m excited to continue to grow that. And then thank you so much for me, and I’ll show how

Hal Elrod 40:13
you got it, man. And I thought you might have I mentioned the movie because that’s coming up in a week and a half.

Sam Taggart 40:17
Yeah. How can people find this movie? It’s a couple weeks, so 12 1220 guys talk to how do we go sign up

Hal Elrod 40:25
and then go to Miracle Morning movie.com Miracle Morning movie calm, we’re doing a live world premiere of the movie, followed immediately by an implementation training, followed by a q&a live q&a with me. And then you leave with a 30 day challenge to support you in making this a lifelong habit. And you leave with a digital download of the movie, so you’re going to own it forever. And if you use the code miracle 2020 all caps miracle 2020 at checkout, you’ll get 20% off of your ticket. And yeah, go watch the trailer. Like Don’t you know, we don’t get to talk enough about the movie but go to Miracle Morning movie calm, you can watch the trailer and then grab your ticket. I’d love to have you there. It’s gonna be a once in a lifetime experience.

Sam Taggart 41:09
Well, I’m excited. I’m actually working on a documentary right now. So I’m, like, stoked to just see how you develop that out. Nice. Got a crew and we’re fundraising right now. It’s for nonprofit that we’re doing and I love to pick your brain on what you would have done different and how it worked. And I just love to pick your brain on the whole concept because I’m like, this is pioneering a new thing for me. So yeah, yeah. It’s a challenging project for sure. Okay, well, thanks again. Guys. Like you said, Miracle Morning. movie.com. Go check it out. 12 1220 and go get the movie. I’m fine. So

41:45
yeah, and I’ll see you I’ll see you in Utah. Door to Door con.

Sam Taggart 41:50
Yeah, we’ll see it a little bit.