0:02

Hello, this is your host Paul Harvey at Life, Fashion and Business.

0:06

I realise I put this at the end of the programme most of the time and I also

0:10

realise I don't often listen to the end of podcasts.

0:13

So I thought I'd tell you here before we get started. So the first thing is

0:16

this podcast is not supported in any way. We have no sponsorship.

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So if you would like to support us, do check out the Buy Me A Coffee link on

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this podcast app and And you'll also find it at the website.

0:27

Okay, before I take you to the podcast, I want to give you a little bit of a

0:31

reminder about the power of focus and accountability.

0:34

This is the one tool that will really get you towards the goals you are seeking,

0:40

towards the path you want to take. So listen to the end to find out more or check out the link in the show notes.

0:45

Anyway, let's get you back to the podcast.

0:52

My name is Paul Harvey and you are listening to Life, Passion and Business,

0:56

a podcast born out of my desire to find greater meaning in life at the time

1:02

when I thought there was none. Since that day I have spoken to hundreds of people and what I have discovered

1:08

is that our story is everything because what we do, feel or experience is based

1:13

on the stories that we tell ourselves.

1:16

It's time to explore what it means to live a good life.

1:19

How do we make this experience better and more More importantly,

1:23

how do we lead the world to a better place?

1:27

So at my 40th birthday party, in front of all my friends and family,

1:30

I make a big grand announcement.

1:33

I say, hey, listen up, everybody. I got great news.

1:36

I said, I'm going to create, sell, and star my own television show.

1:40

I'm going to have my own TV show. And my friends were like, wow, that's amazing.

1:44

What's it going to be called? And I go, oh, I don't know yet.

1:47

And they're like, oh, but what channel will it be on? I go, oh, I don't know that either. and they're like wait a minute but what's

1:52

it about i go oh i don't have an idea yet so everybody

1:55

just starts laughing taking the piss out of me

1:58

right nine months later i was starring on

2:01

my own television show on true tv i did

2:04

six seasons it was the number one show on their network do

2:07

you have a big dream is there something in your

2:10

life an achievement or accomplishment that is so big

2:13

that it's hard even to admit that you want

2:16

it big dreams for most people are

2:19

just dreams few of us get to make them

2:21

happen but my guest on the show is someone who

2:24

not only makes his own dreams come true but also

2:27

has a mission to open the door for others

2:30

to do the same some of you may recognize

2:33

my guest as the creator and host of storage hunters a reality tv show that ran

2:38

for five series in the us and was syndicated around the world sean kelly admitted

2:43

to himself and announced it to all of his friends at his 40th birthday party

2:47

that he was going to create and star in the TV show of his own.

2:52

His friends thought it was a joke, but his wife took him seriously,

2:57

and in less than nine months he had international fame. The skill that got him that show can be traced right back to his childhood.

3:04

As a young pre-teen, he was an illegal immigrant in Germany with his family.

3:09

Rather than play with friends, he was door-knocking for his father's insurance business.

3:14

That experience, those sales skills and the confidence learned at such an early

3:19

age opened a life of opportunity.

3:23

His parents separated when he was 16, but undaunted and still living in Europe,

3:27

he worked nights and put himself through school.

3:30

It was his ability to speak fluent German that led to a career in the military

3:35

as a translator and ultimately deployment to Iraq during Operation Desert Storm.

3:41

After leaving the military, he went back into sales, building a successful career

3:45

as a magazine publisher. Now was the opportunity to start following those dreams.

3:52

The first was stand-up comedy. To get more experience, he opened a comedy club

3:57

and headlined it seven days a week while holding a full-time job.

4:01

And about this time, he developed a sideline as an auctioneer for non-profits.

4:05

And over the last 10 years, he's raised hundreds of millions of dollars for good causes.

4:13

My conversation with Sean is exceptional. It is an exploration of what is possible

4:17

when we apply the principles of strategy, consistency and no fear of rejection.

4:24

Currently, Sean is developing a new TV series. His current project is Do the

4:29

Big Dream, a free Facebook group that meets on a Monday evening where Sean coaches

4:33

people towards those big goals.

4:37

I chided him on the show about writing a book because his life would be such a good read.

4:42

But in the meantime, let's join the conversation with Sean Kelly.

4:47

Hey, Paul. Well, first of all, thank you for having me on the show.

4:49

I really appreciate it. But when you say, where did it all begin for me,

4:53

boy, I would say I was lucky.

4:57

I didn't realize how lucky I was at the time, but I got into sales, for example.

5:03

I started doing door-to-door sales when I was eight, and I started making some

5:07

real commission by the time I was 11.

5:09

I was going door-to-door, getting lead cards filled out from my father.

5:14

He sold life insurance to American GI Station in Germany.

5:18

And you weren't allowed to solicit in the housing area

5:20

on next to the army bases but he figured nobody would say anything to his 11

5:25

year old son so he would send me him and i would knock on doors and i'd get

5:29

lead cards filled out and for every lead card that i got filled out i got a

5:32

commission and then for every card that turned into a life insurance policy

5:36

i got an additional commission, and i got hooked on business at a young age so you got you got very early training

5:43

didn't you i did I did. I did. Yeah.

5:46

What kind of commission did you get?

5:48

Well, okay. Back in those days, this was like 1981. My dad was paying me $1

5:54

for every lead card I got filled out. And then I would go back with him on the life insurance appointment.

6:00

He would knock on their door for their appointment and he'd go,

6:03

hey, you remember my son? And they'd be like, oh yeah, yeah.

6:06

And we'd walk in and my whole job in those days was to just be quiet.

6:11

And so I would sit quietly at the kitchen table while my dad would pitch life

6:16

insurance to these couples. And if he sold insurance off of one of my leads, I got an additional $25 commission.

6:23

Wow. You must have been welling at that point.

6:27

Oh, yeah. I was very vested and I was very quiet.

6:32

What was his conversion rate? Did you ever work with him? Oh,

6:35

no. His success rate was extremely high.

6:37

Very, very high. If he could get in front of him, he could close him.

6:41

His pitch was really smooth. He had this thing where he would show them how to change

6:46

their state of legal residency over to a state with no income tax

6:49

and he would show them how to change their withholdings so

6:52

that they wouldn't have as much federal tax withheld and

6:55

then show them how to put that money into a no-load mutual fund to earn interest

7:00

and it was a beautiful smooth pitch and i mean you can start by saving people

7:06

money yeah you are well well and truly on the road to to having them and want you in their life.

7:15

Yeah, he basically would show them how to save between $100 to $250 a month

7:21

that they didn't know that they had just by using these little loopholes.

7:26

And then once he freed that money up, he'd say, okay, you could just go waste

7:30

this money and spend it if you want, or let me show you what it will do in a

7:34

no-load mutual fund over the next 20 years,

7:36

and let me show you what a life insurance policy I'll see that after you've

7:40

paid the premiums for about six years, the interest in the account will make

7:44

the payment for you. It was just a beautiful pitch.

7:47

Even as a kid, I could appreciate it. But at the time, you know,

7:51

it was like I probably want a lot of times I probably want to be out like playing

7:53

with my friends or whatever. But I look back and I go, nah, I'm really happy that I got all that sales training

7:58

from my dad. It was really good. Very helpful.

8:02

Obviously, you were young here and you were kind of moving, following your father's footsteps. steps.

8:08

So obviously you finished high school. Were you traveling with your father in his army career?

8:14

No. So he wasn't in the army. He was just a life insurance salesman.

8:17

So he was a life insurance salesman who sold life insurance to American GI station in Germany.

8:22

We weren't even legally in the country. We went there on a 90 day visa and we stayed for 10 years.

8:27

So we were illegal aliens living in Germany, but the Germans really didn't care

8:31

because my dad didn't work on the German an economy.

8:34

He wasn't taking a job away from a German because he was selling straight commission

8:38

life insurance to American GIs.

8:41

So we weren't part of the US military. We weren't part of the German thing.

8:44

We were just kind of in this no man's land.

8:47

But what was kind of interesting was my dad, he met a young lady when I was

8:52

16 and he fell in love and he moved off to Berlin and went and lived with her

8:59

and my mom fell in love with another man and she took off.

9:03

So at 16, I found myself living on my own.

9:06

And so I got a job driving a forklift at night. I got my own apartment and I

9:11

finished school living on my own at 16.

9:13

That must have been tough actually. I mean, you say it all worked out for everybody,

9:17

but that's still, it's still a tough transition, isn't it? Parents suddenly

9:20

splitting up and going their own ways. When I meet 16 year olds today, as a matter of fact, I just did a charity fundraising

9:26

auction Saturday night in Coronado, California.

9:29

And I raised money for this private school. I did, I raised around $400,000.

9:35

And I met a young lady there, a friend of mine. She brought her daughter and

9:39

they came and they worked as spotters for me during the auction just for fun.

9:43

And I met her daughter and she was 16. And I thought to myself,

9:45

wow, I was that age and I was already living on my own, you know,

9:50

supporting myself and everything. I was like, I was just a kid. But at the time, you don't think of it in those terms.

9:56

But I wouldn't go back and change anything. I've had a wonderful life.

9:59

It definitely would change it, but I'm just recognizing it was a journey.

10:02

And I guess that time with your father on the beat, earning money,

10:08

I guess, gave you a lot of confidence. It really did. What it did was it really taught me how to overcome the fear of rejection.

10:16

My dad taught me some valuable lessons when I was knocking on doors.

10:19

When I first started doing it, it scared the hell out of me to the point to

10:22

where I remember the first day when my dad came back to pick me up,

10:26

I had broken down in tears. I was crying. on. I was like, I don't want to do this.

10:30

And my dad gave me this beautiful speech. He took me across the street to the

10:33

army base and we went to the burger bar and he bought me a hamburger and a soda.

10:37

And he kind of, the way he went about it was very interesting.

10:41

But he said to me, instead of just giving me like a straightforward speech, right?

10:46

He said to me, he goes, hey son, he goes, he goes, have I ever told you about

10:49

this casino where you can go and you can place bets? And if you lose the bet,

10:55

you don't lose any money. But if you win the bet, they pay you money. And I go, no, I go,

11:01

because that casino doesn't exist. He goes, no, it does. He goes, it's a real place.

11:04

And he goes, as a matter of fact, he goes, kids are allowed to go to this casino.

11:09

I go, OK, now I know you're making it up because no, no, this is for real.

11:12

He goes, you can you can go there. You could place bets. And if you lose the

11:15

bet, you don't lose any money. But if you win, you get paid.

11:18

He goes, do you think you might want to go to this casino someday?

11:20

And I go, well, yeah, of course. course. He goes, do you want to go now? And I go, all right, let's go.

11:27

So we go back, we get in the car. He drives me back across the street to the

11:30

housing area and he goes, okay, get out. I go, what?

11:34

I go, this isn't the casino. My dad goes, no, son, this is the casino.

11:38

He goes, every time you go in there and you knock on a door,

11:40

you're placing a bet that you're going to try to get them to fill out this card.

11:44

And he goes, and if you don't win the bet, he goes, you don't lose lose any money.

11:48

He goes, but if you win the bet, he goes, you get you win some money and he

11:52

goes, and here's the beautiful thing. You get to increase your odds of winning because the better you get it sent

11:57

what you say to these people and convincing them you increase your odds of winning

12:01

the bet and so i go oh so it is kind of like a casino he goes yeah it's a casino

12:05

so i go in i start doing it that very first day.

12:09

He came back to pick me up a couple hours later and this time he goes uh he

12:13

goes so he goes how did how did you do in the casino and i said dad i won 27

12:17

bets and i handed him 27 lead cards and And he was blown away.

12:21

And it was really cool because it made me think about rejection.

12:24

Made me think like, you know, it's not rejection.

12:27

It's placing bets. And sometimes you're going to win and sometimes you're going to lose.

12:30

And then later in life, what I learned was it turns out that the fear of rejection

12:34

is hardwired in our brains in the same place where we feel physical pain.

12:38

And it's been that way all through evolution because at some point in history,

12:44

if you did something really dumb to piss everybody off in the village,

12:47

they were going to kick you you out and you're not going to survive on your own.

12:50

So, Mother Nature knew she had to hardwire that thing somewhere.

12:55

Well, what my dad learned, and he didn't probably know any of this,

12:58

but there's another part of our brain, the reward system, where you get like endorphins.

13:03

And it turns out that when you learn something new and you have a challenge

13:07

and a goal, it releases endorphins.

13:10

So, if you treat each one of these instead of rejection, but as an opportunity

13:15

to to learn and to get better, you're going to actually have the endorphins

13:18

released in your brain. It's going to feel good. So I went from having a fear of rejection to not doing it as rejection,

13:25

viewing it as just gambling, placing a bet.

13:28

And each time I learned something new. So that was a beautiful thing that I

13:31

carried forward for the rest of my life. Wow. Wow. Lovely story. Thank you for that.

13:36

So when you, obviously you were 16, you put yourself through school and college.

13:40

Was this back in the US or did you do it in Germany? Oh, in Germany.

13:44

Oh, right, okay. So you speak good German then? You speak fluent German?

13:47

Ja, ich spreche sehr fließend Deutsch. Oh, nice, nice. I speak very wenig.

13:52

That is a long time since I've spoken any German, so I wouldn't...

13:57

Yeah. Fascinating. So obviously, did you do school in Germany?

14:01

Yeah. So I went all through. I went from German school from my first year was fifth grade.

14:06

I had to repeat the fifth grade twice because my parents just threw me in.

14:10

And we came from America. They put me right into German school. I didn't speak a word of German at the time.

14:15

So they just enrolled me. And that first year, I really was just trying to learn

14:19

the language. So the school made me repeat the fifth grade.

14:22

And then so I did the fifth grade twice. I did sixth, seventh,

14:25

eighth, the ninth at the end of ninth grade i switched over

14:28

to the american school in germany and i

14:31

went to hanau american high school and i went there for three semesters and

14:36

that's where i got my high school diploma while i was living on my own yeah

14:39

i'm not wild did you go back did you go to college in the end no i ended up

14:44

in i ended up moving once i graduated i moved down to vicenza italy.

14:49

And i got a job on a u.s army base as an undercover store detective catching

14:53

shoplifters and I did that for about a year.

14:57

Then I met this guy who was an army recruiter and he goes, wait a minute.

15:01

He goes, let me get this straight. You're born in America. You're a US citizen. You speak fluent German.

15:08

And he goes, and you have no criminal record? And I go, nope, no criminal record.

15:12

He goes, you can work for military intelligence, get a top secret clearance.

15:16

We can give you all this money for college and all this.

15:19

And he goes, and we could put you into to the army as a sergeant in E5 straight

15:24

away. And I was like, what? And he goes, yeah.

15:26

So I did, I went into the army and I ended up working for military intelligence.

15:30

I ended up going to over to Iraq and I served in Desert Storm in combat.

15:36

That's an amazing story. So you were in Desert Storm. Gosh, that must've been a journey as well.

15:40

Yeah, it really was. It was, you know, I went into the army as a German translator

15:45

for military intelligence, thinking that I would just be stationed back in Germany

15:49

where I grew up and I would have a cush job just at working as a translator.

15:53

And as soon as I got to Germany in July of 1990, after going through all my

16:00

army training and in August, Kuwait got invaded.

16:03

And by September, I was on the

16:05

ground in Saudi Arabia and gearing up and getting ready to go into Iraq.

16:10

So your German translation couldn't have been that much use out in an Arabic. No, it was no use.

16:17

But what they used our unit for was they there were all we didn't have enough Arabic linguists.

16:22

We hadn't we'd been preparing for, you know, during the Cold War.

16:26

We've been preparing for war with Russia and Eastern and the Eastern Bloc countries.

16:29

So we just didn't have at that time in history.

16:32

We just didn't have Arabic linguists enough of them.

16:35

So what OPEC did was they pulled all the scholarships of the Kuwaiti kids that

16:41

were in university in the United States on an OPEC scholarship and pulled them

16:46

all from university and made them go to two weeks basic training and join the U.S. Army.

16:50

And they assigned them all to our unit as our translators.

16:53

So I got assigned a Kuwaiti kid who was like 19 years old at the time,

16:58

and he was my translator. Okay. Yeah. Interesting journey.

17:02

How long did you stay in the military for? I was in for four years.

17:06

And then after the end of my first enlistment, I decided to get out.

17:11

And then I pursued a career in sales after that, because it just seemed like

17:16

just a natural thing to do after growing up the way I'd grown up in Germany,

17:20

doing all those sales with my dad. And I guess the good thing about that in some ways is that you hadn't,

17:26

although four years in the military, still four years, you hadn't been completely

17:30

indoctrinated into the military style.

17:33

Because what I do notice by people I've spoken to, coming out of the military

17:36

back into civvy street, the people who've been here a long time,

17:39

it's really hard to adjust to the fact in the military where you say,

17:43

do this, it gets done. In civvy street, they do this, They go, really?

17:48

Yeah. No, you're not kidding. It was actually even, I think because my four

17:54

years were very intense. Oh, yeah. Intense training program because of what I was doing as a translator.

17:59

A very intense combat tour.

18:02

I was a young man at the time. I was 20 years old when I was in combat.

18:07

That's very impactful on you. So I think coming back out of the military was not an easy transition for me either.

18:14

But I did get into sales right away.

18:16

And I started working for a British company, actually, in the United States,

18:20

United News and Media out of the UK.

18:23

It's the largest newspaper and magazine company in the world.

18:26

And I went to work for them and I started launching magazines in the US.

18:30

I would go in and I would search out the new city and hire the teams and train them and.

18:37

Get the magazine up and running. And then once we were publishing,

18:40

then I would go to the next city and start another magazine.

18:42

And that's how initially I got rocking and rolling and kind of business.

18:47

So obviously this is called life, passion and business for the obvious reason

18:51

that we want to know what's driving you. So what was driving you throughout this time? And clearly you've got a passion

18:55

and enjoyment of the sales journey.

18:58

You enjoy that thrill of the chase on that some level. Is that what that is?

19:02

Or am I just putting words in your mouth? No, I would say that I think like getting out of the military,

19:07

not knowing what I wanted to do, but knowing that I had sales skills and that

19:12

I could fall back on that, I just gravitated to it, right?

19:15

And like everyone, when you're young and you don't have any money,

19:19

you know, you're motivated at first, like, hey, I got to get out here and hustle and make some money.

19:23

I got married at a very young age. I got married at the age of 21.

19:27

My wife and I are still married. I'll be 54 this summer.

19:29

We've been married for nearly 32 years and it's been a

19:32

wonderful journey but you know thank you but

19:35

when you get married that young it's like all of a sudden you have to sober

19:38

up and go okay i gotta get out and make some money well the other thing about

19:41

when you get around that young is you're both kids really so there's a lot of

19:45

changing going on in those years so it's quite amazing that people stay together

19:49

for that length of time because you're not really you're not really fully formed

19:52

adult until you're 25 really. Yeah. Or maybe even later, you know, it's like, it's amazing.

19:58

Like from who we were back then to who we are now.

20:01

And it's in the, but we've been able to grow and change together, which has been great.

20:06

But I would say that like, okay.

20:09

So I had, I had a very extensive, you know, long experience working in sales

20:15

and marketing and advertising and running many different magazines and newspapers

20:19

papers over the early part of my career. But when I finally, I finally, at one point admitted to myself that I had had

20:27

some secret desires that I'd always wanted to do.

20:31

And at one point I, I gave, I, I gave myself permission to go do it.

20:36

The first thing that was, is I had always, since I was a kid,

20:40

wanted to do standup comedy. And I had loved Robin Williams as a kid and these different comedians.

20:46

So at the age of 28, while I was managing a newspaper in San Diego,

20:51

here I was managing the fifth largest newspaper in the United States.

20:55

I had 111 salespeople that worked for me.

20:58

And at night, secretly, I went out and I started doing stand-up comedy.

21:02

I quickly realized that I was horrible at it, but I loved it.

21:05

So I needed my own place to be able to practice. So then I ended up opening

21:09

up my own comedy club where I performed seven shows a week, every week for for eight years.

21:14

And I've made myself the headliner of every show. So I did one show on Thursday

21:18

night, three shows on Friday nights, three shows on Saturday nights.

21:22

And I did that every week. You've got no fear whatsoever, have you?

21:25

I mean, you're throwing yourself. Comedy is, is, is literally combat without guns.

21:31

It is a verbal sparring. You're right.

21:35

It literally is combat without guns or without physicality. And yet depends

21:39

on the club you go to, I guess. But the mere fact that you could do that and just set yourself up for that is just amazing.

21:47

Yeah. And I got good at it. And I loved it.

21:50

So I ended up doing that probably like around, by the time I got that club open, I was probably about 32.

21:57

And so I did it for about eight years. I did it every week for eight years,

22:00

seven shows a week for eight years. I was still managing the newspaper during the day. And then right before my

22:05

40th birthday, this is when the craziest, then I realized,

22:09

okay, the real motivation behind wanting to do all of this, the real thing that

22:14

I was so afraid to admit to myself, because it just seems so crazy and outrageous,

22:19

was that ever since I was a kid, I had always wanted to star in my own television show.

22:25

So here I was about to turn 40 years old. I'd never been on an audition.

22:29

I had never even acted in a play. I didn't have an agent, a manager, no contacts, nothing.

22:35

I just had this dream and I admitted it to myself. I said, okay,

22:40

I want this. I want my my own television show.

22:43

So this was three days before my 40th birthday. So at my 40th birthday party

22:47

in front of all my friends and family, I make a big grand announcement.

22:51

I say, Hey, listen up everybody. I got great news.

22:55

I said, I'm going to, I'm going to create, sell and star my own television show.

22:59

I'm going to have my own TV show. And my friends were like, wow, that's amazing.

23:03

What's it going to be called? And I go, Oh, I don't know yet.

23:06

And they're like, Oh, but what channel will it be on? I go, Oh,

23:08

I don't know that either. And they're like, wait a minute, but what's it about?

23:11

I go, oh, I don't have an idea yet. So everybody just starts laughing,

23:15

taking the piss out of me, right? Except for my wife. My wife goes, hey, if it's a TV show you want,

23:21

I've seen you accomplish a lot of stuff. I think you're going to do it. Well, the point is you had the talk when you

23:26

were eight or nine about the lottery. You know about this lottery process, this casino.

23:33

And it's no different, is it? It's exactly the same conversation.

23:37

No matter what you want to accomplish, it's no different. So here's what ended up happening.

23:41

So at my 40th birthday, this was in June, everyone's laughing at me like,

23:47

yeah, right. Okay, buddy. Good luck with that.

23:50

Nine months later, I was starring on my own television show on True TV.

23:55

I did six seasons. It was the number one show on their network.

23:58

The opening night, the premiere of the show had the highest ratings in the history of the entire network.

24:05

I did six seasons. It started airing worldwide.

24:09

It became a hit. It started airing in 127 countries, became a huge hit in the

24:13

UK, started airing on Freeview in the UK on a channel called Dave.

24:17

And it became such a big show that when I found out that it was a hit there

24:22

in 2013, I flew to MIPCOM where they buy and sell television formats in France,

24:28

in Cannes, where they do the Cannes Film Festival.

24:31

I met with the parent company of Dave called UKATV, struck a deal with them.

24:35

I moved to the UK and my wife and I did six more seasons on Dave.

24:40

We did Storage Hunters UK and then we created Celebrity Storage Hunters where

24:44

over 130 British celebrities came on my show, bid on storage units and use their

24:50

profits to give to their favorite charity. And so for 12 seasons and for many years of my life, I lived out my dream with

24:58

my own television show. Wow. And just a little bit, because this could go down a real rabbit hole.

25:03

How did you pitch that from nothing to something in nine months?

25:08

Oh, okay. There's a beautiful story. I'm so glad you asked. Thanks,

25:11

Paul. Thanks for asking that. Okay, listen. So here it is on my birthday.

25:16

It's a Thursday night. I can remember clearly on my Thursday night.

25:19

Hell, all my friends and family, gigantic laughs, right?

25:23

Saturday night, I go to do, at this point, I was doing charity fundraising auctions.

25:29

I had learned how to become an auctioneer, but the only kind of auctions I was

25:32

doing was raising money for nonprofits. So I was doing one for the American Cancer Society in La Jolla, California.

25:39

And after my auction, this guy walks up to me and it was a guy that I knew.

25:43

He was one of my clients from the newspaper.

25:46

He owned a self-storage facility called Big Box. His name was Brian.

25:50

Brian walks up to me, goes, Sean. He goes, he goes, hey, man,

25:53

because I knew you were doing stand up comedy.

25:55

He goes, but I didn't know you were an auctioneer. and I go,

25:58

yeah, yeah, I've been doing auctions for a little while. And he goes, you're good.

26:01

He goes, you should come do my storage auction. I go, what's that?

26:04

What's a storage auction? Because there were no TV shows, right? I go, what's a storage auction?

26:08

He goes, well, people don't pay their storage bills. He goes, we get to auction off all their contents to get the stuff out of it

26:14

so we can re-rent the units. I go, wow, when's your next auction? He goes, Tuesday.

26:18

I go, what time? He goes, starts at 7 a.m. I go, I'll be there.

26:22

So Tuesday, it I go to the auction I'm watching this auction there's only like

26:27

23 24 guys there the auctioneer has no energy he's like raising like 25 30 dollars

26:32

per unit and they're getting thousands of dollars with the free stuff you know

26:36

I'll stop out of these units and they're paying like 25 30 bucks right and I'm like this.

26:41

Is my TV show I'll be that auctioneer I'll bring a bigger crowd I'll make fun

26:46

of people I'll give them nicknames I'll joke around mm-hmm you know this is it this is my show.

26:52

So I go in the office, I convinced them to let me do their next auction.

26:56

And then I said, where do these guys sell this stuff? And they go,

26:58

oh, they all sell them at the swap meets, which are like in the UK car boot sales, right?

27:02

So for the next four or five weekends, my wife and I, we got clipboards and

27:06

paper and we went to every single car boot sale, every swap meet.

27:09

And we got guys to give us their phone numbers, their email addresses to sign

27:14

up on my list for my first auction.

27:16

So three months later was the next auction.

27:21

I promoted the hell out of this thing. And where the last auctioneer had about

27:26

23 people there, I got 800 people to show up.

27:29

I had a cameraman there. It was a madhouse.

27:33

Anyway, we filmed this thing. And a week later, I get an edited reel about three

27:38

and a half minutes, four minutes long. And I watch it from my editor. And it's just, oh, I just go,

27:44

this is it. This is my show. So I call my boss at the newspaper and I said, hey, I'm going to take a few

27:50

vacation days. He goes, all right, no problem. I Google every television network, their phone numbers, and I start cold calling them.

27:57

And they all go, who are you? No, we don't take unsolicited ideas.

28:01

Click, click, click, click. Every network in America hangs up on me.

28:04

But as I'm listening, I'm asking questions for anyone who will stay on the phone

28:08

with me for more than a second. And I start writing down little things that I'm hearing. So I hear this one

28:13

lady go, no, our development department doesn't take unsolicited ideas.

28:18

I go, oh, development department. That's who I got to talk to.

28:21

So then I went to the beginning of my list and I started with the biggest network, NBC.

28:26

And I go, yes, development, please. And they go, go, mass who's calling?

28:30

And I go, just let them know it's Sean. Okay. So then I get through to the gatekeeper. The gatekeeper goes,

28:34

yeah, may I ask who's calling? I go, yeah, please let them know it's Sean. And well, what's this in regards

28:39

to Sean in regards to the show? They'll know. Oh, okay.

28:42

Boom. I'm through to the lady, head of development, NBC, biggest network in America.

28:48

I start to picture my idea and she goes, wait a minute. I don't know you do.

28:51

And I go, no, we don't know each other. I go, but this is your next big hit.

28:55

She goes, no, no, no, No, we're not legally allowed to take unsolicited ideas.

28:58

She goes, we can get in so much trouble. She goes, but.

29:02

I love your enthusiasm. And she goes, you probably have a good idea.

29:05

So she goes, you need an agent. Your agent will book in a meeting and then we can talk.

29:09

I go, oh, agent. I go, where do I find one of those? She goes,

29:13

wow, you really don't know anything. She goes, WME, CAA. She lists up all these agencies. So I cold call all the agencies.

29:21

They all say no. I learn a few key terms. I get myself to an assistant.

29:26

She says, my boyfriend is just pitching

29:29

direct you're saying doing the same thing pitching to production companies i

29:32

go oh what are those she goes production companies are the ones that make the

29:36

tv shows for the networks i go oh where are they located they're mostly in santa

29:40

monica so i start cold calling all those long story short every network in america says no twice,

29:47

every agency in america tells me to go flag height all the production companies

29:52

i couldn't get due to any decision makers, except for one who said it was a

29:55

dumb idea. Nobody would watch it. So I take my reel. I buy a domain name from GoDaddy for $9 or $11 or something for a year.

30:06

I put my little three and a half minute reel on there.

30:09

I type really big, here's your next hit TV show and my telephone number.

30:14

I buy Google AdWords. I targeted them towards Santa Monica, where all the production companies are.

30:19

I bought 80 different search phrases and words that I thought someone looking

30:23

for a new show idea might type into Google. I put my per click at $50, which is massively high.

30:31

But I just thought, if I thought this is such a rare niche, I got no clicks

30:36

for the first three weeks. Week three, one click, one phone call. This guy calls me up and he goes, hey, is this Sean Kelly?

30:44

And I go, yeah. He goes, I just watched your reel. I think it might make for

30:47

a great TV show. I go, that's why I made it.

30:49

He goes, listen. He goes, we're a motion graphics company. He goes,

30:53

we don't actually make TV shows, but the owner of our company was at the dog

30:58

park yesterday morning and ran into a woman who owns a production company who

31:02

gave us an open door policy to come pitch ideas.

31:05

And we want to pitch your idea. I said, great, let's meet up.

31:08

We met up. We did a deal. We went pitched her. She loved it. Did a deal with her.

31:14

Next thing you know, we're pitching networks. And nine months later, I'm starring on TV.

31:19

That was a lovely segue. Thank you so much for that. I mean,

31:22

it's testament to that early story.

31:26

This is the same nine-year-old kid knocking on doors and listening to the words

31:32

and getting better at it. Getting better at it. And that's one of the key secrets to life is like,

31:38

don't have fear of rejection. Don't look at it as rejection.

31:41

It's a learning opportunity. And,

31:44

I had another incredibly valuable lesson that I learned, though,

31:48

when I was 15, about a year before my parents took off.

31:51

I used to be a really good skier and I was on a ski team in Germany and I would

31:56

race giant slalom and slalom. And I was on a ski trip to Switzerland and I was 15 years old. It was 1985.

32:03

And I wasn't there with my ski team. I was actually there with my church youth

32:09

group and all the other kids weren't skiers and they were all taking lessons.

32:12

And I was off skiing the black runs by myself, headphones on, skiing down.

32:17

And I was at one day I was I had my headphones on and I'm racing down this black

32:20

diamond, you know, in Switzerland, you know, like a bat out of hell down this mountain.

32:26

And all of a sudden I get to the bottom of the hill and I hear someone yelling at me.

32:31

So I take my headphones off and this guy skis up to me and he goes,

32:34

hey, hey, hey. hey, he goes, he goes, he goes, hey, what's your name? And I go, Sean.

32:38

And I go, I go, is there something wrong? He goes, no, no, no.

32:41

He goes, let me ask you. He goes, he goes, hey, man, he goes,

32:43

are you here for the Labrador horn? And I go, the Labrador horn?

32:46

I go, no, I go, I don't even know what the Labrador horn is.

32:49

I'm here with my church youth group. He goes, your youth group?

32:51

And I go, yeah. He goes, where do you live? I go, I live in Germany.

32:54

He goes, but you sound American. I go, I am American. It's a long story.

32:57

He goes, oh, he goes, okay. I thought maybe you're here for the Labrador horn.

33:01

He goes, you know what you, he goes, how old are you? And I go, I'm 15.

33:04

He goes, oh, he goes, you should race. I go, oh, I do race.

33:06

He goes, oh, you race? He goes, how many races have you won?

33:10

I go, I've never won a race. I go, I go, I'm kind of like the kid on that race

33:14

team that's been, you know, kind of the charity case. I got sponsored.

33:17

I've got like rental skis and rental boots. And the other kids have got like

33:21

latest state-of-the-art skis and aerodynamic ski suits. And I've got an oversized jacket.

33:26

I go, but I just love being on the team, but I've never won.

33:29

He goes, he goes, hey, listen, he goes, stop talking. I go, what?

33:32

He goes, just stop talking. He goes, get on the chairlift with me.

33:35

So we get on the chairlift. We're going up the mountain.

33:37

He goes, hey, he goes, kid, he goes, he goes, have you ever heard of Billy the Kid? I go, the cowboy?

33:43

He goes, no. He goes, let me ask you something. He goes, did you watch the Winter

33:48

Olympics in Sarajevo, Yugoslavia last year? And I go, yeah.

33:52

I go, an American won the gold medal for the first time in the downhill.

33:56

He goes, yes, he did. He goes, the gold medal is Bill Johnson.

33:59

I go, yes, Bill Johnson, he won. I go, yeah. He goes, I am Bill Johnson,

34:04

also known as Billy the Kid. I go, oh my God, you are Bill Johnson. You won a gold medal.

34:09

He goes, yes. And he goes, and kid, do you want to know why I skied up to you?

34:13

He goes, I don't need any more friends. He goes, I saw you come down that mountain so fast and so fearless.

34:19

He goes, I thought I was going to have to race you in the Labrador in the World Cup tomorrow.

34:23

And he goes, and I wanted to come size you up and get in your your head and

34:26

he freaked you out a little bit. I go, really? He goes, yes.

34:30

He goes, here's what I, he goes, listen to my words carefully.

34:34

He goes, he goes, I want you to stop making excuses why you can't win.

34:39

And he goes, and what I need you to do is to sell yourself on all the reasons

34:44

why you are going to win and why you can't lose and why you have nothing to

34:48

lose. He goes, because here's the secret kid. What you sell yourself on is what you will buy.

34:54

What you buy is what you will project to the world and what you project to the world.

34:59

They will buy about you. He goes, so if you sell yourself that you're a winner

35:04

and you project that, other people will believe you're a winner too.

35:07

And I go, wow, that's pretty cool. And it was a sales analogy,

35:11

which really resonated with me. And three months later in Garmisch, Germany, I won two gold medals,

35:17

one in giant slalom and one in slalom, just using that mental lesson that he taught me.

35:22

So that's just another thing your listeners can take with them because that's

35:27

true. You are a high achiever, Sean.

35:30

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Well, I think what I learned, when you learn the secret to

35:34

sales, if you learn selling and sales, you realize, well, you could sell any

35:38

product or service or whatever. But the most important sales call you're ever going to go on is the very first

35:43

one, which is to yourself. You've got to sell yourself. And if you sell yourself and you really believe

35:49

it, then the sky's the limit. Absolutely. Wow.

35:54

So where are you today? today because you've done so much, you know,

35:59

with TV shows and, and yeah, traveling around sports i mean what there are

36:05

no limits to your your your your adventures but

36:09

the sounds of it how do you do you limit yourself anyway

36:12

i know i'm open to so many different

36:15

things i'll tell you what i'm what i'm working on and doing right now i i'm

36:19

out raising money for non-profits doing charity fundraising auctions last saturday

36:23

i was in coronado california raised four hundred thousand dollars for a school

36:28

the weekend before that i raised about five hundred thousand for another school.

36:31

The week before that, I was in Riverside, California.

36:33

I raised $825,000 for another school.

36:36

What are they selling to raise that kind of money? Oh, they're selling these

36:40

really once-in-a-lifetime kind of unique experiences and trips and vacations and that kind of stuff.

36:48

And then a good chunk of the money, we do what we call a paddle raise where

36:52

we just give them like, this is what we're going to do with the money.

36:55

We're going to build this classroom or we're going to make this or do that.

36:58

And I just get straight donations by asking, who wants to give $100,000?

37:03

Who wants to give $50,000? And just work my way down.

37:06

So I'm doing a lot of charity fundraising auctions.

37:09

I've got a Facebook group, a private Facebook group that anyone can join for free.

37:14

And I go in there on Monday nights and I do one hour live where I just basically

37:18

tell people my formula, my three pillar skills, and my 15 step formula to accomplish any dream.

37:25

It's the Facebook group is you go to

37:27

facebook.com forward slash groups forward slash do

37:30

the big dream or you can go to my website do the

37:33

big dream.com and when you go in there you can click

37:36

on the Facebook group and I go in there each Monday and I

37:39

spend an hour with everybody and I teach people I have

37:42

three pillar skills how to how to have authentic self-confidence how

37:46

to overcome the fear of rejection and how to sell those

37:50

are the three cores and then I teach them a 15-step formula

37:53

to achieve any dream that they want to go after and these

37:56

this is the formula that i've used it i didn't

37:59

realize i was using it initially but once i accomplished a bunch

38:02

of things i was like what is it that i do first and then what i do second there

38:06

is like wait a second i'm like following the same formula every time so i'm

38:10

teaching people that formula they can join they can join me for free what i'm

38:14

trying to get out of it is to see

38:16

how many people i can encouraged to help achieve their big giant dreams.

38:20

So far, I helped a young man right out of college who wanted to become an actor and a comedian.

38:26

And he's gone on to be very famous. He's done about 11 movies now,

38:29

four television shows. He recently sold a movie script to Steven Spielberg.

38:33

And he gave a talk at Google where they interviewed him when he first wrote his book.

38:40

They said, hey, in your book, you reference the godfather, Sean Kelly.

38:45

Who's Sean Kelly? And he's He's like, oh, Sean Kelly, he was my mentor.

38:48

The actor's name is Jimmy O. Yang.

38:51

And he's in the U.S. He's become a very popular young star on the rise.

38:56

So I was his mentor. So I had such a great joy helping Jimmy achieve all of that.

39:02

That i thought hey how many more people can i help so that's

39:05

kind of what i've been up to did you move

39:08

did you leave the publishing industry are you now completely out

39:11

of oh yeah i haven't done anything in publishing i i i left the publishing industry

39:15

in boy i think it was 2009 yeah and that's that's when i went into television

39:22

yes and i literally went from working at the newspaper selling average is the

39:28

sales manager you know the business development manager,

39:31

to all of a sudden starring on my own TV show.

39:34

But you could imagine everyone I used to work with, they were like, what?

39:38

What just happened? Yeah, I mean, yes. It was a comedy club as well.

39:42

It was an amazing journey. Yeah, and I was running that comedy club too at night. That was,

39:45

yeah. So, you know, all these things, you can achieve amazing,

39:49

awesome things in life, but you've got to be prepared to work hard,

39:52

you know. Well, you've got to be prepared to do the hours, haven't you? You've got to do something.

39:55

Yeah, you do. You've got to learn the craft. That's what you've got to do.

39:58

And that's how you did the charity auction stuff, because you learned the craft.

40:02

And as I said, stand-up combat is combat without guns.

40:05

So you were already taught yourself how to do that sort of stuff.

40:11

I mean, lovely, lovely journey. So let me get onto some of my questions that I ask everybody.

40:16

How do you define success for yourself?

40:20

What does success mean to you? Yeah, you know, it's funny because I think you

40:25

redefine success as you get older and as you become more successful.

40:29

I used to think that success was you could attach it to a dollar figure,

40:37

you know, to earnings. earnings.

40:40

And then I've come to realize, no, I believe success is when you can feel like

40:49

you're living your life's purpose.

40:51

And part of the hard part is one, figuring out what that life's purpose is,

40:57

and then believing that you can actually live that purpose, and then going out

41:02

and having the the guts to live the purpose and struggle with it and learn.

41:06

And sometimes that requires you to maybe start all over into something brand new.

41:11

But if you can live a life of purpose and passion, whether the money comes or

41:17

not, I think you're winning. I think you're successful.

41:20

I've met many, many people who are, if you were to look at their bank accounts,

41:24

you would say they are incredibly successful,

41:26

but they got that money working and

41:29

doing something that they weren't necessarily passionate about

41:32

they just happen to have a good idea at the right time and they

41:35

and and that money is wonderful because you can go off and do a lot

41:38

of things with it but I know plenty of people who maybe

41:41

don't have the fattest bank accounts but are just really happy because they're

41:45

there they have found their passion so I would say that I would say that life's

41:49

passion and purpose is is number one in my life now and that's why I'm doing

41:54

all these things that I'm passionate about there's no doubt about it from the

41:57

conversations I've had, you know, there's no doubt money is good. Money's good. Money's important.

42:02

There's no doubt about it. We have to acquire assets throughout our lives to

42:06

have a comfortable life and be okay. So there's that. But that's the Maslow's hierarchy thing, isn't it?

42:11

It is. The different pillars of the Maslow's hierarchy. That's right.

42:15

But there was a money and miserable is also very common.

42:20

You know, if you're going to be, if you were a miserable ass before you got

42:24

money, you're going to be a miserable ass after you've got money.

42:26

You've got to change that thing.

42:29

You know, I learned that lesson early on.

42:32

My wife actually taught me that lesson because I came from, you know,

42:36

my father worked, you know, selling life insurance. So it was feast or famine. If he had commission checks, we were doing great.

42:41

And if he didn't, things weren't going well. Well, you know,

42:43

utilities were getting shut off and things were getting repossessed.

42:47

So that was kind of like my childhood. So I had always aspired to acquire a lot of money because I equated that to

42:55

safety and security and to happiness.

42:58

And my wife, on the other hand, she grew up in Beverly Hills and she grew up

43:04

around a lot of people with money. And she also worked as the personal assistant to a famous American comedian

43:11

by the name of Joan Rivers. And she had been with Joan for probably about six years.

43:15

And so she got working as Joan's personal assistant. She got to know Joan very

43:19

well. And she got to know many of Joan's celebrity friends.

43:22

And Lori told me that some of the most unhappy people that she'd ever met were

43:27

some of these celebrities that were extremely wealthy, had wonderful lifestyles,

43:31

but just were not happy people inside.

43:34

And so she said, just be aware that money's not going to bring you happiness.

43:39

You know, money is going to bring you a sense of security and it's going to

43:43

open more doors for you and it's going to allow you to go pursue more of your

43:46

passions and it's going to allow you to travel and it's going to allow you to

43:49

do things for people you love and it's going to allow you to,

43:52

you know, not have to worry about where you're paying for your next meal,

43:55

but it's not going to bring you happiness. And she goes, and I've seen it time and time again, and she was right. Yeah.

44:03

Yeah. And that's one of the things that this podcast has really brought out

44:06

for me very much very clearly. You need to have an answer to the success question you need to

44:10

define what success means to you and when you have that answer then

44:13

life you know work dancing can't work anymore it becomes a joy

44:16

to express it and that's right yeah so contribution

44:20

clearly you contribute to the world how do you feel you contribute to the world

44:25

well I feel like I've made a much larger contribution than I ever thought I

44:31

would when I was a young man because I can remember at 16 when I got kind of

44:35

abandoned as an illegal alien living in Germany and just trying to survive.

44:39

I didn't know how I was going to make it.

44:44

And now I look back at my life and I have raised over $500 million collectively

44:50

for nonprofits, for everything from children's hospitals to schools to nonprofits.

44:55

I made that television show for 12 seasons.

44:58

I used to go to Comic-Cons all across the UK and I would meet with bands and

45:02

I had numerous people come up to me and they'd say, Hey.

45:05

You know when my nan was sick she would binge watch

45:08

your show and it brought her lots of joy or when my you

45:11

know my son has autism and he loves things that have

45:14

repeating you know repeating things that repeat and he

45:17

goes and your show is very repetitive in its

45:20

you know in its nature the way it is and and my son loves loves your show and

45:26

it brings him a lot of joy or you know or or you know my uncle was you know

45:30

sick with cancer and he was bed stricken he got to watch your show and it just

45:36

made him so happy and he's recovered now.

45:40

Will you make a video for him? Can I turn my phone on? Will you say hi to my uncle?

45:44

Just hearing all those different stories, you realize, wow, you don't realize

45:49

what a ripple effect you can have throughout the world.

45:52

And I know that all these different nonprofits I've raised money for,

45:55

so many of them are such great stewards of the money and have done incredible

45:59

things for sick children and for just veterans causes.

46:04

I've raised in in 2017 I

46:08

did a stand-up comedy tour across the UK I did 122

46:11

theaters I did 50 shows at the fringe festival and

46:14

then we went out across the UK and we did all the all the little council theaters

46:19

and some sometimes as big theaters but we did 122 theaters and I gave all my

46:24

profits to help for heroes in the UK to help other disabled vets because I'm

46:29

a disabled combat that my My wife is a combat veteran as well.

46:33

And so we have a real passion for veterans causes.

46:36

And so we took all the profits from our tour and we turned around and we gave

46:41

it all to Help for Heroes. Thank you for that. Thank you.

46:43

Yeah. Yeah. So I would say that like everyone has the ability to reach beyond themselves.

46:51

And the truth of the matter is that the greatest rewards in life is when you're

46:55

able to do things for others. And it will come back to you. You won't necessarily know how or where or when or why, but it will.

47:04

It always does. How do you contribute to yourself?

47:09

I love it. I love to, that's a really good question because I feel like self-care

47:14

is incredibly important. It's easy to give and give and give, isn't it? And some people overgive and

47:21

then they wonder why they are struggling afterwards.

47:25

Yeah. And I've been guilty of that myself. I would say that,

47:28

I would say that one, I try to look after my mental health.

47:30

I think it's extremely important, you know, as a combat vet, you,

47:34

you, you just naturally kind of struggle with that especially as

47:37

you know as time goes by so so i try

47:40

to look after that i i try to look after

47:43

the way i eat and you know my you know my

47:46

diet and i and i try to get exercise i could

47:49

be doing a much better job on that front but the other ways that i would that

47:54

i that i look after myself is just to make sure that i have my my affairs always

48:00

in order so that it so that there's nothing weighing on me and i think i think

48:05

that's pretty much how i've looked after myself. Nice yeah absolutely self-care is is very important in life very important and although,

48:14

we're here to to work and do things we're not really here to work we're here to live our own,

48:18

life for ourselves so doing things for ourselves is

48:21

actually quite important yeah i actually and i

48:25

and i find my here's what i find and this may may work

48:28

for your listeners that may not you know know depending on what kind of

48:31

business they are if they're entrepreneurs or whatever but i

48:34

work very hard six months of

48:37

the year and i take it very easy six months of the year so what i do is i work

48:43

usually june july and august those three months nobody really wants to do any

48:48

fundraising auctions there's not a lot going on so my wife and i usually travel

48:52

so last last year we we spent June,

48:56

July, August, we split our time between Germany and Austria and mostly in Vienna.

49:02

And then we would just go out, go for long walks, go to the parks,

49:08

go look at the architecture, go to museums, that kind of stuff.

49:12

Then September, October, November, and the first week in December.

49:16

Those three months, every single Saturday doing an auction, just working full blast.

49:22

Then December, January, February, those three months, just kind of taking it

49:27

easy here where I live in Arizona because the winters are wonderful here.

49:31

Maybe do some writing, maybe work on some of my stuff that I'm doing for the

49:36

coaching and stuff, but really low key.

49:39

And then March, April, May, it ramps right back up and it's every single Saturday and it's full on.

49:45

So that's kind of how I do my self-care. You've got a cycle then.

49:51

Work hard, play hard. Work hard, play hard. Yeah.

49:55

Yeah this is the point though for me this is this point the journey

49:58

of this podcast everyone finds their own path that's the point yeah there's

50:02

no one path there is my path your path and your each path will be different

50:07

so here's our last main question here which is which is kind of the big one

50:11

really because what is the meaning of it all why do you do this oh yeah well that's the.

50:18

That's the that's a d that's a that's a pretty deep question like what is the

50:23

meaning of it all And I'm sure many of us have sat down and,

50:27

you know, at different points in my life, I've done a lot of self-reflection.

50:31

And I thought to my like when I was doing stand up comedy and I was out there

50:35

doing these hell gigs trying to get good as a comedian.

50:38

There were many nights where I'm like, what in the world am I doing?

50:42

I got to be at work in the morning. I've got I'm running a newspaper.

50:45

I got my wife's at home waiting, waiting for me to come home.

50:49

I'm out telling jokes to a bunch of drunks. What the hell am I doing? Right.

50:54

And I didn't know at the time, I didn't know what the magnetic pool was.

51:01

And if you'd asked me then, I couldn't have given you a clear answer.

51:05

Now, in hindsight, I go, well, of course,

51:08

those 20 years doing stand-up comedy and building those stage skills have allowed

51:13

me to go on to become an incredible auctioneer, raising money for all these

51:18

nonprofits and impacting the world in a huge way.

51:21

But had I not invested all those years and that time in that,

51:25

everything becomes clear in hindsight in 2020.

51:30

So what's catapulting me forward is just the joy of everything that I'm doing right now.

51:37

I'm living my best life and I'm having fun because I've mastered certain skills.

51:41

And it's just a joy to do now. And I would do a lot of these things whether I got paid or not.

51:46

I just recently shot a brand new idea for a whole new television show that I'm

51:51

getting ready to go out and pitch That I haven't told anyone about so I might

51:55

I might be having round four of the television, you know.

52:00

Yeah, just because I had so much fun making TV Like it's one of these things

52:05

where I'm like gosh every day was a joy to show up to work And it was just such a good time.

52:11

Yeah, so I think like I think that like I.

52:15

Time will you'll be able to go back and you'll be able to look back and go oh

52:18

well wait a minute had this not happened then that wouldn't have happened and

52:22

I wouldn't you know oh yeah you could piece, things together yeah so some of the time machine was about and just knock

52:26

something out and you know the whole life would be different wouldn't it there's always

52:29

only two directly there's little anchor points

52:32

yes yes yes I I always I I mean

52:35

I I there's a situation a leaflet I

52:38

found in a library when i was when i

52:41

was 27 26 i think it was and

52:44

from that leaflet my whole life changed it was to be acting

52:47

in a play and i and i and from that

52:51

process i did various other bits and pieces and that's where

52:53

i met my wife so you could literally take that leaflet

52:56

out and burn it and i would not be sitting here oh yeah

53:00

it's it is crazy how these

53:04

little how these things lead to certain things i

53:06

have a interesting story how i met my wife as well and

53:09

it's in and i realized oh my goodness the stars really

53:12

had to align for all that to happen i will say this

53:15

you know you take you you

53:18

going and taking it was it an acting class that you took i was in an amateur

53:22

production and that's what that's where i i did i found the leaflet and it took

53:27

me into an amateur production and so i really thoroughly enjoyed the process

53:31

but i realized that i needed to learn more so So I then went into it, I went in to do...

53:36

It's in classes, basically. Well, I would just tell your listeners,

53:40

I think the best thing they could do for themselves is to go out and either

53:44

take an acting class, like a stand-up comedy class, get some public speaking experience.

53:49

You know, get on stage and speak to large groups and get over that fear and conquer that.

53:54

That because that will that more than anything else

53:57

will really help catapult your business career

54:01

your entrepreneurship forward because if

54:04

you can get up on a friday night and tell jokes

54:07

in front of a thousand people monday morning when

54:10

you're sitting across from a ceo that you're trying to pitch on

54:13

your product or service it's nothing it's no

54:16

big deal yeah it's that thing about communications

54:19

i always remember saying talking to a a networking guy

54:23

years ago he said it's all about comms mate everything's about comms that's

54:27

a good way it's all about comms you know it's like.

54:30

It is and yeah i i did toastmasters for

54:33

a few years so it's uh that's pretty cool yeah yeah

54:36

yeah so what's interesting paul is i i've

54:39

been recommending for people oh go to toastmaster but i

54:42

had never been i went to my first meeting last night even after all

54:45

these years of doing professional speaking i just i thought well if i'm going

54:47

to recommend this i should go actually see what the format is so

54:50

i went to my very first meeting last night just to observe so it's

54:53

funny you brought that up what is so lovely about

54:56

toastmasters it's such a supportive environment where everything

54:59

is reviewed and that's

55:02

why i always like and it's reviewed in such a gentle beautiful way

55:06

well certainly in the uk it's not

55:09

harsh in terms of the review so it's like

55:11

what could you have done what what worked what what could you

55:14

have done better and and that's all about every time

55:17

everything from from timekeeper to all the

55:20

different roles and someone who can't do

55:22

anything can take a role which is so factual

55:26

like the time did we all make the.

55:28

Time tonight did we all speak on time yeah they can deliver that factual role

55:33

as a speech at the end of it yes john did this john james did this and that

55:38

is the time they can do that and you know it's about getting up and standing

55:42

up in front of people and speaking about about facts. They don't have to think about anything.

55:47

So it's beautiful in that it sets up these roles for people to explore how to present.

55:54

It's exactly what you need when you first start out, when you have no experience.

55:57

And then later, when you're ready to progress, it's always good to get a coach.

56:02

I coached a guy who had been doing stand-up comedy for a long time,

56:06

but he wanted to try to build a brand new one-hour act.

56:09

And he wanted to film a comedy special. And I led him through that process and

56:14

we worked together every week for a year and a half.

56:16

And in the end, he got his comedy special filmed and, and it got millions of views.

56:22

And, and it was, it's, so it's, it's an interesting process.

56:25

So, and I've worked with people that have done Ted talks and stuff like that.

56:29

And so yeah I love the idea

56:32

that you can have a starting point like Toastmasters and

56:36

then if it ends up resonating with you then

56:39

you say oh I want to pursue this further that there's so many other directions

56:42

you can go in so it's great I mean I saw some amazing journeys at Toastmasters

56:46

I have a friend now I've seen it for quite a while but who has long hair and

56:52

she got up to do her first speech and she just dropped her head so her hair

56:56

went all over her her head and she delivered this,

56:58

like we hardly heard a thing,

57:02

but you know, she got her applause and people gave her some feedback or anything

57:05

else. And 18 months later, she won a competition.

57:08

Yeah. That's how it goes.

57:11

That's how it goes. That's the first of the last is like, you know,

57:13

the first day and she want to come down and he's like, yeah,

57:16

that's the story, isn't it? It's beautiful. Yeah. I wish, I wish what would be great is if you guys film that first one and then,

57:23

and then put it side by side with that last one and just

57:26

like i think she'd run out the room if there was

57:29

a camera there yeah i bet i bet i

57:32

bet so sean how do what what is it

57:35

you want of people i know you've got this facebook group

57:38

i mean have you have you got a book out as well have you written no but

57:41

i that's that's on my to-do list that's definitely something i'm

57:44

surprised it isn't because you've got a life story you've got a

57:47

life story to record my friend and people will enjoy enjoy reading

57:50

it yeah yeah no it's definitely something that's

57:53

on the to-do list so so definitely there'll be a book in the

57:56

future but right now you know if i had to be completely honest with everybody

58:03

and say hey what is my dream my personal dream is to is to coach as many people

58:10

online to help them through their journey life because what's beautiful about

58:14

this forum of being online. Is that you can reach people from all of all over

58:19

the world and so people so people

58:22

can be drawn to you from all different parts of the

58:25

world because they have this passion that they want to go after like their big

58:29

dream and they want someone to help them to get there so for me what i would

58:34

love to do right now i'm doing all this completely for free i'm teaching people

58:37

walking them through it i'm getting the experience i'm gathering the stories

58:40

the success stories of people that i'm helping accomplish their dreams,

58:44

which eventually I could see all that going into a book as well.

58:47

Me just telling the stories of all the different people that I've helped.

58:50

But if like the ultimate dream would be if I could make a really good living,

58:55

just being online and coaching people and helping them, that would then allow

59:00

me to live anywhere where I'd like to live. And I personally would like to live in Europe.

59:04

I'd like to, that's where I lived as a kid. And my wife and I both would love

59:09

to go back and live in Europe for many years.

59:12

And I think this could be a really good way for me to do it is to,

59:15

is to be able to coach people online, you know, provide online courses, that kind of stuff.

59:21

And so that's what I'm, that's kind of what I'm working towards.

59:23

But initially I'm building the audience by just saying, Hey,

59:26

just come, I'll help. I'll just help you. So who are the people you are looking for? Who do you want to talk to?

59:32

Well, people who, people who have like a, like a, like a genuine Anyone burning

59:39

desire to accomplish something great in their life and they have no idea how to get there.

59:44

Like someone like, and it doesn't matter at what age you're at. Like, look at myself.

59:50

I was about to turn 40 and all of a sudden I announced to my friends and family,

59:55

I'm going to have my own television show and it's going to be a worldwide hit. it.

59:59

I had no idea, no idea how I was going to do it other than, you know,

1:00:04

the, the instinctive formula that I had followed in the past to become a comedian

1:00:09

or to become an auctioneer or to become a sales manager, you know,

1:00:12

different things. Right. So those are the people I'm looking for. Those kindred spirits,

1:00:16

those people who are like, who were like brave enough to say,

1:00:20

okay, okay, I'm going to admit to myself, this is what I want to do.

1:00:26

Or they're at least willing to say, say, okay, I'm willing to brainstorm out

1:00:31

and really think about what my big gigantic life dream is. And it's gotta be something big.

1:00:36

It's gotta be something that like you just, otherwise you wouldn't know how to do it.

1:00:40

I'm looking for people who, who sincerely wanna go out and just really try to

1:00:44

accomplish something that they have no idea how they're gonna do it.

1:00:47

So how will people find you if they wanna get in touch?

1:00:50

Yeah. So a couple of different ways. If you want to learn a little bit more

1:00:54

about me, you can, you know, you can go to the website, which is do the big dream.com.

1:01:00

You'll see pictures of me with other celebrities and filming in the UK and all

1:01:03

this stuff. And then there's links to my Facebook group on there.

1:01:06

If you were like, Hey, I'm already sold by just listening to this guy's story.

1:01:10

And I just want to get in on this action. I want to get coached by him for free

1:01:14

on Monday nights. It's Monday nights, 5 to 6 p.m. Pacific Standard Time.

1:01:20

But then after I do it, after I go live, I leave those videos in the group so

1:01:23

you can watch it. Because everyone in the UK is on a different time zone, obviously.

1:01:27

The link will be on the show notes. That'll be fine.

1:01:30

DoBigDream.com. That'll take you right to the page. Are you on other social channels?

1:01:34

Yeah, I am. I'm on Facebook. I hope everyone follows me on. It's Sean Kelly

1:01:37

Comedian. I'm on Facebook. I'm on Instagram.

1:01:41

I'm also on Twitter. I believe that's also Sean Kelly Comedy. Yeah.

1:01:47

Thank you. Well, all those links will be available at the website.

1:01:51

Lifepassionandbusiness.com. Sean Kelly, thank you so much for being on this journey with us today.

1:01:55

It's been such a joy to talk to you. Thank you. Oh, Paul, it's been a real pleasure.

1:01:59

And I got to tell you, the next time we get together, I want to flip the script

1:02:03

and I want to ask you questions because I have a feeling that you've led a very

1:02:07

fascinating life yourself. And so maybe maybe if we

1:02:11

ever get a chance to talk again i i get to

1:02:14

come on with my list of questions okay that's a deal no

1:02:17

problem yeah yeah thanks great meeting you

1:02:20

all the best thank you paul i really appreciate it and that was life passion

1:02:25

and business with paul harvey and my guest sean kelly so if you'd like to catch

1:02:30

up with sean you can find him at his website which which is do the big dream.com

1:02:34

or the charity auctioneer.com.

1:02:37

You can find him on the Facebook group, which is do the big dream.

1:02:41

You can find him on also Facebook itself. It was slice of the future and Sean Kelly comedian.

1:02:47

You can find him on Instagram as the auctioneer, Sean Kelly,

1:02:51

and on Twitter, Sean Kelly comedy.

1:02:54

All those links will be available at the website, life, passion and business.com.

1:02:59

Okay. As I mentioned at the beginning, now is a time to discover how to find

1:03:03

some more focus in your life and get things done okay so we're all looking to

1:03:07

move forward we all want to find some measure of success in the world,

1:03:12

and if you've heard the podcast you know i have a view of success but that's another conversation,

1:03:16

the point is however you look at this we want

1:03:20

to get things done you might want to get a project over the line you

1:03:23

might have a really big goal that you're looking to to move to move

1:03:26

forward on and the problem is whenever we start

1:03:29

these projects whenever we do anything like this there's always some resistance

1:03:32

there's always something that gets in the way and that can be a multitude of

1:03:37

things and but the key to this is how do we retain focus and stay with the project

1:03:42

and push it over the line and that's where focus coaching can help.

1:03:49

Now, it's a process that I discovered some 15 years ago during my coach training.

1:03:54

And it's something sometimes called focus coaching, turbo coaching, speed coaching.

1:03:59

And it's a really simple process where we define what it is you're trying to achieve.

1:04:05

And we look at the resistance that you're experiencing in that achievement.

1:04:10

Come up with some strategies to solve that resistance.

1:04:14

Commit to setting a date. and I hold your feet to the fire to make sure that

1:04:19

you do that. So there's a commitment, there's an accountability process.

1:04:23

And that's it. That's basically how it works. You get it done.

1:04:27

And I can tell you, it is so powerful when you start working in this way,

1:04:32

particularly when you work with someone who supports you in the process of doing it.

1:04:37

And one thing to remember, you know, success is never guaranteed,

1:04:41

but the struggle always is. And that's what this coaching is designed to do. It's designed to get you through

1:04:46

the struggle towards the success you're looking for.

1:04:50

So do check out the link on this podcast or at the website, lifepassionandbusiness.com.

1:04:57

You will find a video of me again explaining this process.

1:05:01

But if you go below the video, there's a booking link where we'll have a discussion

1:05:04

about your project and how we could get you sorted.

1:05:08

As always, if you have enjoyed this podcast, if you found anything here of any

1:05:13

use, please share it with a friend because that's how people like yourself find good podcasts,

1:05:20

if you can give us a review give

1:05:23

us a five-star review i have lots of five stars why not i think i'm worth it

1:05:27

when you support a podcast in that way you have no idea how effective it is

1:05:33

both in terms of supporting us on the platform but it also makes us feel good

1:05:38

yes it makes me feel good and i I like to feel good.

1:05:42

As always, thank you for your time and attention. I will catch you next time.

1:05:46

Music.