IAM892- International Speaker Motivates People Using Personal Stories

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00:20 – Intro

Do you want to learn effective ways to build relationships, generate sales, and grow your business from successful entrepreneurs, startups, and CEOs without listening to a long, long, long interview? If so, you've come to the right place. Gresham Harkless values your time and is ready to share with you precisely the information you're in search of. This is the I AM CEO Podcast.

00:47 -Gresham Harkless

Hello. Hello. Hello. This is Gresh from the I AM CEO podcast and I have a very special guest on the show today. I have Ari Gunzburg of MindSpark. Ari, it's awesome to have you on the show.

00:56 – Ari Gunzburg:

Thank you so much for having me. Appreciate it.

00:58 – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Super excited to have you on. Before we jump in, I want to read a little bit more about Ari so you can hear about all the awesome things that he's doing. Ari is a rising new star in personal growth after experiencing trauma as a child and then extreme volatility as a teenager. As an award-winning international speaker, Ari motivates people using personal stories filled with triumph, tragedy, and transformation. Ari also helps inspire people using one-on-one coaching in his books for both children and adults. And now in 2020 his debut nonfiction title, The Little Book of Greatness. Ari, Are you ready to speak to the I AM CEO community?

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01:35– Ari Gunzburg

Absolutely.

01:36 – Gresham Harkless

Awesome, well let's do it. So to kick everything off, I wanted to hear a little bit more about your story, your CEO story. Could you take us through your CEO story? What led you to start creating all this awesomeness?

01:44 – Ari Gunzburg

So I have been working in graphics and website design for a long time. And I feel like a lot of people will be able to recognize this feeling. I kind of felt unfulfilled. I could do it. I was good at it, but it wasn't what I was like. It wasn't like waking me up in the middle, like early, early morning being like, Oh, I got to get more of this stuff done. You know, there's, there's aspects of it that I really enjoyed, but not, not all of it and not enough is the best way to put it. So I started doing a lot of exploration into what I should do. And, at the time I was also actually running a small little publication, which for some reason became like, you know, my quote-unquote baby that I was like, just, you know, pushing and shoving to try and get it to stay alive.

And so I started working with a business coach. And the first thing that he did very successfully, well, maybe not the first, but I'm saying one thing that he did very successfully is open my eyes to this little publication. He said to me, he's like, in your wildest dreams, what's the best it'll possibly do? Like financially, you know, ran the numbers in my head for like a little bit, realized that like, we're dealing with, you know, really the best is like quarter million. And if it's like fantastic, fantastic, half a million, And we're talking gross, not net. So we're talking about not that much money.

And it's not, it's not like, you know, I was helping like, like orphans, like from get off the street and into homes or anything, you know, like it was like a thing, like it wasn't like a passion project in the sense that I cared that much about it. And then when I recognized that the payout for it, the best possible potential payout, and again, most of the times things don't happen like the best, I was like, okay, it's time to shut this thing down. And we were continuously working on this. And eventually, I went in to speak to a bunch of incarcerated juveniles. You know, it was a crazy story of how that happened. But I ended up, I ended up showing up. I spoke to them for, I think I was supposed to speak for like 30 minutes or an hour.

I spoke to them for like an hour and a half. We all had a great time. I followed up with them afterward. And, you know, like it was right around that same time I was listening to a lot of Les Brown and just, you know, listening to other motivational speakers. And I was like, you know what? And so the coach at one point was like, what about speaking? And I was like, yeah, yeah, maybe what about speaking? And so I've been on that journey ever since. That's about 4 years ago. It's a really hard, just so you know, it's a really hard business to break into because there's a million different, and like I'm still working on like fully breaking into it and whatnot, but like there's a million different aspects to it, you know, and there are also, by the way,

I don't know if it's actually a million, but there are a million different places that are essentially trying to sell you like, oh, we're going to make you, we're going to create this business for you and it'll work. And like when you have so many people saying that we know so much about the business of public speaking that we can help you get into the business of public speaking, why aren't you just working in the business of public speaking instead of trying to sell to all the people who want to be in the business of public speaking, a public speaking course. And so I remain a little bit. Now, that's not to say that there aren't people out there who legitimately know it and legitimately can help people, but the question is which ones, you know what I mean?

So like, I've been on this journey for quite some time. I've been learning a ton of stuff. Finally, finally, finally, I did the book, which has been on my mind for a long time. And I published that this past summer. And I keep on working on it. And it's crazy because of coronavirus and everything, just because the speaking, the live events space has drastically changed. And like you said before, I mean, pivoting is just, it's, that's what 2020 is all about, is just moving around, pick it's a little different to do. And so, so my, my journey for the past 8 months or so, I mean, we're in, we're in December, excuse me, we're in December now.

So my journey for the past 8 months or so, we're in December, excuse me, we're in December now. So my journey for the past 8 months or so is really kind of a little bit of continuing to work on building my business, but also seeing what other projects I can do at least in the short term or the medium term or the somewhat long term, just until the event space starts building back up again. Yeah. That's where we're at.

05:38 – Gresham Harkless

Exactly, but I wanted to drill down a little bit deeper to hear a little bit more about your book and MindSpark. Could you take us through a little bit more about that and what you're building?

05:44 – Ari Gunzburg

Absolutely, so MindSpark is, what I was continuously finding is that it was hard to, you know, because if you sit there and say I'm Ari Gunsberg and I work for Ari Gunsberg, it kind of gets redundant. How many times can you say that in a sentence, you know? But the idea was to be able to just have a brand name that like, you know, okay, I'm Ira Gunsbrink and I'm a speaker and I have this public persona, but I also work for this brand or I'm the founder of this brand called MindSpark and MindSpark is focused on, you know, spreading a little bit of light, spreading a little bit of hope and peace and everything else.

And so, I mean, that's actually the imprint that I put on the book is MindSpark. So the idea is that I can sell my programs, my books, and my speeches through MindSpark. And if I end up getting to the point where I wanna work with other people, then I can sell their books, their programs, their stuff. And it may end up being a multi-person brand, it may end up being just a single-person brand, I don't know, it doesn't matter so much to me as long as people have one, I guess, branded that they continuously are working with. But the book, so just to get into the book, right, so I developed this thing called the 5 keys to greatness.

And the 5 keys to greatness are developed in a way, they're like, they're light enough in the sense that it's not a concrete system like step 1, step 2, step 3, now step 1, step 2, step 3. It's a framework. It's a framework that anybody can apply to their life. And we were talking before how, you know, people say, Oh, this will work for you, because this is what worked for me. And that's, my goal is not to say this is what's going to work for you, because this is what's what's worked for me. And my goal is to say, these are the 5 main key areas in your life that you can pay attention to, and bring yourself to a point of greatness.

Now, how you will do that will be very different from how I will do that. So I'm not asking you to do it my way. I'm asking you to just see that these are like super key areas, super important key areas of life to focus on to bring you to your own level of greatness. And then you implement them your way. You do it exactly how you want to do it. And I went through the story I tell and it's not a story, it happened, but I was driving around for summer. I drove almost 9,000 miles in 1 summer and I spent a lot of time in that car and all the rest of time as well coming up with this concept.

And I kept on coming up with different things and saying, well, this is really important also. And then finding that it would really fall into 1 of the main 5 areas. I want it to be as simple as possible to be easy to remember. And if I give you 10 key areas of real life, as I saw in a company, these are the 50 core areas that we care about. You're like, 50? Who in the right mind is going to be able to remember all 50? It gets to the point where you're diluting all of them because you have so many. So I came up with 5. And if you come up with something else and you look at it you'll be able to find that it fits into 1 of the 5 almost guaranteed.

So I have the book I am working a little bit on a workbook right somebody actually mentioned they're like oh there are no exercises in the book well I plan to put the workbook separately with its own information and it's still dealing with the 5 keys to greatness and I recorded but it's still in post-production a video series that discusses the 5 keys to greatness as well and so those are the 3 main core products that are you know right now only the book is available those are 3 main core products to help people interact with the 5 keys of greatness. I'm presenting the same information, the 5 keys of greatness.

So that doesn't change. But it's not like the information you see in the book is the same as the information that you see in the videos. And that's not the same as what you're going to see in the workbook. This means you can buy all 3, let's say, and each 1 is different. It's not like I've read other stuff also where like you buy the second 1, you're like, this is basically like the first book just with a few different words. And I just paid all this money for a book that's basically the same thing. You know, So I worked very hard to make sure that that's not the case. And I do share that the 5 keys are, I don't know if you are interested, but I'm certainly happy to tell the listeners what it is.

Because again, right? I'll be happy if you get the book and read it. It's written in story form, So it's super easy to read. It's only a few hours long. It's not that difficult. But the main idea is that we all have this opportunity to unlock this greatness within us. And the 5 keys, if we just spend a little bit of time each day focusing on them. So that's why I don't mind telling people what they are because the ideas are just developed more in all the other products that I'm offering. And those, it's, I use a mnemonic to tell over what it is. This way it makes it super, super easy to remember.

It's the 5 keys to greatness. So the word to remember is great. GREAT it's a give, right? We give more of our money, our time, our life, anything. There are many, many different ways to give. Reason, we wanna have a reason for living, a purpose. Engage, we wanna be more present in the present moment. Right, we wanna be with what's happening, Not like, let's say we're having this interview right now, not sitting there and thinking about what I have to do tomorrow. And, you know, what's gonna happen with this project that I'm working on? We don't wanna be focusing on everything else.

We wanna be focusing on the here-and-now moment, being present. Amazing, having a positive mindset, a positive attitude and tenacity. Persistence is literally what changes the world. And so the more that we apply persistence and tenacity to the things that are around us, the better off we'll be.

10:38 – Gresham Harkless

Nice. Well, I definitely appreciate you for breaking that down. And would you consider your ability to be able to kind of, I guess, synthesize that information, understand and develop that framework as what I would call your secret sauce, the thing you feel kind of sets you apart and makes you unique?

10:52 – Ari Gunzburg

That's been a big issue that I think that I've had. My gut feeling is that one of the things that I'm dealing with in my own marketing and my own presentation, etc. Is like the branding aspect of it. And that's something I've been struggling with for quite some time, like what is my secret sauce? Now I have this, the 5 keys to greatness, I guess, I mean, they're unique, right? Nobody has them. So that is one version of it. I have another idea that I'm going to be integrating the 5 keys to greatness into which is mid-development and so this is one of my also one of my issues I have shiny objects object syndrome, where you know I'm working, I could be sometimes be working on 5 different projects at the same time or more, and then start new ones. And it's not just to be clear, right?

I've gotten much better at actively working on 5 things at a time. I don't really do that anymore. But I still may have 5 or 10 open ideas that I would like to implement, I'd like to be working on, that may continue to add stuff to. And so that's, that's been one of my struggles. You know, so like the book, I mean, I was able to get the book out and, you know, so like, it's like, I'm like, for instance, just to give you an example, like I'm really, really torn, like, do I, do I put more time and effort into the workbook, which goes with this book, or do I put more time and effort into this other program that I'm trying to build, which I know, like the 5 Keys to Greatness is only scratching the surface.

This other one is so incredible that you know, it's very, very hard, but I try to be able to focus on different things. And then coronavirus hit, of course, and that just messed everything up. You know, plans are very, very difficult when you're, when there's so much uncertainty in the world, which is, it's very difficult for everybody. I mean, But we're getting there. I think we're making progress, meaning the world. I think the world is making progress in coming to terms with what it is all about. And it's an uphill battle.

12:48 – Gresham Harkless

And I wanted to switch gears a little bit and I wanted to ask you for what I call a CEO hack. So this could be like an Apple book or a habit that you have but what's something that makes you more effective and efficient?

12:58 – Ari Gunzburg

There's an app out there called ClickUp. If you don't use a project management app, you probably want to use a project management app even though they are a little bit tedious sometimes and if you don't update them often they can often be more of a hindrance than anything else but so this app is called ClickUp. It's absolutely fantastic. You know a lot of people will sit there and say immediately, but I use Asana, but I use Trello, but I use Wrike, but I use this, but I use that. In this chat that I was in the other day, there were a few other fans of it as well.

And we were all talking about ClickUp and the way that I put it, I think is probably, maybe, I mean, you could maybe argue it, but I think that ClickUp is so advanced, right? Meaning ClickUp does what Asana does, but better. ClickUp does what Wrike does, but better. ClickUp does what Trello does, but better. So it's so advanced that It's basically, once you understand the full power of ClickUp, all the other apps out there are basically obsolete.

13:52 – Gresham Harkless:

About that focusing aspect, what are your thoughts on being able to our advice as well, which is really what the nugget is about, being able to balance the ultimate, I guess, our unlimited potential that we have as humans with being able to communicate that and synthesize that in a way just like you did with your 5 keys to greatness.

14:13 – Ari Gunzburg

Great question. So first of all, I've always had an idea and I've never fully implemented it well, but I've always had this thought process of like when I'm working and focusing on just one thing these ideas pop up and come at me. I should have either a notebook or in my other thoughts I should have an app or a place to sit there and just drop the ideas into that I can then later look at. And this is something people talk about a lot, right? A lot of times when we have these thoughts flying through our head and like all these different ideas and maybe I'll do this, maybe I'll do this, and here's a way to do this, and here's a way to do that, here's a way.

If you can get it out of your mind, right? They say like leave a notebook by your bed because you can sit there and jot these things down. If you can get it out of your mind so you're not worried about losing that idea anymore, then you cannot think about it maybe and focus on the things you really need to focus on. And you said you brought up focus. I mean, focus is all important. We can't do anything unless we're really focusing and honing in on that particular idea.

15:02 – Gresham Harkless

Absolutely. So now I wanted to ask you my absolute favorite question, which is the definition of what it means to be a CEO. And we're hoping that different quote-unquote CEOs on this show. So Ari, what does being a CEO mean to you?

15:11 – Ari Gunzburg

Vision and communicating that vision is really what's going on.

15:15 – Gresham Harkless

Nice, yeah, I absolutely love that vision and communication. And I appreciate that definition. I appreciate your time even more. What I wanted to do is pass you the mic, so to speak, just to see if there's anything additional you can let our readers and listeners know. And of course, how best they can get an overview, get a copy of the book, and find out about all the awesome things you're working on.

15:30 – Ari Gunzburg

Awesome, Thank you. So first of all, I just want to say thank you to everybody. I appreciate also thank you for having me on the show. I really appreciate it. It's always a pleasure. And, you know, I do have this book out the Little Book of Greatness, it's I've got a very basic website up for it called, it's the URL is Little Book of Greatness calm. If you type in the little, the little book of greatness calm it will also get there on there. There's a link directly to go buy it or a link to download the first 2 chapters for free. You can definitely check out the book, you know, the people it's getting rave reviews, People enjoy it a lot. And you can check it and you can get in touch with me on our guns.com or find me on many of the socials. And again, thanks so much for having me.

16:09 – Gresham Harkless

No problem. Appreciate you having you on as well too. We have the links and information in the show notes as well. But thank you so much again. And I hope you have a phenomenal rest of the day.

16:17 – Outro

Thank you for listening to the I AM CEO Podcast powered by Blue 16 Media. Tune in next time and visit us at iamceo.co I AM CEO is not just a phrase, it's a community. Be sure to follow us on social media and subscribe to our podcast on iTunes Google Play and everywhere you listen to podcasts, SUBSCRIBE, and leave us a five-star rating grab CEO gear at www.ceogear.co. This has been the I AM CEO Podcast with Gresham Harkless. Thank you for listening.

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