In a world that is as chaotic as now, we long for a certain place to just stay still and find comfort. Bob Beaudine found that in God. In this episode, he joins host, Dan McCormick, to talk about how we can live a life that is guided by our relationship with God through his book, 2 Chairs. Believing that there is a limit to what we can do alone, Bob emphasizes the importance of resting all our troubles to God, allowing him to help us in each of our own journeys and face the challenges along the way—no matter how big or small. He also takes us to his journey of writing, sharing what it meant to him and what it could do to you. Bob then shares his other book, The Power of Who, where he talks about how networking is not working anymore and what you can do about it. As with the teachings of Og Mandino, we need to have order in life. Bob follows through with this teaching by discussing how God’s guidance can help us find order now more than ever in this episode. 

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Finding Order In Our Relationship With God With Bob Beaudine

My new friend, Bob Beaudine, is a father, I believe of three daughters, four grandkids. He’s the President of Eastman. He does a lot of work in the professional sports and entertainment arena. He’s also the author of two unbelievable books that we’re going to talk a lot about here. The one that I’ve been reading is called 2 Chairs. If you’re new to the show, you know that we’re live on Facebook. We’re also alive on YouTube, and then of course, TheGreatestSalesman.com, you’ll get the subsequent links. It’ll also be in blog form. You can also like it. You can share it. You can comment on it and we love your reviews as well. Welcome, Bob Beaudine. Thank you for making the time. How are you? 

Fantastic, Dan. Thank you for having me on your show. I appreciate it. 

We talk about you do and The Power of Who, your first book I believe, about the value of relationships, and for me to have Tom Chenault and his son, Adrian, is the first father–son combo on the show. He’s perking up, he’s in the room already for him to make this recommendation. At my first phone call to you and your energy coming through the phone, I just couldn’t wait to have you on the show. I know you’re busy and I want to thank you for making the time. I know you’re busy, but I wonder if we could start with three things that I love asking our guests each and every week from a value proposition. People are busy. Right at the outset of the show, Bob, all the accomplishments you have but what are the three things that shape your day or each and every aspect of your life? 

Those are simple for me. God, family, and the person right in front of you. I think it’s really why I spent a lot of time writing the two books I did and, and of course, Tom should all be in one of my great people and friends who I love. You have to start your day and have to have an order. I think that’s a lot of what I love about, Og Mandino and The Greatest Salesman ever is mainly on this basis that he has ordered. There are always steps, scrolls, things to do, people who are learning who are in sales, and people who are reading are trying to find in this crazy world we’re living in right now, order. It’s going to be very powerful for them. 

I think that you study the Bible and everything about that is ordered. I don’t know about you, but I think the most important trip I made in my life was my Israeli tour and to see everything about how it happened over there. That’s a great word. It’s one of the words that I respect. God, family, and the person in front of you. I heard something interesting from, I think it was Laird Hamilton’s wife, and she said she loves to be first every day at saying hello to the person in front of her, shaking the hand of the person in front of her. That’s a really interesting number three. No one’s ever mentioned that before. Tell me about how you like to interact with people when you see people for the first time. 

What’s hard in life is that I don’t think you have to live on the planet very long to find out that there’s lots of trouble and that we’re all touched by it. In the midst of a pandemic and all the things that are going on, all the uncertainty for a lot of people, fears, things, and loneliness. The first facet is you got to run first and talk to God. When you do, you can lay down you, that’s the goal of this. The exchange of having a chance to talk to God, word to word, sitting, actually talking. I have 2 Chairs. I’m sure we’ll talk about it, but doing it in a way where all of a sudden you can lay down you so that I can then do the next two pieces on mine. 

I spend time at 2 Chairs telling God, “I want you to protect my family. Are you looking out for my girls today? How are you watching, giving them insight, wisdom, power, favor, and peace that passes understanding in the midst of this?” We talk about that. It’s amazing as God’s got plans for you. The hard part for most people is that God speaks. Once you start to ask, He’s got a plan for your day. What is that plan? He’s got some people. He’s going to cross your path. The question will be, “Will you be ready?” Let’s say you and I are just caught up in our day, we don’t have time in the morning, we’re busy as everybody is, and we’re worried about our day. 

Here comes my first problem, I got some business and some executive search work that I’m doing. I got another problem that all of the sudden hits me all over here with one of my daughters, and then another thing comes, and boom. I can’t see anyone in front of me and then you’re here, telling me something, but I don’t hear you. I don’t see you. I’m not listening to you. As a result, I miss the opportunity. One of my favorite guys in the world was Zig Ziglar. He always was trying to remind, he lives in my neighborhood. Could you imagine that he lived in my neighborhood and I’m now like best friends with his son, Tom Ziglar. One of the things who you should have on yours, for sure. I’m going to try to I’m going to organize that for you because he’s just so amazing. 

One of the hard things is that if you would just help other people with their dreams, then your dreams come true. Og Mandino was so fantastic at being able to get into your life. These scrolls which we would talk about, how would I live today? This is a new day. Yesterday and tomorrow, irrelevant. Today’s the day. We have spoken about that for this is the day, rejoice, come on. Let’s go about our day. How could I rejoice in my day if I hadn’t laid down my trouble? A lot of people, what they do is talk. 

I placed coaches, I placed athletic directors, I placed presidents of teams and all this aspect in sports over the last 40 years. I had this coach called me. He goes, “Did you write a second book?” He said, “I just finished this 2 Chairs.” I go, “Yes.” He goes, “That could have helped me during my time, but I was in trouble at this one team.” He goes, “Bobby, let me just say, I love the book. I love your mom.” I wrote this through the lens of my mom. He says this, “I’ve been doing 22 years of quiet time with God. I just never knew I was the one who was supposed to be quiet.” Now, we are talking. 

To have something that you’re looking for, and then people come across your path and God will tell me sometimes, “Listen, I got somebody at 10:00. I need you to help.” I go, “Who is that?” He goes, “You’ll know.” What happens is people come across our paths for just a reason or a season of some trouble, and you and I can uplift them. We could help them and change the entire trajectory of their life. That’s what you and I were created to do. 

I got to tell you, it’s funny because I’ve got a library. I had to scrub my library because I have so many books on top of books. I just love the reading process. When you and I spoke, I had not crossed paths with you. It’s amazing. Here I am, in the middle of the self-help world and religious books and anything. I pick up your book and by the way, I’ve got people texting me copies of their book from my pre-promotion. I saw it on of my Facebook pages, and then I’ve got people texting me pictures of their 2 Chairs. How cool is that?  

The coolest thing. I get pictures from people all over the world showing me and saying to me, “Look at my chairs, look what’s happens,” then they have an experience. We want something actually to have an experience, especially young people. We’re stuck not going to churches. Sometimes still they’re not allowed to go. They only got 15%, 20% full. Wouldn’t it be amazing? Kids come to me sometimes say, “Mr. Beaudine, I just don’t go to church.” I go, “Do you own chairs?” They go, “Yes.” I go, “If there’s a 1% chance that God would meet you tomorrow, would you go?” “Sure.” I go, “Where have you been?”  

I said, “This is going to mind blow you because the guy who created the world knows your name, knows who you are, knows your telephone number, created a whole plan for you. You’re the apple of His eyes. He’s not mad at you. He made you. He made no mistakes. He’s not worried about where you have to go to church yet. He’s worried that you don’t know Him. You aren’t going to walk in this greatness, this aspect again and one of the scrolls that you’re a miracle. You have all these things that God’s got planned for you. It’s just ready and sitting. What I just need you not to do is worry about yesterday. Here we go. We got today.” 

One of my great mentors was a deep theologian. He said, God is in the details. He doesn’t answer casual questions when you get in that chair like you said, and to be present, to be ready to listen. I want to share with our readers. I don’t know who’s going to read. Whether they’re reading now, 6 weeks, 6 months, 6 years from now or whatever they pick up. I want them just to hear from you and your opening. “To all the moms who have guided the spiritual health of their families when no one else stepped up, and most especially mine, Martha Beaudine, I love you and miss you every day.” I love people that honor their parents. We can say that’s the only one of the ten commandments that have a promise. Honor our parents is such a beautiful thing. Thank you for doing that. 

You hit it on the head is that I will tell you all my success starts from that as the first foundation. They introduce you to God and then your mom and dad or somebody that needs to be honored. The more you can do it, the more you’re blessed. It’s ridiculously selfish. My dad passed away in 2000. It seems like it was 2 or 3 years ago. My mom passed away in 2005 but they’re still here with all their mentoring, all of their great thoughts, and all of their lines. It gives you such a chance. One of the great things about writing a book is being able to then actually pass on their wisdom to my kids, to my grandkids, to yours. 

Relationship With God: You don’t have to live on the planet very long to find out that there’s lots of trouble and that we’re all touched by it.

Great books are something that is crucial in life because everything that you want to know is already been written, probably. The question is, will you find it? My dad used to always say, “There’s not like gold hang top of the road here, Bob. You’re going to have to dig for it. You’re going to have to show me that you’re going to do it.” It’s again, Og Mandino, persist until you succeed. Some people are able to do that and they do it. Sometimes along the way we come to detours, we come to obstacles. When you come to a detour, sometimes the detour is fantastic. You’re going to stop and you’re going to learn something. You’re going to stop and you’re going to help someone. All of a sudden, you’re right back on the path again. I’ve got to go with the flow here. 

You said something about your parents and how we need to honor them, and there’ll be more blessings for that. I’m intrigued. I only was able to be with Stephen Covey a couple of times. My wife had him as a professor in college and he has this comment that he says, “When you’re raising your children, you’re raising your grandchildren.” I love that paradigm in that perspective and you just reinforced it. 

I think some parents along the way don’t understand. I’ll never forget. I did the Today Show and I was talking with Ann Curry at the end of the show. She was saying, “How do I get my son to love me and my husband as much as you love your mom and dad?” I said, “How old is your son?” He was seventeen at the time. I said, “Listen, he’s going to come. I’m not going to worry.” I always felt my dad was always one who wrote quotes to me, from books. He sent me something, and said, “This is who you are.” Even when you’re struggling and you’re going through it, which is all kids are going to have times and moments, but they’re coming back full. There you are back to Stephen Covey. We’re not only doing to them. They’re going to pass all this greatness to their kids. 

When I was reading your book, first of all, you had me at the opening thing when you honored your mom. I loved each and every chapter title. I love looking at chapter titles to see how they draw you in. When I was talking to you on the phone, you were so fired up about life. You’re in that chair that I call the Greatest Salesman in the World, but you put so much time and energy into this. You said you are your own editor. You are your own writer. You might have had help in the final print, typeset, and all that stuff. Correct me if I’m wrong, but you told me a story when we were on the phone and we were both so fired up, pumping each other up. We were selling each other the Kool-Aid, but I think you’ve told me a story of a lady that called once and said needed some astronomical numbers of the book. Would you tell that story? I just loved it. 

When I first started writing 2 Chairs, one of the great things about a fact of our relationship with God is that would it be logical that we’d have chairs in our house. One for you, one for God. You get one minute to talk. God gets four. Stop the concept that all of a sudden, it’s a one-way pray fest, and then I leave then I’m worried about it all day long. When I first sat with Him and I started to write, He said to me, “What would be unbelievable in the book? What is it that you’d want to happen from this book?” You got to understand that I’ve been doing 2 Chairs for 41 years.  

I jumped out of bed. The guy who created the whole world would meet with you. If I had Warren Buffett to come and talk to you, you’d be up. You would make them like, come over to you in your jammies. You’d be up having your Coffee-Mate. This isn’t time to do a devotional. We’re not vicariously living through someone else having a good conversation we’ve got. You’re having it. You’re not reading the Bible so I’m not reading Dan’s autobiography while I’m sitting, talking to you. I talked because He wants to talk to me and He has some things to share. All of those are good. “I want you to read the Bible more. I want you to do this.” Readings are unbelievable. 

He said, “What would you love?” I said, “The word that comes to my mind is a captive audience.” I said, “I’d love this book to be able to get into prisons, into the military, like in Afghanistan and various aspects of Syria. People who were in trouble, first responders, police, fireman, firewomen in some spot, and social workers. People who are been in spots or captive from abuse or something.” He goes, “I love that.” I could hear Him say that. I go, “Wow.” That was the end of that conversation. Six months later, the book in the first three months was a best seller. I can’t even begin that. I can’t write a memo. 

People don’t understand is that when you write, you do something, and where you are, God is downloading. I’m writing as fast as I can, but six months later, I got a call from a foundation like in Oregon and they say to me, “Is this Bob Beaudine?” I go, “Yes, indeed.” “We love your book.” I go, “Thanks.” “We’ve never loved one book, all thirteen of us.” She said, “I want to tell you, I love your mom.” If I will hear something, when people read this book and when you read it, you got to buckle up because I’m going to make you cry. This book is so honoring to moms but it’s honoring to every mom.  

You’ll see your mom. You’ll see the person who all of a sudden mentored you into all of a sudden, this opportunity, this gift that you get a chance to sit with the guy who created the whole world. He knows you and He digs you. He’s got your picture on His refrigerator. He’s got plans for you and they’re good. They have a future. Don’t worry where we are now. God has got something. People say to me all the time, “What is God going to say to me at 2 Chairs?” I didn’t write three chairs. I don’t get to go. You got to have your chair.  

I’m sitting there. She says to me, “What we do is we make your book and we do it into a paperback.” I said, “Wow.” She says, “We’re going to make this book so you can flip it right into your pocket. Also, you couldn’t cut yourself. It could go to prisons. It could get in and sits in backpacks for the military. It’s just easy for this to do.” She says, “We’re going to do that.” I go, “That’s unbelievable. Who do you go to? Who do you send your book out to?” “We have a private donor and you don’t meet us. You don’t meet the donor. Are you okay with that?” “Yes, sure.” She says, “We send it out to prisons, military, first responders, and social services.” “Of course, you do. You are a ninja.” He’s got plans that are so much bigger. I wish I could come up with it. Tom Chenault, we do these funny stories. How we could just think how great God could be, that’s bigger. I said, “What are you going to do?” Do you know that 94% of all authors, when they write a book, you only sell 5,000 copies and then you buy 3,500 on yourself? 

It’s very disappointing. I’m always trying to encourage people to write, but I’m praying the journey of writing has to the enjoyment and the victory for you. It’s not how many books are sold. I don’t control it. If now was the only time, and Dan, you read this, you were blessed, it changed your family, your time, and God Himself would tabernacle with you and your house from now. It would change and permeate the whole house and it would create a peace that passes all understanding. That would be worth it for me. I’m done. That would be unbelievable. I said, “Do you do like 5,000 books?” she goes, “Our opening thing is 265,000 books.” 

As they started that out, and that’s where all of a sudden now, you get letters from people at the prison. You get letters from people who were in China, various spots around the world. In some spots of the world, they talk about an experience with God that’s unbelievable. They want to know if I’ve had the same. I said, “I’d love to have that.” I only want to inspire someone. When I first wrote, God had me stop writing and He asked me this question, “You’re going to write this and I want you to tell me out loud that you’re going to tell every single person.” I’m telling every single person who’s reading.  

He says, “Do you believe that I’ll do my part and also meet every person?” I go, “You know I do.” He goes, “I just wanted you to say it because you’re going to have tons of people over and over.” I’m not that good a person. I’ve done a lot of things wrong. I said, “I understand.” When I was first looking for goals and dreams, and what do I do in times of trouble? How would I find a mate? I said to Him, “It’s my mom who was my spiritual person.” I was used to going to church as long as you’re done in twenty minutes, so you can watch the Chicago Bears. I don’t read the Bible. Father Mulcahy does that from the pulpit.  

My mom wanted personal. She said, “Those are really good questions, Bob. I don’t have the answer, but I know who does. I’m going to ask you three questions.” This is the whole premise of this book, which is so fantastic. She said, “Are you ready?” When I have people come to my office, big–time head coaches, CEOs, they’re all in trouble. We’re all in trouble. If you’re not in trouble reading, you will be. If it’s not you, it’s your family and we all need an answer to something to do. I’m telling you, I have this, it’s here. The guy who created the world wants to tell you and talk to you, and He’s got a plan, it’s good, and He’s not mad. I say to these people who I’m sitting with, “I’m going to ask you these three questions my mom asked me, so you can’t get mad at me. You’d have to get mad at my mom.” They immediately laugh. I hit them with this, “Does God know your situation?” They look at me like, “What?” I go, “Do you think God knows your situation?” It’s not only does He know, but He wants you to know He knows. 

The highest priority in a time of crisis is to get your mind above and the highest above us is God. It’s not like He’s working on six telephone lines for seven billion people. No, He knows you. He doesn’t work on just pandemics, ISIS, at heart attacks, natural disasters. He’s working on you in the detail. You just said He works on the details. I said, “Number two, is this too hard for Him to help you?” People have a thing and they go, “I don’t know. No, it’s not too hard for God.” I said, “It’s too hard for you.” The question is, “Does He have a good plan for you?” “Yes.” I said, “What is it?” “I don’t know, Bob.” Exactly, 2 Chairs and so we got to get down to it. It’s a 1% chance. I have people who turned to me and they don’t know whether they believe it or not. They’re seekers. They’re just atheists. It doesn’t matter to me when I’m talking to someone, the answer is, “Fantastic. I’m really glad you’re transparent.”  

Here’s the thing, “If there’s a 1% chance that He meets you, what’d you go?” “Sure.” Everyone. “I thought you said you didn’t believe.” They do, and God shows up, and then they call me back to hear the stories of people. I’ve never had one person ever tell me that God didn’t meet them. There’s a lot of times people think they can’t necessarily hear, but then they tell me what they heard. If you went 50–some years of your life and you have never spent time talking to God or believing He talks back to you, the enemy doesn’t want you actually to know you have a relationship that you’re the son of the King or a daughter of the King. 

This is a fantastic thing. Get ready. It’s just so obvious. In the midst of a pandemic, everyone does it. Two chairs are the answer now. If we can do church at our house early in the morning, first thing. Someone said to me, “I’d like to do it at like 8:00, 9:00 at night.” You could, He’ll meet you. Here’s my thing, what if He had something for you at 9:00 AM that was going to be a blessing to you? Would you not be there on time? That’s why He said seek me first. What is the promise? All these other things are added to you. It’s a really good thing. 

2 Chairs: The Secret That Changes Everything

It’s just great to listen to you go because I know you know your stuff and you have your faith and your belief. It’s easy to talk when it’s genuinely how you live. It’s a process of passion. You have written two classics, plus your workbook. What was interesting about that last bit you were sharing about moms, think about the great example of moms. Abraham Lincoln, his mom gave him the Bible. He loved it. Og Mandino loved to write and his mom would courage him to write. What did he write about? Faith promoting stories that help you and I have a philosophy for life and a rhythm to life. He didn’t ask us just to read the scroll once a day, either. He asked us to read the scroll morning, noon, and night. I love how you tied this in. I got to tell you, when I was reading this, I felt a little bit like this. I don’t know how you feel about that. When I first read that, I thought, “Where have I been? How did I miss this one?” You wrote this in 2016, I believe. 

End of ‘16. What’s crazy is that all of what I did was to try to get you to live a better life now. We gave you some tactical things and stories that again, our lives are stories. Every single day, you’re part of a movie script. That’s why I love it when people say to me their script isn’t going the way they want to. My point is, God said one thing in the Bible so fantastic that everything is subject to change. When you think somebody can’t get over alcohol, know they can. When you think they can’t get out of this problem, listen to me, my life quote is in John 16:33. This is business to me. I’m a recruiter. Why would I work on a book on this?  

The answer is that in this world, you will have trouble. Be a good cheer. How could you have good cheer? The way you would know that God would trust you and that you could trust Him is that after you leave the chairs, you’d be cheerful for the day. Why? He’s going to do it. You trust him. The hard part of this that there has to be a good, there has to be something that you know, and we all know this is something so fantastic. Here’s the good news, it’s going to work out fantastic for you. God’s got a plan. What is it? I don’t know. He wants to tell you. He’s got a secret just for you. To those reading, you are a treasure chest of gifts and talents. You do one thing better than anyone in the whole world and God wants to show it.  

Our jobs as friends, the who, because I would have called my book, The Power of Friendship but we got 5,000 people on Facebook that are our best friends. These are your who that God gave you, which is such a compliment because He could have given Jesus 12 friends, 3 close, 1 best, and not given you that. What we do know how hard it is to get friends but your friends are supposed to be doing this with you. They’re supposed to be lifting you up, finding that one gift that you do, that one thing better than anyone in the world, and then be saying to you, “You’re fantastic at that.” That’s what we should do. 

When Don saw me go live earlier, he reached out to me and shared some personal things. We’ve been friends for years. He’s a good man. He teaches Sunday school at his church. The first person he shared with told me she doesn’t believe anymore. I told her that He never left her. Try it. She read the whole book in one sitting and said she felt like the Holy Spirit was drawing her to try it. What an inspiration, Bob, that’s a testimonial. 

I’ll tell you the whole aspect of this is so far above my pay grade. God does things and He had each been wanting to get to have conversations with people where He talks to them and tells them how big an impact they can have on the world around them. Of course, this ties totally what Og Mandino said. Constantly, every single one of the things that your life was going to have a 100–fold return, not this 30, 60. You have a choice here, there’s more to it. Everything that He‘s doing, all of how He does it, and that there’s the difference is His tenth aspect of His order might just be my first and I don’t think He put it in any order. I think He just wanted you to know these ten things that were so important for your life. It’s one of my favorite reads. I read it every single year, no matter what. I have the scrolls though, specifically out and imprinted in my journal, so when I go into my journal, I got the twelve that are there. It’s just fantastic. 

You’re a first–timer here. I’ve got to figure out how we’re going to make these available to our readers because they ask. I’ve got the cardstock scrolls all laid out here that you can touch them. Do you know how you love to touch your book, dog ear it, highlight it? You like to hold them and touch them. We got so much more to talk about. I hope we can get through this. My producer’s going to kill me here. He’s the author of 2 Chairs. He’s the President of Eastman. He’s heavily involved in the sports entertainment world. He’s an Executive Search Recruiter. He’s just an amazing friend to a lot of people, a reference from Tom.  

If you’re new with us and you have not taken our assessment, I want to just encourage everybody to find out if your life is aligned with those things that Bob is teaching in his writings and Og was teaching in his writings. You can just simply go to HabitFinder.com/Podcast and take an assessment using the Science of Axiology. Find out if your thoughts are aligned with your actions. You’ll see immediately on our free assessment. 

I get a chance to give that commercial out because Bob, you’re going to encourage people to get in front of the 2 Chairs, Og was going to encourage people to read The Ten Ancient Scrolls, Ben Franklin was going to encourage us to read the thirteen virtues. We’ve got the original text here, we’ve got the Bible. You mentioned 16:33 in John, so if I said to you, is that your go-to scripture? Is that your protection scripture? If I said give me a favorite scripture, what would you say? 

One of the things I love is Psalm 37:23. “The steps of a good man are ordered.” Many people are worried they’re not going to get on their plan. The answer is no, they’re ordered. That’s why, again, you just finished talking about these orders of ten scrolls, of the Ten Commandments, of making lists each day about what you’re going to do for your day. I always tell people, you can’t get what you can’t see so let’s put it up on the board. Let’s look at what you want to do and let’s start to make a plan. Let’s look at your who, how we could get something, and let’s have a plan. 

When I say to someone, so when they call and they say, “I’m looking for a job in sports.” I say, “What do you want to be, like a referee?” They’re like “No.” I had to be specific. Who are the three people that you want to know and who are the three people that you know who know that person? How would we get into something? When people are looking now for jobs, they’re missing some facet of a mark on the aspect because they don’t have lists. The answer is your goals, your aspects, the whole piece of doing. When I first started to find Og Mandino, it was back in the late ‘70s when I was starting to start investing in myself. 

One of the things, my dad was a big reader and he always told me, “Readers are leaders.” The best way you could give yourself a gift is to start investing, learning, reading, and start to do things in your life. I started going to Dale Carnegie. Even during that time, Dale Carnegie was like a monster, Og Mandino and then of course, Zig Ziglar courses and all the things. There’s an aspect of a quote that Og Mandino said that I loved. “Every defeat, every heartbreak, every possible loss contains in its own scene, its own lesson and on really how you could improve your performance the next time.” That goes within this world, you’re going to have trouble. The answer is, but to be good cheer that trouble is an opportunity in disguise. 

Even in the pandemic, this has been an unbelievable opportunity to reconnect with your family. It’s been an opportunity for you to create new jobs and new opportunities. Eighty percent of the new business that I’m doing are new jobs. New work for people. You’ve been doing a job that you hate with people you don’t like. You should be doing you love, with people you love and a place you love, or your family loves, and you get to do it for the right reasons. You shouldn’t ding out on those, but how can I help you? It’s the old Jerry Maguire, how would I help you if you couldn’t tell me what it is you want and how would your friends help you if you didn’t tell them? We never do that. We just go out to a bunch of strangers and of course, that’s the whole reason why I wrote The Power of Who. 

That was what I was going to have Miriam do next is put a put Tom’s comment. What’s crazy about this is not only is he connected to God, but he taught me more about connecting with people than any other human being that I’ve ever known. I would love to talk about The Power of Who so many of our entrepreneurs and the greatest salespeople that have sat in that chair. Now, this is episode number 26, Bob. Thank you for making it possible on behalf of the Og Mandino company and what we do. Interestingly, he says that here because The Power of Who, what a title, and you reference it in the second book as well, 2 Chairs. I look at my life, I sponsored one lady in my business that made me over $5 million. You never know one phone call or the power of who, is out there. How did you come up with that idea for the first book, and give people an idea because to me, that’s a network marketing phenomenon? Everyone needs to read it. 

In executive search, one of the things that most people do is that I get 52,000 resumes a year, “Dear sir, to whom it may concern,” Dear recruiter, that’s an oxymoron. The problem is that they didn’t have a plan and they were going out. The reason they would go out is when you have a goal or a dream of something you’re going to do, you don’t want to lose the job you got or how would I go over to get any of that. We’ve been taught at college, in meetings and stuff, a thing that is their go-to thing. It was called networking, which was not working. Going up to a bunch of people you don’t know, sending out stuff and handing out business cards to strangers like their mints, and then, of course, they throw them away because they don’t know you. 

Relationship With God: Good cheer is in the way you know that God trusts you and that you could trust Him.

We’ve been taught all our lives that friends in business are taboo. Let me get this correct, we’re supposed to work with a bunch of people we don’t know and don’t trust. We were always told that our family and our friends, our close people would not be a resource or a conduit to your success. Come on, seriously. If you have 100 friends and I have 100 friends, we don’t have 200 and we have 10,000, your friends have friends. You don’t have 100 friends, but if you’re at 50, you’d have 2,500. Your grandfather told you that if you had one friend, you were blessed. If you had three, rich. If you had twelve, change the world. The issue is that you already know everyone you need to know. How? I didn’t say for what you need in the future, for right now. The people who are your friends are allies. They want to help you. If you just go to them and tell them specifically what it is you want, it doesn’t matter what category. If you and I are friends and I asked you for help, would you help me? 

In a minute. 

Why would you deny me the same joy of helping you? That’s what people do. We don’t see our friends. I was doing a BBC thing one time and the woman says, “Bob, what if all your friends are like losers?” Come on, Mary. I said, “Your friends, you have no idea where they are, or their brother or their sister who runs the CEO of the company.” One of the things I can prove to you over life is that God gave you specific people to help you in ways you never imagined. What if those people weren’t happenstance acquaintances? What if they were strategically given to you to help you find that place in life you always dreamed about? What if they were missing destiny? What if finding our next job or helping our mom get into a hospital is not about who we don’t know, but whom we’ve neglected, our friend? I played this game, and so we do this all the time. Tom and I, we just love this game. I do it with Adrian. I do it with people all over the country, as I speak everywhere. It’s called the text message game. I can go out to the crowd. I say, “Who’s your best friend.” They say “Bill.” I say, “Is Bill living in your town?” “No.” “Who’s your best friend in your town?” 

Now they’re struggling because men over the age of 35 stop adding new friends. They’re friendly but don’t have friends. Men over 60 give up their old friends and their new friends, and they focus on their family. Not because they want to, but because it’s all of a sudden just where they are, and it’s a big mistake. Your friends, whether you’ve talked to them in a long time, once someone’s taken a place in your heart, they never leave. All of a sudden, I call you and you go, “Bob, where have you been? I missed you,” and then, your right back all of a sudden you talk, you’re friends. I do this game where we send out a text message to our friends and we do it individually, so it’s not like a group message.  

I tell you what you can say and I say these three most affirming things. I write them out for people. The line that we do is, “Hey, I was just thinking about you. I wanted to tell you how much I appreciate your friendship. I love you.” I’ve done this with every football team in the country. It doesn’t matter. I tell people all the time. I had one–time Urban Meyer in Ohio State. I said, “Send it to your wife.” He says, “My wife’s going to say, I love you.” I said, “Here’s the news, 94% of your mates are going to come back and say, ‘Did you mean this for me?’” 

Why? It’s because the people you love don’t understand the word friendship. The people, your friends, don’t understand the word love. When you send it to your buddy, they’re going to say, “Are you drunk?” They’re going to say, “Are you okay? What’s the matter?” The answer is that, “What are you talking about?” There are 180 words in the Greek language for love, we have one. I love my wife. I love tacos. When you send the message to your friends, they are going to come back and say something sarcastic and then you say, “No, I meant this for you.” 

We have three responses. You can’t change my words because you can’t say, “Hey dude, hey bro.” No. Just say, “Hey, I was just thinking about you.” I’ve been lying to say, “Mr. Beaudine, I would never say the word, hey.” “Don’t worry, they’re not going to see that. I’m just proving a point.” They come back and then they say something again sarcastic. You say, “No, I meant this for you. I love you.” Guess what happens? Some people say, “Oh my gosh, thank you. That was so fantastic. I appreciate it.” They give you a heart, but they didn’t say the L-word, did they? That’s our problem. One of Og Mandino’s thing is love. It is the dominant force. You know it when it enters the room and so you can’t get away from this and people have a thing. When you say it, “I love you,” and now when they come back and they give you the other I say right out, “Where’s the love?”  

Now what happens, everybody all of a sudden starts sending you love letters. I had a guy and all of a sudden, his mom was dying. She had six months to live and all of a sudden. He sends it and she comes back, “Oh my gosh, son. I’m looking out the hospital window and you sent this.” She said, “If I could tell you how much I love you from the highest mountain in Switzerland, I love you. Echo.” He sits down and cries. A week later, he sends me a note on Facebook. He says, “My mom passed away today. What if I hadn’t sent the text?”  

What good is it that you love someone and they don’t know it? People will send it to their mom or dad, and I say, “Listen, send it to your kids.” As soon as they get over 15, 16, if you are not their friend and their dad, then they won’t call you if they’re in trouble. They’ll think, “I don’t want to disappoint you, but there’s no greater love than the lay your life down for a friend.” God created that love, that friendship was the highest. Otherwise, people who are all of a sudden widows or widowers or single people could not get the greater love. You and I were created for friends.  

My wife is my best friend. I’ve been married now for many years. I’m more in love with my wife now than I was when I first met her. Why? Friendship, deep and knowing and that’s what everyone wants at a time like this. That’s why my dad and I were best friends, not just something. My mom and I are best friends. Everywhere I go, I’m always trying to remind people that God calls you His friend. That’s why it’s so good to sit with Him in the morning and people say, “What is it?” “Good morning. I am a mess. Everything seems to be going wrong and I got this,” and then I finish it. He goes and then all of a sudden, boom.  

People ask me all the time, “How did you come up with your text message game?” You wouldn’t believe the responses. I did 5,000 women for the governor of Texas and his wife and the reason, so she has all these unbelievable women as speakers, Pulitzer prize winners, Rachael Ray, the is a great chef that has her own TV show, all these people. They invited me just because of the text message. I only had fifteen minutes to do this thing but there were 2,000 people wanting to come up to the microphone to say that they were affirmed and that someone told them they loved them.  

In a pandemic, we have to tell those we know around us. We have to lay hands on our kids, “I am proud of you and I love you. I give you the father’s blessing, give you the mother’s blessing.” They walk into their calling. That’s what we are supposed to do. We’re supposed to pray with our friends. A friend is different than an acquaintance. That’s why I wrote this book. A friend helps you now, and an acquaintance wishes you well. A friend is someone who knows the song in your heart and they can sing it back to you when you have forgotten the words. Friends are just secret keepers. They chip away. They’re just unbelievable. I can’t sit with you on this thing along and not see how you would have just so many great friends. 

I’m having a blast. I love Dominic’s comment. He’s talking what you’re talking, scroll number two. “I will greet this day with love in my heart. Muscle can split a shield and even destroy light, but only the unseen power of love can open the hearts of men. Until I master this art, I remain no more than a pet there in the marketplace.” This is just so awesome that you would make the time because I know you love people this much and you believe as I believe that your book is inspired by you and God to help more people. I know that we have people reading. I know some of my dearest friends.  

One had a brain tumor and we were able to give her a blessing years ago. She’s one of the great producers in the world. I see friends here that are just unbelievable producers in the world of direct selling network marketing in their own communities, entrepreneurs. I pulled up a text that I got because of what you just said. This is a friend of mine that is the CFO of a major publicly–traded company and we were chitchatting about what he taught me a little concept about 2012. In our family, we all select a word for the year and I was at his house for a New Year’s party. I opened his cupboard to get a glass at the party and there was a printed-out crossword puzzle of the whole family that picked their word because they were in Dubai. There were Christmas presents under the tree and so they thought, “Let’s just have a game and we’ll pick a word.” He re-texted the puzzle and he closed the text by saying this, Bob, “Love you, Dan.” 

Most people just can’t fathom that some friend of theirs is going to come back and say, “I love you, Dan.” That’s what we were created to do. There are 180 words in Greek. People, I do not have one client of mine in the NFL and Major League Baseball and any aspect of MLS soccer or horse racing or any aspect of any field that if I work with them, that they don’t say, “Hey, Bob, I just wanted to tell you, I love you.” I have people say, “How can you say that to another person who’s a woman?” Of course, because they know the difference of what I’m talking about, having read The Power Who, what that is. Love is just overriding but it’s a whole lot better than like. The problems that we have is that we’re just not telling. Seventy percent of men who are reading never had their dads say, “I love you.”  

It’s not because they didn’t love him. It’s because their dad didn’t do it to them and so they just lived in this zone. My dad just wasn’t one of those. My dad’s a big hugger. I’m a big hugger. The answer is that you got to tell people how much they mean to you. You got to be able to tell your kids that you’re proud of them. We’ve got to take on a different tack in a time like this because the one thing that rides everybody above all of it is that God’s in control. He’s got your back. Hang in here. I got you. I got your fam. The big news here is that you’re going to do something great in the future and that starts when? Now. Go tell people you love them, and of course, that’s a game–changer. 

The Power of Who: You Already Know Everyone You Need to Know

There’s so much more we could talk about, but we got to close here sooner than later. I want to ask you one question. My word for 2021, and I just start picking it up everywhere in the Bible. Every inspired writing you see it. You say on page fifteen of your book, 2 Chairs, question number one, does God know your situation? Yes, and then you say, “For some reason, when problems arise, we have a tendency not to ask.” My word for 2021 is to do what our good friend in the Prayer of Jabez says, “Ask for more opportunities.” I’m just in my two chairs and I have this game that I play. I play the game if I’m driving down the road, I hit the contact file and I say, “Who needs a phone call today?” Up comes this beautiful man in our community with a lovely wife and kids that have all struggled with drug problems. He had COVID-19 and was at a near–death moment.  

My wife and I took them dinner one night, leave it on the counter, on the deck there and they could get it so we don’t have to encounter the COVID-19 situation. I called him out of the blue to just follow up and he didn’t answer. I just left that message, “I love you. I’m thinking about you.” You could just feel the tenderness of his heart in his response to just be in the path of another that may be is at a different place in you. I asked for that opportunity. Let’s just talk about that one word and close it because I’ll ask everybody right now, don’t buy a copy of 2 Chairs. Buy ten copies because you’re going to need them as you meet people and look for people along the path. Maybe just touch on that word ask. We have to ask for the opportunity. One of my mentors says, “We must request the opportunity.” 

It’s such a good point. God started it and He said, “Ask, seek, and knock.” If you ask me, here I am, you’re going to find me here. I’ll help you. I got this. Our friends, the people you were given in life. What happens sometimes and this whole networking aspect of the world, one of the things The Power of Who did so good for network marketing, we gave you permission to talk to your friends rather than a bunch of strangers who will walk in. If I go into a meeting, into a spot, I find the one great friend that I have there and then we stand together and everybody comes up to us. Slowly, he knows one, he’s introducing me and we’re doing this.  

One of the things I always loved about Adrian and Tom is that they came up with this thing called contact mapping where they had a way to remember their friends. You should have a system that you’re doing. If you haven’t done that, they should look for contact mapping and all of a sudden do that because it’s such an amazing aspect, asking your friends for help. There are two parts of our brain that drop endorphins and make us euphorically happy. The two parts are not positioned in power and money. They are what? Gratitude and giving. When you don’t ask me for help, you’re stopping my buzz. I don’t get to tell my daughters that I helped Dan. I did this. Why would you not do that? I’m your friend. If I’m your friend, you’re going to go out like all of a sudden, It’s A Wonderful Life and you’re George Bailey and you’re not going to ask your friends for help?  

No. George ended up finding that he was the richest man in town. What? Rich with friends. In life, if you have one, you’re doing good. Just make sure that those people who have helped you now, send them the text message. Tell them you love them, and then build your group. If you had two people who were out of a job now, we could create a little hoop group, put all our things up, and my first thing is, “I’m going to help you get a job. Everyone I know I’m going to help you do.” If Tom calls me and says, “Hey, would you be on The Answer’s?” Yes. All of our friends, we were created to help our friends. There’s no greater joy than for me. 

I’m not interested in Bob Beaudine. I’m interested in you. It’s the person in front of me. I have no interest. I have none of that anymore. The whole point is that God, for us to showcase all the great things, all we have to do is ask our friends. Let’s start. First, help somebody. Go out and be a blessing now. How hard is that smile? Once you do that and you start to introduce, I love to introduce my daughters lavishly, so far over the top so that when someone walks up, I go, “Have you met Alison or Jenny? Rachel?” I put my arm around them. I say, “This is my prize.” She is the most outgoing, she’s the most this. She’s talented. She’s done this.  

What happens is everyone in the room all of a sudden rises up. Instead of just keeping your child behind you over there and separate, the answer is no. Let’s not do that. You can’t say you’re the greatest salesman if you’re not actually because the real aspect that Og did that changed that whole side, the greatest salesman of the people love people and they do it so genuinely. I’m so honored to be on a show that does something and this whole aspect of Og Mandino. If you haven’t read that book or one of his 52 books he’s written. You can stop and say, “This is going to be a good year ahead.” Read Og Mandino, and so it will be a big blessing. 

Relationship With God: What would be of good cheer if trouble is an opportunity in disguise?

There is so much more we could do and say, but your contribution to the audience is amazing. I hope that people will leave a review on the show sides. I hope they’ll like the page, follow the page every week, we try to bring you just the greatest people in the world that are genuine, authentic, amazing people. I’m just so glad that Tom said, “Do you know Bob Beaudine?” I said, “No.” He said, “You guys are like two peas in a pod.” That’s the game works, isn’t it? 

It is all again, The Power of Who. It’s the triangle. All we had is Tom and I are, we just think alike, we do it. Tom, of course, any friend of his is going to be a friend of mine. The answer is that’s when all of a sudden says it. You don’t always have to know it. As you said, you couldn’t believe one of your people gave you like $5 million, etc. The greatest person in my businesses, it’s not someone in pro sports and all this. It was my golf pro. Why? People would work out with them and they’re hitting shanks. They’re getting lousy shots. “What’s the matter?” “I lost my Chief Financial Officer,” and they go, “You need to know my friend, Bob Beaudine. He’s the greatest executive recruiter in the country.” All of a sudden, he’s given me like $3 million worth of business. Who could explain any of that? Friends get you jobs. Friends help you introduce you to things you could never imagine. Don’t underestimate those. 

Thank you, Bob. I know your time is so valuable. Your contribution to the world is off the charts. It’s evident in the things. Here are our guests from last week, Rick Riordan, one of the greatest salespeople in the world, one of the great friends I have. Donna, thank you, Troy, so much great stuff from Troy, Dominic, and Jeff, and so many incredible comments. It is truly an honor. 2021 is right in front of us. I know Bob’s going to be out there trying. I’m going to be trying, we’re going to get the text thing going and I love you all. I love you for being here and thank you so very much. God bless everybody. Make this the greatest day of your life. He’s Bob Beaudine and the author of 2 Chairs, The Power of Who from Plano, Texas. Have the greatest day of your life.  

 Important Links:

• Bob Beaudine 
• 2 Chairs 
• The Power of Who 
• Tom Chenault – Past episode 
• The Greatest Salesman 
• HabitFinder.com/Podcast 
• The Ten Ancient Scrolls 

About Bob Beaudine

Bob Beaudine is the President and CEO of Eastman & Beaudine, a role he has held since 1990. Under Bob’s leadership, Eastman & Beaudine blossomed into one of the nation’s leading executive search firms in professional/college sports and entertainment. The Wall Street Journal named Eastman & Beaudine the “top recruiting firm in college sports,” and Sports Illustrated named Bob the “top front-office matchmaker in sports” as well as the “most influential man in sports you’ve never heard of.” These accolades come as a result of Bob helping to shape the leadership teams of NBA, MLB, NFL, and NHL franchises and league offices, in addition to university athletic departments across the nation. Bob’s experience also extends to the PGA Tour, USTA, PBR, U.S. Olympics, NASCAR, UFC, and sports-related non-profits among others. Eastman & Beaudine is also home to an extensive corporate search and management consulting practice with dozens of Fortune 500 companies in its client history. Bob was named one of North America’s Top Executive Recruiters in The New Career Makers, and Eastman & Beaudine was honored as a member of the elite “Top 50” executive search firms by the industry’s Executive Recruiter News.

Bob is also the bestselling author of The Power of WHO! as well as The Power of WHO! Workbook, and 2 Chairs. Bob is a frequent speaker at corporations, conventions, universities, conferences, and workshops. He headlined the Texas Conference for Women, at the invitation of the First Lady of Texas, as well as the Sports Business Journal Motorsports Marketing Forum, and has spoken at AIG, Exxon-Mobile, Nike, Cessna, MSG Sports, La Madeleine, Sabre, Learfield, and dozens of other major corporations. Bob regularly speaks at NACDA, Women Leaders in College Sports, and the American Football Coaches Association, among many others. Furthermore, Bob has brought his WHOniversity program to over 30 colleges and universities across the country. He has appeared on The Today Show, Fox Business Network, Canada’s Business News Network, ABC Good Morning Texas, Fox Good Day, CBN News, and on CNBC as an expert on pro and college sports.

Bob’s leadership extends into the community. He formerly served on the Board of Directors of the Texas Rangers during their run as back-to-back American League Champions and is currently on the Advisory Board of Directors for the Positive Coaching Alliance, the College Football Assistance Fund, and the Cox School of Business at SMU, his alma mater. He is the former Chairman of the Doak Walker National Running Back Award and an alumnus of Leadership Dallas and Leadership Plano. Bob and his wife, Cheryl, have been married over three decades and have three grown daughters and three grandchildren.