Most of our life is spent in preparation for the next wave of growth that’s going to come for our life or our journey. For former professional bodybuilder and million-dollar earner in network marketing, Freddy Elias, personal growth didn’t come until he was 26 when he was introduced to the teachings of Zig Ziglar. From bodybuilder and nutrition store owner, he’s now helping network marketers build their dream lives. He sits down with Dan McCormick to share his personal growth journey, his realization of spending more time to work on himself, and how The Greatest Salesman in the World changed his life.

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The Journey To Personal Growth with Freddy Elias

My guest is a friend that whenever the phone rings and I see this name, it is a jolt to my adrenaline. He is my good friend from Tennessee, Freddy Elias. How are you?

I am excited. I’ve been pumped like I’m getting ready to play a football game. I’m pumped, jacked and wired. My wife’s like, “Bring it down.” I’m thrilled to be here with you.

We’re excited to have you. Before we get into our relationship and dive into The Greatest Salesman, what I love to do at the outset for all of our guests, I love to add a value proposition to our audience that comes on right away and say, from the Freddy Elias paradigm, what are the three things that shape your life or each and every day that you live?

The first to say is God in my life. I’ll be honest with you, we go in phases no matter how much money I’ve made or how much I didn’t have and God is always strong. What makes you happier than that? That has been the foundation for my family early on. My family has been important to me. Also, I include family as lots of people that have come into my life, great friends and great mentors like you. That’s been an integral part of my life. The next thing I’d say is my work ethic because I do take pride in my work ethic. I would always say, whether that be in a gym or business, that nobody could outwork me. I always knew that if I worked hard, I will beat 90% of the people. I could at least work hard and give it my all and being persistent and consistent every day at whatever that is that I do.

The last thing, which is important to me and this probably came later, was that I had to keep working on me to constantly get better and never-ending improvement. Some great guy who has been one of the greatest mentors of my life said to me a long time ago, “Work harder on you than you do your business,” and that was you. If you remember you saying that to me. I know you said that to many, but now I’ve gotten so much. I’ve been blessed. I can’t believe my gratitude is as high as ever but I have to continue to get better because the bottom line is I have to pay it forward to thousands of people. That is what fulfills my heart.

Genetically speaking, you are gifted in some way, shape, or form because no matter how much weight I put on the bar, I wouldn’t have been able to compete with you in a bodybuilding contest. I wonder, where do you think that work ethic came from? Where did the drive come from for you as I look at your list of three things here? There are a lot of people that can sprint 40 yards, but you’ve been at the game and the craft of making you better for a lot of years now.

The drive for me started at home. My mother was amazing. You don’t realize how much you appreciate your parents until you get a little bit older. I always loved my mom and dad. They were amazing people in my life. I was 21 and I realized how great my parents were. They worked hard. I didn’t grow up with much. It sounds crazy but there were five of us in the family. We lived in one room and we had a bathroom. It was 300 square feet. That’s where I lived. My parents worked hard every day and I learned that great work ethic from them. I’m driven and I never wanted anybody to outwork me whether that be on the football field or in the gym. I would fight to the death.

The Greatest Salesman in the World

In my bodybuilding career, I was a light heavyweight national competitor. In order to be the best, I had to show up at the gym every day. I had to do the repetitions, train hard and eat right. I was not going to let anybody outwork me no matter who my partners were or who I was competing against. That’s one thing I could control. It’s my consistency on a daily basis and my work ethic and then I transitioned that into the business.

What’s exciting for those that are coming in, you can see many of your friends, your teammates and your wife commenting and talking about how much you love people. I know you love people. When you and I get on the phone, volumes can get escalated. We’re like selling each other on how great life and the contribution we can make. If you are new to the show, sitting in the chair is Freddy Elias. If you’re new to us and you have never been here before. You can find him on Facebook, Freddy Elias. You can message him and add him as a friend. You’ll want to do that. Contact him. He’s a mentor, a friend, and a great leader to many people. We’ve already covered some real nuggets for people. This has struck a chord for people. The fact that you were impacted that much by that comment that says, “Work harder on you than you do on your business.” What does that mean? How does that resonate with you? Maybe some ideas can spill out for all those that are reading because I’m finding that to be an interesting paradigm.

I did not know personal growth until I was 26. I will go back to the foundation of my family and my parents. My mom was always a positive upbeat person. My mother would always say to me, “If you have nothing good to say, do not say it.” That’s in the scrolls. She was upbeat positive, no matter what. I learned that foundation but then I met this guy who was a friend of us, Randy. We were helping him out. My wife and I took him shopping because he had no style whatsoever. We were at a mall in Moline, Illinois.

He said, “Let’s go into this bookstore. I want to show you something.” We went to the business area and he pulled out this tape, back then there were cassette tapes. He said, “Have you ever heard of Zig Ziglar?” I go, “No, I have never heard of Zig Ziglar.” He goes, “I’m going to buy this for you and I want you to listen to this every day.” I said okay and I listened to it every day. I caught fire for Zig for personal growth, to feed my mind every day the right things, to get my attitude up to altitude because you have to be able to work on you. I teach an hour of power to my people and twenty minutes a day to work on your spiritual life.

Twenty minutes a day to work on your mindset, to feed the brain the right thing. A lot of people, especially in this world we’re in and this craziness is negative. When you’re feeding your brain negative, usually negatives constantly happen. You’re manifesting negative thoughts. You got to feed the mind every day to get your mind right, to get your attitude up to altitude so you can produce a great day. I always say this to my people, “Get better every day because it is our responsibility to make a difference for other people.” We got to show them the way. We got to get them to see the bigger picture of life. The other twenty minutes is we do some exercise. Maybe it’s yoga or we go for a walk. Take an hour to spend on your day.

When you are working on your mindset everyday and your personal growth, what happens over time? You taught me that it is important to work on me. When you do that every day, over time, it compounds and it grows exponentially in the sense that you start saying things. Sometimes I’d catch myself go, “Did I say that?” I know that those are the things that people have to do to become the best they can be. It is about being the best you can ever be. That’s what keeps me driving. That’s the thing that people can do to get past where they’re at.

I love it because what I sense and what I feel, what your friend’s, wife’s, kid’s comments are and everybody’s feeling is this genuine, authentic you. To be committed to that twenty minutes and not let mind over matters ever win, to not let the world win, you’ve got to start off like that. You got to be sharp every day. You can’t let your guard down. I’m going to ask you follow-up questions, but before I do, anyone that’s new to us and you have not read this, our sponsor for the show is the Og Mandino Company and our free gift to you that has a $99 value. It’s called the Habit Finder gift.

Go to HabitFinder.com/actnow and you can measure your thoughts and see if they’re aligned with the genuine, authentic principles that Og is teaching in The Greatest Salesman in the World like Freddy has described to you. Freddy, take us now to where were you when you were given the challenge in life? The book can be read in 90 minutes, but the journey is a lifetime. Where were you when you first got the book? I’m guessing it was our friend, Randy, who you said didn’t have any style. He thought he had style.

He was a unique individual and a great person. I bought it at a mall in Peoria at a bookstore. You were on stage and you talked about different books, Think and Grow Rich. You said this was one of your favorite books ever, The Greatest Salesman in the World. We got it and I started reading it, and then my wife fell in love with it too. My wife has read every odd book out there. What’s interesting is it 100% changed my life. I always tell people, “This is not a book about being a great salesperson. This is a book about becoming a great person, about having love in your heart.”

It is such an easy read. The scrolls are simple, quick and easy, but it is so challenging to read this because it is about being consistent, morning, noon and night to read the scroll out loud. Sometimes it’s hard to stay in the course. When you start reading the scrolls, it embeds into your brain, and then it goes from your brain to your heart. It teaches you so much. I’ve got some favorite scrolls. I don’t know if you’re going to ask me that.

That’s the follow-up question because we all find things that are pertinent to our own lives. I’m wondering which one jumps off the page for you?

What jumps off the page for me everyday is the Scroll Marked II, “I will greet this day with love in my heart.” That’s been a natural one for me. It certainly does wake you up even more and makes you more conscious about loving, about love and about doing the right things every day. I can say this, I’m good at what I do. I’m not the smartest. I got a 1.7 GPA. It took me five years to graduate high school. I know you got through college in three weeks or whatever, but the bottom line is that wasn’t my thing but I love people. When I share things with people, it’s not for my benefit, it’s for their benefit. The bottom line is when I look at people and I meet people, I do it every time. I look them in the eyes and shake their hand and I say to myself, “I love you.” They can see that in my eyes.

That’s my favorite but I got to say, Scroll III is amazing, “I will persist until I succeed.” It’s interesting, especially maybe the younger people because they want everything now. If you’re starting your business or whatever you’re doing, it takes time. It’s about consistency every day. I’m going to bring it to an analogy here, but one day at a time. I set goals, but I focus on my daily activity goals of what I got to do every day to make things happen, who I’m going to be in touch with, who I’m going to inspire. You do it one day at a time and you take it in steps.

Here’s what I got to say. People are impatient. As you do the steps every day and you’re doing what’s right to grow, you always say, “Is what I’m doing helping me get to my goals? Is what I’m doing right now making a difference for somebody? Pray to bless people every day. I do these lives every week and I say in my closing, “I want to ask you to pray to bless others.” Every day, bless somebody. Every day, reach out and tell somebody that you love them. The analogy of being persistent is this. I didn’t build a body in one day, one week, one month or one year. There were times where I flattened out and plateaued, but I had to keep moving through. I had to keep going hard, honing some skills here and there to improve. People stop and when they stop sometimes, right around the corner is that big step of success. When they get some of that success, all of a sudden, that becomes contagious. You want more so you keep doing more. I got to say this, “I will be a master of my emotions,” Scroll Marked VI. I can say that that is a tough one sometimes for me, maybe not you.

Personal Growth: Focus on your daily activity goals of what you got to do every day to make things happen, who you’re going to be in touch with, and who you’re going to inspire.

No, it’s tough. I got eight grandkids in the other room now. I’m trying to get the patience thing down.

Being the master of your emotion because it’s easy to get frustrated. Every day brings something different. We all go through things. We all go through times. It’s not all easy. Sometimes it’s financial. Sometimes it’s personal stuff. Sometimes maybe somebody gets sick, but we have to master the emotion. Ultimately, keep working on you. When you work on the mindset and you’re working on your heart, your spiritual self, your prayer, your relationship when you’re working on your mind everyday and you’re growing and getting better that helps you master the emotions. I had to learn how to shorten up my downtime and my frustration time.

“How do I learn how to shorten up my downtime?” That is wisdom. One of my successful mentor in the industry might have said something along the lines of, “When we have people that have a bad attitude, it might get us down for 2 or 3 minutes where it used to be 2 or 3 days, 2 or 3 weeks, 2 or 3 months. How do you shorten the downtime? That’s great. Here’s what I wanted to get to for all those that are joining us all over the world, wherever you may be. It’s resonating with me every day to hear you say the word that you said about the approach to the day, the value of every single individual you get to shake hands with. You get a feel that philia, that brotherly love that, that warmth that says, “I trust in you. I’m excited about meeting you. I hope I can be there for you in some way like some of my friends were for me. It’s a pay it forward thing.

One of the things I wanted to share for our readers is it’s indicative of how in tune the spiritual writings that Og gave us with these scrolls in those first few words to say, “Today, I will be the master of my emotions.” There’s such a power to say, “Today, I will be the master of my emotions,” then he goes on to give us those beautiful words, “The tides advance and the tides recede. Winter goes and summer comes. Summer wanes and the cold increases.” I don’t like reading to people while we’re here, but the point that you’re bringing out is that to shorten that downtime but to realize that for me, maybe it is for you. I feel like most of our life is spent in preparation for the next wave of growth that’s going to come for our new best friend, our life, or our journey. Maybe that is some of the things you are talking about. I don’t know if there are words that jump off the page for you like me, but those first few words that he echoes in each scroll are wow.

That’s why it’s important for people to stay consistent at reading it. For some, they can read the whole scroll in two minutes. For me, it’s five minutes. That’s why it’s important to be consistent at reading it three times a day. What that does is you start understanding. All those scrolls, the words are beautiful. Og was amazing. He’s a guy I would like to interview to see where that stuff came from. By doing that and reading it over and over, it goes inside you and, in those things, that’s how we get better. That’s how this book and that’s why this book changes lives.

Let me say another thing. I would love it if this is a curriculum in school. If the world now, we are reading this to our babies and our young ones, if the teenagers and the adults were reading this book and they did Scroll Mark II every day, three times a day, in fifteen days, the atmosphere of the world would change. What do the other ones become? What do the other scrolls do? I give these away. I run promotions like now I gave a choice. My choice was a hydro jug or a book that will change your life. The guy says, “I want the book because I need my life to be changed.” I’m going to give him both anyway.

I want to say this because this is an awesome thing. That is when Og wrote this in 1968, it finds its way on stage with Rich DeVos at Amway and that was the kickoff. It was three years later. Think about this because it’s The Greatest Salesman, but the journalized version is The Greatest Secret. Freddy’s got The Greatest Secret, the journalized version where you take the notes. You’ve got your notes for the day. You’ve got how you gauged and rated yourself on the day. That’s the brilliance of The Greatest Salesman, a book that’s not about sales.

There are no sales closing and opening techniques. There are no techniques. It’s like you said, it’s about being a better person. I love The Secret. The true secret of having you on here is maybe that between the two of us, there’s something that Rami said. He’s been reading the scrolls for twenty months, but he’s been out of the pattern. Maybe we’re the trigger to help Rami get back on the horse and be consistent and realize, Freddy, there is no shortcut in the gym. I’m sure you can tell me that.

Not at all.

Anyone that wants to do the upper arms and not do the calves is not going to 27:17. You’ve mentioned, “Greeting each day with love in your heart.” You’ve talked about these three things, God, family, work ethic, the can I. Tony Robbins is where I first heard that constant and never-ending improvement. We can look at great genuine lives to validate that. Ben Franklin spent 64 years of his life working on those Thirteen Virtues, which is a powerful thing. How do you see it playing out for you at this juncture? You’re the greatest salesman in the world. You’re the greatest husband in the world, the greatest family guy. You’ve given yourself to the cause of betterment each and every day. What’s next for you? What’s the goal? What’s something that gets you out of bed every morning?

Let me say this. I think I got the greatest wife in the world rather than me being the greatest husband in the world. I’m fired up about life and I say this to you, Dan. I go to bed at night and I can’t wait to get up in the morning. I love people and I’ve been blessed and I grew up with not much. A lot of my adult life, we struggled, as far as marriage and financially. I was intimidated by people with money because of where I grew up. As I started doing better, I used to say, “God, why me?” In my first business, I was doing pretty well for that time, then I would self-sabotage because I’m saying, “God, why me? Why not these other people that need help?” Honestly, this book made me realize that I was worthy and then I had to grow and mature. I will say one of the things. This book reads differently now than it did when I first picked it up.

What a profound statement.

I encourage people to read and stay the course because your life will change in different ways, not just in business, in relationships and how you feel about you. I go back and say my life has changed. I have lots of gratitude. I feel blessed. Why? What drives me? It’s so I can help other people’s lives change also. This is my biggest thing. I am driven to see people grow, to see people dream again and to see people get better. I want to see their lives be fulfilled, not just financially, but that’s a big part of what I do. I love to see success. I love to see people’s lives change and their kids and their family. That’s why I get up. That’s why I work every day. My family is my life. They are important to me. I want to leave a legacy for not only my children but for their children.

Stephen Covey taught me that. When you’re raising your children, you’re raising your grandchildren. That’s a beautiful thing to see. As I have all the grandkids in the other room, we’re here at the lake and we’re putting all this stuff. You can see habits of teaching principles, habits of church curriculum on Sunday and habits of good language. That’s one thing I’ll say about you. I don’t know that I’ve ever heard you use a four-letter word. I don’t know that Og Mandino would have ever used the four-letter word.

Personal Growth: Stay the course because your life will change in different ways, not just in business but also in relationships and how you feel about you.

One thing you said here and I want to reiterate this because this is a massive moment in this episode. What Fred said about how he felt about money is a very big deal in your journey. I challenge everyone if you have not taken that assessment, you’re going to find this unbelievable science of axiology from the University of Tennessee nail every thought process you have, not what you think, but how you think. I’ll take you fifteen minutes to take this assessment at HabitFinder.com/actnow. That Scroll Nine, “Act now.” Don’t wait, just do it. It’s free. It’s for your benefit, not mine. It’s not Freddy’s, it’s for yours.

My paradigm with money was challenged as well and it was interesting. I worked in a fitness center, a tennis club around wealthier people than me as a kid. When I got into sales, it wasn’t about being intimidated by people that had money. It was I felt weird taking money when I made the sale. It wasn’t until I went through the transition of knowing that the gift that I was giving them for health, well-being, skincare, weight loss opportunity, finance, whatever it might be, it’s bigger than the $30,000, $50,000, $1000,000, $500,000 that might be transferring.

That was a great point that you brought out about how you feel and what is your relationship with money? My hands are palms up when I do my meditation and my breathing. I’m ready to receive the goodness if we are willing to give it back. Thank you for bringing that. I don’t know if anyone has brought that out to the show to date, in its history at this point. Any further thoughts on that as I reiterate your words with your relationship with money?

No, I’m good. I appreciate you coming back with what you shared because it’s important.

This has been a joy. I wonder now in conclusion, you got people that are reading and they’re paying it forward. There will be people that read this and they’ll hashtag people on Facebook, #PayItForward. They can watch it on YouTube. They could pay it forward. I wonder what you would say to the newest individual that’s getting their journey started. Maybe somebody’s been on a plateau longer than they want to be. Maybe take 1 or 2 minutes in closing and talk to that brand-new person on the journey.

You taught me something too. It’s that you have to learn to enjoy the plateau as much as you do the momentum. The reality is it’s going to happen anyway. It’s like the sun rises in the east to the west. Don’t spend a lot of time on it because it’s going to happen. During that plateau, I learned that’s when I need to spend more time working on me. That can be easily a time to be frustrated, but what is that going to do but drain your energy. The act now part is important. We talked about working on yourself, spending time growing you, getting your mindset right, attitude up to altitude. Stretching your comfort zone sometimes is hard. I always say to my people, “Your income equals your comfort zone.” Acting is key because no matter how much you work on you, knowledge without action equals nothing.

People have to take it. They need to do it. The bottom line is this and I always say to people, when I was growing up, I wanted to be something special. I was driven. I wanted to do something special, be something special. I wanted to make a difference. I had to take action and take the steps. The journey is the journey. The assessment is amazing. It was fun for me. It’s free so go after it. I had a great time here. I had a blast. I appreciate all of you being here.

Important Links:

• Freddy Elias
• The Greatest Salesman
• Og Mandino Company
• Think and Grow Rich
• The Greatest Secret
• HabitFinder.com/actnow

About Freddy Elias

Ty Best “Man of Distinction”–Ty Best and his wife Valerie are 1977 graduates of Hampton University. Ty started his career with Ford Motor Company. He was introduced to Network Marketing in 1983. He started building the business in his spare time.

In 1985, Ty went to work for Toyota Motor Sales, U.S.A. in Torrance, California. He worked as a national trainer for ten years and continued to build his Network Marketing business. In 1995 at 40 years old, Ty achieved his dream of personal freedom and elected to leave corporate America to pursue Network Marketing full time. He is now the President of a network marketing company.

Ty and Valerie have produced training material, including books, audiotapes, CDs, and videos for several companies and the general industry. Ty was also inducted into the International Network Marketing Hall of Fame and was selected as one of their “Men of Distinction” in 1998. He has conducted training seminars and workshops for thousands of people all over the country and is one of the most sought after speakers in the Network Marketing industry. Ty and Valerie have been married for 22 years and they live in Atlanta, Georgia with their sons Alex and Gabriel.