Subscribe
Share
Share
Embed
Welcome to The Pivot Point, a student-led podcast that shines a spotlight on the vibrant city of Las Vegas while exploring the transformative journeys of students, professors, and executives. My name is Bardia Eivazi, an MBA student at UNLV. Join me as I delve into the stories of those who have embraced change, overcome obstacles, and made significant strides in their academic and professional lives. We're more than just a podcast - we are a community dedicated to empowering student voices and inspiring the next generation of leaders. Tweet us @pivotpointunlv!
0:00:00
You're listening to locally produced programming created in KUNV Studios on public radio. KUNV 91.5.
0:00:11
The content of this program does not reflect the views or opinions of 91.5, Jazz & More, the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, or the Board of Regents of the Nevada System of Higher Education.
0:00:21
♪♪
0:00:24
Welcome to The Pivot Point, where we talk about all things pivot, all things business, and all things Vegas. I'm your host, Bardea. Let's get the ball rolling. Hello everybody, and welcome back to The Pivot Point. I'm your friendly host of the most. Bardia, here to guide you again through another exciting adventure today. I'm sitting with the incomparable Dan Lear. Thank you for joining me today,
0:00:59
Dan. Oh, you're so welcome. So welcome. And before we get started, I just have to say if this podcast thing doesn't work out for you, you can make some nice
0:01:07
meditation audios because your voice is very soothing. I really appreciate that. Good to know I have options. You are a motivational speaker, 3500 events in over 30 countries, business consultant, author of six books. I think it would be easier to list what you haven't done, honestly. Can you briefly tell us about yourself and your
0:01:32
career story? Yeah, well, geez, that's because I'm so old, that's a long time. So we'll just start with, geez, after college, I won a couple basketball titles in college, won a couple national titles, and didn't know what I wanted to do specifically. So both my father and my stepmother were school teachers. They were kind of saying, hey, get your teaching degree. I didn't want to teach school, but I had a desire to coach college basketball. So I went and got my master's degree, because you have to have a master's to teach in the
0:02:02
college level.
0:02:03
And then I got my teaching certificate, just in case, just because I was going through all that schooling. Anyway, then I coached for a couple of years and decided that I liked playing more than I liked coaching. And I loved the coaching part. I loved the actual engaging with the young players and building young men and whatnot, but there was other things that were not so exciting to me, such as just the babysitting and making sure Mark gets his homework done and making sure Jeff is not sleeping with the booster's daughter. So, you know, I prefer the coaching part. So after that, I decided I was gonna go out into the workforce and I got a job with this company called Federated Insurance. And they were a company out of Owatonna, Minnesota, but I was working out of their Atlanta, Georgia office, so I went through a training program, and I didn't know anything about sales I knew nothing about sales knew nothing about insurance didn't even like insurance But I needed to figure out what I wanted to do so I went through the program and while I was doing that I was listening I started reading a book by Tony Robbins called Unlimited Power. And that kind of opened up my mind to some things. And then when I first, when I started in the field as a field sales rep, my job was to go get accounts, obviously, to carry our insurance. We covered auto dealers and what we called oil jobbers, convenience stores, hardware stores. We were kind of a niche market for the insurance industry. I did that for a while, but when I was doing it, I ordered those There was some years ago. There was audio tapes available. They were tapes. I say that good Lord That's what they were back in the day. They were tapes available from Tony Robbins he did these infomercials late at night and Anyway, three easy payments of sixty nine ninety five and I got my my tapes and I started going through these tapes now this is back in the day where you would have a tape deck sitting on your entertainment center, whatever, and it was a device. And you put in the tape, and you'd press play, and oh my God, so anyway, I literally, after work, I would pull up a chair to my stereo, and I would stick my audio in there, and I would press play, and I took notes. And I took to that, it was like 30, 30 minute lessons, if that you will. So after 30 days, I had 30 days of notes and anyway long story short I Was the number one sales performer in the whole region seven state region as a 23 year old kid and Made more money than my father my stepmom put together, and I was like wow this is amazing So I was all in you know I was understood the power of positivity the power of communication the positive the power of just working on yourself and being your best at all times. That was amazing. Then after I reached a point there where I never really liked the insurance business, but I was doing well, but it wasn't something I saw myself doing, I ran across a guy that was working for Tony Robbins. Anyway, there's a long story involved there great story about persistence But I got a job with Tony Robbins and I was a field sales rep that which means you go out and you give Presentations and this was before the internet. So this is how we filled venues, you know Tony Robbins goes around and he puts thousands of people in a venue well before the internet we had actually go talk to people so we we would go into offices and we would do a free meeting it was like a sales workshop, a peak performance workshop. And it would be 30 to 45 minutes. We'd go in there. Prior to that meeting, we'd talk to the boss, talk to the VP of sales, or whoever was in charge of the group, and we'd find out what their team really needed. Could have been motivation, could be prospecting, could be overcoming objections, could be self-esteem, could be anything. And so then we'd develop a talk for them. We'd do the talk, and then we'd sell tickets to the Tony Robbins program afterwards, so that's how, I was 100% commissioned job, crazy, crazy job, very stressful, and we'd live in five cities a year, so like for instance, if we were in LA, promoting that event, after Tony came to town and did his event, we'd all move to Chicago, and then we'd do it there, and then we'd go to Houston, and then we'd go to New York, then we'd go to Miami, so I did that for six years, and so I lived in 30 cities in six years. It was incredible. So thousands and thousands of talks. And then in 2000, I left, started my own business, started my own speaking and training company. I have to correct you, I'm the author of four books, not six.
0:06:41
Oh, sorry about that.
0:06:42
It's all good, that's a positive, positive thing for me.
0:06:44
There's two more coming.
0:06:45
That's right. And you know, that just started building my career. I became the number one most the most requested speaker here in Las Vegas And then I went through some times where I I got I got I was not feeling well And the short story is in 2017 I got diagnosed with this very rare disease called amyloidosis cardiac amyloidosis And that's a particular disease that is 40% of the people get that disease die in the first 12 months So I was struggling to find out what it was For two years and finally I went to the Mayo Clinic up in Rochester, Minnesota because I knew I was dying And I went up there and the guy looked at me and he said I think I know what you have But I need some time to prove it clinically so after nine days of testing he said I had you have amyloidosis, which is a incurable blood disease so went through two years of chemotherapy from 17 to 19. And I'm still on a maintenance drug right now. But it's a drug for lymphoma, leukemia, it's non-toxic, so it's good. And I'm doing fantastic. So during the pandemic, they shut down my business. And I was out consulting, consulting salespeople, because there were no more events, there were no conferences. So anyway, I started consulting and I got an incredible offer from this company that's in the health and wellness industry. Actually, they're in the tech industry, but they make red light therapy beds and red light therapy products for the luxury spa industry and the health and wellness industry. And so I took that job and that's what I'm doing right now. So I'm having a blast. As you can imagine from my background with the chemo and the amyloidosis, I'm very into health and wellness right now, so it's right up my alley. That's the short story. That's the chivalry.
0:08:35
It already sounds inspirational from what I'm hearing right now. And we'll touch on the, I think, body balance systems very soon. What has it been like for you to touch so many people's lives, have an impact on their motivation and transform them entirely.
0:08:51
Yeah, well, you know, it's very interesting because I never got into, never woke up and said, you know, someday I want to be a speaker or someday I want to, you know, do conferences or events. It just happened, you know, so the only reason I was doing or still do keynotes on occasion is because I was working for Tony Robbins. It's just reps, right? So, you know, a lot of people come up and they're like, how did you get started in that business? And, you know, most people who go out and attempt to become professional speakers, they have to create their own events and they go speak for free at places and all that stuff. And I was speaking for free for three times a day for six years. So, I mean, I would get commissioned when I sold tickets, but I had to get up in front of rooms every day, two or three times, no matter how bad it went or how good it went, I had to give these talks. So it's just reps, like anything you do a lot, you tend to get good at. And so, if you choose to, right? So I had a good teacher and I learned how to speak from pre-frames to body language to voice tones to different language patterns, and so I really learned from the best and was very grateful for it. So, you know, how does it feel? It's been tremendous. It's something I never thought about, never planned on, but, you know, I know what it's like to feel like you need some help. And it's a great feeling when people come up to me afterwards and say, thank you, I really needed to hear what you had to say today. And yeah, that's an amazing
0:10:19
feeling. Absolutely. What is the philosophy behind your techniques and why is yours different than say someone else's?
0:10:26
I don't know if mine is different. I mean, I guess my philosophy is that 90% of your success has to do with your psychology. So for instance, in sales sometimes, somebody's having, they're having a tough time in sales and they'll start teaching them closing techniques or they'll start teaching them how to overcome objections or they'll start teaching them how to create rapport but that's not where sales is gained. It starts with your mindset. It starts with your psychology. 90% of your success is your psychology. If you don't believe that you can earn X amount of dollars in sales, then you won't do what's necessary to do that. It doesn't matter how much training you get. If you grow up in an environment where, oh, geez, I came from the wrong side of the tracks, and oh, I didn't go to college, or I'm not really good socially or oh my dad hated sales I mean if that's your language Inside of your head and you're in a sales job and you go through the best training program ever If they didn't manage your psychology you have no chance to win And so my philosophy if there's anything different really starts with your mindset because mindset matters. It is everything it has to do with Your sales your relationships that way you think about yourself the way you conduct yourself on a daily basis, it's all mindset.
0:11:41
Absolutely, and I think that's interesting you bring up mindset. So it was very exciting to have you for multiple reasons, but one of them was because you are one of the only businessmen that I know who has dipped your toes into politics. You first came on my radar when you were running for Nevada State Assembly last year. What was the process like for you
0:12:05
to take your business skills into a governing role? Yeah, that was really an amazing experience for me. An experience I think everybody should do. You know, most people talk about politics and they're not happy about what's going on, or maybe they are, but if they're unhappy, they still don't want to do anything about it. So I'm like, you know, my kids are gone. I have time, I wouldn't have done it if I had kids and I said I'm gonna go put my hat in the ring and I'm gonna win this thing because I got skills and I've got tools and I've got communication skills that I think would be beneficial in the political market and so I did I went out there and it was a very interesting experience I think everybody should do it. It taught me a lot about politics some of it I didn't like but it was a great experience. Obviously, you know I didn't win, but I learned a heck of a lot, made a lot of contacts, expanded my base of networking, and it was an amazing experience for me.
0:12:59
Absolutely. I have a hard-hitting question for you, and then I have some fun questions.
0:13:02
Hard-hitting.
0:13:03
Bring it. So as a leader, do you think it's better to be feared or loved?
0:13:11
I think it's better to be loved. I think that the fear type of leadership only goes so far. Here's the thing, the question you want to ask is, will your people run through a wall for you? Right, and if they fear you, the answer is no. They're just trying to keep their job, you know, no matter what it is. I mean, even as an athlete, you know.
0:13:31
I shouldn't say that.
0:13:32
Well, I don't know, I didn't love my coach, but I didn't hate him either, but he got the most out of me. But I feel like from a leadership position and an employee situation and a corporate situation, you want to create an understanding that, as a leader, you're supposed to help people. You're there to help people. You're there to help them find out what they need to succeed and provide them with the opportunities to get there. So I feel there's a lot of ways to lead, and you don't have to be a charismatic leader. You can be a quiet leader. You can be a subtle leader, but a leadership really gets down to serving other people. That's why sometimes they call it servant leadership. So great leaders, they don't put fear in their people. I mean, we've all seen it in the past, and of course there are leaders like that, but no, I would rather have my people love me and follow me to the promised land. That's what I'd like to see happen.
0:14:26
Right. So it sounds to you that the workplace is more of a place of nurturing. Do you feel that it trickles down from the top if you're a good leader, that it'll fall down into your
0:14:37
followers? Well, let me see if I can grab that phrase you just used. The workplace is a place of nurturing. I don't know if I agree with that. I mean, yes, my people should love me, but not everybody's gonna love me. Yes. Because I have standards. And so for instance, if you were working for me in a sales job that you have to do X amount of calls and X amount of this and X amount of that, that's your standard. And if you're not able to do that, then it can't work for me. So nurturing to me means providing opportunities. So there is a point if I hire you and you have certain duties to do and you don't do it, you're gone. Yes. So, I mean, nurturing is an interesting word and can be interpreted in a lot of ways. So I feel like nurturing sounds kind of soft to me, not suggesting that it's not the right word. It's probably not the word I would use. I would just use a leadership type of role because there's a lot of types of leaderships, but I understand what you mean, and I think providing people with opportunities to grow, showing them how to grow, and giving them opportunities or space or time to do that is fine, but I also feel like unless there are standards that says this is what's gonna happen, or you can't work here, then your business isn't gonna thrive.
0:15:59
So, nurturing to a point. Yes, yes. And thank you for picking apart the word nurture, because I do use that intentionally. There is that whole thought of nature versus nurture when it comes to leadership and how it fits into the workplace. So I really appreciate your advice on that. Sure. So let's move on to body balance systems, which I think is a very
0:16:18
fun topic. So what is this new technology? Well, body balance, they make, they focus on red light therapy products. So red light therapy is a, it's not really a new modality for healing, but it's a more publicized now, just because over time, just like anything else, the cost comes down. So red light therapy was actually founded by NASA in the 90s, 94, I believe. So they sent up some red light lights to help with the plants up in the space station. And what they found was the astronauts that were closest to the red lights came down with better bone density, more collagen, they looked good, they had less inflammation, they were just healthier people. So they were like, whoa, what's going on here, of course, and then they started studying the red light. Red light is just a part of the light of the sun. It's, you don't get tanned by red light. It's a light that if you took a spectrum of the sun. Back in the days before the industrial age, we would get red light from going outside, working in the morning, or being around the campfire at night. And the red light has healing properties. So really all of us are red light deficient right now in some way. So if you were getting red light therapy, I were getting red light therapy, you would have a different response because you are a different human being. So how the red light works, it's really amazing. All it does is penetrate your body and it can go down eight centimeters And it it basically triggers your mitochondria to release ATP, which is a dentisine triphosphate which is the energy of the cell so the cells actually self heal and Reproduce and it increases the oxygen in your blood. And so you're actually Building new cells and so it's an incredible healing process I'm in that bed three to four, not three to four, I had more to four to five times a week. And I just got some cancer taken off the side of my cheek. So I've got about 15 stitches right here. And so I'm using this red light therapy wand on it right now it's called the deep wave. And so red light therapy also is great for wound healing, scar healing. So I'm actually documenting it right now to see how it does after two weeks. So by the way, you can you can follow that documentation on my Instagram, which is at Dan Lear. That's D-A-N-L-I-E-R on Instagram. Thank you for plugging that.
0:18:34
So I don't have to do it later. It's all good. Thank you for that. So you already touched on this a little bit, but how has health and wellness complimented your career as an entrepreneur?
0:18:44
Well, that's a really interesting question. Well, twofold question. Prior to my diagnosis, I was really healthy, also had the mindset that I was basically unstoppable. I don't really mean that, but almost like I just felt like I could, nothing would stop me, right, from a health perspective. And I probably drank a little more than I should, but I would drink and, you know, get up the next day and go to work and then play basketball, and this is all through my 30s and all 40s and whatnot. And so, then when I got diagnosed, it was a whole different ballgame because wow, that was like serious business. So I stopped drinking, I stopped, you know, I stopped, I used to drink like Mountain Dews for God's sake. I used to love those things, man. I grew up in Michigan and that was like, that's like the, that's like orange juice. Yeah. So I stopped all the bad stuff, sugar. So my eating is so clean right now, it's amazing. So I don't drink alcohol, I eat really clean. I don't eat out very much because of my congestive heart failure. I'm on a sodium regulation. Anytime you go out to dinner, it's over, right? So, but I still go out, obviously, I'm healthy. I work out every day. But yeah, right now it's amazing. So I feel great. And I feel like we're gonna look back in 50, 60 years and just, well, it's already happening now. The food that we're eating is just not good and our government has thrown us under the bus and done, FDA is corrupt and so we're eating a lot of things that aren't good for us right now and it's really sad. So I'd like to make a difference in that somehow, but yeah, that's where I'm at right now eating clean and living clean and Or thinking good thoughts of course. I think that's amazing. Thank you What advice would you give to new spa business owners in Las Vegas? What advice would I give to new spa business small business small business owners? No well? I mean running a small business is challenging no matter where you are and what you do, but it's you know It's like anything else. It's you've got to have a vision. You know we're what are you doing? It starts with the mission statement and who are you and what are you doing? but at the end of the day it gets down to mindset and Hustle and again if you don't believe in your product It's not going to be successful if you don't believe that between you and your product It's the best value proposition in the whole world, then you're not going to be successful. So either you have that mindset yourself or you surround yourself with people like that and make it happen. But you know, again, more and more people are wanting to take control of their lives and get out of the system, unplug from the matrix and get some things done. So, you know, it's not an easy road, but it's there for you. All you got to do is work hard and stay focused.
0:21:37
When did you know that you had this mindset? When did you know you had this confidence in you?
0:21:40
Well, I think the confidence and the mindset actually came from my basketball career. My basketball coach in college was incredibly, he was a psychology guy. Literally, when I got there, I went to a junior college. I went to Division I first, then went to a junior college, then I went to a small college in Kansas. And he sent me, my college coach sent me to a psychiatrist for my rebounding. Seriously. So imagine I'm like laying on the couch for the psychologist talking about rebounds. But he was a very positive guy, the coach. He would just always, the way he'd language things and everything. And I just learned that there's, you know, being positive is, you know, what's the alternative? And, but what I learned was, we won two straight national championships in basketball. I mean, that is unbelievable. And so we would go into these games late, you know, we'd be down by three with two minutes to go and we would win these games, you know. And we just had that belief as a team and I realized how powerful that was because when you believe, you know, and again, the coach was a big part of it. He'd get us in the huddle and go, okay guys, we got two minutes to go. We're gonna inbounds the ball, we're gonna run this play, we're going to score. Then we're going to foul, they're going to shoot one, we're going to get rebound, we're going to come down and score again, we're going to win the game. So and he would call out players and we would win the games. And so, you know, it's really all about, you know, what's going through your mind on a daily basis really impacts your life. And I tell my family this all the time is that we, you know, myself and someone else, we live in two different worlds and we all do. Our world depends on our mindset and you know you live in a world of peace and love and everybody wants to help you or do you live in a world of evil and you know those kind of things. So it really gets down to your mindset. I think that's really cool. Yeah. Is there anything you, the leader you are today would say it's your younger self? To my younger self? Oh man, I would just tell my younger self to just chill out and relax. Me too, that's what I'm trying to do. Yeah, no, I mean like I was always really driven and hustling and whatnot, but you know what I realize now is as you get older is that you know things happen sometimes. You know, I didn't plan on getting sick, I didn't plan on getting chemotherapy, and so things come your way and they cause you to grow and whatever comes your way is coming your way and so it's up to you of course how you handle that and that is what makes you grow and without pain there's no growth and that's what people don't realize when you have this adversity that comes your way you get hit with an issue not that you should thank thank the universe for it but the fact is without that pain without that setback there is no growth and so the better you get through that the more you grow as a person and so just a lot of ways to look at those obstacles in life, you know.
0:24:30
Absolutely, something we covered recently in our own classes, like you and Nellie, was trauma. Really? Yes. And how it is such a growing experience.
0:24:39
Yes.
0:24:40
And there are so many ways to deal with it, and there are so many different perspectives on it as well. Yeah. But, just in my own life, it has truly made me stronger. Yes. Even though I don't have much experience I'm thinking, wow, how much have I really grown from just saying yes to more things, going out more, being more sociable, how much that has really challenged me and just really allowed me to grow as a person. Right. And I think
0:25:05
that's just taking those small steps. It is. I mean I think that one of the challenges that we have that I see right now, if I could talk to the younger generation, the people in college, is that I don't know these people personally, but I see them and I've met them. But, you know, there's a lot of people in college that get thrown off course by language. You know, of course, we don't like to be, you know, made fun of or talked bad about, but handling that is part of growing.
0:25:32
Yeah, I wish we had more time. I truly do on these podcasts. But unfortunately, we do have to wrap up. Thank you so much, Dan, for being here with me today. You're welcome
0:25:41
Let me give you a couple of website addresses. Yes, body balance system. Calm is our website That's body balance system calm anybody out there wants to learn more about red light therapy If you're interested in any type of motivation or whatnot Dan Lear calm That's the a n l I er calm and that's my handle for Instagram and whatnot. I appreciate that
0:26:01
Thank you for being here with me today. And thank you. Thank you all for listening to the Pivot Point. You can follow us at Pivot Point UNLV on Twitter, all one word. Thank you all for listening to the Pivot Point. You can follow us at Pivot Point UNLV on Twitter, all one word. And hope you enjoyed the show.