Over the past 35 years, Don Hobbs has been recognized as Realtor Magazine's "Top 25 Most Influential People in Real Estate," Don has served as President of motivational mega-star's, Jim Rohn Productions, co-founded Hobbs Herder Advertising which pioneered Realtor® branding (a massive industry disruptor), and served as influencer, coach, & speaker.
As SUCCESS® Enterprises Ambassador and Co-Founder of The International Association of Expert Partners, Don continues his legacy of helping people to reach their greatest life. By teaming up with the most legendary brand in personal development, reuniting with the works of Jim Rohn and other industry giants, he brings his true passion to SUCCESS in moving entrepreneurs and high-minded people to think and live a bigger, more fulfilled life. As a speaker, coach, trainer and business consultant for more than 3 decades, Don has spoken to nearly 2,000,000 people.
Follow Don on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/DonHobbsSuccess
Visit Don's Website
https://donhobbs.com/coaching-training-speaking
Connect with Don on LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/don-hobbs/
Find out more about GAIN THE PASSION Coaching
https://www.gainthepassion.com
Access past episodes and more of the GAIN THE PASSION Podcast
https://www.gainthepassionpodcast.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Voiceover (00:01):
Welcome to the SUCCESS Coaching Podcast. On
today's episode, our guest, DonHubbs shares his own personal
journey to success becausesuccess is a journey, not a
destination. Here's the hosts ofthe SUCCESS Coaching Podcast,
Todd Foster, Alyssa Stanley andKelley Skar.
Alyssa Stanley (00:25):
Welcome back and thank you for joining us on the
SUCCESS Coaching Podcast. Myname is Alyssa Stanley and I am
here with Todd Foster and KelleySkar, where we have the
privilege of talking with THEDon Hobbs. As SUCCESS
Enterprises Ambassador and cofounder of the International
Association of Expert Partners,Don continues his legacy of
(00:46):
helping people to reach theirgreatest life by teaming up with
the most legendary brand inpersonal development, reuniting
with the works of Jim Rohn, andother industry giants. He brings
his true passion to SUCCESS inmoving entrepreneurs and high
minded people to think and livea bigger, more fulfilled life.
As a speaker, coach, trainer andbusiness consultant for more
(01:08):
than three decades, Don hasspoken to nearly 2 million
people. Thanks for joining us,Don.
Don Hobbs (01:14):
Thanks, guys. Nice to be with all three of you.
Kelley Skar (01:17):
Thank you for being on the show my friend really
appreciate it. You know, you andI haven't known each other for a
long time. However, I've knownyou and known who you are and
what you've done. Maybe for ourlisteners, maybe you can give us
a brief synopsis of who the realDon Hobbs is and kind of take us
through, you know, where youstarted and how you became the
(01:37):
Ambassador for SUCCESSEnterprises.
Don Hobbs (01:40):
Yeah, for sure.
Thanks, Kelley. What's it'sgreat being with you guys, of
course, and you guys are I lovethe show, you're doing a level
where we're able to do togetherthrough success as well. You
know, my, my background, Istarted off really young I got I
got into the seminar space,through a guy that I hope
everybody will know Jim Rohn ishis name. And Jim was kind of
(02:02):
one of the godfathers orgrandfather's of the personal
development space. And I wasfortunate a teen years old to
walk into a big Ballroom inSouthern California, where he
was speaking and 1000 peopleshowed up and, you know, at 18 I
never experienced anything likethat. Anyway, I was infatuated
I, it was date night, I didn'twant to be there. And I remember
(02:23):
not wanting to be there. Andwithin 15-20 minutes, I'm taken
notes and totally like, oh mygosh, I love this guy. And I
walked up to him at first breakand said I want to I want to be
I think I said I want to be you.
But if I didn't say that, Iimplied it. I want to do what
you do, and be you. And I justwas like I could just see the
power of personal developmentand what it meant, and what
(02:47):
people were getting from it.
And, you know, from that dayforward, I mean, for me, it was
always about how do I get helppeople get turned the lights on
when they see it when they getit when they you know, they
there's that moment thatbreakthrough and and I got to
hang with Jim for a little whileI went to a bunch of his
programs. And finally, laterthat year asked him if I could
work for him. And I did. Andthen you know, it was really
(03:08):
interesting, because I got achance to work with him for
eight years. But during thattime of three, four months after
I started this big gawky kidwalks in the camp named Tony
Robbins. And Tony was with usfor a little bit he was 17 years
old. So, you know, we're workingtogether for our I think until
he was like 21 or 22. And thenhe went off to do whatever he
(03:28):
does. I don't know that strange,firewalk thing. And, you know,
we've been friends for all theseyears, but and then I stayed and
became president of Jim'scompany. And you know, the
answer your question, I reallyloved that piece of personal
growth where we get a chance toand I love it about what we're
doing even at success. I lovethe fact that we get a chance to
(03:52):
be in people's lives and talkabout significant things that
matter because, you know, anidea can change somebody's life.
You know, the right question canchange somebody's life. I mean,
there's so many things that wedo when we get to play in that
space. And for me, it's alwaysbeen my heart. So I got to do
that. And then when I left Jim'scompany, I started a company
that was big in the real estatespace got really well known, not
(04:15):
in the in the big speakingspace, if you will, but in the
personal real estate space. Andthen did that for a lot of years
and really became the biggesttraining company in the in the
industry. And then eventually Igot a chance to play with Gary
Keller some people know Gary,because he's not only the
founder of Keller Williams buthe also has a great book called
(04:36):
The ONE Thing and we played withthat for a while and built some
training coaching around thatand then eventually this this
exp thing happened and thesignificant other in my life and
you know we'll talk aboutAllison I'm sure today at some
point far smarter, far moreattractive, far brighter. I mean
it just it far better. Idefinitely you know am married
(04:57):
and I we call each other husbandwife, even though we're not. But
you know, it's been super funbeing around her and she saw
what exp was building and tookoff and call me one day as I was
Gary's partner and said, I'mleaving Keller and I'm going
over to that company. And sothat was a really interesting
time. And when she and I gottogether and started really
dating, like we were, you know,fell in love, we were together.
(05:19):
And I'm Gary Keller's partner.
And she's over the eXp, whichfor some people may not mean
anything, but it's, it's kind oflike fire and water right now.
It's their oil and water,whatever doesn't mix. And
eventually, my relationship withGary was tested as I was
sleeping with the enemy. So, youknow, it didn't work out well.
(05:40):
For the end of our relationship.
However, Alisson and I are solidas a rock. And now you'll get
the chance to play you know, fora year, after we exp bought
success, I got to play in therole of the President, we got a
bunch of stuff done, we got thiscoaching company lifted. And
then I've been put in the rolenow of like, Ambassador, so what
(06:00):
does that mean? I don't know, I,I speak every so often on behalf
of success, and get to show upin my pretty face, which most of
these people aren't going to getto see, gets to show up as part
of that. But we're having a lotof fun with it. And of course,
the eXp side is growing fasterthan anything that's ever
happened in real estate. Andsuccess is really exciting,
because at 124 years and to be125 years, it's iconic. It was
(06:23):
what Tony and I were readingback when we were kids, it was
our little business Bible. And Ifeel like I've just fallen into
a pot of jam, to get to hangwith people like you, the whole
crew, I just love theconversations, because I'm
dealing with people and livingwith people and working with
people who are about people.
(06:45):
That's been the most importantelement of my life for all these
years. So little of the story.
Of course, there's lots oflittle moving parts in there,
and failures and falling downand all that stuff. And today,
we're living in Puerto Rico, andit's 84 degrees today. And how
what's the temperature tomorrow?
84 degree. What was ityesterday, 84 degrees. It's
always at 84 degrees here.
Todd Foster (07:05):
So you brought up Tony Robbins, you brought up Jim
Rohn. I would love to know whatthey were like, offstage. Who
were the real Tony and Jim's outthere.
Don Hobbs (07:15):
You know, Jim, is a very interesting story. Because,
you know, first of all, he'sbeen gone for 12 years. In fact,
like in a few days, he'll be isthe anniversary of that he'll be
gone for 12 years. So a lot ofpeople don't even know who he
is. Yet. If you've been around,you know, some years, you
definitely have to find him and,by the way, very findable on
YouTube and all that. But Jimwas just like Jim all the time.
(07:38):
Like he was that guy, he was aphilosopher. He kept his
journals, he was thoughtful. Hewas you know, thought he I mean,
he was thoughtful as a humanbeing he was thought he in that
he was always contemplating and,you know, pondering and let me
handle a Those were the wordsthat he would use, right? That
was how he was, he would endedup with the title of like,
(07:59):
America's foremost businessphilosopher. Yeah, that was long
after I was gone. And I waslike, that's perfect, because
that's exactly what he was. Imean, he was our Aristotle of
our era or something, right? Hewas, he was that guy. But Jim
was super easy to get alongwith. I mean, he never like you
never saw anger you never saw.
He was just like, I won't say hewas flawless. Because obviously
(08:23):
he, you know, gone through acouple divorces. I mean, he had
some ups and downs, financially,he, he was a human being, but he
was really had really masteredhis emotions, and really
mastered his mind. And reallylooked at things with a
different perspective. You know,when things went bad, you know,
a room was falling apart, or,you know, something goes wrong
(08:44):
with Hotelling there was neveran upset it was like, you know,
listen, we're not dead. We'regood. We're good. You know? And
there was he was very evenkeeled. Now, Tony, on the other
hand, you know, Tony had agreat, great intention, but he
didn't have his priorities.
Probably all that straight inthe early days. But you know, I
mean, he was dynamic from theearliest days. I mean, we used
(09:08):
to compete pretty head to headon sales and things and he was
definitely him, the guy would goout and you know, he was big and
intimidating anyway, but hewould just take his big hand and
shake your hand and probablyhold and squeeze until you
bought in and was really, reallycloser, so much so that a lot of
his sales would unravel becauseas soon as he went away, they'd
(09:29):
be like, what the hell I didn'tmean to sign up for that you
know, it's like so he was areally interesting character and
what was really fun Taysom I gotso many Tony stories Good grief.
And because so many people knowmany so current even today, you
know, it's it's kind of fun, buthe when he left and he was doing
(09:50):
this firewalk thing, this crazyfirewalk thing you know, what
the heck is that all about?
Right? And he used to call Ronand I and go, Hey, I want you
guys to take the program. Morelike we're not I mean, we You
know, be cordial to me. Ofcourse, Tony. Yeah, we'd love to
do that someday, but we'realways busy. And don't you know,
we got laundry to do and cut thehair to cut and stuff. And, and,
and you know, and then one dayhe caught me because I was I was
(10:10):
in town and he had already toldme he was in Denver. He said,
What are you doing this weekend,I said, we finally got a weekend
off and he goes, good. I'mflying to Denver, you got to
come and take this program andreally stuck me with it. Right.
And anyway, when I took it, ofcourse, it was pretty
magnificent. Keep in mind, thiswas at a grammar school in
Denver with 106 people. So Imean, this was like, early day,
(10:34):
Tony Robbins, this is not arenasfull of you know, this is not
20,000 people or 18,000 peoplewalking on fire. So, you know,
cool stuff. But Tony has alwaysbeen, he was very hot headed. He
was very strong. You know, knownall the women in his life and
sage, who's married to now isfinally kind of tamed, has
(10:55):
teamed the man, and he's reallysweet. I said to him about a
year ago, I said, You are yourheart is so big and so open
these days. And he said, I wasalways like, this isn't how you
were not? You were definitelynot always that way intended it.
He just didn't know how to carryit off. Right? There was some
(11:18):
stuff. So anyway, great guys.
Kelley Skar (11:24):
When you're that big of a personality, do you
think that the the persona kindof overtakes? And do you think
that they that they likeknowing, you know, knowing Jim
Rohn, knowing Tony Robbins likeyou do, do you think that their
persona kind of took on a lifeof its own dawn? I mean, is it
you know, you're talking aboutwho these guys really were? And
(11:44):
it sounds to me, like they hadsome failures, but you never
really knew about that. And, youknow, I guess secondary to that
isn't that doesn't that applysome sort of ability from their
audiences to see them as more ashuman?
Don Hobbs (11:56):
You know, Tony is pretty authentic and comes clean
with, you know, his early days,childhood, you know, all that
stuff, you see that a lot. Ithink it's a little bit more of
a current trend. I, you know,there might have been a quick
story about not being able toafford Girl Scout cookies, or
there might have been a story ortwo that you would have heard.
But the reality is, that was notthe era of transparency, that
(12:18):
was the era of taking the stageand being the person everybody
wanted to know. And, you know, Ilike the current state, it's,
it's much easier to be able tobe real, and not have to be
perfect. But you know, what'sgreat about Jim was, he wasn't
necessarily acting, that wasreally who he was. So he just
(12:39):
didn't go back and tell you hishistory, per se, except select
stories that told you no made apoint and drew a line between
where he was and, and what hewas trying to say. And, you
know, Tony's come out, ofcourse, he's had some pretty
tumultuous childhood, as I as itis. And we, I told him one day,
I said, we we must have the samedad, it was just a, we were off
(13:01):
by a year or two, you know, justbut very similar stuff. And no,
it wasn't the thing to talkabout that it was kind of like
people wanted to see success.
And now people want to seeauthenticity. And I think it's,
it's a different era, which I'mreally glad for it because it's
there was so much pressure to besomething I mean, I remember
(13:22):
feeling that it as I built mycompanies, I remember thinking,
I have to be what they expect meto be. And frankly, I hated it.
I you know, I remember sittingin a mansion in Southern
California and going, I don'teven know how I got here. I
don't even know if I like whatI'm doing. I don't even know
what I was doing. But how I'mliving. I don't even know if I
(13:43):
want this. But it kind of was areflection of what I was
supposed to show. And, you know,like I said it, it was a very
different time. And I'm reallyglad that time has changed.
Alyssa Stanley (13:55):
Don, I remember you telling us a story here a
while ago about your dadvisiting you at your home. Did
it have any impact on shapingyour future moving forward?
Don Hobbs (14:05):
Yeah. Thanks, of course, and very happy to talk
about that. You know, what Iwould say is, and I'll tell you
the story of it, but I would sayis what I've learned is
vulnerability is one of ourgreatest strengths. And when we
become vulnerable, it allowsother people to meet us there
and go, Oh, it's okay to have mybackground or it's okay to come
from where I came from, youknow, it's obvious I can still
(14:27):
make it. And so my dad was not agreat guy in my life, and he
didn't beat me. But it was atotal verbal abuse and of
course, there probably was somealcoholism, it was too early
because before a lot of thatbecame public, and people talked
about it, but I didn't have arelationship with them. I mean,
(14:47):
I flat out didn't type you know,he was not in my life. He was
not a big part of my life. Ididn't want that in my life. I
used to remind my assistant toto remind me to call him just
like, you know, call Dad youneed to call dad once a month
and just check in And, but itwas really like I had no
interest in him. And clearly hehad no interest in in my life or
at least it appeared that way.
And so when I kind of struck itbig, I, you know, remember Rohn
(15:10):
used to say, I think it was aquote from Frank Sinatra, that,
you know, the best revenge ismassive success. And there was a
part of me, I'm sure that kindof wanted to show off a little
bit and say, you know, you, youkind of missed the mark, you
missed your kid, you know, youdidn't, you don't know what you
had, right. And I invited him tocome out to California and he
(15:32):
flew out to my house, and Iremember him getting there, I
had a big circular portico, acircular driveway with a portico
over the front of it. And Iparked my Bentley right in
front, just to make sure I don'teven know if you knew what a
family was, but I, I was goingto make sure he didn't not see
it. This was not in the garage,right? And, and I remember
hearing the doors, you know,closing, they're here, they're
(15:54):
here. And of course, I had these10 foot iron doors, his wrought
iron doors made, you know,synonymous. And I remember,
like, almost the timing, he rangthe doorbell, let them wait, let
them let them just sit there andget the whole force. And then I
open the door. Of course, afterall the pleasantries and the you
know, hugs and all that stuff.
(16:15):
You know, here I am hoping,hoping that he would finally
say, I'm so proud of you. Andwhat he said was, he looked
around, and he looked up at theceilings, eyes ceilings, and
goes, Why do you what do youneed all the space for? And I
gotta tell you, it was I mean,it was one of those things like,
he just got here, I'm wanting togo get the f out of here, you
(16:38):
know, just like, leave me alone.
And what was great about thatwas that was one of the
icebreakers to wanting to have arelationship and what I realized
that I'm not sure where you guyswant to go with this. But what I
realized was that a lot of mysuccess, as we would see it, you
know, success in the way thatpeople look at success, things
and cars, and houses and moneyand stuff. One of my things were
(17:04):
attracted through, trying toprove myself enough. And and,
you know, there's, you know, thegood news is, the best revenge
is massive success. Yes. Andthere's a part of that, which is
like, it comes from a place offear of not being enough,
instead of coming from a placeof, I know, myself, this is what
(17:25):
I want in my life. And I can gocreate it or not created, it's
my life. And when I realized atthat, not that moment, but in
that timeframe, like right afterthat happened, I began to
analyze and go, Why do I wantall this? And was it about him
and somebody noticing and going,Wow, look at you. Because I
(17:47):
hadn't had that, right. I just,I didn't have that as a kid, for
sure. And my dad and I did abunch of healing about two years
later, two years, three yearslater, and kind of got deepen,
in what had happened inchildhood and all that we
laughed, we cried, we yelled ateach other. And mostly I yelled,
but, you know, we had we kind ofhad it out and got to a place of
(18:10):
new understanding. Andironically, the assistant that
used to have to remind me tocall him I called her one day,
and I said, Okay, I just got aphone, my dad, I'm going to go
see him. And she's like, you'regoing to go see him. I said,
Yeah, booked me a ticket fortomorrow. And he's like, you're
gonna go see him? Like, it was ashocker. And literally, it was
the beginning that thatconversation that time was the
(18:30):
beginning of a real transition.
The other irony of it is thatwas October, whatever year that
was 11, I think 11 years ago.
And he died on December 5, likea month and a half later, and he
wasn't sick. So it was reallylike, healing in time. You know,
I got to say what I needed tosay, got to deal with the issues
of the heart. And yeah, prettygood stuff.
Todd Foster (18:55):
Did either of you have guilt after that? About
possibly both being at faultsomehow, on the relationship not
working in the beginning?
Don Hobbs (19:03):
He did. He. He said one line in the midst of all
this barrage of stuff back andforth for two and a half, three
hours on the phone. And he said,I've told people with lousy dad,
I was and I was like, livid,because I was like, Who have you
told that you were a lousyfather without calling me to
tell me you're a lousy father.
Right. And there was a lot ofthat. And what was fascinating
(19:25):
and really heartwarming. Wasthat when he passed his than his
wife is my step mom, if youwill, said to me that month and
a half since that healing. Shesaid he's been so free. He was
like, so lifted, like he didn'thave all that weight on his
shoulders of what he wasn't anddidn't and all of that, that he
(19:47):
had probably been carrying hiswhole life. So I'm carrying one
side of it. He's carrying theother side of it. And both of us
were released. And yeah, it'sgood stuff. I mean, it's not
Easy to do that. And I'm notsuggesting everybody needs to
rush out and have thatexperience. But almost all of us
carry some baggage. Andsometimes it's defining baggage,
or we allow it to be.
Alyssa Stanley (20:11):
So Don, seeing how Allison is the love of your
life? It sounds like youactually gave up a career to be
with her. How did you two meetin the first place? Was she the
person that you stood up fordate night when you went to see
Tony Robbins?
Don Hobbs (20:29):
No, I met. I went through two divorces. So if
we're, if we're confessing,mazel tov it, all right. We
don't need to get into all that.
But, you know, I went through anearly marriage. And then later
in life, a marriage when I movedto Austin, you know, my then old
buddy, Gary Keller called me oneday and said, Hey, I'm doing
(20:50):
this book thing, I'd love foryou to be part of the, this
program in this company that I'mbuilding and be a great guy to
do it with. So I came to Austin,and she was the first girl that
I got introduced to, by somevery good friends. And actually,
I think you guys might know Johnand Holly Prescott. They
introduced us and, and it wasn'tan instant take. So it was, I
(21:12):
kind of got smitten. And Iworked really hard at it. And
Allison kind of went around theblock a few times with, with
other parts of her life. And Ikept saying to I did say to her
one time I said, you know, thethings that are that you think
are what you're looking for areSunday, not going to be
important to you, you're gonnawake up one day and see that
(21:32):
what you've been searching for,isn't what you wanted in the
first place. And what youhaven't been looking for is
going to be, you know, it'sgonna you're gonna have a whole
new set of values. And she said,Are you talking about you? And I
said, No, I'm not talking aboutme. But maybe, but I'm just
saying, it's like, that's what'sgonna, that's what's gonna
happen one day, you're gonna,there's gonna be that that day
when you get it. And, and later,she said to me, you were talking
(21:55):
about UI so well, kind of, but,you know, it's really like,
that's what has to happen in ourgrowth and awareness, right? We,
we go through stages and phases.
And when she finally kind ofgave in, and the funny part is,
she's, you know, we laugh aboutit and call it like, off the off
the movie, I call it 100 51stdates, because good God, I
worked really hard for a longtime. And we got to, you know,
(22:19):
see concerts, front row seats.
And I mean, I did everything Icould imagine, to make this
thing happen. And she, and I gohome alone. I mean, it was like,
still going, it just didn't workout the way I was expecting it
to. And we'd have, you know,weeks and my mom would go How's
Alison? I go. I don't know. Ihaven't heard from her three
weeks. You know, it's like, Idon't know. And but, you know,
my claim to fame was I lasted100 51st dates her claim was
(22:42):
claim to fame was she finallygot me away, recruited me from
Gary Keller. So we both had ourvictories and that kind of fun
stuff.
Kelley Skar (22:54):
My wife and I, she says this a lot, if you were to,
to, you know, write it all outon paper on paper, we weren't a
fit at all, like, there was justso much so many differences
there. But somewhere along theline, and we just we clicked and
she saw the potential and knewthat there was great potential
for the two of us. Andeventually, the paper stuff was
(23:15):
all going to work itself out.
And it sounds like everythingkind of worked itself out. And
Allison finally saw the light.
Hopefully, she's listening tothis.
Don Hobbs (23:22):
She did see the light. Exactly. That's what I
always tell her, she saw thelight for sure. No, it you know,
and it's true. And we're goingthrough, you know, it's life is
about growth, right? I mean,life is about growth. And so
you're gonna have different setsof things you're looking for,
you're going to different peopleare going to come into your
life. I mean, Friends come andgo, right? I mean, people,
(23:43):
people in your life, and thensome friends stay a lifetime,
and some come and go. And I'mnot sure that, you know, I want
to promote the relationships arelike that. But there is an
element to you know, what, whatis it that you're looking for in
your life, at this time, andsome people grow together, some
people grow apart. And for us,you know, it's a it's a great
(24:05):
combination. She's brilliant,beautiful and smart. And, and
I'm none of those things. So itmakes a perfect combination.
It's a it's a, it's a nice fit,you know, I get it. What's the
old Jerry Maguire, You completeme? I don't believe in that at
all, by the way, but I'm justsaying it's a funny thought. You
(24:27):
know, what's interesting aboutthat, did the questions you've
asked and the things that youguys talk about, because you get
pretty, you get in the weedswith people, right? And it's
interesting, because no matterhow people look like their lives
are together, everybody behindthe closed doors, there's always
something different than what wethink is happening. And I
(24:48):
remember, you know, again, muchmore surface level, but I
remember 2008, nine and 10.
Thinking to myself, it was sucha great revealing place where
people had lost so much andyeah, You walk into an office,
your office and you, Hey, howyou doing? Good, how you doing?
Great, you know, and everybody'swaving to the other and
everybody's suffering and goingthrough such stuff. And nobody
(25:09):
wanted to talk about it becauseeverybody thought they were the
only one going through that. Andwhat we come to realize is we're
all going through something,right. And we're, we're having
the human experience. So it'spart of why we talked about
earlier, I think it's adifferent era where, you know,
transparency, vulnerability, isat a premium, because people
(25:30):
really value knowing how youthat you made it through things
that you've been there to, thatthey're not alone. And you're
not, they're not the onlyfailures. They're not the only
people going through stuff.
They're not the only ones who'vehad challenging times. And let's
face it, you know, we've alldone it. So it's not fun, where
(25:53):
you're going through, butthere's a lot of lessons to
learn for sure.
Todd Foster (25:56):
I love that you brought up transparency, so
let's even be more transparent,Don. If you looked back five
years ago, are you where youthought you'd be today?
Don Hobbs (26:05):
No, I what, I think I had a different thought about
where things were going to befive years ago, I was still
hanging out and building somestuff, and another company that
you guys all know, and I thoughtthat had a future. You know, a
lot of things imploded on that.
But again, you know, one of thethings that I realized, and this
is part of my dilemma is havinga job at my style. Like I
haven't had a job since I was18. And then kind of did a thing
(26:28):
with Gary, that was, uh, youknow, Gary Keller, that took a
job and, and that probablywasn't the smartest thing for
me. And I like havingindependence. And I like being
able to create my own way. And,yeah, I think there is no limit
to that, which is Who knew that?
(26:51):
That would not continue? Itseemed like a great idea. I love
being around smart people. Ilove being around. Glenn
Sanford, I guess you guys justdid a podcast with Glenn. I
mean, I love being around smartpeople. Let's face it, it's it's
just the rocks, right? To seesomebody who's really got it
together who's really doing bigthings has a big vision. You
know, we I get inspired bypeople like that. I know that
(27:12):
you guys, but you know, I getinspired by being around those
people. And so did I get where Ithought I was going? No. Am I
getting to a different place?
Which now feels like a greatplace? In a similar timeframe?
Yeah, probably so that all we'redoing between success and exp
these two worlds that we'reliving in? Both things are kind
of exploding. I mean, I mean,exploding, what kind of cat
(27:36):
away? I don't mean like blowingup. I mean, like, you know,
they're, they're really takenoff. So there's good stuff
happening. And I gotta say, Ifeel honored. And I'm really
thrilled that at this point inmy life, I have these things to
do. Like this is great stuff,you know, to give and teach and
coach and train and help anddevelop. And, yes, it's kind of
(28:00):
what I've been doing my wholelife.
Voiceover (28:05):
If you're enjoying this episode, please rate,
review, follow and subscribe tothe SUCCESS Coaching Podcast.
Alyssa Stanley (28:13):
You spent quite a few years with Jim Rohn
enterprises. And at one pointyou were running the entire
organization. Can you take usthrough what happened between
Jim Rohn and Hobbs/Herder andhow Hobbs/Herder actually came
to be a reality?
Don Hobbs (28:26):
Yeah, fun story. I knew I was going to be with Jim
Rohn. For freaking ever. I mean,I just loved the man. He was my
father figure. He was my fatherfigure. I mean, he was really
that to me, you know, is a veryimpressionable age. And he was a
great guy. And I love beingaround him, and I. And then he
got married to a woman thatunfortunately, she was, she was
(28:49):
running stuff from behind thescenes. So we'd make decisions
during the day, he'd go home thenext day, and come back and say,
Hey, I've been thinking aboutwhat we talked about yesterday,
I want to do that differently.
And I'd be like, Oh my gosh,really? Like, anyway, it was
clear to me that it was not myshow anymore. And so I didn't
know what to do with it. I mean,honestly, the one thing I would
(29:09):
say about that that occurs to meis, I didn't have the emotional
wherewithal to know how tohandle that situation. He was so
close, such a big part of mylife and to say, you know, like,
I feel ripped up by the factthat this woman has taken this
place that, you know, whatever.
So I resigned, I just quit. Ileft a little resignation. And
(29:31):
she called me the next day andsaid, Jim got your letter, He's
highly disappointed and, and itthe way you handle it, I said, I
don't know what else to do. No,Yvonne and adios. And, and so I
was looking for a thing, becauseto be honest with you, I didn't
have a plan. You know, it waslike, it wasn't like I went, I'm
going to develop a company andthen I'm going to figure out
what to do. And then I'll leaveJim Rohn and do that. I had no
(29:54):
clue. And so between those twopoints, there were a couple
people that had been involvedwith Jim through the years. And
I remember, you know, being kindof hiring one of them to be one
of my salespeople, Herder ofHobbs/Herder, fame, and then
another one that was doing aprogram and we started promoting
his programs. And to be honestwith you a funny story, we would
(30:16):
promote his programs, I was agreat promoter. I mean, I would
fill huge rooms full of people.
And then people would go, hisseminar sucked, you were really
good. But you know, because wewould do a presentation, right?
We'd go into an office or acompany, whatever, speak, and
then sell tickets, and they go,You were great. And so I started
going, you know, at least if Iwas doing my own programs, I
would change if they were notgood. And I think I've got
(30:38):
enough stuff that I could dothis. And so literally, I one
day just said, Screw it, we cando our own. And I said to her,
Do you want to start a company?
And we were kind of searchingKelly, to be honest with you. I
knew I didn't want to be JimRohn, Jr. I mean, it was, you
know, I'm much more comfortablewith using Jim stuff now.
Because he's in my head in myheart all the time. I mean,
(31:00):
there's no way I could gothrough days without having, you
know, dropping quotes andthinking things and going, the
moments that we had and thingsthat we did together. But at
that time, I didn't want to beJim Rohn, Jr. I didn't want to
have that I Ziglar was out therewere a few other people that
were training, and we teach intime management, teaching sales,
what are we teaching, and weknew that real estate seemed
(31:23):
like a natural niche. Andfrankly, in that timeframe, real
estate was coming into its own,it was a, it was when mom and
pops were moving into thefranchise world, and they were
consolidating. So there's a lotof movement, and a lot of
companies that were forming andbigness, you know, they were
starting to grow. And so wereally thought that was a great
(31:43):
opportunity for us. And westarted doing seminars that were
like, you know, time management,selling and, you know, three
keys to selling and sixsuggestions for marketing and
whatever. And this littlepersonal branding, personal
marketing idea, there was like30 minutes out of a whole day.
And we did do the little surveyat the end, right? What is July?
(32:03):
Would you get most would youlike most? Would you like the
least what would you change? Youknow, all that stuff. And people
go, that personal marketingstuff is amazing. Like, we never
thought about brandingourselves, who who does that?
You know, because at the timeeverybody was joining, they were
consolidating into Century 21,and wearing gold coats, they
were they were moving into thebig companies, we were going on
(32:24):
this is for Todd by name, youknow, you're screwed, you can be
part of the best company in thecountry, and it doesn't matter.
So that became the beginning ofit. And we we kind of rolled
that out, we just saw there wasa trend here. And we started
expanding that and expanding it.
And there was no I mean, I willsay this, if you go back, you
can check the dates out, go back1986. And you look at the
personal marketing stuff, justlook it up and figure out when
(32:48):
it started. There was not Idon't care if it was real
estate, I don't care wasfinancial services, I don't care
what you looked at, there wasnobody building a personal
brand. Everything was aboutcorporate. So our stuff was
pretty cutting edge. And we justkept extending it then became a
day of that, then it became twodays, then it became three days.
And of course, if you teach thatstuff, and people are the
(33:11):
impression people got that, thatyou know what they were left
with is if you brand yourselfand build your own brand inside
that space. Now it's I would sayit's true in any industry. But
for sure, in real estate, whatwould happen is you get these
calls going, Hey, come with myproperty, hey, we don't, we
don't know you, we we've seenyour stuff forever. And we just
want you to come in. So it'slike so easy. People just came
to the, to the agents, right?
(33:35):
And in real estate, it alwaysbeen call and call and call and
call you got to pick up thephone call, you got to go knock
on doors. And for the first timein history clients were flocking
to these realtors. So then wehad to deal with mindset,
because Would you allow yourselfto be seen? Like Will you allow
yourself to show up in a waythat people didn't? You know, it
(33:55):
wasn't bragging, it was justlike showing up as the
authenticity we're talking abouttoday. That's so common. That
wasn't at that time. And thesecond thing is, will you do you
know what to do with clients ifyou got three times as many or
five times as many? Like you'realready stressed out doing your,
you know, 12 units a year willget you 80 units a year? What
the heck do you do with that?
And literally people are goingfrom like, I just talked to some
(34:17):
of them today. And you know,program I did earlier this
morning. She did 2.7 million herfirst year one year later. 10
point 4 million. So that 400%increase, one year later, almost
20 million, one year later,almost 30 million. I mean, it
was like massive growth. Andthose are numbers that nobody's
ever heard of before in thattimeframe. And so we had to
(34:38):
teach them systems andstructures and really what we
came from too was finally we'reteaching people how to do
business instead of how to sellreal estate. Like we never got
into real estate sale. We nevereven taught people scripts or
any of that stuff. You know itwas Why do you need a script for
their calling and going Listen,let's my home You know, how do
you overcome objections? Whydon't get any objections. So
(35:01):
Hobbs/Herder was born out ofthat and listening to the
client, and watching the needand watching where people
respond. And, and then figuringout we were, we were smart
enough to figure that part out.
We were lucky enough to be atthe right place at the right
time.
Kelley Skar (35:18):
So I'm curious in between Jim Rohn and
Hobbs/Herder. You'd mentionedyour good buddy Tony Robbins.
Was there any ever ever anythought about joining Tony and
what he was doing?
Don Hobbs (35:30):
No, not not at all.
Kelley Skar (35:32):
No way?
Interesting.
Don Hobbs (35:34):
I knew too much about him at that time. No, he, he was
that was in his, that was in hisdays when he wasn't is easy to
get along with, his less evolveddays. He left a wake have a lot
of bodies at that time. I mean,again, you know, we, we probably
did, too, I'm just saying, I wasvery aware of Tony's tendencies
at that time, want to be veryclear, because he's a different
(35:55):
guy today. I mean, I, I loveTony and with all my heart, and
he's really a good guy. And sucha special man. I mean, almost
nobody that I've ever seen hastaken life to the level he has
even people that have moremoney, by far, he's the most on
purpose person, by far that I'veever met. Now, not so much at
that time. That never crossed mymind. In fact, the thought would
(36:16):
be, don't do that.
Kelley Skar (36:18):
Personal branding, I think is is such an
interesting conversation. I, youknow, I got into the real estate
business in 2007, and quicklybecame a disciple of Gary
Vaynerchuk, probably by about2010. And he is a contemporary
that was really talking aboutpersonal branding and utilizing
social media to do so you know,at that time, Twitter was
probably one of the largestsocial networks to help build
(36:40):
that personal brand. I'm stillover there. Not a lot of people
are still there. I've got like,3300 followers, and I just tweet
political stuff, because nobodylistens to it anyways. So it's
just a place for me to goinvent. You know, Instagram is
really big, you know, Facebook,maybe not so much anymore. How
do you see the personal brandingspace? Today's compared to, you
know, back in 1986? I mean,obviously, the technology is
(37:03):
different is are the principlesstill the same?
Don Hobbs (37:06):
Principles primarily, are the same, primarily, and
I'll talk about that, but Ithink the biggest thing is,
what's changed is, marketing wasa very expensive sport for a lot
of years. It was an expensivesport, if you were playing in
the big leagues, you know, Nikehaving to run massive amounts of
commercials. You know, today,that game has changed
(37:27):
completely. But personalbranding. There wasn't a lot of
outlets, people. That's whatpeople say, you know, I had
somebody introduced me today.
And they said, they were theywere great. They were the best.
They were amazing. And they werereally expensive. And I said,
No, we weren't expensive. Wewere expensive compared to what
Realtors were used to paying.
But if you'd gone into thepersonal if you went into the
marketing world, and you said,What is it gonna cost for a bank
(37:48):
to do a whole campaign? Youknow, it would have been
$150,000. And we were charging12 or something right. But it
was just radically different.
But for a Realtor. They neverthought in terms of spending
money like that. So what I wouldsay is, at that time, there was
such limited experiences. Imean, what did you have you have
direct mail? I mean, again,let's go back. It depends on
(38:10):
when you you know, the Goreinvented the internet. 92 I
think it was. So you know, thatthat's when something's changed,
because the email came along.
You know, Thanks for laughing.
So, you know, email changed somethings because that obviously
was part of the Vaynerchuk deal,right? Social media changed
(38:31):
everything. Because again, wedidn't know what it was. All we
knew was there was somethinghere, and we could get seen, but
nobody knew how to make moneywith it. I mean, now we're
starting to see it. And ofcourse, it's funny how we
figured out Facebook, and yetFacebook is kind of fading. I
mean, it's certainly gone. Butit's, it's on the Fade.
(38:52):
Instagram is next tick tock isnext, right that these next
platforms, what's next, but thegreat news is today, building a
brand is so much moreaffordable. And then there's the
concepts and that's what youasked about. How do you carry a
brand? I mean, people were outjust doing videos willy nilly a
phrase willy nilly. I never saythat, but they're doing it willy
(39:17):
nilly. And, and they're shootingvideos, but to what point to
what target to what, to whatcontent to what, why, why, why
that? Why, why why are we justdoing a mishmash of so much
stuff, instead of saying, What'smy target market? Who's my
avatar? I mean, if you reallywalk it down, that hasn't
changed, target strategy, thentools, will the tools are
(39:40):
changed, the mediums changed.
Media has changed. But the toptwo, they're the same. You gotta
have a target and you got tohave a strategy and where people
go so wrong today and you know,in the real estate space
clearly, one of the challengesWe have is that people are
(40:01):
selling stuff. So we're gonnabuy that guy's website or that
company's whatever. And that'sgonna fix my problem instead of
looking at what am I trying todo? Am I trying to appeal to?
And then how do I use this tool?
Oh, you know what this tool isnot the best tool for me doing
what I'm going to do, gettingthe people I want to get to,
that's not the best, what wouldbe better is something else. But
they don't have thosestrategies. And that's where I
(40:22):
really think the gap in, atleast in personal branding is
that's the big gap. Right? And,you know, if you throw enough
fame at it, I mean, some of the,the rock stars, the pop stars,
the actors and actresses, theycan get away with some of that
stuff. Some of the YouTubers,the tick talkers, you know, they
(40:43):
get away with some of that stuffin that they're building fame
and fortune, I was looking atsome of the the biggest, richest
YouTubers, and you know, 20-25,30-40-$50 million dollars, these
young kids, what do theyrepresent? You know, they've
built a following, and then theygo, Okay, now, somebody comes
along goes, hey, we'd like yourbrand. We'd like you to attach
(41:04):
to something. So that's one wayof doing it. But if you're in a
business, you got to figure outwho you're appealing to.
Otherwise, you better get reallyfamous and really big, so that
you get a lot of people'sattention, because otherwise you
ain't gonna make any money.
Kelley Skar (41:20):
Yeah, all really good points. I, I was listening
to the latest Joe Rogan podcast,he's got a guy on there named
Jimmy Corsetti, and he's got aYouTube channel that he started
back in, like 2016, his focuschanged. I mean, he was talking
about early on about how a lotof the videos that he was doing
early on, actually, he wound uptaking off of his channel,
(41:43):
because the the focus of hischannel, just completely, it
switched to change to what hetalks about today. And that's
ancient civilizations. And, youknow, he had goals of, you know,
a million subscribers or earningX amount of dollars off of ad
revenue. And he, he kind offumbled his way through until he
figured out what the formulawas. And exactly, to your point,
Don, he felt he figured out whatthe niche was going to be, or
(42:05):
the niche was going to be andkind of worked it backwards from
there, and then understood, thenwhat what how important the
thumbnails were how importantthe titles were, how important
or unimportant, the the writeups were, what the most
important thing was the actualcontent that he was that he was
putting out. Yeah, right. Yeah.
To that end, I think, you know,he's got it right now, because
he's, you know, he's got tonsand tons of followers, and he's
(42:27):
making big bank off of the adrevenue that he's generating,
you know, I talk to a lot ofagents about about this kind of
stuff on the regular and theysay, Well, I want to start a
podcast and I'm like, okay, toone end, I really like having
conversations. Okay, so what'sthe return on investment? Right,
you're going to, you're going tospend all this time talking to
people editing the content,uploading to all of these
(42:47):
different platforms, to maybeyour maybe not get listeners. So
to what end? Is it all you'redoing is wasting time? Right?
That's, that's the big question.
Right? To what end? Right.
Right. So yeah, no, I reallyappreciate. So it sounds to me,
like maybe perhaps theprinciples really haven't
changed it. The idea of personalbranding is figuring out like,
(43:08):
who you want to be, what youwant to be, what you want that
brand to represent, and what andthen working backwards, and then
understanding, especially today,that the mediums that you can
utilize to push the message inthe branding.
Don Hobbs (43:21):
Yeah, and I think at that point, you get into the
Russell Brunson stuff where hestarted talking about, are you
doing funnels? Are you doing FlyWheels? HubSpot talks about I
mean, what's your methodology,but again, that's all the stuff
that comes later. That's, that'sdown here. People go, I'm
signing up for, you know, I'mgoing to get involved in I'm
buying and like, why, what areyou going to do? I mean, you
didn't have a clue. And youknow, that you just talked about
(43:43):
niches, I use that word a lot.
But you know, there's there'sdefinitely reached riches in the
niches. Right. I mean, that's,that's one of the things I
became very aware of is that themore defined your marketplace
is, the more narrow focused itis, we often think we're gonna
end up giving up business. Andwhat in fact happens is we
actually attract more, becausewe're getting people who really
(44:07):
relate to what it is we'redoing. And whether it's real
estate, whether it's financialservice, I don't care what
industry to be honest with you,if you're running a small
business operation, if yourpresence is a part of it, and
look, I mean, I don't watch alot of TV and can't say that
there's a lot of commercialslike this anymore. But if you
think about how peoplerepresented their auto
(44:27):
dealership, or how theyrepresented their, whatever, it
was a personality, like, youknow, we'd see these people on
TV and go, I'm going down to seehim. You know, it's like that
that was the essence of personalbranding was making sure people
connected to you. And so that'swhere it really comes down to
and of course, you know, a lotof realtors want to tell people
how great they are. A lot ofpeople in financial services
(44:48):
want to tell about what they'regoing to do for them. It's not
about that I can can I relate toyou? Do I like you? You know,
like, you know, you trust you?
Right? Those are the three we'vealways talked about. And the
fourth When is remember you? DoI even have a freaking clue you
exist. One thing that'sinteresting about that is, you
know, people have talked aboutTony Robbins because they know
(45:09):
we're friends. And they go. Sowho's the next Tony Robbins? I'm
like, I don't know if there isone. And it's not because
there's nobody else like, Tony.
It's because it's about themarketing. Because the market
has been so segmented, there'sso many people that are going to
see a trainer or a coach ofcoaches, who then teaches people
how to, you know, have theirlittle funnel and, and so you
(45:31):
look at people and I get askedall the time, do you don't you
know, so and so I'm like, No,and I look him up, and he's got
like, you know, 15,000followers, I mean, he's not a
big deal, or she's not a bigdeal on the world. But they're
real big deal in that person'sworld. And they've got their own
little mini followings. And ofcourse, you can make plenty of
money doing that. I mean,there's plenty to be made. But
(45:51):
it's not going to be the Tonyshow, it's not going to be that
it's not going to be thatgrandiose. And I don't know that
there's room for that anymore.
Because the market has been sosegmented. I don't think anybody
will ever come out. That's adifferent generation. It's a
different era that I think we'releaving behind.
Alyssa Stanley (46:13):
So Don, where can our listeners find out more
about who you are? And how canthey contact you?
Don Hobbs (46:18):
Uh, you know, don@success.com is probably the
easiest one. And I've got acouple of different, you know,
companies and involvements.
don@expertpartners.com isanother one, but they're gonna
find me. I mean, I'm, you know,pretty easy to find. And you
check my social out the Real DonHobbs on Instagram. I'm not hard
to find, and I put my phonenumber everywhere and people
(46:40):
call me on myself. And I'm notyou know, I've just, I've always
been pretty easy to reach and Ijust don't believe in in hiding
out. So if anybody wants to,many won't want to, but they do.
I'm here.
Voiceover (46:55):
The lightning round.
Kelley Skar (46:57):
All right. So this takes us to the lightning round.
This is one of our favoritesegments of the show. So I'm
going to fire off a bunch ofquestions for you. You're going
to answer kind of off the top ofyour head.
Don Hobbs (47:07):
Oh, boy.
Kelley Skar (47:09):
Number one, what is your favorite word?
Don Hobbs (47:13):
Success.
Todd Foster (47:14):
Oh, I thought you'd maybe you could say Todd.
Don Hobbs (47:15):
Todd Foster. There you go.
Todd Foster (47:17):
There we go.
Don Hobbs (47:19):
My favorite word. I'm sorry. I wasn't, I wasn't
thinking, you said word I didn'tthink of name. My favorite name
would be Todd Foster. Myfavorite word would be success.
And I run them synonymous. Imean they're really joined at
the hip.
Todd Foster (47:33):
Yeah.
Kelley Skar (47:34):
Yeah. Alright.
Question number two. Who do youtext the most?
Don Hobbs (47:38):
Who do I text the most I text? Hmm. Ben, maybe? I
don't know. Allison. Probably.
She's right upstairs now. Butwhenever she's here, I still
text her. So probably probablyAllison.
Kelley Skar (47:49):
Question number three. What is your go to past
time?
Don Hobbs (47:52):
It's going to be either fly fishing or golf. I
happen to live on the harborhere. So I'm, I'm learning to
catch big tarpan in Puerto Rico.
And of course, we have two golfcourses right outside here. So
those are my favorite things.
Kelley Skar (48:05):
I think we're gonna have to somebody who's gonna
have to host a SUCCESS Coachinggetaway in Idaho maybe, we got
fly fishing and golf in Idahoright?
Todd Foster (48:14):
Idaho? How about Puerto Rico?
Kelley Skar (48:16):
Puerto Rico would be better? Yes, absolutely.
Especially middle of winter.
Don Hobbs (48:19):
Yeah, for sure. You guys are always welcome.
Kelley Skar (48:22):
What is your favorite word in another
language?
Don Hobbs (48:24):
Amore!
Kelley Skar (48:26):
Oh, that's a good one. Last one. Question number
five. What was your favoritesubject in school?
Don Hobbs (48:32):
Oh my gosh. My favorite subject in school was
not Latin. Let's see my favoritesubject in school was actually
math. Hated history andcertainly hated Latin.
Todd Foster (48:46):
Wow.
Kelley Skar (48:47):
Latin? They didn't even teach Latin when I was in
school.
Todd Foster (48:50):
It's a dead language.
Don Hobbs (48:51):
Yeah, it's kind of a dead language for sure. I was
supposed to be a doctor. I wasgoing to take Latin because they
told me all that Latin wouldhelp me with my my getting my
doctorate.
Todd Foster (49:00):
What has been your favorite pair of shoes you've
ever owned?
Don Hobbs (49:04):
That's a great, you're catching me. I could say
that my Michael Jordan's I gotsome old school Michael Jordan's
with the you know the cool likethey're almost vinyl that I have
now. I got reds and blacks. Myprobably my favorite pair that
had the most story behind it wasa pair of Nikes that were
yellow. I had season tickets tothe Lakers for all the Kobe and
(49:25):
Shaq years. And I used to havemy seats were first by the
tunnel where they'd all walk outlater we're at half court, but
I'd have the Lakers would comeand rub my shoes for good luck
every night. And of course wewere winning like crazy. So they
they started to believe and Istarted to believe and I could
get I could literally say theshoes are in the house and and
some of the players would lookup and point to me and you know
(49:47):
that they knew that that thatpair of shoes was was what was
making them this win streak. Soclearly, I had I have a big part
in Laker history. Threechampionships were mostly my
responsibility because of thispair of shoes.
Todd Foster (50:02):
You may need to go back because they are not doing
very hot right now.
Don Hobbs (50:07):
They're not and and it's a shame I'm in Puerto Rico
because I can't help them. Ijust can't help.
Voiceover (50:14):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the SUCCESS
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Welcome to the SUCCESS Coaching Podcast. On
today's episode, our guest, DonHubbs shares his own personal
journey to success becausesuccess is a journey, not a
destination. Here's the hosts ofthe SUCCESS Coaching Podcast,
Todd Foster, Alyssa Stanley andKelley Skar.
Alyssa Stanley (00:25):
Welcome back and thank you for joining us on the
SUCCESS Coaching Podcast. Myname is Alyssa Stanley and I am
here with Todd Foster and KelleySkar, where we have the
privilege of talking with THEDon Hobbs. As SUCCESS
Enterprises Ambassador and cofounder of the International
Association of Expert Partners,Don continues his legacy of
(00:46):
helping people to reach theirgreatest life by teaming up with
the most legendary brand inpersonal development, reuniting
with the works of Jim Rohn, andother industry giants. He brings
his true passion to SUCCESS inmoving entrepreneurs and high
minded people to think and livea bigger, more fulfilled life.
As a speaker, coach, trainer andbusiness consultant for more
(01:08):
than three decades, Don hasspoken to nearly 2 million
people. Thanks for joining us,Don.
Don Hobbs (01:14):
Thanks, guys. Nice to be with all three of you.
Kelley Skar (01:17):
Thank you for being on the show my friend really
appreciate it. You know, you andI haven't known each other for a
long time. However, I've knownyou and known who you are and
what you've done. Maybe for ourlisteners, maybe you can give us
a brief synopsis of who the realDon Hobbs is and kind of take us
through, you know, where youstarted and how you became the
(01:37):
Ambassador for SUCCESSEnterprises.
Don Hobbs (01:40):
Yeah, for sure.
Thanks, Kelley. What's it'sgreat being with you guys, of
course, and you guys are I lovethe show, you're doing a level
where we're able to do togetherthrough success as well. You
know, my, my background, Istarted off really young I got I
got into the seminar space,through a guy that I hope
everybody will know Jim Rohn ishis name. And Jim was kind of
(02:02):
one of the godfathers orgrandfather's of the personal
development space. And I wasfortunate a teen years old to
walk into a big Ballroom inSouthern California, where he
was speaking and 1000 peopleshowed up and, you know, at 18 I
never experienced anything likethat. Anyway, I was infatuated
I, it was date night, I didn'twant to be there. And I remember
(02:23):
not wanting to be there. Andwithin 15-20 minutes, I'm taken
notes and totally like, oh mygosh, I love this guy. And I
walked up to him at first breakand said I want to I want to be
I think I said I want to be you.
But if I didn't say that, Iimplied it. I want to do what
you do, and be you. And I justwas like I could just see the
power of personal developmentand what it meant, and what
(02:47):
people were getting from it.
And, you know, from that dayforward, I mean, for me, it was
always about how do I get helppeople get turned the lights on
when they see it when they getit when they you know, they
there's that moment thatbreakthrough and and I got to
hang with Jim for a little whileI went to a bunch of his
programs. And finally, laterthat year asked him if I could
work for him. And I did. Andthen you know, it was really
(03:08):
interesting, because I got achance to work with him for
eight years. But during thattime of three, four months after
I started this big gawky kidwalks in the camp named Tony
Robbins. And Tony was with usfor a little bit he was 17 years
old. So, you know, we're workingtogether for our I think until
he was like 21 or 22. And thenhe went off to do whatever he
(03:28):
does. I don't know that strange,firewalk thing. And, you know,
we've been friends for all theseyears, but and then I stayed and
became president of Jim'scompany. And you know, the
answer your question, I reallyloved that piece of personal
growth where we get a chance toand I love it about what we're
doing even at success. I lovethe fact that we get a chance to
(03:52):
be in people's lives and talkabout significant things that
matter because, you know, anidea can change somebody's life.
You know, the right question canchange somebody's life. I mean,
there's so many things that wedo when we get to play in that
space. And for me, it's alwaysbeen my heart. So I got to do
that. And then when I left Jim'scompany, I started a company
that was big in the real estatespace got really well known, not
(04:15):
in the in the big speakingspace, if you will, but in the
personal real estate space. Andthen did that for a lot of years
and really became the biggesttraining company in the in the
industry. And then eventually Igot a chance to play with Gary
Keller some people know Gary,because he's not only the
founder of Keller Williams buthe also has a great book called
(04:36):
The ONE Thing and we played withthat for a while and built some
training coaching around thatand then eventually this this
exp thing happened and thesignificant other in my life and
you know we'll talk aboutAllison I'm sure today at some
point far smarter, far moreattractive, far brighter. I mean
it just it far better. Idefinitely you know am married
(04:57):
and I we call each other husbandwife, even though we're not. But
you know, it's been super funbeing around her and she saw
what exp was building and tookoff and call me one day as I was
Gary's partner and said, I'mleaving Keller and I'm going
over to that company. And sothat was a really interesting
time. And when she and I gottogether and started really
dating, like we were, you know,fell in love, we were together.
(05:19):
And I'm Gary Keller's partner.
And she's over the eXp, whichfor some people may not mean
anything, but it's, it's kind oflike fire and water right now.
It's their oil and water,whatever doesn't mix. And
eventually, my relationship withGary was tested as I was
sleeping with the enemy. So, youknow, it didn't work out well.
(05:40):
For the end of our relationship.
However, Alisson and I are solidas a rock. And now you'll get
the chance to play you know, fora year, after we exp bought
success, I got to play in therole of the President, we got a
bunch of stuff done, we got thiscoaching company lifted. And
then I've been put in the rolenow of like, Ambassador, so what
(06:00):
does that mean? I don't know, I,I speak every so often on behalf
of success, and get to show upin my pretty face, which most of
these people aren't going to getto see, gets to show up as part
of that. But we're having a lotof fun with it. And of course,
the eXp side is growing fasterthan anything that's ever
happened in real estate. Andsuccess is really exciting,
because at 124 years and to be125 years, it's iconic. It was
(06:23):
what Tony and I were readingback when we were kids, it was
our little business Bible. And Ifeel like I've just fallen into
a pot of jam, to get to hangwith people like you, the whole
crew, I just love theconversations, because I'm
dealing with people and livingwith people and working with
people who are about people.
(06:45):
That's been the most importantelement of my life for all these
years. So little of the story.
Of course, there's lots oflittle moving parts in there,
and failures and falling downand all that stuff. And today,
we're living in Puerto Rico, andit's 84 degrees today. And how
what's the temperature tomorrow?
84 degree. What was ityesterday, 84 degrees. It's
always at 84 degrees here.
Todd Foster (07:05):
So you brought up Tony Robbins, you brought up Jim
Rohn. I would love to know whatthey were like, offstage. Who
were the real Tony and Jim's outthere.
Don Hobbs (07:15):
You know, Jim, is a very interesting story. Because,
you know, first of all, he'sbeen gone for 12 years. In fact,
like in a few days, he'll be isthe anniversary of that he'll be
gone for 12 years. So a lot ofpeople don't even know who he
is. Yet. If you've been around,you know, some years, you
definitely have to find him and,by the way, very findable on
YouTube and all that. But Jimwas just like Jim all the time.
(07:38):
Like he was that guy, he was aphilosopher. He kept his
journals, he was thoughtful. Hewas you know, thought he I mean,
he was thoughtful as a humanbeing he was thought he in that
he was always contemplating and,you know, pondering and let me
handle a Those were the wordsthat he would use, right? That
was how he was, he would endedup with the title of like,
(07:59):
America's foremost businessphilosopher. Yeah, that was long
after I was gone. And I waslike, that's perfect, because
that's exactly what he was. Imean, he was our Aristotle of
our era or something, right? Hewas, he was that guy. But Jim
was super easy to get alongwith. I mean, he never like you
never saw anger you never saw.
He was just like, I won't say hewas flawless. Because obviously
(08:23):
he, you know, gone through acouple divorces. I mean, he had
some ups and downs, financially,he, he was a human being, but he
was really had really masteredhis emotions, and really
mastered his mind. And reallylooked at things with a
different perspective. You know,when things went bad, you know,
a room was falling apart, or,you know, something goes wrong
(08:44):
with Hotelling there was neveran upset it was like, you know,
listen, we're not dead. We'regood. We're good. You know? And
there was he was very evenkeeled. Now, Tony, on the other
hand, you know, Tony had agreat, great intention, but he
didn't have his priorities.
Probably all that straight inthe early days. But you know, I
mean, he was dynamic from theearliest days. I mean, we used
(09:08):
to compete pretty head to headon sales and things and he was
definitely him, the guy would goout and you know, he was big and
intimidating anyway, but hewould just take his big hand and
shake your hand and probablyhold and squeeze until you
bought in and was really, reallycloser, so much so that a lot of
his sales would unravel becauseas soon as he went away, they'd
(09:29):
be like, what the hell I didn'tmean to sign up for that you
know, it's like so he was areally interesting character and
what was really fun Taysom I gotso many Tony stories Good grief.
And because so many people knowmany so current even today, you
know, it's it's kind of fun, buthe when he left and he was doing
(09:50):
this firewalk thing, this crazyfirewalk thing you know, what
the heck is that all about?
Right? And he used to call Ronand I and go, Hey, I want you
guys to take the program. Morelike we're not I mean, we You
know, be cordial to me. Ofcourse, Tony. Yeah, we'd love to
do that someday, but we'realways busy. And don't you know,
we got laundry to do and cut thehair to cut and stuff. And, and,
and you know, and then one dayhe caught me because I was I was
(10:10):
in town and he had already toldme he was in Denver. He said,
What are you doing this weekend,I said, we finally got a weekend
off and he goes, good. I'mflying to Denver, you got to
come and take this program andreally stuck me with it. Right.
And anyway, when I took it, ofcourse, it was pretty
magnificent. Keep in mind, thiswas at a grammar school in
Denver with 106 people. So Imean, this was like, early day,
(10:34):
Tony Robbins, this is not arenasfull of you know, this is not
20,000 people or 18,000 peoplewalking on fire. So, you know,
cool stuff. But Tony has alwaysbeen, he was very hot headed. He
was very strong. You know, knownall the women in his life and
sage, who's married to now isfinally kind of tamed, has
(10:55):
teamed the man, and he's reallysweet. I said to him about a
year ago, I said, You are yourheart is so big and so open
these days. And he said, I wasalways like, this isn't how you
were not? You were definitelynot always that way intended it.
He just didn't know how to carryit off. Right? There was some
(11:18):
stuff. So anyway, great guys.
Kelley Skar (11:24):
When you're that big of a personality, do you
think that the the persona kindof overtakes? And do you think
that they that they likeknowing, you know, knowing Jim
Rohn, knowing Tony Robbins likeyou do, do you think that their
persona kind of took on a lifeof its own dawn? I mean, is it
you know, you're talking aboutwho these guys really were? And
(11:44):
it sounds to me, like they hadsome failures, but you never
really knew about that. And, youknow, I guess secondary to that
isn't that doesn't that applysome sort of ability from their
audiences to see them as more ashuman?
Don Hobbs (11:56):
You know, Tony is pretty authentic and comes clean
with, you know, his early days,childhood, you know, all that
stuff, you see that a lot. Ithink it's a little bit more of
a current trend. I, you know,there might have been a quick
story about not being able toafford Girl Scout cookies, or
there might have been a story ortwo that you would have heard.
But the reality is, that was notthe era of transparency, that
(12:18):
was the era of taking the stageand being the person everybody
wanted to know. And, you know, Ilike the current state, it's,
it's much easier to be able tobe real, and not have to be
perfect. But you know, what'sgreat about Jim was, he wasn't
necessarily acting, that wasreally who he was. So he just
(12:39):
didn't go back and tell you hishistory, per se, except select
stories that told you no made apoint and drew a line between
where he was and, and what hewas trying to say. And, you
know, Tony's come out, ofcourse, he's had some pretty
tumultuous childhood, as I as itis. And we, I told him one day,
I said, we we must have the samedad, it was just a, we were off
(13:01):
by a year or two, you know, justbut very similar stuff. And no,
it wasn't the thing to talkabout that it was kind of like
people wanted to see success.
And now people want to seeauthenticity. And I think it's,
it's a different era, which I'mreally glad for it because it's
there was so much pressure to besomething I mean, I remember
(13:22):
feeling that it as I built mycompanies, I remember thinking,
I have to be what they expect meto be. And frankly, I hated it.
I you know, I remember sittingin a mansion in Southern
California and going, I don'teven know how I got here. I
don't even know if I like whatI'm doing. I don't even know
what I was doing. But how I'mliving. I don't even know if I
(13:43):
want this. But it kind of was areflection of what I was
supposed to show. And, you know,like I said it, it was a very
different time. And I'm reallyglad that time has changed.
Alyssa Stanley (13:55):
Don, I remember you telling us a story here a
while ago about your dadvisiting you at your home. Did
it have any impact on shapingyour future moving forward?
Don Hobbs (14:05):
Yeah. Thanks, of course, and very happy to talk
about that. You know, what Iwould say is, and I'll tell you
the story of it, but I would sayis what I've learned is
vulnerability is one of ourgreatest strengths. And when we
become vulnerable, it allowsother people to meet us there
and go, Oh, it's okay to have mybackground or it's okay to come
from where I came from, youknow, it's obvious I can still
(14:27):
make it. And so my dad was not agreat guy in my life, and he
didn't beat me. But it was atotal verbal abuse and of
course, there probably was somealcoholism, it was too early
because before a lot of thatbecame public, and people talked
about it, but I didn't have arelationship with them. I mean,
(14:47):
I flat out didn't type you know,he was not in my life. He was
not a big part of my life. Ididn't want that in my life. I
used to remind my assistant toto remind me to call him just
like, you know, call Dad youneed to call dad once a month
and just check in And, but itwas really like I had no
interest in him. And clearly hehad no interest in in my life or
at least it appeared that way.
And so when I kind of struck itbig, I, you know, remember Rohn
(15:10):
used to say, I think it was aquote from Frank Sinatra, that,
you know, the best revenge ismassive success. And there was a
part of me, I'm sure that kindof wanted to show off a little
bit and say, you know, you, youkind of missed the mark, you
missed your kid, you know, youdidn't, you don't know what you
had, right. And I invited him tocome out to California and he
(15:32):
flew out to my house, and Iremember him getting there, I
had a big circular portico, acircular driveway with a portico
over the front of it. And Iparked my Bentley right in
front, just to make sure I don'teven know if you knew what a
family was, but I, I was goingto make sure he didn't not see
it. This was not in the garage,right? And, and I remember
hearing the doors, you know,closing, they're here, they're
(15:54):
here. And of course, I had these10 foot iron doors, his wrought
iron doors made, you know,synonymous. And I remember,
like, almost the timing, he rangthe doorbell, let them wait, let
them let them just sit there andget the whole force. And then I
open the door. Of course, afterall the pleasantries and the you
know, hugs and all that stuff.
(16:15):
You know, here I am hoping,hoping that he would finally
say, I'm so proud of you. Andwhat he said was, he looked
around, and he looked up at theceilings, eyes ceilings, and
goes, Why do you what do youneed all the space for? And I
gotta tell you, it was I mean,it was one of those things like,
he just got here, I'm wanting togo get the f out of here, you
(16:38):
know, just like, leave me alone.
And what was great about thatwas that was one of the
icebreakers to wanting to have arelationship and what I realized
that I'm not sure where you guyswant to go with this. But what I
realized was that a lot of mysuccess, as we would see it, you
know, success in the way thatpeople look at success, things
and cars, and houses and moneyand stuff. One of my things were
(17:04):
attracted through, trying toprove myself enough. And and,
you know, there's, you know, thegood news is, the best revenge
is massive success. Yes. Andthere's a part of that, which is
like, it comes from a place offear of not being enough,
instead of coming from a placeof, I know, myself, this is what
(17:25):
I want in my life. And I can gocreate it or not created, it's
my life. And when I realized atthat, not that moment, but in
that timeframe, like right afterthat happened, I began to
analyze and go, Why do I wantall this? And was it about him
and somebody noticing and going,Wow, look at you. Because I
(17:47):
hadn't had that, right. I just,I didn't have that as a kid, for
sure. And my dad and I did abunch of healing about two years
later, two years, three yearslater, and kind of got deepen,
in what had happened inchildhood and all that we
laughed, we cried, we yelled ateach other. And mostly I yelled,
but, you know, we had we kind ofhad it out and got to a place of
(18:10):
new understanding. Andironically, the assistant that
used to have to remind me tocall him I called her one day,
and I said, Okay, I just got aphone, my dad, I'm going to go
see him. And she's like, you'regoing to go see him. I said,
Yeah, booked me a ticket fortomorrow. And he's like, you're
gonna go see him? Like, it was ashocker. And literally, it was
the beginning that thatconversation that time was the
(18:30):
beginning of a real transition.
The other irony of it is thatwas October, whatever year that
was 11, I think 11 years ago.
And he died on December 5, likea month and a half later, and he
wasn't sick. So it was reallylike, healing in time. You know,
I got to say what I needed tosay, got to deal with the issues
of the heart. And yeah, prettygood stuff.
Todd Foster (18:55):
Did either of you have guilt after that? About
possibly both being at faultsomehow, on the relationship not
working in the beginning?
Don Hobbs (19:03):
He did. He. He said one line in the midst of all
this barrage of stuff back andforth for two and a half, three
hours on the phone. And he said,I've told people with lousy dad,
I was and I was like, livid,because I was like, Who have you
told that you were a lousyfather without calling me to
tell me you're a lousy father.
Right. And there was a lot ofthat. And what was fascinating
(19:25):
and really heartwarming. Wasthat when he passed his than his
wife is my step mom, if youwill, said to me that month and
a half since that healing. Shesaid he's been so free. He was
like, so lifted, like he didn'thave all that weight on his
shoulders of what he wasn't anddidn't and all of that, that he
(19:47):
had probably been carrying hiswhole life. So I'm carrying one
side of it. He's carrying theother side of it. And both of us
were released. And yeah, it'sgood stuff. I mean, it's not
Easy to do that. And I'm notsuggesting everybody needs to
rush out and have thatexperience. But almost all of us
carry some baggage. Andsometimes it's defining baggage,
or we allow it to be.
Alyssa Stanley (20:11):
So Don, seeing how Allison is the love of your
life? It sounds like youactually gave up a career to be
with her. How did you two meetin the first place? Was she the
person that you stood up fordate night when you went to see
Tony Robbins?
Don Hobbs (20:29):
No, I met. I went through two divorces. So if
we're, if we're confessing,mazel tov it, all right. We
don't need to get into all that.
But, you know, I went through anearly marriage. And then later
in life, a marriage when I movedto Austin, you know, my then old
buddy, Gary Keller called me oneday and said, Hey, I'm doing
(20:50):
this book thing, I'd love foryou to be part of the, this
program in this company that I'mbuilding and be a great guy to
do it with. So I came to Austin,and she was the first girl that
I got introduced to, by somevery good friends. And actually,
I think you guys might know Johnand Holly Prescott. They
introduced us and, and it wasn'tan instant take. So it was, I
(21:12):
kind of got smitten. And Iworked really hard at it. And
Allison kind of went around theblock a few times with, with
other parts of her life. And Ikept saying to I did say to her
one time I said, you know, thethings that are that you think
are what you're looking for areSunday, not going to be
important to you, you're gonnawake up one day and see that
(21:32):
what you've been searching for,isn't what you wanted in the
first place. And what youhaven't been looking for is
going to be, you know, it'sgonna you're gonna have a whole
new set of values. And she said,Are you talking about you? And I
said, No, I'm not talking aboutme. But maybe, but I'm just
saying, it's like, that's what'sgonna, that's what's gonna
happen one day, you're gonna,there's gonna be that that day
when you get it. And, and later,she said to me, you were talking
(21:55):
about UI so well, kind of, but,you know, it's really like,
that's what has to happen in ourgrowth and awareness, right? We,
we go through stages and phases.
And when she finally kind ofgave in, and the funny part is,
she's, you know, we laugh aboutit and call it like, off the off
the movie, I call it 100 51stdates, because good God, I
worked really hard for a longtime. And we got to, you know,
(22:19):
see concerts, front row seats.
And I mean, I did everything Icould imagine, to make this
thing happen. And she, and I gohome alone. I mean, it was like,
still going, it just didn't workout the way I was expecting it
to. And we'd have, you know,weeks and my mom would go How's
Alison? I go. I don't know. Ihaven't heard from her three
weeks. You know, it's like, Idon't know. And but, you know,
my claim to fame was I lasted100 51st dates her claim was
(22:42):
claim to fame was she finallygot me away, recruited me from
Gary Keller. So we both had ourvictories and that kind of fun
stuff.
Kelley Skar (22:54):
My wife and I, she says this a lot, if you were to,
to, you know, write it all outon paper on paper, we weren't a
fit at all, like, there was justso much so many differences
there. But somewhere along theline, and we just we clicked and
she saw the potential and knewthat there was great potential
for the two of us. Andeventually, the paper stuff was
(23:15):
all going to work itself out.
And it sounds like everythingkind of worked itself out. And
Allison finally saw the light.
Hopefully, she's listening tothis.
Don Hobbs (23:22):
She did see the light. Exactly. That's what I
always tell her, she saw thelight for sure. No, it you know,
and it's true. And we're goingthrough, you know, it's life is
about growth, right? I mean,life is about growth. And so
you're gonna have different setsof things you're looking for,
you're going to different peopleare going to come into your
life. I mean, Friends come andgo, right? I mean, people,
(23:43):
people in your life, and thensome friends stay a lifetime,
and some come and go. And I'mnot sure that, you know, I want
to promote the relationships arelike that. But there is an
element to you know, what, whatis it that you're looking for in
your life, at this time, andsome people grow together, some
people grow apart. And for us,you know, it's a it's a great
(24:05):
combination. She's brilliant,beautiful and smart. And, and
I'm none of those things. So itmakes a perfect combination.
It's a it's a, it's a nice fit,you know, I get it. What's the
old Jerry Maguire, You completeme? I don't believe in that at
all, by the way, but I'm justsaying it's a funny thought. You
(24:27):
know, what's interesting aboutthat, did the questions you've
asked and the things that youguys talk about, because you get
pretty, you get in the weedswith people, right? And it's
interesting, because no matterhow people look like their lives
are together, everybody behindthe closed doors, there's always
something different than what wethink is happening. And I
(24:48):
remember, you know, again, muchmore surface level, but I
remember 2008, nine and 10.
Thinking to myself, it was sucha great revealing place where
people had lost so much andyeah, You walk into an office,
your office and you, Hey, howyou doing? Good, how you doing?
Great, you know, and everybody'swaving to the other and
everybody's suffering and goingthrough such stuff. And nobody
(25:09):
wanted to talk about it becauseeverybody thought they were the
only one going through that. Andwhat we come to realize is we're
all going through something,right. And we're, we're having
the human experience. So it'spart of why we talked about
earlier, I think it's adifferent era where, you know,
transparency, vulnerability, isat a premium, because people
(25:30):
really value knowing how youthat you made it through things
that you've been there to, thatthey're not alone. And you're
not, they're not the onlyfailures. They're not the only
people going through stuff.
They're not the only ones who'vehad challenging times. And let's
face it, you know, we've alldone it. So it's not fun, where
(25:53):
you're going through, butthere's a lot of lessons to
learn for sure.
Todd Foster (25:56):
I love that you brought up transparency, so
let's even be more transparent,Don. If you looked back five
years ago, are you where youthought you'd be today?
Don Hobbs (26:05):
No, I what, I think I had a different thought about
where things were going to befive years ago, I was still
hanging out and building somestuff, and another company that
you guys all know, and I thoughtthat had a future. You know, a
lot of things imploded on that.
But again, you know, one of thethings that I realized, and this
is part of my dilemma is havinga job at my style. Like I
haven't had a job since I was18. And then kind of did a thing
(26:28):
with Gary, that was, uh, youknow, Gary Keller, that took a
job and, and that probablywasn't the smartest thing for
me. And I like havingindependence. And I like being
able to create my own way. And,yeah, I think there is no limit
to that, which is Who knew that?
(26:51):
That would not continue? Itseemed like a great idea. I love
being around smart people. Ilove being around. Glenn
Sanford, I guess you guys justdid a podcast with Glenn. I
mean, I love being around smartpeople. Let's face it, it's it's
just the rocks, right? To seesomebody who's really got it
together who's really doing bigthings has a big vision. You
know, we I get inspired bypeople like that. I know that
(27:12):
you guys, but you know, I getinspired by being around those
people. And so did I get where Ithought I was going? No. Am I
getting to a different place?
Which now feels like a greatplace? In a similar timeframe?
Yeah, probably so that all we'redoing between success and exp
these two worlds that we'reliving in? Both things are kind
of exploding. I mean, I mean,exploding, what kind of cat
(27:36):
away? I don't mean like blowingup. I mean, like, you know,
they're, they're really takenoff. So there's good stuff
happening. And I gotta say, Ifeel honored. And I'm really
thrilled that at this point inmy life, I have these things to
do. Like this is great stuff,you know, to give and teach and
coach and train and help anddevelop. And, yes, it's kind of
(28:00):
what I've been doing my wholelife.
Voiceover (28:05):
If you're enjoying this episode, please rate,
review, follow and subscribe tothe SUCCESS Coaching Podcast.
Alyssa Stanley (28:13):
You spent quite a few years with Jim Rohn
enterprises. And at one pointyou were running the entire
organization. Can you take usthrough what happened between
Jim Rohn and Hobbs/Herder andhow Hobbs/Herder actually came
to be a reality?
Don Hobbs (28:26):
Yeah, fun story. I knew I was going to be with Jim
Rohn. For freaking ever. I mean,I just loved the man. He was my
father figure. He was my fatherfigure. I mean, he was really
that to me, you know, is a veryimpressionable age. And he was a
great guy. And I love beingaround him, and I. And then he
got married to a woman thatunfortunately, she was, she was
(28:49):
running stuff from behind thescenes. So we'd make decisions
during the day, he'd go home thenext day, and come back and say,
Hey, I've been thinking aboutwhat we talked about yesterday,
I want to do that differently.
And I'd be like, Oh my gosh,really? Like, anyway, it was
clear to me that it was not myshow anymore. And so I didn't
know what to do with it. I mean,honestly, the one thing I would
(29:09):
say about that that occurs to meis, I didn't have the emotional
wherewithal to know how tohandle that situation. He was so
close, such a big part of mylife and to say, you know, like,
I feel ripped up by the factthat this woman has taken this
place that, you know, whatever.
So I resigned, I just quit. Ileft a little resignation. And
(29:31):
she called me the next day andsaid, Jim got your letter, He's
highly disappointed and, and itthe way you handle it, I said, I
don't know what else to do. No,Yvonne and adios. And, and so I
was looking for a thing, becauseto be honest with you, I didn't
have a plan. You know, it waslike, it wasn't like I went, I'm
going to develop a company andthen I'm going to figure out
what to do. And then I'll leaveJim Rohn and do that. I had no
(29:54):
clue. And so between those twopoints, there were a couple
people that had been involvedwith Jim through the years. And
I remember, you know, being kindof hiring one of them to be one
of my salespeople, Herder ofHobbs/Herder, fame, and then
another one that was doing aprogram and we started promoting
his programs. And to be honestwith you a funny story, we would
(30:16):
promote his programs, I was agreat promoter. I mean, I would
fill huge rooms full of people.
And then people would go, hisseminar sucked, you were really
good. But you know, because wewould do a presentation, right?
We'd go into an office or acompany, whatever, speak, and
then sell tickets, and they go,You were great. And so I started
going, you know, at least if Iwas doing my own programs, I
would change if they were notgood. And I think I've got
(30:38):
enough stuff that I could dothis. And so literally, I one
day just said, Screw it, we cando our own. And I said to her,
Do you want to start a company?
And we were kind of searchingKelly, to be honest with you. I
knew I didn't want to be JimRohn, Jr. I mean, it was, you
know, I'm much more comfortablewith using Jim stuff now.
Because he's in my head in myheart all the time. I mean,
(31:00):
there's no way I could gothrough days without having, you
know, dropping quotes andthinking things and going, the
moments that we had and thingsthat we did together. But at
that time, I didn't want to beJim Rohn, Jr. I didn't want to
have that I Ziglar was out therewere a few other people that
were training, and we teach intime management, teaching sales,
what are we teaching, and weknew that real estate seemed
(31:23):
like a natural niche. Andfrankly, in that timeframe, real
estate was coming into its own,it was a, it was when mom and
pops were moving into thefranchise world, and they were
consolidating. So there's a lotof movement, and a lot of
companies that were forming andbigness, you know, they were
starting to grow. And so wereally thought that was a great
(31:43):
opportunity for us. And westarted doing seminars that were
like, you know, time management,selling and, you know, three
keys to selling and sixsuggestions for marketing and
whatever. And this littlepersonal branding, personal
marketing idea, there was like30 minutes out of a whole day.
And we did do the little surveyat the end, right? What is July?
(32:03):
Would you get most would youlike most? Would you like the
least what would you change? Youknow, all that stuff. And people
go, that personal marketingstuff is amazing. Like, we never
thought about brandingourselves, who who does that?
You know, because at the timeeverybody was joining, they were
consolidating into Century 21,and wearing gold coats, they
were they were moving into thebig companies, we were going on
(32:24):
this is for Todd by name, youknow, you're screwed, you can be
part of the best company in thecountry, and it doesn't matter.
So that became the beginning ofit. And we we kind of rolled
that out, we just saw there wasa trend here. And we started
expanding that and expanding it.
And there was no I mean, I willsay this, if you go back, you
can check the dates out, go back1986. And you look at the
personal marketing stuff, justlook it up and figure out when
(32:48):
it started. There was not Idon't care if it was real
estate, I don't care wasfinancial services, I don't care
what you looked at, there wasnobody building a personal
brand. Everything was aboutcorporate. So our stuff was
pretty cutting edge. And we justkept extending it then became a
day of that, then it became twodays, then it became three days.
And of course, if you teach thatstuff, and people are the
(33:11):
impression people got that, thatyou know what they were left
with is if you brand yourselfand build your own brand inside
that space. Now it's I would sayit's true in any industry. But
for sure, in real estate, whatwould happen is you get these
calls going, Hey, come with myproperty, hey, we don't, we
don't know you, we we've seenyour stuff forever. And we just
want you to come in. So it'slike so easy. People just came
to the, to the agents, right?
(33:35):
And in real estate, it alwaysbeen call and call and call and
call you got to pick up thephone call, you got to go knock
on doors. And for the first timein history clients were flocking
to these realtors. So then wehad to deal with mindset,
because Would you allow yourselfto be seen? Like Will you allow
yourself to show up in a waythat people didn't? You know, it
(33:55):
wasn't bragging, it was justlike showing up as the
authenticity we're talking abouttoday. That's so common. That
wasn't at that time. And thesecond thing is, will you do you
know what to do with clients ifyou got three times as many or
five times as many? Like you'realready stressed out doing your,
you know, 12 units a year willget you 80 units a year? What
the heck do you do with that?
And literally people are goingfrom like, I just talked to some
(34:17):
of them today. And you know,program I did earlier this
morning. She did 2.7 million herfirst year one year later. 10
point 4 million. So that 400%increase, one year later, almost
20 million, one year later,almost 30 million. I mean, it
was like massive growth. Andthose are numbers that nobody's
ever heard of before in thattimeframe. And so we had to
(34:38):
teach them systems andstructures and really what we
came from too was finally we'reteaching people how to do
business instead of how to sellreal estate. Like we never got
into real estate sale. We nevereven taught people scripts or
any of that stuff. You know itwas Why do you need a script for
their calling and going Listen,let's my home You know, how do
you overcome objections? Whydon't get any objections. So
(35:01):
Hobbs/Herder was born out ofthat and listening to the
client, and watching the needand watching where people
respond. And, and then figuringout we were, we were smart
enough to figure that part out.
We were lucky enough to be atthe right place at the right
time.
Kelley Skar (35:18):
So I'm curious in between Jim Rohn and
Hobbs/Herder. You'd mentionedyour good buddy Tony Robbins.
Was there any ever ever anythought about joining Tony and
what he was doing?
Don Hobbs (35:30):
No, not not at all.
Kelley Skar (35:32):
No way?
Interesting.
Don Hobbs (35:34):
I knew too much about him at that time. No, he, he was
that was in his, that was in hisdays when he wasn't is easy to
get along with, his less evolveddays. He left a wake have a lot
of bodies at that time. I mean,again, you know, we, we probably
did, too, I'm just saying, I wasvery aware of Tony's tendencies
at that time, want to be veryclear, because he's a different
(35:55):
guy today. I mean, I, I loveTony and with all my heart, and
he's really a good guy. And sucha special man. I mean, almost
nobody that I've ever seen hastaken life to the level he has
even people that have moremoney, by far, he's the most on
purpose person, by far that I'veever met. Now, not so much at
that time. That never crossed mymind. In fact, the thought would
(36:16):
be, don't do that.
Kelley Skar (36:18):
Personal branding, I think is is such an
interesting conversation. I, youknow, I got into the real estate
business in 2007, and quicklybecame a disciple of Gary
Vaynerchuk, probably by about2010. And he is a contemporary
that was really talking aboutpersonal branding and utilizing
social media to do so you know,at that time, Twitter was
probably one of the largestsocial networks to help build
(36:40):
that personal brand. I'm stillover there. Not a lot of people
are still there. I've got like,3300 followers, and I just tweet
political stuff, because nobodylistens to it anyways. So it's
just a place for me to goinvent. You know, Instagram is
really big, you know, Facebook,maybe not so much anymore. How
do you see the personal brandingspace? Today's compared to, you
know, back in 1986? I mean,obviously, the technology is
(37:03):
different is are the principlesstill the same?
Don Hobbs (37:06):
Principles primarily, are the same, primarily, and
I'll talk about that, but Ithink the biggest thing is,
what's changed is, marketing wasa very expensive sport for a lot
of years. It was an expensivesport, if you were playing in
the big leagues, you know, Nikehaving to run massive amounts of
commercials. You know, today,that game has changed
(37:27):
completely. But personalbranding. There wasn't a lot of
outlets, people. That's whatpeople say, you know, I had
somebody introduced me today.
And they said, they were theywere great. They were the best.
They were amazing. And they werereally expensive. And I said,
No, we weren't expensive. Wewere expensive compared to what
Realtors were used to paying.
But if you'd gone into thepersonal if you went into the
marketing world, and you said,What is it gonna cost for a bank
(37:48):
to do a whole campaign? Youknow, it would have been
$150,000. And we were charging12 or something right. But it
was just radically different.
But for a Realtor. They neverthought in terms of spending
money like that. So what I wouldsay is, at that time, there was
such limited experiences. Imean, what did you have you have
direct mail? I mean, again,let's go back. It depends on
(38:10):
when you you know, the Goreinvented the internet. 92 I
think it was. So you know, thatthat's when something's changed,
because the email came along.
You know, Thanks for laughing.
So, you know, email changed somethings because that obviously
was part of the Vaynerchuk deal,right? Social media changed
(38:31):
everything. Because again, wedidn't know what it was. All we
knew was there was somethinghere, and we could get seen, but
nobody knew how to make moneywith it. I mean, now we're
starting to see it. And ofcourse, it's funny how we
figured out Facebook, and yetFacebook is kind of fading. I
mean, it's certainly gone. Butit's, it's on the Fade.
(38:52):
Instagram is next tick tock isnext, right that these next
platforms, what's next, but thegreat news is today, building a
brand is so much moreaffordable. And then there's the
concepts and that's what youasked about. How do you carry a
brand? I mean, people were outjust doing videos willy nilly a
phrase willy nilly. I never saythat, but they're doing it willy
(39:17):
nilly. And, and they're shootingvideos, but to what point to
what target to what, to whatcontent to what, why, why, why
that? Why, why why are we justdoing a mishmash of so much
stuff, instead of saying, What'smy target market? Who's my
avatar? I mean, if you reallywalk it down, that hasn't
changed, target strategy, thentools, will the tools are
(39:40):
changed, the mediums changed.
Media has changed. But the toptwo, they're the same. You gotta
have a target and you got tohave a strategy and where people
go so wrong today and you know,in the real estate space
clearly, one of the challengesWe have is that people are
(40:01):
selling stuff. So we're gonnabuy that guy's website or that
company's whatever. And that'sgonna fix my problem instead of
looking at what am I trying todo? Am I trying to appeal to?
And then how do I use this tool?
Oh, you know what this tool isnot the best tool for me doing
what I'm going to do, gettingthe people I want to get to,
that's not the best, what wouldbe better is something else. But
they don't have thosestrategies. And that's where I
(40:22):
really think the gap in, atleast in personal branding is
that's the big gap. Right? And,you know, if you throw enough
fame at it, I mean, some of the,the rock stars, the pop stars,
the actors and actresses, theycan get away with some of that
stuff. Some of the YouTubers,the tick talkers, you know, they
(40:43):
get away with some of that stuffin that they're building fame
and fortune, I was looking atsome of the the biggest, richest
YouTubers, and you know, 20-25,30-40-$50 million dollars, these
young kids, what do theyrepresent? You know, they've
built a following, and then theygo, Okay, now, somebody comes
along goes, hey, we'd like yourbrand. We'd like you to attach
(41:04):
to something. So that's one wayof doing it. But if you're in a
business, you got to figure outwho you're appealing to.
Otherwise, you better get reallyfamous and really big, so that
you get a lot of people'sattention, because otherwise you
ain't gonna make any money.
Kelley Skar (41:20):
Yeah, all really good points. I, I was listening
to the latest Joe Rogan podcast,he's got a guy on there named
Jimmy Corsetti, and he's got aYouTube channel that he started
back in, like 2016, his focuschanged. I mean, he was talking
about early on about how a lotof the videos that he was doing
early on, actually, he wound uptaking off of his channel,
(41:43):
because the the focus of hischannel, just completely, it
switched to change to what hetalks about today. And that's
ancient civilizations. And, youknow, he had goals of, you know,
a million subscribers or earningX amount of dollars off of ad
revenue. And he, he kind offumbled his way through until he
figured out what the formulawas. And exactly, to your point,
Don, he felt he figured out whatthe niche was going to be, or
(42:05):
the niche was going to be andkind of worked it backwards from
there, and then understood, thenwhat what how important the
thumbnails were how importantthe titles were, how important
or unimportant, the the writeups were, what the most
important thing was the actualcontent that he was that he was
putting out. Yeah, right. Yeah.
To that end, I think, you know,he's got it right now, because
he's, you know, he's got tonsand tons of followers, and he's
(42:27):
making big bank off of the adrevenue that he's generating,
you know, I talk to a lot ofagents about about this kind of
stuff on the regular and theysay, Well, I want to start a
podcast and I'm like, okay, toone end, I really like having
conversations. Okay, so what'sthe return on investment? Right,
you're going to, you're going tospend all this time talking to
people editing the content,uploading to all of these
(42:47):
different platforms, to maybeyour maybe not get listeners. So
to what end? Is it all you'redoing is wasting time? Right?
That's, that's the big question.
Right? To what end? Right.
Right. So yeah, no, I reallyappreciate. So it sounds to me,
like maybe perhaps theprinciples really haven't
changed it. The idea of personalbranding is figuring out like,
(43:08):
who you want to be, what youwant to be, what you want that
brand to represent, and what andthen working backwards, and then
understanding, especially today,that the mediums that you can
utilize to push the message inthe branding.
Don Hobbs (43:21):
Yeah, and I think at that point, you get into the
Russell Brunson stuff where hestarted talking about, are you
doing funnels? Are you doing FlyWheels? HubSpot talks about I
mean, what's your methodology,but again, that's all the stuff
that comes later. That's, that'sdown here. People go, I'm
signing up for, you know, I'mgoing to get involved in I'm
buying and like, why, what areyou going to do? I mean, you
didn't have a clue. And youknow, that you just talked about
(43:43):
niches, I use that word a lot.
But you know, there's there'sdefinitely reached riches in the
niches. Right. I mean, that's,that's one of the things I
became very aware of is that themore defined your marketplace
is, the more narrow focused itis, we often think we're gonna
end up giving up business. Andwhat in fact happens is we
actually attract more, becausewe're getting people who really
(44:07):
relate to what it is we'redoing. And whether it's real
estate, whether it's financialservice, I don't care what
industry to be honest with you,if you're running a small
business operation, if yourpresence is a part of it, and
look, I mean, I don't watch alot of TV and can't say that
there's a lot of commercialslike this anymore. But if you
think about how peoplerepresented their auto
(44:27):
dealership, or how theyrepresented their, whatever, it
was a personality, like, youknow, we'd see these people on
TV and go, I'm going down to seehim. You know, it's like that
that was the essence of personalbranding was making sure people
connected to you. And so that'swhere it really comes down to
and of course, you know, a lotof realtors want to tell people
how great they are. A lot ofpeople in financial services
(44:48):
want to tell about what they'regoing to do for them. It's not
about that I can can I relate toyou? Do I like you? You know,
like, you know, you trust you?
Right? Those are the three we'vealways talked about. And the
fourth When is remember you? DoI even have a freaking clue you
exist. One thing that'sinteresting about that is, you
know, people have talked aboutTony Robbins because they know
(45:09):
we're friends. And they go. Sowho's the next Tony Robbins? I'm
like, I don't know if there isone. And it's not because
there's nobody else like, Tony.
It's because it's about themarketing. Because the market
has been so segmented, there'sso many people that are going to
see a trainer or a coach ofcoaches, who then teaches people
how to, you know, have theirlittle funnel and, and so you
(45:31):
look at people and I get askedall the time, do you don't you
know, so and so I'm like, No,and I look him up, and he's got
like, you know, 15,000followers, I mean, he's not a
big deal, or she's not a bigdeal on the world. But they're
real big deal in that person'sworld. And they've got their own
little mini followings. And ofcourse, you can make plenty of
money doing that. I mean,there's plenty to be made. But
(45:51):
it's not going to be the Tonyshow, it's not going to be that
it's not going to be thatgrandiose. And I don't know that
there's room for that anymore.
Because the market has been sosegmented. I don't think anybody
will ever come out. That's adifferent generation. It's a
different era that I think we'releaving behind.
Alyssa Stanley (46:13):
So Don, where can our listeners find out more
about who you are? And how canthey contact you?
Don Hobbs (46:18):
Uh, you know, don@success.com is probably the
easiest one. And I've got acouple of different, you know,
companies and involvements.
don@expertpartners.com isanother one, but they're gonna
find me. I mean, I'm, you know,pretty easy to find. And you
check my social out the Real DonHobbs on Instagram. I'm not hard
to find, and I put my phonenumber everywhere and people
(46:40):
call me on myself. And I'm notyou know, I've just, I've always
been pretty easy to reach and Ijust don't believe in in hiding
out. So if anybody wants to,many won't want to, but they do.
I'm here.
Voiceover (46:55):
The lightning round.
Kelley Skar (46:57):
All right. So this takes us to the lightning round.
This is one of our favoritesegments of the show. So I'm
going to fire off a bunch ofquestions for you. You're going
to answer kind of off the top ofyour head.
Don Hobbs (47:07):
Oh, boy.
Kelley Skar (47:09):
Number one, what is your favorite word?
Don Hobbs (47:13):
Success.
Todd Foster (47:14):
Oh, I thought you'd maybe you could say Todd.
Don Hobbs (47:15):
Todd Foster. There you go.
Todd Foster (47:17):
There we go.
Don Hobbs (47:19):
My favorite word. I'm sorry. I wasn't, I wasn't
thinking, you said word I didn'tthink of name. My favorite name
would be Todd Foster. Myfavorite word would be success.
And I run them synonymous. Imean they're really joined at
the hip.
Todd Foster (47:33):
Yeah.
Kelley Skar (47:34):
Yeah. Alright.
Question number two. Who do youtext the most?
Don Hobbs (47:38):
Who do I text the most I text? Hmm. Ben, maybe? I
don't know. Allison. Probably.
She's right upstairs now. Butwhenever she's here, I still
text her. So probably probablyAllison.
Kelley Skar (47:49):
Question number three. What is your go to past
time?
Don Hobbs (47:52):
It's going to be either fly fishing or golf. I
happen to live on the harborhere. So I'm, I'm learning to
catch big tarpan in Puerto Rico.
And of course, we have two golfcourses right outside here. So
those are my favorite things.
Kelley Skar (48:05):
I think we're gonna have to somebody who's gonna
have to host a SUCCESS Coachinggetaway in Idaho maybe, we got
fly fishing and golf in Idahoright?
Todd Foster (48:14):
Idaho? How about Puerto Rico?
Kelley Skar (48:16):
Puerto Rico would be better? Yes, absolutely.
Especially middle of winter.
Don Hobbs (48:19):
Yeah, for sure. You guys are always welcome.
Kelley Skar (48:22):
What is your favorite word in another
language?
Don Hobbs (48:24):
Amore!
Kelley Skar (48:26):
Oh, that's a good one. Last one. Question number
five. What was your favoritesubject in school?
Don Hobbs (48:32):
Oh my gosh. My favorite subject in school was
not Latin. Let's see my favoritesubject in school was actually
math. Hated history andcertainly hated Latin.
Todd Foster (48:46):
Wow.
Kelley Skar (48:47):
Latin? They didn't even teach Latin when I was in
school.
Todd Foster (48:50):
It's a dead language.
Don Hobbs (48:51):
Yeah, it's kind of a dead language for sure. I was
supposed to be a doctor. I wasgoing to take Latin because they
told me all that Latin wouldhelp me with my my getting my
doctorate.
Todd Foster (49:00):
What has been your favorite pair of shoes you've
ever owned?
Don Hobbs (49:04):
That's a great, you're catching me. I could say
that my Michael Jordan's I gotsome old school Michael Jordan's
with the you know the cool likethey're almost vinyl that I have
now. I got reds and blacks. Myprobably my favorite pair that
had the most story behind it wasa pair of Nikes that were
yellow. I had season tickets tothe Lakers for all the Kobe and
(49:25):
Shaq years. And I used to havemy seats were first by the
tunnel where they'd all walk outlater we're at half court, but
I'd have the Lakers would comeand rub my shoes for good luck
every night. And of course wewere winning like crazy. So they
they started to believe and Istarted to believe and I could
get I could literally say theshoes are in the house and and
some of the players would lookup and point to me and you know
(49:47):
that they knew that that thatpair of shoes was was what was
making them this win streak. Soclearly, I had I have a big part
in Laker history. Threechampionships were mostly my
responsibility because of thispair of shoes.
Todd Foster (50:02):
You may need to go back because they are not doing
very hot right now.
Don Hobbs (50:07):
They're not and and it's a shame I'm in Puerto Rico
because I can't help them. Ijust can't help.
Voiceover (50:14):
Thanks for listening to this episode of the SUCCESS
Coaching Podcast. If you'veenjoyed this episode, please
follow or subscribe to theSUCCESS Coaching Podcast at your
favorite podcast provider. Forspecial access to past
recordings, videos of pastepisodes, and more, please
become a SUCCESS CoachingPodcast Companion at
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