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A
The whole side of my foot is cut. Like the whole side. And it's me. It's my foot, it's my body. She ran me over. Long story short, blood is everywhere. Everybody's screaming. My dad runs over, pulls me out, my shoes halfway ripped off. Blood is everywhere. I mean, it looked like a. Like a thriller, psycho freaking movie. And my dad takes his shirt off, wraps up my foot, puts me in the car, and we race like 100 miles an hour to a hospital that's probably an hour and a half away. People who molest children. What was the number one thing that you looked at before you decided to take a target out on a child? My manager pages me to the tower, and he goes, andy, do you know how much money you just made? You just made $1,700. Let me tell you something. Payrolls tomorrow morning. So you're going to get seventeen hundred dollars check tomorrow morning. Plus you won high gross of the month. Andy. He's like, you hit the biggest gross of all month in our dealership. Your very first car deal, and that's going to give you 500 cash in the morning.
B
Welcome to In Search of Excellence, where I get to meet some of the most talented, successful people in the world. My guest today is Andy Elliott, who went from the least likely to succeed as a kid to becoming one of the most successful coaches and best coaches in history. He's coached over 600,000 people and over 13,000 companies. Well, Andy, thanks for being here. Welcome to the church of excellence. Your story is amazing. And I always start my show with our parents, so I want to go back to. To the seventh grade. When you were living with your dad, you grew up broke, broken household. And you and your dad had this fight and. Tell us about the fight. And then this fishing trip that never really happened.
A
Yeah. So. Well, so my mom left when I was two years old. Right? Which it's not a victim story, but like, so she leaves. And by the way, my mom and my dad get a divorce when I'm two years old, she leaves. So my dad divorces or she bails. She gets custody of my two sisters. You know what I'm saying? Right? And my dad takes me and we get separated for about two years. And then one day, my mom, she calls my dad, and I guess I'm about four at this time. And she's like, come get him. I'm sick of them. And so that. That's my mom, just so you're aware, like, she's an alcoholic. She was always putting her head through the wall, guys coming in the house. It was a bad place for my sisters. So my dad. We drive down there, pick up my sisters, bring him back. So I really didn't. Don't know mom, But I knew that every couple years, I'd get a phone call, right? And it would be like, hey, if you ever want to come to Ohio, like, the. You know, the Great Lakes are here. We go fishing. Like, it's so cool. And so, like, she. It would be, like, once every couple year, call, right? And it would be like the cell of, like, Hope. Like, she's a cool mom. Whenever. Maybe she wasn't drinking or whatever. And then. So seventh grade, I'm. Testosterone's flowing, right? I'm hitting puberty. I'm in seventh grade. I'm chasing girls. And my dad's like, no, you're not going out. And I'm like, no. And I get into this big fight with my dad, and it's just part of, like, dad's son growing up. And I was like. That was after I'd gotten one of those phone calls from my mom about three weeks earlier, and she was like, come down here. Go fishing. You know, I'm your mom. I miss you. You know, it'd be so cool. I've never seen her. It's like a theory in my head, you know what I'm saying? I mean, last time I saw her, man, maybe was a kid one time, and so I threw her in my dad's face. And I'm like, hey, man, I'm like, dude, listen. I'm just gonna go live with my mom, you know, because that's what you say, because you want to hurt somebody, right? I'm just thinking, I can attack my dad here. And, you know, and we were all a broken home. I mean, there was always a different stepmom in the house. I mean, there were step kids in the house.
B
I mean, wasn't he married seven times?
A
A lot of times. Jerry Springer show, for sure, right? Like, it was full Jerry Springer. But the biggest thing is, is that my dad, he goes and he. And sometimes it's good when your kids, you know, test you. Like, okay, call them out. Cool. Let's go see how that works. And so my dad did that for me, and it was really good because it set the tone for a lot of things. And it showed me that, you know, dad, you know, like, even though we had a Jerry Springer family, my dad was still. He's still there with us, right? He never left us. He was always there with us as crazy as it was, as broke as we were, all the wild stories, he never left. He was always there with us. And anyways, I. He's like, okay, cool. We'll. We'll fly you out to see your mom. If that's what you want, that's fine. And I remember. I was like, dude, this is going to be awesome. So I remember just one call. My mom, she's like, hey, you're going to fly out here. I'm going to pick you up from the airport. We're going to take you. Where do you want to go? I was like, I want to go fishing. She's like, cool. We're going to take you to Lake Erie. We're going to go fishing. We're going to catch walleye. You're not going to believe this. Most beautiful stuff. We're gonna have the greatest time you've ever. I'm like, dude, this is awesome. My mom is the best. And so we. We catch a flight to Ohio. I've never been on a plane. As soon as I land, my mom picks me up. Remember, she starts bawling. She's like, oh, my gosh, my son. We get in her car, we drive to the gas station, and she's like, hey, I remember. I think we bought some worms or something. And she's like, you know, get you a drink. I'm gonna go to the bathroom. We'll go fishing. And so anyways, I bought me a drink, and I was probably, you know, 12 or 13. And I remember I was sitting in the car, and I probably sat in the car for 45 minutes or an hour, and she never came out. And so, you know, you're in another state, right? You know, you're a kid. I mean, this is, you know, this is. This is in the 80s. I mean, you remember, right? Like, you know, everybody was smoking everywhere. I mean, it was just like, back in the old days, you know, kids used to ride their bikes, never come home for days, you know, like, I mean, that was our life anyways. It was just crazy. And I remember sitting there, and I was like, hey, can, you know, can you go check on my mom, you know, like, in the bathroom? And I remember this lady walked in there, and she's like, yeah, there's a lady passed out on the floor. And I remember I walked in and there's two bottles of vodka laying on the floor, and she's passed out. And that was the trip. And so, you know, social service picks me up and takes me back to the airport, flies me back home to my dad. And I was like, man, okay, so my mom's a loser. Listen, even if she's watching this, like, she. Like, she's a loser. Like, she's. She's. You can't. She's. She's someone who doesn't help, and she says, such a bad perspective. We've tried to help her our whole life, and every time we do, it's always ended up being our fault. And, you know, anyways, everybody has that person in their life.
B
So growing up with a single dad for most of your life. I want to talk about. You mentioned.
A
Well, he was always in a relationship. Yeah, but, like, the stepmoms were crazy.
B
Talk about the smoking. My mom smoked, too. And back in the day, smoke in the car and, you know, coughing out, like you said before. And it just. I get these migraine headaches, and sometimes it takes an epiphany for something in our family for one of our parents to change. So tell us about when your sister ran you.
A
Yeah. Did you hear that story? Hey, I knew that you were. You. You felt like you were sitting in the car with me when I was telling that story, right?
B
I did, because I. And to this day, the smell of cigarette smoke, I'm allergic to it. People, I mean, my wife is over there, will say, if someone's smoking in a restaurant or we're downstream and Europe is the worst place to go. Right. Because people are smoking. I can't sit there. And for someone else, they don't like it. For me, it does something to my brain where it makes me physically sick.
A
Yes, Me, too. It gives me a migraine. I don't get migraine headaches, only with that smell. And it takes me back to the car and. So it's like ptsd.
B
That's exactly what it is.
A
Yeah. It's like PTSD of war and. But I remember my dad. So. So, you know the cars we drove? We drove. They were. No air conditioner. You're in A. You're 100 degrees in Oklahoma. It's just hot. It's humid. And there's. And there's chain smoking one after another. And I remember my dad, he's chain smoking one after another. And I remember I was like, dad, can we please crack the window? My head is killing me. I hate the smell of smoke. I feel like I'm sick. And back then, no one cared. Remember that? Like, were the parents shut up A different generation? Were the adult. Yeah. Like now I told somebody, now, if I was to spank my son in public, I would go to jail.
B
Right.
A
Used to get the hell beat out of you in public. And they were like, beat that, kid. You know, it was a whole different thing now. And. But I just remember, though, that I asked my dad so many times, can we please crack the window? Dude, I wasn't asking him to stop smoking. I said, can you crack the window? And he was like, I'm the kid or I'm the dad. No. And long story short, you said, don't wait for something bad to happen before you change. And most people, they do wait for something bad to happen. They're in a good relationship with somebody, something's amazing, they're doing something stupid. They don't think that there's an effect to it, and boom, something happens. They're like, oh, my God, I should have straightened up. Or, you know, I. I can just think about this so many times in my life. But this time, we were on our way out to this land. My dad had this dream of putting this trailer out on this piece of property. And my sister was 10 years old, and her. Her job that day was to mow this big field with a riding lawnmower. And you know what riding lawnmowers are, right? She sits on it. They mow the whole field down. And I'm four years old. She's six years older than me. My older run. And I'm chasing behind her, like, so she's mowing a path through this field, and I'm just, like, following her. And she comes up on this stump, and then she decides to put it in reverse and back up because there's a log that she hit, and when she did, I was behind her. And so she backs up over me, and you hear this, and it's me. It's my foot, it's my body. She ran me over, and she didn't mean to. Is this an accident? Long story short, blood is everywhere. And by the way, the lawnmower is on me. And so everybody's screaming. My dad runs over, pulls me out, my shoes halfway ripped off. Blood is everywhere. I mean, I'm talking, like, I remember yesterday, everybody was covered in blood. I mean, it looked like a. Like a thriller, psycho freaking movie. And my dad takes his shirt off, wraps up my foot, puts me in the car, and we race like, 100 miles an hour to a hospital that's probably an hour and a half away now because it was so far away. And the whole side of my foot is cut. Like, the whole side. Like, it's like. It cut my toe off, but the whole side of my Foot is cut wide open. It's like a razor blade. If you cut yourself, you know how bad you bleed. But it's also gravity going down. Dude, I'm bleeding out. And so I remember when I got to the hospital, the doctor had grabbed me and I was like yellow. And my dad goes, or the doctor said to my dad, he said, hey, there's a good chance your son's gonna die today because he's just bled out. Like, we're gonna pump him full of blood, we're gonna sew him up. But like, dude, your son has bled out and there was blood everywhere. And I remember hearing that, but I remember my dad falling to his knees. My dad starts crying. Obviously any parent to hear that you're son could die, you're going to start balling. This is the thing, we wait for something bad to happen. And I remember I go into surgery, I come out six hours later and my dad is there waiting when I come out and he said, hey, I'm never going to smoke again. And so he, and he never did that day he quit. So, you know, so I always tell people, I'm like, man, like, you know, like it, you know, like, like that's usually how life goes. You know, someone's got to lose someone before they straighten up.
B
Yeah. It took my grandmother, who is my hero, who died two years ago, died at 104 years old, for her to have breast cancer, for my mom to quit smoking. I mean, it's very hard to quit, right? I've never smoked, I would never smoke. It's disgusting to me as it is to you. But like you said, it takes, it takes a major near catastrophe or catastrophe.
A
Everyone has vices, right? I mean, honestly, like, and I'm not going to go up to now, but like one of my vices that I found out, you know, about five or six years ago, being successful meant so much to me. Just doing, doing well, proving everyone wrong who ever doubted me in my whole life that I almost destroyed my whole family working too hard. I just, I mean again, you smoke and I think that I, there's never. I have to work, I have to win. That's the only way I fill that deal. And you know, I changed that. But like, you know, I didn't. I was too one dimensional back then. But my, my point is, well, we'll.
B
Go back to the smoking and growing up without money you stole. Speaking of smoking a Marlboro raft and you slept out of the Marlboro raft as a kid. So tell us about that experience. And and why you did it. And do you ever think back today, now that you're super successful? Think back, like, holy fuck, I slept on this raft.
A
Yeah, dude. I mean, no one was around. There was no parent supervision. I. I say this all the time. We were kids, raised by kids. Like, I don't ever remember anyone being home. I don't know. Like, I mean, just. Kids were always there. We were always there. Our house. My dad. So my dad bought a new home, right? Which was unreal. And. And we. We got. But there was no air conditioner in it. And so because there's no air conditioner, it's 120 degrees. It's in Oklahoma. It's like. It ended up becoming like an oven. You know what I'm saying, right? Like a home with no air. You can only imagine after time, like, it becomes. You know, and then there was only guys. There was no. My dad had stepmoms coming in and out, you know, here and there, but it was always dirty. It was. It was just like. You know, there was no manners. There was no. It was like, just. I was raised, like. It's just like. It almost like in a Twilight Zone, you know, If I look back at it now, but. So me and my brothers look around, and there's fiddlebacks all in our house. And obviously in Oklahoma, brown recluse, black widows, fiddlebacks, they're very, very poisonous.
B
What's a fiddleback, by the way?
A
A fiddleback has a back that looks like a fiddle. It's called a brown La Cruz, I think, is what it is. We show a picture of it, and if they bite you, good chance most people die. We had them everywhere in our house. I would be sleeping, and I'd be like. And I'm like, oh, spider. And I just remember one night, like, I kept killing spiders on me and do the whole house. I mean, what are you gonna do, say, dad, we need to spray the house? I mean, I don't even understand what that looks like. You know what I'm saying? But me and my brother were like, we're gonna go sleep in the pool. And so there was this. This is hilarious. There was. And by the way, we had this little tiny raft. But we remembered down the road at the 7:11, the circle K, whatever, they had this huge marble raft, right? And we literally stole it and ran out of the store with it just so we could sleep on it. And so we did. I mean, I was probably. I don't know, I was probably in fifth grade, something like that. Sixth grade. And so he Was probably in third grade. And so we grabbed it, ran home about a mile and then we put it in. We had this lagoon looking green, nasty algae pool, which we slamming every day because we didn't know. You know what I mean? Like, dude, this is like swimming in a pond. You know, in Oklahoma you just swim in ponds. It's pond in our backyard. And we literally put the raft in the middle of that thing. And we slept every night, just every night, slept under the stars, just.
B
And it was like a waterbed almost.
A
Yeah, it's like a waterbed and sweating, but it was cool, man. All summer long we slept on that raft, you know, didn't even think twice about it.
B
You know, during our childhood. We all have a crush on people throughout our lives, and they have big impacts on our life. I remember there was a girl named Jill Blade in kindergarten. I had the biggest crush on her. And I. I don't remember what I did, but in the sixth grade, you were not in the best shape of your life. At some point you had what I think you said chunky boobs. Yeah, I was a little chunky cellulite.
A
I had like cellulite all over my stomach. I was. So my. My family, I'm. I'm really big into fitness now and it's. My family is like 300 to 400 pounds. Some of are all big, all stomach surgeries, all very big people. And so I know what happens if I don't take care of myself. And as a kid, I was a very, very chunky, chunky kid. And, you know, I didn't really know because everyone else is, you know, like, when you're brought up like, no one was in fitness and all that stuff in my family. And so.
B
And there's a girl that comes in the equation and a talent show.
A
Like girls. Yeah, you start to like girls. And in sixth grade, I like this girl. Her name was Jennifer. And I remember she did this talent show deal. And I swear she looked like she was a senior in high school. I mean, I couldn't believe it. I was like, oh my gosh, I'm in sixth grade. This girl's amazing. And that was my first. Like, I like girls, but that was like my first, like, oh my God, I love her. Like, I need her. I have to have that girl. And. And I walked up and I was like, hey, you know, will you go out with me? And she's like, yes. You know, do the little paper deal, the notepass. We, we, whatever. And anyways, for a week, she was my girlfriend. And I remember, dude, I never felt so, so special in my life. She was definitely the hottest girl in the school by far. And I never, I wasn't popular, I was always poor. I was wearing the same two pair of clothes every day. I knew that, you know, she was like way above me, right? But like I had the courage to ask. I got it. And then one day she just up, she says, hey, you know, I'm going to break up with you and I'm going to go out with this guy. What's funny is this guy today is very fat, he's out of shape and he's an alcoholic. It's so crazy how, how underdogs come up and things switch. Ugly girls become hot when they get older. You know, hot girls get ugly when they're old. It's so weird how things can switch and change through life. But I, but I just a story told at that time. I was a big chunky kid. I was very insecure. But I asked a question, it was a very good question. I said, why? Why are you breaking up with me? And she said, because he has a six pack. And you know, you've seen all my six pack, you're fired. And the things that I've gotten triggered by in my life. And I said, astro, I said, what is that? And she showed me. And this kid had abs and he's in sixth grade. And I'm like, well, I want abs. And I was a long ways away from getting abs and, and I went psycho, brother. That was my first sign of recreation, total recreation. Being reborn, reinventing yourself. You've done it as a man many times through your life. Women, men do it. Anybody does it before they're going to get a breakthrough. And I recreated, I ran around my neighborhood every day for about four months. I ran every day. I ran, I ran, I ran. I did sit ups all day long, I did push ups. And I didn't see my body changing, I couldn't see it. But I was, had so much pain from like, from like the rejection feeling that I felt from that girl that like I looked up and after four months, dude, I was, I was shredded. I mean, I'll give you a picture, we put it up here. But I had an eight pack. I was shredded. I was lean going into the seventh grade and I was after revenge, dude. I wanted to burn her eyes out.
B
Seventh grade, I'd come home crying every day, stuttered like you, I want to talk about that. Big time stutter. I mean, I went through speech therapy and we'll talk about this in a few minutes. But I used to come home crying every day from school, you know, felt like a loser, people making fun of me. It was brutal. And my mom would say back then as well, you know, the cool kids today are not going to be the cool kids tomorrow. You're going to be a successful. And you look back one day and you look at all these other kids and it's going to. It's going to be a little bit flipped. And of course, it's hard to believe that back then, yeah, it is impossible. I mean, you can't see it even till the next day. But tell us about stuttering for you and, and how you got through it. And at what point did it start and at what point did it end?
A
Well, I stuttered my whole life. I mean, I remember just trying to say what I would be like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. And I remember they used to make me try to have to give like, like your class essay or whatever. And I just hated that, man. My face got so red, I couldn't talk because obviously I stuttered. So I was like, super insecure, right? It was very embarrassing, you know, but you had to do it. And I just hated it, man. I hated it. I hated it. I hated the way I thought about myself. Getting in shape, honestly, was the first time in my life I ever felt confident. Like, at that time, I was like, dude, I can, like, I can do. Like, I believed in me, like, and. And no one else had to believe in me. As a matter of fact, I don't believe that anyone even believed in me but me. Getting in shape. I remember I started getting in better shape than everybody else. I didn't even play a sport. I became addicted to this running and sports and all this stuff. And you say, what does that do to stuttering? At that time, I wanted to start liking girls, but I couldn't beat that stutter. And I.
B
What age are we talking here?
A
I'm seventh, eighth grade. You know, I. I didn't beat it until I got into sales at 18. I didn't beat stuttering altogether. And how I beat it was actually pretty neat. And anybody can beat it like this. I started learning and developing word tracks. So someone would say, like, I need to think about it. And I would be like, I don't know what to say. And then my manager would say, well, this is what you say when someone says that. And I would learn it verbatim exactly how he told me to say it. And I would have to write it down like 20 times. On a piece of paper. And then I would say it, like, a hundred times, and then I would say it with the tonality that he used, and I just, like, said it. And I think that learning those word tracks allowed me to think about what I was going to say before I even said it. And then I was like, dude. My brain started to jump ahead even faster than my words and started to correct myself. And then if I started to feel like I was going to stutter, I could actually pause, like, with, like, tonality, and no one would even know that I was about to stutter. And I could trick everyone. And I started to learn me. I think the hardest thing in this world is to learn yourself. That's the hardest thing. And no one ever does this. People go through their whole life, and they never go down the journey of learning themselves. I learned myself when I got a six pack in seventh grade. I learned myself at 18 when I got into cells. And then I Learned myself at 39 years old when my wife said she learned to live without me. Three major recreations that I can fully remember, probably many versions at many different times, but for. For sure, three times that I can completely remember transforming and changing everything.
B
I mean, you mentioned your face getting all right, I. I have nightmares. But now they're good mares, because it helps motivate you who you are. But I remember my English teacher, Gus Seeger, pulling me aside. This was a ninth. Ninth or tenth grade. And he said, you don't have to give this speech if you don't want to, because everyone was going to laugh. I mean, it's awkward laughter. You're bullied. Anyway, I wasn't a cool kid. And I just remember the pain and suffering from all that. And I had to learn a new way to speak. I practiced a new way of speaking one hour every night. And I remember. I remember riding in the car with my speech therapist to McDonald's, pulling up to the window and being able to order a hamburger for the first time. It's like, yeah. And then, you know, you build on it, and you know that that pain motivates you to do better and to work harder. And, you know, here I am today, and, you know, I made that look back at all the kids who made fun of me. And, man, we're living different lives.
A
So crazy, man, so crazy even to remember that. I mean, you don't ever forget it, but, like, no. Like, it's like going. Going back to that.
B
Yeah.
A
Like, it's almost like another human.
B
Yeah. And you know what? I gave that speech, and I did it, and everyone made fun of me, and I knew it was coming, and I took it.
A
Yeah.
B
It helped me. Help me make. Make me who I am today.
A
That's so crazy, man. I feel sorry for anybody that doesn't have to go.
B
Yeah.
A
Through this kind of pain. I always say, what people don't have as a kid, they crave as an adult.
B
Yeah.
A
Right. And I always wanted to be able to talk to people.
B
Yeah.
A
Communicate, inspire. You know, that stuff wasn't even in the cards, right.
B
Yeah.
A
But it shows how resilient that humans are.
B
Yeah.
A
And how much people can change.
B
Yeah. I remember going to group therapy. Eventually, my speech was getting better, and my speech therapist would have this group on Thursday nights, and we'd sit around for two hours, and my speech was getting a lot better and a lot. I think six of eight people just couldn't even speak. I mean, they couldn't get past the. And you can see their face. And, you know, you're in a group of people like that, and no one's flinching. No one's laughing. And it just. It makes you feel like you're. You're part of the tribe, for lack of a better word, part of the group. And I think that group being around similar, situated people and made everybody better.
A
Dude, I got a guy that works for me in my media department, and he stutters. Right.
B
What do you tell him?
A
Well, every time, if you're like. I'm like, stop. Say what? And he'll say, I'm say, say what? We're not going to go until we do this. Me and him, we go all. And he says what? I say, all right. Say it again. What? Say it again. What? Say it again. What? All right, now go. All right, what should we do? There you go. That's it. That's it.
B
Is it working for him?
A
Yeah.
B
Is it going to speech therapy outside?
A
No, just every day I talk to him, I, like, I just stop him. And I'm like, bro, like, we're not in a hurry. Like, I got you. Like, we're gonna roll through this. And I promised him. I said, dude, you're not going to stutter anymore when you're done, like, I'll be. We'll beat it together. 100. Sure. But there's extreme cases of stuttering, and there's certain words. The W was a big one for me. And even to today, like, I get up, I can speak super fast. Like, so fast, people can't even understand me. I can just. And I won't Stutter at all. But I know even three sentences before I'm about to stutter. I can smell it coming.
B
I got it.
A
Do you know what I mean?
B
I got it.
A
Like, you can feel like owls for.
B
Me are, you know, the ace.
A
But you know, when it was coming, it's like almost knowing that, like, if you had Tourette's, right, that you were going to like Tourette. It's like I can see it and I'll change the patterns and the thoughts in my head and I'll go a different way.
B
I mean, when I landed the show today, like, fuck, I got Andy Elliott. How am I going to get the A down there? I was really. I was worried about it the whole time. I didn't even tell my wife. I was sitting there. Yeah, I sat there on the plane like, andy Elliott. I gotta think I'm gonna get the name on Andy Elliott and not stutter on that word.
A
But hey, just like that.
B
And by the way, I'm nervous. Like, I've tried to add you on my show now. I'm so excited. Thanks for being here. And yeah, it's like a year and am I going to start out stuttering and I can't say his name?
A
No, I got it. Listen, that's why I told you, like, I will literally be talking and speaking and I'm on stage and. Or anywhere and I can smell. I know, I know. Me so good. I've. The art of learning yourself, no one does it. No one does it. They learn their businesses, they learn things, but they don't learn themselves. And when you go down the journey of learning yourself, you become very, very dangerous. You can fix anyone. If you can fix yourself, you become one of the most unbelievable, transformational people in the world because you can just change anyone inside what's going on in your head. You're under. In the mechanics of fixing your business. How you scaled and growed businesses bigger than most people could ever even imagine or fathom. Why? Because you can see. It's a superpower to be able to see around corners in business. Just be around, seeing around corners, see the unseen. You can see it and I can see where I'm going to make a mistake. Even in cells, I could see where I was going to get trapped here and I would pivot around there and, you know, it was just. I just. I knew myself so well. I could even smell other people when they were going to box me or trap me. And it's just crazy. It's always going into my head. It's just like I got ADD, ADHD, blah, blah, blah, whatever. It's like having 50 computer screens open in my head at one time. I just see all of them. I see all these conversations and. But I can smell when I'm getting T tied to a word. And everybody struggles with something, but, like, this is our thing. And it makes you not value yourself very well.
B
Well, when you're young, you don't even know how to handle it right? And like, back then, kids are different than today. You know, you get suspended or kicked out of school if you're bullying somebody, right? Back then, it was like, all right, man, don't do that, and I'll stop. And then they do it anyway. No one got in trouble for it.
A
Yeah, you got punched in the face. Who. Who cares? Now you get punched in the face. It's like I told my kid, my son's 14, and I was explaining to him when we grew up that they paddled the hell out of you. And my son's like, what? And I said, listen, let me explain this to you. Your teacher calls me right back when I went to school. We didn't get a phone call. The teacher called the principal. The principal wore you out with the paddle with holes in it. And your parents signed a permission. So I'm saying, if my kid steps out of line, swat em like, I'm like, bro, do you know how easy you have it? You guys think you have it hard? Are you kidding me? I mean, we had it crazy. You know, I remember I got beat every day.
B
So let's go back to high school. You never went to class. You cheated. You got these. And then tell us about the F5 tornado that blew everything out and let you graduate.
A
Yeah, so? Well, not having a leader, right? And back then I would say not having a parent home. Or we could say even. No one even wanting to invest usually. Listen, my wife is such a good mom. If we had a kid that didn't have a good mom or a good dad, my mom or my wife, I call her my mom because she's like my mom, but she. She'll step in and take care of that kid. And you see, like, good. Like, strong women, like good men. If a kid's lost, they'll. If they want to be a good kid, you'll see parents step in and help kids, right? Dude, no one ever stepped in for me. Like, so, like, not going to school, like, who cares? Making bad grades. Who cares? Report cards. Who cares? Don't even review them. I signed my dad's name on everything. Who Cares. There was no good. There was no bad. There was no reinforcement for good or bad. So it's just like, whatever, right? I didn't have a curfew since second grade. I never went home. No one asked. It's just like I said. When I say Jerry Springer, I mean, I'm like, laughing because, like, when I watch Jerry Springer, people are like, I can't believe that. I'm like, that was my life every day. Like, it was always something crazy. And so again, I was talking about tornadoes always happening in Oklahoma. More Oklahoma, which is where we lived May 5th, the biggest. So. Or May 3rd. Tornado, 1999. Biggest tornado in the history of the world. It's May 3rd, 1999. The movie the Twister was made around this. This movie.
B
That movie, by the way, gave me nightmares. And I'm afraid of tornadoes.
A
Yeah. But I was at that video, though. I was. That video. I chased that video in. In my. In my truck with my dad. My $400 truck. Me and my dad chased it. We were sitting on top of our roof, right? And the tornado's coming in. It's five, six miles wide. And it's like. It's like, okay, everything's going out. So me and my. And they were like. And the guy's yelling at the time, the news guy, he's like, get underground or you're dead. And you can tell the guy's like, flipping out. And we've seen, like, people flip out. Like, by the way, we're so dumb. My daddy have a damn storm shelter. So what do we do? We get in the truck, and my dad's like, we'll just drive around the back street. We're good. We'll go around it. I have no idea. But we made it around it, and we came in right behind it. And sure enough, our house was flattened. I mean, when I say flat, I mean everything was flat. Like, completely flat and gone all the way through our. Our high school. So if you had passing grades during this tornado, right, because it's like an act of God war, whatever they call that area, if you were in it when it happened, you just got to graduate because it was May 3rd, and that was grad time, so you didn't have to take your semester test or whatever. I had, like, 60s on everything. So I'm not Fs, I'm 60s, and you can roll right across that stage with Ds. So I graduated. I have no idea. I didn't have Fs, but I had D. So I graduated. I didn't Even I don't remember ever even walking. I think they mailed it to me because I didn't show up. But the main deal is I graduated. Now I had to get a job. And I remember I worked construction. Since the whole town was just destroyed. I got into construction for 30 days. And I mean I work from. I work seven days a week, you know, 15 hours a day. And I was like, dude, this sucks.
B
What's with people who chase tornadoes? Especially an F5 tornado that killed hundreds of people. It's sort of like, isn't that the same thing as jumping into the ocean where there's a school of great white.
A
Sharks there, Leader, leaderless.
B
Do you.
A
I wasn't.
B
Do you have a death wish to go do that?
A
Well, you know what's crazy is I didn't even think that people would die. Like, like, like I'm like unaware, you know, like one of the most.
B
You know, they say it's so loud though, isn't it?
A
It was super loud. It was like a train. It was like a train running through everything. But you know, like ignorance, right? Like, you got to remember, man, if no one ever said what's good, what's bad. Dude, my dad never. We never went to church. We never. I mean, there's no like community we plugged into. It was, it was whoever was on the streets, was in the streets. I mean, I would go from getting jumped into a gang one week to the next week trying to figure out how to. I mean, dude, I was like, I was like that stray kid running around. And that's why I said, I told my wife, I said, I'm surprised no one ever took me in. Right? Like, like, so at some point there was a lot of kids. One of those mothers, man, mothers are normally the ones that are like that kid, come here. You're going to be a good kid. Come with me. No one ever took me in. And so that's why when I met my wife, I was like, oh yeah, like she's, she was the only person that like took care of me.
B
You did construction for a month. You were cleaning up 200 bucks a day.
A
Yeah, 200 bucks a week.
B
200 bucks a week. I mean, so 200 bucks a week.
A
Yeah.
B
Tell us about the day you are at your best friend's house and you meet his older brother and then tell us about a lay down and what that is and what happened from that point and on.
A
Yeah, so sales changed my whole life, you know. It's crazy. Like no one ever knows what they're going to end up doing in the end, right? And so I always tell people, they're like, oh, I would never do that. And I'm like, dude, you have no idea what your future lies, how it's going to play out. But. But I did the construction deal, and obviously I just wanted to make money, which is what people did when they graduated. And my older brother, or my best friend's older brother said something that was very intriguing to me. And I never heard anyone talk like this in my life. I've never held more than $5 in my hand, not at one point in my life. So we were sitting there and he said, man, dude. He goes, andy, you ought to come sell for me. And I'm like, what do you mean? He's like, gotta come sell cars. He's like, dude, if you can get good, you can make $5,000 a month. As I'm hearing him say these words, $5,000 a month, I'm like, guy's a liar. Like, that doesn't even exist. Like, I'm like, so, like, if I would have. If I would have seen a thousand, like, I wouldn't even. My dad bought a truck when I was 16 years old with $400 cash. And I remember asking my dad for months, where'd you get that much money? Like, I don't understand the concept of, like, of cash, of money. It's just that we didn't have any. And I knew that for sure. And when he said $5,000 a month, I was like, dude, are you kidding me? I was like, I would do anything for an opportunity to do anything. And by the way, I hated construction, but I would have kept doing it because there was zero choice for me, okay? And so sales was my way out. My first job, my first day on the job. I remember walking into the dealership, by the way. So dad was a general manager of a Mercedes Benz store. His father had passed away with cancer. He was a very good man in the business. And his son was 23 years old and was the used car manager of a Nissan store. And so he. He was way smaller than me, right? And so I was a little bit bigger of a kid, and he. His dad was bigger than him. So he said I could wear his dad's clothes. So I remember putting his dad's clothes on, and they didn't fit me either. So I showed up and I'm like, in high. Like, high waters to here, but not, like, in a cool way. And, like, it's like, I. I don't belong. I mean, you can clearly tell, like, I'm a kid trying to show up for work. First day, look, stupid bleach, blonde hair, earring, you know, And. And he was like, hey, take your earring out. You know what I mean? And I remember I did that. He said, hey, I'm gonna have a sales meeting. Go sit out on the porch, which is like the front of the dealership. And he said, if somebody pulls up, just tell them we're in a meeting. Somebody be out with them in a minute. And I remember that was my instructions. I go outside. I remember I stutter. At this point, still, this is how cool sales is. This is why I tell everyone. I'm like, dude, sales is like the free enterprise system. Like, everybody. It's your way out. Automotive, whatever, any industry. I don't even care. You learn to sell. You're going to get rich if you get good at it. And it's. And everyone can become great at it. But I go outside, there was this old man that pulled up, and I remember that he said, hey. It was just like this. He said, hey, I want to look at that truck. And I was like, okay. And I walked over there, and I just. I didn't know what I was doing. And he. He pointed at the window, and he's like, go get this number right here. Clearly, the guy's bought a lot of cars in his life. I told my. My first dad, no idea what I'm doing. They're in a meeting. He's like, just go get this key. And so, like, he, like, told me what to do. I go inside and I say, hey, I need this key. I go back, the guy, one of the kids, gives it to me out of the key machine. I go back out, guy gets in the car, says, jump in. Let's go drive it. And I remember I talked to this guy for about 20 minutes.
B
He drove with this guy, and I.
A
Didn'T really know what we were doing, but, like, I just went on a ride. But he was cool, man. This is like a real. And I remember he was like, my grandpa. My grandpa was really cool. And he. My grandpa's a great man. He told me, he said. I remember I told him, I said, hey, you remind me of my grandpa, my pop pop. He's a great man. Like, you remind me of him. And he was like, that's awesome. Me and him kind of bonded in that car drive. And I guess that was building rapport at that point. I really understand what's going on. I pull up. As soon as I pull up, in front of the dealership, where he pulls up, he gets out, A salesman walks out and goes, hey, it's. Why don't you know, it's andy's first day, so I'm going to help him out from here. And the guy cuts him off and goes, hey, I like him. So I'm going to let him sell me the truck. I don't need you, okay? So I'm good. Like, I've bought a lot of cars before, so I'm going to stick with him. We're good. And I'm like, damn, I'm going to get fired on my first day, right? Because I don't really understand what's going on. But they're trying to get me a veteran sales guy, right? I go inside and I tell my. My best friend's older brother that this guy out here, you know, like, he likes this truck and he wants to buy it, but he wouldn't want to talk to this guy. And he said, just sit him down on a piece of paper, have him fill out this. This credit app, him fill out this thing. Let's see if he can buy something or not. And so that's what I did. I sat down, guy filled it out. I remember go back to my manager. My manager goes, this guy's gold. And I'm like, oh, well, gold. Gold's got to be good, right? And he's like, I want you to go fill this out. Ask him how he wants his car titled, and then we'll go from there. As I go and he's filling it out, this other salesman comes back in and goes, hey, sir, I'll kind of help you out. At this point, the guy goes, if I have to say this again, I'm gonna get up and leave. And I'm like, man, dude, like. Like, me and this guy are cool, but, like, we weren't that cool. But, like, I had built rapport with them. And I think the guy liked me. And I think because he knew it was my first day, he was, like, being like, he was protecting me, right? Like, maybe he was like, you know. You know, like, you show someone love. Like, God brought this guy to show me some love, man, because it was my first sale. But I call it a lay down. Because the guy didn't really give me a hard time. He was nice to me. He was kind to me. He didn't beat me up. And I really didn't act like I knew it all either. I was. I didn't know anything. I was just trying to serve him or help him or whatever it is I was even doing. Anyways, I take that piece of paper I filled out. My manager goes, all right, Andy, go ask him if he wants to do option A or option B. A is this, B is this. And he basically put some terms that the truck would be. I have no idea what he even wrote down this piece of paper. But I go inside and I'm like, option A, Option B. He said. My manager said, just sign next to which one you want. And so let's act out you're my customer. And he goes. And he looked at me with this look. He goes, what's the interest rate? And I was like, the interstate. He's like, the interest rate. And I'm like, the interstate. And he's like, I mean, I had no idea what he was even talking about. How would I know what an interest rate was? I don't know. Money. I don't know nothing. I know nothing. I just remember that weird silence. And then he goes, I'll do B. It's fine, man. And I just got up and I walked back to my manager and I go, he'll do option B. I don't understand any of this. I thought about it later and I'm just a dumb kid and guy was being nice to me. And long story short, my manager goes no ways. And I'm like, yeah. He said, it'll do, B. He's like, get this truck back to the detail department now. And dude, everybody starts moving real quick. And I'm like, what the hell happened? And so anyways, I rush this guy back to finance. He goes back there, signs his paper, the place in the back, washed the car, I pulled it around. He comes out, gets the keys, drives off my manager, pages me to the tower. And he goes, andy, do you know how much money you just made? And this is 1999. He goes, you just made seventeen hundred dollars. And I remember, I was like, dude, because he asked me and I said no. I was like, if I just made enough money to go eat a Subway sandwich, like, I'm starving. I mean, all day long, it's about 7pm at night. And he's like, you just made $1700. He goes, let me tell you something. Payrolls tomorrow morning. So you're going to get 1700 check tomorrow morning. That's cool. Plus you won high gross of the month, Andy. You hit the highest gross of the whole month. I'm like, what does that mean, high gross of the month? He's like, you hit the biggest gross of all month in our Dealership, You' very first car deal, and that's going to give you 500 cash in the morning. So the next morning, they hand me $1,700, $500 cash in. In my hand. And I was like, dude, I'm going to come the. I'm going to become the most deadliest salesperson they've ever seen. All these people, I'm going to crush all of them. And that was my way out. Like that day, I knew that, like, sales was my way out. Now, I could have ended up in any industry, but the fact that I ended up in the automotive industry, I stayed from 18 years old all the way till I was 39. And then, I mean, I was in the industry my whole life. And then that's when I quit and I started my coaching company afterwards.
B
The manager, when you started, gave you two pieces of great advice. What were they?
A
My manager?
B
Yeah. When? When you first started?
A
Oh, when I first started. The first one is, is. Well, he told. Well, number one, he made me practice shaking his hand every day. Every day. And this is funny because everybody laughed at me for this. Everyone laughed at me. I was the only one that made it through this. There was 10 of us. And he goes, everybody look to the left, look to the right. Nine of you won't be here in six months. One of you will. And he goes, every day. We practice shaking hands every day. Look at me in the eye, Andy, shake my hand. How you doing, Andy? Shake my hand. How you doing, Andy? Hold your hand sideways like this. Not like that, like this. Come in, shake my hand. I want you to head now. How you doing? Nice to meet you. Pull me in a little bit. Do that again. Ready? Do it again, do it again, do it again, do it again, do it again. And do people like, dude, I'm sick of this. I'm not going to sit here and shake hands. He would take me to the mall and literally make me walk around and shake a hundred people's hands. He's like, dude, I don't need anything from you. I just wanna say, hi, how are you doing? How's your day going? He made me beat my stutter by saying it over and over again. But also he made me look at people in the eye, shake hands and talk to somebody. Which I didn't know until later in life how invaluable that this would be. And then the second thing is, is that he said every time someone says no, right, like there's an objection or whatever. He's like, you need to learn. Most people are professional wingers. They're amateurs. They don't know what to say. And so, like, if somebody came up and they punch you, right? If they came up again, what would you do? You would duck. You would start to understand what's happening. And that's a cycle, right? That's a pattern. And salespeople are dumb because what they do is they have a cycle and a pattern of rejection that keeps going on. Instead of figuring out how to overcome it, they just keep getting hit with it. And he goes, I want you to learn how anytime, any place, anywhere, on the phone or in person, if somebody says no, I want you to figure out how to turn around, get them to say yes. Not just by being great objections, but also by pulling their shoulders down and getting them to relax. And he told me, he said, no matter what happens, no matter how somebody gets heated or mad or whatever, always stay calm. No matter what. You can bring anyone down. And so those are two pieces of great advice with the objection handling deal and controlling my state and making sure I knew what to say, and then also shaking hands and looking people in.
B
The eyes at some point as well. At the beginning of your career, you got the advice. Be nice to people.
A
Yes.
B
And be on time. It'll be 99% of the other people. How on earth can it be that simple to be 99% of the people? By just being nice to people and showing up on time.
A
Dude, I showed up every morning at 7am he would pick me up, I would open the gates and then I would ride home at 11 o'clock at night with him because I didn't have a car and I had a lawn chair. I don't know if you ever heard my lawn chair story, but I used to have a lawn chair. Right? Remember the plastic lawn chairs when we grew up? They had the bars and they had the plastic.
B
They had the plastic.
A
They had the yellow. Yes, yes, they had the yellow, the white, the whatever.
B
Yeah, they were like rubber bands and.
A
They would click when you would open them, right? So I had a bunch of those in my garage. And I thought, dude, there's only one way into this dealership. There's one way out. And so I put a lawn chair in the middle of the drive and I would sit there on the drive like this. Dude, all the guys are standing there and I'm sitting here like this. And then anytime somebody would pull in, I would literally, hey, how you doing? My name's Andy Elliott. Are you here for sales? Right. Are you here for service? For service. How you doing? Hey, my name is Andy. Here's my card. When you're gonna go over here. Parts are expensive. Sometimes labor is expensive. If for some reason it's an expensive bill and you just want to trade it in, there's a lot of times we can give you more money than what it's worth. I'd love to help you with that. Shoot me a text, call me. I'll walk right over here. I'll meet you. Let me walk you over and introduce you to Lisa. She's in the service advisor. Or I'd walk up here and I would have to hand walk. I would put my hand on the car and I would hand walk backwards as I'm talking to them to the parking space because they hated me so bad at the store. I mean, I went to selling 70 to 80 cars a month. Average car salesman sells 6, 8 cars a month. I was in total annihilation. I am an extremist like you. Like when you did business and you went crazy, people are like, when's enough enough? I was so obsessed. I wanted to be the best in the world. Not the best in my store, not the best in the state, but the best in the world. And I love that everybody was doubting me. That was the only thing that kept me going. And the only time someone ever believed in me was when my wife showed up at 26. But I'm telling you, like, that was like my secret superp. But that was it. I used a lawn chair in the gate. And every time I would walk a car in, they'd grab my lawn chair and throw it in the creek. And I would just bring another one because broke people have hundreds of lawn chairs.
B
At some point, no one teaches you what you're doing right. You go in and you look at something. You want to be the best that you can be. We watch other people do and how they become successful, you look at their eye contact. You mentioned how they shake hands. Most people don't know there's 14 different kinds of handshakes.
A
Yes.
B
You know, there's the.
A
I don't even know that, but I believe it.
B
There's the sweaty. I mean, there's so many crazy ways to shake your hand. You got the bone crusher handshake and you got the wet fish. And there's nothing worse than the sweaty palm handshake. If you know you got sweaty palms, go, go dry them off. Go do something. But because it's the most disgusting thing in the world when someone is is shaking your hands, but you're Watching how people speak, their mannerisms, their eye contact, their. Their postures. You studied and you read. How important was that, Watching other people to the amazing success you've had today.
A
It's everything. I love study. I'm a people watcher. I love watching people. They teach me who I want to be, and they teach me who I don't want to be. I think God made losers. People are not going to understand this, but he made losers. So I can understand if I don't get my crap together, what my life's going to look like. I can see what my life will look like if I don't straighten up or if I don't get better, if I don't practice. And then he makes winners and he makes comeback kids. People that come back. Like, we're comeback kids, people that come back. And that's why I love the comeback kids stories. I love. But I love watching people. I love watching. If I'm sitting there like, I love my wife to death. I'm, like, psycho obsessed with my wife. Like, she's everything. She is my rock. She's my battlemate. She's the one I go to war with every day. I love her to death. If I watch a man and he's being affectionate with his wife, I will immediately emulate anything that I can see that I feel like is better than what I'm doing. I don't compare. I'm just like, thank you. I owe you. And I'm like, boom. If I see a guy and he's walking with his son and, you know, like, he's got his son on his shoulders and he's getting, like, a piggyback ride, and I'm just holding my son's hand. I'm like, no ways I'm gonna get my kid a piggyback ride too. Boom. Like, I want to level up. So anything that I see that can take me to another level, I just emulate, like, modeling, proven practices and. And the fact that me and you grew up reading books, listening to cassette tapes or whatever, that we were doing DVDs and, you know, all that stuff at that time, you know, like, dude, the fact that, you know, we can train and learn the way we can train and learn now. Like, I used to just only be able to watch the people that, like, were in my. My city, you know, or my store, the world.
B
Now you can see you have this amazing epiphany, right? You made seventeen hundred dollars, five hundred dollars on your first day of work. You're killing it. You made $150,000 that year. And you came home one day and you said, dad, I need help with my taxes. And tell us about what happened next. And what's your advice to people who are young and make money and what they should be doing with their money? Maybe you can go through your story on that. That.
A
Well, number one, money isn't on. Money is all an identity thing. Who you think you are is what you'll earn, you can't earn. Amount of money that you don't think that you're worth, right? And I know that you know this. Like, you'll never out earn your own self worth, you know, you never will. And I. I learned that how much someone, someone can make is just a label in your head. And once you label it, you've sealing out your head like you're the chokehold of every income is the individual individual. It's not the company. It's not anything. It's always individual. Now, there could be things that play into that, but it's always here, right? And so at, at 18 years old, I made 125 grand my first year. I had, I had a pasta or A. Whatever. W2, W2, right. And I, I go home and I show it to my dad. My dad, who was a chemist or worked for Kermagee or did something, and he had worked there for like 30 or 40 years. And you know, he made 60 grand a year, like towards his end of his retirement. And I remember he. He looked at me and he was like, dude, I can't. I can't believe you're making that much money. And I'm like, well, number one, he was like, you owe me rent, right? And then I was like, okay, I'm moving out. Because, like, I was ready to get the hell out of there anyways. I just, I needed a reason to get the hell out of there. I was at work all the time anyway.
B
You're 18 years old at this point?
A
Yeah, I was 18 to 19 that first year. From 18 to 19, made 100 and a quarter. I will tell you, my man, the reason why I made 100, quarter is because my manager told me that the most anyone could make in our industry was 125,000. And so my first year, anybody that anyone could make was 125 grand. And by the way, he was my manager. Social media didn't exist. I mean, so everything my manager told me was everything that was possible. Right? You remember when you were younger, I mean, what, what you learned from your circle was what you learned there was A new manager that came in, and I remember he was from Georgia because he said, remember the glove boxes? Like, we used to put stuff in our glove boxes back in the day. He, he said, man, Andy, you know, you can make, you know, 250 grand or whatever, 220 grand selling cars. And I was like, impossible. I'm like, nope. And you know that wolf on Wall street, like, show me your pay stub. I'll quit my job right now and come work for you. And he shows him his pay stub. The guy quits. He said, come with me in my car, pulls out his pay stub out of his glove box and shows me a pay stub, like $220,000. And I remember going, well, number one, I've been lied to, you know, because that year to date just showed me what I needed to see. Something kicked in immediately in me that made me push. And from 19 to 20, I would hit $220,000. I would make another hundred grand, break all the records in my store, do this thing. And I realized, man, this is. It's always been this way in my life. No matter what situation, Money, marriage, being a father, being in shape, whatever I think can happen, happens. And I know that everybody hears that, and it really sounds overrated, but it is really the truth. It is a true, it's a secret. It's a law of attraction. Every, every successful person ends up sharing this at the end of their life. That until I took ownership, that this could happen. It never happened for me. And so the sooner that I think that anybody watching this that younger. There is no bars, no limits. Your mind isn't your friend. It's not your friend. You know, you've been programmed since you were born. The things you see, the relationships you went through, the pain you went through, to believe that you're only worth X or you can only ex, or you're only as cool as or no one believes in you. And you have guilt, you have shame, you have embarrassment, you have all these things. And that only comes from the devil who's the father of lies. And he's really good at telling us we can't do stuff right. And long story short, I would tell myself these stories, what's possible? And at that point, this is where I, I, I broke into, like, what's possible. I, I made 500 grand that next year selling cars. And I just became obsessed at that point with being a renegade. Now I'm in the automotive industry. And that was a lot of money for selling cars. You know, I think I end up making like, most I ever made selling cars is like 716 grand. And then I moved up into management, which was a deep motion.
B
So tell us about the self development you did in terms of how you got to where you got to be the best salesperson, maybe in the state, in your dealership. What kind of self development did you do and what's your advice to everyone out there today who's listening to this and say, gosh, you know, I'm a salesperson for Oracle or some software company or selling furniture who says, all right, this is the most I think I'm going to make. This is what I hear. How can I improve myself? What can I do to do at the Andy Elliott Way?
A
Well, number one, I want to tell everybody something real quick. So when I was in the automotive space, I mean, number one, the transportation space is huge. So I'm going to talk about any industry here, but the transportation space is big for some reason. And when people said, I'm a car salesman, they were really embarrassed by it. I don't know why, but I was never embarrassed. Like, I just, I don't understand, like, people.
B
The reason is, by the way, is because most people think they're sleazy and they've had bad experiences buying cars.
A
Well, the truth is, is that they have. But for me, I saw that as an upside because if I could be the best and be really good in an industry where everybody else is poor, then I'm going to capitalize. Like, I'm going to crush it. Remember, it's all perspective, right? So if I could tell anybody anything, you know, it's like you can walk into work and you could say, oh my God, I see everything that's wrong. Or you could walk into work and be like, I can't believe that I have this opportunity. You can walk into your home right now and be like, oh, my God, I can't believe I get to get married. I'm married to my wife. Like, oh, my God, like, I'm the luckiest man ever. You can walk in and be like, dude, she's a nag. I mean, whatever you think is what you see, okay? And so my deal is, is that I remember I was in an event with Zig Ziglar, and when he was alive, it was back, like maybe 2002, 2003, maybe even Grant Cardone was there. This is a long, long time ago. And I remember they asked something. They said, hey, who in here wants to make a lot of money? And everybody there was like, 500 people in this, like, seminar, right? And, oh, funny thing is. It's funny. So it's super important. When I invested, I spent money on myself. You know, my manager said, he goes, you're an idiot, dude. I spent $2,000 to go to a seminar back in, like, 2002. And I just remember, he goes, dude, I could have taught you what they're going to teach you. I could have taught you. Just pay me, dude. But I was like, dude, I've been working for this guy for a couple years, ain't taught me nothing, you know what I mean? But I want to learn from these guys. And I was listening to their cassette tapes, right? And so they were coming in town, so I wanted to listen to them. But I remember they said, who wants to make more money? 500 people all raised up and was like, hell, yeah, I want to make more money. And then they asked another question. They said, because we were all automotive salespeople, it was for the car business. And by the way, like, now I train all industries, but back then, that was my niche. Guess what he said, who in here is proud to be a car salesman? I remember standing up and I was like, yeah, that's me. And no one else said it. I remember my buddies, right, that sold cars with me. They would go to a party and one of them was. Was like a chiropractor. One of them was a doctor. And then the ones that were car salesmen were embarrassed. They wouldn't tell anybody. And I was like, dude, this is stupid. The reason why I thrived in the car business was because I loved it. I. I mean, look, I didn't have good leadership, honestly. I did a lot of stupid stuff. I made a lot of wrong mistakes. I almost went to jail at certain times. I ran around the wrong people. But the. But the automotive industry, the places that I worked, there's a lot of good car dealerships, but the places that I worked were the worst places, worse leaders, worst owners, crap. And if you're around crap, you're going to become crap. And so, you know, being in Oklahoma, I never had been out of Oklahoma ever, my whole life until my wife moved me here when I was. When I was 40 years old.
B
So let's talk about the controversy and some of the bad decisions you made. You were general manager. There were two car dealerships, and then people were coming in without down payments. And basically the dealership which you were a part of was committing fraud, essentially. Tell us about King Cash and the whole experience. And you've called it. Why is it that some of the dumbest things we do lead to the best experiences in our entire life.
A
Well, so I'm 45 years old. I was raised by motivation from fear, okay? Not from love. Okay? We live in a generation now where everybody needs to be loved on. Back then it was sell cars or you're fired. I mean, do you understand? This is simple, bro. It's Randy, sell cars or you're fired. How many cars do we sell? How many cars do we sell? How much, how many cars? How much money are we making? Making? What kind of gross per copy are we running? How many customers did we close today? That, that, that was it. I mean, compliance, getting in trouble, black and white, gray. I mean, we weren't harming people. But there's, there's loopholes in business that companies should train and teach people on. And so when I walked into this company, all these things were already going on. I didn't magically create this. I went into a company that already had a lot of bad practices. Now it was a bad credit company, which means they advertise for bad credit. Like if you have bad credit, if you have a bankruptcy, if you don't have any money down, like you're approved, does that make sense?
B
Yep.
A
Okay. When you are a roofer, if I was to go to your house and a storm blew your roof off and I said, hey, Randy, you know, obviously your house qualifies for a new roof. You've had insurance for 20 years. Now I'm gonna go ahead and process your claim, make sure they put a five star roof on your house. Okay, Randy, it shows right here, there's a $2,000 deductible that you have to pay to get your roof. I need that 200. I need that two grand so I can process your claim. Now the insurance company is going to pay what they're going to pay and the deductible comes to the roofing company. Does that make sense? Randy says, I don't have $2,000 for a deductible. Oh, okay. So what do we do, Randy? Do we, do we walk away from your house and not put a roof on it because you don't have a deductible? Or do we fudge some of the paperwork somewhere and show that Randy, put a deductible somewhere and then go get $150,000 roof from the insurance company? What do you think's happening in the world right now with all the roofing companies around the whole world? There's probably 90 of the people in the world that aren't putting their deductible down on these homes for these roofs, but they're still getting roofs. Every business has a gray area, a loophole, an issue. Ours was, and I'm not justifying it, I'm explaining it. So you can see people came in, they had jobs, they had pay stubs, they had utility bills, they were good people, they rode the bus in. Some of them had hundred dollar beat up cars they could call, they had a job, they could qualify for a car. Problem is they didn't have any damn money down. And so what happened is there was this thing in the company that already pre existed before I started there and it was called King Ca. If somebody didn't have the down payment on a car, well you would just coach them that hey, if the bank calls, you say you put a thousand down and you know, even though you didn't, you just say you put a thousand down, they're going to give you the loan. You get a car today. And you know, as a 30 year old kid who's been in the car business my whole life, you know, like I work for a good credit store for 10 years of my life I didn't, you know, I don't really understand like, you know, I didn't even work payments out a lot. Most time they went to the finance office. So this was all new to me but like I was like indoctrinated into this culture. And I'm not saying it doesn't, wasn't that I didn't think that like we weren't like, like cutting corners or something to do loans but like I didn't think you could get in like big trouble for stuff like this. Like I'd never been in trouble. And so when we, when the owner, who is a bad person by the way, that, that's what happened. He's a bad guy. There was probably a lot of companies doing it, but just like there's a lot of roofing companies probably doing things like that. There's probably some that say, you know what, if you don't put the deductible down, we'll walk away and we just won't put a roof on house. But then the next roofer coming behind you is going to take that deal, he's going to figure out how to handle that deductible. That was kind of like what happened every day. Nobody had any doubt. Dude, we were doing hundreds of them a month. I mean it was just like, it was like it was just a normal process procedure, a part of business and then, you know, when they came in, it was like at one point they got in trouble for it. And then there was like a pawn shop deal kind of where we said they pawned something. It was like there was a bad credit store. But, you know, my wife. The biggest problem with all this is that my wife said this guy was a bad guy and I shouldn't work for him. This is. This is where. This is where I made the biggest mistake. And every man should know this. Women have such an incredible intuition. And my wife, when she married me, she said she'd always protect me. She said, you're a project. You believe in everybody. You think everybody is out to help you, and you always try to fix everyone and you're an idiot. It. And one day it's going to get you. And I believe that this guy, I'd worked with him earlier in life. I believe that this guy had changed. He had been a good guy. He offered me a lot of money to really come run this store for him. And I thought he was a good guy. I thought he had changed. I thought, you know, I just. I just thought some stuff. And then basically all this happened. And, you know, he said if I didn't lie, he was threatened to kill me. And, you know, my wife said, I. I told you that guy. And funny thing is, my wife warned me of this man for a long time and said, don't work with that guy. But because my wife, we started to have kids and she's the mom now. Now I gotta be the one that's the winner. And I end up not listening to her. And honestly, her warning me, I was like, you're nagging me. Because I didn't want her to tell me. I thought I knew the way. Well, sounds like I did know the way. And, you know, I almost went to jail. I told the truth. The truth will set you free. This is biblical. I wasn't very close to God at this time. I was a Christian, but I wasn't like God, wasn't like number one. I just, you know, believed in him. And, you know, my wife said, it's very simple, Andy. The truth will set you free. I support you. I will back you. But under any circumstance, will you not lie? That's it. Like, I'll be with you. I don't care what happens. If you go to jail and you're in jail for five years, I'll be there, there. But you're not going to lie. And I need you to promise me. That was a very hard time in our life. But I learned that you have to go through these very hard lessons, these nasty lessons. Before greatness, there's always some nasty storm. And I weathered it and I didn't lie. And because I didn't lie, I didn't get in trouble, I end up walking away. I always say, like, God gives people second chances. He gave me 10,000. And so, you know, that's part of my testimony of like, of like, of what can happen when you do the right thing.
B
Were you scared shitless when the FBI showed up at your door, started asking questions?
A
Absolutely, yeah. Are you kidding me?
B
Thinking about going to prison, dude. Terrible thing.
A
Every person will never understand, right, what that will feel like until it happens. I always say there's two things that'll change a man's life for sure. One, you get terminally ill if you found out you were going to die today with cancer. Your, your mom changed when your grandma got breast cancer, right? Like, okay, so like, but like, if somebody got terminally ill, they're going to change immediately. Like, oh my God, I'm going to stop. Or if you go to lose your freedom, you start thinking like, like, like, was this worth it? Like, is this. And by the way, I was like, is this real? Like, I thought for a year, I was like, is this real? Like, is this really happening to me? Like, I've never, I've never hurt anybody. I was never a bad person. I've never had a bad heart. I just worked for the wrong company, man. Like, stuff like this happens all the time, man. And you know, and so that's the power of being around the right peoples. You don't have to worry about this stuff. And I never want to go to sleep again ever, like worrying about any of this. And so like, like, I'm just, you know, I had to go through it, man. I, I wouldn't be who I am today. I wouldn't be able to help anybody had I not gone through that hell.
B
We all have pivotal conversations with our wives that influence our future. At some point, you're killing it at work. You've got three kids, you've got a multi million dollar house, and your wife says to you, I can live without you. And she squeezes your love handle. So tell us what happened after that.
A
Well, so we go through this like FBI deal, right? It's like happening.
B
And by the way, were you, was it one phone call or they're, they're calling you into the, the office.
A
Yeah, there's just a lot of stuff going on. It's going on for A couple years. You know what I'm saying?
B
Years.
A
And yeah, it's, it's years. I mean, these things don't, they don't just like solve up. Like it happens in March and it's over by October.
B
They're squeezing you, right? They want you to turn. You, you give, you got immunity. At the end of the day, every.
A
Single person, every single person that worked in that company all lied. Every one of them lied. I was told if I didn't lie, just, just look, if you don't lie, I'm going to kill you. I mean, I was called and said, hey, there's death threats on you right now. Like, they're like someone's trying to kill you. Like, I want you to understand this, like, when you go to do the right thing, like the, the devil hates it, bro. Like when you go to turn and you go from being a piece of crap to a good person, when you go from being a liar to, to a good person, like, dude, no one likes it. But all those people that lied all went to prison, all of them. And in the end, I don't know if you've ever watched a movie, right, and you kind of see how something plays out at the end. They all like plotted against me the whole time. And then down to the last week the sentencing was coming, they all turned on each other. They all started tearing each other to pieces. No, he really did this. He really did this. They lied about everything. I didn't get involved in any of that. I told the freaking truth. You tell the truth, truth will set you free. That's why I don't have a felony. I'm not in trouble. That's why I don't have a problem with anything. And that's why I live my truth now. You know what I'm saying? But it was hell. But going on the backside of that, me and my wife now, there's a lot of resentment, you know, that my wife has towards me. And then I feel obviously like I'm lost. You know, like the thing about lost people is lost people don't know they're lost. And so like money buries problems. And so, you know, I'm making like 2 million a year. I'm making good money. My wife's got a purse full of cash. We got a paid off house. I'm doing better than everybody thought we.
B
Would do in Oklahoma, which is a shit ton of money.
A
Yeah. Yeah. And we have a million. Just everything, everything is just like, there's a lot of unresolved issues and from the outside, we are way better than most. I don't cheat on my wife. I'm a good man. I don't play golf on Sundays with, you know, like everyone else did. Like, I'm home with my kids. The problem is I wasn't present. See, So I have this thing where, like, my wife says, like, love eyes. Like, she's like, I can tell when you're with me and when you're not with me. She's like, I can tell when you see me and you don't see me, and you see through me, me. And she goes like, I support you as being a badass man and making money and winning and killing it and crushing it. But when you come home, like, we need you home. You can work even at home in the afternoon, but we want you to be present when you're home. And you're never present. You're in the pictures, but you don't even remember that you missed everything. You don't even understand what the kids are interested in. You think you know about it. You don't know about them them. You only know what they like. And so as you're sitting here, you're kind of, like, in delusion when you're being called up. She wasn't calling me out. She's calling me up. She's giving me an opportunity to be a better man is what she was. But I remember I was always in shape when I met her, and I was 26 and she was 24. I was in good shape this time. I was not in good shape. I had big, fat love handles. I was out of shape. I was chunky. I was losing my edge. I was stressed out, going through all this crap that I just went through the last couple years. I was just a pile of trash. Now you can imagine, I'm giving her nothing but absolute leftovers. I'm not present when I'm home. And then my wife, one day, she just has this hard conversation. I was like, I'm on my way. And she, like, heated the food up, or she had the food ready, and I was like, I'm on my way. And I didn't show up. And then an hour later, she's like, are you coming? Because, like, you know. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, yeah, I'm on my way. And she's like, okay. So she reheats the food, and then an hour later, she's like, are you on your way? And I'm like, yeah, yeah. And she's like, I'm sick of it, man. And those are the hard lines a guy like me needs because I'm always bumping the edges. I'm always trying to find, like, I have this itch, right? And the itch now is in such a good place. But the itch then was I didn't know what to do with it, right? And so I thought I needed to work hard because I could get lost in my work. I go get lost in it, and I'm good, and so I can bury all the pain. She's got kids. I know how much she loves my kids. I know how much she loves her kids. So, like, she's like, getting to be a mom, and the kids love her. They need her. She knows they need her. So it's like. It's like. And by the way, we're doing better than anyone ever said we would. Aren't we winning? And really, we're just burying problems. So one night, she just. Real direct, she's like, hey, hey, I'm going to be completely clear, and you're not going to want to hear this. And she's like, and I don't want to hurt you, but, you know, me and the kids have learned to live without you. Like, like, like, like you're not here. So, like, we don't even operate like you're here. Just so you're aware, for years, we've been operating like you haven't even been here, and you haven't even noticed. You haven't even picked up a hint that we run without you. And then she's like, also. So it's like a double deal. And people, like, ask, like, what? So what did the second part have to do? So my wife triggered me in an area that was always really insecure for me, which goes back to sixth grade. Being in good shape, having the six pack, being fit. I always did good when I was in shape. When I always got out of shape, everything always, like, went average. You know what I'm saying? Look, I'm extreme. Greatness is found in the extreme. I'm either winning or I'm losing, right? So, like, average doesn't work for me. So she reaches over, she grabs my love handle. I don't know if anybody's ever grabbed your love handle, but maybe we'll do it after the show. Show. I'll grab it and I'll just kind of pull on it for a minute. It's like spiders crawling up your back. And I was like, dude, how disrespectful is this woman Now? She wanted to attack my ego. She, everything you want, life's on the other side of your ego. And you know that there's books on it. It's all the truth. I was a loser with an ego that was hurt. So, like, like in total delusion. But this solved very quick. I go in the garage, I work out for four hours. Like, I was going to walk in the house, like, all ripped up and shredded, and she's gonna be like, oh, my God, I can't believe how jacked you are. But that didn't happen. So I shaved my head, right? Which I honestly had. Like, I was losing my hair anyways, so it was, like, even way better for me. And I just went and owned my shit. I just said, dude, I don't like me. Like, like, I think the awareness stage of, like, owning like, like, you know, self assess. Like, anytime you coach somebody, you're like, hey, you gotta be aware of what's happening, right? Like, self assessment, right? I didn't assess myself for probably 10 years. I stayed numb. Numb people are dangerous. I was very numb. And so. And I call that the scarcity mindset. I wasn't living in abundance. Scarcity, poverty, garbage, hurt. And by the way, she didn't deserve any of it because she's an amazing woman. And she would have been amazing. She would have married some badass guy. She would have had a good life. She found me. But let me tell you, there's always a really cool ending. I decided that I was going to chase human excellence, and I wanted to be better. And so this is so crazy. I go, and if you want me to tell this real quick, I go to the computer, right? I type in motivation on YouTube. I'd never been on YouTube before. I'd never been on social media. We get 100 million views every 30 days on social media right now, 20, 19, I'd never been on. I'd never been on the Internet. Internet, okay. I go to YouTube and I type in motivation. Tony Robbins pulls up. I remember after watching 20 Minutes, and I'd never sat through any of this, right? Like, an Internet was like, Internet leads. There was no, like, Internet. Like, I'm watching social media. I missed Instagram, Facebook, MySpace, whatever. I never was a part of any of that. So I didn't understand any of this except for the search bar. I typed into motivation because that's what weak people. People go for in the beginning. They need that spiritual, like, motivation to feel alive. And dude, Tony Robbins, within 20 minutes, dude, I changed my state. I altered the way that I was thinking. I wanted to win. Like, dude, I Saw a different me within 20 minutes. And then the craziest thing is, is I always tell people, like, I almost didn't do it. Like, some. Somebody is always, like, this close from, like, being in these shoes and this close from being in those shoes, right? And so you got to understand, like, when you can get in those shows shoes, you always go for it no matter what. But I didn't understand this at this point, but I'm glad that I did. And I live by this. Now, anytime I can cut the check for speed or pay somebody to mentor me or teach me or do anything, I want to know everything that everybody knows. Because that's a shortcut in life is model and proven practices. People have been somewhere. I want to figure out how they got there. I want them to teach me. I want to be their best student. That's the game. And so I saw this. This training at the end that he said, hey, if you want to change your life, if you feel different, if you can see differently, if you're in a different state now, you know, Tony's doing his thing, right? He's like, I got this course, it's called the KBB broker blueprint training course, which will literally show you that how your specialized skill can be monetized. And I'm thinking, I don't have a specialized skill. I'm a car salesman, right? My head is in the garbage. And he's like, I know you probably are good at something, right? And I thought, oh, I'm good at selling because I was good at selling. And he's like, did you know there's people out there that would love to learn how to sell instead of waiting 20 years, right, to be great at it? They'd love to lear from you right now, and they'll cut you a check for it. And I thought, this is crap. People don't do this. I don't even understand the world. I've been in a car dealership for 22 years. My wife's like, dinner's ready. As I go to turn around, something in my body was just like. Like, heavy on my chest. Like, you know, like, people always say, like. Like they feel a voice, right? I think, like. Like, God, like, sometimes you feel that voice from, like, the devil being like, like, don't do it. And you're like, you need to do it. He's like, don't do it. Don't do it. Because you're actually about to take a risk. And he's like, don't do it. That's the devil. This One was like, do it, do it, do it. And I was like, but I'm not. Nobody knows me. Like, I. This is stupid. I need to go back to work tomorrow morning. Like, it's like. And then click. I just bought it. I spent three grand. I remember going back to the dinner. I. I said, babe, I just spent three grand on a training course. She didn't get mad. I couldn't believe it. I swear she was going to get mad. And she goes, as long as you'll do the training, that's all I care about. So I made that commitment. That's my first commitment for the next 30 days. Watch how weak I was for the next 30 days. I did this training. Now there was a money back guarantee that in 30 days, if you didn't, you know, if you didn't get your money worth, you know, you could get your money back. I studied this course like hell. Russell Brunson, Tony Robbins, Dean Graciosi, studied the hell out of all of them. Dude, I totally was on fire, bro. I saw a new me. My w wife saw, said, dude, Andy, your eyes have changed color. Like, you're like, you're on a different deal here. Long story short, quit my job. I'm done. She's like, whoa, like, you're moving. And I went to her, and this is the last scarcity that I've had. I said, hey, I want to get my money back, babe. There's a 30 day money back guarantee. Can you help me get my money back that way? You know, like, it was like freaking. And she's like, okay, this is a chance for you to understand how this whole thing works. Which she was like, my mom. She's like, okay, you're going to leave. You're going to go teach people how to do this thing because they just taught it to you. And now you know the skill that they taught you. Did you get your money's worth, yes or no? Yes, I did. Okay. And so when you go and train people and you coach them after they pay you and you give the value, do you want them to ask for a refund? And I was like, no. And she's like, but you're going to do it. Do you understand what karma is? And we're going to go build a business. You just quit your job and you want your money back. And I was like, I'm such an idiot. And at that point, I was like, I have got to change this. Like, my head was just such a piece of crap. So I worked on my mind every day. The greatest gift you'll ever give yourself is spending time working on yourself. I spent every day, all day studying, training. I cut the check. We sold our house. We did everything and we went to Zachary Zero and we rebuilt.
B
Huge change in your life. You're starting a new company. Lots of new businesses. Most new businesses need capital. And you got a total reset. So you did sell your house. You sold your furniture. You didn't have mattresses. You rented a house. Put yourself back in that mindset right now and think about the first day you're in this rental house. You got nothing there. But can you put yourself in that mind right now?
A
It was amazing. Yeah, listen, we. So, look, I'm going to tell you this. When a man really decides to change, his wife goes all in on him, but not until she sees he really made a change. And most people like, oh, I'm going to change. I've never told my wife I was going to change like this. When I made this change, it wasn't my idea to sell on the house. Dude, this is crazy. My wife raised our kids in this house. This was her home. Okay? She said in order for us to make it it, it's going to take everything we have. We're going to sell the house, we're going to sell the furniture. We're going to explain to the kids that we're recreating our lives. You're going to reinvent yourself. I'm going to reinvent myself. We're going to get in shape. We're going to get closer than ever. Dad's going to be a good dad. You're going to be a good daddy. Now you're also right. Going to be here with us, and our whole family is going to do this together. You're taking your family with us. And I will support you, I will back you. But I don't want to be your coin. I want to be your battle mate. From now on, me and you, we go to battle together. And I was like, I'm in. Remember I almost went to jail. I almost did all this. I see this guy now. He's changing my state. I see differently, dude. We went to this little rent house. There was mattresses on the floor. My wife said, I'm not furnishing it. There will be no furniture in this house. There'll be mattresses on the floor. We're going to stay like this until we move out of here and build our dream house. We're going to build our business. It was like an FBI lab. Two plastic tables. Me and her took Phone calls all day long. All I did was shot content on the Internet, which I was an absolute weirdest thing ever because I'd never spok a phone before a camera. And I felt really weird, you know? But we learned. We learned it all. We learned everything. And I was so hungry and passionate, had so much pain. And I knew everybody was betting against us. Everyone was like, are you guys okay? What's going on? What happened to your house? We didn't answer. No one. We cut our whole family off. We cut everyone off. No one knew what was happening. And then when I started posting all the stories, you think people are on social media. You think people be like, oh, my God, I'm so proud of you. You're starting your business. No, dude, they were like, who are you? This isn't who you are. We know who you are. Are. You know what I'm saying? Why are you trying to pretend like this? And that's what happens when you try to change. People can't change in front of their peers. And so literally, me and Jackie upped. We moved to Arizona, which is here. We left everything we knew. Everyone, Everything, all of it. And, dude, I'm telling you, we rebuilt our whole freaking life. And the rest is history. Dude, everyone can do it. But she backed me.
B
Me.
A
She backed me because I kept my word that time.
B
When we reinvent ourselves, we have to tell ourselves the truth. And why is it so hard for us to look in the mirror and be honest with ourselves?
A
Because we feel unworthy. I mean, honestly, I mean, really, anybody that's been through a hell life or through some stuff, I mean, you know, you're thinking about all the people that said you weren't going to make it. You're. Dude, honestly, you're thinking about how bad you've been to yourself. I was really bad to me for a long time, dude. When I was going through the FBI stuff, there was a lot of times that I was like, dude, I'm going to kill me. Like, if I would just, like. Like, if I would just kill me, like, everybody's going to be better. Like, dude, the devil's so good about making people think they're not going to make it through a situation. And so, you know, the good thing is, is that again, I just. Lessons, man. They're just lessons. They're nasty lessons. And, you know, I don't wish anybody to have to go through any of these nasty or nasty lessons. But I've learned the bigger the mess, usually the bigger the message, man. The more wounds you have, the More weaponized you are. You know, Saul in the Bible turned to Paul. I mean, dude, he was a Christian killer and took the Bible the furthest. I mean, you know, it's like, dude, I think God likes a, a good example some. I think he likes good examples, you know, so that other people can be like, hell, dude, if he did that, I can do it.
B
So you started this new business coaching business. Elliott Group is the name of the business. And you started putting out videos online. You actually put them for sale before the class was even finished. So tell us, most people have a plan. They just don't create these videos online. You just kind of child by ear. You started posting all these free content. Give us the strategy between free content and paid content. And how does that whole conversion process work? People are saying, why am I to pay Andy Elliot all this money when I can get it for free?
A
Well, number one, you get better every day. That's the trick. And so I learned this right out the gate, which I had a lot of people tell me, like, don't give away everything you got because then nobody can pay you for anything. Again, that's not the abundance mindset, that's a scarcity mindset. And I'm thank God I didn't listen to those people because like value first, like value added content was what we did. So basically what I did is that I crushed the game. If you, if you really want to know this in 30 seconds, I went to Google. I typed in car sales training because that's what I was good at at first, right before we niched out to all industries. I went into Google and I typed in car sales training. Car sales training in Google said people also searched. And all of those titles that it gave me that people also searched. I made YouTube videos on every one of those titles. I clicked on those titles that said people also searched. And I knew that Google had crawled that blog or that video. And that copy was very enticing because it served it before anything else. Out of like 20 million searches, it served that one. So I'd copy and paste and move it over here, here. So literally it would crawl mine and I use the same title. And then I made videos showing how to overcome that. I made a 500 to a th000 videos within one year, just kicking them out every day. Every day. I did three, three to five a day long form YouTube videos. And then guess what happened? I didn't ask for a dollar. I went broke for a year. All I did watch, smartest thing I did. And it Was stupid but smart. So Gary Vee had this text community and it said, text me. I didn't understand it was a text community. Like, what does that mean? Because I don't. Not smart technology. I thought he gave his cell phone number out. I was like, dude, this is cool. Guy gives his cell phone number. So I gave my cell phone number out to everyone. And so every day it'd be like a dick pic, like a naked picture, somebody saying something bad. And then 10 people tell me they love my training. It's like every day, like, it was like, that was the world, world. And I wouldn't ask anybody to buy anything. I would just respond, say, hey, man, I believe in you, I appreciate you. If you need something, let me know. If you have an objection, I'll help you cover it. If you want to be a good leader, this, do this. And I was doing this, and I was posting content online about my life changing, transformation and getting in shape, talking about my wife loving my kids. And I'm doing all these things. But the biggest, craziest thing is, is that I built up a following and an audience and I really understand what I was doing. And then this guy told me, he goes, In 2020, he goes, dude, you need to build a course. And I built a zero to 100k course, and it was how to go from zero to a hundred thousand dollars. As a sales guy, I posted it. It wasn't even finished. The course wasn't even made yet. I just kind of started making it, but he was like, yeah, you ought to pre release it, tell people it's a thousand, but they can buy it for like 299 if they get it tonight. And I was like, oh, great idea. You know, I didn't really know what I was doing. So I go make this YouTube deal and I go live on YouTube to the people that had been watching me give away free content for the last year. And I said, hey, if you've been watching my content and you know it's helped change your life or make you more money in any way way, I've actually created a structured course. You'd have to dig all over YouTube for it. 21 modules that will teach you how to go from zero to a hundred thousand fast and get there again and again and again in sales. And so I made it this. You guys been asking for it. So I made it. I go to bed, I woke up the next morning, there's 150 grand in my stripe account. And then I started to understand I'm gonna. I'M gonna make this a business. And I just became obsessed. And I still to this day give away massive amounts of free content and training everywhere. I think honestly a lot of people are, you buy this thing, I'll show you how good I am. I get better every day, dude. I take the old me to the back of the building, I shoot him in the head every day. So if you knew me yesterday, like if you, we meet today, tomorrow, you're not going to know me because I'm going to be a different guy. So if you bought my training yesterday, today, like you're going to have to buy it again today because I just keep growing man. Like I understand the art and the game of change and I become obsessed with it. I'm a super freak with it. Like I'm obsessed. Like a crackhead trying to chase his necks, hit a crack track for an edge, for self development, for social media. Do I understand the algorithms like no one? I understand everything. I understand how to transform, change anybody's life. When somebody's talking to me, I can feel their pain. I can change them, I know I can change them. I can teach people to sell. I, I never turn it off. I don't have an off switch. I was dead for 39 years. So now I'm going to be like this until I die. And, and anyways that's how I built my business.
B
Business. Yeah. Three years, nine figure business. And one of the things you've done. I've been walking around here now for two days. Brandon's been amazing. Shout out to Brandon for showing me around. He's incredible, absolutely incredible. Andrew Loringer. We got to give a shout out to him because without him introducing to Brandon then I wouldn't be here. So Andrew, appreciate you so much.
A
Appreciate you brother.
B
The culture on here is absolutely insane. You can feel the energy when you walk in the building. Culture is such an important part of how we build successful companies. You have, have put out there that I will pay you $10 million in cash if you can recruit somebody for my company. Is that insanity or is that reality?
A
So I lived by that for a while, but then I realized that honestly that could never exist or play out. It did. For the first couple years of my life I lived by that. To be honest with me, I mean to you, I thought when you change someone's life, when you would, when you took someone who was broken and didn't, didn't under, had a lost marriage, wasn't a good father, wasn't a good mother, didn't make any Money had no one believe in them. I thought if you took someone like that and you would totally change everything in their life and give them everything and show them a life that they never could ever have. I just felt like people like that would stay with you forever. Like, it doesn't. Like, it doesn't make sense, right? And. And so that's the way I lived for the first couple years. Like, if you can recruit one of my guys, like. Like, it's imp. Like, I'd give you 10 million cash. Like, you can't do it. It's impossible. My team would never leave me. But then I had a guy quit, and it totally blew me away. And then when he left, I sat back and I realized that I had saved this guy every month for four years, I had talked this guy down from burning his life to the ground every month. I was never going to stop this guy from burning his life to the ground. And honestly, I love the guy. I wish him the best, but I couldn't have done anything. I always ask myself when somebody leaves or at any point in time, what could I have done differently? Nothing. I mean, I physically could have done nothing. And so I realized that, honestly, like, I've built such an incredible culture. I've built such an incredible life. I give everything to everyone around here. I would die for them, truly. I take care of their kids. They take care of my kids. Our families are here. We have 87 people on payroll right now currently. We just. We would do anything. I mean, they said, don't get close to your people. We do life with our people. We do anything. But you understand this. You're around here, you see how close everybody is. The fire, the culture. That's why we scale so fast. They're not salespeople. They're all coaches. They're all me, and they're all younger, and they're on fire, dude, they're fire. We're obsessed with this development. But I can't keep everybody forever. And, you know, it's. It's good to be delusional, right? And, you know, does it hurt when somebody leaves? Yeah, it hurts. But at the end of the day, you know, like, honestly, I think. I think 95 of my team will be with me forever. I think that, you know, having the right people around you is a very important part of life. And, you know, I let them operate this business like it's theirs. I let them build their own brands and everything in. And that's why we call Elliot army.
B
People come here because you can change lives. How Can a company be a sniper?
A
Well, number one, when you. Well, when you change someone's life, 99.9% of people will be indebted to you for life, right? Like. Like, and that's what I do. I. I find people in my coaching program that I change their life and, like, I have their back now until death. Like, I'm with them. Like, I'm. You know, it's. It's just crazy. Like, it's not a career, it's not a job. Like, this is our life. Like, what else would we do? Like, to be real. Like, I know you sold businesses, right? But, like. But like, I don't ever want to sell this, right? Like, I love this. Like, this is what makes me healthy. Like, this is what makes me tick. Like, this isn't a business. Like, this is what made me a good man. This is my ministry. This is all our ministry. Like, we all wanted to be good people. We all want. And the crazy thing is I always say God opens doors humans can't close. You know, when I open door, I try to open these doors for so long, and humans can close them, and things always happen. But the Elliot Group, like, it's our ministry. Like, you can't close the doors. We're doing God's work. We're not calling it a church, but we're doing God's work for sure.
B
You have amazing people around here. I know. I've met some of them along the way. And I've done a lot of research and done research on you. And one of the things you're known for. And. And I was. My cousin, my nephew texted me, Andy Elliott. And then he started talking about the six pack.
A
Yeah.
B
And you made this comment. Once you're at this conference, you're speaking on stage, there's a bunch of obese people there on their phones. You said, we don't hire people if you don't have a six pack. And we'll fire you if you don't have a six pack. True. Not really true. Metaphor. Reality.
A
Number one, I wanted to trigger the hell out of everybody.
B
Which you did.
A
Right. And then. And it's always good to get a good piece of viral social media content.
B
I mean, there's nothing better, right, People still.
A
Yeah, it was a great viral deal.
B
I gotta think of something like that, by the way. Dude, you gotta give me a little heads up on how I can do that for our business.
A
But do you know what is genius, and this is crazy, is well. Well, when people aren't paying attention. Okay. Like, I Don't like it. Like, I like it. Like, if you say you want something, then, like, I believe that you want it. And then when you. I see you distracted, like. Like, I'm really. I'm kind of confused. Right?
B
Like, it's rude, by the way.
A
Yeah, yeah. So, like. So most people don't say nothing. They put up with it. But, like, as a leader, like, you get what you tolerate. So, like, I'm not going to tolerate it. Like, you can with all these other speakers you can get on their phones. Like, you can mess around. Like, you can, but I'm not. I'm not going to tolerate it. Like, you came here to grow. You came here to learn, right? So there's like 45 minutes. I'm going to recreate your life. So you're going pay attention. And. And so the people that don't, I just thought, you know, like, I looked over and there was this person, and they weren't obese, but they were just out of shape. They were. They were lazy. They looked lethargic, like, in the sense, like, they didn't care. And so I was like. I was like, okay. I was like, come here, man. Come here. I'm like, come here. And I'm like, okay. So you kiss your kids, your wife goodbye, you come to this event, you pay this money, you travel here, right? Is that what happened? Yeah. You got two kids at home. Okay, cool. How old are your kids? 8? 6?
B
6.
A
Is this the example you want to be for your kids? I'm just asking. Like. Like, take a look at yourself, right? Not paying attention. You left your family to sit here and be jacked around on your phone while you're at an event that you told your family you were going to come to to spend time away from them to get better. Is. Is this your best self? Is this your kid's hero right now? If I call your son up here right now and I ask him, I say, who's your hero? Is he going to say, my dad? Dad? I don't think so. And I was like, take your shirt off. And by the way, I love doing this because I triggered the hell out of people. And what I say is that go look in the mirror, right? Because at the end of the day, you have to live with you. I don't go home with you, bro. You go home with you. You look in the mirror, man. And if you're not really want to look in there, it's because you're. You're dodging that guy. That guy is a solution to every Damn problem in your life. That guy, Nobody wants to face that guy. Guy. The devil does not want you to look in that mirror and own your shit and get your stuff together. He don't want you to. He don't want you by the training program. He don't want you to go to the gym. He wants you to be lazy. He wants you to live in scarcity. He wants you to be a piece of crap. Over his dead body does he want you to be an example to your children? It is child neglect. If you're not an example to your children, who else should be? Should it be some other man be to motivate my wife and kids? Should that be, should that be the neighbor? Or is it you? Because most men, it's not, not them. And so I, I speak to these men and I'm like, dude, listen, if you think your wife's proud of you, you're an absolute idiot. She doesn't chase you around the house, bro. She doesn't chase you around the house no more. You know what I'm saying? She doesn't feel like she's seen by you. She. I'm telling you. And it doesn't bother you. You're a loser. I just get really pissed about this stuff because there used to be a time I thought which men were like the example in a home, and they're just not. They call it this masculinity phase. It's called being a man, okay? It's called being a man and being a very loving man. Like Christians are love. Like, without love, you're bankrupt. They're very loving men who are savages, who protect their home. I freaking hate this. I said this on stage to a guy one time. I said, you know, they, they interviewed all these child molesters, people who molest children. And they asked him what was the number one thing, thing that you looked at before you decided to take a target out on a child to molest a child? And they said, we looked for weak fathers. Look at yourself. Look at yourself. Would someone take. Would someone think twice about messing with your children? Because you look like a threat. I guarantee you, man, if somebody messes with my kids, you look at me, you're going to think, I ain't messing with that guy's kids. And hey, and I ain't a bully. I'm a loving guy. But it's my job to protect my family. What the hell happened to that? And so I went on this, like, era of like, really, like, trying to really beat and, and just so you're Aware. I wanted to piss people off. I wanted to trigger people. We built an audience of people that go, dude, I hate that guy. But I watch him for entertainment. And then people going, dude, I love this guy, man. I'm going to become a better man because of this dude. I got to stay plugged in. And so now we are 2025. The six pack, you're fired was like a 2022 thing. I walk into any airport, I mean, 500 people, 600 people, any mall, everybody runs up and they always come up to me, they say, hey, dude, I lost 80 pounds, bro. I'm like, I'm not a fitness coach. I mean, I'm a. I'm a business. I'm not even a fitness coach. And they walk up like, dude, I lost 80 pounds. Wives come up to me and they're like, dude, you have no idea what you did for my husband. He's on fire. That era where I went psycho could have been the greatest thing that I ever did. Now, as I got a coach, right? Because I've always had coaches. Dean is one of my coaches. And Dean's like, hey, man, you know, you gotta kinda wear your heart, right? Like out here where people can see it. Like, we know you have a heart because we can tell how passionate you are, right? But he's like, people gotta know that you love a man, you know, you're just a little hard. And so if you see a lot of my content now, right, like, like I'm trying to show people that I love them and I make sure that they know that, like, I love them. Like, I'm not a bad person. Like, I'm not scary. I'm not yelling at you. Look, I get excited, okay? I mean, you know, winning should be exciting, okay? Changing your life should be exciting. Like, people like, why is this guy yelling? It's like, well, dude, like, that's called having a good life. Like, getting excited.
B
There's a lot of ways to motivate people in terms of how to sell. We'll talk about a few of them, but how is asking somebody to imagine someone kidnapping their family and telling them with a gun to their head, if you don't improve productivity in three months, I'm gonna kill your family.
A
I think it's brilliant. Yeah, I mean, it's so.
B
So do I. By the way, when I heard you say that, I'm like, damn, that's good.
A
Well, because people, like, are just so blocked right on what can happen that. I mean, I was. I used it as an automotive example, but I Would say, like, if you're a solar salesman, and I'm like, you know, you know, how many deals do you sell a month? And they're like, three. And I'm like, okay, cool. You got three kids, you got a wife. Let me ask you a question. If I told you I was going to kidnap your kids and I was going to kill them, if you didn't sell 10 solar deals a month, would you sell 10? They're like, hell, yeah, I'd sell 10. And I'm like, okay, well, that. Why do I have to kidnap your family and threaten to kill them for you to sell 10? Couldn't you have a good, healthy family and go sell 10? Well, yeah, but. Okay, cool. Then why don't you? Dude, it's just the point that people just don't push the limit anymore. They don't. They don't. They just. Dude, listen. The whole world is full of mediocrity, brother. And so I just. I don't know. It just pisses me off, dude. I like to. I like to trigger people. I like to get them to think differently. Like, philosophy. Like, just think differently. See it from a different perspective.
B
You're one of the best salespeople in the world, one of the best coaches in the world. What are the three most important elements of our success?
A
Man, there's so many things.
B
You mean, like, what makes us successful? Like, you're. You're asking. I come to Andy and said, hey, Andy, I'm new, you know, I'm. I need some advice for you. Just give me three things.
A
In sales?
B
Well, in success, you know, let's. Let's take it two ways. What are the three most important successful in sales, and are they any different if you're not in sales?
A
Yeah. I mean, I think no salesperson is ever going to be successful without confidence. Just can't happen. You're dead in the water. Without confidence, without belief, you're dead in the water. And then also, I think a lot of people don't give themselves permission to have a big life. I know that sounds weird. I train a lot of women. They're very good in sales. Very good. I mean, deadly. But most of them never, never become really successful and make a lot of money until they give themselves permission to start making money. Men are pretty stupid, right? We're like. We're like, oh, we can make a lot of money. Let's go. And then, like, we just jump in. But, like, women have to, like, reason, like, with. With, like, like, can I do this? Am I good at this? And they overthink it. If they'll just give themselves permission to win, they'll kick every guy's ass. They're just dangerous. So I think, I think, I think confidence, I think belief, you know, delusionally. Right. You know, everybody can buy, came to buy, will buy, as long as I do my job. Do your job. They're going to say yes. Don't think about anything else. I promise you it'll always play yes out in your favor. Give yourself permission to win. I think if you want to be successful, there will be people that will definitely disagree with this. But I would say, number one, you're never going to win long range in success without a good family life, without a good home life. You can't. If you don't take care of your home, it's going to implode at some point and you will start over. And so however far you think you're getting ahead short term, you're going to lose it all. We, I watch every man ruin his family. I, I watch him. And they don't mean to, but no one ever teaches us how to have it all. You know, that's, that's the, that's the missing piece that they don't teach us how to have it all. So we are one dimensional. We only think we can have this, this, but we can't. You know, it's like that was my biggest struggle. My wife's like, you're so stupid, you know? So I would say, number one, if you want to really be a dangerous competitor, if you, me and you were the same in skill. The same in skill, but I had a badass home life and you didn't, I would smoke you. Because in two years you're going to, you're going to get tired. And two, my wife's going to keep building me up, telling me I'm a badass. I'm going to, I'm going to love who I am. I'm going to be fired up, get a good night's sleep. Deep. I'm going to be on fire. I'm even magnetic, infectious. I'm going to be rocking it, dude. I'm going to show my team what having a great family looks like. My team's going to work harder for me than your team will work for you, dude. My team don't need to look up to anybody else. They can look right here. I'm going to show them how to have it all. That home life piece is a very important piece of the puzzle that is not talked about enough. Okay? And by the way, I'm not telling you not to make money. I'm telling you to be the best in the damn world. You think your wife wants you to be a loser? She wants her husband to be the best, but they also, your family wants to go with you. And so just be present. Be where your feet are. Wherever you are, be there. If you're at the gym, don't be thinking about being at home. If you're at home, don't be thinking about being at work. Just be where your feet are, right? And if you treat something like it's the beginning, they'll never be an end. So I think that that's a big deal. Like, I still look at my wife like it was the first day. Like, damn, I want that. And I still do that. And I. And I still keep dating with her. I still keep flirting with her. And people will tell you this crap, and they don't do it. The one thing I love about my wife, and no man I think would be able to make it my wife, honestly, the reason why is because, like, if me and her aren't getting along, if I'm not on fire with her, right? Like. Like, she holds me to such a high standard, and most people, like, I wouldn't put up with that. I know you wouldn't. I know you wouldn't. That's the reason why we're growing so fast, is because I have the best damn accountability partner in the world. And by the way, I think a lot of people underestimate the superpower of the person they're with. Everything that you want is sitting right next to you, but you're an idiot. You don't motivate her. You don't fire up. You don't invest in her. My wife, one day she said something. I remember two things she said. Said, and I'll go back to. To what you asked me, but I was doing a sales meeting. I was firing this team up, and when I was done, I was like, my wife's going to be so proud of me, dude. That's the best sales meeting I ever did in my life. My wife walked over and she goes, I wish I could get some of that. I'm like, she's right. I'm. I'm on fire when I take those sales calls. I'm on fire when they call me about business growing. But when's the last time I went home and told my wife, I'm ready to grow our marriage like crazy? I do that now. So that. That was a. That. That was a that was kind of a big deal. That. That woke me up. But so my wife, you can tell, clearly, like, she's. She's that accountability partner. But, like, I was talking to a guy one. One night, we're on the phone, and he was having a marriage problem. And I was like, hey, brother, listen, man, I'm like, you got to go, and you gotta. You gotta. You gotta see her, brother. She's. She's. She knows you're looking through her. You got to make sure that, you know, she feels safe. Scene. And I look over at my wife, we're arguing, and she's like, no ways. And I'm like, I gotta call you back. I'm like, babe, listen. I'm like, that's. That's my job. She goes, I'm not gonna marry a fraud. I'm not gonna date a fraud. Okay, what advice did you give him? And I was like, well, you know, to. She's like, are you looking. Are you looking at me right now like you love me? Is that how you're looking at me? And I'm like. And she's like, you're not looking at me like that, but you're gonna give me advice? Do you feel good about that? And I'm like, why did I have to marry the most dangerous woman on planet Earth? That whole. And most men are like, I wouldn't put up with that. I know you wouldn't. I know you wouldn't. That's why your life sucks. That's why your life will never be what it should be. Because your ego. And she's just. She's just such a good. By the way, a lot of people don't think that their coach should be their wife. It should be like, Tony Robbins, because that's cool. Everybody would love if I said, Tony Robbins is my coach. No, she's my coach, dude. She's a savage. She knows me. Born anybody. She knows when I'm slipping. She knows. She knows. Your wife knows everything about you. She knows it. The question is, have you given her permission to be direct with you? Can she tell you, do you have ego? Do you fight her for it? And. And so that was something I learned. So I think another deal is I think if you're going to be in a relationship at some point in your life, grow and take your family with you. And all the self development you do, make sure she's theirs also, so the guys can grow together. And you can independently be a savage. She can independently be savage. And then you guys will be a power couple together. Dangerous. Great home life. Obviously the relationship to me is like ultra important. And then I would say become a mat. Just some skill, like, or one piece of advice. Whatever you're going to do, master it. Most people are a master of none. They've never mastered anything and that's the reason why they won't be remembered, you know, and, and I believe in changing people's lives and stuff. And so my mastery is the art of communication. I'm a sniper. If I can get my hands on you, I'm gonna change your life. Like I'm gonna do it. Like. And so that's my cell is. I'm just delusional in that.
B
One of the things that's made me successful is something I called extreme preparation. I prepare more than anybody for any meeting, any podcast. I can tell anything. How important is preparation? How important is preparation 11 to 100. How important is preparation 101?
A
It's success favors the prepared. And it's the cool quote, but it's just the truth. And if you didn't succeed, you probably didn't prepare enough enough. And then if you did fail, you probably need to prepare harder next time. You know, like that 10x Grant Cardone book. He said most people underestimate the amount of effort it takes to be great at anything. And so, you know, you over prepare. Guess what? When is the last time has over preparing screwed you? Never.
B
Never.
A
Yeah, never.
B
Are good looking people more successful at sales than non good looking people? Yeah, but people will look at this, say Andy, man, like, what if I'm not good looking? What if, if I'm, what if I'm not a model or I'm not thin or I'm not.
A
We don't have to be a model because I'm a pretty ugly guy. But I am in very good shape. So it increases my odd of being more attractive because I am in better shape. Right. And so like again, you know, it's like I'm not Brad Pitt, but I, I can work out, get in really good shape. That increases my odds and by the way increases my influence. Okay, like believe it or not, dude, if I was a fat person right now, 350 pounds, would you be having a podcast with me?
B
Well, it depends.
A
I mean, ah, see here's at the.
B
End of the day, if, if Jelly Roll were sitting in here, I'd be like, hey jelly man, let's get down with this show.
A
No, I just wanted you to know I was kidding when I said that. But I was saying like, I know I wouldn't be where I am. I wouldn't be where I am, honestly, because it looked like I don't make good decisions, you know, I mean, if you look like you make bad decisions, you probably do. Okay, But I do want to say something. If, if someone was to knock on your door right now, now if they were to, you know, pitch you anything, if they're more attractive, would you probably give them 30 seconds more time than if they were ugly?
B
That's why we see good looking female sales reps visiting all the doctor's office. Like we have a, we have a friend, a family friend who sells pharmaceutical. She's good looking and got boobs. Big boobs. Because men like looking at big boobs. And she loves it. She knows it. She's a top salesperson. So.
A
Yeah. And you don't have to be flirtatious here. Look, look, look, this is crazy. But my wife, she's never been hit on. And you basically like, Andy, your wife's lying to you. No, she doesn't get hit on. My wife's a good looking girl. She's awesome. She just didn't get hit on. She doesn't have that personality. My wife is a very like, direct business person, like awesome communicator loving person who is non flirtatious. And so like you can be attractive like as a female and you don't have to be flirty. And people are like, oh, I get, get it. So you're like a. Or you're 40. No, dude, no, you're attractive. Like I think everybody should understand that. Like you chase or you attract.
B
Yeah.
A
And you know, and so take care of yourself. Right?
B
Yeah. And I think physical increases your odds. I think physical attraction is so important in a relationship.
A
Right.
B
You need to be attracted to, to your mate and then, then you see people. Okay, you're once in good shape. Now one person is very obese. And you look at these couples sometimes and I think, how is that going to work out?
A
I think it ain't working out.
B
Right, right then. So tell us about the divorce diet. Right? I mean, it's what happens when you get divorced and someone is not in shape and you're thinking about, all right, the next time I'm getting naked with someone, I better, better have that six pack or I better not be as fat as I used to be.
A
Yeah, I mean, well, you see it all.
B
The right motivation.
A
Well, no, but you see it all the time. And dude, I'm. I honestly believe that being in great shape is one of the best feelings in the world. It really is. It's just, it's just one of the best feelings in the world. And I'll just. I think anything that makes you feel good, I think you should do a lot of. And I think it, I think it makes you feel amazing when you take good care of yourself and you look good.
B
The most enjoyable thing in the world is having sex.
A
Yeah. And you do it, right? I guess.
B
For sure. Well, you said if you're not having sex with your spouse every day, then you hit your yourself. Is that really true?
A
Well, I mean, at the end of the day, dude, I mean, your wife, I mean, I. Again, I'll go back to this, but your wife said, I'm not going to have sex with any other man for the rest of my life. I give myself to you, and she's not having sex with you. I mean, the deal is, is that you didn't keep your word, man. You promised her the ride of a lifetime. You know, it was cool when you guys got together and, you know, again, probably other things are more important than her. She knows about it. You guys aren't having sex. You're becoming roommates. End of story. Your kids are going to have a marriage just like you guys do. Good job.
B
My rabbi told me something once, a long time ago. He said, if you're not having sex with your wife, you're having sex with somebody else. And same thing for her.
A
Well, somebody. Listen. The devil. Devil. I'm going to tell you this for sure. Me and my wife have sex every night. And a lot of people are like, man, that's extreme. Oh, yeah, yeah, we're pretty extreme.
B
I mean, I, I, I read that and like, I'm thinking, is there a night where you just want a night off? You got to replenish. You gotta, you gotta just re, just, hey. I mean, it's just hard. I mean, physically, it's hard. I mean, not, not that.
A
Do you want me to tell you what's hard? Me, Me and my wife, no matter what's going on. On, if, if we have sex, no matter what's going on, no matter what problems we have in our life, they all disappear. And we sleep great together. And so I'm never going to let the devil come into my home and come into my bed. And even if, like, we're not, like, I mean, I don't know, like, I want to have sex with my wife. Like, I don't understand. I don't need, I mean, I, I get, I guess everybody's built differently. Does that make sense?
B
Yeah.
A
And like, I just. I hunt my wife. I. I just. Dude, listen. Something happened when she stood by my side when. When the FBI came in and I got in big trouble. And then when she stood by my side through all that hell, I understood that I've been pleasing the wrong people our entire life. I. I have been kissing everyone else's ass my whole life, and she is the one that's going to be by my side when I freaking die. I am an absolute piece of. I owe her my life. And guess what? Like, just like somebody would save your life in a war. My wife. My wife saved my life. And so, like, I know, like, most guys don't get it, but, like, that's how I view her. Like, she might. She's my best friend, and I. Obsessed with her. I love having sex with her. I love her being a great mother. She's my best friend. She's my counselor. She's the CEO of her company. If you were to talk to her right now. Now, you see, she's a savage, bro. Like, she's an animal. But she's. She's the heart of our whole company.
B
You ever heard of the Urban Dictionary? Never heard of the Urban Dictionary. All right, I'm going to shout out to my buddy Robbie McGee on this one. I'm going to read you something for the Urban Dictionary. You ever heard of the word Nippons? All right. Nippons are the state of obvious protuberance of the nipples, or one's nipples are visibly hard due to cold weather, friction or possibly physical arousal. Talk to us about your wife pregnant and pinching your nipples.
A
Well, so I love this, actually funny story. And she was pregnant with our son Ian. First time she's pregnant, right? And I'm at work, and I come home, and she's just, like, in this, like, miserable state. And she's. And by the way, like, not being negative, she's just, like, very uncomfortable. And she's like, you caused this, right? And I'm having your son. And. And she's like, I'm gonna pinch your nipples. She's like, that would make me feel better. And it was funny because we cracked up, right? And I'm. And I'm like, all right, baby, whatever. Make you feel better, whatever it is. And, dude, she pinched my nipple so hard, dude, I remember it was. It's just me and her. We lived out at Lake Texoma, which is in between Oklahoma and Texas. This small lake. No one's around, around. There's no social media. It's 2009. There's nothing we had no friends. It's just me and her cracking up. We're best friends, right? And at that point, the rest of our life, to this day, anytime she's going through something, she's like, it'll make me better, feel better if I pinch her nipples. And so she'll just grab and pinch my nipples. And she does it just as, like a joke when something's going wrong. She's like, come here. No, no, no, you didn't look. You're like a puppy. There's the puppy pad, and you piss next to the puppy pad. There's the hamper. And you threw your clothes on the ground right next to it. And I got to go pick it up. So come here. I'm going to pinch your nipples. And people will laugh, dude. And, you know, and people don't like seeing people have fun. They don't like it.
B
But people. People comment on. I mean, I. And it's a question because I think it's important to have playfulness with your. Your wife.
A
Yeah.
B
And I'll be so serious. But people make fun of your hard nipples all the time online.
A
I love it.
B
Everyone. Everyone's talking about Andy's nipples, bro.
A
They make fun of my short, short, dude. They make fun of everything. Listen, at the end of the day, what happens is that when people hate themselves, right? And by the way, hey, listen, my nipples are always hard, right? But when people hate themselves, honestly, like, a lot of times, like, I make people question themselves and they don't like that. That. Right. Like, I'm talking about my wife and some guys, if his wife was watching this podcast, he'd be like, babe, don't watch that crap. That guy's a loser. Yeah, I get it, dude. I get it, man.
B
Don't you. Don't you love the haters?
A
Oh, yeah, no, they. They. I wouldn't. I wouldn't be this far without him. And I. I understand what Grant Cardone said when I read it, and he says, I wouldn't be this far without you. Can't thank you enough. Well, the fact that we're in this state of social media, right, which is a big part of the world now because everybody's on their phone all the time. If you wanna really have influence and you want to build your brand, you're going to have to understand how to hack the algorithm, which we do, and it gets around 100 million views every 30 days. The haters help me get my content to travel to my followers, my believers. And so thank you. Like, honestly, like, I'm Grateful. The more they say negative stuff, the more engagement I get, the more comments I get, the more that the algorithm is like, oh, man, something's going on here. Let's show more people. People. And so I'm super grateful for it. Honestly, Like, I mean, I. Listen, I've been. I've been made fun of my whole life. So, like. Like, I have a pretty good life.
B
One of the thing that's hard for us to see, too, is when we live in a toxic world, what we have to do. And sometimes you don't even realize that you're in it. So what's your advice when there's someone gnawing at you or criticizing you behind your back and you just have to deal with these people, you really don't have to deal with them, do you?
A
Yeah. Like, honestly, like, I know this sounds crazy, but, like. Like, I've never, never. I've never had somebody walk up to me and say anything to my face.
B
They don't have the courage.
A
I don't know. I just.
B
Well, I mean, you look like a badass, but I've been out in public everywhere.
A
Like, dude, like, by the way, I want to say something. Like, I'm not. I'm not like a fighter or something, right? Like, I'm like, I. I work out, I'm in the gym, I take care of myself. I mean, I wouldn't be afraid to defend my family or something like that. But. But, like, you know, know, like. Like, people don't like to see people come up, you know, People don't like to see people change, you know, like, because I made all these mistakes and I was like, an underdog and stuff. Like. Like. Like, I love seeing people correct their life. Like. Like, that's what a good leader is, is. Like, man, you know, you can change, but. But the problem is, is that when people make those changes, like, people don't like it. It's. I think it's because people put boundaries on themselves, right? Or maybe I put boundaries on you on what I thought you were possible, like, what you could do. And then when you go outside those boundaries, I'm like, screw you, dude. You know? But. But at the end of the day, like, I've. I've never had any issues, man. Like, I'm out in public every day. Like, I don't have a bodyguard. I mean, we're all strapped and have guns, but, like, I've always carried guns. Everyone here has a gun. We got. We got hundreds of guns around here. If you walk into the LA group, there's machine guns and whatever you can call them everywhere. There are semi automatic, there are weapons in every corner of this place and we love it. We live in the state beautiful state of Arizona. We love weapons.
B
What's wrong with the human condition that so many people are unhappy for others who become successful or especially massively successful?
A
Well, again, I just think that I, I mean I just think that people, you know, like, if I see you win, then I'm just like, screw that guy, right? I mean that's pretty easy for me to say. Dude, I don't like you, dude. Who do you think you are? You think you're cool? Coming in here with you and your girl, you think you're cool? Like, I just hate me, bro. They don't hate you. They, you just, you make them question themselves and so that's why they hate you. That's why. And they don't really hate you. Matter of fact, I'm going to give you this real quick because I know that you'll get this. And because being successful in business as you're going to build your social media now, you're going to get things like, like it looks like this, it goes, I hate you. I wish you were dead. I hate watching your stuff. I hope you drowned. Like, this is my social media. Like, like, like my dms. I get people to tell me I change your life every day. But then you get these hateful ones. Yeah, we never respond. We never, I don't ever reply to anybody.
B
You don't engage with people?
A
I don't engage with nobody, bro. No. And then, I mean, I might have said thank you before to somebody like over something, but I don't engage with anybody. Never comment to your head haters. Never, never come down. They're. You're here, bro. You don't go there. But they're in the comment section and you know, everybody's different, but that's my deal. And, but then one day it's like marketing the right message to the right person at the right time. They say, hey bro, I hope you'll accept my apology. I want to tell you that I've been really hateful for a long time. I've been mean. My wife had just threatened me that she's going to walk out on, on me. My kids don't like me. I've been in a really toxic relationship with myself. Your videos really inspire me to be a better man. It's just that I was living in darkness. I'm finally making a decision today to change my life. I gave my life to God. And I want to tell you that I want to, you know, be inspirational like you one day. I want to help people. And, you know, please forgive me. I know you probably will never see this, but forgive me, you know, And I just say, hey, man, we love you. Like, we believe in you. Like, whatever you need, we got you. You know, it's cool. Dude, I don't hold nothing. I was. I was a piece of crap for a long time.
B
One of the really cool things about my show is I get to meet amazing people, people that I admire, people like you that motivate and inspire me. And what I learn, shockingly, along the way is all these immensely successful people, including you have a coach. You coach, you've coached. I mean, you're going to come up on a million people at some point pretty soon, and yet. And you're one of the best coaches ever, and you've got a coach. And as I'm thinking, I've been coaching people for 25 years, and I want to get into a formalized training program. We're going to have classes. I hope to do some of what you guys are doing. And I say to myself, I had the most successful. One of the successful money managers on my show, Graham weaver, runs an $18 billion private equity firm. He's been getting coaches his whole life. He goes to Tony Robbins seminars. And I interviewed Tony, as you know, a couple weeks ago. And I'm saying to myself, like, I should get a coach. Shouldn't everybody get a coach? And what do you say to people who are making $100,000 a year and say, I can't really afford a coach?
A
Well, you can't afford not to have a coach. At the end of the day, everybody, I say, there's two things that will ruin a man's life. And by the way, this could work for women, too. But, I mean, because my audience is about 80% male. Okay, um, number one, having the wrong woman just. And you say, what does that do with having a coach? Well, if you have the wrong woman, you're not going to make it. If you have the right woman, you're going to kill it. Okay? Number two, not having a brotherhood. Men have to have a good man in their life. If right now you and your wife are fighting, okay? And you called me, and I'm going to say, like, dude, dude, your wife's incredible, bro. Like, you know how lucky you are? Like, look, your perspective on this situation, I promise you, is skewed in some way, shape, or form. And I'm going To tell you this, like, don't let this trigger you. Don't like this bother you. Never get emotional, okay? Like, if somebody was to hurt her, you would kill him. Like, don't hurt her. Like, that's not who you are. Go back home. Even if it wasn't your fault. Tell her you're sorry, you love her. You're the protector of your home. You're the man. Go take care of this. Okay? You know this already, though. But now I. I told you, okay? Go take care of it, bro. We love you. Have a good day. You're gonna go home and you're gonna make your life right. That's it. And this is done. If you call the wrong guy, he says, you know what, dude, I'm gonna be honest with you. I've never told you this, but I don't really like her anyways, bro. I think she's been using you the whole freaking time. I'm being for real, man. You deserve way better than her. You shouldn't have to put up with that crap, bro. Listen, come. Come me. Come meet me down here at this bar. Let's talk about it. Brotherhood. Okay? So a coach to me is like having a brother or whoever. It's having somebody. It could be a male even teaching a woman, or a woman teaching a man. It doesn't have to be. I call. The brotherhood is like that person that you can call that's like, dude, like, talking life into you and then, by the way, like, helping you troubleshoot issues, you know, Because I always say you're one step away being in the wrong shoes. You're one step away from being in the right shoes and. And getting you to the next level in life. The people that you currently have in your life, if you look to your left and you're right, you probably don't have somebody that's trying to pull that next level out of you. That's what a coach does, dude. Basically, like, I'm just giving an example. Like, if you paid me, you would pay me to give you an edge and figure out how to get you to the next level. And you know what? A lot of the times a coach ends up helping you in areas that you didn't think that that coach was going to help you in. So it may be like, because you've made a lot of money, I may be like, oh, this is going to help me make more money. But in the end, you actually helped me have a better marriage, you helped me be a better father. You helped me light myself more. You helped me Process information. I got to hijack the way that you think. And I'm like, oh, my God, what's that worth? I mean, holy cow, dude. Now you want to talk about making money? That's stupid. Now we're doing everything at a really high level. And so great, great people don't want coaching. They demand it.
B
Why is one of the most important jobs of a coach to piss people off, Off?
A
Because sometimes, you know, people, people need to get. They, they, they need to get. I always say this like, my wife knows how to trigger me, right? Like, she knows how to trigger me. And so a coach's job to me is to trigger you to grow. Kobe Bryant, Michael Jordan had Tim Grover. Tim Grover would know how to poke Kobe to get him to play better. Look, dude, nobody's going to get better by kissing your butt.
B
Doesn't help anybody.
A
The job's to help you get, get better, which is why you're paying them. You're paying them for growth.
B
Let's talk about what it takes to work for you. And it's really not for you. It's with you. I, I hated in my career where someone said, oh, Randy works for me. It made me feel like they're putting you down. You got a team. Your team is incredible. What does it take to work here?
A
Values, number one, stand standards, values. And you have to have a good heart, period. All the rest can be taught. Most of my salespeople here that work here, they were not coaches. They were not in the high ticket coaching space. They weren't, they weren't in nothing. No, none of these people here have ever worked for a coaching company. They were people that were inside of my coaching company that were the greatest students that had the biggest transformations that I fell in love with. And then I was like, oh, I'm like a, I'm like a collector of people. I'm like, oh, these are my people. These are my family. This is, you know, this is my, this is my, this is my chosen family, basically. And so, like, we all have the same values. Here's what I'll tell you is you and your wife get along really well because you guys have alignment.
B
I have the best wife in the world, by the way.
A
Yeah, but you have alignment, though. Like, you guys both align with the same stuff. Even when you don't see eye to eye, you still align. And so me and my team, anytime that we don't see eye to eye, we, we grow through suffering, but we're always in alignment. And so I, I think that was the key Is that we hire from alignment and we hire from a good heart. You can't give someone a good heart.
B
As part of the interview process here, you ask someone to share three things with you that they've never shared with somebody before. I like to ask you to share three things with me that you've never shared with anybody before.
A
Man, I, I'm pretty open book. It's probably gotta be out there somewhere, man. I don't know. I think I've shared everything, bro. Like one of my. Why? One of the things my wife always says is that like, I just share everything. And the reason why is because I'm just not afraid of anything coming into the light. Once I decided to become an influence for people, I knew the enemy was going to attack me. So what I did is that I emptied, emptied all the bullets out of the enemy's gun as fast as I could. Does that make sense? Just told everything. And I said I didn't used to like me either, but like, come meet me now and tell me you don't like me. Like, I was that guy, I wouldn't have liked him either. I didn't like him either, but come meet me now. So I emptied all the bullets out of the enemy's gun and I took. Told everything. When I decided to start my coaching program to everyone, there is nothing that anyone knows about me that I haven't sold. And people say we don't like a private life. I don't have a private life. I've decided to be an example for people.
B
It's working. Yeah, you're killing it.
A
Yeah. So, but, but I wanted to share with you. Like, I almost wish that I, I could have something, but I'm. My wife would be like, oh, good luck with that one. He tells everybody everything, right? And so like I wish I could make a. Make up something, but I've shared it all.
B
For me, one of the most important skills that anybody could have is the ability to knock on someone's door, go up to someone, shake somebody's hand and cold calling. How critical is cold calling to our success?
A
Super important. The ability to master a stranger is probably the number one skill a human can have. Master a stranger, walk up to someone you don't know and start a conversation. Be. Be kind, be polite. It's the most valuable skill on planet. Planet Earth. If you can learn that, you'll. You can write your own check.
B
And what's the advice to somebody who says, yeah, we have a summer intern program. We have 32 kids, Andy. Every summer it's a teaching internship, eight to six and one of the. And they work on my beaches. Company. I have a company called Sandy. S A N D E E. It's a yelp for beaches. Essentially. We've cataloged over 120. Over 120 categories of data for more than 140,000 beaches in 212 countries. So they all work on our company. Company. And I tell people one of the assignments in the summer is you have to go out to strangers on the beach. You have to do what's known as a sandy dance. Well, what's a sandy dance? A sandy dance is for you to go and demonstrate to some stranger some crazy ass dance that people laugh at and think it's funny that you think would go viral in a TikTok video and get them to do it. And everyone looks at me like, oh my God, like, I cannot do that. I'm gonna quit. This is terrible. I could never do do that. And I say, you know, you're going to go do it. It's not. It's not an ask, it's a requirement. You're going to go do it. And we have this rehearsal in the parking lot of the building and everyone's, you know, very stiff. And I said, man, that. That's not funny at all. And everyone's giggling and everyone's laughing and they all go out and I say, you got to create 10 videos. Everyone come back with 10 videos. You are required to come back. I don't care. Two weekends, three weekends, you come back with 10 funny videos. We're going to go through those videos. Videos. And everyone says it's life changing for them to be able to go up to someone on the beach, to someone who's enjoying the sun, don't want to talk to you, and then for you to go do something absolutely crazy and get someone else to do it. If you get someone else to do that, that's an incredible skill.
A
Facts. It's amazing.
B
Life changing. Life changing.
A
Yeah. They're just breakthroughs. Huge breakthroughs. At the end of their life, they'll look back and they'll say, I, I changed my life on that beach.
B
We're at the end of the show right now. And I always end the show with a game I call fill in the blank to excellence. Are you ready to play?
A
Sure.
B
My number one professional goal is.
A
My number one professional goal is man. Anytime I say number one, I'm fighting like 9 million answers in my head. My professional goal is to probably be a great example of human excellence for the rest of my life.
B
My number one personal goal is probably.
A
Be the greatest daddy and husband that's ever lived until I die.
B
The biggest lesson I've learned in my.
A
Life is listen to your wife. She's always right.
B
The one thing somebody should say to themselves when they wake up in the.
A
Morning is I believe in myself.
B
The one thing that they should say to themselves when they go to sleep.
A
At night is bet against me. I dare you.
B
My biggest regret in life is not.
A
Listening to my wife. Soon sooner I probably wouldn't be in trouble.
B
My biggest fear in life is probably letting myself down. When you were younger.
A
Probably now. Like I just, I'm finding new levels every day and like I don't ever want to get comfortable.
B
Do you ever get down? No, never have a down day.
A
I just don't want to lose my edge. It's impossible. I've got my. I'm so good at developing. I've developed this edge that I. It can't be beat. I have every area in my life dialed.
B
The most prideful moment of my life is it's prideful.
A
Is that a good pride or bad pride?
B
I never thought about it that way. Good and bad.
A
Yeah. Because I know like some pride's bad but then like some pride. So prideful would be probably my kids are born like that was. That was a really special gift.
B
Craziest thing that's happened in my life.
A
Is I would say probably getting another chance at last life. That was pretty crazy. You know, I thought I was going to be in the car business till I die. If you'd have told me, I mean I 50x my income in three years. I mean, you know people that do that but it's like getting striked by lightning.
B
The funniest thing that's happened to me in my life is probably looking at.
A
Pictures of me whenever I was fat with hair, which we should see that.
B
The best advice I've ever received is.
A
The greatest gift you could ever give yourself in life is spending time working on yourself.
B
The worst advice I've ever been given.
A
Is people like you don't make it.
B
The most I've ever bench press is.
A
I got a hurt shoulder. So I think probably £225 is all I've ever lifted.
B
10 years from now I'm going to be ripped. 20 years from now I'm going to be jacked. If you could pick one trait that leads to somebody's success, it would be one trait. One trait.
A
Communication. The art of communication.
B
The most important trait that's contributed to my success is persuasion, influence. The one thing I've dreamt about doing for a long time but haven't is.
A
Is I'd probably give my wife a little bit more sleep. Like she don't ever get to sleep. My wife says success to her would be to sleep in.
B
My amazing wife is sitting right there. I'm going to be, and I'm going to be hearing this.
A
She's like, are we ever going to sleep in? Oh my God.
B
I'll be hearing this for, for the rest of my life.
A
But my wife says that's what the definition of success is to her is to sleep in. And I'm like, she's like, and we're still not successful.
B
If I had to coach one person in the world world it would be.
A
It would be my son.
B
You have an opportunity to coach your son.
A
But that's who it would be though is my son. Like I'm coaching him, but like it's him. Like he's, he's my only son.
B
If you could go back and give your 21 year old self one piece of advice, it would be don't be.
A
Around the wrong people.
B
If you're President Trump today sitting in the over office, the next thing that.
A
You would do is make it mandatory to make kids be able to start doing push ups and sit ups and the, the stuff they used to do in, in class when we were young. I did, you had to, used to be able to do guys, everybody had to do seven pull ups, 50 crunches and we had to be able to run a mile in under eight minutes. Like that was mandatory for kids. I don't remember what it was called, but I would say that goes effective immediately.
B
The one question you wish I had asked you but didn't is I don't know, man.
A
You asked a lot of questions.
B
Do you have any questions you want to ask me?
A
One regret you have in your life?
B
The one regret I have in my life is probably, and I'm going to answer this in an easy way, but the most profound way, I don't have any regrets because at the end of the day I wouldn't be the person who I am today without living the life that I've left so far, that I've lived so far.
A
But if you could change that.
B
If I could, if I could change the one thing I think I would have learned at an earlier age to build healthy relationships and learn lessons from my past and know that I have the ability to change at an earlier age as opposed to as I get older and more mature and more into self assessment and reflection and learning and devoting to improving myself to be the best person I could be. I would have started a lot earlier.
A
That's a big one. Anybody watching this. Falling in love with learning yourself is a superpower.
B
There's a problem too. And I know I was very successful and made a lot, a lot of money at a young age. And people think, okay, that's so great. And you have everything in the world and you really. Most people would want to be in that position. Right. 99.9999% of the people in the world would love to be in that position. But it also doesn't allow you to, to develop as much emotionally as you would if you were building a business over a long period of time. And also, as weird as it sounds, it also creates very significant problems in relationships around you. It creates familial issues which people have all kinds of unrealistic expectations, friend issues, unrealistic expectations, jealousy, envy, backstabbing. And I think as I look bad at it, as I look back at it, I. If I had been 56 today and not 32 years old or 33 years old when I made a lot, a lot of money, I would have handled situations very, very differently. And I would have not given a shit what people thought of me, which today I don't. Then I did.
A
Yep. And you know, back then, and I love that back then we didn't have the ability to watch a podcast.
B
There were no podcasts, didn't exist.
A
So if I would say, if you're lucky enough to watch it, just doing it changed my life.
B
Yeah. I mean, when I made it, I mean, our company went public a year after we started the company, our company was worth $14.4 billion. The day that the stock trade went up to $35 billion, I think 490 days after we started the company and it was craziness. And you look around, you say, you know, this can't be happening to me. And you really don't know who to talk to. And there weren't a lot of people in similar situations who had been that, who were your age. There were only a couple. And I'm not going to name who they were, but I remember having these conversations sitting at this guy's $30 million house in Malibu. Young guy, well known guy. And I said to him, hey man, I said, we're talking about high class problems that are real world problems. And I said, it'd be weird for people to listen on a microphone, on this conversation because they're high class problems. But. But it comes, like I said, with all kinds of responsibilities and pressures that people don't think about. And everyone's looking at you under a microscope. Everyone's waiting for you to act like an. Everyone's waiting for you to be arrogant. Everyone's hating on your word. Everyone's just waiting for you to make a mistake. And everyone's talking about you. Back then, there were no unicorns. It was very rare. And you're that guy, and you're walking in a restaurant and all your peers, highly educated, the lawyers, the investment bankers, the whisperers. And just being on that microscope wasn't very comfortable. And you just want to crawl into your shell. And what I learned along the way, too, is just you got to be yourself, be the same person and stay humble. I think at the end of the day, I think all my friends, you know, they'll say one thing, and again, I made a lot of mistakes. I'm sure I've pissed people off. I know I pissed people off.
A
Part of the learning curve.
B
And I'm sure I've acted. I know I've acted very, very badly. But the one thing that I've done is, is I've. I've stayed very grounded, stayed very humble. And, you know, you talk about all my boys back in the day, friends from college, high school will say, you know, I'm definitely the same exact person I was then.
A
That's good. Love it, man.
B
Appreciate it. You're amazing, Andy. Appreciate you. This was awesome.
In Search of Excellence: Andy Elliott – The No-BS Blueprint to Winning in Life and Business (E153)
Episode Overview
In this compelling episode of In Search of Excellence, host Randall Kaplan sits down with Andy Elliott, a remarkable individual who transformed his tumultuous early life into a thriving career as one of the most successful sales coaches in history. Throughout their candid conversation, Elliott shares his journey from overcoming childhood adversity to building a multi-million-dollar coaching empire. This detailed summary captures the essence of their discussion, highlighting key moments, insights, and actionable advice for listeners aspiring to achieve excellence in both their personal and professional lives.
Andy Elliott opens up about his challenging upbringing, marked by instability and hardship. Raised primarily by his father after his mother left when he was two, Elliott describes a "broke, broken household" with his father navigating multiple marriages and the chaos that ensued.
Andy Elliott [01:41]: "We were all a broken home. There was always a different stepmom in the house. It was full Jerry Springer."
A pivotal moment in Elliott’s childhood occurred when his older sister accidentally ran him over with a riding lawn mower, resulting in a severe foot injury. This traumatic event not only left him physically scarred but also instilled in him a profound sense of resilience.
Andy Elliott [06:05]: "I remember sitting in the car with my dad... The whole side of my foot was cut. It was like a thriller, psycho freaking movie."
Struggling with stuttering and self-esteem issues throughout his youth, Elliott found solace and confidence in physical fitness. His determination to transform his body served as the foundation for his later success.
Andy Elliott [19:51]: "Getting in shape was the first time in my life I ever felt confident."
Elliott’s foray into the automotive sales industry marked the beginning of his ascent. On his very first day, he closed a significant deal, earning him a substantial bonus and igniting his passion for sales as a means of financial liberation.
Andy Elliott [37:28]: "I just went on a ride. But he was cool, man. This is like a real start."
Leveraging his sales expertise, Elliott transitioned into coaching, founding the Elliott Group. He emphasizes the importance of personal development, mastering communication, and building a supportive community to foster success.
Andy Elliott [53:48]: "I became obsessed with being a renegade... We rebuilt our whole freaking life."
Despite his professional triumphs, Elliott candidly discusses the strains placed on his personal life, particularly his marriage. Balancing intense work commitments with family responsibilities proved to be a significant challenge, leading to moments of conflict and introspection.
Andy Elliott [65:19]: "My wife triggered me in an area that was always really insecure for me."
Elliott shares his unorthodox sales philosophies, including the controversial use of high-pressure tactics and the importance of relentless self-improvement. He believes that true excellence stems from understanding oneself and continuously pushing beyond perceived limits.
Andy Elliott [99:16]: "Confidence, belief, delusionally. Right. You give yourself permission to win."
At Elliott Group, the culture is built on mutual support, accountability, and relentless pursuit of excellence. Elliott underscores the necessity of having strong personal relationships and a supportive network to sustain long-term success.
Andy Elliott [125:29]: "Values, number one, stand standards, values. And you have to have a good heart, period."
Throughout the episode, Elliott imparts invaluable advice to listeners:
Self-Development is Paramount: Invest time and resources in personal growth to unlock your full potential.
Andy Elliott [132:46]: "The greatest gift you'll ever give yourself is spending time working on yourself."
Embrace Resilience: Overcome adversity by maintaining confidence and believing in your ability to succeed.
Andy Elliott [128:45]: "The ability to master a stranger is probably the number one skill a human can have."
Build a Supportive Community: Surround yourself with like-minded individuals who uplift and challenge you to be better.
Andy Elliott [125:29]: "You have to have a good heart, period. All the rest can be taught."
Andy Elliott [07:04]: "Don't wait for something bad to happen before you change."
Andy Elliott [25:09]: "The hardest thing in this world is to learn yourself."
Andy Elliott [44:34]: "Love eyes. She's like, I can tell when you're with me and when you're not with me."
Andy Elliott [107:02]: "We don't have to be a model because I'm a pretty ugly guy. But I am in very good shape."
Andy Elliott’s narrative is a testament to the power of perseverance, self-belief, and the relentless pursuit of excellence. From a fraught childhood to the zenith of the sales coaching industry, Elliott embodies the principles of transformation and resilience. His candid reflections offer profound lessons for anyone striving to overcome obstacles and achieve their dreams. In Search of Excellence delivers an inspiring dialogue that not only chronicles Elliott’s journey but also equips listeners with the mindset and strategies to carve their own paths to success.
Join In Search of Excellence for more inspiring stories and actionable insights from leaders across various industries. Subscribe now to stay motivated and empowered on your journey to excellence.