Ready for the Ivy League Challenge?

Transcript

SPEAKER A

Welcome to the Ivy League Prep Academy podcast, where we help you make a meaningful impact in your communities and get accepted to your dream university. Becoming the person that Ivy League schools recruit is more enjoyable and meaningful than you ever imagined. Come find out why. Hello, everyone. Maybe you can hear an extra jump, an extra excitement in my voice today. There's a reason for that. I'm interviewing my hero and one of my best friends just really quickly so you understand who this person is. Dr. Joe Vitali was once penniless and homeless, living on the streets of Dallas, Texas. But after shifting his mindset to be more productive, he clawed his way out and today is a serial entrepreneur, the author of dozens of bestselling books, a singer, a songwriter, even a movie star. But to me, he is more than that. Dr. Joe Vitali is my mentor and good friend. In fact, he is one of the kindest people I know. The reason I've created the Ivy League Challenge is to inspire my listeners the same way Joe inspired me. So I am really confident you're going to love this episode. Let's jump right into the conversation I had with him where I asked him about his nickname, Mr. Fire.

I'm excited to introduce our listeners who many of whom are high school juniors and seniors. Some of them are a little bit younger, and then their parents, who may not know about Mr. Fire. Can you tell us where your nickname came from, especially from your background being homeless to being so prolific? Where did you get your nickname?

SPEAKER B

Okay, well, first of all, thanks for having me here. It's an honor. I'm flattered and feel privileged to be here, so thank you for that. The nickname Mr. Fire came from a woman I knew four decades ago, and she started calling me that on her own. I would see her, and she said, hey, there's, Mr. Fire. And finally I said, what in the world? Why do you call me Mr. Fire? And she said, Because you light a fire under everybody you meet. You inspire them, you motivate them. You find something they're interested in, and then you just kind of light the kindling wood under their rear and tell them to go for it. So you are Mr. Fire. And the name stuck in the early days of the Internet, and none of us knew what we were doing. And I needed to call my website something. I called it Mrfire.com. And so that's my moniker, but it all came from that. She said I was inspiring people.

SPEAKER A

Oh, it's absolutely brilliant and perfect because you do you light a fire in everyone. I actually reached out to some friends and colleagues from the past, let them know I would be interviewing the Joe Vitali, and everyone came back with, oh, Joe inspired me to do this. Joe inspired me to do this. I listened to his book or I listened to his audiobook I listened to his audio program on Nightingale Conant, and he inspired me to do amazing things. And I have to tell you, before I ever dreamed of applying to Harvard, I had a lot of self doubt and a lot of beliefs about myself that I didn't even realize were holding me back. And it was you, Joe. It was your books, it was your audio programs that changed my life.

SPEAKER B

Wow.

SPEAKER A

Yeah. Absolutely. I can say that with a lot of confidence, and I know I'm not.

SPEAKER B

The only one, Steve. It's mind blowing. It makes me almost speechless. I always have to point out, when I hear from somebody who says they went and did something big because of something I wrote, I always have to point out they did it. And that's the real important thing. It's one thing to sit there and go, oh, I listened to you on audio, and I felt great, or I was motivated. But until somebody actually gets up and applies to Harvard or writes their book or opens their restaurant, then it's just a pipe dream. Then they're just fantasizing. So I applaud you. You are the one who listened and took action, and that's what's really important to success.

SPEAKER A

Thank you so much, Joe. That's so kind. And I agree that those who are listening in need to take that same mindset. Right. This idea that you hear something inspirational and it has to move something inside you to the point that you move, one great example of that. When I listened to your program on Nightingale Conan, you may not even remember this. This is like 100 programs ago, right? But The Power of Outrageous Marketing was an audio program that I listened to in my car years ago. And you said that everyone should write a book, and you gave something like nine reasons why everyone should write a book. It will make you immortal. It will allow you to leave a legacy. It'll do wonderful things for you. And it inspired me. And that is the origin of my book, your superpowers that then ended up hitting number one on Amazon for teenage books and number one for self help books. And again, just like you said, it begins with inspiration, and then we begin taking action. And so what would you say to a high school student listening right now who maybe has an idea for a book in his or her head?

SPEAKER B

Well, I would say honor the idea by taking action on it. This is an important concept because so many of us get ideas and the vast majority of us dismiss them. We talk ourselves out of them. We say, I'm too young, I'm too old, I'm too fat, I'm too thin. I don't have experience yet, I don't have connections yet. Who am I to write a book? We can go on forever with all the reasons why not to start it. But what I found is you know nothing and you can tell nothing. You can predict nothing. You can't tell what the marketplace will do. There's no information at all that you can pull in until you take action and get it out. So I tell people just to do it. Basically, it's like you have an idea for something, honor the idea. And the more you honor an idea that you do get, the more you will get more ideas, even if you're just 14. I saw a note the other day that there's a kid who's seven years old who started reviewing toys on YouTube. He put up a YouTube channel. He's seven years old, and he would just review toys. He is now, I think he might be ten years old. A millionaire. He's a millionaire because YouTube allows you to put ads around whatever it is you put on YouTube. And he's just doing what he loves. A seven year old can do it. A ten year old can do it. A 14 year old can do it. I spoke I have a friend of mine who was teaching high school classes, and she asked me to come in as a guest speaker one day. And it's a rare thing for me to do with high school, but I seized the moment I went in, and I was blown away to see these 16, 1718 year old kids. They had online businesses. One of them had a clothing line. She was making her own clothing. She was putting it online. She was starting to sell it. Another one was producing music. I mean, he's, like, 17 years old, and he's producing music on his computer and helping local bands get some attention. And there was somebody else who wanted to do something in astrophysics, and it was beyond my even understanding at the time. I am finding, Steve, that I don't know that we have any limits. I don't care if it's age. I don't care if it's experience. I don't care if it's monetary. I don't know that we actually have any limits in life. The only limits we seem to have are the ones that we mentally agree to. So if somebody's 14 years old and they think, well, I'd like to write a book, then, by God, go write the book. The only thing that would stop you is your own belief that you can't do it or you shouldn't do it. Otherwise, proceed.

SPEAKER A

Wow. So can you tell us? We begin every day. We encourage those who take on the Ivy League Challenge every day. When your feet hit the floor, spend a few minutes breathing deeply and thinking about what a great day it's going to be. And so can you talk just a little bit about the importance of that self talk and that positivity? I love that you just said the only limits, probably, that exist in the world are between our own ears, the limits that we agree to.

SPEAKER B

Right.

SPEAKER A

And so what role would you say that self talk has for someone who's who's looking to expand their horizons and eliminate some of those self imposed beliefs?

SPEAKER B

This is an important question because until somebody realizes they have voices in their head, they more often than not listen to the voices thinking that is themselves or thinking that's the voice of authority. So if somebody wakes up and they start to think well, I'd like to write my book or I'd like to open a business or I'd like to do something online but immediately start hearing things in their head that say things like, well, I don't know how to do it. I'm too young. Nobody really will buy anything from me anyway. The marketplace is saturated. That is a voice and that is a voice of criticism. That is a voice of judgment, that is a voice of editorial restraint. And what I want people to realize is, first of all, you are not that voice. You are separate from the voice and you are hearing that voice. The voice is actually there because it's trying to protect you. It doesn't want you to be embarrassed. It doesn't want you to fail. It doesn't want you to make a mistake. And so from the voices perspective, it's restraining you for your own good. So the first thing is you're not that voice. You're separate from the voice. And in fact the person you are is far more powerful than that voice. The second thing that I recommend is that you start to create a new voice. And the new voice is the cheerleader. The new voice is the Steve or Dr. Joe in your head that is saying, why not you? Why not you? Why not try? Why not expect that this could work out? And why not expect that if it doesn't work out the way you think it's going to work out, it might work out in even better ways or lead you to new connection, new surprising enterprises or some sort of insights that will just carry you down the road in some sort of skyrocket kind of a way. And so we already have this voice of negativity, we'll call it, but now let's create the voice of Positivity and we need to develop it. At first I still remember when I started wrestling with that because the voice of criticism in my head was loud and clear. And now I was introducing a cheerleader out of nowhere and the cheerleader needed to be developed and I needed to listen to the cheerleader more often than not. So I love the idea of waking up in the morning and setting the tone for the day, not letting the day set it for you, not letting circumstances set it for you, but you take charge of your direction. There's a lot of brain science and neuroplasticity research that is showing that you have more control than you ever thought and you are more powerful than you ever thought before, and one of the best things you can do in the morning is state your intention. What do you want to have, do, or be for that day and just start to choose it, declare it, intend it, and move in the direction of it. There's so much to say about all of that, Steve, but I think the awareness that you're not those negative thoughts and the understanding that you can create a positive voice in you that encourages you can take people miles down the road with that alone.

SPEAKER A

Yeah, I think about you talk about the neuroscience and how much more clear we are than perhaps ever before. Reminds me of the Ras, the reticular activating system, this process, there's a million different stimuli all around us all the time. So what gets through to the conscious awareness? What do you think about? Well, it depends on what you tell your reticular activating system to let through. Right. Do you let through the I'm too busy, I'm too tired, I can't do it, it's not the right time? Maybe later. Or do you let through the this is me, I'm going to give it my best, I'm on fire. I'm going to go and see what happens. I'm going to do what I can and stay focused and be my best self.

SPEAKER B

Since you mentioned the reticular activating system, let me speak to that for a minute. The reticular activating system is a part of the brain that is already programmed to keep you alive. So it's programmed for survival. And since everybody is listening to this, their reticular activating system is working just fine. But what most people don't know is that you can program it for something you want besides survival. And how do you program the reticular activating system? There's three ways. The first is with a visual. So when we answer the question, what do we want? Do we have a visual that represents what we want? The brain thinks in terms of images. It's not so much words, it's more of the graphics. So you can find a graphic, you can Google it, you can create it, you can hire an artist to do it. You can sketch it out yourself. Maybe there's a photo of it. You can take a photo of it. We need some sort of image to communicate to the reticular activating system in our brain. This is what I want. That's the first level. The second level is we don't create without emotion. But most of us are focused on fear or on hate, and we overlook love, passion, and we want to be looking at that image of what we want with love, with appreciation, with gratitude. So we bring the fire of emotion to the image. And both of those, the image and the emotion, ignite the reticular activating system and set it to the on position to move you in the direction of the thing that you say you want. Then the third thing is you repeat this. This is why it's very important that when you wake up in the morning, look at your image, or think of your image and look at it and feel it with a sense of love and appreciation, knowing it's being created for you and by you. And this is why people write it down. Or they put the vision boards up, which again, is a graphic representation of what you want. Or they put it on their bedroom mirror, bathroom mirror, headboard, dashboard, put it on your phone so you see it every time you look at your phone. It's your screen saver. So I just wanted to clarify. The reticular activating system is incredibly powerful. But what you can do is choose what you want and then find an image that represents it. Then look at it with a level of love and gratitude and keep doing it, repeat it, and that will rewire the new intention in that part of your brain that's already working for you.

SPEAKER A

Yeah, amazing. I've said it this way. Tell me if this makes sense to you. We can consider our subconscious mind like a supercomputer. And then the dialogue, the Self talk, is the program that we ask that supercomputer to run over and over again. So the beliefs that you have about yourself or the things that you hear yourself say are the things that you're asking your computer, your supercomputer, to continue processing and continue running as a program.

SPEAKER B

And I would agree with that. Using the brain as a kind of a computer is a great way to start understanding the brain. But of course, our brain is so much vaster, more mysterious, more mystical, more complicated, more powerful than any computer than we've ever been able to imagine, even in the world of Sci-Fi. But it's a good place to begin. It's just to consider that the self talk, for example, is previous programming. It's still running, but we can interrupt the previous programming and introduce a new program. And that's part of what I love about what you're doing with your work, with the podcast and the people that are getting to listen to this. This is introducing new software, so to speak, for them to take on.

SPEAKER A

Absolutely. And it's so great to hear. Like you mentioned, that neuroplasticity. The fact is, our brains are not locked. And our IQ, and our ability to perform, our ability to study, to learn new things, it's not set in stone at any point. And so there's really no reason to buy into that old self talk that says, I'm not good enough. I can't do this. It's not my place to aspire to the top universities in the world or to aspire to reach my dreams, to publish my book, to start my idea, et cetera.

SPEAKER B

There's a book that I just read recently that I regard as a masterpiece and I'm going to recommend it to everybody. It's called personality isn't permanent. Personality Isn't Permanent. And it's Dr. Benjamin Hardy, I think is his last name. But if you look up Personality Isn't Permanent, you'll find it I am absolutely riveted by the book. It is a brilliant and powerful tool chest of psychology and technique that really prove that whatever you think your limitations are, whatever you think your personality is, whatever you think your current software of the mind happens to be, is all chosen and can be re chosen. In other words, you can recreate it. You can recreate yourself, you can recreate your future. There's a lot of talk in the book about considering your future self, and I will mention that the decisions we make right now not only affect right now, but they're affecting our future self. So whenever we make a decision, we can pause a moment and go, will my future self thank me for this? Because at one point you're going to arrive at that future self moment, and then you can go, oh, yeah, that decision did enrich this moment. Or, no, that wasn't the best, wisest choice. So all of this is in the direction that we have more freedom, we have more power, we have more control than we ever imagined. And I would just recommend the book. I don't know the author. I had nothing to do with the book. I read it and found it just like anybody else would. Personality isn't permanent.

SPEAKER A

I can't wait. I will absolutely put that to the front of my list. Can you tell us one more time? I've heard this story a number of times, and it brings a tear to my eye every time when you share the story of the pencil and the power of gratitude in your life. And this is a story that I'm saving. I haven't told it yet, even though it's one of my favorite to tell. When you agreed to come on the show, I decided to let you tell the story because no one can tell it better. What is the power of gratitude in your mind after your experience?

SPEAKER B

Well, the power of gratitude is probably the single most transformational thing that any of us can do anytime, anywhere, no matter what our conditions. It costs nothing. We remind ourselves of it, we do it, and it transforms our life from that moment on. I can't find the words to express just how incredibly powerful, on a nuclear level, the idea of gratitude and appreciation. The pencil story, I've told that so many times. I'm now in two or three different movies telling the same story, and it's a true story. Decades ago, I had been homeless. I had been in poverty for ten years. And during those poverty years, I was working on myself. I had big dreams reading the books. I wasn't wasting time or resources or anything doing self destructive things. I was trying to be an author. I was trying to follow my dreams. And it just seemed like it was the world against me. It was taking forever. And I would read all the books, listen to all the cassettes back then, go to all the free talks, apply what I understood, there was no Internet. I didn't have a coach. I was doing this on my own. And I kept hearing about gratitude. And I kept saying, you have to be thankful. And I would think to myself, yeah, I'll be thankful when I have something to be thankful for. I'll be grateful when things unfolded. And I started to have something to brag about. And so I was belligerent about it and angry about it, and I kept hearing about gratitude over and over and over and over, and I thought, okay, I'm going to try this gratitude crap. And I just looked on my desk, and I was in a rundown place, little efficiency apartment. The bathroom and the toilet and the kitchen were all in the same room. This struggle time for sure. And I know that dark night of the soul, and that night lasted a very long time. So I looked around my room and thought, okay, what am I grateful for? And it was nothing. There was nothing. So I picked up a pencil, and I thought, all right, I'll be grateful for this pencil. With this pencil, I can write a suicide note. I can write a grocery list. And I was just angry and flippant, and I was making up stuff. I can write a poem, I can write a song, and I can write a novel, and I can write a screenplay, and I can write a manifesto. And as I started talking, I started to lighten up, and I started to realize, holy smokes, with this pencil, I can move the world. With this pencil, I can write a kind of Declaration of Independence. They wrote it with pencils and pens. And I started to realize, oh, wow. With this pencil, I can motivate myself. I can inspire other people. I could write maybe song as it lasts forever. Maybe I can write some sort of book that would encourage people, motivate people, inspire people.

And every time I tell the story, Steve, my energy changes. I start to even feel happier in the moment. My energy goes up, even right now as I relive the moment. So I was doing that, and I genuinely started to feel better. And then I looked at the other end, and I saw the piece of rubber called an eraser. And I went, this is genius. This is genius. This pencil is really just a piece of it's, a twig with a lead in it and a piece of rubber on the other end. But with the piece of rubber, I can erase a suicide note. I can correct my novel. I can rewrite my song. I can erase things I don't need on my grocery list. And I looked at it and went, this is the greatest invention of all time. And you got to remember, when I picked up the pencil, I was not grateful. And a half later, my life was changed forever. I looked at the pencil, and then I lifted my eyes, and I started looking around the room, going, well, I'm not in a palace, but my God, there are people that don't have a roof over their head. There are people that don't have running water or a toilet or air conditioning, which I needed in Texas. And I went on and on. Now, here's the punchline. I was still unknown, still broke, still not published. But a window in my soul opened up and I looked out into the same world that I was complaining about. And now I was looking with sunlight coming out of my eyes. And I started to see that there were opportunities that were there all along, that I was missing. And I started to believe in hope and possibility, which I had begun to doubt. And because of that, I was able to take new actions. I was able to be more persistent. I was able to keep going in the direction of my dreams. And ultimately, to cut the story short, here I am the author of 80 some books. I'm in about 15 movies. I'm a musician with, I think, 16 albums out. I have more digital programs, coaching programs, and things that I can't even remember. I've produced so much. I travel all over the world. The last time you saw me was in Thailand on stage with I forget who was there, but I Can Go on.

SPEAKER A

And Mike Tyson.

SPEAKER B

Yeah, the greats. And all of this began with gratitude. Gratitude changes us. It changes our brain. It changes what we see. It changes our vibration. If you want to talk about it in metaphysical terms, it changes your well being. It changes your health. And it goes back to what I began by saying.

SPEAKER A

It's free.

SPEAKER B

Anybody can do it anytime, anywhere. And even when you don't feel like it, when you begin, you can pick up anything. I was in one movie, and I told the whole pencil story, and the woman I was talking to in the movie said, can I buy the pencil from you? And I said, it's not the pencil. Yeah, she was kidding, of course, but it's not the pencil. You can pick up anything. I got glasses here. I got water here. I got my calendar here. There's pictures of my love here. There's all kind of things. I can look at it and just begin the process of, okay, I'm grateful. Let's move into that space.

SPEAKER A

And I can't imagine a better way to end this discussion with this embodiment of gratitude that I see you as the mentor, as the example of what can happen when someone chooses to live right, when someone chooses to say, I'm not going to wait until I'm finished with high school. I'm not going to wait until I'm finished with university. The same people that wait until some other day when some other day comes, there's another reason to wait until some other day. And here you are. You decide it's time to be grateful. Even when I'm angry and I'm okay, if this is what you're supposed to do, this is how you do it. All right, let's do this. And then you turn into a genuine spirit of gratitude that opens up new ideas and opens up new opportunities that were there all along, like you said. But now you can see them. Now they're allowed into your awareness. You begin acting with greater certainty, with greater confidence towards making your tiny sphere of influence a better place. And as you do your part to make the world a little bit better, your sphere of influence expands and you become a greater and greater force in the world. And you have changed my life, and you have changed thousands of lives around us. And I am grateful for you. Thank you for all that you've done and all that you've shown is possible.

SPEAKER B

Thank you, Steve. I don't even know what to say there, but thank you. And thanks for what you're doing. I believe everybody here has a mission. And the mission doesn't have to be cure a national virus or cancer, but if you can do that, please do. The mission can be taking care of your family, or it could be, as you mentioned, writing the book, or it could be recording your album, or it could be opening the little bakery shop you've wanted to open. Whatever it is, small, big, large, extraordinary, whatever it is, do it, and do it now.

SPEAKER A

Go out there and do it. Thank you so much. Dr. Joe Vitali. Thank you for being with us. We so appreciate your time and your wisdom.

SPEAKER B

Thank you, Steve. God speed to all your listeners. I look forward to seeing you again.