Using Logic to Achieve Total Confidence in Life and Business with Antonio Thornton – Episode 66

Join Antonio Thornton and me and discover how to “Use Logic to Achieve Total Confidence in Life and Business”

📅   Date:  Wednesday, August 18th, 2021

⏳    Time: 2:30 pm MT (Live)

 

📢 Antonio Thornton is a highly sought-after business growth strategist, international speaker and best selling author.  He’s the is the founder of Fearless Impact, a global movement of entrepreneurs and business leaders who are committed to #makeanimpact..

Since 1994, Antonio has impacted over 250,000 entrepreneurs and has worked with organizations like Facebook, Microsoft, Georgia Pacific, and Massage Envy. Affectionately referred to as The “Profit Engineer”, he’s created and worked on projects with Robert Kiyosaki, Bob Proctor, Les Brown, Bob Doyle, and dozens of thought leaders around the world to boost sales and profits.

KEY POINTS:

  • Fear is the main obstacle that holds people back from achieving their goals.
  • Fearless Impact helps heart-centered entrepreneurs make a positive impact on the world and increase their income.
  • The company works with coaches, authors, speakers, trainers, and other knowledge workers who want to make a difference.
  • Fearless Impact empowers entrepreneurs to overcome their fears and create impactful programs that improve people’s lives.
  • Antonio Thornton, the founder of Fearless Impact, was almost imprisoned due to a previous job involving asset protection.

SHOW NOTES:

We are pleased to provide these show notes to make this podcast more accessible to those who prefer to read.

Please note that this is an automated transcription and may contain errors.

SHOW TRANSCRIPTS:

Mostafa Hosseini  0:01 

Welcome to daily confidence for entrepreneurs. My name is Mostafa Hosseini. At daily confidence we share tips, strategies and actionable advice that you can use to boost your confidence around different areas of your business on a daily basis.

I’ve got an amazing guest today and Antonio Thornton welcome, Antonio. Hey man, glad to be here. Great to have you on show. So please make sure to like and subscribe to the to the show or on whatever whichever channel you’re watching or listening. And if you have any questions, pop and pop them in the comment box on social media.

And if you know any friends who could benefit from the conversation, make sure to tag them and a comment. And and yeah, don’t forget to like and subscribe the show. My guest is Antonio. Let Thornton let me do it a proper introduction to Antonio. And then we’re going to dive into a very important conversation and title is How to use logic to achieve total confidence in life and business.

Now, Antonio Thornton is high is a highly sought after business growth strategist, international speaker and best selling author. He is the founder of fearless impact, a global movement movement of entrepreneurs and business leaders who are committed to make an impact. Since 1994, Antonio has impacted over 250,000 entrepreneurs and has worked with organizations like Facebook, Microsoft, Georgia Pacific, and Massage Envy, affectionately referred to as the profit engineering. He’s created and worked on projects with Robert Kiyosaki, Bob Proctor, Les Brown, Bob Doyle, and dozens of thought leaders around the world to boost sales and profits. Welcome, Antonio.

 

Antonio Thornton  2:01 

Hey, welcome. Glad to be here, man. Glad to be

 

Mostafa Hosseini  2:03 

with you. Great to have you. Great to have you. Now. I’ve been looking forward to this conversation, because this is obviously a very relevant topic to our theme and what we talked about. So without further ado, please give us your story. Your story behind why you’re doing what you do now.

 

Antonio Thornton  2:26 

Yeah, must feel his impact is, is as you mentioned, it’s a movement. It’s not just a business. It’s a movement that came out of my story, my life, my experiences. A few years ago, when I lived in Vegas, I connected with a couple of guys who were who were doing what they called at the time asset protection.

But what they were really doing was asset acquisition, they were acquiring people’s assets. But um, they hired me to do at the time, I called it reverse SEO. Now people call it reputation management. So it’s kind of like, you know, you want to help push down negative reviews and those types of things. And, and this was years ago, before reputation management was even a thing. So they hired me to do this.

And I was really good at it. They had a few negative reviews, and I didn’t really bother reading what they were. But I pushed those reviews down and I helped those guys make a whole lot of money. Well come to find out. They were stealing money from their clients. And there was a really big mess, they stole almost $50 million.

And I got caught up in that. And we ended up happening is I almost went to prison as a result of it, because of my involvement. But because I was a contractor, they just kind of hired me to do a specific thing. I wasn’t directly involved in it. But here’s the thing. That’s scary, okay, that’s a scary thing. You know, thinking about the idea of going to prison.

And what what that did for me was it it created this this conversation in my mind around fear about doing anything in the public eye. And and I’ll and I’ll talk about this in a moment, but I used to have this, this this nightmare almost as living nightmare of of being arrested by the FBI in front of you know, 10s of 1000s of people and and that was that was the thing that held me back.

And the reason why this is so important is because I do have a message I do have value to give to the world but I was allowing my fear to hold me back and that’s really where fearless impact came from was me really working through my own fears to go out and make an impact in the world. And now you know, I want to be able to help others in various capacities.

Well, hopefully not everyone almost went to prison. But everyone has their thing their trauma their see situation that that’s occurred to them, that or occurred to them, that’s prevented them from moving forward in whatever way they they want to in their businesses.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  5:10 

Very nice. So, what do you do these days? And who do you serve?

 

Antonio Thornton  5:16 

Well, what we do is we help what we like to consider the cast entrepreneurs, CAS t, these are your coaches, authors, speakers, trainers, those people in the space of knowledge workers, if you will, people who actually want to go out and make a positive impact in other people’s lives.

We don’t really work with folks who were just, you know, hey, I just want to sell a widget, you know, I don’t really care what the widget is, I just want to make a bunch of money selling widgets, we tend to work with entrepreneurs who really want to make a difference. And that group of folks tend to be committed and heart centered to to helping their their clients and their customers improve their lives. So we love we love to work with them.

And what we do is we take them through a process of creating their own program that makes an impact on the world, but also an impact on their income.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  6:05 

Interesting, you touched on this already, but could you give us a little more on how and why you came up with the name fear less impact?

 

Antonio Thornton  6:13 

Well, what I what I’ve learned over the years is that the majority of things that cause disruption and hold us back in life really boils down to one thing, and there’s fear. Now, we’ve all heard the phrase, you know, false evidence appearing real. But there’s some real legitimacy to that concept is that what happens in our minds is that we create these conversations, these dialogues, the scenes, we create these horrible, horrible situations, and then we we act upon them as if they’re real.

So just to give you an example, one of the things that that I that I used to, again, I used to call it a living or waking nightmare that I would have is like I would see myself speaking on stage. And there’s, you know, there was this big crowd of people.

And then I would see the crowd just kind of splitting. And just as group of people walking up through this crowd, and like, you know, who is that I can’t really see who it is. And then as the crowd is kind of partying, and this group comes up, I see it’s FBI agents. And I think they’re going to come on stage, and slap these handcuffs on me, in front of this group of, you know, this huge audience of people that I’m going to be on the news, I’m going to be on the internet, Worldstar, hip hop and all other places.

I think that’s what’s going on. But but here’s the thing. That’s absolutely false and ridiculous, by the way. And but but again, I’ll tell you why that’s so important in just a moment. But it’s false and ridiculous. But I act upon it as if it’s real, by not doing the things that I’m supposed to do, which is getting on stages, doing interviews like this, that was what was happening in my life at the time.

And then I found that there were others kind of doing dealing with some of the same issues. And again, it wasn’t as extreme as my situation. But even if they had a parent who, who laughed at them, when they stood up to to do a presentation, or they may have had a teacher that put them down and said you’ll never amount to anything etc. They we create these scenarios in our head, that hold us back from doing the things that we want to do.

And I felt it feels impact was the way that we can help other entrepreneurs break through those fears to actually make an impact on the world.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  8:28 

All right, I have a couple of questions. Sure. And so how do we identify if a fear is real or not?

 

Antonio Thornton  8:39 

That’s a fantastic question. Let’s offer and

 

Mostafa Hosseini  8:43 

the thing is like, sorry for an interruption. Sure, out. Sometimes we think I mean, I have some legitimate fears. But then sometimes, like you said, there are fears that like are not real real. Let’s put it that way. What’s the best way to go about identifying what’s real and what’s not?

 

Antonio Thornton  9:04 

The first thing is to recognize typically where where fear comes from, you know, we we really aren’t born with most fears. Most fears are learned over time. The only real one fear that that that’s been scientifically proven is the fear of falling. So that that’s the one fear that most of us are born with is that fear of falling.

But when we think about the fear of speaking, when we think about the fear of doing a presentation or going after a new client or approaching, you know, potential mate, all of those are fears that have been learned over the years. So starting at the very baseline is understanding where fears come from, and is that the majority of our fears come from our minds.

There again, very few fears. We’re actually hard hardwired. So when when when you recognize that just understanding that in and of itself, lets you know, okay, the fear that I’m experiencing is something that I’ve learned somewhere along the way. And by knowing that, that’s when we can kind of start, as I mentioned, some form of logic to get us through recognizing if those fears are real or not. Does that make sense?

 

Mostafa Hosseini  10:14 

Yeah, absolutely. How do you deal with fears that you learn from other people, like parents, or friends? And that, you know, fear from the media and from the movies? And how do we deal with that?

 

Antonio Thornton  10:34 

It starts by asking questions, it really just simply starts by asking yourself questions. And that’s, that’s where, you know, in my studies of the human brain and psychology, I came to understand about the Socratic method is asking a series of questions to really get to the root of anything.

And when when I, when I talked about when I mentioned earlier about the ridiculousness of that FBI scenario. That’s kind of what happens in our minds, not consciously, but on an unconscious level. So we think about, you know, we take these extreme scenarios, okay, I’m afraid to do this presentation, why am I afraid to do this presentation, I’m going to say something that’s wrong, and then someone’s going to laugh at me, then other people are going to laugh at me, then everyone’s going to be looking at me and laughing at me and pointing at me, and then my boss is going to see that, then they’re going to fire me, they’re going to put that, you know, on my record, I’ll never be to get a job anywhere.

And then I won’t be to take care of myself. And I won’t be to buy any food or live anywhere, and I’ll die. Now, no one actually goes through that entire process. But that’s the way we actually process it. Right process is that getting up on this stage, I’m going to eventually die as a result of it. And that’s where we start asking those questions. So what is it that I’m afraid of right now? I’m afraid that people are going to laugh, why they’re going to laugh, where they’re going to laugh, because I’m going to say the wrong thing. Why would I say the wrong thing? Well, I’m gonna say the wrong thing, because I’m not prepared. Oh, hmm. I’m not prepared.

Oh, what can I do about that, and maybe I can get prepared. Maybe that means doing a little bit more research on my subject matter. Maybe it means practicing a few more times, maybe it means practicing a few 100 times. But now we start getting to the baseline of where those fears coming from. And that works for every aspect of your life.

So here, you’ve got a guy in a nightclub, he sees this woman over there, and he wants to approach her he wants to talk to her. He’s like, wow, you know, she’s beautiful. I really would love to dance with this woman. So here’s what happens in his mind.

As soon as he takes that first step to go walk over to her. The music stops, the lights go down, there’s a spotlight on him that follows him from one side of the club to the other. As he’s walking, you hear the steps to tune them in over the PA system, you hear put boom, boom, boom, boom, is his heartbeat that’s being pumped around the entire club, bum, bum bum, he walks up to the woman.

And as he’s saying to you to her, will you dance with me, please? over the PA system? She says

 

Antonio Thornton   13:28 

no. And he’s like, Oh, then now everyone’s saying, Ah, look at that guy, he’s

 

Antonio Thornton  13:35 

a loser, he got turned down. Then the next day, he’s in the newspaper, local businessman gets turned down by a woman, he’s a complete loser, then he loses all of his contracts, he built his business goes out, you know, his business is killed, and then he no longer has any money, and then he doesn’t have any food and dies. Again, it’s ridiculous when we say it aloud. It’s ridiculous when we say it aloud, but it’s real in that moment. And that’s where we start asking those questions.

That’s when we start asking ourselves questions. So what is it that I’m afraid of here? Am I really afraid that the mics are gonna go down? And okay, no, that’s not gonna happen. You so when we get to that point, it gets us it always gets us to the real core of what we’re really truly afraid of. And then now we have the choice of doing something about it.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  14:32 

Very interesting. So John is saying what are your legitimate fears? So John, By that I meant like, there are some situations where for example, let’s say my father is in hospital and I’m afraid that he might die. I call that a legitimate fear. It’s not like I’m thinking what if my father dies and then I you know, I’m gonna go homeless and I don’t have money and this and that, like it’s some it is a situation that is is happening, that is something that I am actually facing, I’m not just imagining and visualizing random things. Like, you know, it’s something that is happening, and I’m dealing with.

 So that’s what I meant by that. That is great. Um, you mentioned something earlier about situations in the past, like a teacher set you want, you know, ever be any anything meaningful, or, you know, you’re a loser or your father, your mother treating you badly and saying, you know, you know, negative things that impact us. And we tend to carry that with us. What in your experience is the best way to deal with something like that?

 

Antonio Thornton  15:42 

It’s the same thing is asking questions. So when, when you when you’re looking at, and particularly, you’re able to identify where that type of fear comes from, when you when you can look at that source, asking the simple questions of okay, this person said, I’ll never amount to anything. Is that true? Is that true? Right?

So even if you can’t answer that question of, okay, well, yes, that’s true, or no, it’s not or whatever, whatever word or phrasing you want to use in that instance, but at the end of the day, you say, Well, does this person have the ability to determine whether or not I will amount to anything? Hmm. No, no, they don’t? No, no, they don’t.

 So so now you get an opportunity to ask, you know, the right questions to give you the fuel to see, okay, well, why am I holding on to the belief that this person said this thing about me this these many years ago, and if it’s no longer if it’s not valid, then there’s no need for you to hold on to it. And that’s why I keep going back to the same phrase over and over is false evidence, false evidence appearing real. Someone says a thing, I think is real.

So I act upon it as if it’s real. So I don’t do anything anymore. I don’t even try anymore. Because I think the thing is real. But is it real? No, it’s not real.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  17:09 

Love it? I had a guest here, Natalie lafay, couple weeks ago, and she brought up an amazing question that I think may be relevant. And that is, what purpose Am I trying to serve? By asking or bringing this up? I’m constantly going over this fear. Right? Right.

And what what what feeling Am I trying to avoid? And that was another good and continuing to your to your amazing questions there. Is it? So the question, the first question you brought up was, is this true? Does this person actually have the ability to make that call or make that decision for me? I won’t ever be anything, or you’ll never be successful?

Or that’s, that’s a stupid idea. Why do you keep doing all these weird things? Absolutely. I had a friend years ago, who would come up to me once a while and say, Are you a millionaire yet? Oh, you got people like that? Right?

 

Antonio Thornton  18:12 

Yeah, you do. And and you can choose to hold on to it, or you can choose to put it where it is. Because again, it a lot of it just boils down to other people’s opinion of you. And we give that more validity than we should at the end of the day?

 

Mostafa Hosseini  18:27 

Absolutely. Absolutely. So why do you think most people struggle with confidence?

 

Antonio Thornton  18:38 

Well, again, spawning from fear. Confidence comes from, you know, the fear of not being able to accomplish the thing in a certain way. Because that’s really what it boils down to, when you look at any level of confidence is that I’m envisioning a thing happening in a certain way. And I don’t think it will, that will take place.

And that can come from past experiences, it can come from other people’s experiences, but at the end of the day, you can’t predict the future, you know, and that’s, again, is another question is like, well, do I know that that’s going to happen?

Well, no, I don’t know that’s going to happen. So now that gives it gives me the opportunity to, you know, is this what I want to do? Now, one of the things that you can help avoid that is avoiding negative information, avoiding negative things. A lot of times people like to steeped themselves in the news and social media and those types of things. And this is what creates a lot of the conversations in our heads about what goes on in our lives.

I remember this story about a gentleman in New York City, for whatever reason, he was he was just fascinated with muggings, and he would take these, you know, news clippings, and you know, portions of the news and he would, you know, read about all these different muggings. And ironically, this guy had himself gotten mugs 21 times, you know, because that was where, you know, he was putting all this energy into these mugs.

So the thing is, is that you know, where where attention goes, energy flows. So what I always encourage people to do is to stay away from the things that are negative, that put the negative thoughts in, in your, in your head, surrounding yourself with the people who are doing the things that you want to do, so that you can see that the thing is actually possible.

So, so when you again, thinking about it, I don’t have confidence to do a thing. Let’s just say, Facebook, for example, we brought Facebook on as a client several months ago. And that can be a very scary thing to look at, oh, my gosh, you know, is this Facebook, one of the largest companies in the world? So what am I question start, okay. You know, we’re gonna be to do this thing with Facebook, etc, etc. Right?

So, and I’ll just take a quick sidebar. And I think it was Tony Robbins that says, you know, you can tell the quality of a person by the quality of the questions that they ask, and, and that is so powerful. Because when you when you think about asking your brain certain questions, so we just give an example.

So like, if you ask if you said, Okay, well, why can I afford this? Right? You now meeting believe that you can’t afford a thing, right? So what happens in your brain has been scientifically proven, what happens in your brain? Is that immediately, your brain decreases in bringing in brain activity.

Why can I afford this? It immediately decreases in brain activity. Why is because your brain thinks you can’t afford it. So it doesn’t even try to find an answer. On the opposite side of the equation. You say? How can I afford this? How can I afford this? Almost the same question, slight variance, but almost same question. brain activity increases, brain activity increases.

Why is because now your brain is actually trying to get to the answer. Those two very similar scenarios can make a huge difference. So going back to the Facebook’s, so I asked myself, okay, so Facebook is a company? Have I ever done business with a company before? Yes. Has Facebook ever done business with a company before? Yes. So is it?

 Is there a possibility of me being able to do business with Facebook? Yes. Now I’ve never done business with with a with a company that large. But I have done business with large companies. You know, we did some work with Microsoft, we did some work with Massage Envy. We’ve done some work with Georgia Pacific. But Facebook, by and large, you know, at the time, was was the largest company that we’ve ever worked with.

So the question was, can we do this? Yes, we can. And that’s why I say when you go back to that same Socratic method, you can always get to wherever your fears are. Because the presentation with Facebook, it’s like, okay, well, I don’t want Facebook to say no, well, what would get Facebook to say, yes, Hmm. Well, what does Facebook want?

They want this, they want this, they want that? Can we provide that? Yes, we can. Boom, that’s what gives you the confidence is when you get to the core of whatever is holding you back, whatever the real thing is, that you’re holding on to, that’s making you feel that you don’t have the confidence that you want to do whatever it is.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  23:14 

Love it. Love it. So that so that was the approach and the type of question we ask ourselves, which is, instead of saying, Oh, I can’t afford this, the turnaround would be how can I afford this? And your brain will come up with a bunch of, you know, solutions, right? And then you can even seek out to maybe other people to ask for help. How can I afford this?

Well, maybe I could go get a loan, well, maybe I could even borrow money. Or maybe I could sell a bunch of stuff and go afford this. Right. Right. Right. And then I’d love the second one. The second point that really stood out for me was, what would it take for Facebook to say yes. Right? Or what would it take for this? You know, ideal client to do business with me? Absolutely.

Dang. And then your brain will come up with solutions. And then attorney, can you touch on the fact that or does the brain immediately come up with solutions? Or would you also give it some time to come up with a solution?

 

Antonio Thornton  24:19 

Very rarely, will you bring come up with a solution immediately. That can happen, but very rarely does that happen? Now, this is going to I have the segments I’m just going to get a little bit esoteric, but I’m gonna and I’m gonna go there. So I believe that our brains and our minds expand beyond our heads. Okay. So when we put out into the universe a question, how can I afford it?

How can I get Facebook to do business with me? I think that question kind of goes out into the universe and it starts bringing back opportunities for you for can consideration, right. And I do think sometimes that can take time to happen. And as you probably heard the statement when the student is ready, the teacher will appear.

And I believe that that’s what happens in that instance, is when you’re asking the right questions, the right teacher will appear, it could appear in the form of a mentor, it could appear in the form of an article, or a video, or some other information that answers the question that you’re asking. But you got to write, you got to ask rather the right questions.

Because again, if you’re asking, why can I afford this, guess what’s going to happen? You’re going to start bringing about all of the answers to why you can’t afford it, you’re going to find all the answers to why you can’t afford it. But when you ask, How can I, you’re going to bring about all the answers of how you can how can I attract Facebook as a client?

How can I get this client, other clients do business with me, and then giving yourself the time and the space to allow the answers to come to you, that’s where you you’re going to start seeing where you know, that shift, and wherever, whatever direction you are going, whether it’s in the wrong direction, or the right direction.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  26:12 

Love it. Love it. How does all of this lack of confidence, and fear, impact different areas of our lives?

 

Antonio Thornton  26:28 

For most people, it impacts through inaction. That’s, that’s where typically, that’s how it typically shows up. When you don’t believe you can do a thing, when you don’t have the confidence of being able to do a thing, most people tend to just not do anything at all. Well, I don’t know how I’m gonna get Facebook as a client, so I’m not even going to try, or that woman or that man is, you know, I don’t know how I’m gonna get that person to like me.

So I’m not even going to try, I don’t know how I’m going to lose 100 pounds, so I’m not even going to try. So that’s typically what how it shows up, we just don’t try. And for those people who kind of push through that, they don’t give it 100%. Because in the back of their minds, well, this isn’t going to work anyway, this isn’t, this isn’t going to work anyway. So I’m not even going to give it my all. And then in the not giving it their all. They don’t make it and then it proves them. Right.

And that’s where I see this showing up for most entrepreneurs is is in action. I’ll talk to, you know, a yoga therapy, you know, yoga instructor, I’ll talk to a massage therapist, I’ll talk to a coach. And they’ll say, Well, you know, my business isn’t doing well. And I’ll ask the question, well, what are you doing? What are you doing to build your business? And they’ll come up with a whole bunch of things. But really, it’s nothing. It’s really nothing was what they’re doing.

They’re sitting on some type of video that they’re watching, or they’re reading a bunch of articles, or they’re, they’re, you know, trying to figure out Click Funnels or some other thing. But they’re really not doing anything at the end of the day to build their business. But now they’re doing busy stuff. And that’s where it creates a lot of creates a lot of frustration, because they said, Well, I’m doing a lot of things. But really, what are you doing at the end of the day, it’s nothing.

Because there’s really only one thing and I love to say this is one of the things that I drilled into my client’s head, there’s only really one thing that makes money in the business and any business no matter what business you do, whether it’s website design, or whatever, there’s only one thing that makes money business. And that is getting an offer in front of people. That’s it. There’s nothing else that makes money. This is getting an offer in front of people not setting up a website, not getting on a webinar, not reading books, not you know, doing nothing else makes money in business than getting an offer in front of people.

Now, for those of you because it’s always happening for those you are thinking, Well, wait a minute, no when I do so. And so this makes me more when I do my my service. When I provide my service that makes me money. No, it doesn’t. What makes you money is the selling of that service. You got an offer in front of someone they gave you money, then you provide the service?

Yes, as a part of the process. But it is not the thing that makes you money. And always ask this question. Have you ever done a service that you didn’t? Did you didn’t get paid for? Most people can say yes to that. So it’s not the service that are providing the service that makes you the money is to getting off in front of people. So the question becomes, how does that show up? In most businesses? They’re not getting an offer in front of people. That’s what it is. You’re not getting an offer in front of people out there doing a whole bunch of social media stuff, but I’ll ask them Well, are you getting an offer out there? Well, I’m doing social media.

And I looked through all the riposte, there’s no call to action. There’s no thing that says, hey, come do business with me. What else wants you doing that? Well, I’m afraid people are going to stop following me. Boom, right back to fear. Right back to fear, you see me. So it goes right back to some level of fear around doing a thing. So let’s evaluate that. All right, so I’m doing social media, but I’m not asking people to do business with me. And the not asking people to do business with me, is not making any money. And I don’t want to do that, because I don’t want to get people pissed off, because people get pissed off, they’re not gonna follow me.

But guess what happens? They don’t follow? Well, they’re not gonna, you’re not gonna, I’m not gonna make any money there. But if you’re not putting it off in front, then you’re not going to you see the loop that it creates herself. It’s just as vicious cycle that’s created. But as soon as you start asking those right questions, that’s when you can start getting to the core, the fear, you know, okay, I’m afraid that if I ask people to do business with me, they’re gonna stop following me. Okay. All right, let’s, let’s, let’s unpack that. Let’s unpack that for a moment.

So if you provide a quality service, why would someone not want your service? Oh, maybe you don’t feel your services quality? Ah, see, I remember having conversation with a client. That was one of the things that we got to, you know, one of the things that she said, Well, I don’t, I don’t really know if I can get people results. Okay. Great, legitimate thing to deal with.

But now we got to deal with that. So now what do we do we shift, whether it be getting you more skill set, or whatever the case would be, where they’re going back and looking at other clients, et cetera, et cetera.

But now we’re getting to the real core of what’s causing you to not get an offer in front of people not put a CTA not do the things you’re supposed to do.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  31:45 

I love it, how you tied this into marketing. That’s what we do. I mean, at the end of the day, people get busy doing a lot of things that don’t bring in a lot of business or value at all. Like he so I’m doing social media. Okay, well, how much business have that has that brought you? Well? Not much.

 

Antonio Thornton  32:03 

Right. Right. Right. And it’s, it’s a way to avoid dealing with the fear. That’s really what it is, it’s a way to avoid dealing with the actual thing. And I used to, there was a client of mine, we used to joke about this that I would say, you know, you would throw your offer on the table and then duck under the table, because it’s like, you don’t want to deal with someone potentially saying no, it’s just like, let me just throw it out there.

But it’s, it’s, it’s a fun thing to recognize. Because once you get to the core of recognize it, you can actually do something about it, that’s that’s the cool thing is that you can actually do something about it.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  32:39 

So walk us through what you would recommend people do on say, social media.

 

Antonio Thornton  32:46 

Well, that can vary from business to business. But the one thing that it boils down to is what I said is getting an offer in front of people, nothing, nothing else in business makes money other than getting an offer in front of people.

So if you’re doing videos, if you’re doing posts, if you’re putting up images, if you’re doing whatever the case may be, everything you do has to be tied to in some way, shape, or form, getting an offer in front of people, we call that in marketing space, CTA call to action.

So if you’re putting out content, hey, you know, if you like this content, and you’d like to have this in your business, or in your personal life, get in contact with me at the link below. That’s a call to action. Most people fail to do that. Some people will say, hey, like and share my stuff. And that’s not bad at the end of the day, but it’s still not a CTA, it’s not a call to action.

So if you’re doing anything in the social media space, you know, always make sure that always make sure that you’re attaching some type of call to action to it. So that you’re moving people from watching, following liking, to actually buying and doing business with you. And that can be in whatever capacity, it could be YouTube videos, it could be Facebook Lives, it could be Instagram Stories, it doesn’t matter.

None of those things, you know, those are tactics at the end of the day, and the tactics come and go. But the strategy stays the same. Getting an offer in front of people getting it off in front of people getting it off in front of people, that’s the thing that you have to maintain.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  34:21 

All right, love it. So and I’ve been I’ve been studying talking to some some people recently and saying that the PDF the people that make more offers are generally more successful when it comes to their business and to their sales numbers and the rest of it. Right.

 

Antonio Thornton  34:43 

Right and and it’s it’s always going to be that that’s the case because when you think about there’s only one thing that makes money in business, getting an offer in front of people. So what is it that allows you to make more money getting Seeing an offer in front of more people getting more offers in front of people getting better offers in front of people, it still boils down to the same thing. So the people who get more offers out, are always going to make more money. And the one thing that I always say is that every offer has a conversion.

So one, getting an offer from the people, every offer has a conversion, I’m going to share with you a story of my staff and it’s, it’s not the best story and it’s not family friendly, friendly. So if any of you guys are watching, with your, with your kids around, you know, gently guide them out of the room, because this is a story that again, it’s kind of gross at the end of the day, but it really proves the point here.

There’s a gentleman in Tennessee. He was what’s considered a pickup artists, he’s, you know, the guys who kind of go out to pick up women etc. And he did a really interesting experiment, that that I that I believe teaches a very valuable lesson, not not the greatest thing that not duplicating what he did, but it teaches a very valuable lesson. All this guy did. This is all he did was every day he went out. And I’m not going to use the word that he used.

But he would ask, just literally ask virtually every woman that he approached, you want to screw? That was it. Now, he used a little bit more crass word, I think you can imagine, right? We I’ll try to keep it as family friendly as possible. But this is all he did. You just walked into women said, Hey, you want to screw? Hey, you want to screw now here’s the deal. He asked hundreds of women, this hundreds of women.

But here’s here’s what he reported that this guy slept with about three to five women a week, a week. Now, I don’t recommend that. For obvious reasons. I don’t recommend that for obvious reasons. But the point is, is that he got an offer in front of people. Now, did he get slapped? A few times? Yes. Did he get cursed out a few times? Yes. They even have the police called on him? Yes.

But did he actually get his ultimate goal? He did? Yes, he did. So in that vein, think about confidence, right? Think about the level of confidence guy had to have to go out and just rent just random women. Hey, you want to screw? Hey, you want to screw? And eventually someone said? Yes.

Eventually someone said yes. So when you know that the only thing that makes money business is getting an offer from the people and every offer, this guy just proved it every offer has a conversion, then there’s no reason you should not have the confidence of getting your thing out there. Because I’m going to imagine that none of you guys are gonna go out, or gals are going to go out and just start asking people randomly Do you want to screw but if someone could do something that crass and get conversions, and get conversions, think about the value that you’re bringing to people, of course, people are going to want what you have, of course, now is everyone going to want what you have?

No, but there’s going to be a segment of the population who’s going to want what you have. That should give you the confidence of being able to ask any and everybody Hey, do you want my thing? Again? It’s not, you know, want to screw but hey, do you want my service? Do you want my product?

Yeah, sure. I do. I want that. Absolutely. I want that. So going back to the kind of the question that you asked us of is, is, you know, the confidence to know that you have something of value, you have something of value. And that goes for every aspect of your life, whether it’s business, whether it’s personal, whatever the case should be, you have something of value that other people desire other people want. So that in and of itself gives you the confidence to be able to ask CTA Hey, do you want my thing? Do you want my product?

You want my service? Hmm,

 

Mostafa Hosseini  39:11 

I really love that. One thing that I bring up say in the sales and marketing equivalent of or similar to your story is door knocking like cold calling and selling door to door. That’s almost the equivalent of that, like getting doors slammed on you and getting sweat on.

I think that to me, to me personally, that’s like the most confident confidence building activity in sales and marketing. Other than actually cold calling, but physically when someone is face to face and they swear at you and they close the door on you. It builds such confidence. Now, go ahead.

 

Antonio Thornton  39:53 

Well, yeah, and here’s the thing. I’ve I’ve done door to door sales I’ve sold vacuum cleaners, I’ve sold Comedy Club tickets. And I’ve had that very thing. There was a book that I read years ago that was really powerful called The Four Agreements. And agreement. Number two, is, is to not take anything personal. That’s agreement.

Number two is don’t take anything personal. And, and what that means at the end of the day is that when that person shuts the door on me, they’re not rejecting me. They just don’t want a vacuum cleaner at that time. But they’re not rejecting me. And see, that’s where gold goes back to asking the questions. Well, I don’t want to go door knocking door to door.

Why? Well, because I’m going to get rejected. Am I really going to get rejected? No, I’m not going to get rejected. It’s just that people don’t want the thing that I’m selling at that time. They don’t want the vacuum cleaners, they don’t want the comedy club tickets. They don’t want the what was the other thing I was selling.

There was like a computer repair service thingy that you can buy in advance. So I sold a lot of things door to door. But the reason why I had no problem with doing it, even when they cursed at me, because again, I could take it personally, you say oh my gosh, this person just cursing me know, here’s what they did.

They really cursed at the person that they were really upset with. Whether it was their boss, their their child, whatever the case may be, they just I just happen to be the person that they shared that with at that moment, but they weren’t really cursing at me, because I’m offering something of value in this moment, not taking anything personal.

But that’s where a lot of that comes from. That’s where I have no problem knocking on Facebook door and saying, Hey, you want my thing you want this product or service that we’re selling? Because even if they were said no. Are they rejecting me? No, they just don’t want the thing at the time. But I asked the right questions. What can I get Facebook? What will get Facebook to say yes to this? Well, I knew they needed this, this, this and the other? I knew that they needed that.

So I went in with them say hey, do you need this than the other? Yeah, we need that. Bam, there you have it. There you have it. It’s and and it’s just that simple. A lot of times people say no, it’s not that simple. Yes, it is literally just that simple. It is just that simple. Not everyone’s going to want your thing at the time that you present it to them.

Not everyone’s gonna want that. As long as you don’t take it personal, you know, only thing that makes money business is getting it off in front of people. Every offer has a conversion, whether it’s one out of five, one out of 10, one out of 20 every offer has a conversion. So if it’s one of the 20 that means 19 People don’t want your thing at that time.

That doesn’t mean that 90 People hate you. That doesn’t mean 19 People think you’re stupid doesn’t mean 90 People think anything other than I don’t want your thing at that time. So don’t you make it mean anything else? Don’t make it mean anything else? Because again, there’s false evidence appearing real.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  42:48 

Love it, because I was gonna ask you next is like, how do you how do you even deal with all the rejection? Which you answered it already? Yeah, like don’t take that they’re not.

 

Antonio Thornton  42:58 

It just doesn’t exist. That mean, that’s just really what it boils down to rejection really and truly doesn’t exist. At the end of the day, they just don’t want your thing at that time. And just don’t take it personal, and it won’t be rejection.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  43:10 

And if they have any bad behavior, it’s helped them with their own personal stuff that they’re dealing with. And it’s their problem. Absolutely not for me, me for years. I was like, I’m talking to someone. I’m saying a group of people and I come across this person that does doesn’t treat me well. Right.

And I start taking a personal and I’m like, What did I do to this person? deserve this? Right. That’s, that’s self victimization comes in. So absolutely. As it took me a while. And then later on, I saw that they do the same bad behavior to everyone else, too. And then I’m like, Oh, my God. And all this time, I took it personal took it on myself saying, What the hell did I do wrong?

You know, crushing my own confidence. While there was actually I didn’t do anything wrong to that person. It was just like, you know, they maybe had a bad day, and maybe they’re crazy. Whatever the reason, is, just back to your point. Like, we don’t have to take your personal, right.

 

Antonio Thornton  44:13 

I mean, if you were walking down the street, and you saw someone standing on the corner, just yelling and cursing out into the ethers, okay, they’re not talking to anybody. They’re just yelling and cursing. And as you’re walking down the street, you’re getting closer and closer to that person, if you stop in front of that person, and they continue to yelling and cursing, you taking that personally is just as ridiculous as any of those other scenarios.

Because this is what they’re doing. You just happen to stop in front of them in that moment. And it’s the same thing so if I knock on someone’s door Hi, selling vacuum cleaners today. And they say you know if you get out of here, Baba Baba Baba blah, what happens is, is that they’re in their moment of expressing whatever anger I just happened to Walk in front of it at that time.

So I don’t take that personally at all. Because I’ve done nothing to offend anyone, I’ve done nothing to cause that. That’s them. That’s that’s on them.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  45:11 

All right, let’s dive into how all of what we talked about creates procrastination, and what’s the best way to deal with it?

 

Antonio Thornton  45:20 

Yeah, so as, as you as you kind of we alluded to a little bit earlier, how does all of this show up in business? Well, it shows up in the form of not doing anything, it shows up in the form of inaction. And that’s, you know, we can call that procrastination, we call it inaction. We call it half action, you know, and some people call it half assing, whatever you want to call it, but it shows up in the form of not showing up at 100%.

That’s, that’s really what it is, you know, yes, I know, I need to get on podcasts, but I won’t do it. Yes, I know, I need to speak from the stage, but I won’t do it. Yes, I need to call this client back. But I won’t do it. Yes, I need to go knock on this door, but I won’t do it, I need to make, you know, make this call, I need just create this video, whatever the case may be, it boils down to not doing anything.

And there, there are different, different things that occur in our lives that caused that, you know, it could be as I mentioned, it could be as a result of not being prepared. You know, I don’t I’m not going to do this presentation. Because I’m afraid people are gonna laugh at me. I’m afraid people are gonna laugh, because I’m gonna say something stupid.

I’m gonna say something stupid, because I’m not prepared. Right? Is that, okay? You know, like the same scenario that I went through, because of because of what I went through with that, you know, federal deal that with those guys, I was afraid to get on stage again, because I said, Look, if I get on stage, you know, the FBI is going to come lock me up in front of all these people. I’m going to be on the news, I’m going to be on the internet, etc.

So these things can come from various places. I had had a really good great friend of mine who’s who’s a Hypnotherapist. She’s a therapist, who also does hypnotherapy, she always like me to make that distinction. But she said something was very powerful to me. She says your experience was a trauma, your experience was a trauma. And I never looked at it that way. As you know, she says almost going to prison that is traumatic.

And you know, you never dealt with that. And that was the thing that I have looked at. So when we look at procrastination, it comes from different areas, it comes from different things. It comes from different past experiences. It comes from different mindset. All get all of it boils down to getting to the core of it by asking the right questions, asking those right questions, you will always always get to the core of why you’re not doing a thing.

And then that gives you the opportunity to do something in that moment to change in that moment. Whether it’s doing the more doing more research, doing more study, getting yourself prepared, practicing, talking to a mentor, you know, modeling someone who’s done the same thing, there’s 1000 things you can do, but you can’t do anything, and you typically won’t do anything, until you’re consciously aware of why you’re not doing the thing in the first place.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  48:05 

Love it. Now, that’s what we’re gonna say we’re here to talk about your gift, which is the entrepreneurs step by step guide to overcoming procrastination. Can you tell us a little bit about that place?

 

Antonio Thornton  48:15 

Yeah. So a lot of the things that I’ve done in my life came out of my own experience, as with most people, and that’s step by step guide is no different. You know, I found myself procrastinating on things now. And again, it’s not just about getting on stage, it could be anything could be sending out an email, it could be whatever the case may be, it’s like, okay, well, here’s a client who’s upset with me. And I don’t want to respond to this email right now.

So let’s get to the core of that asking the questions. Why am I why am I afraid? Well, because I didn’t do the thing I was going to do. So it makes me look like I’m out of integrity makes me look, I don’t know what I’m going to do, then the client is going to fire me, then. Then they’re going to tell everyone else no one else is gonna do business with me.

And then I’m never gonna make any money. And I’m not gonna be to buy food. I’m gonna die. Right? Get back to you back that ridiculous scenario. And believe me when I tell you, I, I say it jokingly, but I also take it very seriously in that even in this ridiculousness, there’s a sincerity in there, because it is how we respond. It’s how we respond to stuff, because when you talk to me, you know, where’s the study that said, you know, the top fears, public speaking, public speaking is higher than death. Think about that for a moment, you know, was the Family Feud.

 They say, you know, what are the top fears right survey says it public speaking. Now, why would anyone, be more be more afraid of speaking to a group of people than dying? Well, here’s the reality of it. It’s death for them, but it’s also death with it. You know, as they say, you know kicking person while they’re down, adding insult to injury, but it’s death with embarrassment. That’s what it is. I’m going to do the speaking engagement, I’m going to say something stupid, everyone’s gonna laugh at me, no one’s going to do business with me anymore.

Not gonna make any money. I’m not going to be buying food, I’m gonna die. I’d rather just die. Just die. If I’m gonna die over, I just, I just rather die. Right? That’s, that’s what it boils down to the end of the day. So what that process does, is it helps that step by step guide, it helps you to identify what’s causing the procrastination in your life and whatever area it is, whether it’s going after new business, whether it’s in your personal life, you know, getting into the gym, whatever the case we get, because it all boils down to some type of fear, you could reasonably well why would someone be afraid to go to the gym, what goes into, okay? I

‘ve got to go to the gym, and I’m going to, you know, people are gonna laugh at me. And people laugh at me when they kick me out of the gym. I’m never gonna be to go back to the gym, I’m gonna keep eating, I’m gonna get fat and die. You know, it boils down to some level of ridiculousness. And again, we don’t do that consciously. It does not happen consciously. But that’s where it comes from. It’s something that we’ve made up in our heads that our brains play out that causes us to not do the thing.

Well, if I go to the gym, and people know that I go to gym, and if I quit, they’re gonna say, Oh, he’s a quitter. And then they’re gonna think I’m gonna loser that I’m a loser because I’m a quitter. And because I’m a loser, bla, bla, bla, you see, it goes all the way down this path, or unconsciously, unconsciously goes down the path. So this, that step by step guide helps you to get more clear on what those things are.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  51:46 

Hmm. Love it, love it, love it, love it. So gang gang, if you are watching, you’re listening to get access to our Antonio’s step by step guide on how to overcome procrastination, which, at the end of all of this, I think behind procrastination, there’s always fear. And then we got to deal with that. And just so to get that step by step guide on how to how to deal with it, and if you’re a business owner, regardless of what level of business you’re in, you have procrastination, you’ve got things to deal with, right?

Whether you’re if you’re a 6789 10 figure business owner, you’ve got something going on, you got to deal with something. Right. So go ahead and on some level, right, because and here’s the thing, I think the higher people go up the ladder, the bigger the obstacles, right? Absolutely. Now you’re have to deal with Facebook. I know you’re like, oh my god, I gotta talk to Zuckerberg.

What am I going to talk to this guy about? Tomorrow? I’d rather die. Right. So the link is in the comments, and it’s going to be in the descriptions of the show. Go to but I’ll just read it out. It’s time bank. gps.com forward slash L P. That’s it.

 

Antonio Thornton  53:05 

Actually, is a Opie overcome procrastination? Yeah. Oh, Timebank gps.com/o P.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  53:10 

So time back. gps.com forward slash O P, overcoming procrastination. And that’s it, go there. And you will see the step by step guide on overcoming procrastination. Now, let me ask you how people can get a hold of you. And I’m going to ask a couple of personal questions from you. So what’s the best way for people to reach out to you and

 

Antonio Thornton  53:36 

yeah, I’m on all socials Antonio Thornton. And you can also find us at our fearless impact. We’ve got a really thriving group over on Facebook. And it’s again, it’s just feel a setback. But um, but yeah, that’s one of the best ways to get in contact with me and, and always say, you know, being a part of community, you know, community of other feelers entrepreneurs is definitely the place that you want to be very supportive community, you know, very open and very even vulnerable community allows you the opportunity to be who you are in a space to get real and genuine support.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  54:14 

They’re very nice, very nice. Now gang, I think if they go on Facebook and search for fearless impact, you guys will pop right up and they could join a Facebook group and or reach out to you on LinkedIn and Facebook in here and there. Your website is fearless in fact.com as well, right? Yes. All right. That’s another place people can go and get a hold of them. Now let me ask you a some some personal questions. What’s a new thing that you have tried recently?

 

Antonio Thornton  54:44 

What’s the new thing that I’ve tried recently? That’s that’s an interesting question. I am taking on MMA. That’s That’s new. So it’s a really interesting it’s an interesting journey. It’s my Mike Tyson had the really great quote, I think he said everyone has a plan to they get punched in the face. And I’ve gotten punched in the face several several times.

So and I get the importance of that because it’s a very shocking and jarring thing as you can probably imagine. So So MMA is a new thing that I’ve that I’m taking on and I’m but I’m enjoying it though. I’m enjoying getting punched in the face.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  55:23 

Love it, love it. That’s actually I think, and what I like about MMA and all the martial arts is is it takes a certain amount of mental toughness and it helps you develop mental toughness, right and right, the way that plays in business as as, as I don’t know if I heard Harv Eker or someone else talking about the way you show up here is the way you show up anywhere else.

 

Antonio Thornton  55:48 

Yep, the way you do anything you do anything is how you do everything.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  55:51 

Exactly. And then, bingo, your way you show up in your fights is the way you show up in business the way you show up on your sales calls. So love Well,

 

Antonio Thornton  56:00 

I tell you what, you will find that sales calls are going to be a whole lot less scary. After a six foot for 260 pound guy punches you in the face. Not a whole lot. This person is going to say to me on this phone. That’s more than that. He completely changed your perspective on

 

Mostafa Hosseini  56:25 

tell you that yours but how to overcome your sales. Sales fear one on one. Yes, you’ll get problem solved with one punch gun. Think about that overnight, and then show up tomorrow and do your calls. There you go. Love it. Now what are your top two or three favorite books, books that have made a massive difference in your life? Or business?

 

Antonio Thornton  56:52 

Definitely, that’s gonna be thinking grow rich. I found thinking Grow Rich. When I was 13 years old. I was in my mom’s rooms, you know, fiddling around with things and I saw this book that said thinking Grow Rich says hey, I want to be rich. Thinking Grow Rich completely changed my life because it opened my mind to the possibility that life is not what’s dealt to you, you can create this thing called life. I’ve never known that to that point.

So it truly truly opened my eyes to being able to create the life that I want. As an extension of that. I found the book, PSYCHO CYBERNETICS by Maxwell Maltz. And Psycho Cybernetics was over my head at the time, but I came back and read it again as an adult. And again, very transformational in in helping me get clear on the idea that life is a continuous stream of imperfection corrections.

That’s you know, and I’ll just say it real quickly, the whole concept of Psycho Cybernetics talks about a guided missile, and how a guided missile constantly, constantly is off its trajectory. And about 95% of the way it’s going in the wrong direction. It goes a little bit further to the left, and then it shifts it goes a little bit further to the right, then it shifts and it shifts.

And that’s what led me right recognize that, hey, I’m a human being I’m not gonna get everything right. But you just continuously shift as long as you’re going in the right direction. Those I would say are the other two books that that had the biggest, biggest impact on on me. I’m currently reading I’ve got this daddy daughter book club that I do with my with my daughter and another father and his daughter.

We’re currently reading this this subtle art of not giving an F and and that’s a great book as well. That’s definitely a great book.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  58:45 

Giving love it. Yeah, I read. I’ve read all I haven’t read subtle on or not given an F but Psycho Cybernetics was transformational for me. Right? Absolutely, I was I really liked it. Alright, so the books were thinking Grow Rich Psycho Cybernetics and the subtle art of not giving an F. Now, Antonio, if you had a Facebook or a Google ad that everyone on earth could see. What would your message be for the people of Earth?

 

Antonio Thornton  59:18 

Would all one? That would be that that would be? Yeah. Because if I could sell that to every person in the world, every problem, every crime, every issue we have would immediately go away. Because knowing that we’re all one that we’re all connected. That in and of itself, lets me know that I cannot steal from you without also stealing from myself. I cannot harm you without also harming myself.

So having everyone to click and buy into the idea that we’re all one we Living an incredible, incredible life. Yeah, that would be by far.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  1:00:05 

I really love what you said that says I cannot harm you without harming myself, I cannot steal from you, without stealing from myself. Absolutely beautiful, absolutely beautiful. Beautiful. What’s one advice that made a massive change in your life? Hmm, ooh,

 

Antonio Thornton  1:00:23 

that’s, that’s a tough one, there are two that I go to. And if you don’t mind, if I can share them both, I’ll be brief as possible. But there’s two, the one is a piece of advice that my father gave me before he passed. Very simple piece of advice, but very powerful. He says you want to keep getting what you’re getting, keep doing what you’re doing. And that, again, very simple phrase.

 But it’s the reality of where we are in the majority of in the majority of our lives is that we’re doing the same thing expecting different results. And that’s, I got to tell you, is allowed me to step outside of my comfort zone is allowed me to do things that I wouldn’t normally do. Because again, if you’re doing a thing, and you’re not getting the results that you want, and you’ve got to do a different things, you’re not going to get better results, doing the same thing.

I always tell people this all the time, but there’s only one thing that makes money in business, you know, getting it off in front of people, setting up a website better than you set it up last week is not going to make you money, you know, reading more emails, it’s not going to make you more money, it’s doing something different doing doing the right things to get you in the right direction.

So that’s the one thing, the separate the next thing was an a piece of advice that I got from actually an ex girlfriend. We’re best friends. Now I’m even the godfather to her daughter. And it was, I definitely can say is one of the most powerful pieces of evidence that I’ve gotten as well. We were talking about this as it relates to dating. And when I when I really got it, the implications just became massive. But what she said was, is that you can’t say the wrong thing to the right person.

Let me say that again. You can’t say the wrong thing to the right person. Now, we were talking about that through the context of dating. Because a lot of times when we meet someone, we think we have to be a certain way in order to attract that person. Well, what that does for us is that it creates an authentic way of being that’s not only unfair to us, but it’s also unfair to that person. Because if you’re not really that way, there’s no need for you to show up in that way.

So how do you show up, you show up authentically 100% authentically, and the right person will accept you, no matter who you are. Now, that was very powerful for me in the space of dating, but that also translated to business for me, and that you cannot say the wrong thing to the right client. What that means is that I get an opportunity to be 100% of who I am.

Let me tell you what I mean by that was. For years prior to that, I had considered a lot of different things. Like for example, should I cut my locks, you know, because if I cut my locks, I’ll look more professional, and I’ll be more professional people will hire me more, etc, etc. Well, okay, there’s one thing, here’s the other thing. I’m a black guy, well, no one’s gonna want to do business with a black guy.

So let me go partner with all these white guys and put them up front and have them seem like they’re the owner of the business. Because, you know, no one’s gonna want to do business with the black guy. Bla bla bla, bla, bla, bla, bla, they, these are all the conversations that I had about not being authentically who I am. And here’s what one of my mentors said.

He says, Because I said, Man, you know, what do I do about someone who doesn’t want to do business with you? Because you’re racist? He says, eff them, Screw him. Why the hell would you want to do is do do this with someone who’s racist.

 

Antonio Thornton  1:03:55 

Anyway. I was just like, oh my god, wow.

 

Antonio Thornton  1:03:59 

Yes, that makes so much sense. So so at the end of the day, I get a chance to be who I am. And the right clients are going to come to me, because who am I, I’m, I’m kind of that weird, quirky, nerdy, silly guy. That’s who I am. I’m also very cerebral. I’m also very, hey, let’s just work it out. However, we work it out. And I’m also pretty spiritual as well.

So I get to be authentically who I am. I don’t have to hide any aspect of myself. I don’t have to pretend to be any other thing to get a frickin client because at the end of the day, I don’t want that client it because if they don’t accept me for who I am, I don’t want them as a client anyway. So that’s, those are the two pieces of advice again, I know I know you asked for one, but they are perfectly as powerful for me in my life.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  1:04:54 

Here’s the deal, though. If, if, if you change or try to change who you are. When you get a customer, when they get to know you, at the end of the day, it’s not going to work anyway. No, it’s not. And if I’m, if I’m proud of what’s the what’s the analogy that I’m trying to use? Let’s say that here, well, let me share the joke with you.

It says two people were trying to practice for an interview. And the guy says are go knock on the door come in, says Knock, knock, who is there? He says me, says come in. So it’s kind of he says, Don’t say me. So Google’s why because there he goes, because it’s not the local accent.

And if you go into an interview, they’re not going to take you there local accent this me, just because he goes, dude, if I say me, when I go in there to do the interview with the guy, he’s going to realize that it’s me. People will see that. So write love that advice. That is beautiful advice. My last question, what advice would you give your, your 20 year old self?

 

Antonio Thornton  1:06:10 

What advice do I give my 20 year old self? I would, I would say, take these two pieces of advice and live into them and in your 20s Because I don’t think I really accepted and really lived in it that it was until I was in my 30s. So I would say just you know, be who you are. And and just be authentic to who you know, to be in every aspect of your life. That would be what I would say in my 20s. Yeah, for sure. Love it.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  1:06:39 

Love it. And Tony, this has been a delightful conversation. I really enjoyed our conversation. I feel like we could easily go another two to three hours without stop. We’ll love to have you back on the show. Is there anything that you would love to share that we didn’t get to talk about?

 

Antonio Thornton  1:06:57 

Well, I think we covered a lot of things and stuff. And if I could just, you know, say everyone to walk away from this process is ask yourself the questions. That’s it, just ask yourself the questions. There’s, there’s, you’ve got so much in inside of you.

If you’re on a call like this, if you’re if you’re involved with Mustafa, and in his movement, what he’s doing, you obviously have something to give to the world because you wouldn’t be here otherwise. And if there’s anything that’s holding you back, ask the right questions to get to it so you can make the shift in your life so you can go out and make a fearless impact.

 

Mostafa Hosseini  1:07:37 

Beautiful, love it. Thank you very much really appreciate it gang. Make sure to download Antonio’s gift to step by step process to overcome procrastination. And the link is time back time bank gps.com forward slash O P. Stop ending for overcoming procrastination.

So link again is Time Bank gps.com forward slash Opie. And as usual, make sure you like and subscribe to the channel, whether you’re on YouTube, on Google podcasts, Apple podcasts, whichever channel make sure you like and share. If you have any questions, put them in the comments will get back to you.

If you know a friend that could benefit from this very, very in depth and useful conversation, tag them in there. And we will go from there. Thank you again, Antonio. My name is Mostafa Hosseini, your host for the show and I look forward to seeing you on our next episode. Bye now.

 

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