Joe Vitale: Joe, I wanted to ask you a couple of questions. Did you ever create a super hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Joe Vitale: Well, first of all, I love the question because nobody has ever asked me that before. The reality is yes, I have, and that was something that helped me get through a rather difficult childhood.
Joe Vitale: I haven’t written too much about it because it was unpleasant. You often turn inside and you often turn into your own mind looking for comfort, looking for solutions, and looking for inspiration.
Joe Vitale: I did a whole lot of that. Yes, I did. I was, like many people, into comic books and that was my first introduction to super heroes. And then creating a type of super hero for myself to be inspired by or to try to model was something I secretly did.
Joe Vitale: Just like I’ve never been asked the question before, I’ve never talked about this before. But yes, indeed, I did. I mean, do you need to know or would like to know what some of the super heroes were?
Ralph Zuranski: I would love to.
Joe Vitale: Obviously, Superman was there because I would imagine that every kid growing up admired him and wanted to be him. I also knew that being Superman was a bit of a challenge. He was actually from another planet.
Joe Vitale: So it was more realistic for me to follow Batman because he was human and just had a lot of gadgets, a lot of talent, a lot of persistence, a lot of will power and a lot of commitment to making a difference in the world for doing good.
Joe Vitale: Then the lesser super heroes that were still important to me were ones like Flash. Flash was one of the super heroes who was able to run around the world in eight seconds because he could do it in a flash. I always thought you could be incredibly productive if you were able to do what Flash could do.
Joe Vitale: So those were some of the ones who come to mind.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you create a secret hero of your own based on the qualities of those heroes; one that you actually internalized in your own mind that you could always rely on that secret hero for help.
Joe Vitale: I created a version of that. I don’t think it would be in the comic book area, but I pulled qualities and traits from them and from a lot of people that I admired. This goes back to the other thing I did and that was read a lot.
Joe Vitale: I was reading biographies like Harry Houdini who turned me onto magic. For the longest time as a teenager I thought I was going to be the world’s greatest escape artist just like he had been.
Joe Vitale: I even had a name. “Harry Excello” was my stage name when I was 15 or 16 years old. This was a major thing for a teenager to be going through.
Joe Vitale: So I would look at these heroes. I would look at Houdini and Superman and Batman and Flash, and I would look at their qualities to try to create a version of that in me. I don’t think I created an individual character who was somebody I then idolized.
Joe Vitale: I think what I did was idolize a lot of these different super heroes, the living ones as well as the fictional ones, to pull out the qualities within me that I admired within them. That’s really the important statement.
Ralph Zuranski: What were those specific qualities?
Joe Vitale: That’s a good question. Boy, okay, one of those was serving. I’m looking at this now being 51 years old looking back on what was turning me on as a kid and so forth. I don’t think I would have said serving at that point.
Joe Vitale: But I can say it now because that is what these people were doing. When I looked at Superman, Batman, Flash and even Houdini, these people were providing a service in one way or another.
Joe Vitale: The comic book heroes were, of course, trying to save the world and save the day and save victims and all of that
Joe Vitale: Harry Houdini was providing people with entertainment which is something I’ve learned that is profoundly important to the world.
Joe Vitale: I’ve done books on P.T. Barnum and research on a lot of people who lived through the Civil War and the Great Depression and very turbulent, sad times. They were able to find ways to entertain people and to serve people and to help people.
Joe Vitale: That was a big quality that I really admired because, and again this is me speaking today trying to reflect on when I was a kid and growing up, they were getting out of their ego. Of course, their ego was still involved in all of this. I mean, they are human and I’m human.
Joe Vitale: But they were doing something bigger than their ego. They were doing something bigger than self-gratification. It was trying to be gratified by helping others. And I would say that is the number one biggest trait that I recognized and have tried to idolize and use.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think that those characteristics come from the non-dominant brain hemisphere of individuals? I know you are well aware of how the brain works with the left brain which is the logical, the judgmental, the mathematical and verbal skills orientation and time, competition and judgment; where the other side is the creative side.
Joe Vitale: Do you feel that the ability to serve comes from the emotional side of the brain?
Joe Vitale: What a wonderful question. I think it actually comes from something deeper.
Joe Vitale: Let’s look at this for a second. Yes, there is the brain and it does have both halves and both of them are assigned different duties even though research shows that there are crossovers in those duties.
Joe Vitale: But something deeper than that seems to be the heart. And the heart is more like the soul, it’s more like your spirit, it’s more like your connection to the divine, your connection to the universe. It’s where we are all connected.
Joe Vitale: It goes deeper than the brain. It goes deeper than the thought process. It goes deeper than the conscious mechanism that is keeping us going, or even the unconscious mechanism that is keeping your blood pumping and regulating your body temperature and doing things that, consciously, would drive you batty. You cannot handle it all.
Joe Vitale: So I would say this desire to serve is coming from this deepest soul connection of the universe itself. I don’t know how to explain that in more specific, scientific terms. I actually believe that the research is still probing in that direction. They are not going to come back with conclusive evidence for a while.
Joe Vitale: But I’m really talking about the spirit. I’m really talking about coming from deeper than what we would get on a brain x-ray.
Ralph Zuranski: I know that a lot of times when people have low points in their life, when they start serving others and start focusing on others the lowest point in their lives seems to dissipate on its own.
Joe Vitale: I wanted to ask you the question of when was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life back to one of victory over all obstacles?
Joe Vitale: Wow! Well, to confess my own past history, at one point I was homeless in Dallas. I struggled in Houston and was in poverty for almost 15 years.
Joe Vitale: I was just telling friends yesterday when we were meeting for a Mastermind meeting and totally supporting each other. The lifestyle I have today and the lifestyle I had then are so incredibly, dramatically different that it almost feels like it was a different person that went through each one.
Joe Vitale: In many ways it was a different person. So the lowest points for me were probably those struggling years in Houston when I starved at times. I took on jobs; I was a car salesman for a while; a reporter for a while; a cab driver for a while; a laborer for a long time; worked for a big oil company for quite a few years doing work I absolutely hated.
Joe Vitale: I would drive to work crying because I was so unhappy and drive home crying. I remember being on the freeway in Houston with tears coming down my face. This was repeated. It was a very turbulent time; very unhappy time; a starvation, strife, struggle type of time.
Joe Vitale: How did I get through all of that? I kept looking forward. I kept going for my overall dream which in my case was to be an author. I wanted to be a writer since I was a teenager.
Joe Vitale: I met Rod Sterling, the creator of the “Twilight Zone” series. I met him when I was a kid and it was a turning point in my life. I realized he was human and I was human and if he could do it, I could do it.
Joe Vitale: I started to pursue this goal of being an author. My God, it was not an overnight success by any means whatsoever. The scratching and worrying and crying and concern, all of it took many, many years.
Joe Vitale: I kept looking forward. I would read the positive thinking books. A book that really changed my life was a book by Claude Bristol, The Magic of Believing. The Magic of Believing is still in print. It came out in the ‘50’s and it is still a classic book.
Joe Vitale: I read books by Catherine Ponder. I was feeding my mind positive information; in a way trying to brainwash myself into being much more positive and optimistic in my life.
Joe Vitale: I also found ways to listen to audio tapes. I was a big Nightingale-Conant junkie. I was listening to Nightingale-Conant audio productions long, long, long ago.
Joe Vitale: When I was driving in my car making those long rides in Houston on the freeway it was a university on wheels because in that car I would listen to those tapes. I would borrow them from the library. If I could afford them I would buy them. I would find ways to get them. Again, I was feeding my mind with all of this positive stuff. Joe Vitale: Then I would look for the role models. I’ve had role models since I was a kid. I mentioned some of the comic book ones. I mentioned Harry Houdini.
Joe Vitale: But whenever I was interested in something I looked for role models there. For a while I was interested in boxing. I was a big fan of Floyd Patterson and James J. Corbett and, even for a while, Muhammad Ali.
Joe Vitale: I was interested in being an attorney at one point. This is during teenage years when you are trying to find your way and I was fascinated by Clarence Darrow, one of the most famous attorneys.
Joe Vitale: I studied him. I actually drove and went to his birthplace in later years and did some research on him trying to absorb his best traits and put them within myself.
Joe Vitale: Then, of course, the biggest and final thing that helped me to come out of the quicksand that I was in was having a coach believe in me. I tell about this in my new book, The Attractor Factor. That is coming out in a week or so.
Joe Vitale: I worked for about ten years for a healer by the name of Jonathan and he really supported me and encouraged me. He even worked for me without charging me for a long, long time knowing, of course, that I couldn’t pay him at that time. I was just totally in poverty.
Joe Vitale: So all of these things were things I was doing to pull myself out of this poverty mindset that was a quicksand that was keeping me dragged down. I was trying to pull myself up while also being pulled down and I had to use books, tapes and support in order to get out of it.
Ralph Zuranski: Was your hating what you were doing and not seeking after your dreams the impetus that sent you down that trail to being homeless and having nothing and hating your life?
Joe Vitale: Interesting. I would say that focusing on my goal to the exclusion of all other things made it difficult for me to proceed.
Joe Vitale: What I mean by that is that there are opportunities around us all over the place. I wrote a book about Bruce Barton who was the founder of a big advertising agency, B.B.D.O., and the book is called, Seven Lost Secrets of Success.
Joe Vitale: In it there’s a quote that said, “He’d been out of work many times in his life, but he was always able to find work as long as he was open-minded about what he was willing to do.”
Joe Vitale: So by being so focused on, “I only want to be an author and that is the only way I want to make my career; that’s the only way I want to make money,” I was dismissing a lot of the good that was around me.
Joe Vitale: Today I can look back and say, “Wow! It is fantastic that I was a car salesman for a while.” I mean, I hated it. But I look back now and I think I had the best training in human psychology you ever could have had.
Joe Vitale: I look back and hated that I was a cab driver for a while. That was a job I despised. And I look back and think, “Wow, it was wonderful that I was able to learn the city of Houston and got paid to do it for a while because I was driving a cab and was forced into knowing the streets.”
Joe Vitale: Now I can look back and see the positive in what looked like a very negative experience. So having a bit of blinders on probably kept me from realizing the positive that was right around me.
Ralph Zuranski: So when there are difficult things going on in your life and you just don’t know what to do or how to handle it, you believe that there’s a silver lining around every dark cloud?
Joe Vitale: Yes, absolutely and, again, I didn’t know that a long time ago. It is absolutely true.
Joe Vitale: One of my phrases, and I wrote an article about this that is on my web site at MrFire.com, is “turn it into something good.” I write about this little phrase in The Attractor Factor.
Joe Vitale: No matter what happens to you that seems to be throwing a wrench in your life or it seems like Murphy’s Law was at work, look at it and say, “How can I turn this into something good?”
Joe Vitale: There’s a quote from a book that I like by Kurt Wright; I forget the title of the book. I also mention it in The Attractor Factor. I’ll paraphrase it and it is so profound.
Joe Vitale: He said, “Have you ever noticed in your life that you’ve gone through periods that were really bad, really down, really unhappy; and they were experiences that you just wish you could get out of? But a year later you look back at that experience and you were able to see the good that came out of it?”
Joe Vitale: Almost always that’s the case. If we are really open-minded, if we’re conscious and aware, we can look back after a year or so and say, “Yeah, I can see the good that came with that now. I can see that whatever took place that I thought was nasty at that time lead to something that’s truly wonderful.”
Joe Vitale: Well he said, “If that’s true, when something happens to you at the moment that looks like negative, look for the good in it that you’ll see in a year.
Ralph Zuranski: So you believe that it is important to take an immediate positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes that happen.
Joe Vitale: Absolutely, without any doubt, without any hesitation that is true. You know, you and I heard Ted Nicholas speak recently at the event, and he was talking about all the experiences, these failures or what people call failures. He looked at them and saw that they were the most educational experiences of his life.
Joe Vitale: It isn’t the successes for the most part that teach you things, it is the failures. If that is the case, then a failure really isn’t a failure. A failure is an educational success.
Joe Vitale: So it’s looking in each moment for the good, realizing it is always there. It is your eyesight that needs to be cleaned, your glasses that you’re looking through, your mental lens, your perception.
Joe Vitale: You see that there is positive in this moment. You may really resist looking for that because in the moment your ego is saying, “This isn’t going the way I want it to go; this isn’t what I had in mind; this isn’t the plan.”
Joe Vitale: But that’s your ego. Step aside from that and kind of look at it from a universal perspective and say, “Oh, maybe this is part of a puzzle and I don’t see the whole puzzle yet. But I’ve got to trust that it is a really good puzzle.”
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that it is good not to be judgmental about the things that are happening in your life, whether positive or negative? Just accept them for what they are and try to react to them?
Joe Vitale: Absolutely, and respond to them is more the word. We often react unconsciously to events that happen to us. If we respond to events that happen to us, we are much more aware of our choices.
Joe Vitale: I have a ring that I don’t wear all the time because it is priceless. It is a ring that is 2,000 years old. It’s from ancient Rome.
Joe Vitale: On the ring is inscribed the word “Fidem.” That word is Latin and it translates to faith. I wear it as a reminder to me that no matter what is going on, have faith or have trust that this is all happening for the good.
Joe Vitale: Again, if you had told me this when I was homeless in Dallas and I was in poverty in Houston, I would say, “Yeah, that sounds great, but where is the catch?”
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to be an optimist?
Joe Vitale: It is incredibly important to be an optimist. And it is important for me to explain something about that because I am today an optimist.
Joe Vitale: I remember being in college in the early ‘70’s and a friend of mine at the time said I was a natural born pessimist. Today people look at my life, they look at my writings, they look at my web site and listen to my audio program and they say, “Wow, Joe’s a natural born optimist.”
Joe Vitale: Which is it? Was I naturally born a pessimist or was I naturally born an optimist?
Joe Vitale: The truth of the matter is you’re a choice. You choose which one you want to be. I have now chosen, because learning from experience that it is a wiser choice, to come from optimism. Look for the sunny side.
Joe Vitale: Who wants to go through life being depressed? You don’t see your opportunities; your energy is low; nobody wants to work with you; nobody wants to be around you; you drag.
Joe Vitale: But if you come from optimism, then you start going in the direction of fulfilling your dreams.
Ralph Zuranski: Who are some of the heroes in your life? I know that you’ve had some tragic times and some difficult times. Were there any real heroes other than the coach you’re talking about and who are the heroes in your life now?
Joe Vitale: There have probably been dozens of them.
Joe Vitale: One name that comes to mind is Bob Bly. He is an author and a copy writer out of New Jersey who mentored me without fee, without obligation, and without asking anything in return when I was first starting out.
Joe Vitale: That was back in the Houston days when I wanted to be an author and he was coming out with a lot of books. Presently he’s written 50 books. He had a dozen or more books at that point.
Joe Vitale: This was before the internet, of course. I would write him snail-mail letters and ask questions. He always answered them. He gave of himself totally, freely.
Joe Vitale: Today we’re friends; today we’re colleagues; today we’re peers. In fact, when he wanted to go on the internet, he came to me and asked for advice. This was so comical just because I was able to give back to one of my heroes.
Joe Vitale: I finally met him one time when he came to Houston and I came to hear him. I told him it was like meeting one of my super heroes because Bob Bly had so influenced me. He was one of the heroes and still is in my life.
Joe Vitale: Paul Hartunian is another one. Paul Hartunian is the guy who sold the Brooklyn Bridge. He is a publicity expert and a fan of P.T. Barnum. He sat down with me 12 or more years ago, again, back in Houston. I was starting to come up for air and publishing books and doing fairly well.
Joe Vitale: He spent a three-and-a-half hour dinner with me in Houston. He was giving a speech and he invited me to come over after he was done. I met with him, we went out to eat and I spent three-and-a-half hours with him and all he did was give.
Joe Vitale: He gave of himself; he gave information; he gave advice; he told me what I should be doing; he told me what I needed to change. I took pages of notes and I implemented almost everything the next day.
Joe Vitale: Paul Hartunian gave and we’re friends today. I’m going to see him actually next week. I don’t see him very often, but I do see him from time to time. So he’s another one who has greatly helped me.
Joe Vitale: There’s a whole long list of them. And many who are heroes to me are long gone, people whom I’ve never met.
Joe Vitale: Bruce Barton, whom I wrote about, is one. Another one is P.T. Barnum, the great showman, the great circus promoter. I so think he is a hero in my life that he is like a spirit guide for me.
Joe Vitale: He’s somebody looking over my shoulder all the time. I wrote a book about him entitled There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. I went to his grave site; I went to his home; I went to his old stomping grounds, and I did research on him. I feel very much akin to that man. I haven’t met him, but he is still one of my heroes.
Joe Vitale: So I greatly believe in having heroes. They help pull the best out of you. They help inspire you to go forward. This is one of the million-dollar tips that people don’t talk about very much, but having heroes is one of the ways to dramatically change your life.
Ralph Zuranski: In copy writing I think the word is mightier than the sword; the pen is mightier than the sword. Being one of the top copy writers and just having unbelievable success and generating income for yourself and for others, how important do you think having a concept of yourself as a hero is when you are actually doing writing?
Joe Vitale: Interesting. I don’t know that I’ve ever looked at that question before. As I sit here and kind of think about it, I am aware when I am sitting down to write that I’ve got a built-in fan base.
Joe Vitale: And I don’t mean that as an ego trip saying, “Oh, Joe’s got a fan club.” I mean that my work influences people. That is profoundly powerful and that makes me pause and realize, “Joe, be careful what you write.”
Joe Vitale: Not that I’m going to write anything negative, but I am going to write something people are going to read and they are going to be influenced by it. Knowing that guides me to be sure that I write the most inspiring, informative and, hopefully, noble words that I can write.
Joe Vitale: My book, The Attractor Factor, I hope is going to make a difference in people’s lives. As I was writing it I kept thinking, “These are the secrets I wish I knew 30 years ago when I was homeless and starving and struggling. This is the material that I want people who are looking around for answers to find.”
Joe Vitale: So as I’m writing my copy, my books, my ezine, my newsletters or my emails, I’m very aware that I have a certain amount of power here. I don’t know that people look at me as a hero; I guess some of them do. But I am aware that I have that certain level of power and I want to use it wisely.
Ralph Zuranski: I know in life that people come across our path, and I’m thinking especially of women. I know that recently one of your best friends passed away and I’m also thinking of your good friend, Nerissa.
Joe Vitale: I wonder if you could share a little bit about just how important the female element or the quality of having a female friend is.
Joe Vitale: Well, we all need to have support. The friend who passed away was my wife of 25 years. We’d been separated over the last six years, but we were still best friends. I totally took care of her and supported her. She had been in a near-fatal car accident several years ago and never really recovered from it.
Joe Vitale: She had gone through a tragedy of her own that I talk about in The Attractor Factor. And she also, of course, being married for 25 years and friends for six years, was part of the journey that I went through when we were in poverty. She was right there with me.
Joe Vitale: And that’s important. She was right there with me. We supported each other. Those were not easy times. I’m so sad that she’s gone because the loss is profound, but also because she can’t benefit from the success now. She was with me during those poverty years.
Joe Vitale: Having that support is incredibly profound because without it you really feel like you are one person against the world. That’s not the case, but that is what it feels like.
Joe Vitale: So having support from a loved one is priceless. I don’t know how to put any more words to it than that. Marian totally supported me; I totally supported her; it was this win-win relationship that created an extra set of energy or more additional strength than even two people together.
Joe Vitale: Nerissa is the same way. Narissa and I are supporting each other. We love each other and we are together out here in our country estate now. She knows what I do for a living.
Joe Vitale: This Saturday as we make this phone call, this interview, she would probably prefer that we go do something fun because we’ve been working night and day. We just got done with that seminar that you were also at in San Antonio.
Ralph Zuranski: That was intense.
Joe Vitale: But here we are. She’s totally supportive and she nods her head and says, “I know you are going to go do the interview. Go do it; go break a leg; go have a great time and inspire people. And say hi to Ralph while you are on the phone.”
Joe Vitale: It is amazingly beyond comprehension how important it is to have support from a loved one.
Ralph Zuranski: I think that people who go to the internet seminars are looking for people they can model their lives after, people who have had extraordinary success like you. Are there any people in the internet industry at this point in time that you look up to?
Joe Vitale: Interesting. I love the internet because there are so many good people doing good things. There’s a lot more sharing that goes on through the internet than it does off line.
Joe Vitale: That’s one of the things I learned from Mark Joyner many, many years ago. Mark Joyner introduced me to the whole world of ebooks when I didn’t think anyone would buy an ebook. He talked me into selling my first one and I tasted blood because it sold so well.
Joe Vitale: I’ve ended up coming out with 15 ebooks and digital products and digital video and a home study course called “Hypnotic Selling Secrets” at this point.
Joe Vitale: So, even though Mark Joyner has retired and he’s moved to New Zealand, I still am in contact with him. I talked to him just yesterday. So he is still an internet hero to me.
Joe Vitale: I admire the people who are doing things like Joel Christopher and Ted Nicholas. Ted’s not been known to be on the internet so much, but Joel is putting him on the internet and Joel is bringing him to do workshops.
Joe Vitale: I’ve known Ted Nicholas from a distance for a long time. Now, thanks to Joel doing this wonderful event, we just did the double birthday bash for Ted’s birthday and Joel’s birthday. I got to know Ted even better and I absolutely love the guy.
Joe Vitale: You talk about somebody to look up to; if you want to find a hero to model, do Ted Nicholas. There is a guy who on all levels is a class act.
Joe Vitale: Joel Christopher is the same way. Joel is an honorable, hard-working, loveable guy. He’s mostly heart and that’s what I love about him. He’s come to my house a few times.
Joe Vitale: He and I did this project together that is probably worth mentioning.
Joe Vitale: He came to my estate one time just to visit shortly after his father died. So Joel was going through a grieving period and he was fairly depressed. He wasn’t working as hard at that point; didn’t feel like it. I certainly know the feeling after having lost Marian.
Joe Vitale: While Joel was here I said, “Do you ever get emails from people that really break your heart? They tell you they are on disability or they just got laid off or they are confused by all the internet options or they’ve got $50 to their name and they need to make money?”
Joe Vitale: He said, “Oh, my God, I get emails like that and they just tear me up.”
Joe Vitale: And I said, “Well, we need to do something. What can we do about that?”
Joe Vitale: And right on the spot he and I agreed to create a teleseminar series totally free. We went to our respective homes. I wrote a sales letter and we sent it out and we got 800 questions from people.
Joe Vitale: Then Joel and I went on a teleseminar that was supposed to last two hours over two different days; one day one week and one day the following week; two hours total. But because there were so many questions, we ended up making this thing last eight hours.
Joe Vitale: This was an eight hour marathon of giving, giving, giving; free answers and free information. Then we recorded everything and we put it up and anybody who wants to hear it can go to www.MakeMoneyFromScratch.com.
Joe Vitale: Now, I love Joel! How many people would do something to that extent? It helped him get back on his feet, so I guess I helped him out in this particular case. He was grieving at this point and needed a little kick start to get going back into the internet business.
Joe Vitale: But he and I did something that helped both of us. We feel wonderful about that project we did! And whenever anybody asks us for advice now, we can say, “Look, we give you eight hours of advice. Go to MakeMoneyFromScratch.com.”
Joe Vitale: So Joel is another one of the internet heroes out there whom I greatly love.
Ralph Zuranski: I know when I saw you do that I was very impressed that you guys put that project together. That basically cemented my respect for you guys as heroes and you were one of the first people at the big seminar in Dallas, the first one, when I told you about my project you volunteered to help. I’m extremely grateful for that.
Joe Vitale: Ted Nicholas is also one of the great heroes along with Joel whom I’ve met. I remember I was at his seminar on May 23rd when my dad had a catastrophic stroke and was paralyzed on one side. I didn’t find out until later in the day.
Joe Vitale: Ted had just recently said that you can’t be a great copy writer unless you can cry. That really struck home. I just wonder, do you feel that this is true, that you really have to be able to cry, to express your emotions, to be a great copy writer?
Joe Vitale: You need to feel. You need to feel.
Joe Vitale: We heard Brian Keith Boyles give his talk at the double birthday bash. Did you hear that by the way?
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, I did.
Joe Vitale: It was incredibly moving. The man stood on stage. I guess I should say for people who don’t know, Brian Keith Boyles is a very famous copy writer. He gets paid $25,000 and up to write sales letters for Gary Halbert and Jay Abraham and many other people who are legends in their own right.
Joe Vitale: So he is the quiet copy writer behind the scenes. He is a big guy; he’s like 99% heart. He’s all emotion; he’s all feeling; he’s all giving.
Joe Vitale: And he got onstage and was basically crying 90% of the time. He was saying it was so incredibly important to love your customers, to feel for your customers and to express your concern for your customers in your copy.
Joe Vitale: I totally agree. He sent shivers through a whole bunch of people in that audience. He got some people to cry. He got me choked up listening to him. It was a very moving speech.
Joe Vitale: But the whole thing came down to what Ted Nicholas said. You have to be able to cry. I say you’ve got to be able to feel. You’ve got to feel your own emotions and you’ve got to, by extension, feel the emotions of what your readers are going through.
Joe Vitale: So when I’m writing copy, I’m incredibly sensitive to what people are going through in their lives when I’m writing to them. Too many copy writers write a letter that is just trying to sell something. I’m trying to write a letter that is trying to make a difference in the reader’s life.
Joe Vitale: I’m trying to share something, not just get their money. Ultimately, they are going to be paying me something if they see a connection, if they see the value in it. But my focus has to be what is in it for them? How does it help them?
Joe Vitale: The best way for me to do that, the best way for me to communicate that, the most hypnotic way to do that is for me to feel it first. So you must be in contact with your feelings in order to touch the feelings of somebody else.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that that is the thing that separates the greatest copy writers from the also-ran’s is their ability to really care about the people who are going to be reading the copy and also be involved in high integrity and just truthfulness; telling these people the truth about what is in it for them rather than lying to them?
Joe Vitale: I would say that is absolutely it. The only addition, and it is the smallest part, is the ability to communicate with words in a clear and direct way.
Ralph Zuranski: It seems that you and Ted and Joel are creating a very powerful dynasty of interactive seminars where the people that attend actually become a part of the internet marketing family that you guys are creating.
Joe Vitale: I love that. You know I put on the spiritual marketing super summit that you attended a year ago January, a year and a couple of months ago, and I still hear from people who attended it.Joe Vitale: Joe Vitale: This is really an important distinction. The people who went there were not attendees. They were becoming part of a new family. That is what is going on in the best of these seminars, even the one with Ted.
Joe Vitale: I feel like I’m a stepson or brother or something of Ted Nicholas now. Of course, I feel like a relative of Joel Christopher and I feel that way with you.
Joe Vitale: That is what is happening. You create these relationships that become deeper connections than, in many cases, with your own blood relatives.
Ralph Zuranski: I know when we go to these conferences it really is. You spend an intense amount of time learning and just emoting. I have to say I have never been to any other seminars where people actually cry on stage.
Joe Vitale: I would say the same thing. That’s an important point too. When I do my spiritual marketing seminar, at the end of it I ask people to come up and tell what they got. Several people came up and were balling. I did not expect it. I still get shivers thinking about it.
Joe Vitale: The same thing happened at Ted Nicholas’ event and I’ve seen the same thing happen at Joel’s other event. It’s breathtaking. People are moved not on the intellectual level. Certainly they are getting the intellectual information they came for, but their heart is being opened.
Ralph Zuranski: And you think that is incredibly important to help them transform who they are and where they are going?
Joe Vitale: Well, it is the ultimate goal. That is the best way to put it. It is the ultimate goal because opening our heart allows us to open to our connection to the universe and the universe is trying to guide us all along to our better good and our greater riches.
Joe Vitale: I firmly believe that as the optimist that I am; that is the direction we are all going in. We resist that connection when we are locked into our brain and we’re closed off from our feelings.
Joe Vitale: So opening our heart opens us to the richness of the human experience. It opens us up to new relationships, but it opens us up to that connection to the universe that guides us to what I’ll call the ultimate goal.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you feel that when we go to the conferences that it is the connections we make with other people that are the primary factors that determine our success in the future?
Joe Vitale: That’s exactly it and very few copy writers mention that when they are trying to sell a seminar. I think that is a mistake.
Joe Vitale: When we go to promote a seminar almost everybody, myself included because I’ll fall into this trap, will focus on who is going to speak and what is their topic. We almost forget that what is more important than who is going to speak and what their topic might be is the meeting of new people, the interaction, the networking and the new family. That is more important.
Ralph Zuranski: Look at the cost of the seminars. I think the one that is coming up is the marketing cruise where millionaires are going to be on there and it is going to be expensive, something like $10,000. People are sitting there and thinking, “Gee, that is an incredible investment.”
Joe Vitale: Do you feel when you have a higher price for a seminar that people actually put a greater value on going to it than what they learn there; that it is more ingrained in helping them to use that material to be successful rather than something that they get for free?
Joe Vitale: Believe me, if somebody pays $10,000 to go somewhere, they are incredibly alert the entire time they are there.
Joe Vitale: If they pay $5 to go on it, they are going to goof off, they are not going to go to all the events and they are not going to network much. They are going to play more. They haven’t valued it.
Joe Vitale: If they pay $1,000, they will do a little bit more in valuing it. If they pay $10,000 and they are not an independently wealthy person so that $10,000 isn’t pocket change they just throw away, if $10,000 is important money to them, they will look at it, like you just used the word, as an investment. They will look at it as an investment and they will be acutely aware of every opportunity that takes place.
Joe Vitale: So it is profoundly important that they go to these kinds of events because it forces you to pay attention, to open your heart, to make the connection, to do all the things you should do at these events anyway.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s true. With the “In Search of Heroes” program, one of the primary goals is to help kids find their own hero within and then go in search of local heroes and publicize those individuals.
Joe Vitale: It is the people who are really giving back to the community who deserve to have their businesses elevated in the community for people to come where they know they will get good value.
Joe Vitale: What advice could you give young people about writing about heroes in the local community?
Joe Vitale: I would say to definitely write about them for a couple of reasons.
Joe Vitale: First of all, they can all use the publicity. When somebody is doing good out there, tell other people. Let’s pass it around like the old pass it forward type of thing. Let’s get attention to the good that is going on in the world because the mass media, for the most part, focuses on what isn’t working. Let’s focus on what is working.
Joe Vitale: So this is a contribution to the universe itself. It is a contribution to the planet to write about the people who are making a difference, who are influencing you, who are influencing others.
Joe Vitale: When I say write about them, write about them. Write an article for a local magazine. Write an article for the newspaper. Write an article for your ezine or your blog or your web site or whatever that happens to be.
Joe Vitale: You can also even distribute news releases which I’m a great fan of doing. I learned it from one of my heroes, P.T. Barnum and, of course, another one, Paul Hartunian.
Joe Vitale: You can get the media directory from any big city; whatever the biggest city is close to you. I’m near Austin and San Antonio. I would call the chamber of commerce in both cities and say, “I would like to have the media directory or the media guide for the city.”
Joe Vitale: They usually cost under $15, sometimes $50 bucks, but it is still affordable. It will list all the media contacts: radio, T.V., newspaper, the weeklies, the monthlies, and the whole bit.
Joe Vitale: Send them news releases and say, “I’ve found a hero in my area. This is what they are doing and I’d like to do this story.”
Joe Vitale: Or even propose they do the story. This will serve you because you are going to feel good. You are going to become a hero to the community, maybe in a quiet way, but you’ll feel good because you’re giving to the community.
Joe Vitale: The person who is already giving to the community about whom you are doing the story is going to feel good and it will reinforce their continuing to do good. And when the story is broadcast, printed or distributed even more people will hear about the good that is being done.
Joe Vitale: This is the kind of ripple affect we want to go out into the world. Let’s create more heroes by talking about the heroes who are already out there.
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three wishes for your life and for the world that would come true instantly, what would they be?
Joe Vitale: Holy smokes! Well, the very first one, which is almost a cliché, I would ask for peace. No war, just peace; I would ask for peace.
Joe Vitale: The second one that comes to mind is maybe tied to the first, but I’m doing this spontaneously. I would say peace in our hearts. Of course, peace in our hearts would probably lead to peace on our planet permanently.
Joe Vitale: But I’ll go with that. The first is peace with wars stopping; all the violence that is going on. And the second one is peace in our hearts.
Joe Vitale: The third is I would love for people to connect to the universe through their heart. I would love for them to just instantly wake up to the connection to the universe through their heart that is virtually already there, but they haven’t maybe acknowledged it.
Ralph Zuranski: You’ve written a lot of books. What would you recommend as far as say your five best titles for young people to read to help them achieve the same level of success that you have?
Joe Vitale: Well, the most obvious is The Attractor Factor. The Attractor Factor is, hands down, the manifestation handbook that I worked very hard on to be clear, to be easy, to be effortless in helping people achieve their dreams.
Joe Vitale: The subtitle says “Five Easy Steps for Creating Wealth or Anything Else from the Inside Out.”
Joe Vitale: So The Attractor Factor is the number one book.
Joe Vitale: I wrote another book called The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History. It’s all about giving and I find it inspiring. I mean, I wrote the book so it is a little uncomfortable to say I find my own book inspiring. But I do, so I would really encourage people to check it out. It’s a thin little book, The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History.
Joe Vitale: Then, of course, I have many books on copy writing. So I would say probably get Hypnotic Marketing. Hypnotic Marketing is an ebook at HynoticMarketing.com. It talks about publicity. It talks about my three-step formula. It talks about hypnotic writing. I think that would be a nice primer, a nice introduction.
Joe Vitale: Even though you mentioned books, I’m going to mention my audio program with Nightingale-Conant, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.” “The Power of Outrageous Marketing” has been a best seller with Nightingale. It’s at www.Nightingale.com. Just search for it by my name or by the title, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.”
Joe Vitale: It’s been a best seller for six years. It has been transforming businesses. I recorded it maybe seven years ago and it was the best of everything I knew about marketing at that time.
Joe Vitale: Probably the only thing it is missing or weak in is internet marketing. It is all about marketing in general and about the ten things the tycoons did throughout history to create businesses from dirt, from nothing. They were born with nothing and still created empires. That course shows you how to do it.
Joe Vitale: Then, I guess if I had to mention one more book, I would say my P.T. Barnum book, There’s a Customer Born Every Minute. It’s a little hard to find now because it is out of print. It does come with my home study course, “Hypnotic Selling Secrets,” which is at HypnoticSellingSecrets.com.
Joe Vitale: So I would say, Ralph, that those are the titles that come to mind.
Ralph Zuranski: I bought your copy writing program, the software, “Hypnotic Writing Wizard,” and it is spectacular because you have all the different swipe files in there that you can choose from to put into the text you are creating.
Joe Vitale: I use it all the time and it really has made a big difference in stimulating my imagination and having all the great headlines in there.
Joe Vitale: It also has in it Hypnotic Writing, my first ebook and Advanced Hypnotic Writing, the second ebook. Thank you for acknowledging “Hypnotic Writing Wizard.” That is available at HypnoticWritingWizard.com.
Ralph Zuranski: That was a great program.
Joe Vitale: I really appreciate your time Joe and your ability to open your heart to everybody in this interview. I was wondering if you could leave us with one parting thought.
Joe Vitale: Yes, I can.
Joe Vitale: State your intention for what you want in your life and go for your dream, not allowing anything to slow you down or stop you. Always pause to reflect that if something seems to be stopping you or slowing you down, there is a good reason for it.
Joe Vitale: Take a look with faith, with trust and keep going forward.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s a beautiful thought. Thank you so much for your time.
Joe Vitale: Thank you, Ralph.
Dr. Joe Vitale is one of the stars of the hit movie “The Secret.” He author of way too many books to list here, including the #1 best-selling book “The Attractor Factor,”
the best-selling e-book “Hypnotic Writing,” and the best-selling Nightingale-Conant audio program, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.” His latest books
are the best-selling “The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History” and “Adventures Within.” Also “Zero Limits,” “Buying Trances,” and “The Key.”
He’s being called “The Buddha of the Internet.” Sign up for his monthly ezine and see many articles by him at http://www.MrFire.com
Dr. Joe Vitale is author of way too many books to list here, including the #1 best-selling book “Spiritual Marketing,” the best-selling e-book “Hypnotic Writing,” and the best-selling Nightingale-Conant audio program, “The Power of Outrageous Marketing.” His latest books are the best-selling “The Greatest Money-Making Secret in History” and “Adventures Within.” He’s being called “The Buddha of the Internet.” Sign up for his monthly ezine and see many articles by him at http://www.MrFire.com.