Ralph Zuranski: She has compiled an impressive track record of growing million dollar businesses. Terri is also a popular keynote and motivational speaker and a successful author. Her best selling books include Stop Managing Stop Coaching, Work Yourself Happy, Coaching for an Extraordinary Life, and Create Your Ideal Body.
Ralph Zuranski: Terri is a nationally recognized authority on creating greater business and personal success and she is featured regularly on the media and on channel 10 NBC Philadelphia News as a coaching expert. She lives in Pennsylvania and when she isn’t coaching, training, speaking or writing, she loves to race formula dodge cars.
Ralph Zuranski: I really appreciate you taking your time to answer some of the heroes’ questions. I know I was so impressed at Joe Vitale’s Spiritual Marketing Super Summit where I first had the opportunity to hear you speak. It was incredible, and I’m just astounded by all the great things you have done.
Ralph Zuranski: Why don’t we go ahead and start with the first question.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Terri Levine: I have an odd answer for that, Ralph. I’ve actually created a secret hero, but the secret hero lives in my tummy. I’ve found that the core of where I ground myself is in my stomach area, and still to this day, anytime when there is a trial, tribulation, something that’s not quite right, could be an illness, death, or major change, whatever it might be, I go and just start breathing in my core.
Terri Levine: I believe there is a secret energy, a secret little hero that lives in there, and anytime that I do that, I feel more grounded and more focused. So this super hero, for me, is just within me and lives in my stomach.
Ralph Zuranski: You know that sort of reminds me of Qi Gong masters where they believe that the energy comes from the stomach also. I know when I was working with Steven Segal, he was talking about building up your Chi and doing it through breathing, so I guess you’re far ahead of the pack and actually doing something that helps you according to the ancient masters.
Terri Levine: I didn’t even know that, so how about that!
Ralph Zuranski: You’re just too smart! It’s intuition I guess. When was the lowest part in your life and how did you change your life path to win a victory over all obstacles?
Terri Levine: I went through a very low period about nine years ago. It was just one incident after the next. My mom, who was probably the person I was closest to on the planet, passed away. A week later, one of my very good friends, who was only 40 years old, passed away. My cat, who was 22 years old and had been with me forever, passed away, and then a few months later, my dog passed away.
Terri Levine: And it was just a lot all at once, as I’m sure you can imagine. And many things started to happen, like physically I started to feel ill and I started to gain weight. I really noticed that I needed to do something so that I could overcome the firewall that I was in. The first thing I did was to reach out to other people who had been in some of these circumstances.
Terri Levine: I began to talk to people who had lost their mom and were also female and about my age. I just reached out to connect. I went on the internet and found some grief groups and read every single book that I could find. And one of the things that I did learn was to let in the sadness, not to push it away, just to be with it. And through my exploration of what else I could do, I hired a life coach.
Terri Levine: And by the way, Ralph, I had never heard of a coach at that time. So I hired my own life coach and through that experience I not only began to deal with and accept all of the things that had come into my life, but it let my career change. I lost the weight I needed to lose and got a total attitude adjustment.
Terri Levine: I also began to study Abraham Hicks and began to understand that we are not necessarily physical beings, we are eternal beings. And so, I’ve been able to come to more peace and more understanding and more spirituality. My life went from an extremely low point and then went to some of the greatest experiences that I’ve ever had in my life within the last 7 or 8 years.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it’s important that people experience those points in their life so it can be used as a catalyst to obtain the high points?
Terri Levine: Good question. I think we need to experience that and I think that we also need to look for and ask for help if it’s feeling too heavy.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, I think that’s good advice. Well, did you have a dream or vision that sets the course for your life?
Terri Levine: Vision, very much so. I actually call it a Technicolor vision because my visions, my dreams, are so clear to me. And I’ll just quickly share this with you. When I was in the fourth grade, my parents and I were driving back from my grandmother’s and it was about an hour drive.
Terri Levine: I chattered away nonstop telling them everything I was going to do in my life. I remember this very vividly and I remember them humoring me. I was like: I’m going to be on TV, and I’m going to write books, and I’m going to be famous, and I’m going to help other people.” And my mom was like: “That’s all great honey”, and I could see they were sort of laughing.
Terri Levine: I started the Technicolor vision when I was very little. I don’t know where I got it from, but when I was very young, I used to see myself and what I was going to look like and who I was going to be married to, and where I was going to live, what kind of house I was going to have, and just continued to do this dreaming and visioning. It used to be on a yearly basis, but now I do it every single day.
Terri Levine: I wake up every morning and I think about what else I want to experience, and I also live my dream very much in the moment. In other words I’m not sure when I’m going to check out of the planet, so I want to make sure I enjoy and get in as much as I can and make the most of the minutes I have today.
Ralph Zuranski: Wow, that’s really powerful.
Terri Levine: That’s how I live and my clients hear this from me all the time. My favorite quote is “How do you intend to experience the rest of your life?” And I believe through our dreams we get to design that.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s amazing. Well you’ve definitely had some major setbacks and misfortunes and I’m sure you’ve made some mistakes like anybody else. How important is it to take a positive view on those things?
Terri Levine: I can say to you that I LEARNED to have positive views on those things. I want to be really honest about that. About 15 years ago, I would have a setback and I would have my own self talk, “Oh my gosh this is awful, what am I going to do? This is just terrible!” You know, kind of like the victim role.
Terri Levine: What I’ve learned, and this really came from studying a lot of coaching techniques and being coached myself, was that anytime there’s contrast and anytime there’s chaos, which is really what life is, that just means something else is going to be born, and I get excited about what’s going to show up next.
Terri Levine: The other thing that I do in taking a positive view is that I really do believe there is somebody out there that’s in control. The universe is in control and Terri Levine isn’t, so I guess the word that comes up for me is trust. I trust that the world is lining up for me. I trust that things are the way they’re supposed to be, and I definitely look for the good in any situation, even when there are setbacks and things go wrong.
Terri Levine: I see what was good, what is good, and I also expect good. So I wait for more good to show up, and I really focus on this one question, which I think you’ve heard me say before, which is “What is working?” Whenever things aren’t quite right, I shift my mental attitude and my self talk and it makes me feel very, very different.
Ralph Zuranski: So you really believe it’s important to be an optimist?
Terri Levine: Absolutely! I think everybody needs to say as much as possible in their heads about what is working and focusing on the positive aspects of every single situation. Even in the worst situations, something did happen that can make you feel good.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to have courage to pursue new ideas? I know a lot of times we get locked in situations with our peer groups and everybody is afraid when you come up with new ideas, and when you strike out in that direction, it kind of scares everybody. Does it really take courage to change your life?
Terri Levine: It takes courage and I think that we all have the courage within us. I think that many people are very fearful of risks, so I like to switch it around and say to people, “Life is an adventure, so pursue all the adventures that are out there, give it a try”.
Terri Levine: And if you think about my philosophy, where you don’t know what day you are checking out, why not go try something new each day, every day? Wake up and go, “I’m still breathing, I’m still kicking”, and go out there and try something.
Terri Levine: And here’s the question that I love, “Really, what is the worst thing that could happen?” Because typically, in our heads we think there is such a big risk, but when you look at it, very often, it’s not the worst thing in the world.
Ralph Zuranski: A lot of the heroes I’ve talked to have talked about the importance of being willing to fail, and by learning through your failures how to make something work. What do you think about that?
Terri Levine: I think that’s absolutely true. I think that anytime you have a failure, or you have a setback, it’s a learning experience. It’s almost like a blessing, and you ask, “What did I learn from that? What did that show me?
Terri Levine: What can I do differently next time?” Everyone that I know that has been super successful in their own business was not successful the first time around, and they didn’t give up.
Terri Levine: They went “Ok” when they looked at it. And some people lost tons of money. They said let me look at that, and let me see what was not quite right there, and now what can I do with it?
Terri Levine: That’s the most important thing versus saying “Woe is me! Poor me, well I’m never doing that again.” Instead, they look at every experience saying what way did I benefit and how can I grow and what do I know for next time?
Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know you experienced a lot of discomfort in pursuit of your dream, how important is it to be willing to accept uncomfortable experiences to achieve your goals?
Terri Levine: I think it is important to recognize it, realize it, but be prepared for it and be willing to go through the pain. I will say to people there are going to be bumps in the road, life is really a whirlwind. There is a lot of chaos.
Terri Levine: When I quit my corporate job, you know I was making a very high 6 figure income and there were certainly great security and perks.
Terri Levine: But I was so serious and so ready to experience a huge change in my life that I said to my family; “Listen, if my coaching business doesn’t take off and I don’t make money, don’t worry. I can get really good at ‘Do you want fries with that?’ ” .
Terri Levine: I was willing to sell my car. I was willing to downsize my home and move into an apartment. I was even willing, if need be, to sleep on the street, and I’m really being serious about that. I had a mission, I had a quest, and I just said to myself, “This is within me and no matter what, I’m going to make it happen.”
Terri Levine: I think that any time we set out on a strong vision, we have to understand there may be some bumps in the road. It’s not going to always be easy and effortless and comfortable.
Terri Levine: But if it’s really your dream, if it’s your burning passion, if it’s your desire, don’t let that hold you back. When it’s not going easy, it’s just a bump in the road.
Ralph Zuranski: I’ve been working on this program for close to 13 years, and you know, some things you have to invest everything you have to make your dreams come true. When you were a young girl and what you told your family your dreams were, how important was it that you believed in your dreams and that they become reality?
Terri Levine: Belief is everything to me. Whatever you believe, whatever you see, whatever you feel, whatever is your dominant vision, your dominant intention, that’s what makes it come to be.
Terri Levine: I know I talked a little bit before about a Technicolor vision. I always saw my vision; I even sort of scripted it. I would write out, I’m going to be on television.
Terri Levine: I’m on TV and they’re interviewing me and I’m selling books. And I also tell people to live as if it were true. For example, I used to play this game when I was a kid. I don’t think I was even 13.
Terri Levine: We’d go to a restaurant or something and I would pretend that I was this famous author. I would sit at the table, very cocky, sort of like everyone knows who I am. It was my own little head game but I was living in my head as if it were true. I believed it, I focused on it, and I intended it to be.
Terri Levine: If you think about the Laws of Attraction, whatever you focus on, like attracts like. There is nothing more critical to me than absolutely believing in your dreams, no matter what, even if there is no sign of them becoming reality. Just keep on believing, keep on visualizing. Thoughts create your reality.
Ralph Zuranski: Well everybody has doubts and fears. I know you can’t wake up on any day and not fear failure, fear problems with health, fear of family, I mean there are so many doubts and fears that assail us on a daily basis. How are you able to overcome the doubts and the fears?
Terri Levine: Another good question. I do a couple things. The first thing I do is I keep an evidence journal, and I’ve been doing this for so many years, probably since I was about 17 years old.
Terri Levine: I look for evidence every day, just the smallest hint that gets me to see what’s positive, and what I call the driftwood, you know the sort of evidence that is there but you miss. So even the smallest thing, it helps me trust more, like maybe it is coming.
Terri Levine: Maybe I can do this. I can give you an example. When I first started out owning an art business and I did my very first art show, everybody had told me I’d make about $300 that night. I made $50.
Terri Levine: And driving home there were the fears, you know, I’m just not good at this and probably in the wrong business. I worked really hard for this, this wasn’t worth it.
Terri Levine: And then I shifted it and said well what was positive? Well my evidence was, ‘hey, it was my first one and I made $50.’ People told me they loved it. Some people wanted me to come to their homes and do it, and I had fun. So that began to give me some more self confidence.
Terri Levine: I will share another tool that I use. I call it bridge belief. It’s actually a technique I use in coaching my clients, too. I list what I currently believe, all the doubts, all the stories, that sort of thing, and then I list what I would like to believe someday.
Terri Levine: I don’t believe it now but might in the future. And then I find the smallest little bridge between the two. So if I was going to say, what do I believe today? I believe that it’s really hard to make money.
Terri Levine: What do I want to believe in the future? Money is just flowing to me. So my bridge might be, well at least, I have some money in my wallet or in my checking account. It just starts to change the belief a little bit, a little bit, a little bit, until the thing that you really want becomes reality.
Ralph Zuranski: You know I think everybody has these questions. Where do the doubts and fears come from? Do you think there is spiritual warfare, or do you think they just come from your non-dominant hemisphere? Or are they just programmed in there from childhood? Where do you think they come from?
Terri Levine: Certainly, I believe a lot of them are programmed in there from childhood and they’re programmed from people who genuinely care and love us.
Terri Levine: Whether it be parents, teachers, mentors, clergy, friends, family, it’s our society. It’s our way of thinking, it’s doubting and fearing. Human beings are afraid of change. Our human brain is where it really comes from.
Terri Levine: Most of our self talk is between 80% and as much as 97% negative based. If we could hear what we’re saying, we’re constantly doubting and challenging and questioning.
Terri Levine: The good news is you can change your brain so that it’s more positively focused and so that it creates more positive thoughts, and therefore, more positive feelings and actions.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, it’s funny that you talk about good news. That’s one of the major purposes of our Heroes Program, and that’s to develop good news and what’s going on around us that is good and uplifting. Why do you think the media focuses so much on fear type events that we have nothing to do with and that we can’t do anything about?
Terri Levine: We’d need a whole hour or two on that one! The media’s role in our society is to create some news, it really is. And what they have found out is that people don’t really think it’s that newsworthy to talk about all the good stuff that’s happening.
Terri Levine: For example, you’ll notice in Philadelphia we have this beautiful sunny day. So there is no interruption on television with people saying, “Hey everyone, it’s a beautiful sunny day.
Terri Levine: Get out there and enjoy it and do something!” But if we had a drop of snow there would be emergency broadcasts. “It’s snowing!” The focus is on what’s not working, what’s broken, what could happen.
Terri Levine: It’s sensationalism, and in my words, that’s a tragedy because if our society spends a lot of time reading newspapers, watching television and being involved in the media hype, they’re programming their brain for negativity.
Terri Levine: It’s going to be a long time until the media changes, but we can change what we listen to and what we watch.
Ralph Zuranski: Do you think it’s pretty much a chicken little, the sky is falling mentality?
Terri Levine: Absolutely!
Ralph Zuranski: That’s kind of scary, isn’t it
Terri Levine: It’s very scary and that’s why I say turn it off. We can all do that, we have remotes, turn it off!
Ralph Zuranski: That’s good advice. Where do you get the willpower in your life to change things for the better?
Terri Levine: I think it just comes from inside of me and comes from my core. I don’t think it came from anything or anybody along my journey. I’m just so filled with desire about my vision and about what I see for the world we currently live in. It’s just inside of me. And I want it so much. That’s where it comes from.
Ralph Zuranski: Forgiveness is a big thing in people’s lives. You can’t go through a day without usually having someone upsetting you or just opposing you. How important is forgiveness, do you feel?
Terri Levine: This is a really personal, deeply touching question for me, because as a younger child and even into my really early teenage years, I would get so upset with anyone that offended me that I would hold a grudge and get a lot of pent up anger. I could just feel it.
Terri Levine: I remember the feelings. I remember it was just a burning in my stomach, and as I grew into an older teenager, and as I grew into an adult, I realized that all of that energy was very draining.
Terri Levine: I believe it’s so important to give over and give up those feelings. We don’t need to drain that much energy, and I prefer that people learn to live life in the present, in this moment.
Terri Levine: Let’s not rehash what happened a minute ago, or what somebody said yesterday. The present is really the gift. So every time I have an experience where someone may upset me or offend me or whatever, I think about how can I learn from this person.
Terri Levine: I also think, well who’s to say that they aren’t right in their opinion? In other words, I can’t judge them as right or wrong.
Terri Levine: And so I take off my judgment robe and just sort of say let me acknowledge the differences. Let me hear who they are, what their views are, what their truths are, what their beliefs are. And understand that’s their stuff, I don’t have to wear it around. I can let it go and I can just move on.
Ralph Zuranski: One of the heroes that the high school students interviewed was Gregory Allen Williams. He was the police officer on Baywatch. And you know, he was a real hero. He risked his life to defend an Asian man that was being beat to death in the intersection, and a Mexican guy stepped in to take the beating that he would have taken when these others were trying to kill the Asian guy.
Ralph Zuranski: So by the help of those three people of totally different races, he was able to help the man and get him to a neighbor who got him to the hospital and he survived.
Ralph Zuranski: Gregory said, “There is a little bit of bad in the best of us and a little bit of good in the worst of us,” and in David Garfinkel’s interview, he said, “Virtually everybody, no matter how bad they are, look at themselves as good.” What do you think about that?
Terri Levine: I think there’s a lot of truth in that. I think in our own brains we program in and justify what we do, and we tend to judge others and we tend to come from our own place of beliefs.
Terri Levine: We believe that what we think is right. It is THE truth. So I do believe that each human individual believes that there is good within.
Terri Levine: My view is that we’re all created from the same DNA and from the same creator.
Terri Levine: So there is good stuff in every single human being. For whatever reason, people sometimes take actions that don’t necessarily show the good in them, and that probably has to do with something not quite right within them. But it doesn’t mean we can label people as good or bad, from my view.
Ralph Zuranski: Well you seem to experience a lot of joy in service to others. How important is serving others as a source of joy for you?
Terri Levine: It’s pure joy. It’s ecstasy anytime that I can help someone, assist someone, love someone, or care for someone, because to me, it’s really the essence of being human. When that stops, to me, life stops.
Ralph Zuranski: In your presentation, one of the things that caused me to recognize you as a hero is that your belief in business and the people who own the business should be trying to help the people that are employees become the best that they can possibly be. Could you share that a little bit with us?
Terri Levine: I really do believe that our goal in life, part of our mission as human beings, is to help other people find their greatness, as we find our own, and help other people see it.
Terri Levine: Coming out of corporate America, one of the things I noticed, which so inspired me to change corporate America, is the philosophy that people should be beaten up and beaten down and told what they did wrong. An employee review is usually, “Let me tell you what you’re doing wrong.”
Terri Levine: So my philosophy, and it is working magically and it’s what we do with my “Stop Managing, Start Coaching” book, is getting out there and saying the people who work for you are good people, there’s greatness in all of them.
Terri Levine: If they’re not performing and they’re not productive and morale is down and they’re taking a lot of sick days, or whatever, it’s you as their manager who isn’t bringing out their greatness.
Terri Levine: And then we teach the managers tools to use to “coach” instead of managing people.
Terri Levine: We look for those with the ability to find the good in people and who can support and encourage that. And as the manager becomes more coach oriented and helps people see their greatness, amazing things happen. We build up the self esteem in the employees.
Terri Levine: You don’t have to talk about productivity after that because they want to be productive and do it on their own. It really should be the way all corporations run, no matter how big or how small.
Ralph Zuranski: Boy, that’s true, and was really revolutionary when I heard that. What really struck a chord in me is that this is what every young person should discover, a company that helps them be the greatest they can be.
Terri Levine: I agree.
Ralph Zuranski: People pray and everybody has different faiths and that can sometimes be a problem when faiths compete against each other. But what is the power of prayer in your life? How has prayer helped you?
Terri Levine: I use prayer in what I’d call a more informal way. I certainly do ask the universe for things, that’s sort of when I script and envision I want this, or I’d like to have this, but I’m not coming from a give me, give me, give me perspective. I’m coming from what else can I do to serve the world, and here’s some tools and things that I might be able to use to help serve the world better.
Terri Levine: And then I’m noticing when things come in, no matter how small they are, and I’m showing gratitude. And I’m also trusting that if what I ask for doesn’t come or hasn’t come yet, it’s as it’s meant to be. I talk to this universal creator, this universal being that’s out there.
Terri Levine: Even when I wrote my first book, yes, I wanted it to be a best seller, and I’m glad it was, but I didn’t want it to be a best seller because I thought that was going to make me famous or make me a lot of money.
Terri Levine: I thought how can I get my book into more people’s hands, because I can’t go around the world and speak to everyone. I can’t coach everyone on the planet, yet I want everyone to be touched by this, because I think they will be.
Terri Levine: So I asked the universe, “How can I get this out there in a bigger way?
Terri Levine: And I got this answer back that was like, “You’ve really got to market it a lot so it can be a best seller, so the rights can be picked up by other countries and be translated.” So if you are constantly looking and coming from serving and being prepared to give as much as you ask for, I believe that’s important, and that’s how prayer weighs into my own life.
Ralph Zuranski: How important is it to maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems because everyone has problems in their lives and a lot of them are serious?
Terri Levine: That’s true. Humor to me is a key; it’s probably a big essence of my life. I learned a skill years ago and that is to think, in any situation, of somebody or something that makes you feel a little humor.
Terri Levine: And my own personal “tool” is Lucille Ball, who is my very favorite comedian of all time. I think she is a hoot, I think she is the funniest.
Terri Levine: Anytime there is adversity and I want to find the humor in it, I sort of put the head of Lucille Ball on my head and I start to think like her. My favorite scene is the chocolate factory and I try to think, how can I see the humor in this situation?
Terri Levine: The other thing I do is step away from it and get myself out of it. I kind of say, what if this was a movie, a comedy, how would the writer/director find the comedy within the movie, and that really works.
Terri Levine: Though a lot of times, and my husband always laughs about this, we’ll be in the middle… like today.
Terri Levine: “I’ll give you a true life example. We are selling a home that we’ve owned and now we have ‘sold the home three times in three weeks’ and every single transaction has fallen apart within the 3 day attorney review.
Terri Levine: So my husband calls up this morning and says, ‘You won’t believe it, this one person…’ and I could just hear how pent up he was. I was making my silly jokes and I put Lucille’s head right on, and he’s like, “I can’t believe you’re finding humor in this.”
Terri Levine: And within about 3 minutes into our conversation he was beginning to laugh and we started to brainstorm so that the next transaction holds. That’s how I use it. Don’t tell my husband, Mark, though!”
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you feel are the real heroes in our society today that aren’t getting the recognition they deserve?
Terri Levine: Well I’m going to start with the folks that are still the real heroes to me, because as time passes since 9/11, we’re sort of forgetting. But certainly the 9/11 heroes, and I’m not just talking about the firefighters that took action, but I’m talking about every single person who gave, who went, who expressed, who loved.
Terri Levine: There were coaches offering free coaching around the world, just for example. There were people setting up different gift banks, different food banks to help the families that mourned loss.
Terri Levine: I also think that some of our heroes today are where ever we have troops, which is in so many areas. And just look at our own country with our own protection here in the US.
Terri Levine: And then I want to look at the people that don’t get recognized, because I think there are so many people making society a better place.
Terri Levine: I mean there’s everybody from poets, to artists, to lifesavers, on a smaller scale. Think about when you go to a pool, you’ve got a lifeguard. People who are creating peace, and scientists. I read an article yesterday about stem cell research and they really think it is going to be the answer for Alzheimer’s.
Terri Levine: Teachers are underpaid, in my view, for the awesome, incredible work they do. We’ve got people in sports, we’ve got writers, movie characters, and characters in books that inspire us and create a desire within us. Our own families. Business changers, people who are really changing the way corporations think.
Terri Levine: People who take care of the earth and make the earth greener or better. I have tons of respect and admiration for what astronauts have done and what they do and then what I call angels.
Terri Levine: We’ve all had them in our experience; just the person who shows up and they help you for no reason whatsoever. It’s like you can’t quite figure it out, but out of nowhere they just offer you help and assistance… they’re heroes.
Ralph Zuranski: And do you think that some of those angels that do show up are supernatural beings?
Terri Levine: I always wonder that. I’ll share this experience with you. Many years ago, I was traveling by train and I got off the train and I was in Boston. I was totally confused as to where I was supposed to go and I was going on a very important job interview.
Terri Levine: I had 30 minutes to get there and I was getting quite panicked. I was unfamiliar with the city and there was no one around to ask .You know everyone gets off the train and they sort of just run to where they’re going.
Terri Levine: And I’m thinking I have half an hour, I don’t know what to do; I don’t know where the busses are or how to get a cab.
Terri Levine: Then out of the blue, and I have no idea where he came from, a young man probably 20 or 21 years old said, “You look lost, can I help you?”
Terri Levine: And I told him. And he said, let me just walk you one block, that’s exactly where you’re going, you’re only a block away and I’ll show you. And he walked with me and as I got to the door of this place and I turned around to thank him the young man was gone.
Terri Levine: That has stayed with me for so long, and it happened about 15 years ago.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are heroes so important in the lives of young people?
Terri Levine: They’re important because everyone needs a role model. We need someone to aspire to, we need to see the good, because as we talked about earlier, the press is so wonderful, showing us the bad and the evil, we need to see the good.
Terri Levine: We need to have the young people grow up and get excited and learn to be caring, passionate and giving people, who have high morals and who are inspirational.
Terri Levine: The best way, and the only way I know of for people to get that is to start when they’re young. Let them have these heroes to learn from, aspire to be, study the traits of, get excited about. They will turn into such incredible, extraordinary human beings as they follow heroes.
Ralph Zuranski: One of the heroes interviewed, Tony Marino, thought that parents had such an impact on the lives of their kids and it would be one of the greatest things in the world that would create peace and happiness if parents would spend more time with their kids.
Terri Levine: Not only time, in my view, but it really is quality of time. I think we’ve gotten away from that. If you go back to the 1950’s it was real family stuff. There weren’t a hundred cable channels; people didn’t watch a lot of TV. Life was different, the pace was slower.
Terri Levine: We weren’t working so many jobs. And back then, there was a stay at home person. We had time to have a meal together, time to just talk.
Terri Levine: I think if parents not only find time to spend with their children but truly communicate with them and make that time learning, getting to know you, helping them vision, helping them find heroes, having great conversations, we would be creating more and more not only extraordinary children, but more extraordinary experiences for our planet.
Ralph Zuranski: Well Terri, I really appreciate your time and I was wondering if you had any final comment you’d like to make.
Terri Levine: Well first of all, I’m delighted to be here, so I want to thank you because I really believe that if people could understand and really get away from focusing on what’s not right in the world, and focus on the great things, focus on the potential people have and the greatness, we’ll all enjoy a better life experience.
Terri Levine: And if our young people can get out there in our community and do some service, it can be something really small, maybe planting a community garden or walking the dog of an elderly person,
Terri Levine: I just think we can change the planet one thing, one day at a time. And as our young folks begin to do this they’ll enhance their self esteem, they’ll see what an impact they make on the planet and it will just be a different experience as we go forward as a human race.
Terri Levine: So I want to thank you for doing the work that you do. It’s important, it’s extraordinary, and you are a hero as well.
Ralph Zuranski: Thank you, Terri, I really appreciate that compliment.
Terri Levine: It’s something that I’ve been working on for a long time and I felt that if we didn’t start doing something now, the world would not be a better place in the future, especially for the young people.
Terri Levine: And I just thank you for the work that you’re doing and helping to bring out the greatness in every person no matter what age they are.
Terri Levine: Same to you and it really was my pleasure. Thanks again Ralph.
Terri Levine, The Business Mentoring Expert SM, specializes in helping business owners achieve record-breaking growth. Based in Philadelphia, Terri is the founder and CEO of The Coaching Institute, one of the top coach training programs in the United States. She has been featured on ABC, NBC, CNBC and MSNBC, and in more than 1,500 publications. She is the bestselling author of Sell Without Selling, Coaching Is for Everyone and Stop Managing, Start Coaching. With over 10 books in print, her new book, Guerrilla Marketing for Spas, was just released and has also hit the best seller list. Learn more at http://www.TerriLevine.com. Contact Terri at terri@terrilevine.com.
Broadcast BIO: Terri Levine (SAY Luh-VEEN) is a national business mentoring expert based in Philadelphia. She is founder and CEO of The Coaching Institute, one of the top coach training programs in the United States, and she is bestselling author of Sell Without Selling, Coaching Is for Everyone and Stop Managing, Start Coaching. With over 10 books in print, her new book, Guerrilla Marketing for Spas, was just released. She specializes in mentoring service-oriented businesses of all sizes. Learn more at www.TerriLevine.com. Welcome, Terri. What are some of the biggest challenges facing businesses today?
Full BIO: Best-selling author, Terri Levine, is known as The Business Mentoring Expert SM. She specializes in mentoring service-oriented businesses of all sizes to achieve record-breaking growth. Terri is the founder and CEO of The Coaching Institute, one of the top coach training programs in the United States. Her approach is to use comprehensive coaching principles to mentor entrepreneurs and to teach low cost and no cost marketing strategies so they can experience greater business, financial and personal success.
Terri has owned multiple successful businesses in various industries, the first of which she started at age 22. An expert in consulting, coaching, advising, training and all aspects mentoring, she takes a comprehensive and individual look at the sales, marketing operations and even the owner’s mindset in each business she works with to find hidden income opportunities, to unlock new sources of revenue and to create massive profits. With three decades of experience, Terri has helped more than 5,000 business owners in 239 industries boost their businesses to success.
Based in the Philadelphia metro area, she focuses her expertise to help businesses, large and small, across the United States get more customers, make more profits and gain more free time. Her clients include service professionals, such as chiropractors, dentists, mortgage brokers, real estate agents, financial planners, attorneys, consultants, coaches, personal trainers, dietitians, massage therapists, spa owners, psychiatrists, speakers, authors, florists and restaurant owners. Her passion is in helping entrepreneurs who are “stuck” to break through to higher levels of income.
As a keynote speaker, Terri has taught hundreds of thousands of people through her high-content, memorable, and motivational speeches. Each year, she speaks at more than a dozen high-profile seminars and events around the world. Terri holds a Ph.D. in Organizational Behavior and is a Master Consultant and a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Trainer & Coach. She is an author with over 10 books in print, including several best sellers: Sell Without Selling, Coaching Is for Everyone, and Stop Managing, Start Coaching. Her new book, Guerrilla Marketing for Spas, was co-written with best-selling author Jay Conrad Levinson and has also hit the best seller list.
Terri has been featured on ABC, NBC, MSNBC and in more than 1,500 publications. When she isn’t coaching, training, speaking, or writing, Terri loves to race Formula Dodge cars. Learn more at www.TerriLevine.com.