How are you doing today, Willie?
Willie Crawford: I’m doing great Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: Could you perhaps explain to the people that are listening a little bit about your life and how you got to the position where you’re at now as one of the leaders in the internet industry.
Willie Crawford: Absolutely. I was in the military, I don’t know ten years ago, fifteen years ago and after college I knew I wanted to start my own business. But I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do, so I went into the military for what I thought was going to be just a few years but I ended up spending a career in the military.
While I was in the military, I discovered the internet I was in a job in Hawaii where I was allowed to surf the internet, and I discovered that there’s a whole world of opportunity out there. And so I started an online business.
The first person I stumbled upon was Jim Daniel’s and I started reading his newsletter, liked it, and subscribed to about a 100 others.
I printed all these newsletters out and I was an air crew member and when I was out flying around I was reading these printed out copies of newsletters, and seen what all these people had to say, all these people and this was 96 or so.
In late 96 or early 97 I was reading what all these people had to say and they were teaching me how to start and online business. And so what I did was I went ahead and I started a business. I started a business teaching people how to make money on the internet before I really had learned how to do it myself really.
Which is not a good thing to do. It is a good thing to do if you can find the nuggets, if you can find what actually works and share, that with people, which is an ability I have now. But what I do is I teach people how to start businesses on the internet.
And I have this passion for making sure people know the truth and that they know what really works as far as starting a business. So I give my role is life I guess, as sharing with them what really works as far as starting a business on the internet and building your dream.
I don’t believe in toying with people’s dreams. I know that there are people who spend their last couple of dollars you know to buy a course or a product and set up a website and try to get started on the internet.
And I did that back in late 96 early 97 I was told you need to find a niche, to follow a passion. I knew nothing, so I set up a site with a cooking site. People told me I needed to write a cookbook and they’d buy it so I did and they did and it makes I don’t know probably $300,000.00 a year this year from just a simple cookbook I did in Microsoft Word.
You know just a list of recipes, write them out. No pictures in the first edition, the second edition I had few more pictures, the third edition a few more pictures. And it took off from there.
I was online on discussion forums and things like that talking about marketing. People noticed me and all of a sudden I was sucked into the arena of internet marketing speaker.
The very first seminar I ever attended I spoke at. That was Bob Silver’s seminar down in the Florida Keys in 2002, December 2002.
And so I’ve been a guru if you will from the beginning. But it’s my ability to sift through all the fluff and see what really works.
I have a background my college degree is in economics but I grew up on farm extremely poor on welfare most of my youth. I was in the eleventh grade before I even met the guidance counselor at school who noticed my grades were fairly decent. But noticed also that nobody in my neighborhood went to college.
And so she discussed college with me. I looked at three colleges. I applied to all three that I thought were interesting and they all accepted me.
I went to the only one that I ever visited, which was North Carolina State University, which was near the… which was the one that hosted the state fair every year. It was like near the fair grounds and so it was the only one I had ever even seen the campus of. I went there and got a degree in economics, and went into the military for twenty years.
And then traveled the world and after that decided I wanted to start my own business. And some of my passion and what I do is that I teach people how to start their own online business. And I point out to them you know all the booby traps along the way.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah boy there sure are a lot of them aren’t there?
Willie Crawford: There are a lot of them. I mean so many people sold a package of goods and they come to me with things they bought at seminars, things they bought online and they’re ready to run with something that they think is going to make them a million dollars.
And I have to say what you bought is something that’s available for free online. And it’s not going to do it for you. That you need to step back and start over again and that’s not a very pleasant thing to do but it’s my job to keep them from wasting their time you know.
If I know that something is not going to, probably not going to work, I mean I don’t know everything so but I can look at something and say you bought something that people aren’t going to pay for.
Ralph Zuranski: Well you know that’s so true. That’s probably the hardest thing in the world is to tell people the truth about the money that they’ve invested. And the path that they’re going down is not the one that is going to get them to where they want to go.
That they bought into the hype that a lot of the people that are selling from the platform use to basically rip the dollars out of the attendee’s pockets and put it in their own without really offering much value or much follow through.
Willie Crawford: Right.
Ralph Zuranski: It is kind of a sad situation isn’t it?
Willie Crawford: It is. I mean you know I attend probably an average of a seminar a month or maybe two some months. And I’m sitting in the back of the room and I’m watching the speakers and I’m learning from the speakers. I learn from every speaker in the room. I also learn from all the attendees that I talk too.
But I’m setting there and I’m evaluating the process the psychological process and sales process, and most people I meet on these seminar circuits are completely ethical and I run across a couple every now that I’m thinking you’re not going to sell somebody that you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah
Willie Crawford: But they do, and my job is to. People trust me, people trust me and that amazes me. I’ve been online for over ten years now and people come to me, people call me on the phone and say I want your package and I go what package and they say well whatever you’re selling.
And I’ve had you know Doctors, Lawyers, and Dentist call me and give me their credit card number and say just send me whatever you have. And that is such a mind blowing experience that people trust you to that degree. And I work very hard at deserving that trust.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well you know why that is? I think the reason why it is, is that you take the time to listen to people. You’re in the backroom you’re meeting people I know and I shared part of this convention with you and hung out with you at the Yanik’s Underground Online Marketing Seminar. I was amazed at how you weren’t puffed up, you spent a lot of time just talking to people that were attendees, and answered so many questions for free. I mean that is a rare quality.
Willie Crawford: Well and I understand the experts who aren’t as accessible is because there is only one of you and you can only do so much. And that is one of my flaws actually, is that you can go to any of my websites right now and my phone number is listed on it and if you dial that number there’s a chance I will answer the phone. That cuts into my productivity.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah but it doesn’t’ cut into your humanity. Which I think is the thing that people are looking for is they’re looking for a real human being that they can talk to that actually cares about them and wants to offer them the best value that they can get for the money that they have to invest.
Willie Crawford: Well they want to know there’s a real person on the other end of the website. They want to you know when they dial the number they just want to know that somebody is really there.
And when you answer your own phone which is not… I mean you mentioned Yanik’s Underground seminar most of those people speaking outsource things like customer service and but the thing about my outsourcing its my wife doing it.
Ralph Zuranski: Laughter
Willie Crawford: But I answer my own phone. And that’s not the way to make you know ten million a year.
Ralph Zuranski: Sure.
Willie Crawford: I’ll make over two million this year.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: But I won’t make ten unless I start outsourcing more and unless I get an answering service and stop answering my own phone, and get somebody to process my own emails and things like that.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well I know you shared the room because my other roommate had to leave early.
Willie Crawford: Right.
Ralph Zuranski: I was amazed at how late up at night you stayed and answering emails and stuff it was just incredible I thought gee does Willie ever get any sleep.
Willie Crawford: If you were on instant messenger with any with most of the guru’s, you see a lot of them are up at two or three in the morning because that’s when the phone stops ringing and that’s when you can get the most done. That’s when I can focus the most is like I’m often up at two or three o’clock in the morning.
And again it shocked me that others will see me online and they’ll IM me or whatever and say what are you doing up so late. But it’s just I have complete control of my time.
I work 100% from the internet. And I choose when I get up, when I work and everything. And so if I want to work at 3:00 in the morning and then sleep late or go fishing during the day then I can.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well that’s really amazing. You have been to a lot of conventions you’ve been all over the world. I’m sure that you’ve met quiet a few people that you considered heroes.
What is your definition of heroism?
Willie Crawford: Because I’m a soldier and old soldier who spend twenty years in the military my definition is probably different from most.
But my definition of heroism, is someone who puts the interest of others ahead of their own interest. They do what needs to be done in the face of adversity. They know that they can be harmed.
They know that they won’t necessarily get the immediate benefit of it but they do it anyway because they think it’s for the better good of society, and for the culture or the country as a whole.
You know whether it’s a fireman that rushes into a burning building knowing he could… that the building could collapse around him or soldier who would rather be at home with his family you know his new born baby but is off on some battlefield risking his life.
Or a teacher at some inner-city school teaching and knowing that there’s a possibility that kids in this classroom have guns in their nap sacks or whatever.
And that there are teenagers going through all of these chemical changes that they go through in adolescence and that they’re all wired and everything, and anyone of them could go off at them at any minute. Yet that teacher spends the time and energy to really care for those kids, and push them in the direction that they need to go.
So it’s someone who puts the interest of others ahead of their own interests ahead of their own immediate interests. That is my definition of a hero.
Ralph Zuranski: You know you had a pretty rough up bringing living on a farm and being on welfare most of the time. I know I had a pretty tough time growing up to and I was wondering did you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped you deal with life’s difficulties?
Willie Crawford: That’s a good question you know, I didn’t have any real heroes per se. My heroes were books. I have a biography I’ve written called “Git Off The Porch” and its at my website at GitOffThePorch.com, and in that biography I explain that as I looked around me when I was growing up, all the people that I knew were smoking pot or doing cocaine or whatever.
And every spare penny they had was used to escape from reality and so they… they didn’t set a good example for me. I knew no people who were successful in business. I knew no people who were really good role models. Except for a few schoolteachers who reached out to me.
And so my Grandmother bought a set of World Book Encyclopedia’s when I was probably ten or twelve and that was probably the greatest gift that she could have given me. I grew up with my Grandmother. My Mother and Father separated and my when I was about three.
My Mother went to New England where the jobs were better than in the South. And she had custody of the three younger sons and my father had custody of the two older children and he was in the military still traveling the world. Remarried four other times after that and my mother left me and my two younger brothers on the farm with my Grandmother.
And she bought a set of World Book Encyclopedia and I read every volume of that set of Encyclopedia including the reference guides and things like that.
And I also at fourteen started my own mail order business. I had a bulk mailing permit. I did what was called big mails where you send out a package of circulars, just like online you send out your newsletter. Well I had a bulk mailing permit and people sent me their circulars and I mailed them out to people.
And I discovered somewhere in there that you could buy and resell books and people would send me like you know 500 books and I’d run an advertisement and resell these books.
And I discovered some really, really great books and that is where I learned that there were bigger worlds out there. I discovered in books that there were people who you know who made millions.
And who you know didn’t fall asleep worrying about the fuel oil running out at night and wake up in the morning you know when it’s freezing cold and you have no kerosene left and so your house is cold which we did many times.
So my heroes were books. That is where I learned about the bigger world and where I learned to dream. And to decide I was going to be a part of that bigger part of the world. I read books and I also listened to audiotapes, Earl Nightingale and people like that so.
Ralph Zuranski: Well what is your prospective on goodness, ethics and moral behavior?
Willie Crawford: And you haven’t had a chance to read my biography, If you read my biography you’ll learn that one of the struggles I went through was an addiction. It’s the most common addiction in the world, which is an alcohol addiction.
And so I had to go through counseling and when I went through that counseling at the expense of the military, they spent about $28,000.00 to recycle me if you will. I learned a lot about myself.
And I learned that a big part of the big problem with most of us is that we are not comfortable with who we are. And that we’ve somehow gotten out of kilter, and that it’s we need to reconnect with our higher power with a God of our own definition. That’s somebody that we feel comfortable with, somebody to me you know God’s a caring individual that loves me as I love my children.
And then we have to define our own world. For me ethics, morality and all those things are doing the right things. It’s looking at a situation and doing what I know is right. It’s doing the next right thing. It’s you know doing the right thing, it’s doing what would make me feel good if I knew no one was looking.
And so no matter what I’m involved in, and I’m involved in internet marketing, I get approached with a lot of deals that have the potential to make me 10, 20, $50,000.00, I turn a lot of those down because I look at the impact that’s it’s going to have on other people.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: And I say no I can’t do that, for various reasons. But for me I have to feel good about what I do. The only person that really throws out of kilter if I were to do some of those things that I consider unethical would be and no one would know about it. But I cannot afford to have myself feel out of kilter or imbalanced.
So because of experiences that I’ve been through, because of training I’ve been through, counseling I’ve been through where I’ve been taught that you do the right thing.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: It’s just who and what I am you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well you’ve been a soldier and there’s always that question of what is a person willing to sacrifice their life for. What would you sacrifice your life for Willie?
Willie Crawford: I’ve often thought of that you know. I could be in a fast food restaurant where there was a hold up and I would sacrifice my life for the person standing next to me you know.
Its… its crazy because I have no desire to die, but I view… my world is different than a lot of people’s. You know so I’m willing to sacrifice my life for the person just standing next to me in line, especially if that person hasn’t lived as long as I have.
I look at the world and I look at humanity and I look at you know people that lived a thousand years before me and people that will live a thousand years after me and I see us all as one. I see us all as a continuum of that flow of energy and of genes you know.
It’s I don’t know, I probably getting to far out there but I look at the fact that right now I share the genes of somebody who lived 5,000 years before me. And 5,000 years in the future somebody else will probably have my genes and so I will continue to be there, whether I’m there or not. And so I have no fear of death and I would risk my life for anyone really.
You know I could be put in a hold up situation, I could be put in a situation where I would desire to die, I would hope that in the face of danger I could somehow pull through you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: But I would risk my life for someone who was afraid you know to say in a hold up situation, I would step in and try to talk the holdup person out of harming them. It’s just me, it’s just I guess its my faith knows that even if I’m killed its not the end. So I don’t fear death.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, yeah.
Willie Crawford: And so but I was also trained as a soldier just step up and die. You know they were soldiers in previous wars who… I flew airplanes they knew that when they went on a mission that 80% of them would not return. They knew that, statistically they knew that and they did it anyway.
And I talked to people who were commanders who would look at their 18 to 20 year old troops, and know that 80% of them would not return. And had to say to them ok go to your job, which is you know these were their children you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: And that was so in grained me that to me risk is, I have very… a very high threshold for risk which is good in business. Because I was trained by my mentor that you’re going to make mistakes, and so you get the mistakes out of the way.
I was trained that you’re going to fail and that you will learn from your failures. So you don’t fear those but you get them out of the way.
I was trained fail fast. If you know you’re going to fail you know go ahead and get it out of the way so you can find the successes.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well isn’t that true.
Willie Crawford: You know that almost every major successful author out of every three books they’ve published that two were complete flops.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: If they knew that, why not get those flops out of the way so they can go ahead and get that successful book done. And so I was trained to just go ahead and do it. Knowing that I mean most people when they look at internet marketers in particular and they look at the big successes they don’t know that these guys had failures.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Yeah.
Willie Crawford: But they did. And now their successes over shadow those failures. But you know, I don’t fear failure I just do it.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah well you know that is so true that everybody thinks that when they get their first project done that its going to be an incredible success.
But don’t even know that the majority of the people, the reason why they are so successful is they failed so many more times than anybody else that isn’t quiet as successful as that. It’s called failing forward.
The faster you fail, the more you’re going to find out what doesn’t work and what does work and the faster you’re going to become a success.
Willie Crawford: Right the whole key is learning from your failures. Dan Kennedy is one of my favorite copywriters and my favorite mentors. I spend thousands of dollars every year with Dan.
And when he was in the infomercial business, I think it was like one out of every eight infomercials that he did was a complete flop. Did the one pay for the eight failures? But it wasn’t looked, as a failure it was looked at as ok we discovered this didn’t work.
You know if it was the same company paying for those you know the one success and all the other failures it wasn’t bad but if it was different companies paying for the failures then that was bad.
But marketing is all about testing and you can’t just look at it as failure you look at it as learning experiences.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah and I think probably you would agree that the most important thing in the world is to actually do something and create a product.
So many people spend their lives spending thousands and thousands of dollars every month just going to the seminars, buying all the courses and never producing one product or taking the good advice that the majority of the speakers give them.
Willie Crawford: Most people set in the back of the room and they make notes and they plan they buy things they go home and they stick it on a shelf and the speakers can’t control what their customer’s do with what they buy.
So you I guess grow a little callous as far as; well they’re not going to do anything that’s not my fault but it’s all about action.
I mentioned earlier I’ve gone through some counseling. One of my counselors said to me, she said; Willie she said nothing happens until you change. It’s all about change and it’s all about action.
This is March and on January 2nd, I produced my first info product this year. I sat down and spent about four hours writing out an ebook that was 24 pages that I sold for $29.00. It has already made my $15 grand. I’m on my this is March I’m on my fifth product this year already.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s great.
Willie Crawford: And I’ve already made March, I’ve already made about 300 grand this year.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well that’s sweet.
Willie Crawford: Yeah, I mean part of that that’s skewed because I did a fire sale that it made about $27,000 in a day. But that’s all about action you see.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: Again I look at Mike Filsaime was selling his Butterfly Marketing program, and when I went through it I said everybody and his brother is going to do a fire sale now. And I said I need to do one early. And I’m sure I was one of the first people to do one.
And I rolled it out, I didn’t give my partners enough time to plan for it. I just said… I was at Ken McArthur’s JV Alert live seminar in Orlando and I said I’m going to do this starting on Friday of next week. And I said to the people in the room I’ll let you in first. I offered it at the back of room product for like $47.00 and I didn’t even have the products together yet.
I went back home and planned it, put the website together, there were some glitches there with the scripts that were suppose to go in the backend of the show. And while others were making excuses and hemming and hawing I said I’m not going to delay it I am going to do it. And so I just, I had to make some changes.
I had to email my partners and say you know this changes the backend that pays you, that manages the affiliate program some of that stuff has changed because there’s problems with the scripts. But I am still going to do it on time.
And we rolled it out and my first day was $27,000.00, my second day was $21,000.00 and my third day was $18.000.00 and there’s people in my part of Florida don’t make $80,000.00 in a year.
Well maybe they do, but that’s poverty level, but nobody makes $21,000.00 a day or $28,000.00 a day. But I did you know. And that’s just my friend Joe Vitale, he wrote in one of his books he says money aligns people that act fast.
And that is all I picked up from that book. I think that was the attraction factor, I’m not sure. But I make a decision and I do it.
Ralph Zuranski: Well that is amazing you’re experiencing some incredible success in your life now. A lot of people don’t realize that everybody has low points in their lives. In fact life is like a roller coaster. When was the lowest point in your life and how did you change your life path to win a victory over all obstacles?
Willie Crawford: I want anyone listening to this call to go to GitOffThePorch.com and read my biography. I talk about getting up one morning, walking into the shower, taking a shower and in the middle of the shower collapsing. And I made such a thunderous noise that my wife rushed into the bathroom and I’m lying in the shower dying. I’m convinced I was dying at that time.
And she yells and screams at me don’t you do this, don’t you leave me. And she yelled and she screamed so much that there was a part of me that thought you know, I’m tired, I’m very tired. At that point I’d probably been drunk for like six months every single day.
Ralph Zuranski: Really.
Willie Crawford: I was a functional walking drunk. I would go to work and do my job and drive back and forth, and I could function perfectly normal but my body had said you completely overwhelm me, I’m tired and I’m lying on the floor of a shower with the water flowing and the room is going dark.
And it was my wife’s yelling and screaming don’t you leave me, don’t you do this to me. That I guess pulled me out of it enough to where she helped me out of the shower, and I sat down on the toilet lid and got dressed and they took me to the hospital where they sent me into treatment for alcohol addiction at the time.
A third of my blood was alcohol.
Ralph Zuranski: Really.
Willie Crawford: It was in excess of .35 I think it was.
Ralph Zuranski: Oh man.
Willie Crawford: It should have poisoned my brain enough where my brain should have stopped working you know. But and so they sent me to a 28 day treatment program, and that was the low point of my life. It was the weeks leading up to that I had done a number of crazy things.
I spent three years in Alaska where I was assigned as a soldier and when you go out fishing, or in the wilderness in Alaska you can look behind you and see a bear or a wolf or a badger or some other creature that wants to hurt you.
And so I carried a 44 Magnum pistol with bare rounds and these rounds were powerful enough, where somebody can drive at you with a car and you can shoot through the radiator into the engine block of a car with a 44 Magnum and stop that car.
Ralph Zuranski: Wow.
Willie Crawford: That is how powerful that pistol was. I went from Alaska to Florida with the military, I brought my pistol along, and at my lowest point I actually considered suicide. And I can remember being out drunk and thinking I’ve lost control. I’m a control freak.
A lightening told myself, my life, everything and I thought to myself I’ve lost control. And I thought ah I’m going to end it all. And I actually stuck my gun to my head and cocked it and then I thought I don’t want to die alone I want somebody to hold me in their arms as I die. That is what stopped me from shooting myself.
I just didn’t want to be out by myself in the middle of nowhere with no one appreciating the fact that I was killing myself.
Ralph Zuranski: Wow.
Willie Crawford: I wanted to be touched by another human being as I died. That was the lowest part probably in my life you know.
And many people go through that and it’s important for those people to realize that it’s ok to be that way. But you need to reach out to others and let them know that you’re struggling because there’s people who are there to help you.
And people helped me. And you know I turned around. But that was a low point in my life. I was on the verge of taking my own life at one point. I collapsed in the shower and was on the verge of my body just saying ok we give up. You’ve abused me too much and I came back and at that point I was making over $100,000.00 a year on the internet.
You know things have turned around enough now where its seven figures and it happened and when the momentum kicks in it’s just amazing. Just totally amazing. It’s mind boggling.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, boy that is amazing to get to that point where you’re ready to take your own life. I know I was at that same point and even though I had money and sex and drugs there was just no happiness there.
Willie Crawford: Yeah, yeah. For me it’s all about serenity. It’s all about being at peace and at ease and comfortable with your role in the world. And if you’re not happy with where you are and with who you are, then you know something is out of kilter, but you need to find that balance because otherwise life is just not worth living to you.
And serenity is very important to me. Peace and happiness is very important to me. I mean I live in northwest Florida where I can get up any day and just go out go fishing whatever, and as long as there is no hurricanes, I can just go out and go fishing I can be out in the middle of the ocean.
The ocean is the most peaceful place in the world. I mean it puts me in touch with my tiny place in the world, because I am just one little tiny speck in, you know a dot in the universe.
And you can go out and look down in the ocean and see a school of a million fish and you realize how vast things are. And if you look on your depth finder and you see the ocean that… spots like five miles deep you know which is incredible.
You realize that if you fell overboard you would never reach the bottom, because the water the pressure and the things change you would sink slower and slower and slower and you’d never reach the bottom. That’s just incredible.
But you know I’m all about serenity, I’m all about being happy with what I do and I when I was in the military I’d wake up everyday I’d look at the television and there was the news on and everyday there’s a conflict in the world. Theirs like 35 wars going on in the world right now whether most people think about it or not. I mean Korea has been at war since the 50’s.
They are still technically at war. You know the north against the south. And there is about 35 wars going on in the world. And as a soldier I would look on the television and say where am I going to be tonight. And as an aircrew member who delivered special forces and soldiers that did ??? and things like that and things like that behind the lines.
I didn’t know and there came a point where I just said I’m tired of this and I want to experience some of my children’s birthdays and just be more in control of where I am at the end of the day.
And that is when I decided I was going to leave the military and when I decided I was going to go ahead and build my own business and make it a success, you see failure was never an option for me.
It was; you will build a successful business and you will make over a million dollars a year from your successful business. It was never an option that I could do anything other than that.
Ralph Zuranski: Well how important Willie is it to have a dream or a vision that sets the course of your life?
Willie Crawford: Its extremely important. It’s everything. Its you have to believe that you can achieve that dream, but if you don’t have that dream you’ll settle for where you are, you’ll settle for where you are.
And that’s very sad, because I deal with people on line everyday who are stuck in jobs they hate. Who are… whose family situation is not where they’d like it to be. And they are willing to settle for it. I’m not willing to settle.
But not only that… I traveled to over 40 countries in the military, and I saw what was possible.
I went to Panama for example, there were multi-million dollar condo’s and right next to them were tin sheds of homeless people who just pitched a shed next to the side of the building. So I saw extreme wealth and extreme poverty. So I knew what was possible. I know what’s possible.
And then it’s a matter of knowing that you can… can achieve you know the high end of that spectrum. And it was just… I set a goal for myself, I set many goals for myself, but and I take action on those goals. But I refuse to believe that I can do anything other than the high end of that spectrum.
And a part of that is also a philosophy of that’s ok to achieve a lot of things, to have wealth. My grandmother who I grew up in this Southern Baptist church she had fifteen brothers and sisters. Her father built the church and I grew up thinking money was bad. She would say to us as youth money is the root of all evil.
Which is not what the Bible says, it says the love of money is the root of all evil, because if you put that ahead of caring about others and things like that, that is bad.
Having money is not bad. I had to relearn that. I had to learn that it was ok to have money. That money lets you do things that you couldn’t otherwise do. You can spend money on things that you care about.
But only if you have it. So money is not bad. And I had to relearn that though. And now I have learned that… you know I clearly envision myself someday making ten, twenty, thirty million dollars a year.
But I’ll spend it on things that I care about. Cancer research, whatever, but money itself is not evil. You know it’s just a tool, it’s just a tool.
Ralph Zuranski: Well you know it’s important to have a positive view of setbacks of misfortunes and mistakes. And it sounds like you’ve derived at that position where that is your belief. How important has that been in your life of taking a positive view of setbacks, misfortunes and mistakes?
Willie Crawford: It’s extremely important. It’s I was stepped through a process of forgiving myself for the mistakes I made. I’ve made many mistakes in my life. Done wrong to other people. I was taught that you cannot undo those mistakes you can go back and apologize for those mistakes and people may or may not forgive you and that’s ok either way. You have to let go of it.
I’m only in control of myself and even then only to a certain extent. I learned a long time ago I’m not even in control of myself. And so I can only control what I do at a given moment in time.
My belief system is that I can do anything and I… there is this saying that we call it the serenity prayer. Which is like God grant me the serenity to accept the things that I cannot change, change the things that I cannot find, I actually lost that.
Ralph Zuranski: Change the things that I can, and know the difference between the two.
Willie Crawford: There you go, there you go. So if I look at something and I can change it and it needs to be changed I’ll do it. But if I look at something and I have two beautiful daughters. My wife is from the Philippines and I’m African American. So my daughters have this jet-black hair, its straight, they are the ideal of many cultures.
I mean you as a white person you want to get a tan or whatever sometime. Well they’ve got the tan, they’ve got the straight hair that I wanted and they are in the middle.
And I as they were growing up I looked at all the young suitors they had and wanted to chase them off but couldn’t and I learned some things are out of your control you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah. Yeah.
Willie Crawford: You just go with the flow and if you can’t change it you don’t worry about it. So I’m at peace with myself and with the world right now and that is a very good place to be.
Ralph Zuranski: Well I guess so, well how important is optimism in achieving that peace?
Willie Crawford: Apart of me is all so about energy management and not allowing myself to be influenced too much be negative people and negative things. And so I’m a very optimistic person.
Again I see myself as making millions of dollars not just to have it because money is just an instrument, it’s just a piece of paper well actually 94% of the worlds money is zero’s and one’s in a computer system.
But to go from welfare, to go from being on government assistance so poor that I woke up one point in my life and I’m ready to school and my school’s the bottom is falling off and my grandmother says well here honey wear my shoes to school.
And I’m like I can’t wear my grandmother’s shoes to school. And she is like you can, so I put on my grandmother’s shoes. These shoes were like nurse’s shoes with thick bottoms because she was a diabetic and she had to have her feet comfortable. And
And I wore those shoes to school and the only people who mentioned it and gave me a hard time were cousins, because they were embarrassed that I was wearing as a teenager, a grandmother’s shoes. But I had no choice.
And so I could have missed school until the next check arrived, the next welfare check and we could have gone to the local department store and bought another pair of shoes but I didn’t, I just wore them to school.
And so that was such a lesson for me in life, and just… and not letting what others say or do or think impact you too much. When I was in college I studied sociology.
Ralph Zuranski: I did too.
Willie Crawford: Yeah I studied why we do what we do. And how we’re impacted by other people’s opinions. I am not influenced by other people’s opinions right now.
It’s good that I didn’t learn what I know now when I was younger. Because I can set on the airplane and look across the aisle at the most… I don’t know the most beautiful lady in the world and you know strike up a conversation and feel completely at ease and feel like she’s more ill at ease than I am.
I can look at a ninety-year-old and see beauty in their eyes and just feel, feel their spirit, because I’m completely at ease with the world and with everyone and who I am and optimism plays a part in that. It’s wherever I am and whatever is happening it’s supposed to be happening right now.
I am where I am supposed to be.
Ralph Zuranski: Well do you think its important as far as prospective of expecting good things to happen to you, and looking for the silver lining in things that may not appear good first hand.
Willie Crawford: It is, you know I believe that when you do good for other people that good comes back to you. And it may not come back to you right away. I understand that, and so… you know if I do a favor for you or do good for you I don’t expect you necessary to give back to me but I know it will come back to me.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah that’s so true.
Willie Crawford: And it does, it always has. I do I make contributions, donations, things anonymously to tons of organizations. I’ve walked into McDonalds, actually my wife is going to hear this recording later probably but you know I’ve tipped the guys sweeping the floor you know ten dollars or I have just given it to them to just watch their face light up, because nobody does that.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, yeah.
Willie Crawford: And it’s a good feeling.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah it is a good feeling.
One of the things that a lot of people have is fear, fear of pursuing new ideas; do you think that it takes courage to pursue new ideas?
Willie Crawford: It’s takes courage to know that your ideas may not be accepted and that you may fail. You know if you miscalculate and you do something that was headed down the wrong path, so that goes back to that fail fast because something is going to work.
And a lot of my teachers in real life, a lot of my teachers in books, have taught that since the majority of people are average or failing, you need to do something different. You need to just step out there and take a chance you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Um, Um True.
Willie Crawford: And I do that. I have no fear of failure. I don’t want to leave my family in a bunch of debt when I die and I won’t, but I have no fear of taking chances. I have no fear of taking chances. I have no fear of rejection, which is significant, because too many people worry about what others think. I don’t care what others think.
I calculate my probability of success, my probability of doing the right thing and I take action. When I go to seminars I make a list of what I’m going to do in the next day, the next week, the next month, the next six months, and I do those things.
And there are things that I go back to my hotel room and get on the internet and do things that night on some websites you know just testing things. I don’t spend too much time thinking about it. I don’t get trapped in that paralysis by analysis thing.
I do it. I just do it and it has made a tremendous difference.
Ralph Zuranski: When you experience the discomfort that comes from pursuing new ideas and your pursuit of your dream, how important is it to be willing to accept that and go through it to attain a higher level?
Willie Crawford: You have to realize that if you do fail you know what the consequences are going to be. And if the consequences are extremely high maybe you should not do it.
But what I have discovered I read a book a couple of years ago and there was a thing in there that most of the time when you fail the only consequence is, maybe the need to admit that you failed. But there is also great probably that no one noticed that you failed.
You know knowing that knowing that even if I completely screw up, chances are no one even noticed that I missed up you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Well so that’s so true.
Willie Crawford: So what am I risking, I am risking embarrassing myself in front of a group of people that I care about their opinions, but a lot of those people aren’t even willing to step out and take the chance. So what is the cost of failure, of taking a chance of making a mistake of not achieving your goal.
Often it’s just; oh I made a mistake and I didn’t do what I was trying to do. Nobody is going to torture you forever for that. you know… they may mention it a while but we very quickly get back to our own world and what’s important to us and we forget Willie missed up when he tried this project very quickly.
And so I’m not afraid to try very big things. I will send you, you know after this interview I’ll send you some links to some of the projects I’m working. I’m working many projects of multi-million dollar projects. And they’re not guaranteed to succeed.
Ralph Zuranski: Well how.
Willie Crawford: But if they succeed, will change the world. I’m involved in a project to build a number of homeless shelters in Baton Rouge funded by a Cable television show, a cookbook, spices, cookware, and all kinds of products. And that project will succeed but I am involved in a lot of other projects that are multi-million dollar projects that if they don’t succeed we tried you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Well how important is it to have a belief that your dreams will eventually become reality?
Willie Crawford: It’s extremely important, if you don’t believe in yourself and believe that its conceivable then the negativism and everything will transfer to your actions.
And so you’ll sabotage yourself. You’ll do things that you don’t believe its possible and man is an electromagnetic creature. We pick up on other people’s signals, other people’s energy.
And so if you’re telling somebody one thing and you feel something different, people can pick up on that just because we can pick up on other people’s magnets and stuff, the energy they’re giving off in their body.
You know you set in the room with somebody and you’re talking with them and thinking about doing a deal with them, and the hair on the back of your neck stands up and you feel I don’t trust this guy, you’re picking up on that person’s electromagnetic energy.
And if you don’t feel you should do a deal with that guy, don’t do a deal with that guy there’s something wrong with it. So you got to trust your instincts too. And it’s difficult to explain but I trust my instincts, I trust my feelings, they’ve never led me wrong.
You know I could go way up in left field explaining a lot of things and getting into quantum physics, and all kinds of stuff but I mean we live in a world defined by laws. As a marketer one of those sets of laws is the laws that Robert Cialdini laid out in the book Influences Psychology Persuasion.
You know one of those laws is the law of reciprocity when somebody does something for you no matter what country you’re in and anthropologist has studied every culture in the world just like now. When somebody does something for you feel an obligation to do something back for them.
And there’s other laws that they’re just nature laws that are invalid that say this is how human beings interact. If you can study and understand and match the laws, you’re actually quiet dangerous you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Well you know one of the things that everybody has problems with is their doubts and fears. How do you overcome your doubts and fears?
Willie Crawford: I say to myself I’m statistically… I don’t know I will live to probably be 80 my grandmother lived to be 96. And so and I’m 50 now, I’m 47 now. So I have to be willing to take chances. I have to be willing to be wrong. And again its going back to if I’m wrong who’s going to notice and what are the consequences?
There are no consequences? I mean if I am wrong somebody might mention it in their newsletter or on a discussion forum or whatever, but most people are not going to notice.
So I have doubts, I have fears, I mean I have I know myself better than the average person does just because I was taken through a process of getting to know myself. And most people will not admit that they have fears but yes I have fears I have doubts. But I am willing to step through them you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Well …
Willie Crawford: I am willing to do things that… take chances. Because I know that 90% of the time even if I mess up and I make a mistake the penalty, for being wrong is not that high.
You know we exaggerate in our minds the penalty for being wrong; we exaggerate the cost of making a wrong decision. I mean when you walk down the street, or you drive down the street and you look at people on the street corner 99 of those people don’t know who you are or completely unaware of who you are, they are in their own world.
They will never ever, ever, ever know of your existence. And so to worry about making a mistake is totally not called for. I mean if I go out on the internet right now and spend $10,000.00 on an advertising campaign and mess it up, nobody will know except the people that I spent the money with. And maybe not even those people you know.
But there is no reason to doubt or fear anything. Fear is completely unfounded. I mean who is going to know and why do you care.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well do you think that 90% of all the things that we fear never become reality?
Willie Crawford: Yes 90% of all the things we fear never become reality. And its I don’t know, its crazy but you know you watch a horror movie or whatever, and you watch the monsters in the movie those are all products of someone’s imagination. They are not real you know.
So there is no reason to fear. You should identify what you want and you should go for it.
Ralph Zuranski: Well who helped give you the willpower to change things in your life for the better?
Willie Crawford: My grandmother whom again, my father and my mother separated and my mother left me and my two younger brothers with my grandmother. We were like three or four years old and then she went up to New England to find a better job.
My grandmother was a short fat lady, but I just watched her interacting with the world and even though she didn’t have a lot of wealth she had no wealth really. I mean we had a $365.00 a year house payment and she worried about making that payment. She had a Farmers Home Administration loan yet the way that she dealt with the world showed me that there is nothing to fear you know.
There is absolutely nothing to fear. And lately I have run into a few people on line who are coaches or mentors and they’ve also taught me the same little basic lesson which is, most people fear things that they don’t need to fear. So if you can get beyond that then life is good. Yeah.
Ralph Zuranski: Well how important is it readily forgive those that have upset, offend and oppose you?
Willie Crawford: Well that’s an interesting question. You know as a black person, as a soldier, as someone from the South, I have been offended, I’ve been discriminated against.
When I was in the military I got back to my barrack but again I talk about a unit where the commander of the unit basically took care of those who went to the same school he went to. And so you were treated unfair if you weren’t one of the inter circle you know, and that was pointed out to me very quickly in that unit.
I learned that we are most comfortable with people just like us. People the same background, the same whatever just like us. And so once you go to understand that, it’s… if you’re different than me I don’t know what you are all about, I don’t trust you. I don’t feel comfortable around you. You grow to appreciate why people do what they do.
I don’t allow others whose smallness makes them racists or sexists or ageists or whatever to impact me at all.
I try to understand where they’re coming from you know. But I don’t allow them to impact me at all. I try to figure out why they are the way they are you know. If you don’t like me because of my… whatever… I want to know why I want to know what makes you that way and I want to understand that.
And I want to know maybe I can change your perspective. But I don’t want to change your perspective by arguing with you. I want to change your prospective by showing you that I’m, I’m different.
That I care about you, that I want to make your life better and I don’t want to argue with you. I don’t want to change your perspective by discussion, I want to change your perspective by demonstrating that you’re wrong and leaving you to that logical conclusion.
But if you don’t like me because of my race, my religion, my age, whatever, that’s fine you know. It doesn’t impact me at all. I worry about things that I can change and the things I can’t change I don’t worry about.
Ralph Zuranski: So you feel that it’s important to forgive those that injure you in some way either emotionally or physically just because…
Willie Crawford: Absolutely, 100%, 1000% you know I have often set in traffic, and or driven in traffic and just watched somebody riding their horn and then they are off down the freeway.
And that person may be fuming you know a ten miles away, while the person they honked their horn at should have gotten over it and the only person that is being impacted now is the person that is harboring that ill feeling.
The only person being affected is the person who can’t let go. So I’ve learned to let go. I’ve learned to just let go that it doesn’t matter. It’s not worth spending hours or even minutes harboring ill feelings toward someone.
Harboring resentment, just you know life happens and the minute it happens if its worth paying attention to, you pay attention to it that minute and you ask yourself what can I do.
I am also about positive energy. I am about it has been proven to me that if you surround with negative people, negative events, negative things that you attract negativity. If you surround yourself with positive people, positive thinkers, positive doers you attract positive things into your life.
I firmly, firmly, firmly believe that and so I let go at things that are negative I push out of my life. I don’t they are not admitted in my life at all.
Ralph Zuranski: Will you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Willie Crawford: Absolutely. Absolutely. I have one friend who… one mentor who shared with me that his father, I won’t get too deep in this because somebody will mug me.
But he told me his father use to go into restaurants and pick out a young couple that looked like they were struggling and he would call the waiter over and say I want to pay for their meal anonymously.
And he would pay for their meal and you know the waiter and he’d leave before the meal was over with maybe. And the waiter would go up to them and say somebody paid for your meal already you know don’t worry about it.
I believe in service to others too that extent. I believe in giving anonymously. I come across people on the internet all the time that are struggling who need help and I give it to them.
And I again I am too accessible by phone. I need to fix that because there is people who don’t need too, don’t need access, don’t need me really, but they just tap into me because I am a valuable resource.
But there are others who really, really need me and won’t make it without me. And I don’t when I went through struggles and I ask myself so what’s this what’s life all about. Somebody convinced me it’s about serving my fellow human you know.
Helping out other people I mean I’m going to live I don’t know 80 years and I’m going to die. When I define why I’m here, part of it is to be of service to others. Connect to others is to love others, and so you have to, to me being of service to others is very important.
Ralph Zuranski: What place does the power of prayer have in your life?
Willie Crawford: Prayer connects me with my higher power. I’m again I make note of a Southern Baptist. My religious grounding is that’s what my parents believed in. So if they and the generation before them, and the generation before them, and the generation before them, and the generation before them all believed the same thing and it passed as least on to me. I can question that belief but I can’t believe I’m smarter that you know people who lived for ten thousand years before me you know.
There’s something wrong with thinking I’m smarter. And we all do think we are smarter. We think that you know well they were ignorant or whatever you know so I need to really look at this.
But prayer connects me with the person that is running it all. And it allows me to step back to allow energy and goodness and serenity and all those things just to flow to me.
You know, I mean throughout the day look for opportunities just too connect with… a God of my understanding see and that’s again my drug treatment days, where part of what you’re taught in rehabilitation is that a lot of us are out of kilter with our concept of God.
And if our concept with God isn’t working for us, there’s something wrong with that you know. You’ve got to feel that whatever your concept of this higher power is, cares about you and isn’t vindictive and loves you.
And so that’s why if you go to Alcoholics Anonymous or Narcotics Anonymous or any of those treatment programs, they always use the term of God of your understanding.
You know I… I’ve spent to many years struggling with so what if you believe differently than I do. You know are you wrong and if your parents taught you differently than what my parents taught me, or you are wrong.
So I don’t even go there. But prayer allows me to connect with this higher power. Whatever created the universe and the world around me and that I feel every day of my life. I feel every day in my life and almost every minute of my life.
I mean I can be in the most horrendous environment I can be anywhere doing anything and I am at total peace with the world. And that is an incredible feeling. It’s to me the greatest power in the world is love.
I can be surrounded by people who completely hate my guts, and if I can try to understand them, and I try to love and appreciate them they’re disarmed. They’re not even a threat to me. It’s mind boggling if you really think about it. But the greatest power in the world is love.
Ralph Zuranski: Well also along with love comes humor. If you maintain a sense of humor in the face of serious problems because I know in situations that are difficult sometimes it’s either laugh or cry.
Willie Crawford: Yes humor is incredibly important to me. I mean I don’t allow myself to watch negative movies for example anymore. I mean I have gone through a number of courses that taught me about energy management, and about how your environment affects you, and so if I can’t laugh or smile about a situation, if I can’t be lead to laugh or smile about a movie its not for me.
When I turn on the news and its all negative I turn it off and its not because I don’t want to hear it, it’s because if I can’t change it I don’t need to fret over it.
If it’s something I can change and I should and I’m the right person to change it I’ll go out and try to change it. But I’m not going to spend you know, all my energy all my time worrying about something that I have absolutely no control over, no influence over.
And so humor, humor comedies are the greatest gift I can give to myself. That’s another thing when you look at what you allow into your life you have to be good to yourself first.
If you’re not firmly grounded physiologically and mentally you can’t help others, so you have got to be happy with yourself first. And for me that’s not watching negative TV shows, not listening to negative music, not listening to… not watching negative movies.
It’s watching things that propel me towards that energize me and push me toward my goal. It not allowing negativity into my life at all you know. If you’re a negative person, and you’re a friend you can still be my friend but I’m not going to hang out with you. There’s no doubt about that in my mind right now.
My mentors have taught me that negative people just drain you of your energy. You know if all you can do is complain you can complain to me but I will say to you what are you doing about it. And I’ll push you toward to doing something about it. But if you don’t do anything about it we’ll part ways.
Ralph Zuranski: Boy that’s so true. Well who are the heroes in your life Willie other than your Grandma?
Willie Crawford: You know I thought about that earlier. I don’t really have any heroes. My heroes were people I discovered in books. Because I didn’t have the role models that… you know that did things that I wanted to do in my community when I was growing up.
I will say that teachers who took on one of the toughest jobs in the world you know, shaping young minds were heroes, and soldiers and policeman and fireman they’re heroes, but there is a lot of other people in our society are heroes to me too.
Volunteers, people I went through some medical procedure recently and as I’m sitting in the waiting room, this young lady who is a Red Cross volunteer, who herself was dying with cancer and knew it, she worked as a volunteer you know just to cheer people up while they are in the waiting room waiting for a family member to pull through surgery.
I thought that is so giving you know. She said I’m not going to set at home you know thinking about my misfortune, I’m going to reach out and touch someone else.
And she was you know honestly dying she knew she had maybe four months to live. Yet she spent her time as a volunteer in a waiting room you know just cheering up other family members. That was so profound. So my heroes are volunteers, people who just give of their spare time or their spare assets to help others.
Ralph Zuranski: You know it’s funny to when people are depressed or cast down that the fastest way to raise their spirits is by doing something for somebody else without expecting anything in return.
Willie Crawford: Absolutely. There is a saying; I felt bad because I had no shoes until I saw a man that had no feet.
And no matter how bad your situation, if you look long enough and hard enough you are going to find someone who has it worse than you do.
Ralph Zuranski: Well why do you feel that heroes are important to young people?
Willie Crawford: Because young minds are so malleable and shapeable. You know, if we they look for examples of what’s possible in the world. And they need something positive to see.
I mean all you see on television is just negatives and all you see in movies is for the most part negativism. And so they need somebody that shows them what’s possible and show them what’s possible when you do the right thing.
You know to me heroism is about doing the right thing.
Ralph Zuranski: Well who do you thing are the heroes of today that aren’t getting recognition that they deserve?
Willie Crawford: Yeah I mentioned earlier, schoolteachers. There is so many schoolteachers who are in really, really dangerous situations who are getting paid next to nothing. They’re not getting any respect and yet they’re shaping the next generation of our country. So I think schoolteachers.
I want to say soldiers because I was a soldier, and because when America transitioned force what that meant was, the rich could then say well I don’t want my son to go into military so I’m going to hire you instead to go.
And risk your life to defend me and my rights and my privileges and someone who you know once you raise your hand and say I’ll follow orders and do whatever I’m told to do, you’ve basically volunteered to sacrifice your life if necessary.
And you know while everybody says a soldier is a hero probably, most don’t realize that they have basically given up all their rights. I mean I spent 20 years where if you told me to charge up that hill with a rock it was my job to do that you know.
And even if I saw the guy in front of me getting shot it’s my job to do that.
So when a country has an all-volunteer force, you’re finding people to step out and volunteer to risk their lives and their health to defend your way of life and to me a soldier is a big hero.
Nobody, again nobody just wants to run out and get shot but a soldier is defending your freedom, your ability your right to think whatever you want to.
But its often somebody who, who has less choices as to other things to do. And so because they don’t have a lot of other options they choose to go into the military and they’re off in a rock in whatever country. They are in the demilitarized known in Korea.
The war ended in Korea in the 50’s, the countries have been at war over almost 60 years. And there are soldiers on the front lines everyday right now.
So to me a soldier, you know a young man who at 18 gets married and marries his high school sweetheart, and then goes off and leaves her maybe pregnant, and gets a picture of his child being born while he is off in some other country.
To me that’s a tremendous, tremendous sacrifice. And I you know anybody listening to this recording, I beg them to at least you know show your support for somebody like that.
You don’t have to agree with the politics of your country, but what you have to realize is that the soldiers don’t have to agree with the politics of the country, they do what they are told to do.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah.
Willie Crawford: You I have often said you know the old men set around and make decisions, and send the young men out to get shot you know. Those young men have no choice. They volunteered to do a job, and then they have to trust their leaders to make good decisions, and decisions aren’t always good. But they do what they’re told to do, so to me a soldier is a tremendous, tremendous hero.
Fireman, policeman, very tough jobs, they do things to protect us and we often don’t appreciate them. But we all should appreciate fireman. Policeman… you know I’m driving down the freeway and my wife sees a police car and she brakes or whatever. I don’t brake, I think great, there is a man doing his job he’s protecting me. And he’s taking tremendous risk.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah that’s true.
Willie Crawford: And he’s getting paid next to nothing. And in my part of Florida 28 to $35,000.00 a year is salary for policeman. You know I’ve done that in a month you know. So yet it’s his job to protect me, my home, my property. Protect me against drunk drivers, drug dealers, people just driving wild on the freeway, so policeman are my heroes.
I don’t… its not us against them. It’s them working for me.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah, well that’s so true. You know it’s funny that a lot of people don’t realize that the freedom they experience is at the sacrifice of someone else.
And if we didn’t have people that were willing to stand up for what was right and use force when it was necessary we would all be slaves wouldn’t we.
Willie Crawford: We would, we would. I have traveled to more than 40 countries. I have climbed the Great Wall in China, I have seen the rice terraces in the Philippines, I’ve seen the Pyramids, I’ve seen the Hanging Gardens, and I’ve seen most of the wonders of the world.
And we live in… we as Americans live in the greatest country in the world the most freedom. The most freedom of any country in the world.
We enjoy such tremendous privileges and we don’t appreciate it. You know when I was in Korea I watched the entrepreneurism of the Koreans.
And I went through sections where they’d taken the highway the median they found the dirt section and planted vegetables in the median and they planted trees or whatever you know something to harvest in the highway itself in the median.
I thought that is so wild, you know that they don’t have that much cultivatable land. And so they go out into the median strip in the highway and plant vegetables and tend them and then harvest them and you see enough things like that and you really, really do grow to appreciate what you have.
I’m extremely fortunate. I get to work from my home everyday, get up and decide whether I want to even go to work. Whether I want to go fishing or just go play with my granddaughter or whatever. I’m so, so blessed you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Well that is a wonderful place to be. How does it feel to be recognized as an internet hero?
Willie Crawford: It takes some getting use to. But I honestly feel I’ve earned it. I have worked at it for about ten years. See so many people start out down a path and give up. And not everything I’ve done has been you know worked out perfectly. So its persistence is just sticking to something long enough for it to work out.
And so it fells great. When I was at Yanik’s seminar in DC and half the people I talked to said I’m a subscriber to your newsletter. That’s a very good feeling but it also says I’m doing something right. It says I’m treating people fairly, I’m not misleading people, so it says I’m on track for what I want to accomplish.
Ralph Zuranski: Well why do you think you were selected for the unique honor of a internet hero?
Willie Crawford: I perhaps because of visibility, but also you know my value system. You know I really care about people. You know about I work out of my home I have my office there and above my desk I have a picture of some of my subscribers.
And so when I’m setting down writing a newsletter, I’m not just writing a newsletter, I’m talking to individuals. I’m saying I know that you’re a work at home mom with three kids. I know that you’re a senior citizen on a fixed income. I know that you’re whatever. And here’s what I found that works for me and here is how you can tweak it or twist it and make it work for you.
So I am an internet hero, but it’s because I care about you, I care about people.
Ralph Zuranski: Well how will being recognized as an internet hero change your life?
Willie Crawford: It won’t change it too much, other than me pointing people to the website and saying go check this out because there is other people that really do care about you.
And that’s what it is all about to me. It’s all about really caring about people. It’s you know… a 100 years from now I won’t be here and so I will be judged by what I do. And I don’t want to step on anybody’s dreams. I don’t have permission to step on anybody’s dreams you know.
Ralph Zuranski: Well do you have any good solutions to the problems facing society especially racism, child and spousal abuse, and violence among young people?
Willie Crawford: Only that you teach people that the only person they have control over is themselves. I’ve dealt with not spousal or child abuse but I’ve dealt with racism much of my adult life.
And the only person you can change is yourself. If you can make yourself a better person, someone that people can look at and look up to, and see that you know yeah he’s different from me, but he’s not harming me he’s making the world a better place then you’ve made a difference.
So and that probably even for spousal and child abuse it’s setting an example of what’s acceptable what’s acceptable. But no I don’t have any… I wish I could wave a magic wand and fix the world tomorrow but I can’t.
I can only fix myself and if I fix myself that will make the world a better place.
Ralph Zuranski: What if you had three wishes for your life and the world that would instantly come true what would they be?
Willie Crawford: Well I guess most would say world peace. But I’ve seen close up the effects of war, and you know it just disrupts ordinary lives, so peace and into many of the forms of suffering you know,,, I mean cancer is probably the most scary thing that most of us face. And yet it’s something out of kilter in our environment that you know that causes cells to grow at an abnormal pace.
So a cure for cancer, and then serenity. Too many of us are facing these battles in our minds, and we’re not happy we’re just we are at war with ourselves. So to me serenity is a major, major is a major importance.
Ralph Zuranski: Well what are the things that parents can do that will help their children realize that if they choose to be heroes, and make a positive impact on the lives of others?
Willie Crawford: The best thing that they can do is be a good example. I mean my grandmother in particular she just set a good example for me. She showed that she wasn’t just talking the talk, she was walking the walk you know.
She didn’t have the money to do things but she could show me how to do the next right thing. And things that we do when our children are in their teens or whatever, may not kick in until they are like ten years later in their late 20’s or whatever but we’ve influenced their thought process.
And so the most the greatest thing you can do for your children is to set a good example.
Ralph Zuranski: Boy that’s amazing too because kids really look at your actions as well as listen to your words.
Willie Crawford: Absolutely, absolutely.
Ralph Zuranski: Well Willie what do you think about the In Search of Heroes program and its impact on youth parents and business people?
Willie Crawford: I love the whole concept because, because the youth of today are going to be our leaders of tomorrow, and anything we can do to shape their minds to set positive examples. There’s… is television is too willing to provide negative examples and that is partly because of what people want.
There is this side of humanity that you know when you drive past an accident we rubberneck and gawk and see well who was killed or whatever you know. There is a part of us that wants to see that… but there is a part of us that wants to know that man is basically good and wants proof of that.
And so the greatest impact that I can have and most of us can have is too provide positive examples, positive role models. Showing that a future spokesman helping others. If you help enough people get what they want you will get what you want.
If we just focus on helping others life will work out in your favor. It will.
Ralph Zuranski: I think that was Zig Zigler that said that.
Willie Crawford: I think Zig said it too yes.
Ralph Zuranski: He has got an amazing story it reminds me of what you talked about the necessary aspect of forgiveness, where somebody’s sitting in a car and somebody honks their horn at them and that person is down the freeway and they’ve completely forgot about honking their horn.
Willie Crawford: Yeah you’re sitting there stewing about it and they’ve forgotten about it and it’s only affecting you because you are stewing about it.
Ralph Zuranski: And Zig had a funny story about kicking the cat. Did you ever hear that one?
Willie Crawford: No I didn’t hear that one.
Ralph Zuranski: It is one well worth listening too and getting Zig’s I won’t run the experience of it for people that get a chance to listen to Zig’s material.
But the idea is that a person had a problem in the morning like they spilled coffee and they were upset about that and then they go outside and get in their car and make a mistake in driving.
And all of a sudden somebody pulls out in front of them or whatever and they’re just furious the entire day and that other person didn’t even know that they pulled out in front of them.
Willie Crawford: No.
Ralph Zuranski: And when they finally get home the cat does something, pee’s on the carpet or whatever, and the person kicks the cat and feels a lot better and Zig says the person should have kicked the cat when they got up.
Willie Crawford: Yeah. The cat won’t appreciate that.
Ralph Zuranski: No I don’t believe in abusing animals but I thought it was a funny analogy.
Well Willie I really appreciate your time. I mean you have just given an incredible value and wonderful information for everybody no matter where they are in their lives. To understand what they need to do to change themselves to become like you who has overcome tremendous obstacles to be incredibly successful.
Willie Crawford: The only person you can change is yourself. And so you know it’s an inside job. It all starts with changing yourself, your perspective, what you’re willing to risk and you go from there. And it’s also making a decision that you’re going to do it, not just thinking about doing but doing it.
Ralph Zuranski: Yeah boy that is just timeless advice. Well again Willie I really appreciate your time.
Willie Crawford: Thank you, thank you.