Wayne Hoffman: The Fear of This Word is Holding You Back.

[00:00:00] Charles Eide: Now, this is where your skills are gonna get tested. ’cause there’s not a chance on this planet that, you know what that says? No way. It’s not possible. You’re right. But I’m gonna try.

[00:00:16] Introduction to Wayne Hoffman

[00:00:16] Speaker 4: Should I show it? Sure.

Get the Wayne 

[00:00:24] Wayne Hoffman: Offman. I combine human intuition and science that I’ve developed over the past three decades in studying the human mind right now. 

[00:00:31] Charles Eide: Talk to me about what we’re gonna be seeing tonight. Is it dangerous? A 

[00:00:34] Wayne Hoffman: mentalist will predict the future. Figure out what you’re thinking and plant a thought secretly into your mind.

It’s somebody who uses psychology for entertainment. 

[00:00:44] Charles Eide: Are there things that you could teach me so that I can get better in business and in personal relationships? What I’m about 

[00:00:51] Wayne Hoffman: to teach you is. The process and system and the secret to how I became successful and made millions of dollars doing something I enjoy.

And it’s this

[00:01:05] Charles Eide: Wayne Hoffman, welcome to Cleared for Takeoff. It is so good to have you. 

[00:01:11] Wayne Hoffman: Uh, thanks for having me. Uh, are you ready to change some lives? 

[00:01:18] Charles Eide: That’s what we’re about, man. It’s what I’m all about. I can’t wait. I’ve been looking forward to this for a long time. Some would say it’s like 20 years in the making. Wow.

I mean, we met like 20 years ago. It has been at, at 20 years in the making. In, in actuality. It’s crazy. We can get into that later, but I think what I’d like to start with is asking you, you call yourself a mentalist. What is a mentalist? 

[00:01:45] What is a Mentalist?

[00:01:45] Wayne Hoffman: Right. It’s a weird word that a lot of people aren’t familiar with unless you’ve seen the TV show The Mentalist, which was on years ago.

Uh, people might not be familiar with it. Essentially, a mentalist is a mind reader. That’s like the very short one word answer, uh, the truth behind it. And, uh, if you want to evolve that into something a little bit more clear, it’s somebody who uses psychology for entertainment. So a mentalist will do things like, uh, figure out what you’re thinking, uh, implant a thought secretly into your mind, or not so secretly, or, uh, predict the future or other things that are seemingly psychic without claiming to have supernatural powers.

That’s essentially it. So, so you 

[00:02:31] Charles Eide: don’t claim to have some sort of supernatural. Gift. 

[00:02:36] Wayne Hoffman: No, no, no, no. You just are really 

[00:02:37] Charles Eide: practiced at your art. 

[00:02:39] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah. So it’s a, it’s, it’s, you know, I combine human intuition, which we have, and I think I have a naturally good intuition and I combine it with tactics and techniques and science that I’ve developed over the past three decades in studying the human mind.

[00:02:53] Charles Eide: Okay. So give me an example. Sure. Show, show me something. 

[00:02:57] First Demonstration: Reading Body Language

[00:02:57] Wayne Hoffman: Sure. So, uh, I can kind of give you general concepts. I think most people are familiar with the concept of body language reading, right? Um, if a person leans into a conversation versus sitting back with their arms crossed, you know, if they’re looking away, you can tell whether or not they’re interested in what you’re saying.

We use nonverbal communication as human beings way more than you think. We are constantly reading people, um, in whether you’re in a business meeting, whether you’re on a date with someone. We are reading people and accessing information. So, uh, you know, for the past three decades, essentially, that’s what I’ve studied and that’s what I, I do.

So, um, do you wanna see like a, like a demonstration Yeah. Of something, A performance? Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, let’s do it. So, um, you can choose, uh, something, I’ll let you choose. Do you want to choose a name or a random word? I’ll choose a name. A name. Uh, what’s gonna happen is, is this, you’re gonna concentrate on a name of a person.

You know, you’re gonna picture their face and think of it over and over in, in your mind. And, uh, I’m gonna see if I can read you enough to get these, these details out. Um, now. Just look at me for a moment. Now, I know you and I have known you long enough to get kind of a baseline of your mannerisms, and I know you well enough to kind of know, uh, how you move, how you speak.

You can listen for regional dialects of, of which you have one. 

[00:04:27] Charles Eide: I have a, a nice old Minnesota accent. Yes, you do. Did you want some hot dish? 

[00:04:33] Wayne Hoffman: And you don’t have to be a mentalist to know that. No, but I can pick up on very subtle, uh, cues now. Uh, I already have a letter, uh, right away from you. Um, come on. Uh, I feel like you almost thought of a different person.

I did in the very beginning. But you went for the male. That’s in your mind. Is it a man? Yes. Because that’s what I’m getting. That is more of a statement than it is a question. Yep. Um,

I keep getting the same thing over and over from you. Come 

[00:05:03] Speaker 4: on 

[00:05:04] Wayne Hoffman: now. There you go. You did it again. So there’s gonna be two of those in there. Did you feel yourself lick your lips? Uh, a moment ago? Yeah. Yeah. Did you feel yourself do it the time previous to that? No. A-B-C-D-E-F-G-H-I-J-K. I’m gonna PQRS to V-W-X-Y-Z.

Now the interesting thing is, I’m hesitating here because I’m getting five, what I call placeholders from you, but I’m only getting four letters. I know there’s at least four letters in the person’s name. 

[00:05:35]  : Okay? Are 

[00:05:35] Wayne Hoffman: there five letters or no? No. Then I’m just gonna stick with what I get. Do you know what it means when you do this and lean on the table like you are and click?

I do it a lot, 

[00:05:44] Charles Eide: so I don’t know. What does it mean? 

[00:05:46] Wayne Hoffman: It means nothing, but I wanted to see what you would do after I called you out on that. Did you feel yourself fix your suit jacket and then put your hands there? 

[00:05:55]  : Yeah. 

[00:05:55] Wayne Hoffman: What? You didn’t fix your suit Ja, your suit jacket because you had to No. It was subconscious thought coming out as movement.

Now I’m gonna show the cameras what I have here, but I don’t want you to see it. Okay, I’ll show my eyes. Uh, this is a name that I got out of his mind. Now question. Did you think of a relative or no? 

[00:06:12] Charles Eide: No. 

[00:06:12] Wayne Hoffman: Is it a celebrity by chance? No. Okay. Uh, I, I don’t know the, the, the construct of who this is. You can open your eyes for the very first time.

[00:06:22] Mind Reading Demo: Guessing the Name Greg

[00:06:22] Wayne Hoffman: What name were you thinking of, 

[00:06:24] Charles Eide: Greg? 

[00:06:26] Wayne Hoffman: Like that? Shut up. That’s, wait a minute. It’s crazy, right? So what I’ve done is I figured out ways to find out what’s going through people’s heads. And it could be conscious or it could be subconscious. So this is what a mentalist does. We have the ability to pluck out thoughts, and I never know what I’m gonna get.

It could be, I could have gotten like multiple people. I could have gotten nothing. As well. But, uh, so, so that’s a, that’s an example. So a mentalist uses human behavior, body language, reading, neurolinguistic programming, hypnotism, interrogation techniques, uh, biochemistry, all these techniques in order to do things.

Hold on. 

[00:07:07] Charles Eide: You just asked me to think of a name in here,

but earlier you had me think of a, a name. Yeah. I, I, and I wrote it down. I did write it down. Okay. You tell anybody or show anybody? 

[00:07:23]  : I told, 

[00:07:23] Charles Eide: uh, well, 

[00:07:25] Wayne Hoffman: you did or no? Nope. You, I, I, I, you’re lying to me. Do 

[00:07:28] Charles Eide: you see this? I hold on all transparency. I wrote it down on that note card and I showed it to the crew. You did?

Okay. Okay. But there’s no way you would’ve known it. 

[00:07:37] Wayne Hoffman: No, no, of course not. Yeah, you keep,

it’s crazy, right, dude, 

[00:07:44] Charles Eide: that’s. Wild. 

[00:07:47] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah. So I, I have, I have, I’ve developed this skill and turned it into a career. 

[00:07:54] Charles Eide: Oh my gosh. Okay. So how, okay, how, how did you figure out that you had this, this inkling to become this and do this, and then how the heck do you pursue something like this? 

[00:08:05] Wayne’s Origin Story

[00:08:05] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah, so my, my story is very simple.

I grew up in reading Pennsylvania. We are on the monopoly board, the Reading Railroad. People think it’s the Reading Railroad, but it’s actually the Reading railroad. And, um, there was a magic shop in my hometown, so I would go there and hang out with mentalists and hypnotists and illusionists and all these characters.

Uh, and so I got into, um, the, the mystery arts as it’s called, you know, whether it’s card tricks or hypnosis. And then I studied psychology when I went to college. And I tried to figure out how to use Psychology for Entertainment. And then I found kind of this field of, of mentalism and mind reading. And obviously we have history of, you know, Alexander, the Mind Reader, the guy with the turban who’s been shown in, you know, historical things, movies, like, um, what is it called?

Big with Tom Hanks in the eighties, the Zar Machine, you know, that’s based on the mind readers. So I started studying the mind readers of history, um, and now I started presenting a show. So locally in my area, growing up in Pennsylvania, I became known as the guy who could do these amazing things. So I started, you know, between ages, I’d say 15 and 18.

I was already do performing. And then 18 is when I added in the psychological stuff. And what happened was. I organically built a business and I became an entrepreneur. And that’s where the journey really begins, because now people are offering to pay me to do this. And I had to figure this out. Well, I need a contract and I need to figure out to, a way to, uh, you know, like A-A-C-R-M system didn’t really exist in essence back then, but a way to keep track of my customers.

And I had to kind of evolve. So, so eventually it grew to the point. Now mind you, I’m, I’m 18, I’m fresh outta the gate, and I had to make a big decision because everybody’s telling me, you’ve gotta get a real job. But here I am following my passion and making money, and I had to make the ultimate decision.

Do I do what everybody else is telling me to do or do I follow my gut and my heart? And I decided to run away with a circus, almost literally. And I said, you know what? Uh, I’m gonna do this. So, in the beginning it was really difficult. You know, I wasn’t getting bookings, but I had, I needed money, you know, I had to go on dates and go to the movies.

I had a car. I, I needed gas. And, you know, my, uh, beginnings were very humble. My mom was a waitress. My dad worked in an aluminum foundry, real salt of the earth. And we weren’t by any stretch of the imagination millionaires. So, uh, you know, I determined at that point I wanted to be a performer. I have this little niche thing of, of being able to get into people’s heads that I was developing.

And from there, uh, I decided I’m gonna make this hard left and become a performer and, and, and figure it out. And the journey really began there. I, 

[00:10:57] Early Career Challenges

[00:10:57] Charles Eide: uh, my mind is still looping on this thing we just did a couple minutes ago. ’cause I keep thinking to myself how on earth. Did you come up with that name to write down Greg was impossible.

Correct. And what I keep thinking about is, and I’m sorry, but I wanna bring it back to this really quick. Is it exhausting to be able to read what you can read? Like do you go through the world and you just see this kind of like fourth dimension and it just wears you out? Or do you have to turn it 

[00:11:26] Wayne Hoffman: on? So, that’s a great question.

Some of the things that I do, I read naturally. Um, I can tell when somebody’s lying to me. I can tell general thoughts and general vibes of where someone’s going. If I’m doing, I’ve been asked to come in on high level mergers and acquisitions meetings, and it’s like they asked, they have me be a consultant and, and watch the people and read so I can get a sense of where things are going very deeply.

Um, without trying, however, it’s not like in the movies where I’m hearing voices that are telling me the answers. Yeah. Um, it’s hard work. The hardest part about what I do is making it look like I’m not doing anything at all. Hmm. It’s exhausting. So exhausting covering up the, the correct, the magic basically.

Yes, it is the, um, way I guide conversations and the things that I do, and it’s very difficult and I have to be on my toes at all times. So it’s just like anybody, man, nobody wants to work unless they have to. Right. When you’re, when, when it’s your day off and you’re, but is it exhausting 

[00:12:26] Reading Lies and Body Language

[00:12:26] Charles Eide: to be able to see this stuff?

Like, I keep thinking like, if you can read pretty much any lie. Does that just wear you out where you’re like, you’re lying. That’s a lie. Right? Um, you know, because most of us are like, oh, really? That’s what happened? Oh, okay. Well I guess that’s what 

[00:12:40] Wayne Hoffman: you’re saying. You’re like, they’re lying, bro. It took me time to figure out how to handle it.

So I’ll give you an example. Uh, when I was back in my, uh, younger days dating people, uh, if somebody would lie to me, you know, you have the in initial human response, why are you lying? You know? But what I realize is because I have this skillset, I have to run it through a filter now. Mm, every single human lies everybody.

Every single human lies. You just have to figure out is it malicious or not? So when I am reading somebody. I put everything through what I call the real boy filter. I go, okay, I know this information and I probably shouldn’t. Now sociologically, you know, what is the proper thing to do here? To maintain relationships and to, so yes, it’s, it’s not exhausting, but it’s definitely different.

[00:13:35] Charles Eide: So how, okay, so I want to figure out how this skillset, I mean, you’ve taken 30 years to develop this really, really sharp skill, but is it something, are there things that you could teach me so that I can get better at the negotiating table so that I can better. At reading people and reading a room and being better in business and in personal relationships.

[00:14:00] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah, so, absolutely. Well, and, and I’ll, I’m gonna say this, it doesn’t stop at this podcast. It doesn’t stop at this moment because we only have so much time. I could teach you everything right now. What I will say is this, there’s a, a, a phrase, uh, it’s a quote actually by, I think Jim Rohn said, it work harder on yourself than you do on your job, because by, just by listening to this podcast, you might have an interest in this type of conversation, but go beyond it.

[00:14:29] The Importance of Negotiation Skills

[00:14:29] Wayne Hoffman: Take a negotiation course. Okay? Highly recommend it. I took many negotiation courses, and I’m a certified negotiator. I had to learn. I didn’t have to, but I, I, not only did I wanna learn that skillset because of my interests in human psychology, but because it, I wanted it to help my business and help everything else.

Highly recommend it. If you don’t take a negotiation course, you’re missing out on. Amazing opportunity. Do 

[00:14:53] Charles Eide: you have one you recommend, 

[00:14:55] Wayne Hoffman: like said, oh, there’s a million. I mean, if you read a book, Chris Voss is a, is a, is a, a great, he’s so great, uh, negotiator. There’s a course back in the day. Then when the airline magazines in your seat back pocket, you’d open it up in the mid middle of the carris negotiation course.

I took that as well and that was fantastic. You know, you go somewhere for a couple days and you’re learning and it’s interactive. And I’ll tell you what, I have made so much money off of those, uh, negotiation courses that I took than anything under the sun. And the thing that I learned is everything is negotiable.

Everything is negotiable. If somebody tells you this is the price, uh, here it is. That’s negotiable. I don’t care what it is. Uh, everything in our lives is negotiable. So, so I, I would say that that’s my advice. I could give you techniques and things to do, but yeah. 

[00:15:46] Tactical Negotiation Advice

[00:15:46] Charles Eide: Maybe give me something tactical that I could use.

Sure. Like, gimme some, give me a couple of ideas on how I can get better at reading people. 

[00:15:53] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah. So, um, wow. Re reading people or negotiation or, well, how about both? Gimme, gimme maybe like two or three for both. Sure. So, uh, I’m taking notes today for negotiation. I would say this, um, I’ll just give you, again, this is a very specific technique, um, but using time as a negotiation tool.

Okay. The, the number one thing you wanna do, first of all, is research and know your information upfront, a ton of research, and have an. A ton of knowledge upfront that’s, that’s on, on the topic or the person on, on everything that you’re doing. Okay. You wanna know everything. This is obviously on the topic, but if you know things about the, the person’s children, where they go to school, what their hobbies and interests are, how that they love golf and they love yachting, or whatever their interests are.

If you know those things, that you can use those to create a poor, a rapport with people. People like doing business with people they like, people are more apt to give a discount and negotiate with you if they’re your friend, right? So having knowledge and being able to use personal information to create a rapport is, is definitely a, a, a great one.

But going back to what I said about time, uh, there’s a story that’s told in one of the courses where a guy went to buy a sailboat and he calls the guy up. He said, Hey, I’m interested in buying your sailboat. Um, can, can you, um, meet me and we can look at it? So the guy, they had the guy drive a railing long distance, and he looked, he goes, okay, I’m gonna talk to my friend and my buddy, you know, a few days later he called him, Hey, I forgot to look at the sales.

Can I come down and just check the, you know, the sales and make sure the rigging points are good and dah, dah, dah, dah, dah. So he makes the guy take the boat back out and take it on the trailer and meet him again. And he lays the sails out all the way. And this took a long time. And they folded him back up.

And then he said, okay, hey, one a few days later, Hey, listen, I wanna have my wife come down. This 

[00:17:51] Charles Eide: a kind of buyer that everyone hates, by the way. 

[00:17:53] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah. But, but here’s the deal. Yeah. I mean, essentially you’re like, oh, oh, you want to come back and check something else? Do you want to kick the tires, sir? But what happened was this, the guy finally, after all of this low-balled him on the price and the guy’s like, yeah.

No, here, just take it because I’m so sick of dealing with you. The guy had invested like a week of his life in this guy trying to sell this boat. So he wore him down using time. Now, not only that, each moment he was learning something about the guy selling the boat, he could use that information. So essentially, you know, using time as a leverage tool in negotiation.

But again, this is just one small piece of the puzzle. Like that is only one tiny little tool. Now, I always say, people ask me, they say, how did you do it? There is no answer. I can’t an, there’s no one answer I give. What I’ve done is I’ve created a toolbox that I reference asking me how I do it is asking a, a, a home builder what tool they use to build a home.

Well, I can, can’t answer. It depends on each situation. So who am I dealing with? Are they old, young, drunk, buzzed, sober? Do they know what I do? Have they seen me on tv? Is this a professional encounter or a casual encounter? And then I reach in my toolbox in that moment and use a tool that’s perfect for the circumstance.

[00:19:20] Using Time as a Negotiation Tool

[00:19:20] Wayne Hoffman: So I, I, I recommend, and again, where the listeners are gonna get value is take time to study things like negotiation. Get a book on body language reading. You know, get, get tools after you’re finished listening to this podcast. Invest time to research tools that will help you. 

[00:19:45] Charles Eide: Okay? So one of the questions that’s just burning in my mind is, how can I tell if someone’s lying to me?

[00:19:52] How to Tell if Someone is Lying

[00:19:52] Wayne Hoffman: It’s a great one. So I’m, uh, I, I have a continuing education credit course for trial lawyers to be able to tell when someone is lying on the stand. Uh, and there are indicators first, and again, this is very surface level. Uh, you have to get a baseline on the person. You have to know what their natural mannerisms are.

Do they sit with their arms folded on the table? How, how is their natural body language? So if you know the person’s body language naturally, like for example, if you’ve been married for 40 years, you know when that person is lying. Why? Because you have 40. Years of data that you can kind of bounce those things off of.

In the same way, if you went out to dinner with your wife, you, if you have a set look, you know this menu, you know what your wife is gonna order before she even orders it. ’cause you know her, you have that evidence. So getting that baseline and knowing natural, um, body language first and foremost. Now, I will say it’s not an exact science.

It’s not like blood typing someone where you know that they’re b positive blood. It’s not a, a chemical science thing, so you’re never gonna be a hundred percent. So don’t, don’t go get, don’t go getting divorced ’cause you think your, your spouse is cheating on you after this. But, um, there’s things where, um, if somebody has a, a, a drink on, on the table.

And they take a sip of water. Um, while you are, while you’re talking and they know the question you’re about to ask. It’s a preparation move. Uh, that’s one thing you can watch for. I always find this one interesting. Um, when you’re, uh, I call it the speak no evil here, no evil. See, no evil thing when you’re a child, if you say something naughty you, you’ll go.

Or if you see something scary that you don’t like, you’ll cover your eyes. Or if you hear something you don’t like, you cover your ears. Right? That never leaves. It just changes. As adults, we still carry those. So here’s one that I like. If somebody is, uh, let’s say going to a, um, gentleman’s club and uh, he comes home and his wife is like, where were you?

And they lie and say, oh, oh, I was at, I was at over at John’s. And they touch their mouth like this. It’s a move where they’re doing the speak no evil because they know what they’re saying is bad and they’re trying to stop it and hide it and co and cover it. Or, um, if they’re saying something that is a lie, they’ll often touch their ear because it’s an extension of this move where they don’t want to hear themselves lying.

So, oh yeah, I was, I was, I was over at a, you know that, so that move. Um, and, and on and on. So those are kind of little things. You know, people say, well, if you look up into the right and up into the left, there are I, they’re called eye accessing cues. So if you wanna search that on your own time and look at eye accessing cues, you know, um, there are things where if somebody is recalling a thought versus an emotion, they’ll look different ways.

For example, if you look up. It’s difficult to access emotion. Okay? So they’re thinking up here. If you look down, it’s often feeling. So again, those types of things are super interesting. And again, I could talk, I don’t want to eat up the entire podcast on it, but you can. You can find these things. 

[00:23:20] Subconscious vs Conscious Mind

[00:23:20] Charles Eide: So you’ve trained your subconscious mind long enough to read these things where you just know.

And my conscious mind. Yeah. And that’s what I’m saying. Yeah. I’m saying you’ve become so used to it now your subconscious Yeah. Tells you this without you even knowing. Yes. So what is it difference between the subconscious mind and the conscious mind? 

[00:23:35] Wayne Hoffman: Well, I mean, the bits of information that are floating around all your experiences and your memories, and, you know, we are programmed as human beings.

Uh, I’ll give you a great example. Um, one of the things that I do is I teach people, um, I have a keynote speech, okay. And I travel around the world giving this keynote to founders, CEOs and, and, and so on. And in the keynote, one of the things that I teach people is a reframing because we carry subconscious thoughts from our childhood.

And one of them is this, uh, hearing the word no. People say is bad, right? If somebody tells you no, you can’t have that. I, that’s bad. When you’re a kid and you say, Hey, I want some candy. No, not, not before dinner, or can you buy this toy for me at the store? No. You know, or I want this, I want to eat candy.

Have 

[00:24:34] Charles Eide: you been following me and my kid? 

[00:24:36] Wayne Hoffman: You know, so when you’re a child you hear no a lot ’cause you want to eat candy for dinner. Can I have marshmallows for breakfast? No, no, no. So what happens is you have this association that the hearing, the word no is bad, right? It’s sure we all associate no is something negative.

Correct? And so that’s a subconscious kind of fluid thing in the back of your mind. But what I tell people is you can update your software. You’re an adult now. So one of the things that I teach people, and this is, this is a runaway concept, is, um, you can actually start to realize no is just a piece of information.

No, you’re adding the story onto it. No, you’re bad. No, you’re not good enough. No, I don’t like you. No. Is only a piece of information, just like, yes. There is no emotion to it. You’re just learning something. So what I did was, and I think one of, one of the keys to, to my success is, is this. And I’m about to reveal a secret and not how I do the tricks, but how I became successful and made millions of dollars doing something I enjoy.

[00:25:47] Reframing the Word ‘No’

[00:25:47] Wayne Hoffman: What I did was I changed the definition of the word no and now know is a good thing. And when you start to realize no is actually a good thing and you start proactively collecting them, your world completely changes. Uh, many moons ago, um, there was a show on air that many listeners may be familiar with the Ellen De DeGeneres show.

Right. And that, and that was toward the beginning stages of my career. Uh. Everybody wanted to be on Ellen ’cause it was a huge platform to get your name out. And people come up to me all the time and they say, how did you get on Ellen? And you know what I say? I called and asked, and they go, oh my God. I, I never even thought about that.

I said, you wanna be on Ellen? Did you ever contact them and asked to be on the show? And they go, well, no. Well, there’s a novel idea, right? So I started, once I got my, my i, these surprising yeses, what I realize is the more yeses, or the, sorry, the more nos that I collect mathematically, the more yeses I collect.

And if I get a no, I’m back to where I started. So in my keynote, uh, I, uh, have someone come up here. Actually, let’s do it. ’cause I always carry this with me. Do you mind doing a little experiment? I’m excited. Let’s go. Bring out another experiment, Wayne. I’m, I’m telling you right now for the p, for the people listening.

This coin is about to change your life. Okay, so you, you’re holding a coin that looks like a silver dollar. It’s the size of a silver dollar. Yeah. On one side it says no. Yep. And on the other side it says Yes. Okay. Okay. We’re gonna play an imaginary game. I’m gonna hand you the coin. I want you to take it.

Can I look at it? Yeah, sure. Check, check it out. Now, um, that you carry this with you everywhere you go. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yep. It’s a. Pinnacle part of Latino. It looks like you’ve, you’ve had this a long time. Yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah. I, uh, started, uh, carrying that coin back to actually sidebar, uh, being an entrepreneur.

When COVID hit, my career ended, I had 80 dates, a world tour cancel. I had to come up with something else. So I actually started an e-commerce brand for magicians called Conjuress Cabinet. And I looked for interesting things and artwork, um, and levitating flower pots and illusion and puzzle things that magicians would like.

And I stumbled during my research, I stumbled across this coin. And so, uh, magicians and mentalists could use it in experiments, and we sell it on conjures cabinet. But I realize in my keynote, I talk about yes and no. Mm-hmm. So I said, this is the perfect tool to use for this experiment. So I want you to imagine that you are on a game show, and I handed you that coin.

And I want you to imagine that I’m gonna give you 30 seconds and every, uh, every, you know, I’m gonna say go. I want you to flip that coin. 

[00:28:32]  : Mm-hmm. 

[00:28:32] Wayne Hoffman: And every time it lands on Yes. I want you to imagine you win $10. Okay. But if it lands on No, you don’t win anything. But you don’t lose anything. Okay. Okay. You just have 30 seconds to, to get as many $10 as I can.

[00:28:47] The Yes/No Coin Experiment

[00:28:47] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah. How many yeses can you get? So here, here’s what I’m gonna do. I’m gonna actually start a timer. Okay. And I want you to, uh, when I say go, you’re gonna flip the coin and we’re gonna count how many yeses you get within the 30 seconds, okay? Okay. You ready? Yep. And go. No. Okay. No, 

[00:29:05] Charles Eide: no. Flip it in the air. Yes.

That’s one. Yes. No. Yes. Oop. No. No. Yes, no. Yes. No. Yes. I’m trying to make more money. Yes. 

[00:29:29] Wayne Hoffman: Seven. Yes. Eight. Yes. Nine. All right. Stop there. Yes. So you got what, 10? I got 10. 10? Okay. I think I added that up. I didn’t even 

[00:29:38] Charles Eide: count the No, right. Just 

[00:29:39] Wayne Hoffman: counted the yeses. Exactly. Now let me see the coin you. When I handed this to you and I told you to flip it.

Mm-hmm. And I started that timer. What did you not do? I didn’t care about the nos. You didn’t e Exactly. You didn’t hesitate. I didn’t hesitate. Exactly. Here’s what you didn’t do. You didn’t go, oh, well I don’t wanna flip the coin because what if I get a no, then I wouldn’t get the $10. Right? And oh man, I wouldn’t get the $10 if I get a no.

And then he and hawing. And meanwhile, your 30 seconds is elapsing and you get nothing. Now what I didn’t tell you, and uh, and this is just for fun and you know, you’re a friend of mine and, but you’re actually getting the money. So 20, 40, 60, 80, a hundred, this is a gift because you actually played the game.

Wow. 

[00:30:28] Charles Eide: Thank you so much. Yeah. 

[00:30:29] Wayne Hoffman: I want you to buy something super fulfilling and personal for yourself, like, uh, uh, you know, whatever it may be. And that’s, that’s your gift now. Well, thank you. You have cash in your hand? I do. Because you did not fear hearing the word no. Right. And that’s the lesson of life. Go out and ask for the things that you want.

I’ll show you. Let’s do another example. 

[00:30:51] Charles Eide: Yeah. 

[00:30:52] Wayne Hoffman: Put that in your pocket. All right. Take, take your phone out. 

[00:30:54] Charles Eide: Okay. 

[00:30:55] Wayne Hoffman: We’re gonna get weird here. 

[00:30:56] Charles Eide: Okay? Let’s get weird. 

[00:30:58] Wayne Hoffman: I want you to google a, a, a a, a local pizza parlor. Okay? Um, just search whatever. Pizza, pizza Pizzeria is near me. Okay? 

[00:31:08] Charles Eide: Pizza 

[00:31:09] Wayne Hoffman: near me. Okay. Find one, not, not like a, a chain, a big chain, but like a local mom and pop some, a locally owned, where the owner might be in the, in the, in the place.

Okay. Okay. And what you’re gonna do is you’re gonna call them right now, and this is what you’re gonna say. You’re gonna say, just hold on. Wait. Yeah, you’re gonna say this. Hi, my name is Charles. I live near you right now. I’m filming a podcast with, with my buddy. And we were talking about pizzeria’s nearby, and I, uh, thought of you and I chose you.

Um, and I was wondering, first can I speak with the manager? And don’t worry, this isn’t a sales call and it’s nothing bad. 

[00:31:49]  : Okay. 

[00:31:49] Wayne Hoffman: If, you know, get to the person who, who’s in charge, and when they’re on the phone, you’re gonna say, gonna tell ’em the story, and then you’re gonna say, I was wondering if you would be willing to please give me a free pizza and have it delivered to my studio right now.

And then you’re gonna shut up. And they’re probably gonna be gobsmacked. Like, what the hell is this? They might hang up on you. They might call you crazy. We have no idea what they’re gonna say or what their reaction is. Um, and, you know, uh, if you want like a large pepperoni pizza, just tell ’em, you know, and um, you know, we can tip the driver if they actually do.

But go into this wanting them to say no. Go into this wanting and praying that they say no to you. Okay. Do it. Okay. Okay. 

[00:32:35] Calling for Free Pizza Exercise

[00:32:35] Charles Eide: Yeah. I’m 

[00:32:36] Wayne Hoffman: gonna ask for the 

[00:32:37] Charles Eide: manager. Yeah. And I’m gonna ask ’em to send us a free pizza. 

[00:32:39] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. And just say, will you please, uh, uh, I was wondering, would you be, would you be willing to please give us a free pizza and have it delivered to our podcast studio?

That’s all. But don’t, don’t think, Wayne, if I’ve 

[00:32:52] Charles Eide: been uncomfortable in a while, it’s right now. Good. I hate asking for free things. I hate it. It means you’re learning. 

[00:33:00] Pizza Owner: Can I help you? 

[00:33:01] Charles Eide: Hi. Is this the manager? 

[00:33:05] Pizza Owner: Uh, this is the owner. 

[00:33:05] Charles Eide: Oh, hey, owner. My name. What’s your name? 

[00:33:09] Pizza Owner: Uh, what’s your name? 

[00:33:10] Charles Eide: I’m Charles. How can I help you?

I’m Charles, I’m a, I’m a customer of yours. I, uh, I used to live in Maple Grove. You’re my favorite pizza. Um, I’m, oh, I’m calling you because I’m being put in a very odd situation recording a podcast with a very good friend of mine and we’re doing an exercise and I’m calling to ask you if you would send me, uh, deliver me a free pizza.

[00:33:37] Pizza Owner: Um, I probably would need more information than that. 

[00:33:43] Charles Eide: Sure. Um, I’ll tell you that the guy sitting in front of me in my studio is a world famous mentalist, and he’s making me do an exercise in learning about yes and no. So he’s asking me if you’re willing to give me a free pizza? 

[00:34:00]  : Sure. Why not? 

[00:34:02] Charles Eide: Amazing. Wow.

Okay. Okay. I I, uh, that’s very, that’s very kind of you. Uh, would you like me to send my assistant Jake to pick it up? ’cause I know you don’t deliver here 

[00:34:15] Pizza Owner: and Yeah, we can go there. That’s fine. Uh, I’ll only send you one if you tip my driver. Well, 

[00:34:21] Charles Eide: you damn right. I will. I’m gonna make sure your driver’s very happy when they leave.

[00:34:25] Pizza Owner: Oh. What would you like? 

[00:34:27] Charles Eide: Meat lovers? Do you have a meat lovers pizza? 

[00:34:30] Pizza Owner: Mm-hmm. Just 

[00:34:31] Charles Eide: a big meat lovers. Yeah. 

[00:34:34] Pizza Owner: Okay. All right. 

[00:34:36] Charles Eide: I will go get the order in. Jessica, thank you for helping me on this very awkward time. You’re welcome. Thank you. Bye. 

[00:34:46] Speaker 4: Oh my God. 

[00:34:49] Wayne Hoffman: Now, now listen. Oh my gosh, Wayne, now, now stop for a second.

Let’s reset. Can I take my jacket off so 

[00:34:59] Charles Eide: I’m like sweating 

[00:35:00] Wayne Hoffman: For continuity sake, you’ll want leave it on for, but you can take it off. Been, it’s been a long 

[00:35:05] Charles Eide: time since I’ve asked somebody for something free. 

[00:35:08] Wayne Hoffman: Now listen. What? I’m gonna leave it right? Just happened. Well, uh, I sweat through my shirt. Don’t worry about that.

But listen, there’s a lesson in this, okay? We’re about to eat some delicious pizza, brother. And I haven’t eaten today, and I’m starving right now. You don’t want to take advantage of the concept of asking for things that you can afford, right? You don’t use this as a negative thing where you’re just going out and asking to take, take, take it.

[00:35:42] Overcoming Fear of Asking

[00:35:42] Wayne Hoffman: It’s not like that. You don’t have to ask for things from small businesses. You don’t have to ask for the, you could call up somebody you admire tremendously, somebody in your field that is at the top of their game, right? And you could ask them to be your mentor sincerely, and they will tell you yes or no.

If they say yes. You have now been given a fast pass to success. Um, the thing, there’s a great quote. Everything you’ve ever wanted is on the opposite side of fear. The reason I was able to make millions and millions of dollars in my career and build an entertainment agency and multiple companies and brands is because I stopped fearing.

Hearing the word no. Hmm. No is part of success. Failure is part of success. My, uh, buddy Brian Scudamore from uh, 1-800-GOT-JUNK. He wrote, uh, a book called, um, WTF, willing to Fail, and this concept, he and I really resonated on this because you have to be willing to fail. To be a successful business person, you have to be willing to fail to be in a successful relationship.

You know, with your wife, things aren’t gonna always go right. You know what I mean? You’re not always gonna win. Failure is the path to success. Everybody thinks the path to success is a straight line. You probably more than anybody know, you’ve, you’ve probably hit roadblocks and failures and set back.

It’s a mess. It’s a 

[00:37:15] Charles Eide: complete mess. 

[00:37:16] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. Lives in a world of, no, you have to be comfortable with the uncomfortable. So if you wanna be on a television show, call them and ask. If you want somebody to work for you, but you can’t afford it, and you can only afford half of their salary, ask them if they’ll do it.

You might be surprised. The amount of yeses that I have heard in my career, just because I asked, have been tremendous in fact. I’ll give you a prime example. You and I have worked together professionally. I’ve used Icom, uh, as the company who does production for huge events for Fortune 500 companies. Um, and I called you up to handle the whole thing because I know your company is gonna do the best job.

You know how, uh, I mean, I’m thinking of one off the top of my head that we did in Atlanta. It was a huge production, right? Do you know how it came to be? They hired me to be a speaker and a performer at their event. And you know what I said? I said, Hey, who’s doing your production? And they said, well, we have a company we’ve been working with for a long time, but I’m open to suggestions.

And I said, will you please allow me to help you? By trusting me and bringing in a new production team. And they said yes. And you definitely, at minimum, from that same company, got two major deals out of it. Yeah, because, because you asked, I asked ’cause you asked. And that’s a core principle that, that I lead with.

When I do anything business personal, I, you have to ask for what you want from the universe, otherwise you’re not gonna get it. 

[00:38:48] Charles Eide: How do I get over the uncomfortableness? I mean, I, I know you’re gonna say repetition, but dude, I don’t, if I, you asked me to make another call to a pizza joint right now, I would not do it 

[00:38:58] Wayne Hoffman: right.

Um, it’s, it’s, it’s, and this is the credo for anyone who’s trying to do anything big. Uh, the answer is, get comfortable with the discomfort. Get comfortable with the discomfort. Again, I’ve studied the human mind my entire life and the things that I learned and the secrets that I learned can help business people excel.

One of those things is get comfortable with the discomfort because you are a human being. You’re never gonna get rid of feelings, you’re never gonna get rid of emotions. The key is to sit with them, process them, understand that these are natural, but doing it anyway. You did it anyway. You fought through it.

They always say courage is not the lack of fear. It’s having fear but doing it anyway. Mm-hmm. And that’s what it is. The most successful people that I’ve worked with, you know, after doing my keynote, I’ve had executives, owners, business owners and founders come to me for one-on-one coaching now, to guide them through these principles and kind of, uh, use optimization of their mind.

They’re already on the body. You know, they’re taking the peptides and the testosterone and they’re exercising, but they’re not working on their mind. Your mind is its own thing, you know? So I’m helping ’em in coaching ’em with paradigm shifts. And one of the things that, that you have to realize is, anyway, you, you, you have to, you have to work on your, your, your mental state and being comfortable with uncomfortable things.

The, the business owners and leaders I work with. It. They sit in the discomfort and know how to process it. We’re always fighting to get rid of emotions. We’re always fighting to get rid of negativity. We’re always fighting. Don’t, it’s part of life. You’re not gonna come out of this unscathed. You will bleed, you will get cut, you will get hurt, you will be scared.

You’re gonna fail. It’s part of the human experience. 

[00:40:57] Charles Eide: Mm. Okay. So you, you were telling me earlier about this four step process that you, you teach and I wanna learn all about it. So let’s, let’s do it. Tell me about it. I’ll give it 

[00:41:06] The Four Step Process: Feel

[00:41:06] Wayne Hoffman: to you as, as compact as I can. We got hot pizza on the way, so Yes, we do. So, uh, for everybody listening, um, what I’m about to teach you is the process and system and the secret to 30 years, uh, that led up to success.

Right Now I’m going to give you a framework. That led to a person starting with nothing and now living their ultimate life. And it’s this, the first step is feel. Every single thing that we do is driven on feeling, whether it’s physical or emotional. If you’re hungry, you eat, you’re tired, you sleep thirsty, you drink right, you’re sad, you cry.

Right? It’s at these things that are taking place are driven on emotion. I see so many founders and, and people, people that have startups that are trying to make a quick buck, okay, oh, I want to just make ton of money. Right? But they don’t really care about what they’re doing. Uh, you know, people out in the workforce, they get a job because they need money.

A lot of people just need to pay the bills and they hate their job. It’s a common thing where, oh, uh, I, I hate work. I hate my boss. I’m gotta go work again. And they live for the weekend. It’s Monday 

[00:42:29] Charles Eide: again. Yep. 

[00:42:30] Wayne Hoffman: Can’t wait till Friday. Right, right. And that’s life for the, I would say almost the vast majority of people.

And they don’t have a, a feeling or a connection to what they’re doing. They actually, if they do, it’s a negative one. Right. So you have to start with the feeling. The reason you start with the feeling is the, if you have an emotional drive for the end goal, it’s gonna get you through the tough times. I’ll give you an example.

I love what I do so much. I love performing and I love inspiring people so much. That in the beginning when I first started getting gigs, I couldn’t get a job because I had this, I had to perform. So some days I made money, some, some days I didn’t. And in the very beginning, and I rarely tell this story, but I was so in love with what I did, even though I was making no money, that I slept in the back of a 1987 Chevy Astro van.

And I would park the car in a Walmart parking lot, and every day at 4:00 AM the street sweeper would go by with that yellow light and the whirring sound, and it would wake me up and it was okay. And the reason it was okay is because I knew I was doing what I loved and I knew that I could figure it out.

There was no other plan B. There was no other thing where I, I was, maybe I’ll get a job doing something else. Once I committed to following my passion, I was committed to it and my genuine love and my feeling and emotion toward. Got me through the tough times. So this, this also permeates through company culture.

If you’re already leading a successful company, you, your feelings as the leader, whether you see them or not, are affecting your team. If you’re the curmudgeon that walks in the office every day and is always complaining and talking about the things that are wrong, and you, you know, you have this general negative demeanor all the time, that’s gonna affect your team and it will affect your bottom line.

You’re gonna lose money if you’re constantly in a bad mood. For sure. It’s not quantifiable. I can’t show you paperwork and graphs right now, but it’s a fact. 

[00:44:45] Charles Eide: Right. So you’re saying feel in, in, you’re just saying acknowledge how you’re feeling. 

[00:44:51] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. 

[00:44:52] Charles Eide: And then. Feel those feelings and realize them. 

[00:44:55] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. Now feelings drive success.

Yeah. Right. And feelings. It’s, it, it goes from a, a, a pushing you forward. Right. Getting you through the hard times and the hurdles for sure. But it’s also in reverse. Once you’ve made it and you’re at the top of your game, your feelings are now creating emotional responses with your team. Now, I know the company that you lead and I know how you operate.

And the vibes just being around, I mean, everybody here is cool and chill. And it seems now there’s probably kerfuffles, I don’t know if that’s a real word, but there’s problems, right? They’re getting into it and there’s a problem and that, but some people are 

[00:45:32] Charles Eide: naturally 

[00:45:33] Wayne Hoffman: more 

[00:45:33] Charles Eide: positive. 

[00:45:34] Wayne Hoffman: Correct. And some people have to work at it.

Correct. But that’s the key work on recognizing, and it’s again, going back, work harder on yourself than you do on your job. 

[00:45:43]  : Mm. 

[00:45:43] Wayne Hoffman: Work harder on yourself than you do on your job. And part of that is a. Having emotional intelligence, right? Yeah. So that’s step one is feel, make sure that whatever you’re doing is driven by a good why.

[00:45:56] Charles Eide: And, and that, that work you’re doing on yourself, you can take that anywhere. 

[00:46:01] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. 

[00:46:01] Charles Eide: Right? That’s not stuck where you’re at. 

[00:46:03] Step Two: Define Your Goals

[00:46:03] Wayne Hoffman: Correct. Right. Okay. Number two. Number two. So once you feel something for me, I felt like I wanted to be a performer and I wanted to be on stage entertaining people and nothing was gonna stop me.

I had the driving force, the desire, the human innate thing that I knew this was going to happen. Now I knew I had this feeling of something. But then you go to the second step. The second step is define. Okay? Right. We all have feelings and emotions and we all have dreams and visions of the future, but we don’t define what they are.

And this is a huge hurdle for everybody. So I’ll give you an example. Um, do you want to be rich and success?

[00:46:47] Charles Eide: If it’s a byproduct of doing something great, 

[00:46:50] Wayne Hoffman: and that’s the driving force and the emotion behind your why, but the answer is if you ask anybody this, but yeah, the answer is yes. Right? But guess what? You can’t be those things. What? What do you mean? What do you mean you can’t, you can’t be rich, you can’t be successful.

You’re looking at me like I have three heads. Do you know why I say that Rich is subjective and needs to be defined? I spoke with a lady who lived in Cambodia, I believe it was Cambodia and. I said, what is your, what would make you successful? And she said, to move to the big city. That’s four hours from me.

Hmm. And if I just move there, I’m successful relocating her physical body somewhere else. She achieved the highest and ultimate version of her, uh, self. Right? For other people. Uh, success is defined by, you know, the net profit of a business. Sometimes success is raising children and being a stay at home mom and making sure my kids are safe and taken care of.

Rich, you can’t be rich. If I looked at your bank statement right now, it won’t say rich. Right. What is Rich? You have to define it very specifically. Does that mean I need $250,000 in liquid funds? Does that mean I need a real estate portfolio of $14 million? Does it mean I have two Ferraris and a Range Rover and A, it’s gonna be different for everybody.

Well, 

[00:48:21] Charles Eide: and that target, I think moves. Yeah. As you get more and more, yes. Of the things you get closer and closer, that that target changes 

[00:48:30] Wayne Hoffman: and moves. But you just said it. Target. You have to create the target. Yeah. Everybody wants to be rich and successful. How many of them make the target. Yeah. Nobody does.

Very few. It’s the people that make the target that make it for me, I, you know, I said a lot of people say, well, I want to be famous. Well, as an entertainer, fame is part of it. You want to be no notable and get your, your art format, right? Yeah. Well, what’s famous, well, my first step in, in my definition was, well, uh, if I went on a major TV show, well now I have to pick one.

And I picked the Ellen DeGeneres show, and I called and they said yes. Right? I, I identified a specific thing that would be a jigsaw, uh, piece, a jigsaw puzzle piece in my entire picture of what I considered success. So when you think you’ve defined what you want, define it again. Right? And then when you think you have that defined, define it again.

If you can define success to a phone number or an email address. To call or to email, then you’ve done it. Hmm. If you can take the concept of success and boil it down to a doable action, you’ve done it. I asked one question and here’s, here’s a nugget that’s gonna change lives. Ask yourself this question.

What is the next doable action I can take to get one step closer to considering my goal completed? What is the next doable action I can take to get one step closer to having my goal considered done? So it’s um, let’s say you want to upgrade your phone. You have your phone right there, right? Upgrade it right now.

I’ll wait. You can’t, right? Well, you, you, you could, you would have to go online confused. You would have to order, it’s the iPhone 17 promax. So yeah, you actually can’t upgrade it. Bougie son of a, but the, so the, the point is you would have to go online, contact your carrier, order the new phone, you know, and maybe you forgot the login information for your account online.

So then you have to hit, maybe forgot password and then it’ll send an email to your email. So then the next doable action at that point, if you did all that, is open your emails. So it’s not upgrade phone, it’s open emails. So the doable actions are the tiny little things that get you one step closer. And those are, you know, here’s the famous quote, what’s the best way to eat an elephant?

[00:51:10] Charles Eide: Yeah. One 

[00:51:10] Wayne Hoffman: bite at a time. One bite at a time. Yeah. But people don’t know what the bites are in order to get there. So again, define, that’s the second step. Okay. Number three. Uh, plan. Plan. You know, so this is going into, I feel some, a driving force. I’m emotionally connected to it. I’ve defined exactly, and specifically, you know.

I’ve defined exactly and specifically what that thing is. Right? And now I have to go and do things. We often have these visions of grandeur of I’m picturing myself on the yacht and I’m envisioning, and I have my vision board and I’m gonna manifest this vision and I’m happy and healthy and all of this stuff.

And then they kind of just wallow and they just kind of float around believing that the universe is going to just deliver it. 

[00:51:58] Charles Eide: Yeah. We’ve all met those people that go to like conference, after conference, after conference. Yes. And you’re like, you, you’re going to a lot of conferences, but you should probably get back and like do some of the, you know, the work and stuff, right?

Yes. 

[00:52:09] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. You have to engage with the universe. You know, let’s take the example of, um, a person who feels they wanna be a singer and they maybe have a naturally beautiful singing voice and they defined that they want to sing on the biggest stages in the universe. But they go in the middle of the woods.

They live alone in a cabin, and they never talk to anybody. Okay? And they’ve envisioned this and they feel it, and they meditate on it every day. And I’m a big believer in meditation and the power of positive thinking, and I’m very open-minded. Um, but you have to create a business around the things you have now defined and learning what to do.

Like, for example, just asking the simple question, what’s the n next doable action I can take? If you only just do that, that already will put your plan in action. But you have to figure out business strategies. Now you, okay, what do I need to do? This is where education comes in. You’re planning, you’re making moves.

Um, one of the things I, I tell people is, you can’t do it alone. I’m a mentalist. I’m a mind reader. I can’t even practice without another person. 

[00:53:19]  : Mm-hmm. It’s 

[00:53:20] Wayne Hoffman: not like a guitar player where I can sit in a room and practice. I need people to even have anything, any movement, a practice, a performance, and the same, same thing goes for life.

You cannot do it alone. Surround yourself with people who will support your mission. There’s an old concept where if you have a birthday cake and a candle and you blow it out and you make a wish and you’re not supposed to tell anyone the wish or it won’t come true, that old superstition, I believe the absolute opposite.

I believe you should tell your wish to. Every human on the planet because the universe wants to support you. You just need to go out and ask for it and get people around you to help you. Icom is not a company that is, is Charles id. It is the people and the crew and the team behind it. This podcast doesn’t exist.

The viewers don’t see this. There’s a ton of people behind the cameras. I’m looking a around, right? And this, this whole thing happens because you have, uh, the good fortune of having an amazing team. The same thing goes for anything that anybody is trying to accomplish. Shout your goal from, from the mountaintops and create doable actions to get you there.

[00:54:34] Step Three: Plan

[00:54:34] Wayne Hoffman: So plan. That’s the third one. Okay. Plan. Now, uh, the final one, which is do also known as execute. People will feel something that they want to accomplish this burning desire, right? And they define it and say, okay, I want, uh, I wanna be on this, this mega TV show, or I wanna be on this Netflix special, or whatever.

And they create the plan. And now they get to the moment where they have to make the big phone call and they have to call this person and ask for the big ask. And you know what they do? They do nothing and they self-sabotage and they sit there and they, why? Why 

[00:55:15] Charles Eide: do you think we do that? Why do you think people self-sabotage?

[00:55:17] Wayne Hoffman: It’s because we’re telling ourself false stories. We, we are human beings that are driven by emotion and the stories that we’re telling ourselves are negative because we believe sometimes and often incorrectly that we’re not good enough. Why do we do that? It’s, it’s human nature. We’re why It’s fear.

[00:55:36] Step Four: Do (Execute)

[00:55:36] Wayne Hoffman: It’s fear because we as human beings don’t believe that success is going to happen. I think, you know, then here, when you talk about fear, the number one fear in the world is the fear of public speaking. Okay. People, a lot of people don’t know that, but if you’ve ever been asked to do a speech in front of people, you’ve probably felt that.

[00:55:57] Charles Eide: Yeah. Like people would rather die 

[00:55:58] Wayne Hoffman: than Yes. Yeah. And here, I mean, I 

[00:56:00] Charles Eide: don’t know if they would actually rather die. I don’t know. Well, here’s 

[00:56:03] Wayne Hoffman: why. It’s funny you should say that. So I, studying the human mind wanted to find out why is it, why is, why is public speaking the number one fear? So I, I, I did research and I found that it stems from the time when we were cave men and women, right?

Cave people, if you will. When you would go out, uh, on your own and you would get injured and you broke your leg and you couldn’t hunt and gather, you’re doomed. You can’t walk. So you’re, you’re dead because you can’t hunt anymore. And you’re not gonna eat. So what did we do? We became tribal. So if Charles gets hurt, well we can go out and hunt and gather and bring Charles food while he heals himself, right?

And then if I get hurt, hopefully Charles will pick up his bow and arrow and go catch a bison. And whatever and help feed me. Now what happened was if you said something in the tribe that all the other people didn’t like, they would kick you out of the tribe. And what is that certain death? So we genetically and psychologically kind of now are programmed to equate saying something in front of a group of people incorrectly with certain death.

So what I encourage people to do is realize, Hey man, just you can, if, if you say something stupid when you’re talking in front of your company, you can just go to McDonald’s bro afterward and eat a double cheeseburger. You’re not gonna die. But yeah, these things often stem from our just kind of human nature through the millennia we’ve So you think it’s programed, wired 

[00:57:33] Charles Eide: in to just be afraid of Yes.

Yeah. 

[00:57:36] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. And when you can fight fear, everything you’ve ever wanted is on the other side. It’s fear. 

[00:57:44] Charles Eide: You know, it’s funny, since I’ve known you. Is I, I’ve noticed about you that you don’t get phased by weird awkwardness. It is the coolest thing in the world. It’s like something I wish I was better at.

[00:57:58] Practicing Awkwardness and Fear

[00:57:58] Charles Eide: Because you, no matter how uncomfortable a situation is, you seem to feel very like, well practiced in it. And it must be just the, the years of practice because I’m going, man, how cool would that be if I could remain as agnostic about the weirdness as you are? You’re just so cool about it. Like that whole pizza thing and you’re sitting over there cool as a cucumber.

Like you’ve done this 10,000 times, maybe you have, and I’m sitting over here sweating through my jacket. Yeah. Like, how did you develop that? Is it just practicing awkwardness over and over and over again 

[00:58:38] Wayne Hoffman: till you’re like, whatever? It’s not practicing awkwardness because the goal isn’t the awkward, and it’s not to fight it, but it’s to understand it.

So, uh, and you know, make, thinking about this, I’m a mentalist, I do weird things. I live in the weird, I’m the guy that brings the weird to the table. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, so to to people literally 

[00:59:00] Charles Eide: pay you 

[00:59:01] Wayne Hoffman: millions to 

[00:59:01] Charles Eide: be 

[00:59:01] Wayne Hoffman: weird. Yeah. I mean you’re like, whatever. It’s, it’s true. I, I’ve, I live in, in the weird, um, but when you’re fighting through fear, it’s recognizing exactly what’s going on, right?

It’s go taking a moment to go, I’m feeling this, but now don’t attach a story to it. I’m feeling this, this is natural, but is it bad? Is it bad to be human is basically what the question is. No, it is the essence of who you are and your being. You are a, what I always say is you are a divine being, having a human experience.

Right. So to feel fear is very natural. But now the question is, what are you gonna do with it? It’s like playing cards. Yeah. You either hesitate 

[00:59:46] Charles Eide: or move forward. 

[00:59:47] Wayne Hoffman: Yeah. You, if you’re dealt a hand, if you’re playing poker and you’re dealt a hand, that’s natural. The hand is the fear essentially. Now what are you gonna do with it?

Yeah. Are you gonna play the hand? Are you gonna fight through it? Are you gonna fold? It’s your choice. A lot of things that we, it encounter as human beings are feelings at first, but ultimately become decisions. It is. I’m fearful now, but now you have a choice. You can fold. I, I’ll tell you what, when you, when you were on the phone there and you were uncomfortable.

And you, you were feeling these feelings, you could have easily just gone, uh, you know, sorry for bothering you. I’m just gonna, okay, nevermind. Bye cl and hung up. Well, what did you do? You sat in the discomfort, right? And you were there marinating 

[01:00:41] Charles Eide: in it. Well, I actually, I tried to bring her into my discomfort so she could feel it.

’cause she was like, I don’t know if I trust you, who, you know, I’m a scammer and I was trying to like humanize who I am to her. Yeah. Yes. By bringing her into my own discomfort. I don’t know. It was very, 

[01:00:56] Wayne Hoffman: so, so let, let’s, let’s teach the listeners something in this too. ’cause this is a tangent and I think it’s valuable.

Let me ask you a question. What’s the difference between someone who does tricks and a magician? Do you know? No. Right. There is a difference. The magician does the tricks but is also a storyteller. It’s Uncle Bob knows a couple tricks. A magician brings you into a world and makes you care about why he’s doing what he’s doing.

[01:01:30] The Power of Storytelling

[01:01:30] Wayne Hoffman: Right. And inherently, storytelling brings in an emotional component of the hu of human perception and experience that creates connection. And this is a tool I, I like to teach leaders all the time. Storytelling is one of the most powerful swords you can, uh, wield both internally with your team and public facing.

When you’re advertising, promoting or marketing. Um, people resonate with stories. If you look back through the history books, there’s always one main character who was the storyteller. He sat around the, you know, and if you look at ancient Greece and all these things throughout history, because the people who tell the stories can, I mean, people who tell stories can start wars, move mountains.

End wars. End wars and everything in between. So that once you can involve, involve people emotionally in your business or in your negotiation, you’re, you’re humanizing it. And we often like to use technology and the internet and AI and all these gadgets and stuff, but at the end of the day, who runs your company?

Humans, who’s the person deciding, uh, to cut the check for your company or not a human? These people, we put ’em on a pedestal sometimes the buyers and, and we and CEOs of companies, you know what they do? They sit on the toilet. And they do their business just like we do. You know? And they cry and they fall.

They’re human. So I think adding a, a connection and a, you know, you told the story to that lady of what happened. Yeah. Like, I’m sitting here, I’m, and, and you painted the picture and it allowed her to not view you as just this weird moment. But as a human being, having a human experience, 

[01:03:27] Charles Eide: there’s a couple more things.

We gotta bring this in for a landing. There’s a couple things that I would love for you to blow my mind. We have two things that we said. You said you’ve got two things at the end of the podcast you wanted to do. Yeah, I can do. I, I have, I have, uh, 

[01:03:44] Wayne Hoffman: two, two, uh, 

[01:03:45] Charles Eide: or, or more? Two or 

[01:03:45] Wayne Hoffman: more. You could give us more.

I mean, like, yeah, we can do, give us 10. We can do I have, I again, I, we can do a million things like, but um, do you wanna see something cool? I wanna see something cool. Awesome. Let’s do it. Let, 

[01:03:58] Charles Eide: I, 

[01:03:59] Wayne Hoffman: I wanna, I wanna have my mind blown.

[01:04:05] Magic Demo: Restoring the Crushed Can

[01:04:05] Wayne Hoffman: I have two cans here that are crushed and emptied. I got ’em from your, uh, room over here. Question. Uh, and the glass I borrowed from the kitchen. Um, do you prefer Coke or Pepsi? Uh, I like coke better. Coke. You got it. Two crushed empty cans. You can see that the can is, um, dented. You can see it’s open and you can see it’s crushed.

Um, and you chose this one. You could have chose the Pepsi had you, had you selected it. But I want you to imagine that we can travel back in time. I want you to imagine that every time my finger goes around the can that we can go one minute into the past. Now I learned something and that is this human perception is interesting.

Um, ’cause we create things and perceive the things we create. For example, time, did you know time isn’t real? Thyme is manmade. Sure. And you can say, well, you can, if humans didn’t exist, you could still go out into the expanses of the universe and you could see planets moving around their suns and measure that.

Yeah. That’s called movement, not thyme. Thyme isn’t real. And I also found out lemons aren’t real. Did you know that lemons don’t exist in nature? They’re manmade. Google it. I’m telling you. Look, watch the dents in the can. It’s the dent is going away. Now, if you just continue to watch, the dents are gonna come outta the can because time isn’t real.

So our perception of it can be shifted. Now we still have a hole, but if you imagine I can grab the hole and throw it away, that’s your imagination. So you’re grabbing nothing and getting rid of it. A lack of nothing is equal to the presence of something like a seal. Oh my gosh. Get outta here. And that is completely an utterly tap on it.

Verify it’s resealed. Now listen, listen. You’re gonna, we are gonna fill this up. Yeah, I was gonna say it sounded empty. Listen, listen. Fill it up. It’s getting heavier. Listen, what? What? Keep going. I want every last drop back into the can. Let’s, that’s completely refilled. Now I just want your listeners to remember one thing, and that is this.

If you feel, define, plan and do, you can create a world of magic. Get outta here. What? Cheers. Oh my God. Here you can have the rest of it. Oh my gosh, dude, get outta here. 

[01:06:42] Charles Eide: What in the dickens? Is blowing what in the dickens? That’s the best. What in the dickens? Dude, that’s crazy. Yeah, that’s a fun one. You know what I’m really dying to do?

No, you, I’m not a mind reader, Charles. So, yeah, right. You, you. Okay. So earlier we were talking and you said, I want you to write down a word that represents a thing. Okay. And you told me to put it in some sort of box. Well, I had a pistol safe in my car. Okay. And, uh, so you had me lock it into the pistol case?

Yes. And okay. When this happened, and for everybody that’s watching, I, I want to be really clear. We didn’t set this up. You gave me a note card and a sharpie, and you said write it down. You walked out of the room. I wrote it down and I locked it in that box. This is not a setup. I even came in here to the crew and I said, I wrote this down.

It’s locked in there. He did not see it. So I have that box right here and it’s still locked. I have not touched it. Now this is where your skills are gonna get tested ’cause there’s not a chance on this planet that, you know what that says? No way. It’s not possible. 

[01:08:08] The Black Hole Prediction Reveal

[01:08:08] Wayne Hoffman: You’re right. But I’m gonna try. Um, is it okay?

[01:08:17] Charles Eide: There’s no way he knows. There’s no way. This is where we find out if you’re a witch.

All right.

If you get this, I’m walking outta here, man. I am so walking outta here. Okay. Let’s try it. So, and the crew has been watching. You’ve seen this box has not moved. 

[01:08:50] Wayne Hoffman: Okay, 

[01:08:50] Charles Eide: let’s, let’s do it.

[01:08:57] Wayne Hoffman: All I need to know is this, is it a word, a phrase? And does it have any numbers involved with it? 

[01:09:08] Charles Eide: There’s no numbers. Okay. And it is, it’s just something, it’s two words. And that’s all I’m giving you. And 

[01:09:15] Wayne Hoffman: you wrote it down and, and locked it. I wrote 

[01:09:17] Charles Eide: it down on a sharpie on a, on a three by five card. Okay.

And then I locked it with this key.

[01:09:26] Wayne Hoffman: Think of it. 

[01:09:27] Charles Eide: This is gonna blow my mind. If you do this. I’m gonna lose my mind. Did 

[01:09:30] Wayne Hoffman: you tell anybody what it is in the, in the whole? Nope. Does anybody on earth other than you know what it is? Nope. Nobody. And was anybody in the room when you wrote it down or locked it into the safe? No. 

[01:09:41] Charles Eide: You left the room.

[01:09:42] Wayne Hoffman: Alright, so it was after I left, you did this on you. That’s 

[01:09:45] Charles Eide: why I was like, dude, we should have a camera in here to prove that I, you were not here, but it’s, well, then it 

[01:09:49] Wayne Hoffman: would be on camera, so then that would defeat the purpose, but, okay. Um, look at me.

[01:09:56] Charles Eide: Do I need to be thinking about it? 

[01:09:59] Wayne Hoffman: Yes. 

[01:10:00] Charles Eide: Okay.

[01:10:10] Wayne Hoffman: Charles, I wanna ask you a question. Do you feel like your thought was something that you came up with on your own and randomly 

[01:10:22] Charles Eide: Yes. Mm-hmm.

[01:10:26] Wayne Hoffman: What if I told you you’re wrong and that I’ve been acting this entire time? What if I told you I implanted the thought into your mind? Would you believe me?

[01:10:45] Charles Eide: No, I wouldn’t. No, I wouldn’t. So, no, because there was no mention or talk of anything. No, there wasn’t at all. 

[01:10:54] Wayne Hoffman: No, no, no. Um, so after I show you what’s on here, whatever the outcome may be, you’re going to have to determine yourself, whether I put it in your mind or if I was able to somehow read it. And I’m gonna leave it up to you to decide which one it is.

So I’m gonna, um, show, uh, everybody, and I’m gonna show the camera. Um, now they don’t know what is in the box, correct? No, they don’t. And I don’t either. Nope. Okay. I’m gonna show them what I have here. Um, this is what I believe is in the box, and I have it written here. Um, all, all I can see is the back of the board.

Yeah. And you can’t, I know I’m showing, I’m showing that, but you can’t see what I have. Mm-hmm. Okay. But I’ve shown already what I believe it to be before we open the box. That’s the important part. Um, so I’m not gonna show you just yet. I want you to open the box and reveal what it is. I’ve already shown them what it is.

I can’t change my answer. I’m freaking out right 

[01:12:01] Speaker 4: now.

Should I show it? Sure.

Get the, get outta here. Stop it. 

[01:12:18] Charles Eide: That’s not possible. You, there’s no way you s there’s not, that is not possible 

[01:12:24] Wayne Hoffman: that I wanna show you something 

[01:12:26] Charles Eide: that is not possible. I 

[01:12:28] Wayne Hoffman: saved, um, my screen background image of my phone to something. 

[01:12:34] Charles Eide: Shut 

[01:12:35] Wayne Hoffman: the 

[01:12:36] Charles Eide: front door, man. 

[01:12:37] Wayne Hoffman: It’s, it’s a black hole, dude. Yeah. And that’s real. I mean, this isn’t, this isn’t, this is, this is my phone.

Yeah. It’s a black hole on the, on the, the image. 

[01:12:54] Charles Eide: Yeah. 

[01:12:56] Wayne Hoffman: Dude, 

[01:12:58] Charles Eide: I don’t even know if I want to know. I you. This is not po I remember writing this down when you’re not in the room. I shut the box. I locked. I was like, there’s not a chance on the planet. This guy gets this thing, not a chance. 

[01:13:11] Wayne Hoffman: And here we are. Yeah.

Uh, magical things can happen in life, brother. And I think for all your listeners, when you start to live in that and think otherworldly and open your mind up to the infinite, right, and utilize the things we discuss today, but act in a manner where you almost have a, a, a childlike sense of wonder on earth where there are no ceilings, then you create the real magic of, of life.

You know how 

[01:13:52] Charles Eide: you put, you’re, you’re, so what you’re telling me is one of two things happened. Either A, you put this in my mind and I wrote it down, or B, 

[01:14:02] Wayne Hoffman: you read my mind. That is correct. It is one of those two things, and I’m gonna let you decide which one it was. 

[01:14:09] Charles Eide: And for those of you listening then don’t see this.

It’s a, I wrote down the word black hole.

And you wrote it down the same way I wrote it down. You didn’t even write it next to each other.

Yeah. Weird dude. You creep me out like in the best ways, but holy crap, are you for hire full time? Yeah. 

[01:14:37] Wayne Hoffman: You know what’s funny? I do these, uh, uh, things like, and I, and I read people’s minds, but people forget, this is my job. Oh my God. So, uh, yeah. What I do and how I earn money doing this is companies hire me to perform an entertainment, you know, like an entertainment, uh, entertainment show, or they hire me to do the keynote where I’m, you know, providing takeaways and really discussing the things we discussed here in this podcast to, to their team.

Um, and I travel around and I do theaters and stuff like that. And then I. Own an entertainment agency as well, Hoffman Entertainment. So, which, you know, we book other entertainers. ’cause I’ve already, I, you know, I’ve done it. I’ve, I’ve made a, a great kind of a career for myself and now we represent other great acts and other great speakers for corporate events and book ’em on the stages that you and your team are putting together and organizing.

So, but yes, to answer your question, uh, I am for hire. Uh, so I I, 

[01:15:41] Charles Eide: I always like to finish with this question.

[01:15:47] What Wayne Wants to Be Remembered For

[01:15:47] Charles Eide: What do you want to be remembered 

[01:15:49] Wayne Hoffman: for? It’s great. So when I first started doing this, it was all about making people smile and be happy. I loved the reactions that I got and that was the reason why I started doing it. But now, after nearly 30 years of doing this, I think it has evolved and it has grown.

And it’s twofold. Number one, I want every person that I’ve encountered and any, any person that encounters a person that I encountered to have the better opportunity to realize we’re all still the same person that we were when we were a child, as we are as adults. Two things change. You get older and you learn stuff.

That’s it. But we can get stuck in the daily rhythms of life. Get up, go to work, come home, eat dinner, fall asleep, and, and rinse and repeat. And we forget that we live in a magical world. So that’s the first part. I want people to be inspired to look beyond what they can see and feel and hear and what their senses are because we’re on a big, gigantic rock right now, flying hurdling through infinite nothingness.

And that to me is magical. But second and a more practical part. Is, I want to use my platform as a performer. I want to be able to evoke emotion from people and use it to serve a higher purpose so people can live their best lives. And that’s where I really found my purpose and my legacy is after I’m long gone, um, having the opportunity to have these people that I interact with that see my keynote or even watch my show ’cause I talk about these things with it, carry on this concept of anything is possible.

Uh, and I want that word to spread. I want everybody to learn that. It’s not that I am magical. Look at me. It’s I’m magical and so are you. And that sums it up. 

[01:18:00] Charles Eide: You are living that. You are living that and you have been. A an incredible friend. You’ve been, you’ve been great. You’ve been as great a friend a guy could ask for, and I Thanks brother and I sincerely mean that.

And I thank you for coming on and blowing my mind. I don’t still am kind of freaked out about the black hole thing. It’s crazy. Right. But we should have hot pizza showing up shortly, thanks to you. Oh no, we, we 

[01:18:28] Wayne Hoffman: are no thanks to you. 

[01:18:31] Charles Eide: I just want to thank you for coming all the way up from Florida to be with us today.

Yeah, 

[01:18:34] Wayne Hoffman: it’s my pleasure brother. I wouldn’t be anywhere else in the world. I support every venture that you do. ’cause you’re a good, you’re a good person. Thank you. So 

[01:18:42] Charles Eide: are 

[01:18:42] Wayne Hoffman: you. 

[01:18:43] Charles Eide: Thanks for joining me today. Of course. Alright. Thanks Wayne. Yes. Oh, we got the pizza. Get outta, keep that rolling. The pizza showed up here.

Put it here. Yeah. That’s a great, how happy that delivery you gotta be. Was he? Yeah, that good job. Yeah. Thank you. 

[01:19:00] Pizza Arrives – Proof of Yes in a World of No

[01:19:00] Wayne Hoffman: So, so this is the evidence right here that Yes. Lives in a world of no. In physical form, bro. Physical proof that yes. Lives in a world of No. Look at that. Yeah. 

[01:19:13] Charles Eide: This is insane. Yeah. You got that.

You, you talked me into getting a free pizza. It’s the first time I’ve ever had a free pizza in my life. Wow. Right there. Hey, if you like this episode, make sure you subscribe, share it with somebody you like, and of course, make sure you check out my company id com. We produce conferences and events all over the us and if you know of a conference or an event that’s looking for the best company in the business, check out EideCom.com.