Read Your Way to the Top: Books and Stories to Inspire Your Journey with Dennis Henson

If you’re feeling stuck in life, constantly on autopilot, and wondering why you’re not making progress towards your goals, then you are not alone! Despite having the desire to achieve more, many individuals find themselves trapped in a cycle of comfort and monotony that holds them back from pursuing their dreams. It’s time to break free from this pattern and regain control of your life!

In this episode, you will be able to:

• Hear about ‘Real Impact Daily Inspiration’ Beyond his real estate ventures, Dennis is passionate about personal growth and education. He has authored several books, including The Laws of Nature for Success, which outlines seven universal principles for achieving success, and Real Impact: Daily Inspiration, a collection of stories and advice aimed at helping readers develop daily habits for personal growth.
• Discover the transformative power of daily reading for personal growth and self-improvement.
• Uncover effective strategies for overcoming dyslexia and ADHD challenges to unlock your full potential.
• Gain insights from real-life success stories in real estate investing and learn how you can achieve financial freedom.
• Explore the profound impact of mentorship on achieving success and reaching your highest potential.
• Learn to create powerful life goals using the SMART criteria for greater motivation and focus in pursuing your dreams.

My special guest is Dennis Henson

Dennis Henson, the founder and president of Vanguard Marketing Investments Incorporated, has an impressive career in both the real estate and personal growth industries. His latest book, “The Laws of Nature for Success,” is a result of 50 years of seasoned wisdom, offering a profound insight into the habits and traits of super successful individuals. Dennis’ journey from dyslexia and academic struggles to achieving success through sheer determination and a love for music is truly inspiring. His story resonates with many, depicting the power of perseverance and self-belief. Dennis has a remarkable ability to connect with audiences, sharing invaluable lessons from his own life experiences, making him a sought-after mentor and educator. His commitment to personal growth and achievement through mentorship makes him a valuable guest on the show.

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Connect with  Dennis Henson:
Website: https://www.realimpactbook.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DJHFB
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dennishenson72/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dennisjhenson/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@dailyreadinghabit
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/bellasreadinghabit/

Connect with Dwight Heck:

Website: https://giveaheck.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/give.a.heck

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dwight.heck

Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/Giveaheck

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@giveaheck

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dwight-heck-65a90150/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@giveaheck

The key moments in this episode are(Unedited Transcript follows):
00:00:02 – The Power of Daily Reading

00:01:24 – Laws of Nature for Success

00:03:53 – Overcoming Obstacles and Personal Growth

00:12:32 – Persistence and Resilience

00:14:08 – The Power of Burning Desire and Determination

00:15:12 – The Seven Secrets of Success

00:16:29 – Tenacity as a Superpower

00:19:16 – Building Trust through Connection

00:25:13 – Synergy and Mutual Alliances

00:28:39 – Impact of Positive Actions

00:29:44 – Zig Ziglar’s Impact

00:30:23 – Authentic Storytelling

00:34:48 – The Power of Testimonials

00:36:22 – Mentors and Personal Growth

00:41:20 – Real Impact Daily Inspiration

00:44:26 – The Writing Journey

00:45:48 – Writing Style Inspiration

00:46:55 – Emotional Connection in Writing

00:48:23 – Resilience and Success

00:55:44 – The Symbolism of the Book Cover

00:59:19 – Overused Word “But”

01:00:32 – Power of Words

01:01:05 – Effective Communication

01:02:31 – Setting Goals

01:05:12 – Mindset and Faith

01:13:39 – The Importance of Origin and Evergreen Content

01:14:37 – Impactful Book Design and Gift-Giving

01:18:51 – Changing Mindset and Career Path

01:23:38 – Forming Success Habits

01:27:17 – Fulfillment and Impact beyond Financial Success

01:27:54 – Finding Joy in Work

01:29:18 – Success Leaves Clues

01:31:38 – Seeking Wisdom from Positive People

01:32:09 – Help Yourself by Helping Others

01:34:58 – The Seven Secrets of Success

Full Unedited Transcript:
00:00:02 – Dwight Heck
Good day and welcome to give a hack on today’s show, I welcome Dennis Henson. Dennis created a book that finally will be that book to anchor the habit of reading daily for the purpose of creating rapid forward motion in life. Dennis has curated profiles, quotes and poems to get people beyond doubting themselves questioning why their momentum is stuck, stalled or suffering from imposter syndrome. Dennis has a career of singular achievement and is currently the founder and president of Vanguard Marketing Investments Incorporated and a renowned leader and educator in both the real estate and personal growth industries. He was stumped for a moment when a podcast host asked him if you could name the one thing that had the greatest impact on your students, what would it be? And then it became clear to him form the habit of reading something every day that educates or inspires them. Real impact daily. Inspiration is designed to get people beyond doubting themselves question whether momentum is stalled or suffering from imposter syndrome. The book shows how so many people have humble beginnings, limited means and nearly insurmountable obstacles persevered with unplagging beliefs in their ideas. Has exceeded beyond anyone’s expectations except their own. I’d like to welcome you to the show, Dennis. Thanks so much for agreeing to come on and share with us some of your life journey.

00:01:32 – Speaker B
Thank you for having me, Dwight. I really appreciate it. I look forward to it.

00:01:36 – Dwight Heck
Yeah, me too. I look forward to it too. I just thought about it. Listeners, I just found out Dennis has released a new book. Dennis, what’s the name of it again? Your new book that you.

00:01:49 – Speaker B
The newest book is the Laws of Nature for Success.

00:01:54 – Dwight Heck
Okay. Yes. So go on, go ahead.

00:01:58 – Speaker B
It took 50 years.

00:02:01 – Dwight Heck
50 years.

00:02:01 – Speaker B
I started in 75 and it’s been a 50 year in production.

00:02:07 – Dwight Heck
So you’ve got 50 years of seasoned Dennis within that book all your. All year. Because we don’t get old, we just get more seasoned. I tell people like that. Get rid of that old statement. I’m just getting more seasoned every year. Right. Just like a fine steak.

00:02:24 – Speaker B
Right. The book’s really not about my seasoning, but it’s a search.

00:02:30 – Dwight Heck
A.

00:02:31 – Speaker B
A research and search of super successful people.

00:02:35 – Dwight Heck
Oh, okay.

00:02:35 – Speaker B
And what they have in common and why.

00:02:38 – Dwight Heck
Why?

00:02:39 – Speaker B
What were the things that you could count on that if you did it just the same way that you would achieve the same results and that’s why they’re called laws.

00:02:50 – Dwight Heck
Okay. I kind of remember going through. I think you do have something on your site about your newest book. Just so many things going on. But we’re going to focus on the book that Originally, I read about in your when when you applied to be on the show. That intrigued me and I’m looking forward to finding out more information. But before we start that, as I mentioned before we hit record, I like to focus on the origin story of a person, from their earliest recollections, whatever they feel comfortable sharing, because it creates that. That bond with the listener or the person viewing us on YouTube and helps us literally connect and want to stay and not leave. Right to podcast, which is what, you know, I really want people to stay. You know, please don’t listen, don’t leave, grab your popcorn. If you’re not driving, have your favorite drink and sit back and listen to Dennis and I talk. So Dennis, please tell me your origin story and what key things from your childhood to adulthood that led you to where you’re at currently.

00:03:53 – Speaker B
Dwight When I was in school, elementary school, middle school, high school, I hated school. I was dyslexic. I was add, you know, the teachers didn’t like me. I was not really a troublemaker, but I was always fidgeting and into things and talking when I shouldn’t have been. And being in class made me feel like I was in prison. I literally despised going. I missed every day that I possibly could. I’d tell my mother that I was sick. And so the chances of me doing anything in school after I graduated, my favorite part of the year was summer. You know, when you got out, you no more school for three months. Hallelujah. And I thought, well, when I graduate, it’ll be summer forever. I never have to come back and listen to these boring classes. There was one thing in school that I really enjoyed. I was in the band. I couldn’t play football because I was too small and my father wouldn’t let me play. I really loved football. I mean, I. Any chance I got, I played tag or even tackle, backyard football. But when, when it came time to play football, I went out and my father showed up at school. I’d never seen my father at school ever. And he was talking with the coach and I had my helmet on. I just been issued some equipment. I ran over to see, well, what’s going on? And he took my helmet off and handed it to the coach and he said, my son’s not going to be playing. So that was the end of my football career. But I was in the band and I played the drums and I told my band director and he says, well, you know, you couldn’t have played football and been in the band at the same time. Did you Know that I thought, well, no. So it made me feel better. And later on, I was very poor. And later on, some of the band was invited to go to the University of Alabama music count. And the director asked my mother, well, does Dennis want to go? And I said, yeah, boy, I want to go. And then she found out it was going to cost. And she said, well, we can’t do it. We don’t have any money. My father was a disabled veteran, and he was totally, pretty much totally disabled, but he could work a little bit. So they only gave him a 60% pension. Now, a veteran’s pension was not very much. And 60% of not very much is pretty much nothing. So, you know, I wore worn out clothes and wore the same shoes until my toes came out. The end. We were really, really not very well off. But I didn’t know it because we were happy, you know, we loved each other and we appreciated what we had. But now looking back on it, I think, goodness, how did we get by? We ate food out of our garden, and daddy, we go hunting and hid by one box of shotgun shells for an entire year and feed us through, through the winter with that. So that’s kind of how poor we were. So getting back to the story, at music camp, I learned about the drum rudiments. Because in our school, they didn’t teach us to read music or drum ro. We just played cadences so that the band could march. We learned to read music. So at music camp, I saw all these drummers that were reading music, and they were playing the downfall of Paris and the three counts. And I thought, whoa, man, how do they do that? And the instructor said, well, they, they know the drum rudiments and they read music. So I did, I did decided that I was going to learn to read music and play rudiments. So I was doing that. And one day in class, it was a normal day. I wasn’t expecting anything. One day in class over the intercom, they said, this afternoon we’re going to have an assembly. And I thought, all right, assembly, no class. You know, go to the. I don’t care what it is, it’s not class. So we went to the auditorium, and there was a college band there, and they played their spring concert. And I thought, that’s okay. I’m in the band. It’s okay. I wasn’t crazy about concert music. I like the marching band music much better. Then the band director turned around and said, a little treat for you today. I brought our marching drum section, and I’d like To put on an exhibition. We were in the gym, it was an auditorium gym. And they went out to the middle of the basketball floor. Now, these were college kids, and I was the ninth or 10th guys, a little boy. They put on their drums and snapped to attention. Count it off. And I don’t know if you ever saw the movie drumline from 2002, if you ever saw that movie, you have an idea of what they were doing. It was amazing. They were playing drum rudiments and antiphonal cadences and they were twirling their drums and they’re throwing their sticks up and doing all. My mind just exploded. I thought, my God, I never heard anything like this. So after that was over, I went to my band director and said, I’ve got to be in that. How do I get in that drum session? I remember he looked at me and he said, Dennis, to be in that section, you have to go to college. And they’re not going to let you in college with your grades. And that’s. And I said, well, if I change my grades, will they let me in college? Can I be in that drum section? He says, well, if you don’t, you never will. Now, the year before, my homeroom teacher called my mother in law and told her that I was failing the ninth grade and if I didn’t start taking my books home, that I’d be held back. And there’s no telling if I would even finish high school. So mother made me start taking books home. But after that day, I took books home, I started studying. I went to every teacher and said, I’m going to be going to Jacksonville State University. And they looked at me and some of them laughed out loud because the chances of that happening before that day were zero. I didn’t have the money. My father would not allow me to go to college. I mean, he just was very. He would not. That was an obstacle I couldn’t get through. I played the drums left handed, which they wouldn’t have let me play that way anyway. And you know, my grades were terrible. There was. Everything was stacked against me. I was dyslexic, the teachers didn’t like me. No one thought I had any chance of ever going to college. But I brought my D’s and F’s up to A’s and B’s for the rest of the time that I was in high school. I learned to play the rudiments forward and backwards. I learned the drum section cadences for Jacksonville State even before I got there. And so the final year, it came down to this. I applied at Jacksonville, and they said, well, we see you brought your grades up, but they’re not quite to the point where we’ll accept you. You have to pass the ACT test and you have to make a 16. And I thought, oh, goodness, how can I do this? I can just barely read because I was dyslexic, and it was a time to test. So I went to the test and I did the best I could for 55 minutes. And then they said, you got five minutes left. And I guessed at the rest of the answers. You know, it was a multiple choice. So it took three weeks for the test to come back. And the council of the school called me and said, your results are back. And I remember thinking, oh, my life is going one way or another. You know, I don’t pass this, and I’ll probably go to trade school. But I. I made a 16.25, which was 0.25 more than I needed. And the next year, I went to Jacksonville State. But when I got there, I went early because I was at a BSU Baby Student Union camp and I sprained my ankle. And so by the time I got out of the hospital and got to see the band director, the drum section tryouts had already happened, and I didn’t make the section. So I said, what am I going to do? And he said, would you play any other instrument? And I said, well, I play the trop in a little bit, so. So he let me march with a trumpet as an alternate. I marched on the end of the echelon, end of the line. And if anybody out was out for the. The marching show, I had to go learn their position in one day and do the show, do the intricate maneuvers that they did, which was a lot of stress. And because of all that, I failed all my classes. I had. I was just interested in band. I wasn’t interested in school. So at the end of the first semester, I was on scholastic probation. Now here I was. I’d worked so hard to get into college, and I was on scholastic probation, which meant, if you fail the next semester, we’re sending you home. And I thought, well, I’ve been in this position before. So I went and talked with all the professors. I told him my story, and I said, I’ll do anything to get extra points. Anything. I’ll write reports, I’ll. I’ll do paintings. One teacher let me do a painting. The painting, showed it to the class, and she gave me 100 on it. So help me get through the class. And So I ended up squeaking through and passed. And the next year, I learned all of the tenor drum parts. I already knew the center parts. I learned all of the tenor drum parts, but I still didn’t know I was going to get in or not. So the following year, when it was time for the tryouts, two of the tenor drummers had moved to snare. The other two tenor drummers didn’t come back. I was the only one who knew the parts, and I became the tenor section. I became from not wanting me to absolutely needing me, because I was the only one that could teach them the sticking and the in the bars. And then the following year, I was a section leader of the drum section, and before I left the school, I was the drum major of the band. So I guess the reason I’m telling you this story is your life can change if you know what you want and you have a burning desire to do whatever it takes to get there. It’s hard to stop someone like that. And that’s kind of what my books are about. You know, it. There’s. There’s seven secrets in that story. And if you do the things in those seven secrets, which are also the laws of nature for success, then you can become successful at pretty much anything you want to.

00:15:31 – Dwight Heck
That’s. That’s awesome. As I’m listening to your story, you know, it just. It give me so much confidence. And when people say that they can’t succeed at things that they have, you know, strikes against them, I guess, would be a way to put it. You’re dealing with dyslexia, adhd, you’re literally dealing with all these challenges. But when we have something that we really want to achieve, Right. Tenacity is something we need to adopt. We need to get past it. And I honestly believe tenacity is a super party superpower. Part of me to be tenacious or be able to do what you did is because you had a dream, you had a goal, and. And the only thing that can help people, listening, watching. If you want to move forward in life, you have to want something greater than your current circumstance. You need to get out of your comfort zone. Nothing’s ever accomplished within your comfort zone. And Dennis, with his story, which I really appreciate your story and the details behind it, didn’t let anything stop him. Even when his putting on a football helmet and his father pulling it off and saying, you aren’t going to do this, he was still testing the envelope, pushing his boundaries at that age. And the point for me saying that is if you don’t push your boundaries. You’re going to stay stuck on the hamster wheel life. You’re not going to move forward. And that’s one of the reasons I wanted Dennis on, is because if it’s his unique knowledge and thought process on how to grow using the written word or whatever right form of use you need to use to get yourself moving forward every single day, there’s no excuses. There’s only success in life, right? You can’t have both. It’s impossible to have excuses and success. Now you can be on the road to success, run into some value to spare opportunity options like the roller coaster. And then you’ll have your highs and lows. Just never give up on yourself and realize every time you make a mistake, don’t dwell on the mistake, dwell on the lesson that’s in that mistake. Fixate on that. Move forward and you will again. That’s just amazing. You end up being. You end up being the de facto standard that they have to have you in the drum line. Right? I just think that’s. I think that’s awesome. But you were pretty. You didn’t give up, though. Look at your attitude, though. You have to have a superpower tenacity because most people would just go, okay, I got to college. Now they’re gonna fail me out, right? I’m on academic super suspension. They’re gonna fail me out unless I do well. Because you had a dream. Your dream was to be in that drum section, to do what you had dreamt about for years and you never let that stop you. So unfortunately though, you as well as I, teachers laughed at you in high school, teachers laughed at you. Maybe in college. At the end of the day, it just goes to show people can be laid it as stupid or, you know, no achievement driven. They’re not. They don’t care. And you. And we can prove them wrong. So anybody out there that’s been laughed at or labeled by somebody as being stupid or no drive or you’re never going to get anywhere if your dream’s big enough. The facts of what they say don’t matter. They’re just a blip on the radar of your life. Use them as a stepping stone. So I thank you for that story. That was great. I love that.

00:19:06 – Speaker B
Great.

00:19:07 – Dwight Heck
So, Dennis, real estate, real estate, finance, and so many industries are about connection, a personal one more than the business first. Removing that transactional relationship and building trust through communication has been something I have worked on since I started in this industry 22 years ago, more so than any time in my life. And the reason for that I was, I was tired of being treated that way myself. From the finance industry, from any type of industry that was dealing that I deal with or was dealing directly with me. I was tired of it just feeling like a transaction, nobody ever being genuine, them asking you how are you doing? And really at the end of the day, watching their body language or listening, just tonality, you knew they didn’t really care. They were just being a robot, right? They’re just being autonomous and just doing the same thing over and over and, and it just, it drove me crazy. And it has. My, my career has been. One of my biggest things that I work on is always building that connection, that relationship. And I found since I’ve been doing this, working on it for 22 years, people just want to know that they’re, that they’re needed, that were they’re heard. And what I mean by needed, that they’re, they’re valuable within their own life. And when things are, they’re drowning on, on their finances, they’re drowning on their six inches between their ears, they’re stuck in addiction cycles. And it’s really hard for people to even know if they’re, if somebody is. Is straightforward and honest with them, if they’re actually trying to build that relationship or if they just can’t wait to push the paperwork across and press hard three copies. So there’s so many ways that I found that relationships, in order to feel people, people that feel like they’re, they’re needed and wanted within a relationship of, of feeling in business or even personal. What has been your experience in building client trust over the years? How have you utilized your. Your life lessons, your skills to actually create that connection where people don’t feel like they’re just a transaction?

00:21:19 – Speaker B
Well, you’re actually talking about the sixth secret of success. And that’s called forming great alliances. So your, my students were great alliances. You know, the, the people, your partners are great alliances. Your mentors are great alliances. You and I having this conversation is a great alliance. So one of the secrets of success is finding people that you can mutually work together to help each other makes everything go so much better. So if I can help you and you can help me and everything’s better, why wouldn’t you seek out as many of those relationships as you possibly can? I know in real estate investing, it’s really easy. I taught my students, I said, I can’t think of another position anywhere where you own a business and there are industries out there that will help you. And you don’t have to pay them. Somebody else pays them. In real estate investing, there are realtors that will find you deals, and you don’t have to pay them. They’ll work really hard to bring you great deals. There’s insurance people that will build your entire insurance program for you. You have to pay for the insurance, but you don’t have to pay them. And if you have someone in your homes that you rent out or homes that you have sold on, you know, and taken back a note, those same insurance people will help them, which is helping you, and you don’t have to pay them. And I could go on and on and on just about the mortgage company. Everything in the business that I work in, there’s just a lot of people out there that I have on my list of people. I have things for them to do. I make a list pretty much every day and a weekly list, a monthly list, and I just delegate to them. But even though they don’t work for me, they do work for me. I don’t write them a check, but I give them a list of things to do, and they gladly do it because it’s helping their business just like it’s helping mine. So for that reason, I have lots and lots of mutual friends. They’re not just someone I work with, but they’re literally good friends of mine. Just earlier this week, I had one of my previous students came in and he’s developed a new training program on short sales, which is unique. There are not many training programs on short sales. And. And he came in, he says, would you do a testimonial video? And I said, you. I should be happy to because I’ve seen what you’ve done. I’ve seen where you’ve come from and how, how, how well and that you’ve done. And I’m very proud of you. And I. I made a video. So I don’t know that that helped me a lot, but it certainly made. It helped him. It made me feel good.

00:24:22 – Dwight Heck
I love that, though Reciprocal is similar to what’s going on in the world today. The relationships that were set up between countries to support one another. You do your thing, I do my thing. Together, our unity gets an end result, and everybody wins. Right?

00:24:40 – Speaker B
Right.

00:24:40 – Dwight Heck
That’s what I’m hearing from, from you is that synergy and connection and mentorship and to. To others and mentorship back to us creates success for everybody. If they have the right mindset to give up their weaknesses and focus on their strengths and use other people’s Strengths. Oh, you have. And again, back to that country thing. Oh, you have this raw mineral. We have this. Okay, let’s trade, right? You have this, you have that. Like, I love that. As you were talking about that, I’m thinking, Jesus. Sounds similar to what’s going on in the world today. With, with everything that was running. I’m not saying it was perfect. There needed to be changes. It’s not so much drastic changes all at once, but it is all about a synergy. What can, what can you do better than me? And that’s great. I’m never going to care to have that. You do that, but you’re always going to need this from me. I have A, you need A, I need B. A plus B. We got C. And we’re going to be fine together. Right? So I like that, Appreciate you sharing that. It is about connection and support. And that video you did for your student, obviously that’s gonna, that’s gonna uplift them too. Their spirit, their, their, their energy is going to be higher because somebody they respect that’s mentored them is. It’s just like the mentor that did the forward to my book. One of my close, close friends lives in Woodlands, Texas, lives in the same state as you. And I’ve just became good friends with them over the years. But we have to have those connections, right?

00:26:13 – Speaker B
Yes. It’s the sixth law of success. I’m sorry, Law of nature for success. The sixth law of nature for success is synergy. And you. I didn’t even mentioned it. You mentioned it. And before that we were talking about persistence, which is the seventh law of nature for success. So we’re right in line there. You’re, you’re going to hit all of the laws of nature before.

00:26:40 – Dwight Heck
I think though that at the end of the day, I’m a God fearing person. People listening, watching, you know that I don’t, I don’t care what you believe in. Trees, nature, I don’t care. I believe though that God brings people to me, that I, you know, I read when I get 25, 30 requests, sometimes a week, and I’m going through them and I never know who to pick. And then sometimes I just get this feeling if that makes sense. Right. So when I was reading, when I was reading your stuff, it was like, wow, we connect. I bet you it’s going to be a great conversation. And we’re not even that far into it and it’s amazing. I really do appreciate that. So, dear Life Journey of learning. Right. You mentioned the fact that that one, your newest Book which we’ll touch, we’ll try to touch on as much as we can at the end. If not again, we can have you on again. Just to discuss that book. He said it was a combination of 50 years. Right? @ the end of the day, people, if Dennis can teach you something or help you grow, it took him 50 years to compile, you know, write this book from 75 till now. And it’s combination of stories or whatever case may be. Why would you not want to follow somebody that says, hey, I’m going to teach you. It took me 50 years. Maybe we can collapse the time frames down to you to a few years, 10 years. Isn’t that worth your time to open up a book, to text somebody, to email them and say, hey, let’s have a conversation. We need to invest in finding people that are willing to help us collapse time frames. Not that person that goes, I’m not sharing any of my information. Maybe Dennis will be more experienced and more make more money than me and, and have more accolades and people. If that’s your, if that’s your gist, you’re on the wrong podcast. You know, you can just leave and go somewhere else. We’re about helping and developing and growing others. And because it grows us, right, it helps us. How did you feel after your, your client, or pardon me, your client, you did that video. How did you feel? What was the feeling you felt at that time?

00:28:54 – Speaker B
Well, he was very pleased with video and that made me feel good. It, it’s just like when somebody leaves a rating on Amazon for one of my books, you know, if they leave a five star rating and say something positive, that makes my day. And I, I often tell people, if you want to feel good, have someone else feel good. And in turn it rubs off. So, you know, if you have read a book, not my book, any book, and it, it really helped you go find it on Amazon, leave it a five star rating and say, I just read this wonderful book and I liked it because you not only will have made the author’s day, you will have helped other people find a book that will help them. Yeah, these things come back to you. You have enough, you know, Zig Ziglar said, if you have enough, people get what they want, you’ll get what you want.

00:29:52 – Dwight Heck
And I’m amazing man.

00:29:54 – Speaker B
I believe that.

00:29:55 – Dwight Heck
Yeah, Zig is amazing. Was an amazing man.

00:29:58 – Speaker B
Yeah. His story is in the Real Impact book, by the way.

00:30:02 – Dwight Heck
Oh, really? Really.

00:30:03 – Speaker B
His secretary, who’s still working for the company, wonderful lady, I contacted her and, and said Look, I’m writing a book, and it has the story of Zane Sigler. Would you mind reading it? And she helped me so much. You know, she said it didn’t happen just like that. It was like this. And so the story is absolutely accurate. And his. His children read it also and gave their approval.

00:30:32 – Dwight Heck
Wow.

00:30:32 – Speaker B
So it’s a very powerful story.

00:30:35 – Dwight Heck
But all. All those things you’re talking about, having those little accolades and having that acknowledgment, it’s power, priceless. Like, I wish more people. I wish I’ve had so many people read my book. Did you leave a review? No. Could you leave a review? Oh, yeah, we’ll do it. And they never, ever do. So I guess when I started, when I wrote my book, and then I. I wrote my book and it came out probably five months after I started this podcast in 2021, and I. And all these accolades, all these things that people were sending me little messages, but trying to get people to leave a review, telling them that if you leave your review, it tells. It tells the little thing to send it to other people. Right? Tells the algorithm that, hey, this guy’s got some clout. Dennis wrote a. Wrote a review for his book and said how great Dennis is, and this is what he learned. And her. She learned. And I wish people would leave our reviews, but I’ll get off my soapbox and quit complaining. People listening and watching, you know, it doesn’t take long. And Dennis is right. It does make a difference for the author. It does make the difference for the podcast. Right. Whoever. If you’re listening to a podcast, you put in those few extra minutes, it can make a difference in that person’s life. That made a difference in your life. Right? So put in that effort. I really appreciate it. So would Dennis. More reviews, the better.

00:31:58 – Speaker B
That’s right.

00:32:00 – Dwight Heck
So through your life journey of learning, growing, and climbing, what has been your biggest accomplishment?

00:32:08 – Speaker B
My. Well, there’s been several. First of all, I got in the drum section at Jacksonville State. That was big. And I became the drum major at Jacksonville State, which was really big. I mean, at Jacksonville at that time, being the drum major was like being the president of student council, although it was much better because everybody in the school knew who you were. You walk down the street and everybody call your name because you were the drum major. And it was a very fun position because it was a big band. And they were loud when. When they play the fanfare, the stands would shake. That’s how loud it was. It was hard to stand in front of them. Sometimes because the. The volume got so full, and directing something like that made you feel powerful. So that’s the first thing. Then I became a high school band director, and our high school band got to march in the Rose bowl parade, which is. That’s a pretty big accomplishment. Okay, so. And then I have. When. When in my business career, the most outstanding thing is the success of my business students. Some of them, I mean, they’re so much more successful than me because they don’t have dyslexia. They. They don’t have add, and they don’t have restraints. They. They’re just clay. And they can just go out and do the things that I know work, but they can make it work a lot faster and a lot better. And so many of my students have become multi, multi millionaires. Sometimes it just takes my breath away to talk with them and hear the things that they’ve accomplished. And in the front of my book, the real impact Daily Inspiration, I needed to put something in the front about people promoting the book. Well, I thought, why don’t I just get in touch with my students and see if they would be willing to write something about me and why people should follow my instruction. And in the front of the book, there’s page after page after page of my students saying, you really need to listen to what this guy has to say because look what happened to me. And. And that’s, you know, I think that’s just an accomplishment, you know, something I’m really pleased with.

00:34:47 – Dwight Heck
Oh, I agree. I think the accolades we can get by people, you know, just leaving test a testimonial like that is so powerful. So many people are scared to do them. I don’t know why, because I get asked through testimonials. It’s not that difficult. Doesn’t have to be that long. All it has to do is be heartfelt. Right? Just be honest. Just. What’s your first thing that pops into your head when I say, Dennis Henson, what do you think? Right.

00:35:16 – Speaker B
Exactly. Someone came in my office one day and said, hey, man, I read your book and I really liked it. I said, do you like the stories? And they said, oh, the stories just really motivational. And I said, well, which one did you like the best? He thought for a second. He said, I like the story about the little girl that came from Brazil that could barely speak English. And then she took the training and all of a sudden she became this super successful investor. And I said, that’s not really a story in the book. That’s one of my students telling you. Why you should read the book.

00:35:53 – Dwight Heck
So the testimonial, I thought that was an interesting portion that stuck in his brain. Yeah, the first few pages of the testimonials were something that motivated him. That’s. That’s still powerful. His response. So. Right. I think that. I think that’s great. So, Dennis, was there someone who was and is still a confidant and pushing you to be successful still today?

00:36:22 – Speaker B
I’ve had, in fact, the real impact Daily Inspiration is dedicated to my mentors. My. My high school band director, my college band director, my first business mentor, Jack McConico, and, and. And Tom Hendricks. You know, Tom Hendricks is still alive, and he’s. He is such a successful business person in the state of Tennessee that they’re naming buildings in Tennessee colleges. They’re naming the buildings for Tom hendricks. And Jack McConico has a library named after him. So those are pretty good mentors to. To have in your past. And then early in my career, through those two people, I met Jim Rohn. And Jim kind of changed my life because he said, look, Dennis, write everything down. You know, he. He talks about journaling a lot. He says, you don’t ever know when you’re going to need it. So because of the Jim Rohn and saying, write everything down, I started writing down. If I heard a poem or a quote or if I read a book, I’d make a note of it. Well, there wasn’t computers in the 70s. You know, the computers didn’t come along until the 90s. So I had a lot of things written down that I transferred to the computer when I. When the computers came along. So when it. When it came time after that podcast, when the podcaster said, what’s the number one thing you would have our listeners do? And I said, well, form the habit of reading something positive every day that leads them toward their goal. After that podcast, I thought, man, wouldn’t it be great if there were some kind of a tool to help people form that goal of reading something positive every day that will lead them to success? Then it hit me. It hit me almost like someone hit me. Okay, Dennis, you’ve been collecting books, stories, and quotes for 50 years. You can put those in a book, and then people can form the habit, regardless of how busy they are. Everyone’s busy. No one has more time because nature doesn’t permit vacuums. All of everybody’s time is full. And so when you say, well, let’s form a new habit, their subconscious is, no, no, no, no, no. There’s no time. How We’re. How are we going to fit this in? Well, with this book, with real impact data. Inspiration. If you got three seconds, you could read, quote, if you have five minutes, you can read a poem between a meeting. If you’re at the airport and you know, got 30 minutes, you can read one of the short stories. If you have three hours, you, you can flip to the back and there’s a list of books there that will absolutely make you a different person. When I started In Business in 75, Jack McConico gave me three books. Think and Grow Rich Success, the Glenn Bland Method, and the Greatest Salesman in the World.

00:39:38 – Dwight Heck
Oh yeah, yeah.

00:39:41 – Speaker B
I. Well, his story’s in the book too, by the way. But I never heard of a motivational self help book in my life. You know, I was in music and that kind of thing never crossed my path. But when I finished reading those, Dwight, I was a different person. When I finished those books, I thought I was so euphoric and motivated. I couldn’t wait to get out there and change the world. It was like a drug. And I thought, I’ve got to have more. I want more books like this. Where can I get them? So I went back and said, tell me some more books. And they gave me some psycho cybernetics and different books. But then I ran out and I had to have more. And I went to libraries and they didn’t know what I was talking about. So the only way I could learn was to find successful people and say, what are you reading? You know, what’s a great book that’s improved the quality of your life? And as they gave them to me, you know, I read a lot of bad books, but I only listed the ones who gave me that feeling of exhilaration and motivation and inspiration. And they’re listed in the back of this book. 50 years worse. How much do you have to pay someone? Read for 50 years and just give you the very best. The cream, you couldn’t afford it. I don’t care who you are, it just be too expensive. And here it is and I’m going to give it to you for free. You know, you go to Real Impact Daily Inspiration. Scroll to the bottom where it says podcast attendee and you put your name and email there. You get an instant download for the entire book and it’s free because I didn’t write the book to make a million dol. You know, I’m 77 years old. I’m not going to be around that much longer. What am I going to do with that much more? Money, Okay? I wrote it to help a million people. It’s my legacy. Now there is an ulterior motive. There are three links there. You get. This is three gifts. You get the download. If you click the link that says tell me when you write additional books, then I will send you one email when I write an additional book. And you’ll get it for half price or an extremely. It’ll be an extremely great right off. So there’s. You have to go to the website to find the third gift. I’m not going to tell you what it is, but we play games on the website. There’s one that says the lamp escape from the front of the book and it’s on the website somewhere. If you can find it, you get the free audiobook. So. And then there. There’s just a lot of fun things. You’ll love the website, I promise you. Watch the videos, listen to the audios, play the games and get your free book. And then click the link and I’ll let you know when I have other books.

00:42:43 – Dwight Heck
Right on. For those listening or watching that are new to the show, just go to give a Give A Heck and at the top hit podcast, you’ll see a picture of Dennis. And below that will be the detailed show notes with all the links for his social media, his website, as well as chapter summaries and a full unedited transcript of the show. So you’ll be able to find the information. You’re driving. Please don’t, you know, try to drive and. Right, yeah, right. It’s not any safer than drinking and driving. You’re gonna end up hitting somebody. Just wait. Go and check it out@giveaGive A Heck and it’ll direct you to everything about Dennis. So, Dennis, I know myself. Your book, Real Impact Daily Inspiration is one of many books, as I found out. You’ve written 10. And I’ve always enjoyed finding out about the book writing experience for people because as an author of only one book, I know it was. It was. It was some effort. I know when I wrote my book was very cathartic. I found it very cathartic. I discovered things about myself that I had buried. There were actually things I needed to address both in my personal and my business lives. Things that I patted myself on the back as I was reading, you know, rereading and going back and forth to the editor and things that I kicked myself in the pants going, why haven’t I done that yet? Or why have I only poked at it? Right? So what was, what was the thing that Was how was it for you? Was it cathartic writing these different books? Obviously the real estate books are different than the personal development books. How did it change you as you were, discovered your author talent in writing these books?

00:44:26 – Speaker B
Well, what I discovered is that I didn’t really have much talent when it’s, when I started writing, I, I thought, after that podcast, I thought, I have all this together. All I got to do is compile it. In two months I’ll have the book and I can share it with my students and everyone else. It took me six years and I wrote every single day for six years. And as I was working on the stories, I would give them to proofreaders and they would come back with some pages had over a hundred errors on one page. And so I thought, I’m going to have to get better at this. And so now I, I can write a page and you’ll be lucky to find an error on it. So I’ve become, I’ve come a long way since 2018. I’m much better writer. And I thought, well, how do I want my. Right, who do I want to pattern my writing after? And so I read the Greatest Salesman in the World, the Greatest Secret in the World, and the Greatest Miracle in the World. I read Ogmandino’s books and I thought, man, this, these are so good. I mean, they just draw you in and, and they make such a point. And like you say, they’re, they’re cathartic. And so my goal was to write like Augmentino. So when you read the book, if you’ve ever read any of his books, hopefully you’re going to find that it’s a similar, it’s not the same. Of course I’m not Augmentino, but it’s a similar. And when you read the stories, like one of the stories about Walt Disney, and Disney wanted to, to produce a full length cartoon that was like the size of a movie. And his goal in the cartoon was to touch people in such a way that they cried. He thought, if I can make people cry with just writings on celluloid, that would be a really, a really great accomplishment. And so when I was writing this book, I thought, if I can make people cry when they read these stories because they’re touched so much, then I will have accomplished something. So when people come into my office, one of the things I say was, do you like the stories? Yes. Which story did you like best? They’ll tell me and I’ll say, at any point, did you cry? Did you have Tears in your eyes. And I’ve not. I’ve yet to have anybody say no. They always say, oh, man. Yeah, those are powerful stories. They’ll bring tears to your eyes. And so I feel like I’ve accomplished something by doing that.

00:47:15 – Dwight Heck
Well, that’s good because really, at the end of the day, everybody that’s listening, you can think everything’s logic based, but really, you know, success isn’t based around logic. You can. It has to have an emotional component when you have that emotional connection, right? Yes. You may have a yes or no logical answer, but that emotional connection is still going to trigger which way your, your logic mind thinks. So I like the fact of how you talked about the connection of what the stories do, that, that can you make somebody cry? I’ve never thought of that, though. I’m gonna have to reach out to some people. Did any part of my book make you cry? You know, if not. If not, cut onions while you read it.

00:48:02 – Speaker B
It’ll.

00:48:02 – Dwight Heck
It’ll do wonders. No, just kidding.

00:48:06 – Speaker B
Some of the people in the book went through so much.

00:48:10 – Dwight Heck
Yeah, of course.

00:48:10 – Speaker B
Got knocked down over and over. And it was amazing at the resilience. They just get up after losing everything. Edison’s not in this book. He’s in one of my other books. It’s coming up. But Edison was an inventor and he was pretty well known, but he hadn’t really invented anything big yet. But he had a big laboratory. And it was back then all the buildings were wooden. And so one of the experiments went wrong and the building caught on fire and it burned to the ground. And all of his experiments with it burned to the ground. And so when his wife came up, he said, honey, honey, come and look. Look at this beautiful flame. You’ll never see anything like this again, was his attitude. And he got up the next morning, dusted off his pants and went out in every invention. He was 66 years old. Every invention that we know that Edison did was after that point. After that, all of his great inventions came after he’d lost everything and started over from scratch. Of course, it didn’t hurt that his friend Henry Ford wrote him a check for $250,000 the next day. That gave him a little bit of a kickstart. And back then, you know, this was early in the 20th century and $250,000 is about like 5 million now. I mean, a lot more than that. 50 million. Yeah, it’s a lot. A lot. It was a lot.

00:49:54 – Dwight Heck
That’s amazing story. I did not know that. I look back at all the, the people in life that have tripped and, and failed and moved forward. And then people say, oh, that person is so lucky. Yeah, yeah, my luck, it only took me 30 years or 25 years. And it had nothing to do with luck. A person I heard on stage back in the. Oh my gosh, 92, 93. I was in Salt Lake City at a conference and the guy went up on stage and he says, you, you know what, people? I’m tired of everybody saying that luck is why I’m successful. You haven’t been around for all those these years and those in the audience that know me, know my story. And he says, I want you to listen to this. And he said it twice. But their whole room got quiet. We were in, oh, what, I forget what building it was. It was like they’re like their football or hockey stadium or whatever. It’s like there’s probably 15, 18,000 people in there. And he goes, luck is a loser’s excuse for a winner’s completion. And he paused and he said, did you hear me? And he goes, luck is a loser’s excuse for a winner’s completion. And then he talked about that for about the next 30, 25, 30 minutes and, and shared stories about how luck isn’t. Everybody’s got a certain form of luck, I guess, right? He says, but luck didn’t create my success, right? My action, my belief, my consisting, my ABCs in my life got me where I’m at. My ability to be tenacious got me to where I’m at. It’s not about luck, it’s about surrounding myself. As we’ve talked through this podcast, positive associations, what, who we hang out with, what we listen, what we do is powerful. Who mentors us? Who do we mentor? Do we learn anything from our students? Are we open minded enough when we mentor others that they have things that we don’t know that maybe they can teach us? Do we ask good questions, right? Or we do. You know, there’s so many little different things, people that are watching or listening that create success. But don’t think that luck or don’t think that things like the secret that where you just talk out loud, that’s going to happen. The secret has its place in the world, but it misses a lot of things you need to. You can have positive affirmations. You can talk out into the environment and say, I want this, I want that. What are you doing to get there? What actions have you taken to con, to concentrate your belief, to cement your belief? And now are you being consistent that luck is created.

00:52:38 – Speaker B
You just hit the fifth law of nature for success, which is take massive action. I’m letting you do this. You don’t know what they are. And you’re going through, just clicking off. Persistence, form great alliances, take massive action. So as we talk, I bet you hit the others. It’s amazing how you’re doing it.

00:52:59 – Dwight Heck
We’ll see. I can’t wait, honestly. Your book is exciting now. I can’t wait. Even your new book, just hearing little bits about it. So I want to talk about the COVID of your book, and here’s why. When I’ve only had one book, I still am floored. When somebody has 10 books, my goodness. I know how emotional I got writing my book. I’d sit on the couch rereading a chapter and adding stuff, and I’d cry. My own book. I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s a good thing. But there was moments. There was. There was moments that made me cry. But. So my book cover and the name of my book involved around 38 mockups, right? From the publishing company where they’re sending me stuff. Okay, I don’t like this. Change that, do this, do that. And they’re sending me stuff. And then I’d post them the social media to a couple different closed groups. I belong to, mentorship groups. And then I send it out to other people. And the COVID I ended up choosing wasn’t one that anybody else choose, even my. My publisher. And there was a meaning behind the COVID of the book. There’s a message behind there. And some people can look at it and they get it. And some people, it creates a point of conversation before they even read the book. Or if I’m like, I hand out books. I had a guy, I’ve had people here, service, doing service at my house, a guy here last year, and I got told this past week that he loved my book. I had given him a copy of my book when he came to do some service at my house. We’re just talking, having a conversation. Are you a reader? Oh, I love reading. Would you like one of my books? Oh, I can’t afford. I got no money. I’ll give it to you. Really? Yeah. I said, no problem. I signed it, gave it to him, and he actually read it. He actually loved the COVID of the book. And when I seen your comments, like, about why you, you know, did the lamp, I thought to myself, you know, I want to find out what your inspiration was. How did you get to your book cover? Like, I could Talk about mine, but my listeners want to know about you. So why did you put that lamp on the book? Why did you design that book cover that way? Was it. Was it something that was just really quick or did you have to put some effort into getting there?

00:55:10 – Speaker B
The back cover of the book was intended to help sell the book. The back cover says, have you ever heard the story of Aladdin? It talks about a young man who came into possession of an old lamp, and he found that if he rubbed the lamp when he was cleaning it, he found if you rub it, it had magical powers and could give him whatever he want. And so if you know the story, you probably thought that doesn’t have anything to do with reality. It’s a kid’s story. You probably thought that. But if that’s what you thought, you’re not right. It’s absolutely got an awful lot to do. Because when the genie came out, what did he ask Aladdin? What did he ask Aladdin?

00:56:01 – Dwight Heck
Both the wishes. Yeah.

00:56:03 – Speaker B
Yeah. He said, what do you want? He had looked at Aladdin, couldn’t get anything until he decided what he wanted. And that’s powerful. That’s the first thing you have to know. What do I want?

00:56:20 – Dwight Heck
Goal setting. Yeah, I do it all the time.

00:56:23 – Speaker B
It’s like when I. I didn’t know what I wanted. I went to school that day, and all of a sudden I saw that drum section and I said, that’s what I want and I’ll do what. Whatever it takes to get it. It changed the course of my life. So the first relationship is this. You have to decide what you want. But then in the book, if you’re going to form a habit of reading something positive every day that moves you towards your goal, you first have to know what the goal is. Then the book becomes a rudder on a ship. Imagine a ship out in the middle of. Of the ocean without a rudder. It could be the nicest ship on the ocean. It can have the most power, it could be the biggest. It can have the. The best, you know, of everything. But without a rudder, it’s worthless. You’re never going to get anywhere. I mean, you’re gonna. You may get somewhere, but it’s probably not going to be where you want to. Where you want to go. So what this book does is this. Once you determine what you want to do in life, maybe you’re young and you want to become a veterinarian, you think, okay, I want to become a veterinarian. And you pick this book up and you say, okay, I’m Going to form the habit of reading something positive every day. That’s going to move me toward becoming a veterinarian. Every single day. You have to think of that goal every day. You don’t get to. You don’t get to go in 50 different directions. You refocus your goal every day of your life, and that makes a change in your life that’s big. It’s a big difference. So the, the lamp on the front of the book is about knowing what you want. It’s about the genie saying, what are your wishes? Because, Dwight, a desire is a gift from God. A desire. If God says, why don’t you do this? Wouldn’t it be great if you could be this. But people will. You know, people are. They let their butts get in the way. You know, they’re. They. They just say, yeah, well, I would love to do this, but I don’t have the money, but I don’t have the education, but I don’t know the people, but I don’t know what to do next. You see, if you change your buts to ands, then you get something amazing because instead of saying, but I don’t have the, you say, and I’m going to get the education. And I’m working on the education by reading something positive every day. And I’m working on finding the money. And I’m talking to people that’s already there to figure out how to get there.

00:59:19 – Dwight Heck
But is so used all the time, so much overused. I do not personally like the word. I try to write around the word right. Even in my writing. I. I went through and. And the editor says, you’re worried too much about it. I said, I don’t like the word. I find it to be. I find. But to be a very. I understand my body language. I understand my triggers. I’ve become a student of human nature over the last 30 years. A lot. I practice it and I practice understanding my body triggers. And when I hear but my chest tightens up. It does.

00:59:53 – Speaker B
Yeah.

00:59:54 – Dwight Heck
It’s like, but you’re a really good person, Dwight. But. Right. You know, we. We could have this. But. Right. I’d rather use the word however. I’d rather. You know what I mean? There’s so many people grab a thesaurus. Back in the 70s, that was my friend. We go through the thesaurus and I know that one word within a phrase can invoke a different type of emotional and physical and. And, you know, response for a person. Yet I could say it with another word which meant the exact same Darn thing. But yet people, you know, don’t think about that. And but’s one of those. And there’s so many different ways that we can deliver and present information in a caring, compassionate way that people actually can resonate with it. So I always think to myself, you know, is what I’m going to say going to help them? Is it going to elicit a response from the people that are around them if they’re not by themselves? Is it going to be elicit a great conversation or is it going to elicit tension and contradiction and non unity? And sometimes those conversations need to be have had. But people put in the effort to understand what you’re saying and how the power of a word or words can change others. Right. And here’s a secret. I do Dennis, and I’ll let you continue on. I literally will read something out loud and see how my body reacts to it. I use my body as a trigger. If I didn’t like reading that out loud, why would I want to put that post that put it in a book, right? If it didn’t make me feel warm and fuzzy, why am I saying it? It’s not conducive, right? And sometimes I’ll just do that. I can be standing with somebody in a group of people and all this. My, my critical thinking skills that I’ve worked on, I wasn’t born with them, that I worked on will give me a response like that, no, don’t say that. I don’t even have to say it out loud. My brain just goes, no, I don’t say that. Isn’t it time?

01:01:59 – Speaker B
On the website realimpactbook.com the very first link is the Mystery of the Lamp. And it’s, it’s written out and it’s also an audio. So if you go to the very first link and click on that, it talks about the mystery of the lamp and how that parallels the story of the, of Aladdin and how that will fit into your life and make things different and how using this book to form the habit will be a life changing experience.

01:02:30 – Dwight Heck
Oh yeah, goals. But you talk about the wishes and you know, we, we take that into having goals. And one of the things that everybody’s got a list of, a bucket list of things they want in life, whether they’re young or older, they want to accomplish all these great things and really it’s fantasy they’re not dreaming about. You can dream about something and accomplish it. Fantasy is you, you’re thinking about something but you’re, it’s, it’s totally out in the ether. You don’t have the ability to accomplish that at your current state in your life. You don’t have the mentorship part of me. You don’t have the right connections to get there. But it doesn’t mean you can’t accomplish it. It just means what are your goals like for those listening or watching? I have a specific chapter, not very long either in my book, just about smart. About how to do specific, measurable, actionable, like the list goes on and how to use smart to create goals. That’s like the genie sitting there. You rub the lap, the genie’s wondering. I think about the story of the genie and then throughout the story, the person still hasn’t picked their next wish because they really don’t know what they want. Right? They don’t know it. Like you said, they don’t have a goal. Well, along with a goal, then what? It’s fine to write a goal down. I want this. Now. What are the next steps? What? Maybe you don’t know what to read. Well, Dennis just gave you a great opportunity for, for a book and other books that he has that could actually help you quit being camped in life. I was camped in life, Dennis. You, I don’t know, maybe you’ve never been camped in life. I’ve been there where I’ve flat plateaued. I’m just comfortable. I’m on that hamster wheel going to work, go home, get paid, comfortable. Comfort’s boring really, to be honest with you, for my personality. How about yours?

01:04:22 – Speaker B
I agree. I like, I’m an entrepreneur and I’m always thinking of different things to do and I come into work every day. Most people my age are retired a long time over, but I, I’m, I’m semi retired. I only work six and a half days a week. I take a day, I take half a day off to be with my wife. So. But you know, if you’re an entrepreneur, you’re always going to be doing something because your mind is always taking you somewhere. But the only things that really work are the things that you focus on and concentrate. And what we’ve been talking about the last few seconds or minutes here is the first law of success, which is to get your mind right. It’s the law of mindset. You need to know what you want. You need to have a burning desire and focus, focus on that, whatever that is. And then the, the last component of that is faith. If you do not believe that you can get it, you’re right. It’s like Henry Ford said, if a fellow believes he can do a thing, he’s probably right. If a fellow believes he can’t do a thing, he’s probably right. So faith is the last component. It doesn’t matter if you know what you want, have a burning desire. If you don’t believe down in your heart, you’re going to be able to achieve it, you’re probably right. That’s just sad. But that’s the way it is. It’s a law.

01:06:07 – Dwight Heck
Well, our brain is a giant computer and it doesn’t know the difference between the truth and a lie. So tell it is so powerful. I love that faith. If on one of my social media profiles it’s still there, I put it there probably. I don’t know when did Facebook start? Back in 07 or whatever. 08 when I joined it. And I put in, I put in a little quote that I still believe today. And I talk about it when I’m a guest or even on my own podcast as a host. For me, faith is something that. And I constantly tell myself this little phrase, right? Fear knocked on the door, faith answered, and no one was there. Right? Very simplistic. I literally will tell myself that I have different little things. People listening, watching. There’s little things that you can do to correct your sale, right? You’re. You’re sailing on the, on the ocean like Dennis was talking about. But I have this rudder, but I’m not correcting the rudder. And I ended up way out somewhere where I was supposed to be, just like a plane. If they don’t do corrections, they’re never going to get to where they’re. They need to go. You have to do corrections in your life. You have to change, you have to continue to grow. And those little phrases like I use and I tell myself, I’ve never. I don’t have a bad day. I’ve been coaching on that. Now, this would be about my seventh year that I haven’t had a bad day. People say that’s impossible. No, it’s not impossible. It’s what I tell myself. I have character building defining moments that happen in the day. Now how do I deal with that character defining moment? Do I disrespect my day by saying, I’ve had a bad day, yet I woke up, I was given the blessing of having another day on the planet. I was given the blessing of having running water, a food, family, people that love me, clients that could care about me, that I care about. I look at that and people just don’t get it. They don’t respect the fact that, you know, you need to have faith. You need to learn and develop little principles that you can self correct. And if you’re dealing with a coach, somebody listening or watching this, you’re dealing with a mentor or coach that isn’t teaching you little things to help you outside of their meetings, like challenging you to try this principle or try this. Like for example, you talked about journaling, oh my gosh, for over four, just about three and a half, four years every day. If I heard something, didn’t matter if it was driving, I was, I was reading something or I was watching it. I had a, I had a onenote file which I still have. It has thousands of entries in there. I did. Oh, wow, that’s interesting. Okay, leave a voice memo or I just put one word, tell it one word, right? Just so I could come back and then type in the rest of the thought because that word is going to be my anchor to my thought process. Because I have brain farts all the time. I get those ideas, lose them. I don’t know if you’re the same way. So I liked your journaling comment too. But remember, people, fear knocked on the door, faith answered and nobody was there. If you have faith, you can drive fear away. Right? Fear is not, is it? Here’s one last thing and then I will go back to you, Dennis. Fear is an acronym for me. Everybody says it’s false evidence appearing real. For me, fear means face everything and rise. I’m fearful. How can I face it? How can I rise above it? Right? How can I use faith? So I think about this stuff all the time and people listening. I’m a working project. It’s not like I woke up this morning, I knew all this great stuff. I’ve been working on myself for 30 seconds some years and then it’s even longer. So between the two of us, we’ve got a lot of unity, Dennis. I think.

01:09:52 – Speaker B
That’S true, right?

01:09:54 – Dwight Heck
A lot of connection. A lot of great stuff that we both believe in. Yours is just, I’m all over the place. Yours is one to seven. I’m just, I’m sorry. But I do cover it, right? So your book cover. I love this story about Aladdin and how wishes go into goals and setting what you want. What was the, what was the thing that I got asked this one time and I understand why. We are all wired to think that we have the one, that we have the most perfect book. And what I mean by that is there’s lots of books in self help and business development. There’s a lot of books on real estate or whatever the case may be, and we think we have that one special one. What sets your books apart from other books? What is the biggest impact that will be felt by the reader? For an example, with your. Your newest book. So what sets your books apart from other people? Is it your writing technique? Is it your ability to share those wonderful stories? And what was the biggest impact felt by the reader of your last book, the one that we’re talking about right now?

01:11:03 – Speaker B
Well, the real impact daily inspiration book is not like any other inspirational book. It wasn’t intended to be read from COVID to cover. For example, if you pick the Bible up and read it from COVID to cover, I dare say you might get something from it, maybe.

01:11:24 – Dwight Heck
Or fall asleep.

01:11:26 – Speaker B
Probably not.

01:11:28 – Dwight Heck
Being honest, the first part of the Bible is like, no offense, Jesus, but that’s kind of boring.

01:11:35 – Speaker B
That’s true. But if you. There was monks in the 5th century decided they wanted to become closer to the scriptures, and they came up with a technique called ectio divina, where they would read a scripture out loud, then they would visualize themselves as part of the scripture. I’m sorry, they would read it silently, then they would visualize themselves as part of the scripture, then they would read it out loud, and then they would contemplate that scripture for the balance of the day. When I heard about that, I thought, that’s what this book is. It’s not. You. You don’t read and read and read and read and get inspired over and over. No, you get inspired once you read it and you, you, you try to get as much out of the inspiration that you feel as you possibly can, and then you move on to the next day to be inspired again. And what happens that turns into a lifetime of inspiration where if you read a motivational book, it, it gets you beefed up for a while, but then it’s over and you want more. With this book, it never ends. You’re forming a habit that will last your entire life of moving in and being inspired and educated and moving toward a goal every single day that sets this book apart. Just like the Bible set apart from other books. It’s not. I mean, it doesn’t compare with other books. It’s not a novel. It’s not a single story. It’s. It’s a daily inspiration. So I think that’s.

01:13:28 – Dwight Heck
Well, it’s, it’s very unique in, in the presentation, the layout of it. I know that’s one thing that you discuss with people is the layout of, of how the book lays out. Like I know myself, my book is just, you know, chapter one to chapter nine. There’s a flow, there’s an introduction, there’s my origin, which I totally believe is, is important in all form of communication down to where I’m at. To today. To today. So it’s not something that people could pick it up and read chapter five and get something out of it. They could read chapter three, get something out of it. But you’re telling me yours is, is, is unique in the sense that is designed to be evergreen, timeless.

01:14:12 – Speaker B
Exactly. And you can, you can pick it up and just open it and read and you’ll get inspired. Doesn’t matter what page you open.

01:14:19 – Dwight Heck
And that’s, that’s what I tried for too, but I don’t know if I accomplished that. But your sounds much more purposeful in that, in that extent. But again, that was my, that’s my first book. As you can see over my shoulder. Right there’s my book right there. Yeah, I like that idea. The evergreen and you know, just a book that you can pick up wherever and just be excited. Right? That is awesome because how many people look at a book and go, they look at it and I don’t know how, how thick the book is, how many pages it is, but they’ll look at it and they’ll go, geez, I don’t know, that looks like a little bit overwhelming. But if you could, if you could, you know, that would be a good marketing tagline for you. You can start this book anywhere. Right?

01:15:10 – Speaker B
It’s 359 pages.

01:15:12 – Dwight Heck
Okay. So it’s. Yeah, more than double mine. So about a six, six, seven hour read. I look at the fact that that’s, that’s awesome though. Like that’d be a great tagline. Just gets, you get a new book cover printed, you just get a little banner put on there, like a little, little gold banner or whatever. It says you can start this book anywhere.

01:15:33 – Speaker B
Or you know, that’s right.

01:15:35 – Dwight Heck
I think that’s awesome. Well, never thought about that.

01:15:38 – Speaker B
I used to own a printing company and I knew the best papers. This has the best paper. I knew the best type style. I knew about color separation. I knew about the COVID design, I knew about binding. And I was on a podcast just like this with a publisher who’s a very prominent publisher who’s done a lot of books. And he held my book up and he said, I think this is the nicest book I’ve ever held in my hand. And I Thought, wow, that’s amazing. But I did it so that you could give it for a gift. You know, where can you find a really nice gift to give a graduate or a grandparent or a grandchild as a legacy gift that they will keep forever and it, it will change their life if they use it. And it’s under $50. What I mean that’s the ideal gift I, I believe but oh, I’ve done.

01:16:40 – Dwight Heck
That over the years too. Like one of my favorite books. I’ve read it twice, listened to it three times. Is the five love languages. I use it within my not just my relationships with family. It’s more or significant other. It’s more focused on just being good to, you know, understanding everybody’s love language and understanding what makes some ticks in your business partnerships and people that you meet. And it’s been so impactful. I’ve given that away as gifts to people for weddings. Right there, there’s the book. And now with my own book, I gift it all the time. Right. Here you go. Here’s you know and I like the idea though that you got that pat on the back about the COVID That, that’s great. For me, the most inspirational thing that’s ever happened in my book is I had a girl in high school write a high school paper for her. She was one of the reporters for student papers in the US she wrote a story about my book about how as one of her two favorite authors. Right. And how it’s impacted her life. And she’s also, I don’t know if she still does, but she also her dad took pictures of her in their home theater room and she’s got me up in the big screen. She’s watch taking notes and watching my podcast. When I first started, when she was in high. She’s out of high school now. She’s such a sweetheart. We’ve become good friends. But you know those little accolades you get from people, you know, like great book. This is like this feels great. Stuff like that or your books taught me something. It all goes back to what we talked about. People leaving, you know, reviews and giving us that five star. Those are those little dopamine hips that makes make us smile and feel good about ourselves and want to go out and do even more and impact more people.

01:18:31 – Speaker B
Exactly.

01:18:33 – Dwight Heck
So Dennis, in Real Impact, the upside is the importance of mindset and achieving goals. Could you share a pivotal moment in your life where a change in mindset led to a significant purpose, personal or professional growth?

01:18:50 – Speaker B
Sure. In 1975, my band had just Marched. My high school band just marched in the Rose bowl parade. I had received a master’s degree the year before, and I decided I wanted to become a college band director because high school band was fine, but the kids in high school are not motivated like college kids, and they’re certainly not as talented. So I wanted to be the band director so I can have them play my music. I’d like to compose and. And arrange music. And I put the feelers out, and I got contacted by the University of Give A Heck, and they offered me the position. So I moved to Atlanta that summer and was staying with a friend who actually helped me get the job. And back then, the telephones were not cell phones. They were on the wall or on a desk. Okay. So I was at his apartment, and the phone rang, and he picked it up and answered. And he had this strange look on his face. And he said, Dennis, it’s for you. And I thought, nobody knows I’m here. What? How’s this possible? Well, it was a company in Tennessee, and they. They answered the phone and they said, are you Dennis Henson? And asked me some other questions. I said, yes. And they said, well, we want you to come and interview for a position. And I laughed and I said, I’m not. I’m not in the job market. You know, I’ve got the dream job. I’m going to be the band director at Give A Heck tomorrow. I’m going to sign the contract. And they said, well, before you do that, come up, let’s talk with you. We’ll buy you a round trip ticket. Well, we’ll feed you a steak. We’ll pick you up at the airport in a limousine. We’re going to make it a comfortable trip. Well, and they said, we’ll give you a $25 cigar. Well, that’d be like a $300 cigar today, or maybe more. Well, I didn’t smoke. They had steaks in Atlanta, but a round trip ticket in 1975 to get to get into a plane and fly somewhere for free. I thought, why go up there and tell them no? So I got in the plane and I flew. They picked me up in the limousine and they fed me a steak. They showed me their beautiful homes, and we went to the facility, which was amazing. I still wasn’t interested until they started to talk about money. So then when they offered me 20 times the salary that Give A Heck had offered me, I took it. I thought, I mean, I was just a kid, had never had any money, and all of the people there drove Mercedes Benz and Wore, you know, thousand dollar suits. I mean, this was a different world than the one I was leaving. And so I thought, I’m going to try this out. I want to just see what it’s like to have money. And, and I made a lot of money. You know, I bought my first home. I wasn’t my first home, it was my first nice home. I had bought a home before, but this was really a nice house and I got a Mercedes Benz and I had toys and things and I started. That was my business world experience. I went from being a band director to being a businessman in one day. And it was life changing. It totally changed the focus on my life. And another thing is that’s when they gave me those three books, you know, think and Grow Rich Success, the Glenn Bland Method, and the Greatest Salesman in the World. And that changed my life too because from that point on I was all into self help and motivation. And that’s been 50 years and I’ve been through a lot of it. I, I’ve read all the good books and most of them are listed in the back of Real Impact.

01:22:54 – Dwight Heck
That’s awesome. I have lots of good books. I know some, some people posting their websites. They’ll have a section where it has all their top books so people can look to see. I’ve seen that before, but never heard of anybody writing it. In a book like that, putting a list of the things that changed you and motivated you and helped you grow over the last 50 years. And that’s amazing. So what are the key takeaways? So many people are drawn to self improvement books for practical advice, right? What are the key takeaways from Real Impact that readers can immediately apply to their lives? Is it the ability just to open it up?

01:23:36 – Speaker B
No, it’s forming a. Is forming good habits that’s the immediate takeaway. People will ask me, Dennis, there’s so many gurus out there and most people say bad things about them, but not your students. Your students are super successful. They all say good things. What’s the difference? And I said, well, it’s simple. I have them form success habits. If you can form success habits, you will become successful. Now forming a new habit is not an easy thing to do. But when I taught them, I held them accountable so that they had to form the habit. They didn’t have a choice. They were going to come and see me and if they hadn’t done what they said they were going to do, I was going to give them a really hard time. It’s like going to the gym and having what, a mentor or a coach at the gym, you pay them a lot of money to make you pick that extra weight up a few extra times. Well, I did the same thing, but it wasn’t with weights, it was with habits. And so I would give them these habits and I would say now, over the next three months, while you’re here with me, you will form these habits and then when you leave me, you’ll have them to carry with you the rest of your life. And it worked. That was the reason.

01:25:00 – Dwight Heck
Wow.

01:25:00 – Speaker B
And in this book will head you in that direction, which is good, right?

01:25:06 – Dwight Heck
It’s, it’s nice to have things in our repertoire that can really have a real impact, right? Like you would say, to have that real, to have that real impact, to make an actual difference. The biggest thing that will stop anybody that’s watching, listening to this, or anybody that’s not even within our sphere right now is, you know, they, they’re looking for knowledge, they’re looking for advice. And you tell them about books and they buy the book. But guess what? Without cracking the COVID knowledge isn’t. You can’t rest it on your head and have osmosis work. It just does not work. You need to pick it up. Even if you, like you said earlier, you could read, you know, just one little five minute thing, right? You got a few minutes, you got a few seconds. You always have time. You always have time. I know people that’ll even be brushed that, that read or listen to things and they’re brushing their teeth before they go to bed, right? You could start your morning off with that. You could, right? Maybe before you brush your teeth, you actually read something myself. I don’t get out of bed without having a. I don’t get out of bed without having gratefulness for everything that, that I have and the times that I forget because I’ve, I’ve had something happen and, and got up and my mind’s discombobulated. I’m just all over the place and I have an off day and I’ll realize halfway through the day, oh my goodness, I forgot to do my gratefulness and being grateful for being alive today, for welcoming for, you know, welcoming God into my life and thank you for giving me another shot. We just, People don’t have the ability to start their days off right and they need to get a good amount of sleep. Start your day out with positivity. Learn how to handle those character building moments. Learn how not to have a bad day anymore, right? It is possible. It just takes effort Action, belief, consistency. Just remember, abc, I gotta take action. I have a belief that action is going to help me cement it and the consistency of the other two are going to, are going to make me successful. And again, success isn’t always based on money. And so many people base success on money. What is your impact been? Who have you changed? Look at Dennis, my goodness, what an amazing journey you’ve been on in your life. And, and look at all the people that appreciate you from the, from the, not referrals, but the, you know, your testimonials to just everything else to people wanting you to do that video, like what a fulfilled life you’ve had. Obviously you’ve had other challenges, but you continue. Like you said, you could be retired and not working. But people say that to me and I’ll say I’m going to work till the day I take my last breath. Why? Well, because it’s not work.

01:27:52 – Speaker B
That’s true.

01:27:53 – Dwight Heck
It’s a difference. It’s a difference maker for others and me. It still gives me a reason to be smiling and wake up and be happy.

01:28:01 – Speaker B
Work is doing something that you would rather not be doing. That’s work. So if you go in and you’re doing something that you love, it’s really not work. It’s more play. It’s in, you know, enjoyable days of the week.

01:28:16 – Dwight Heck
Days of the week blur into one another, don’t they?

01:28:19 – Speaker B
That’s true.

01:28:20 – Dwight Heck
Sometimes I have to think about what day it is. I’m just like, oh, whatever. The only day I really don’t, I do know what day it is, is Sunday for me, right? Because I go to, I go to church and, and that’s just my thing, right? That’s who I am. That’s part of my identity that I’ve chosen. Not somebody has chosen it for me, but yeah, these just bleed into one another because I enjoy life, right? I enjoy the fact.

01:28:46 – Speaker B
And, and what we’ve been talking about over the last few minutes is number two on the laws of nature for success, which is seeking wisdom. If you seek wisdom, then you’re going to be so much more successful. Like Sig Ziglar said, if you just read 20 pages a day on a 200 page book, at the end of the year you will have read 20 books. That is 19 more than the average person that will set you apart. Now, Zig Ziglar read three hours. I talked with his secretary. He read three hours every day of his life. I used to, I’ve done speeches throughout the United States and in other countries and One of the first things I ask is how many people here have ever heard of Zig Ziglar? And every hand, no matter where I was, what country I was in, every hand went up. Everybody’s heard of Zig Ziglar, and Zig Ziglar read three hours every day. Now, I wonder if his popularity had something to do with his daily habit. I imagine that it did. And Jim Rohn said, find out what successful people do and do that. So if Zig Ziglar is that successful and he reads for three hours every day, well, maybe you should do that.

01:30:20 – Dwight Heck
Success leaves clues.

01:30:22 – Speaker B
It does, right?

01:30:24 – Dwight Heck
People say to me, well, I wonder how they do that. I wonder how they accomplish this. Well, even if they don’t have a book, how would you look at their. Look at that. Look at what they’ve done. Reach out. Like you reached out to the secretary and reach out to people. Maybe you’ll find. Maybe you’ll find a fan group. Maybe you’ll find it where you can ask questions. Curiosity is a good thing. Don’t ever let people think. I used to hear from people over the years at a teacher, you said, don’t be so curious. Yeah. Don’t be so nosy. Don’t blah, blah, blah. Well, you know what? That person was crotchety. She was always upset. She was never happy. And if you were happy, she was looking to squash it. She was one of the worst teachers I ever had in my life. But I remember saying, don’t be so curious. And she was dry for me. As I got older, her memory of her, of. Of her reactions, her actions to everything that students did. I was the kid that was sitting there listening to her and didn’t feel like it could be myself. Because you were afraid to say something. Because she could be really kind or she could be really nasty. Right. Just find that person in your life that can be. That you can seek wisdom from. And the negative people, as you continue to climb, they’ll fall off. Honestly, people. They do. They fall off. Your tribe gets stronger, and they fall off because they don’t want to be around positive people. They want to stick into their addictive anger and sadness routines. And you don’t need that look for good wisdom like Dennis is talking about. So, Dennis, if you had to give our listeners one last closing message, what would you tell them in regards to giving a hack and never giving up?

01:32:09 – Speaker B
The thing I would leave is this. If you want to help yourself, help someone else. The. The more things that you can do to help people, which is kind of why I wrote these books. I didn’t have to write the books. I wrote the books to help people. And I hope that you will take advantage. I hope that you’ll take the ebook I’m giving you. Go rolling back book. Scroll to the bottom, click on the link, get the free ebook. I hope you’ll think of five people that that book will help and you’ll share it with them. Someone who’s in sales, someone who’s in business having or struggling, having a hard time, someone that’s about to graduate from high school or college, someone in a nursing home. You know, using this book to help other people is the intent. That’s why it was written. So help spread the word and I hope it helps you, because if you’ll let it, it will. It can and it will.

01:33:16 – Dwight Heck
That’s awesome. So those people that are listening or watching, again, go to giveaGive A Heck, hit the podcast at the top. You’ll see a picture of Dennis as well with all the links to the website to be able to go get your free book. And yeah, like Dennis said, though, go on and actually explore, experience the website. There’s other things you can do on there. There’s games. It could be that. It could be the catalyst you’re looking for, for you to finally take that first baby step, to get outside your comfort zone. We’re not saying it’s easy, but it’s not hard either. It’s time, investment, it’s action, right? It’s consistency. Creating. Those habits, as Dennis talked about, are so imperative, and they can be life changing forever. It doesn’t have to be a one off. And, and if you start a habit and you fall off the, the train, right. You fall off the wagon. Just get back on, start over again, Go, oh, I kind of fell off the wagon. I kind of made a mistake. Don’t beat yourself up. That’s part of life, that’s part of growth, right? Without mistakes, without, you know, adversity, how are you ever going to go? No joy and happiness. You got to have one. You got to have one happen for you to enjoy the other, right? At least I think so.

01:34:39 – Speaker B
Yeah.

01:34:40 – Dwight Heck
So anything else you’d like to talk about or mention, maybe you want to talk for a few minutes about your book, your newest book that you brought out before we wrap up the show.

01:34:50 – Speaker B
Well, I’ve kind of been teasing everybody. I guess I need to give them the seven secrets of success. The first secret is to get your mind right. The second one is to seek wisdom. The third one is to develop skills because in any business or sport there’s certain skills that have to be mastered in order to become successful. So if you don’t know what the skills are, you’re. You’re hobbling yourself. So find out the skills and work on those. Make detailed plans. Is number four, take massive action. And like Augmentino said, nothing else matters. If you don’t take action, you know, everything is just dust. And then number six, form great alliances. We talked about that. And the last one is being persistent. No matter how many times you get knocked down, you just get up one more time.

01:35:42 – Dwight Heck
Exactly. So what we were just touching on, at the end of the day, a brick wall is only a brick wall if you let it be.

01:35:50 – Speaker B
That’s right.

01:35:50 – Dwight Heck
I just keep on moving forward. So I really appreciate you being on Dennis. I appreciate your time and sharing some of your experiences so that others too can learn. It is never too late to give a heck.