Welcome back to the Show my fellow extraordinary Americans. For today’s episode, we have Craig Hadley. 

Craig Handley is a serial entrepreneur, bestselling author, and philanthropist. He’s also a Songwriter and musician, writing for new artists, up and coming superstars, and for sync TV and Film. And Phillip, when he’s not writing hits, he is the best-selling author hired to quit inspired to stay, which shows the way to build a company that fulfills the purpose of your art so you can live your dreams.

When he gets bored in the evenings, he serves as the VC MO for a small collection of companies. The acting CMO for viewed.com. And the CEO and founder of his multimillion-dollar call center. Listen, trust, which was named number one in business products and services and #27 overall on ink magazines’ 505,000 lists. 

His company has made over 500 million in accounting and sales in the last five years. He has also founded social close, a 360 digital marketing company that specializes in creating tailored marketing strategies focused on building brands that monetize and maximize their revenue based on visibility and engagement. He has met and hung out with famous entrepreneurs and Deliveries such as Richard Branson, Ringo Starr, Paul McCartney, Akon, and Snoop Dogg and he’s even met the Dalai Lama. 

He’s passionate about music and changing lives through the perfect pairing of great business, and meeting great music, and he’s ecstatic to bring his experience to the music mastery community as a coach and mentor, Craig embodies the American Spirit of adventure and entrepreneurship that has made this nation extraordinary in the 1st place, and I’m honored to have him on the show. Craig, are you there?  

Yea I am.

Hey Craig. It is an honor to have you on this show. How are you doing today?  

I’m good. Hanging In there. You know, I’ve. I’ve got good problems. Some other challenges, but you know, like everybody else.

I see. So, I mean, we all have problems. It’s just about pushing through, right? That’s like. The entrepreneurial way. But Craig, I knew that you are a serial entrepreneur. You’re the CEO and you’re the best-selling author. Can you tell us? Can you tell us in the audience a little bit more about your background and how you got started?  

Well, you know, I’ve always been entrepreneurial. I worked as a paperboy, got. I always won all the contests. I won the trip to Florida. I worked at an ice cream place and made ice cream, but we were also building golf courses and painting houses, and trimming trees. I was always, you know, doing Multiple things. 

When I was in college. I ran two pizza places and jockeying at a club on the weekends. I also DJ weddings. I umpired baseball and soccer, and I had a job at a hotel doing the night audit all at the same time.

wow. 

So, I’ve always had this entrepreneurial spirit Spark you know, as far as. I’ve never been afraid of hard work. I’ve always driven. You know, I always tried to try to do my best at everything I did. I got accepted. I’ve always wanted to be a musician. I got accepted to Berkeley and Juilliard and. Couldn’t afford it either, so I went into the army and served the country. And try to get college money. So, you know, I’m just one of those guys that’s always been. Doing a lot of different things.  

Craig, that is, how do you do so many things simultaneously? And could you tell the Audience a little bit more about how you went from being a paperboy to doing multiple businesses and being really successful? Businesses that.  

I always was. Looking for the hack? You know I love music. I’ve always loved music, so this is jockeying at a club. You know, it was really easy for you. Could show up at 9:00 o’clock at night and play till 2:00 in the morning or whatever? So that didn’t interfere. With umpire baseball or doing basketball games or soccer games. And those paying like, you know, in my day, they paid $70 every time. You play the game roughly. 

So, it was like baseball for about an hour and a half; Soccer was an hour; Basketball was about an hour and a half. You know, so you really learned how to hack and make a great hourly rate, even though you know, I give you 2 games a day during the in-season time frames, you know, on a Saturday I could do four or five games. But then the night out at work, you know you can start at midnight. Well, that job was 11 to 7. 

So, I got in at 11. I do my audit and I catch up on my homework because I’m still going to college too. And then I ended up pulling two pizza places I was managing but I had to show up for those I wasn’t really on the I was on the schedule, but I wasn’t on the schedule because I was, you know, I had to fill in. But I also was the one making the schedule. 

So, I just had all these different things I was doing. Yeah, it’s hard to do all those things. Today, I do a lot more than that, but I’ve surrounded myself with people doing really well with execution. And so, the secret, of course, is finding people around you that can fill in the areas that you’re not great at that make sense.  

Yeah, it totally does. But you know, like a lot of people like, they do like their nine to five jobs. And then after they come back home, they’re just too tired to do anything. Else so like they don’t have. Like this motivating Drive which Obviously, you do. Because you manage to like driving. You actually do multiple things. You didn’t get tired. Like what was this motivational factor or this driver’s passion that had pushed you to do all of this? 

I think everybody’s got that drive inside of them. It just depends on what you’re working on. For me, it’s my passion, right? Writing music or working on music or I mean some of the things I was doing that felt like were. You know it was. Passion. So, I Never get tired when you’re living in. When you’re living in the place where you’re supposed to live, you don’t get tired.  

No, I mean, uh, totally like. But I think in today’s society, a lot of people are disconnected from their passion or their purpose altogether. 

It’s almost like they’re like robots living in society, just doing what they have to do, or like, doing what the corporate world wants them to do. But I don’t think most people do. Have you ever actually Found your true passion or purpose in order to like to succeed in life?

What would be your advice to people that had not found their passion or purpose, or they’re disconnected from their true inner selves?  

Everybody probably knows what their passion is. I think it’s that calling that you’ve felt ever since you were young. Sometimes I think some of those passions look. Like they’re hard to reach. What most people think is that their passion has. To be a career. I can tell you that your passion is, it is what just makes you happy. The funny thing is, when you’re happy and you start to work on your passion, you’ll finally take some time, but you’ll figure out ways to. Monetize your passion. Once you start monetizing your patching, you’re able to cut back on the job. You don’t like it. Let’s try to put in more time. Toward compassion. So, kind It’s kind of like a pendulum swinging. You know, you just got to know how to focus and work on. Your side hustles. In a way that starts to drive revenues. Until the point where your job is your side hustle?  

So, it’s really interesting that you talk about this right because a lot of people like they want to leave their corporate jobs, or they want to leave what they’re doing right now, and they want to follow their passion they then their side hustle, monetize and make it into a business, but they just don’t know how to go about doing that. Like, what is your advice for somebody that would want it? That has a passion. For what they’re doing, but it’s only like a hobby at this point, and they have, they would like to leave their jobs and, like, make this a full-time thing. So, it doesn’t feel like work at all.  

Yeah, it’s just going to be a plan. Look, I talked to everybody #1. Find the circle of other people that love. What do you find right? The network that you fit into. If you have a passion for being a dancer, but You’re living in a circle of Zebras. But you’re a lion. You know you should be with the other lions. 

Funny thing is, is. When you start working with people, no matter what. The level you’re at is some of those. People are going to be successful. If you believe in others. While they’re just starting out while they’re brand new. Those same people will probably believe in you. And that is when they’re successful. It’s inevitable that they drag people along with them. And the funny thing is when those people are successful. The only people that are going to trust are the ones that supported them before they were successful. So I talked to Young people all the time on my phone. I’ve got at least 600 millionaires and a couple of billionaires. And they weren’t billionaires and millionaires when I met them, they were nobodies. 

So who’s the nobody that you’re going to relate to and work with that can help lift each other? Upright, find people who are as passionate as you are. And just work to work. To help them. In their career, without expecting anything back. And Karma, the universe, the energy of the universe, you’ll find that you’ll be dragged right along with those people, you know. They’ll help you along the way. The way that makes sense.  

Yeah, it does, but it’s really interesting that you say that because a lot of people like billionaires or multimillionaires, they’ll look at the so-called nobodies and they’ll be like, why should I hang out with these people? They’re like beneath me or something like that, or that’s at least the perception that most people would have of millionaires and multimillionaires. Obviously, over here you have a different perspective on the same thing.  

You don’t know who’s going to be successful and who’s not. And don’t get me wrong. I mean, I’m not going to consult with somebody for free for hours… And hours and hours. But will I take a 30-minute phone call with almost anybody? Sure. And some of those people are geniuses, and I know they’re that close to, you know, you know, someday they’re going to make it. I’ve had calls from people three years later. Said you’re someone who supported me three years ago. And so, I want to support you.

Yeah, I do believe in the concept of karma. I myself came from an Indian background and they believe that if you help others, eventually, it comes around.  

The universe is a beautiful place. Yeah. Yeah, it is.  

So, Greg, on a different note, what is one of the biggest lessons you’ve learned during your entrepreneurial journey?  

Well, that one. Help others. I mean, look, I’ve learned how to build a culture. Our call center has a great culture, and a great community, so I’ve become an expert on how to hire. How to build culture? By becoming an expert on turnarounds. So, when you start to fail. There’s a whole process. 

But what I’m really good at is marketing. And I’ve learned I’ve forgotten more about marketing than most people will ever know. So, when I look at a brand. And look at what brand is going on. Is when I look at a brand and I Look at how a brand is building. I can pull it apart and put it back together in minutes. You know and figure out how the process is so. 

But a long lesson, I mean, you’re going to watch your cash flow every week from a finance meeting? You know there are margins that you have to put in place and then there are risks that you have to determine that you want to take or not take. 

I have business right now. I’m growing and it’s growing fast. I bootstrapped it all the way and never put any money into it. But it got to $1,000,000 in revenue, which sounds like a lot, but I’m also spending a million because I’ve been growing so fast. I decided to strategically invest $100,000 in the business to make sure I could hire more back-end support because. I’ve got so much business at the front end. But if I didn’t invest, I’d end up. I would have still grown, but it would have been. Slower than I would have wanted it to be. And of course, that money is already coming back in spades. Now that I’ve got extra people that can help execute. 

So, you know, you have to be willing to take strategic risks. You’ve got to learn you. You got to know your numbers inside. Now you can have a plan, a strategic plan for most people. Think they know what to do with marketing and they’ll buy some Facebook ads or whatever, but really, the basis that I look at all marketing on is to create a social media marketing plan and post and when you have a good social media strategy then you could start to buy media. 

So, I have structure and. Steps that I like to look at. So, I don’t know. I’ve learned a lot. The school of hard knocks 30 years of Coiling away. There are a lot of things that I Think I’ve learned,

Craig. I really admire that you take strategic risks, but a lot of people who want to start a business, they don’t start a business because they’re afraid of financial failure because they either, like, have a family or they have children. And I know, I know that you have. And all and all of that. Right. 

So, they’re emotionally attached to money, and they’re afraid that if they invest and then they fail, they’ll go financially bankrupt or something like that. What would be your advice to people that want to do business and have to take risks, but they’re too afraid financially?  

There’s a process and part of that process is If you have a market for it. People have great ideas, but does anybody else think it is a great idea? I mean. Yeah, they’re going to work and build some case studies around it to prove that it’ll work. But if you can get somebody else to come in and help you. It means somebody else believes in your vision. If nobody else will Come in Maybe you have a bad idea. 

But you know, I’ve, I mean, just talked to a lot of people and given feedback around whether people think you get a good idea or a bad idea? Everybody gets their own depth of risk that they’re willing to take. You know, I don’t know how to control that with people. Some people. Look, some of us have been around the earth for thousands of years if you. Believe me, you know that we’re all here to do it over. And over again, you know others have.  

I believe in reincarnation, yeah.  

I think we should do it all over again a few times until we get it right. Until we go through a full life without fear, we go after our dreams, and we do everything that we’re supposed to do. Maybe there’s a different level. Do you know what I mean? Maybe this is all like a big video game. You know, we’re playing at level 1. And we tried to. Figure out if we get to level. Two Level 3, level 4, I don’t know.  

I’ve heard a lot of people think that this world is like a simulation and we’re part of like, apart, like somebody’s, like, controlling the strings. You know, some would call it God, others call it Aliens, but who knows, you know.  

Right. I have that same philosophy. You know, we’re just playing a game. Here and that’s why. I won’t be afraid because I feel like no matter what I do, I’m going to be OK, because I really feel like there’s a higher power than when you’re doing the right thing, then it comes in and helps out. 

So, I don’t have any fear. I just go, you know. But I know that other people do and the way to do it is to figure out how. You’re going to make your side hustle part of your life. It doesn’t mean it has to be a paycheck for you, it’s just making your position part of your life. If you want an act. You don’t have to be on Broadway. Just do a local play and it’ll make you happy. As you start to find things that make you happy and that align with your passion, you often find ways to monetize.  

I mean it, ultimately it’s interesting because, you know, like America, the American ideal is about the Pursuit of happiness. But what you’re suggesting is you take the thing. That makes you happy. You pursue it and then you monetize that thing that makes you happy and makes you passionate about it. And then you turn into a business, it’s everything. It’s just like you see what it’s all like. Yeah, intermingling with each other, it’s all interconnected, you know, it’s like a.  

It’s kind of backward, right? It’s kind of backward.  

Yeah, that’s all. It’s all holistic. In a Certain way. Craig, what was the biggest challenge you had, like, during your entrepreneurial journey? And how did you overcome it?  

I’ve had so many challenges. I mean, I had People steal from me. Somebody would help me sell the company that ended up stealing over $1,000,000. Anything that can happen will, right? That’s why I Talk about finance, right? Here being in finance meetings, I’ve skipped out on some finance meetings and trusted people around me. Second, you do that. You know, they steal some money. I had a couple of guys steal an account and then even use my own employees to staff their center. Though my payroll percentage was way through the roof, I have things in place to catch it. I wasn’t paying much attention except for one other thing. So, it never got caught. 

How did you emotionally Overcome, this great challenge that happened to you? This is pretty messed up altogether.  

You know, it is pretty messed up. What you learn always finds is that there are things you can control. Of things you can’t control. And so, the only thing You could do as an entrepreneur, is you can Only focus on the same and control. If you can’t control it, don’t focus on it. You know, and that’s hard for people too. Do stress out about this and you’re stressed out about that, but over time I’ve realized that. All I can focus on is. Developing a cash flow strategy moving forward, that solves the problems that I’m trying to solve.  

Yeah, somewhat.  

No, that it does like you. You cannot let setbacks affect you.  

Right, so. If I need to conserve cash and. I’m going to fire people. How many people do I have to fire to make my margin? I hate the fact that you have. To fire people sometimes. But everybody you fire is a dollar saved, right? When you hire somebody. Or sorry when you bring in revenue. There are a lot of expenses that go up against the revenue. The only thing that is 100% back into your cash flow is letting people go. 

Nut if you have to bring in new revenue for every dollar of new revenue, you’ve got 50% expense or whatever your margin is. So, you have to. Look at where you’re going to cut and where you’re going to kind of be creative and bring revenue back in. And do your best.

But you have to focus on what you can control. I can control finding 10 or 20 people that I need to let go to my margin. Like I can control delaying paying my vendors. I can control myself, so I just focus on all the things that I can grab a hold of. And I let everything else go and you just can do the best you can do. And if you have a little bit of faith, then it almost always works out.  

No, that’s a great way of thinking. And I do hope my audience understands that. Like even though there are setbacks and there are people like you, you can never control your environment completely, but you just have to push forward. And just with the right thing, you can just you can eventually succeed. 

But Craig, on a different note, so you know American identity is about freedom, the opportunity for a greater life, and the pursuit of happiness. And many talk about happiness as being… you should monetize that which makes you happy and passionate. Can you tell me the audience a little bit more about how you see the integration of all of it together and in the Great American identity that’s played out nationally?  

Well, for me, passion is. My music, right? So, I want to win a Grammy. I want to have songs played on TV shows and movies, whatever. So, what can I control? Number one, I’m going to have some talent at it now. If I wasn’t talented, I could still be happy writing music, right? I can still be happy creating songs. 

Paul McCartney said, you know, writing a song is better than sex because sex is great, but a song lasts longer, you know, and he’s so right. When I write a record, it’s something that is with me forever. You know, it’s really every song is like writing a book. It’s just Such an amazing verse of something special. 

But I wanted to do more with it, so I use LinkedIn to find directors who might want to use my songs and then move your film without video through a sync agency. I was like, you know, why does music? Have to go through an agency. Why can’t music be more like Uber, you know, or? You know where you could just. Instead of going to a taxicab company, you just go directly to Uber. Well, I did that same process with music, so I think about where I want to go, what I want to do, and how I am going to get there. And it’s not always through traditional means. I’m working with video game companies. To launch artists. I’m talking to an MBA about launching their own music label and launching artists through the NBA and so I just find creative ways to go about achieving my grades. 

That’s all.  

So, for me writing a song Is great, but I wanted it to be on TV so I contacted the directors and the ones who. Put them on TV shows and movies. Right. And that was that for me. For something like control. And something I thought I could do. And so, I kind of just continued to move forward in the areas where I knew I could. You know, I can. Put some of my own. My own effort into it.  

So, Craig, what I’m noticing from you is that you’re basically having the same pioneering spirit that early Americans in the 1800s had when they went westwards like they were expanding towards the West. And then it’s Entrepreneur spirit and they were thinking and acting and figuring out. How to solve Problems.

And this is the same thing that I see you like I. Know that you travel a lot. And you’ve even gone to like a volcano and you’ve jumped from like, like an airplane before… I’ve seen it seem like an adventurous spirit that early Americans in the 19th century had. I personally believe that we have to go back to that old way of thinking where we go Deep within ourselves and find out what makes us more adventurous, and that is what leads to. The primary thing. 

So, what would you advise me to do to Americans that are watching this? On how to unleash that pioneering spirit that is probably dormant within them, but they don’t know about it yet.  

I think for me, you know to Unleash that entrepreneurship Spirit, I think people just have to have a little faith. You have to help others. I think for me, a lot of solutions come out of helping other people. And without having any expectations of getting something back a. Lot of people think I’m going. And back. I don’t think that way. I just try to help others as best I can. And if there’s good that. Comes out of it that great. Most of the time, there’s an unwritten law called the Law of reciprocation. The people that reciprocate. Other people I want to work with. The ones that don’t usually end up having a couple of conversations and I am spending more time with them. 

So, I think to open up that Pioneer experience. You just have to have faith and really focus on helping others that are in the categories that you want to be in. If you want to be a songwriter, start helping others talk with them about how you can help them out and then see if they don’t invite you to a writing session or invite you into a little bit more of an Internet setting where you can get a little bit more personalized, a little bit more involved. 

So that’s how I Would do it.  I Would always look for people that are like-minded or in like space. As far as my passion goes, then I’ll find out how I can help.  

Yeah, that’s the principle of reciprocity. Reciprocating is definitely an important thing. It’s something that I try to utilize in my life as well when I like it. So, I see what you’re saying. 

So, Craig, well, what do you think is the biggest hurdle that Americans face when it comes to realizing the American dream? And how would they overcome it from your perspective? 

I think a lot of people say they’re religious, but they don’t have any faith. I think you have to believe in yourself more than anybody else could ever believe in you. I think if you believe in yourself then you can overcome anything. Ah, so many people don’t believe in themselves.  

I think a lot of people have environments where people are always judging them and criticizing them and telling them that they’re not worth anything or they cannot. They cannot be like that. 

So, if you, let’s say they have … I know as entrepreneurs we never let our environments get the better of us. We’ll always adapt, and we’ll find a way. But from your perspective, if people are in environments where their self-worth is always like environments that help create low self-worth for them, what would be your advice in that case?  

Let’s say that You yourself want to be a gamer. But you don’t feel like you’re great at video games. I would have you start playing games and start finding other people that want to play with you and then and then we’ll wait for the cream to rise from the crop. 

Maybe the cream is you. Maybe the cream is somebody else. And just ride their coattails. Help them support them and as they go up, they’ll bring you up with them, you know. So that’s what I. Think I think you can do anything you set your mind to. You just have to focus on it and start doing it. Even if it’s shipped to passion and you’re not very good at it there. Are there other people That are good? At it and you. Support them. They’ll want to support you.  

That’s true, so. Yeah, definitely. 

So, Craig, right now In the Year 2022, there’s been a lot of inflation and a lot of people are suffering from debt and they have to like work two or more jobs sometimes to make ends meet. What is your perspective as an entrepreneur regarding inflation and debt altogether and what would be your advice to Americans like we’re, we’re now going through financial hardships?  

There are opportunities and everything. During the pandemic, there were people who suffered. There were restaurants that went out of business. But there were other restaurants that did more business than they’ve ever done during the pandemic. There are restaurants that added a window and they added in the drive-thru. There are restaurants that Built out there, they built out their business in a different way. During the pandemic, for example, I worked in a restaurant and trained All of the people Who answered phone calls for orders on sales techniques. We said with your order today that you would contribute 20 extra dollars because we’re going to bring a meal to a nursing home. You know, with that $20.00 and so we had 80% of the customers that were ordering food and an extra meal for somebody else. 

And so, when I worked in the restaurant, they made more money. But there are a lot of restaurants. Are out of business during the pandemic. My point is, with the economy having a downward turn, or if it does end up going even more. There are still opportunities, and one of the Opportunities is the down economy. I mean, just figure out what those opportunities are. Go in that direction. 

Mark Cuban just launched a medical product that cuts out the wholesale cost of medicine and that business name is blowing up because the economy is bad. So, people are looking for ways to save. Damon John’s doing. Micro investments with young people to buy apartment buildings and stuff. So, if you could. Only afford $50.00 a week. Well, you can still be an investor, just a micro investor, so you can start to build wealth. There are a lot of solutions. If you’re just open. Minded enough to figure out what they are.  

No, I see. I noticed a common theme amongst successful people is that they look at downturns as opportunities to create wealth. When most, most people, they’ll look at downturns or Something like the pandemic as bad. Think entrepreneurial people. They see opportunity. They’re like, this is the time to make money. So, it’s an interesting thing that I noticed overall.  

Where other people see gray clouds. I don’t. I see bright skies. Other people panic. I go, what’s the opportunity that lives within this panic?  

That’s a beautiful insight. And like, that’s something that I definitely want my audience to know, like, you know, like where there’s a failure or when something is negative, or you feel like there’s like a bad thing going on. It is a potential opportunity to turn. It’s Around like you just have to see things. In a different way. So. So yeah, that’s that.  

Life is nothing. Life is nothing but contrast. When you feel down, you get high. You know when you’re trying to go faster. Sometimes you slow down. Almost when you’re feeling like there’s a lot of negative stuff happening. There is a lot of positive stuff too. If you just look for most people, it’s so much easier to focus on the negatives than the positives. But you have to train your brain. It’s, you know it’s, it’s neuroplasticity. You have got to reshape the way that you think about problems. To look at every problem as a solution.  

No. Yeah, Troy. But Greg, you see this is like the mindset that you have, that’s different from most other people’s mindset. That is actually what helps you become successful where other people would not succeed. It’s all about them thinking about the same circumstance. But in different ways and your thing about the contrast is actually pretty true. So that’s pretty good. 

So Craig, on a different note, I know you’ve written this bestselling book called Hire to quit inspired to stay. Can you tell the audience of this more about the premise of this book and what got you to write it and all of that?  

I was training employees and I realized that maybe they weren’t listening as well as I thought they should, so I started talking to them about their dreams. And their goals? And we root our phone calls, and our Commission plans are all Based on performance. 

So, I explained our comp Plan and I said look, the sooner you guys perform at a level that’s acceptable for my company, the sooner you’re going to be able to quit because you’re going to get more. I mean, the people who perform well in this call center make triple what the base pay is. 

So, if you learn how. Talking to People and communicating does your job well. You know you’re going to. You’re going to be able to quit in six months. But if you don’t it’s going to take you a year and a half. So what do you want to do with your life? Are you going to do it? As we blew it out. Only 5% of my employees really wanted to quit and go do something really special. The turnover rate went down because most people just want to own a car. And a station every year. 

And so I worked with some of the banks To get lower interest rates and guaranteed loans, things like that. Just understanding what your employees want. And so. I thought after we had so much success in lowering turnover. Increasing revenues, increasing performance, and helping over 100 people live their dreams that maybe I had a book, you know? 

So, I put it together and People, I think, loved what we had to say. You know if you’re an employer. Imagine if every one of those employees worked for you with your children, would you want them doing a job They hate? I wouldn’t. You know, I want my kids to do what they love. And I try. To think of all of my employees in that same way.  

Greg, that is a really amazing cause, that’s something that most big companies or companies in general don’t, they don’t do that in the in-today’s world, they just see everything in terms of like profit and loss, employees are completely replaceable if necessary. Over here you’re actually thinking about your employees and what makes them happy. So, it’s a really radical approach in today’s world.  

It is, but when people do it, they’re shocked. The turnover goes down and your employees get happier and happier. Employees are profitable. We actually do study with forced research. And enforced research. We were able to prove it. 

So, we did a survey and we had 45 questions and we said how do you like security? How do you like this, and do you like that? And we gave them all a Pay raise of a dollar. And the performance improved as well. We wanted to try giving $0.50 to charity.

And so, we tried that as well. Well, the performance numbers of charity were a little bit lower than giving them the dollar directly. However, what we went back and discovered was that when we were donating the money to charity, our employees were happier. Thus, the close rate of the overall sale went up. 

And so, we’re able to prove that giving money away to charity was more profitable than giving people money directly because it made them happy to be giving to somebody else, which improved performance enough for us to gain a few points in our close rate. 

So, it is. So yeah, so people think, oh, it’s how. Am I going to give? All this away, I’m going to lose money. No, it’s profitable. Teaching people how to be happy is very profitable.  

Craig, if this Could be adopted on a national level. Wouldn’t that be great? This is a fact.  

It would be.  

Yeah, because like, because I, I mean, I got to be honest. Like, a lot of people think that we are living in a narcissistic work culture, especially in corporate America. But if they adopted the same thing that you’re talking about right now, that would lead to more productivity. You know because there’s like an entire thing. Like where you have to be ruthless. There’s a way of thinking where you have to be ruthless. It’s all about the numbers and all that, but what you’re suggesting will not only make employees happy, but it’ll also lead to greater results.  

Yeah, definitely. And most people think they’re going to lose out on it. That’s the big area where, like, Oh my God. And look, my CEO quit my operations director. You know, making almost 200,000 grand. He quit and Bought a golf course, and he drank the Kool-Aid. Did I want him to quit? No, but am I happy for him? I love him. I’m absolutely thrilled he’s bought 2 golf courses now. You know, that’s all he’s ever wanted to do was own some golf courses. I didn’t like it when he was. I was like, that wasn’t. For you, but did I want to support him? Of course. You got to support others in the grapes. You know, and so I’m very excited about it.  

Craig, I really admire your approach and everything and it’s like I don’t know if you know this or not. It’s pretty radical in today’s world, but I do hope more companies adopt what you’re talking about now.

I really do.  

What companies will? We have a big mental health crisis In this country, we definitely have to help other people with their goals.  

Yeah, uh, definitely. But Craig, is there any other work or project that you’re doing right now that you want the audio, and the audience, to get a glimpse of?

So, my call center. I haven’t really worked in it for like 2 years. You know, it’s been around for 16 years, but I haven’t really done much in the last couple. I’ve built another social media marketing company where we create content and then promote it and manage the community around it and it’s called social close. 

That business is growing really quickly and we’re helping a lot of people. We’re, you know, we’re basically giving away a $20,000 marketing strategy. Or close enough and we do a free audit for people. Then we can interview them and make sure you understand what their goals are and build out a strategy that I used to charge. I used to charge 10,000 a day to build the same strategy I give away. Now we take a small deposit of 500 or 1000. I don’t know what my team is doing. But it goes against your monthly retainer If you do hire us. Or you get to Walk away with $20,000. Marketing plan and execute on your own. That’s what I mean by trying to help everybody, I mean. Everybody I talked to. Most people couldn’t afford to hire you. You know that is just starting out. 

No, that is that. Is awesome.  

I think I mean I’m working on projects in the music space, I am. Helping gaming companies launch artists through Easter egg hunts with artwork and NTFS, with songs being pushed underneath the art as it’s created and talking to the NBA about different projects. I mean, I’m doing TV and film.

I’m working on a walk music mastery program. I helped rebuild back for him, and we’ll have thousands of artists that are now enrolling. To learn how to be a better musician, it’s artist development artist, development artist, development, music mastery. 

So, I mean, I’m involved in a lot of things. And if somebody has questions or concerns. For the most part, I pretty much. Know somebody who has a solution. Is it me? I know who the person is, and they’re probably trying to reach me. Because I’ve been doing business for a long time.  

That is awesome. Craig, where can our audience go to connect with you and get to know more about you and what you’re Doing? 

All on all my socials on Craig Handley. Right? Craig Handley. That’s the first place Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, all these different places. But it’s also pretty easy to find Craig at my call center. Listentrust.com or Craig at socialclose.com or? 

So, it’s pretty easy to find that. E-mail I think even my cell phone number is on the web. You know, I mean, I don’t have any problem with people texting me if they want to consult or have a conversation. Sometimes they call me up directly, but a lot of times I’m busy so it’s easier If they text first. But my numbers. I have no problem with people sending Me a text messages either. So that I’m very easy to reach and because. I really want to help a lot of people.  

Well, Craig, would like to thank you so much for taking the time to do this and just.  

Yeah, your audience doesn’t know, but. I was a little bit late. And I just want to turn on the light here. I was a little bit leaked. For our podcast, they won’t know because it’s Kind of invisible. But I just want all that to be a little bit late. And make sure I just want to make it? I gave a lot of value to your audience.  

You definitely did, and you also have a really generous hard Craig. What You’re doing with Your work and your companies. I don’t know if you realize there are very few people doing this. And I’m proud and honored to have you as a guest On this podcast and I would really hope that in the future you come back at a future time.  

No, let’s, let’s do another one. Right.

And I want to conclude this. I want to conclude this episode by telling my fellow extraordinary Americans that, hey, there is an extraordinary within each and every one of us, it is our duty and our job to awaken it and unleash it until next time. Bye for now.