Episode 23 – Unstoppable Big Money Speaker with James Malinchak

James Malinchak is known to many as the “Big Money Speaker,” because of his success as a speaker, a motivator, and an inspiration to those who hear him. When I use the term “unstoppable” I refer, as regular listeners know, to a mindset that people adopt that helps them move forward even in the face of extreme adversity.
 
James discovered early in life that he would have to adopt his own unstoppable mindset if he wanted to survive and succeed first in the world of finance and then as a speaker who could coach and inspire others to raise their own sights.
 
Mr. Malinchak has been an extremely popular speaker in the college speaking circuit. Not only is he a quite sought-after speaker, but he does make money speaking at colleges and elsewhere. His secret is simple. “If you don’t ask for what you are worth then you will never get it.”
 
James has appeared on the Television show, Secret Millionaire. He will tell you about his experiences and through them you will get to meet a man whose life philosophy is refreshing, positive and unstoppable.
 
I look forward to hearing your comments after you listen to James. Please email me at michaelhi@accessibe.com and tell me what you think of this interview.

Some directories do not show full show notes. For the complete transcription please visit https://michaelhingson.com/podcast
 

About the Guest:
James Malinchak is recognized as one of the most requested, in-demand business and motivational keynote speakers and marketing consultants in the world. He was featured on the Hit ABC TV Show, Secret Millionaire and was twice named National “College Speaker of the Year.” James has delivered over 3,000+ presentations for corporations, associations, business groups, colleges, universities and youth organizations worldwide. James can speak for groups ranging from 20-30,000+.
 
Giving back is a big part of James’ life as he has raised over $1,000,000 for various charities and organizations and has donated thousands of dollars of his own money to help others.
 
As a speaker marketing coach and consultant, James is the behind-the-scenes, go-to marketing advisor for many top speakers, authors, thought leaders, business professionals, celebrities, sports coaches, athletes and entrepreneurs and is recognized as “The World’s #1 Big Money Speaker  Trainer and Coach!”
 
For more information & FREE Training, visit: www.BigMoneySpeaker.com
 

About the Host:
Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.
 
Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children’s Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association’s 2012 Hero Dog Awards.
 
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https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/
 
accessiBe Links
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https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/
 
 
 
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Transcription Notes

UM Intro/Outro  00:00
Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I’m Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that’s a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we’re happy to meet you and to have you here with us.
 
Michael Hingson  01:22
Well, hi, everyone. This is Mike Kingston, welcome you to another episode of unstoppable mindset. Glad you’re here and hope you will enjoy the show. We have, I think a fun and exciting guest. Just listening to information about his company, big money speaker. Well, you can’t get more exciting than that. Can you James?
 
James Malinchak  01:42
So it’s it’s better than little money speaker.
 
Michael Hingson  01:45
That is true. So everyone meet James Malin. Check and James were really pleased and gratified that you came on the podcast today.
 
James Malinchak  01:53
Thanks for having me, Mike. I appreciate it and hope to inspire some of your your great listeners.
 
Michael Hingson  01:59
Well, we’re glad you’re here. Well, let’s let’s start off and see what what we can learn. So you, you’ve been in the speaking business as well. But tell us about your last little bit. When you weren’t obviously you were born like the rest of us. And where does it go from there?
 
James Malinchak  02:14
I was born in a van down by the river, right? And now what every motivational speaker says.
 
Michael Hingson  02:18
Either that or you were born in a log cabin. Yeah.
 
James Malinchak  02:22
Yeah. No, I grew up in a tiny steel town outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania population of about 6000. Great folks. We didn’t have much grown up dad was a steel worker and mom was a lunch mother serving lunches to us kids at school. So I had some big dreams and goals. And one of them was the play college basketball. So I accepted a basketball scholarship to the University of Cincinnati, right out of high school. And then my coach had gotten relieved of his duties, which is a great way to say he was fired. So I ended up transferring and playing in Hawaii. And unfortunately, in an exhibition game, I caught a pass twisted my knee and ripped up my knees. I was I was done. And so I moved to Los Angeles. My career, dreams of playing pro basketball were done. And I moved to Los Angeles and started my career as a stockbroker. I worked for a major Wall Street investment firm, and won some awards. They’re very early in my young years, my first year starting out opened up about 200 Some accounts. And so my phone rang one day. And it was a gentleman, he said, Hey, my son works with you there in the office. And he said, You just really smashed it did really well, I’d love to have you come and talk to my employees. And I said, I don’t I don’t really speak and do that kind of stuff. I’m just an advisor. And he said, Well, we only really need you to talk for about 40 minutes. And so I don’t really speak or do any of that kind of stuff. You know, I don’t even know what that means. And he said, and I’ll pay $5,000. And I said I speak I speak. I speak.
 
Michael Hingson  04:01
Hallelujah.
 
James Malinchak  04:05
Mama didn’t raise no for Mike. Yeah, somebody wants to pay you to show up and talk your yo, you’re saying the same stuff anyway. And now they’re going to pay you. I said, I mean, I don’t know what this means, but I’ll do it. Easy. Yes. So I went and did it. And on a scale of one to 10 I was probably in my mind that was a negative two. I mean, I thought I was so awful. You know, just a bad presenter. And he came up and he said that was great. And I’m like, Who were you watching? You’re watching me because I was terrible. He said, Well, this first lesson I got he said you might not be a good orator presenter. But you’re great at telling your story with your message that inspired my folks to want to be better. I’d like to actually have you come back and do it for a couple different divisions two more times and and would it be okay if I paid you the 5000 bucks each time and I was like Yeah, okay, like really? You thought I was good? He said, No, you weren’t like good presenter, but your information was really good. And so I did. And, and I couldn’t believe it. I was like, holy cow. I did three talks, and they paid me 15,000 bucks. So guess what I did, Mike. I did a really smart thing, buddy. I went quit my job.
 
Michael Hingson  05:23
And you learn how to be a better presenter, right?
 
James Malinchak  05:26
Well, let me tell you what I did learn. I learned that. Bookings like that don’t fall out of the sky. No. And I was very blessed and lucky on those three, because I blew through my life savings. And I was so financially destitute and broke that I was forced to work in a video store Montrose video in Montrose, California, and I made seven bucks an hour. And I lived in an apartment that had bars on the windows, and it was $400 a month to rent the apartment in Los Angeles. Yeah. And so yeah, a Top Ramen noodles, a pasta diluted with pot with a spaghetti sauce diluted with water, because it would last longer. And I did that for three years. Because I didn’t realize I was running a business, you know, and I thought magically cheques were just gonna fall out of the sky for me, and that never happened. So I was on the phone with a mentor. And he was worth about $500 million. And he knew me since I was a kid. And he said, Hey, you know, you can have the best most impactful message in the world, you can have the biggest heart and want to change lives and help people. But if you don’t learn how to run this thing as a business, you’re gonna be in for rough roads. And so if he told me to eat the pencil, and it would make me successful, I would do it because he pretty much everything he’s told me has worked in my life. So I went on, I started learning the business, and how do I do this. And, you know, and that’s why my logo today for big money speaker on my shirt is a coin. Because I always say there’s two sides of the coin, in speaking or for any business, number one you have what you do to serve people and help people and make a difference, or your message or your information. But then there’s a flip side of the coin, it’s called the business of speaking. And so once I’ve mastered the business of speaking and didn’t worry about whether I was a great presenter or anything, that’s when I went from zero and then book 40 talks the next year, and then 100 talks, the paid talks, not free talks, paid talks the next year. And then never when I was doing full paid speaking that ever book less than 100 paid talks and my busiest year, as I did 157 locations, 157 locations in some locations, I got six checks, or five checks like Valencia Community College in Orlando, Florida has six campuses. So when I went to Orlando, one location, I spoke six times and got six checks. So that’s how I did it. Now I’ve done over 3000, some paid presentations, and very blessed that I’ve met a lot of cool people and hopefully in some way help them.
 
Michael Hingson  08:06
And, you know, that is what it’s all about. And the reality is a lot of people don’t view speaking is a business. And a lot of people who speak don’t use speaking as a business. I actually had a conversation with someone that’s involved with authors. And we were we were talking about authors and speaking and she said, The problem is we book authors, but you got to understand they’re not professional speakers. And I said, you’re viewing you’re booking authors to speak, of course, they’re professional speakers. What am I missing here?
 
James Malinchak  08:44
Well, if someone got paid to show up and talk them their professional, not
 
Michael Hingson  08:49
exactly. That’s what I would say. I remember the first speech I gave, I don’t know how much you know of my story. I’m sure Michelle told you some. But we were in the World Trade Center on September 11. And came out and the media got the story. And a couple of weeks later, we got a call from a gentleman in New Jersey, and he said, I’m a pastor in a church. We’re just holding an evening ecumenical service for all the people who were last in the World Trade Center, who are from New Jersey. And we’d like you to just come and take about five or six minutes and just briefly tell your story. And, you know, we can’t pay or anything. By that time, I had actually started getting calls from people who said, We want to pay you to come and speak and of course, my belief was being in sales. Why do I want to sell computers when people want to pay me just to talk, you know, but but I said I would come in and speak to this group. And this happened before any of the paid presentations actually took place. But I made the mistake. I love to say it that way of asking him how many people are going to be at the service, probably 6000. So my first speech was a brief one, six minutes, but to 6000 people in an open air service in New Jersey, and it was fun. And hopefully we moved people and it kind of went from there. So I know exactly what you’re saying.
 
James Malinchak  10:11
That’s fantastic. Congratulations on that.
 
Michael Hingson  10:13
It was it was a lot of fun. And you know, it is in part about serving people, but it is a business as well. And it’s great when you can, can put the two together.
 
James Malinchak  10:25
Absolutely. That’s why I say there’s two sides of the coin. Right, right. And by the way, not just for speaking, but for any entrepreneurial business out there, I’ve done 2000 2000 plus one on one consulting for business people. And it doesn’t matter what they’re in, whether they’re a dentist, whether they are running a seminar company, whether they’re opening a chain of restaurants, you know, there’s the one side where you serve folks, and you help them and you make joy in their life with your restaurant with your food, your service, but don’t flip side, there’s this thing called the business of you got to figure out how to get people to come to your restaurant, how to get them to keep coming back how to get them to talk and refer others how to set your restaurant up to run on systems, you know how to hire retain great people. I mean, that’s all business that has nothing to do with the first side of the coin that has everything to do with running a business.
 
Michael Hingson  11:18
So you learn a lot of that, I would assume and developing that mindset from the fact that you were in an investment firm for a while that that had to have an influence on all that. I would say
 
James Malinchak  11:30
yes, a little bit, but not really a lot, because that’s not an entrepreneurial business. That’s corporate America. Sure. Right. And so, you know, they’re trained, I always say that, you know, they’re trained a lot to do the same thing. And deliver, you know, you go from one office to the other, all the managers are saying the same thing, doing the same thing. So it’s pretty much corporate run, coming down from the shareholders and the board and CEO, CFO C level execs. So when I ventured out, I’ll tell you the big one of the big mistakes that I made with speaking when I’ve ventured out into speaking, I didn’t realize it was an entrepreneurial business, I just thought, Oh, this is fun, I get to speak and talk to people and this guy paid me money. So this is pretty cool. And I never realized that this is no different than a flower shop and opening that or, you know, restaurant and opening that or a chiropractic office and opening that. You know, a lot of times folks get into speaking and don’t realize that it is a actual real business, a real professional business. And that was my one of my big mistakes in the beginning is not grasping that I just thought this is the coolest thing in the world. I get to speak and get paid holy, wow. I never thought of it as a real business.
 
Michael Hingson  12:50
But nevertheless, with with the training, you had your your mind, internalize that. And you came to that realization that it was a business.
 
James Malinchak  12:59
Yeah, very quickly, I realized. And then the other thing I realized is like me and it’s no one’s fault. They’ve never been taught this. Most speakers, authors, trainers, coaches, if you will never actually run it as a business. It’s a hobby. And they don’t have systems in place. They don’t have a prospecting tool. They don’t have referral mechanisms in place. You know, they don’t have upsells downsells cross sells, and I didn’t either, and it’s all because we’re never taught that. I work with a lot. I coach a lot of celebrities now and a lot of pro athletes. I just met I was in. You mentioned trade centers. I was in San Diego speaking it was myself. Emmy award winning TV host Leeza Gibbons, good friend of mine that I’ve helped and Nick Lowry used to be the kicker for the Kansas City Chiefs all time leading kicks kicker for the Chiefs all time leading scorer Hall of Fame. And I had a chance to have lunch with a guy that played for the Yankees and one four World Series. He knew I was speaking he saw me on social media, he asked if we could meet for lunch and coffee. And we talked and, you know, it was the the same sort of situation. He’s like, you know, I played for the Yankees and won World Series play with Gary Jeter or Derek Jeter, and all these you know, talk Yankees, and Steinbrenner, you know, learned a lot. And I want to get into speaking and I said, Well, you do know you’re running a business, right? And it’s wonderful. You played for the Yankees and won all these World Series. But that doesn’t mean you’re going to get booked. What means you’re going to get booked is when you actually reach out to the people who have the budgets and make decisions and actually get them to book you. And then get them to book you for four talks instead of one and then get them to book you for four talks plus consulting and coaching for their C level execs after and they said that’s all business thing. You know, and so that’s what I try to impart on people now is right out of the gate, because I told him I said you’re gonna you’re gonna have a good message about winning World Series and all the stuff you went through and the ups and downs. But if you don’t learn this stuff, stuff, all that stuff is never going to be able to share be shared and impact people because you won’t know how to get to decision makers, and you won’t know what they’re looking for, you won’t know how to let set fees, then you won’t know how to roll it into $100,000 Follow up consulting contracts, etc. And so that and that was that was something I was never taught. And that’s something I don’t think people are taught. We just get into it. Hey, you got a great message, go talk. Okay. So I really try to impart the entrepreneurial business knowledge that I’ve been blessed to gain over the years that has helped me go from working in a video store making seven bucks an hour to literally generating millions of dollars as a speaker.
 
Michael Hingson  15:42
Well, speaking of millions, you were on ABC Secret Millionaire, I remember that show. And I throw a blessing. I think I remember watching the one that you were on. But tell us about secret millionaire and it’s not on anymore. That’s too bad. But anyway,
 
James Malinchak  15:57
well, so there’ll be touch on that the reason it’s not on is because people started figuring it out. And see what happened is that you don’t realize this unless, because all you see is me on television. And I’ll get into the show piece in a second. But what you don’t realize is that got 15 to 20 people around me, I have one guy who his whole job was to control the microphone. And like he would say, stop, stop, stop, we got to stop filming and be like why? So there’s a plane, like, you look up and it was the plane like 30,000 feet and like nobody could see it or hear it. But he could pick it up, which meant it was going to be picked up on television. Right. So that was his whole job. We had people there, their job was to just carry the reflector boards to reflect the light to make sure that there were no shadows on my face as I was walking. I mean, so there were a lot of people around us doing this. So it’s not like you could just show up in a town have 15 to 20 people around you with security police, you know, big lights, cameras, like on all angles of the street four cameras and, and not know something’s going on.
 
Michael Hingson  17:09
What was your first clue?
 
James Malinchak  17:10
Yeah, exactly. So that’s the reason why the ratings were fantastic. As a matter of fact, when I was on, we had over 10 million people that watched it that night that I appeared and to put it in perspective, Trump’s apprentice Donald Trump’s the apprentice was on that night and had 7 million. So we I had 10 million on mine, you know, which was so in other words, like the ratings weren’t great. But they were people were starting to figure it out and trying to get on TV, because they knew that the you know, they would be awarded money if they were so it just it deflated the essence of the spirit of the show, which was. So for anyone listening, imagine if someone came and grabbed you by crane picked you up out of your current element and dropped you somewhere and said go ahead and live. And by the way, you’re not allowed to have any credit cards, no watch, no cell phone, no outside connection, no internet access, no outside connection to the world. They want you to be fully present in the moment. And imagine if they then said, and for this entire eight days, while you’re going to be here, we’re going to give you a check to live on. And it’s $44.66. Now go live. And we’ll see you later. And that’s what it was it was taken me out of my current entrepreneurial element, with no resources, dropping me in a place. I had no idea where I was going, which happened to be Gary, Indiana. Oh, boy. Yeah, if anybody knows anything about Gary, two things, number one, Michael Jackson and the Jacksons grew up there on 223 Jackson Street. And number two, at the time I went there, it was the number two murder place in the US. And I had no idea I thought I was going to Indiana to milk cows on a farm. That’s all I that’s what my perception of Indiana was. And so, and basically they put me there and my purpose was to go through their town. Look for amazing people working for organizations who were changing lives and making a difference. Friend them, start working for them in their, their charity, and then volunteering. And then at the end of my time, when I’m going to leave town I go to them. And I say, Mike, thanks so much for having me here and your charity, allowing me to come into your family and start helping folks and to work side by side. I really appreciate it. I have to head out of town now. But before I leave, there’s something I haven’t told you. And that’s my whole acting. That’s the only thing they told me I had to do. So that’s my acting move. I had to say that and then pause so my acting move, but big debut of acting was I paused I’ll do it again for anybody didn’t hear. There’s something I haven’t told you boom, there we go. I had to pause for three seconds. Everything else was real, except they instructed me. I had to pause for three seconds after I said that, so, and then I rebuild my identity. And the reason for the pause is they wanted to get the cameras on people’s faces to catch the what? Like, what? Oh, no, what’s going on? Like, they want to catch that shock. And so then, then I just told him, I said, you know, I think what you’re doing is amazing, you’re impacting people’s lives, you’re making a difference. And I open up my checkbook, and I start writing them checks. To help further their mission, I wrote over $100,000 worth of checks to them. And hence the term secret billionaire. So that’s the whole essence of this show. And Mike, I’ll just say the last thing is this. One of the true blessings in my life, I met, not people I met angels, people are just serving and doing good to help the fellow man and fellow woman for no other reason than to help them true angels, Great Spirits of serving.
 
Michael Hingson  21:04
And that kind of thing is always wonderful and a blessing to encounter. And and define that there are people who are committed to doing that, and they do it very selflessly. And they get they get rewarded for it in various ways. And a lot of times, probably the investment world doesn’t understand the rewards that they get.
 
James Malinchak  21:25
Well, so you’re 100% right, my friend. When I was doing the media, I mean, I must have done five 600 media appearances to promote the show, maybe 1000. I don’t know I did so many of them. I remember one one time we did. 300 was booked for 300 radio shows like satellite tours where I might I probably did 5080 shows in a day, you know, five minutes here, two minutes here, four minutes here. But that was on the Grammy red carpet. I mean, with all the celebrity Will Smith is right next to me, Justin Bieber, the Oak Ridge Boys, Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise. I mean, everybody’s right there. And so when I would do these interviews, no matter where it was, or to who it was, people would always say, so what was it like to be on that show? And I said, Well, it’s called Secret Millionaire. And I appreciate the fact that it’s kind of labeled around someone like me, the entrepreneurial millionaire guy, but this show is not about me, this show was about these unsung heroes, who are finally going to get their due and be recognized for the amazing work they’re doing in their community, like you said, Mike, that no one ever hears about. So I always say, you know, it was called Secret Millionaire, but it was really about all these people who were doing amazing work.
 
Michael Hingson  22:40
And continue to do it. It’s, yeah, it’s a lot of fun. I worked for a nonprofit for a while I worked up at Guide Dogs for the Blind in salt shell. Yeah, and you know, it is all about doing it because you want to, and doing it because you know, you’re accomplishing good things. And for me, of course, it’s a little bit different than a lot of people who who work there. And of course, using a guide dog. It’s, it’s different. Because I’m also involved in trying to relay the message, you know, the average individual thing. So it’s a blind person who’s got a dog, the dog leads them around, never recognizing that the dogs job is to make sure that we don’t fall off a cliff, it’s still my job to know where to go and how to get there. And that’s no different than you needing, needing to know where to go and how to get there. You use different cues than I do. But I give the dog that commands. And so working up at the school, even a lot of people at the school didn’t really understand that. So it was and today as I travel and speak, it is all about input, at least in part, helping to educate people to recognize blindness isn’t the problem. It’s your attitudes and your misconceptions about blindness. That is a real challenge that we face. And the fact of the matter is that we should be inclusive as a society.
 
James Malinchak  24:00
Hmm, no, I love that. And kudos to what you’re doing to help educate all of us who don’t understand and better maybe shift our paradigm because we have false beliefs or false misconceptions. But yeah, it’s it’s amazing. It’s amazing that when you just you know, I say that the secret to living is giving and when you come from a servant’s heart, and you just truly want to make a difference. My dad and mom used to always tell me when I would do something good, like win an award like basketball or something and I’d come home Hey, Mom, Hey, Dad, I got this and they say, Oh, we love you, son that so proud of you. But remember, you didn’t come into this world with anything and you’re not leaving with anything. The only thing you got son is the difference that you make while you’re here the impact that you make, the lives you change and the legacy you leave. And every time every time I made an award like some sort of warm throughout my whole life. Oh, that’s great, son. We love you. We’re proud Have you but remember, let it go right back into it. So you’re
 
Michael Hingson  25:04
gonna take, you’re not going to take those plaques and trophies with you when you leave
 
James Malinchak  25:08
100%. I just gathered dust. The it’s amazing. It’s funny you say that because I have some of those plaques and trophies from basketball or from when I was a stock broker and they literally are in a box in a storage unit. Right? Literally, that’s it had been there for years. Yeah, 20 years, some of them.
 
Michael Hingson  25:32
I, when I first relocated to the New York area, I was there about a year and then got recruited away by a company that I had worked with some and knew the owner of. And I worked there for about a year and a half before I got recruited by quantum to open an office for them in New York, which we did in the World Trade Center. But this company, my first year out, I was number one in sales. And since I hadn’t worked for the company before, they gave me Rookie of the Year plaque, which was great. And that was on my wall in the World Trade Center. When the building was attacked, of course, everything was lost. Two weeks later, this guy calls our house and I was in the city, meeting with someone at the time, of course now after 911. And he didn’t know whether he’s alive or dead. He talked to my wife and finally got up the nerve to say why he was calling. And she said, Well, he’s in the city meeting with someone right now. And she said, you could just hear the relief in his voice knowing that I was alive. Well, we met up and he gave me this plaque, this rookie of the year plaque he worked for 9x now part of a reason. He found that plaque in the pile grounds away, counted up. And it’s just it is one of those things. So it’s taken on a whole lot more meaning but it still is a plaque and it’s it’s really still what you accomplish.
 
James Malinchak  26:59
Wow. That’s unbelievable that it survived that. You know, what a what a great Wow. I’m speechless, literally speechless.
 
Michael Hingson  27:09
I it was amazing. When he he found it, he cleaned it all up, it was still in great shape, it still is in great shape. And it’s just kind of one of those memories that you have. And memories are good things to have. So it’s okay.
 
James Malinchak  27:23
Oh, yeah, absolutely. But you know, it’s the memory I don’t I don’t really care about the the tangible trophies and all that I have. You know, hopefully, by doing some of those accomplishments, I was able to make someone’s life better that that’s what really matters to me.
 
Michael Hingson  27:39
Sure. It’s, it’s about what you said, it’s about what you do. The rewards and all that stuff are great. And the money is great. And we do need money. And that’s the way the world is set up. But still, the bigger rewards are what we do to help people and and the things that we accomplish and can look back on and say, I made a difference. Well, what I?
 
James Malinchak  28:01
Yeah, what I tell folks all the time, I said look, and I asked a friend of mine and you may know him neato Cobain. Nieto used to be the past president of something called the National Speakers Association. And he’s the president of High Point University in High Point North Carolina right now a great phenomenal, one of the best speakers ever. And they came to America with $50 in his pocket. And I asked him one time we were sitting in the back of a room, we’re both speaking at a Dan Kennedy marketing event. And I asked him, I said, neato. I just Just curious, I’ve always wanted to ask you this. I said, you’re amazing philanthropist you give you serve, you know, you’re you’re pretty much running this university and taking no payment just because you want to do it and help people help kids. And I said, I know money’s not everything. But how would you frame it? He goes, Well, I put money right up there with oxygen. Yeah. So what do you mean? He said, Well, I mean, you gotta have it. Everything we require in life is money. And it’s, it’s ridiculous for people to think that like, it should be a focus. And then so I always tell my talks, like I said, look, the more money you make, and I tell speakers this all the time more money you make, the more you can give away. Yeah, there is that. The more money you make, the more you can feed people who are hungry. The more money you make, the more you can build roofs for churches, or you could build water wells, or like I have, and I don’t ever really talk about my philanthropy, but I have, you know, schools I’ve built in Africa, for kids who were sitting on rocks to learn because they had no shelter. And I said, this, this is terrible, you know, we ought to be able to do something about it. And so I would give them a whole bunch of money. So we can build schools over there and get textbooks and get, you know, desks and so kids don’t have to sit outside and the heat, but like think about it, it takes money to do that kind of stuff. All the pie in the sky. I hear what people talk about manifestation and the secret and all that I get it But at the end of the day, you got to write a check. And at the end of the day, you got to be able to buy tangible stuff. And if you don’t have the money in your bank account, you can’t build the school in Africa, all the wishing and hoping in the world and getting that school bill, that stroke in a check, to buy concrete to buy supplies to pay the workers to build get trucks to come over and help them build it that that takes money to do that. So I tell people all the time, make a lot of money in your profession, so that you can impact more people. Last thing I’ll say is, you know, when I was helping to feed a lot of folks, you know, it was amazing because lunch meat, bread, Manet’s drinks, that all takes money to buy it, you know, so that we could actually feed people, even if we made it, we had to hire workers and pay them to make the food so we could feed people. So anyone that thinks that money doesn’t play into how big and well you serve, of course, you can serve with time, you can serve with talents, but at the end of the day, if you make some more money than you can help and serve and give back in a bigger way,
 
Michael Hingson  31:17
as you should,
 
James Malinchak  31:18
as we all should. Yeah, so I tell people make out gazillion dollars, don’t keep any of that, give it away and help a lot of less fortunate folks.
 
Michael Hingson  31:25
Absolutely. So with things like secret millionaire, and so on, you have faced some pretty challenging things in your life. How do you do that? I think some people would say, without fear. And I know that that doesn’t really make sense, because of course, there’s fear. But how? How do you deal with challenges like that?
 
James Malinchak  31:47
Well, my sister Vicki, unexpectedly passed away years ago of a brain tumor. And when she was diagnosed with it, and it was about three months before she passed, I saw her in a hospital room and in a bed, you know, with medication and all these things happening, and never one time. Never once. Did I ever hear her complaint? Never once did I ever hear her say why me? Never once? Did I ever hear her, you know, say anything about that. And I thought that I watched my sister deteriorate and start to pass away. And I said, What the hell am I complaining about? This is a human being that lost her life. And there we know many people, everybody knows someone that lost a life. And so that really changed me and made me realize that why am I scared of things? She wasn’t scared of transitioning out of this world into a different place. What I’m going to be scared because I haven’t tried something. And by the way, psychologists tell us that human beings are born with two fears and two fears only the fear of falling. And the fear of boom, loud noises. No. So if you have any other fear in your life, that means you created it, and you manifested it. And basically, you know this, whether you think about something good or bad, it expands. So if you think about fear and nervousness, and oh my gosh, here’s the thing I learned Mike, when when we say I’m scared of this, I’m worried about this, oh, my god, well, then isn’t the focus on you. And so what I do, and all I do in my talks is try to share people with people what I do that works for me, and if it works for you, great, use it. If not, they’ve crumble up, throw it away. I’m not here to tell you that, like I have figured everything out, I just figured out a couple things for me, and maybe these will work for you. And so what I tell folks is, when you’re fearful, either one you haven’t practiced, you haven’t honed it, you don’t have your skills down. Number two, maybe it’s brand new, and you haven’t tried it before, right? Like first time we tried to ride a bike or something. We were fearful everything we’re always first time we started a job, we were nervous. But the third thing to realize is, is if you weren’t born with that, right? It’s because there was two fears fear of falling and fear of loud noises. So it’s Fe AR is, is you’ve heard this before false evidence. It’s false evidence because you weren’t born with it, it appears real, because you focus on it and blow it up in your mind. Right? And so then we start the fourth thing is to focus on what what if like, Oh, what if I screw up? What if this doesn’t work? I’m scared because of and then you think of a negative but what if you turn that into positive energy? And said, I’m so excited about this? Because I get this opportunity to and then fill in the blank? Yeah. So change your languaging change the way you think about it change the way you act toward it. And the last thing the fifth thing I always say is this for myself. This is part of the process. Because everything I started that was brand new, I was always nervous about and fearful. That’s just part of the process. Now, I’ll get through this. And then I’ll look back on it the same way I look back on learning to ride a bike or learning to drive a car. And I’ll look back on this situation and say, What was I so nervous about that nonsense?
 
Michael Hingson  35:22
Well, and one of the things that that I have learned, especially over the last 20 years, and internalizing September 11, and so on is we do have fears they do happen. And some of those fears can be pretty overwhelming. But they’re overwhelming, because we haven’t developed a mindset that allows us to look at them, analyze them, which you can do in the blink of an eye, and be able to move forward with we’ve got this pandemic going on around us. And I submit that a lot of the people who choose not to get vaccinated not to wear masks who claim it’s all a hoax, are really reacting out of fear, rather than recognizing there is something going on here. And we can be proud proactive in dealing with it. But mostly controlling our own mindset, so that we can move forward in the circumstances, and deal with them successfully. And with the World Trade Center. There are still people who I know who are afraid to fly because they saw the airplanes hit the towers, or they’re afraid of other things, they won’t go into tall buildings. And they developed these fears. And as you said, they they let them expand, rather than della developing a mindset to look at how to overcome them or use the fear because they’re, there’s a part of fear, that’s a biological reaction. But use the fear to your advantage to allow you to be motivated to move forward.
 
James Malinchak  37:03
Right, and you can control your fear. People don’t realize that but if you studied neuro linguistic programming and timeline therapy, you could step out of it. Look at it almost as a movie going by see it not actually being engaged and let your emotions be shifted by the situation. And you literally can control that. I’m not fearful, I’m looking at it. And I’m fearful because I’m in it. But if I step back and just look at it metaphorically, then what am I really fearful of it makes no sense. And I’m watching this go by instead of actually feeling it inside of me.
 
Michael Hingson  37:37
Exactly right. And using what’s going on to heighten your senses. So traveling around the stairs at the World Trade Center was not a big deal for me. But I had developed a mindset, because I learned what to do. In the case of an emergency, I consulted with Port Authority, security people, I learned the complex and so on. And I did all that because I ran an office and I knew darn well that if there were ever an emergency, especially if we happen to be in an area that was smoke filled, all you light dependent sighted people are going to have a world of hurt trying to figure out how to get out because you can’t see where you’re going. And then would take us normal people to get you out. So I, I learned what I needed to know. But I was the leader of the office. So it was my responsibility to do it. But what I didn’t realize until later was that was developing a mindset that says, okay, things are happening. You don’t have control over some of the things that are happening, perhaps. But you can certainly use all the information that you have and all the knowledge that you’ve gained to work through it.
 
James Malinchak  38:41
Yeah, absolutely. 100%. And preparation, I think is a big thing, too. And then there’s, there’s something too, they teach at Harvard Business School that I always loved. And it’s called Future Perfect planning. Right, you plan for the future. And that means good or bad. There’s a great book one of my favorite books of all time, and I’ve read about 5000 Some books now, over the years and one of my favorite books of all time and includes listening to books on audio, I don’t want you to think that I just read them. I actually listened to a lot I listened to read, if you will. But it’s called the positive power of negative preparation. And it’s all it’s all about preparing for the negative, there’s a positive force in preparing for potential negative situations because God forbid if something happens, as you know, not always are we fully prepared, but at least you have some sort of preparation, an idea of how to handle it as a situation. And so I remember reading that book about 20 Some years ago changed my life because I was like, Oh, I’m not as fearful as certain situations. If I’m preparing for them, there is a positive power in negative preparation, meaning preparing for the negative.
 
Michael Hingson  39:55
You’re not going to be able to prepare them for everything that happens but it’s really developing the tools that give you the ability to deal with whatever happens, correct? Yeah. Yeah. And it’s an it’s something that all too often we don’t do do, but it is developing those tools, that’s really the big issue that we have to deal with, and should deal with. And fortunately, I did that. Yeah, I’ll give you
 
James Malinchak  40:21
an example. You know, you mentioned the terrible 911 tragedy, which, you know, God bless you that you were able to pull through that. And, man, just, it’s an honor talking to you, and you’re the first person. And I’ll always cherish this first person that I’ve met in my life to actually survive that situation. So it is truly an honor to be able to know you a little bit and talk to you about it. It’s a special bonus for me. But I’ve never flown the same way ever since. You know, I have a friend who’s a when now he’s retired, but former CIA agent, and I hired him to consult with me and share ideas on how you know, I’m a speaker, I’m out there, I’m traveling, like how do I protect myself with something I’m on planes all the time. And he gave me a tool or resource, if you will, like I carry what a lot of the CIA officers carry what’s called Tactical ink pens, they’re pens, but they’re tactical, meaning that they have a steel core center, so that you can use them in any situations, and they make them through metal they you can make through, that’s the only type of how do I want to say defending mechanism that you’re leaning, it’s really nice, and that you can actually get through metal detectors, the TSA, right. And all of all of the Secret Service people carry him all the CIA officers, and so I was able to get them through him. And so I carry those on flights in my belt. So literally, they’re with me at all times. Now. The other thing is situational awareness, he taught me of knowing where the fire extinguishers are on the airplane, in case someone does do something, you can get to a fire extinguisher, blow that smoke in their face. And with your tactical pens, you’ll be able to take them down, taught me techniques to take someone down and disabled people, if they have a knife or box cutters or any kind of object. Well, those are all tools, if you will, like you put it. And thank God and 20 some years, I’ve never ever had to do any of that. But I never get on a plane without knowing where the fire extinguishers were a matter of fact, I’ll tell you this, when I booked my flight, I always took a seat near where the fire extinguishers are, in case, just in case that one time, I need to jump up and grab one of those fire extinguishers. I know where the tool is. And I was prepared by him on how to attempt to handle that situation.
 
Michael Hingson  42:51
That is most important, the mental tool that you draw in the knowledge and the mindset that you could put that mental tool to work and do whatever you needed to do. I mean, you can think of any number of people who could have those same physical tools, but would freeze up or not know what to do to really use them in an emergency.
 
James Malinchak  43:15
Sure, absolutely. Well, I’ll tell you my mental. My mental motivation was taught by my father, I’ll never forget he said I’d rather be judged by 12 than carried by six. Yes. I’d trust me, I would have no problems going through that. I don’t know how you want to call that. The techniques and the system he taught me? Because what’s the adverse effect? Possibly not making it or having others harmed or children harmed for no reason? So that’s my motivation. Is it to sit here or do something? Yeah. And if you know what to do and have the confidence to do it, that’s really important. And I’ll tell you if I didn’t know what to do, I wouldn’t probably have that confidence. Sure. I wouldn’t. I’d probably be nervous and fearful and doubt but because I know step one, this step two is this step three is this got it? You know, here, I’ll tell you some LC Tom, because I think it’s really important step one, you grab the magazines in the seat, rest and you put them around your waist inside of your pants, because if someone has a box, cutter knife, etc, that’s the first place they’re going to try and stab you. So if you have padding there, then it doesn’t work. You know, second thing is you have your tactical pin in your right hand and you have the fire extinguisher in your left and you blow the fire extinguisher and you step through the smoke because they’re going to put their hands up and block their face. You step through the smoke and you go right for their midsection because that’s the largest part of a human being. Right so my point is this not to say like this is a self defense podcast, but But it’s he gave me step by step of stuff that logically made sense therefore, not as known. Nervous, not as fearful to possibly use those techniques and engage in the system, if you will, I didn’t know that, oh, I would be completely fearful and nervous.
 
Michael Hingson  45:11
Sure. But you made a choice.
 
James Malinchak  45:15
Yes, 100%.
 
Michael Hingson  45:17
And that was to learn, which is what it’s really all about. And by making the choice and by developing the mindset to deal with fear, and to deal with different situations, and understand as much as you could about different situations, you can live in those kinds of environments, and, and be more unstoppable to use the vernacular of the title of the podcast, but it is all about understanding what you can do and what you can I suppose there is something to be said for Harry Callahan and Magnum Force, A man’s got to know his limitations, but you know, you got to really know them, and you know them best by learning them.
 
James Malinchak  45:53
Correct? Yeah, exactly. Mike, I just want to share with you, my friend, I got about two minutes. And then I’ve got to jump on the next podcast that someone has.
 
Michael Hingson  46:02
Real quick. Why is Why do you consider public speaking the highest paid profession? Well, because it’s the
 
James Malinchak  46:11
only profession I know, where you don’t have to have any college or high school, even education. You don’t need a master’s degree a PhD, you need no actual, I hate to say it this way. But real skills, in order to do it, all you have to have is some sort of life experience or, you know, some sort of thing that you figured out that you want to share with others that would help them some sort of steps to teach them. And anybody can do, it doesn’t matter if you’re tall or short, rich, or poor, young, or old, male or female, doesn’t matter where you came from, doesn’t matter where you’re going, you know, it’s the only profession I know, last thing I’ll say is where the the more jacked up, you’ve been in your past, the actual law you’re gonna make.
 
Michael Hingson  46:51
There you go. Well, this has really been an honor. And I am just as blessed to get the chance to talk with you. And I would like to find ways that we can work together and stay in touch definitely. I think it would be a lot of fun to do. And I hope that we can do it. And I think that you’ve offered a lot here. And you’ve demonstrated that you clearly are able to deal with a lot of different situations. So I appreciate you being here. How can people reach out to you or learn more about your get a hold of you?
 
James Malinchak  47:23
Thank you. First of all, it’s an honor and a privilege. As I said earlier, you really put a special imprint on my heart, being able to meet someone who went through such a historical, devastating situation in our world. So thank you for allowing me to come on and share with some of your great listeners really easy. I’m on this mission to I took my four day big money speaker boot camp, and I actually have written it into a book. And it’s over 250 pages. I’m giving it all away for free. It’s how I can leave a legacy and the biggest, better best way. There’s nothing to pay, you don’t have to get a credit card. You just simply go and download it in a digital format. And please pass it around to anybody that you think it might help. It’s www dot fri speaker book.com www dot fri speaker book.com?
 
Michael Hingson  48:19
Yes. Really cool. And people can find you that way. Is there an audio version?
 
James Malinchak  48:24
Yes, we actually have an audio version as well. And at some point, we’ll also have a video version too. But right now it’s the book and then the audio book as well.
 
Michael Hingson  48:35
Cool. So free speaker book.com Correct. Well, James Belichick Thank you very much for being here. It’s been an honor. And for anyone who listens to this, please go. Wherever you get your podcasts and give us a five star rating. We would appreciate it. If you’d like to comment or reach out to us in any way you can reach me at Michael H I M i C H A E L H I at accessiBe A C C E S S I B E.com, who didn’t get a chance to talk about accessiBe, but we should sometime it’s a great way to make websites more usable and accessible. We got to look at your website and see if it’s as accessible as it could be James.
 
James Malinchak  49:16
Well, thank you, Mike. I appreciate it. Thank you so much, my friend for having me on.
 
Michael Hingson  49:20
Thank you. It’s been an honor. It’s my honor. You beat you to my friend.
 
UM Intro/Outro  49:31
You have been listening to the Unstoppable Mindset podcast. Thanks for dropping by. I hope that you’ll join us again next week, and in future weeks for upcoming episodes. To subscribe to our podcast and to learn about upcoming episodes, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com slash podcast. Michael Hingson is spelled m i c h a e l h i n g s o n. While you’re on the site., please use the form there to recommend people who we ought to interview in upcoming editions of the show. And also, we ask you and urge you to invite your friends to join us in the future. If you know of any one or any organization needing a speaker for an event, please email me at speaker at Michael hingson.com. I appreciate it very much. To learn more about the concept of blinded by fear, please visit www dot Michael hingson.com forward slash blinded by fear and while you’re there, feel free to pick up a copy of my free eBook entitled blinded by fear. The unstoppable mindset podcast is provided by access cast an initiative of accessiBe and is sponsored by accessiBe. Please visit www.accessibe.com. accessiBe is spelled a c c e s s i b e. There you can learn all about how you can make your website inclusive for all persons with disabilities and how you can help make the internet fully inclusive by 2025. Thanks again for listening. Please come back and visit us again next week.