the entrepreneurs radio show 017_hugh culver

THE ENTREPRENEUR’S RADIO SHOW

Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs that Grow Your Business

`

Copyright © 2012, 2013 The Entrepreneur‟s Radio Show of 17

EPISODE #17: HUGH CULVER

Intro: You're listening to Diamonds in Your Own Backyard. The business owner's guide to success,

inspiration, and community where each week you will hear fellow business owners share their

inspirational stories, strategies, and moments of clarity that helped them find success. And now, here is

your hosts Travis Lane Jenkins and Sandra Champlain.

Hugh Culver

Travis: Hey, it's Travis Lane Jenkins

Sandra: And this is Sandra Champlain and we'd like to welcome you to Diamonds in Your Own

Backyard.

Travis: Hi Sandra

Sandra: Hello, hello. Are you ready for a great show today?

Travis: I am. I am excited.

Sandra: I am excited too. I was thinking this morning just what you and I are about and how helping

business owners, all these entrepreneurs out there really get in touch with our dreams and what we

want and then providing us some tips and strategies and tools to really help in finding success, can

really set sail all of us into having our dreams fulfilled.

Travis: Right.

Sandra: So I'm just excited about that.

Travis: To help illustrate - because I know where you're coming from - it's beyond just me and you. It's

the impact. Can we talk about this a little bit? There's an old saying, I may butcher this, but I believe the

saying goes like "When there's no food on the table, all you think about is getting food on the table."

And that's a drastic example of what we're talking about. But ultimately, the objective is to bring

incredible people, perspectives, tactics, stories, inspiration to business owners like you and I. Because

ultimately, what we want is to do is we want to have a ripple effect that leads all our listeners to have a

higher level of success and that ripple effect extends everybody in their community, everybody in their

circle of influence. Do you think that's accurate?

Sandra: It's accurate.

http://transcripts.theentrepreneursradioshow.com/wp-admin/post.php?post=474&action=edit



`


Travis: Does it add to what you're saying?

Sandra: It adds perfect. And I want to propose to you, to me, to our special guest, whom we're

announcing in a second and to our listener to really listen to this episode with what's a dream that you

have, what's in your heart and if you were successful beyond belief, where you might be spending your

time and just kind of keep that in the background as you listen to our episode today with our

extraordinary guest which I'd like to introduce. Can I do that Travis?

Travis: Yeah but can I just say one quick thing? It's fiscally impossible to help other people, when

you're struggling yourself. Or maybe it's not a complete exclusion but it's very hard to help others and

impact others when you're struggling yourself. So it's that clarity we're after, right? So, tell me who's our

guest today? I know but I'll let you do the introduction.

Sandra: We have today a wonderful gentleman named Hugh Culver and his businesses have included

some phenomenal things. He has created the world's most exclusive adventure tours, he's operated a

private airline in southern Chile, and he's pioneered eco-whale watching. His adventures have taken

him from the Arctic to the Antarctic, from mountain peaks to white water rapids. He's even golfed at the

North Pole, which I didn't even know was possible. He's an IronMan competitor and a ten-time

marathoner. Hugh is the author of the book "Give Me a Break: The Art of Making Time Work for You".

In addition, he speaks and writes about working smarter in the age of distraction. And Hugh is a

keynote speaker and a corporate trainer and works with very large organizations including Imperial

Oils, the Royal Bank of Canada, Western Union, United Way, and the Red Cross. He is the founder of

the Experts Intensive Conference for speakers, seminar leaders, authors, and coaches. And what he

does Travis is that he helps people profit from their expertise and accelerate the growth of their

business. So he's completely aligned with our methods and our mission. So I'd like to introduce you to

Hugh Culver. Welcome Hugh.

Hugh: Thank you. It's great to be on the show. Thanks for inviting me.

Sandra: You're welcome.

Travis: Thanks for coming.

Sandra: Yeah. Now, you couldn't have always been this rock star that you are with all these

adventures. Can you tell us a little bit about you; how you started out in this?

Hugh: Well, first, I don't think I'm hardly a rock star. You know, actually, I got in to business at the age

of 15. I had a really remarkable start. I came from a large family and my oldest brother, Dan, had

started a rafting company in 1972 so a few years later when I turned 15, I joined him as a guide. And so

my first experience in business was working in a very, very, very entrepreneurial business where

http://amzn.to/ZLi2n5



`


everything was sitting on the pants, there were no rules, and back then there was no potential

guidelines, there were no government guidelines, there was no insurance, there was no certifications

for our guides. And we had the largest adventure travel company in western Canada very quickly. We

had a staff of over 35 people and we had church and long expedition all over western Canada. And

again, very, very entrepreneurial and for me, very exciting time to learn wow, this is what business is all

about. And my first context was that people just went on to do crazy stuff. You have this great idea, and

you just went out, and just got started and you put a price on it and people just came to you. That was

by first impression of business.

Travis: Right, right. I think that's how a lot of people get started. They just had this great idea, they're

tired of the status quo, they realize that they're not good at taking directions, that was me, I felt like i

could do a better job so I just went out and started a business with really very little strategy under it,

right?

Hugh: Exactly, exactly. And we're very lucky, you know. We've had a lot of success and what I love

about the business was that it also created a community without really any intention but we started to

attract a real following that just loved to be a part of our team. And they just come back year after a

year. They would come to big parties at the end of the year; they would respond to our phone calls,

come and help us get our gear ready and volunteer. And I've always thought what an amazing

combination where you could actually have a profitable business and at the same time you could have

a community of people that are involved, that are actually your patrons, they actually pay you but they

just like what you're doing so much, they want to hang around and they want to know what's going on

with you so that really informed a lot of my future decisions as I went to different businesses.

Travis: It sounded like you managed to create some raving fans. They spent money with you and then

you built a relationship and they were passionate about the topic. I don't want to take credit away from

you but it sounded like you stumbled into how to have raving fans in your business. Would that be

accurate?

Hugh: Yeah, it is Travis. There's an element to it though I'm thinking about now that I'm surely not

aware of it at the time. And yet, at that time, it seems like it was this one big long journey and I was

certainly not at the age where reflection was a big part of my day. But what I would say and I think this

is very informative for anyone who is selling services, is that people have an appetite to know about

you. If they buy from you, they're somewhat interested to know on who is the person behind the

business. It's like, when you go to your favorite coffee shop, your favorite corner cafe, I'm talking about

like I privately owned one, after being there for a while, you kind of wanted to get to know the owner or

at least one of the servers because it seems to create a much more real, visceral, experience to be

going there day after day. And I think it's no different from any of the callers on these calls that we

should be thinking let's not hide behind our company. It's great that you have a company that it may be



`


incorporated, and it may be very profitable and may have staff but the reality is that people want to

know about you. And if you could bring that somehow in to your communications and into the way you

work with people, I think there's some magic that can happen there.

Travis: Yeah, I think that's where a personal relationship begins and it's very hard to. People don't think

in terms of just dollars and cents when they have a personal relationship with you right?

Hugh: Right. Very much. Yeah, very much. I later went and started a number of other companies and

one of them was the world's only private company operating in the Antarctica and it still is to this day. It

is still the only private company in Antarctica and so we create our own airline down there. Primarily,

getting mountain climbers getting on to climb the highest mountain in Antarctica which is the big goal

and still is. And then later on in our second year was to fly people from the South Pole. And you know,

the same thing started to happen. We had a really remarkable guides and pilots and engineers and

physicians that are all employed by my company and everybody wanted to know who these characters

were. Like they wanted to stay in touch with them and we'll be writing Christmas letters and sending out

personal reminders about programs.

And here's something that was kind of an awareness for me that I started, I started to become really

aware of why is that the more connected you are to your people, the more that they have a relationship

with you, the less marketing you have to do. The last sort of blind marketing; it's much more of a one-

on-one connection and they become your advocates and they will actually market for you.

Travis: Right, right. And it's a shift from pushing it on to them pulling, right?

Hugh: Right, absolutely. And you see a significant change today in our forms of communication, you

know, that there's this temptation to be doing blanket announcement or blanket promotions. You know,

I think there is, sometimes a need for that, it's kind of sending them email but they don't even have a

name on it and it's just says "Hey we're having a dance" and it doesn't even say Dear John. And I think

that maybe, there's a need once in a while to do that but the more that we get to know the people,

especially those early years, the more that we get to know the people that are aligned with our cause,

that are interested in what we're doing, the more we have a personal relationship with them, the

stronger the foundation we'll have for our business as we grow it.

Travis: Oh I agree with you a thousand percent. Early on, in my business, I had found I had clients that

are so loyal that they were aggressive to a level when referring me that they would embarrass me

because some of the things they would say and do were beyond the boundaries of what I thought might

be acceptable. And so it was embarrassing because sometimes I had to stand there and witness it

which is a great thing when people are going that far out of their way to make sure their friends, family

and everybody use you, right?



`


Hugh: Right.

Travis: And that only comes from building a raving fan. Now, I wanted to double back because it

sounded like you covered something that I'd like to bring to the surface. And tell me if I'm wrong but it

sounds like you created businesses around your passion?

Hugh: Yeah, I think that's a pretty safe way to treat your comment. I think why I'm hesitating is that I'm

a pretty left brained guy. I mean, I have an MBA, I've put a lot of time into understanding business so I

do things... Conversely, I would be terrible doing things I don't like, something I wasn't passionate

about. And that's probably a good step for me. And here's what comes along with that. I think that this

is perhaps, poorly represented in business schools or even in high schools and that is that there is a

cost to that. And often we hear a lot of stories; we hear about the people that really got rich quick and

they will write a book about it but there is a cost about stalling your passion. And I don't mean in terms

of struggling artists and I mean it in terms of anybody who wants to create a business because they

simply love what it is that they want to provide; they love the clothing, the service, the events that they

want to create, they love that stuff. There's going to be a cost and that cost is going to be there will be a

struggle period. And you may not succeed. I mean the reality is that most businesses don't get past

their fourth birthday. And so you know, you may not succeed but the benefit is imagine being able to do

what you love and to be able to support yourself and your family from that. So that's kind of the

entrepreneurial risk. It's sort of like that what Michael Gerber talks about in the emails. It's this idea that

if I just start my own business, everybody will come and life will be rosy. You know what? That's not

true. But the rewards are definitely there.

Sandra: What do you teach people that don't make it past the fourth birthday? Because they have the

passion and then what?

Hugh: That's a great question. And so for the people that I'm working with, and right now, Sandra

because I'm working a lot with experts, so people like myself because seminar leaders act like

coaches. What I coach them on is the fact that they may not be successful, I mean, it is true that they

may not have a large market but that if they feel like they must do this then I will help them to get

through that path. So basically if they have a calling. You know I'm working with a woman right now

who has AIDS and her daughter died of AIDS and so she has been though an unbelievable journey and

she believes that she has a story that needs to be shared. She thinks that there is a better way to be a

survivor of AIDS. And so I will do whatever I can to help her on that journey but it may be that she will

never become rich by telling that story. But there's a part of her that will be incredibly satisfied because

she tried.

Travis: Right, right. Well, there's several branches to go on in this conversation here and I want to

double back. I want to get beyond some type of PC statement of only doing what you love. I mean it's



`


only common sense but a lot of people don't do that. I want to go deeper than that. That once you

understand the strategy of business. Typically, you can take those same principles, find things that

you're passionate about, like maybe hiking on a certain part of the world and you set up a service that

serves that part of the world. It facilitates your lifestyle, once you understand the metrics of business

and you can repeat it in any market, it becomes very simple to facilitate your passions into businesses

and have 3, 4, 5 businesses. And that's kind of where I was going with that. Does that make more

sense?

Hugh: It does make more sense. The challenge is that I rarely come across people that actually have

complete understanding.

Travis: People understanding the proper metrics of business?

Hugh: Exactly, right? I think most people have a „if-I-build-it-they'll-come‟ type attitude and are

surprised to realize that oh, gee, you know what? You know I think you're right. In an ideal world, if a

person actually understands business, they could transfer over to a lot of other different markets that

they're interested in. But there's two main things that I think a lot of people are lacking but fortunately,

quite easy to overcome. Number one is understanding business. Like understanding that there are

certain things that have to be in place so that people can actually find you and they can actually enjoy

what you have to offer. To understanding that you cannot just build it and sit back and wait. Like

understanding the basic concept of a sales funnel, understanding the basics of how to attract people in

a way that they actually want to follow you. And the second thing is discipline. It's the discipline to

actually do it every day. So for example, when I'm working with an expert community, there's two main

things that you need to be always working on. One is content and the other is your list. So if content is

king, the list is queen and you need to be working on it every day so you need to be writing every day.

So I write every morning from 5 till 6 so without exception that's my time, that's my create time, that's

how I wrote my book, that's how I write my blogs, that's how I write all my proposals from 5 to 6 and I

do that every day. And I do that because I'm actually afraid to stop doing it because I'm worried that if I

stopped doing it then I would break my discipline. And secondly is building your list. Lots of people I

work with, they're trying to start a business and they got a hundred people on their list and that they've

actually been gathering this for 10 years or they've been in business for 12 years. So they haven't got

the discipline to actually add to their list. So I think there's two main things people need to strengthen

and one is understand business. You may be a florist or an artist or a painter or a love to make

speeches at the end of the day, you can't do any of those things unless you're making money. And the

second thing is to build up the discipline muscle so that every day, you're investing in your business not

because it's a curse you have to bear but because you actually look forward to it, like you love to do it.

Because you know that it strengthens your art and it builds the actual foundation you need to build a

successful business.



`


Travis: Right. Now, I feel like we're sitting on the opposite sides of what I was talking about which I

agree with and I think, and I don't want to speak for you, I think this is where most people live, so most

people don't have a high level of understanding of business metrics to make them successful. So a lot

of people live on the opposite side of their dream or their business to where they're so in love with their

idea, their product or service that they're myopic, that they're blind, that they're not really seeing the full

picture of things. Do you feel like that's a fair description of the opposite in there and more like what

you're talking about right now?

Hugh: You know, absolutely. And it's not a bad thing because you do want to fall in love with your

products and services, you want to fall in love with that book idea, you want to fall in love with the idea

of that store you want to open and at the same time, you want to fall in love with understanding

business because you know, that's the reality of our world is that you can't serve people unless you are

profitable, unless you have income. Personally, there's a lot of people who can help you to do that.

Travis: It is a balancing act, right?

Hugh: It is.

Travis: Finding the balance of the swing. And I was just having this conversation with a new friend of

mine, Blair, that we've been working on his USP and what I found in clarity or evolving to get better at

something whether it's skills or moving the business along is my perception of what I need to do to

advance to the next level maybe 90% accurate and 10% inaccurate. And for me, typically, I find that I

don't advance to that next level until I'm willing to relinquish that 10% that's not accurate, that's not...

Let's be specific. I don't have to get it perfect but until I'm ready to evolve and let go of what's not

working, I normally don't advance to the next level. Do you find that to be true when you're working with

people as you're helping them grow themselves and their business?

Hugh: Oh, absolutely, yeah. And you can almost go into every conversation with the entrepreneur

you're working with that one thought in mind. I wonder what is their overriding thought that is not

serving them? For example, they‟re thinking: As soon as I finish my degree or my kids are older or I

have more money in the bank or I finished taking these courses, - there is an As-soon-as overriding

thought. Or there's this overriding thought where it's all about ego like I actually don't need to do that

kind of stuff because people should know who I am. I got all these things and they should just find me.

And so I'm going to sit in my home, and I'm just going to put videos on YouTube all day and they'll find

them and you know what? Suddenly, everything will turn. So yeah, you know, I think you're absolutely

right. There's always that and maybe more than one but you know there's always that one thought. And

that's a tough thing to break because whatever we focus on, we always get more of and so we keep

focusing on it, we're going to get the same results which is going to justify our focus. And so it's a

vicious circle. It's like I think that if three of us met at a learning event, I think that those sort of



`


experiences are one of the best ways for people to break out of their pattern of thinking. Going there

with an open mind and just see what they can learn about what other people are doing to create

success because when we're on our own it's so easy to get into this cycle of thinking. And they don't

have a support group. They're not master minders; they don't have a coach, they don't have a mentor,

and probably the people in their home, you know, aren't that interested in stuff about business. They're

taking care of the kids or their jobs so I think people should get out their home, get experiences that

really can expose them to completely different paradigms and different ways of thinking about the

business. And that can be the complete turning point; one good weekend experience could turn into the

turning point for their entire business.

Travis: Oh, I agree. And even that conversation Sandra and I were having this morning is there's a lot

of people that are just victims of the surroundings that they're in. And so, they're victims of the

geography where they're at. We choose to go to different locations where we're surrounded by other

stimulations, like-minded people, new perceptions, new concepts, and new opportunities to learn. And

so, a big part of the show is to bring people like yourself to our listener because a lot of them are taking

time out of their life to go to expert industry associations like we did and, by the way, most rock stars

don't realize that they're rock stars too. And so, I appreciate where you're coming from there but we do

think you're a rock star. Anyway, we want to bring this level of open-minded perception and community

to these business owners because, we're talking about this several times, on several different shows,

that I feel like entrepreneurs pollinate our community. They pollinate our world to keep the life cycle

going. I feel like the entrepreneurs are the same thing to our way of life. And so it's so important right

now, you started earlier on saying that originally, you could have a great idea, open a business, and be

successful if you did a good job. That's not true now, is it?

Hugh: It's a lot harder. It's like it's pretty hard to find a market niche or an industry that doesn't have

pretty heavy competition.

Travis: And you better get it right off the bat or you're in trouble. And so, entrepreneurs to be

entrepreneurs need more help from people like you and ourselves and everybody that we bring on to

the show. And so, now let me ask you, was your success in starting this business a straight-up thing?

You guys didn't have any strategy initially and were there any peaks and valleys along the way?

Hugh: Well, I'll tell you. I'll talk about my current business. This business I'm running now, I've had for

18 years and when I got into it, I was actually in graduate school and I was invited to speak at the

university. I did a weekend course on marketing and really enjoyed it, love the experience, loved the

idea of taking what I already knew and putting it into a curriculum and then watching people's reaction

and then working the room to find and help them with their learning. So, I love that and one thing led to

another and pretty soon I was teaching week-long programs, you know, entrepreneur skills, so I did that

for about 6 years and you know, I actually thought I was really successful but I had no idea I was



`


missing out on. You know, I was teaching the same program over and over and modifying it a little bit

but I had no I idea that there's a whole another world out there of teaching and training and speaking.

Fortunately, some of my colleagues introduce me to working with bigger corporations and so suddenly I

started working with national, multinational firms. In answer to your question, my success in this

business has been slow coming and it's been through the path of experimenting with a lot of different

things. For example, I was training and then I moved on to company retreat first of all because I have

an MBA background of course so I started doing retreats so 3-day, 4-day, 5-day retreats of

corporations. That might be keynote speaking, and I'm sure I was terrible at the start with, but I had to

learn that skill so I started to get some mentors and some training and learn how to work a room, work

the audiovisual, to figure out how to take an entire day of content can be put into 60 minutes and try to

master that skill. Now, it's been 18 years and I have as many as 8 staff working for me at any one time

and what I could say is that my journey would have been a lot shorter if I had a done a couple of basic

things. One is, if I get out more and learned from my community. To get out of my little way of thinking

and get into a bigger way of thinking through community so find more learning opportunities, connect

with more people, get involved with some of the associations in the speaking industry for sure. That will

be one thing and the second thing would be, again, to build up stronger disciplines earlier. So, as an

athlete I have certain disciplines around my speaking that I take pride in, and I would never break

because that's really important to me to have those. But I didn't have these same disciplines in my

business so I have my hot months and my cold months and in-between months and what I've come to

learn now is that just like an athlete, I need to be doing certain things everyday that make my business

grow. And when I do those and stick to them not only does the business flourish but now it's a lot more

fun. So that's been my 18-year journey. The success has been building every year but it sure would

have been a lot faster if I really know what I know now.

Travis: So, let me double back. So the first one to me sounds like what you're describing is instead of

being in an environment where you had dialogue or monologue, you should have put yourself in an

environment where you had dialogue, is that correct?

Hugh: Absolutely. And it's not just speakers or trainers that have mastermind groups. You know I'm

involved in a mastermind group of dads of just dads and we got together on a regular basis just to talk

about what it's like to be a father, you know and a husband. I think that anytime we do that, it's such a

healthy experience to come away knowing that wow, there's other people like me, I'm not doing so

badly or I could learn and here's one thing I could do and that would make a big difference. Get out of

your comfort zone and get into a bigger circle and just swallow your pride and let people know where

you're at.

Sandra: That ties right into with modeling people that has what you want being part of that mastermind

group because you have said many times we can still learn, and that my story is different.



`


Hugh: Right, right. You know Sandra, there's lots of ways to do that. Like for example, I'm a big fan of

podcasts. And I just love hooking up with favorite podcasts and listening to interesting interviews about

other experts. So I'm always interested in what people are doing that are like, they're doing 10x the

business that I'm doing. Like what can I learn from them, what is it about the way that they talk, like the

way that they think or the way that they address problems? And there is just a litany of free podcasts

available now covering topics like anything. So that's something I do a lot like I have my mastermind

groups, I have my podcasts, whenever I'm traveling I'm always listen to those, I never listen to the

news, I hardly ever read the news, I never watch news on TV. I'm always looking for "Who can inspire

me today?" And to see what I can learn.

Travis: Right. Well, I agree with you 1000%. And I want to try and land this plane, this conversation for

our listeners and talking about monologue and dialogue. So the problem with monologue is a lot of us

are used running a business from behind a curtain and so we may be creating videos, we may be doing

things that keep us away from straightforward exposure with people and so monologue is one direction

and dialogue is two directions. When you get out and have exchanges with people or groups, you have

immediate feedback and you get, your perspective grows, your clarity grows very fast and all those

other things happen. So i just want to make sure that what we're talking about land in this clear

because that's the objective of each and everyone of these episodes is to give. Just like you talked

about, I am a big time consumer of podcasts; also I pair it with my workouts. So, I always wanted to

give someone clarity, you know that once they listened to that, they think: Man, I need to take exactly,

understand what you're saying and I need to apply that to my own business. Do you think we did a

good job in explaining what that your first point is now?

Sandra: I certainly do. But to bring up something else that ties right into this Travis, I spent some time

on Hugh's website, hughculver.com this morning and I caught some of the videos that you have and

there's so much on being with other people, the value of that as opposed to being alone. But you also

mentioned something that so often we're trained to think positively and what you're bringing up now,

even just taking in a podcast, listening to us now, is there's something about actually taking action that

makes much more difference than what we're thinking about. I just to talk a little more about that and

maybe give some actions that people can take after they're done listening now that would actually give

them a result or put them in a direction.

Hugh: Yeah, sure, great. Okay, so when I talk about to my audiences and I talk about creating change

in their lives and typically, my speeches are - soon to be released in my book, "Give Me a Break" - my

speeches have all been about effectiveness at work so this whole idea that we're all giving the same

1440 minutes a day but some people are just more effective in those minutes. When I talk to them

about creating change, I really reinforce this notion that once you've gone through your steps to create

change, you know the old model of you know, I'm aware, I'm accountable, and I take action. So once

http://amzn.to/ZLi2n5



`


you've gone through those steps and you've actually taken action, like for example, picking up on the

conversation we just had Travis, you know, I think that one thing that people can do right away, today,

after listening to this call is they can contact one person in their community, one person, they're easy to

find in the web, one person that does exactly what you do and to connect with them. That would be a

really simple action to connect with them and ask them "Hey, I really admire what you're doing, can I

buy you a cup of coffee?" “Hey, I really think that what you're doing is great, can I help you in some

way?" And then the next step, and I think this is what a lot of people overlook, the next step after taking

that action, and I recommend that people do that at least once a week, is you pay attention to what

happens. So that person might say "Gosh, you know, that would be great; I'm a little busy right now."

Okay, great. Just pay attention to your emotions around that. Like, do you feel that's a rejection? Or do

you feel like you've learned something? Because if you feel like that's a rejection, then you're going to

have a really hard time doing it again. But if you feel like you've learned something, then you go and do

it again so you always want to pay attention to what happens after you took action. When you go to a

client and say "Gosh, thanks a lot for that compliment. Could you write me a letter about that? Could

you put that in the form of an email to me?" And they say, "Oh, I'd love to do that. Absolutely, I will do

that." Well, pay attention how that feels. Oh wow, I feel like that by asking that simple question taking

15 seconds, I just moved my business in, that's pretty cool. So we want to always pay attention after we

take action: What did I learn, how did I feel, does this prepare me for some other future success

because you want to close the loop. So often, I think people take action then they feel like it didn't work

out the way they're told and they consider that to be a failure and then they stop trying again. But the

whole idea with taking action is yeah, you want to get certain things out of life, but you also want to

continue to learn so you can take better action next time.

Travis: Right, right. Joe Polish gave a great example. You know, when an airplane crashes, we don't

quit believing that planes fly. A lot of times people will try that's proven to be successful for businesses

or generating business and because it doesn't work for them, they say, oh well, it didn't work and they

give it up. There's empirical proof that it does work because tons and tons of people are spending

money on a regular basis to generate that so sometimes you just have to push through it, right?

Hugh: Right. Let me give you a quick example. So two years ago, I started to do webinars for my

clients so I was kind of nervous and I didn't want to impose on them. So I started doing the webinars

and I charge for the webinars because the advice that I got was that's the way to do it. You charge the

webinars for all these work and put together webinars and I had downloadable handouts and I have the

slides and you know, we did have some success. We'd get 20, 24 people on a webinar and I thought, I

guess we're doing great. And then, after we did about six of those, I started to really reflect on well,

what's been the result of that action? I thought, well, you know I've made a few thousand dollars and

certainly we're getting lots of compliments but man, it sure is a lot of work and I'm only reaching a small

handful of people and it's seems to be the same people forever. So in my reflection part after taking



`


action I thought, what's my ultimate goal? My ultimate goal wasn't really about making a few thousand

dollars, as nice as that is. My ultimate goal was to stay in touch with my community. So I moved to free

teleseminars. We've been doing free teleseminars now for 18 months and we are now getting regularly

close to 300 people on calls and we are never turning back. Like it has just been the best way for me to

build and stay in touch with my community. So the whole idea is after you take action, don't keep on

going and don't treat whatever happens as success or failure. Really reflect and ask yourself did that

really get me closer to my ultimate goal? If yes, great, strengthen it, build it up, keep doing it, and make

it a discipline. If no, okay great, how can I tweak it, how can I change it a little bit so I can actually build

on what I've learned?

Travis: Right. A lot of people, and I'm guilty of this, I get caught up in the act of doing and sometimes I

forget to analyze whether it is giving me the true results that I want. Again, Sandra and I had this

conversation this morning. And when you're really effective is when you move small amounts of efforts

in to a high leverage. So, sure, you're generating a couple thousands of dollars but you're really not

achieving the big-picture goal of what you're after. So that was brilliant of you to have the clarity and the

perspective early on to step back and say, "Wait a minute, is this really getting me result?"

Sandra: Well, just a quick question so you can include it in your answer. How many business owners

are really in touch with what their ultimate goal is? Because my instinct says a lot of people are not.

They may think they are but...

Hugh: It's such a great question. So for example, with a lot of businesses that I work with now,

because they are small in the expert arena, they're sole proprietors; they're speakers and seminar

leaders. For a lot of them, for example, what I caution them on is this notion that they're building equity

that can actually be sold. This idea, which is really common which I certainly had for many of my

businesses, is "Oh, I'm building something that could be sold." But the reality is that a lot of businesses

can never be sold. Frankly, the barrier equity is too low, it's too easy to duplicate what you've done, and

you don't have a big enough market presence or even income for that matter to make it attractive for

someone out there to try and buy what you've got. If that's not a part of my ultimate goal to build

something that I can sell, well, that really changes the way that I think about my business because may

be now, I'm not so worried about branding it and hiding behind the company name. Maybe, I should

actually make it all about my name because if I'm not worried about selling it, well, then I don't have to

worry about what it's called and whether my name's on the door. So now, let's change what my ultimate

goal is. Is my ultimate goal to have a lot of staff? Well, quite frankly, most people shouldn't have staff.

Like, that's not going to serve them. That's just going to spend all their energies trying to keep staff

happy so they need to be thinking a whole different thing. I think in answer to your point like this is the

perfect time. We're recording this in November; it is the perfect time to start doing some real reflective,

naval gazing and start asking yourself: You know, this time next year, what would I have to do? It's a



`


Dan Sullivan question. Dan Sullivan, of course, is a Canadian strategic coach; he says if we're going to

meet a year from now, what is it that would have to have done today so you could say that this was the

best year you've ever had? Like what would you have to be doing today so that a year from now you

could say that this way the best year you've ever had? A lot of people, they need to take bigger risks so

they can actually enjoy the best years they could ever had. And that might mean they need to stop

doing certain things that basically eat up their time but don't really produce any rewards and don't serve

a thing.

Travis: Exactly.

Sandra: That's awesome. Really great.

Travis: We've got about six to eight minutes left and I wanted you to speak about a topic that's

common to everybody and you've got a very interesting take on it and I was hoping you'd share it with

us. The compounding or the effect that multitasking has on us and our business. Can you talk a little bit

on that?

Hugh: Sure. Well, you know, I've nicknamed the years we're in the Age of Distraction, sort of half-

jokingly but quite seriously, we really are distracted too much. And when you're a business owner,

when you're starting out a business or when you're trying to really grow your business, there's this

tendency to wear a lot of hats. Because you know, you're taking care of the accounting, you're

invoicing, you're taking calls from clients, you're trying to build connections, you're dealing with vendors,

you're building products, etc. And I think that there is a habit which is jump from task to task and the

downside of that is - this has been proven many times in very basic tests like the Scoop test for

example which has been around for 50 years - the downside is, it slows the brain down. And what

happens is, you increase your anxiety, you are more prone to making mistakes and it actually takes you

longer to get things done. A great example and this is for everyone in this call, is when you continually

visit your email. When you continually visit your email or your Facebook during the day, you're actually

making it more difficult to get things done because it slows your brain down. The brain is constantly

having to switch gears so the solution is single tasking. And the best way to single task, especially

when you're a procrastinator, the best way to single task is to actually block your time at the beginning

of the week. I actually do this on Friday but some people do it on Sunday or at the beginning of the

week. And what I mean by that is when I know I got hard work that have to get done, so I'm working on

a proposal, I'm working on a website, I'm working on a book, I'm working on a job description for

someone I need to hire or a virtual assistant, is to put time on your calendar and block it as if it's an

appointment with a client. Like literally block it like it's 20 minutes, 60 minutes and to treat it like an

appointment with a client so you actually respect it, you prepare for it, you get ready for it, and once

you're finished, you turn it off and go on with something else. And the more you get into that discipline,

the more you'll actually start to see real success of your week as opposed to finishing the week and



`


feeling like it just flew by and you had no traction, no productivity. So at the end of the week, nobody

gets an award for the most emails. All we get an award for, get recognized for, rewarded for is getting

stuff done and so this all comes down to if you're going to be in business, you have to understand that it

requires a certain amount of discipline. And if you have a history of procrastinating, multi-tasking,

reading on your email, being addicted to social media, then you need to adopt new disciplines. Just like

an athlete, you need to learn new skills or do ways of doing training. If you want success in business,

we need to, all of us, adopt excellent disciplines so that we can have excellent results.

Sandra: Hugh, that is so valuable. And this interview's been phenomenal. There's been so much good

things and for that last three minutes that you just spent just did it for me. So wow! Thanks.

Travis: We got a lot of value in that last three minutes. So you have a very provocative headline, that's

Multi-Tasking, Smoke a Joint. Tell me about that.

Hugh: Well, I think that the research was that a person that multi-tasks, the impact on their brain is

equivalent of smoking a joint. We have this ability now with FMRI or functional MRI to actually measure

the blood flow in the brain and they found that when people are actually multi-tasking that when they're

measuring with the FMRI, that the impact on their brain, the way that it slows down, the actual brain

activity is the equivalent of having smoked a joint. So yeah, there you go. One thing that I love doing is

coming up, you know, I have to admit this, I often write the title and then I go and figure out how to write

the blog afterwards. I wrote one last week called Kill Your To-Do List and I loved it. I loved that. And

then the next morning I got up at 5am and I thought, "What the heck is that I created?" And later on that

day, I delivered a teleseminar and I've been told that's one of my best teleseminars ever so sometimes,

there's real magic in listening to your intuition and putting it on paper.

Travis: Right. I was thinking, you woke up the next morning as you read through your to-do list and

you're thinking "What is that?!"

Hugh: Quite ironic.

Sandra: Hugh, thank you. Thank you for spending this time with us and for making such a difference.

It's like I know, I'm glad we got to meet last weekend but you'll never see how far your reach will be in

the lives that you touched. I know you've done a lot throughout your years and you'll continue to coach

and mentor and speak. And there will be individuals like myself that will discipline themselves in this

age of distraction thing so I just want to thank you for being the extraordinary human being that you are

and really giving your life to make a difference so that others succeed.

Hugh: Thanks Sandra. Thank you both.



`


Travis: Sorry for talking over you there but you're in Canada and we've got a delay so forgive me for

that. Before we run out of time, I just wanted to ask you real quick: What's the best way for our people

to find you and connect with you and learn more about what you're talking about and teaching?

Hugh: Yeah, sure, thanks. You know the easiest thing is to just go to my website and right away,

there'll be a 90-second video come on which explains exactly what I do so that is HughCulver.com.

So, Hugh, H-U-G-H Culver, C-U-L-V-E-R dot com so HughCulver.com and as soon as they watch that

video, they're invited to go and get three more videos and those videos are actually really great add-on

to the show because they're all about disciplines. So that's all free and that's an invitation everybody

can take advantage of so they can do that. And I just want reach out and say you know, I think that

what you two are doing is a great example of listening to your heart and doing it. I should say Sandra,

before we got going that I did an interview on KickAss Life which is a buddy of mine Dave Woods, and

started a podcast with Jack Canfield. And Jack Canfield was talking about his journey and how he

created all his success and well he says, it all comes down to "I listen to my heart, I said yes, even

when inconvenient." And I think that for everybody listening, it's understanding that yes, it might be

sometimes inconvenient, it might not be our favorite thing to reach out and ask for help to join a

mastermind group, to go to a weekend workshop, to connect with people even though they are our

competitors, which by the way, is one of the best things I've ever done. It may be inconvenient but

that's why we get to enjoy the rewards is because we were willing to have the discipline to continually

do things even though they're sometimes inconvenient.

End of Interview

Travis: Thank you.

Sandra: Thank you.

Travis: I want to personally say Thank you for taking the time out to come and visit with us and help in

making a difference on our listeners and I know that you're committed to making a difference to people

just like we are so thank you for your wisdom and your expertise and all of these other great things. I

want to remind you guys I know a lot of you listen to us through iTunes, now you can connect with us at

TravisandSandra.com that's where you can go and leave comments, interact with both Sandra and

myself and of course on Facebook as well. The best way to get to Facebook is just to go to

TravisandSandra.com and then we have all the links there rather than spell everything out for you. And

also, there's some other things that are so like vital to your success in business. We touched a little bit

on the shift in businesses, and what is working, what isn't working, strategies, mindsets, all those other



`


things and we want to arm you with all of the tools to find your success in what you're doing. And to go

there, enter your name and information, there's the consumer guide that's a vital part of running a

successful business and then if you're passionate about what we're talking about and want to stay

connected with us, go to Facebook, like and share the post and Sandra and I are having a drawing. I

believe every 45 days - to where we'll give out a 30-minute one-on-one coaching session with Sandra

and myself. Sandra, before I share the quote of the day, anything you want to add here?

Sandra: No, I don't. Just encourage people to use us and be part of our community because we're

really committed to your success.

Travis: Reach out, just like Hugh said. Reach and ask. Ask for help and successful people want to help

other people that are on their journey. So get out of your comfort zone, and be willing to ask when you

need that help. So the quote of the day and I think I may have shared this with you before, this is one of

my favorites is "Most great people have attained their greatest success just one step beyond their

greatest failure." So I want you to think about that. It's not if you fail but what you do after that failure so

of course, that's by Napoleon Hill. I'm going to close the show with that. Happy holidays and we look

forward to seeing you on the next episode.

Sandra: Thanks everybody.



`


How We Can Help You

We know that finding someone that you can trust online today is hard and that so many “so called

gurus” are self-‐appointed and have never really even done what they teach you to do. That‟s exactly

why we created the Double Your Profits Business Accelerator. This is an exclusive offer for our fans at

a fraction of its normal cost.

Here's what to expect. We'll Schedule a 'One on One' private session, where we'll take the time to dive

deep into your business and tell you what is missing, so that you can have your best year ever!

We'll do this by performing a S.W.O.T. Analysis. This tells us your Strengths, Weaknesses,

Opportunities and Threats within your business.

This will be an eye opener for YOU, for several reasons, however some of the most common reasons

are.

As the 'Business Owner' it‟s difficult to see the big picture of your own business because you‟re in the

middle of a daily management.

And you are too emotionally involved to completely impartial.

This is a common problem for EVERY business owner. It doesn‟t matter if you are a one-man army, or

an army of 150, the problem is still the same.

Travis Lane Jenkins

Business Mentor-Turn Around Specialist

Radio Host of The Entrepreneurs Radio Show

“Conversations with Self-made Millionaires and High-level Entrepreneurs That Grow Your Business"

http://www.rockstarentrepreneurnetwork.com/biz-accelerator

http://theentrepreneursradioshow.com/

the entrepreneurs radio show 017_hugh culver

Small Business & Entrepreneurship