Show me your friends, and I'll show you your future...

"There are three types of people in the world...those who make things happen, those who watch things happen, and those who wonder what happened."

No Pressure, No Diamonds.

The heaviness of being successful left me yearning for the lightness of being a beginner again, and this is where the self-sabotage began.

We overestimate what we can accomplish in a day, but underestimate what we can accomplish in a year.

Ryan Holiday spoke at our first MastermindTalks event, and the central idea of his talk was that if your product is crap, good marketing will just help people realize your product is crap quicker than they would have otherwise.

If you hear about someone's success and you aren't euphoric about it – if you're angry, hurt or there is a feeling of tightness inside of you, you've just guaranteed that you'll never reach that same level of success. If you resent someone else for being successful you teach your brain that striving for success is a bad thing for you to do.

Recognizing someone with incredible potential, becoming their biggest fan or supporter, and watching them blow up is one of my greatest joys. I wish that I could buy people at what they think they're worth, and sell them at their true worth. Invest in people like others would invest in a business; the return is far greater.

My model has always been that if you're the smartest person in the room you're in the wrong room. Surrounding yourself with people who make you feel uncomfortable (on some level) forces you to grow as quickly as possible to bridge the gap between where you are and where they are.

Get comfortable with the uncomfortable because un-faced fears become your limits.

We all have a desire to be connected to like-minded individuals. It's important to share a commonality with someone you're reaching out to.

"People don't buy what you do, they buy why you do it."

Although email is always a rather effective way to reach someone, it is often monitored by gatekeepers (personal assistants) which can hurt your chances of getting through.

Here are a few samples of email titles that I've used in the past: "Hey Tim, I'm in town on Tuesday…" "Adam told me to reach out to you..." "John, I'm doing a dinner with a group of entrepreneurs..."

Using their name in the subject line can also be a rather powerful hook. Studies have shown that the sweetest sound in the human language is one's own name – why not leverage that? Having someone's name included in the title of the email is so rarely done, so it's another tactic to help you cut through the noise.

The 9-word email is a strategy I learned from Dean Jackson. It's designed to revive old leads, but it can be very useful in an initial outreach as well. The format of the email is just as it sounds, an email in nine words. The reason the strategy is so powerful is because it's very quick for the recipient to read, which in turn elicits a quick response. In a world where 65% of emails are read on a mobile device first, the shorter the response the prospect needs to give, the better. This strategy also allows you to leverage small wins. Never send someone a long drawn out email with many reasons for them to say no. Instead, build the conversation with simple wins.

Since then, according to my Youtube account, I have sent over 1100+ personalized videos. There are several ways to do these videos and no fancy equipment is required. For more information, visit our resource page.

Warren Buffet once said that "the difference between successful people and really successful people is that really successful people say ‘no' to almost everything". People with big names are very protective of their time, and with reason.

Whenever faced with an objection follow up with a question like "Under what circumstances would you say yes?"

The deeper the uncommon commonality the deeper the bond. As I've said many times before, we all have a deep desire to be connected to like-minded individuals. This trait goes beyond business in obvious ways. Perhaps the uncommon commonality is that your dinner guests are parents, they served in the military, or have a love of travel. Whatever it is, discovering uncommon commonalities through research will enable you to steer into deep and bonding conversations with your dinner guests.

DON'T FORGET: Before the night is over take a picture of the group. It sounds cheesy, and I didn't do this myself for the longest time because it felt stupid and ego-centric, but trust me when I say you'll regret it if you don't. You can use these photos for social proof, to post on social media sites and to tag your guests, or as part of a follow up email.

I recently held an axe throwing event for entrepreneurs and it was fantastic. An experience like this takes bonding to a new level because it puts everyone on a level playing field. What I mean by this is that you can have a gathering where someone (because of their level of success) is put on a bit of a pedestal. Getting people to do something outside their comfort zone, something they're not particularly good at, is a recipe for a great bonding experience.