Overview

On this episode of Build Your Network, Host Travis Chappell interviews James Whittaker, co-author of The Beginner’s Guide to Wealth and successful interviewer and entrepreneur.

Topics Discussed:

• About James Whittaker
  • Spent a decade in financial planning and realized how important educating people on personal finance is.
  • Creator of the Think and Grow Rich book and film.
    • The number one self-help book of all time.
  • As co-executive producer of the Think and Grow Rich movie, what was your role?
    • Make sure that he vetted the interviewees stories.
    • Make sure the film aligned with the book.
    • Helped all aspects of production.
  • How long did it take to create the film?
    • About 3.5 years.
    • Raised over $400,000 on Indiegogo.
  • What’s one major thing you learned from the people you interviewed for the movie?
    • The Janine Shepherd Story.
      • She was training for the Olympics and then was hit by a truck.
      • She wasn’t supposed to live or walk.
      • She’s overcome many things and gone on to succeed.
    • Everything in the movie will give you a blueprint to succeed in their lives as they define it.
  • What are you working on right now?
    • Two books in the works.
      • One about athletes and interviewing the best of all time.
      • Another about young people and giving them the steps to achieve success.
    • Writing a number of blog posts and a few other things.
  • Do you believe that what you know or who you know is more important, and why?
    • The market doesn’t care about how smart you are, it only cares about how you apply what you know.
    • The quickest way to apply what you know is to surround yourself with people who can help you do that.
    • Who you know is far more important than what you know because it accelerates what you know.
  • Tell us about a time when a connection led to a moment of success?
    • When he was in his early 20’s, he’d gone through some debilitating anxiety issues.
    • Met someone named Sergio CalloMoresco, an author and speaker.
    • Caught up over coffee and Sergio asked him what he wanted to do.
      • Whittaker said he wanted to be a public speaker.
    • Sergio put his name forward to speak at an event.
    • He got to speak and it pushed him forward in his career.
    • Moresco would go through 2-3 books per week, showing Whittaker that he needs to be an increasing person of value.
  • Why do people fail to network?
    • You have to be clear on what you want.
    • If you don’t know what you want, you’ll default to sitting on the couch.
      • Then you need to have a plan to achieve it.
    • What are your tips for getting out of your comfort zone?
      • A lot of people are told to go jump off the deep end, but that’s not a very good plan.
      • First, read as much as you possibly can about networking and make yourself a person of value.
      • Come up with a game plan of how you can network.
      • Know what you want and research who’s going to be there.
      • Because of your systematic approach from the start you will get much better results.
    • Throughout your career, how important have mentorships and masterminds been for you?
      • Masterminds have been very important.
      • One of his strongest masterminds was between him and a few friends in his early 20’s.
      • He realized how important being a great public speaker would be.
        • They made each other speak on random topics in front of one another.
      • Now he has a group that gets together and goes through their goals and dreams.
        • They hold each other accountable.
      • The mastermind principle has changed his life.
      • Surround yourself with people from a diverse background, not clones of yourself.
        • You have to open your eyes to what is possible.

The Random Round:

• What profession other than your own do you think it would be fun to attempt?
  • Music Producer
• If you could sit on a park bench for an hour with anyone past or present, who would it be?
  • Elon Musk or Napoleon Hill
• How do you like to learn best, books, blogs, podcasts or video?
  • Everything
• What’s one of your favorite books?
  • The Five-Minute Journal
  • Defiant
• Give us a glimpse of your morning routine?
  • Wake up and do the five-minute journal.
  • Put some music on in the background.
  • Shower
  • Healthy and hydrating recipe/snack
  • Have coffee
  • 4-hour work block, fast-paced with music.
  • Does this seven days a week.
• What is your go-to pump up song:
  • Training Playlist on Spotify
• What are you not very good at?
  • Mornings
• Find him online:
  • com, social media

Tweetable Quotes:

• “If you can leave a conference with 2-3 strong connections, then you open yourself up to their entire rolodex down the line.”
• “You have to open your eyes to what is possible and surround yourself with people who give you the courage to go out there and achieve it.”
• “If you can win the day, that’s how you win your life.”

Resources Mentioned:

Buildyournetwork.com– Podcast website

BYN.media/fb – Facebook Group

Jameswhitt.com – James’ website

Tgrmovie.com – Think and Grow Rich movie site

How to Win Friends and Influence People– Book by Dale Carnegie

The Five-Minute Journal

Defiant– Book by Janine Shepherd