My Experience with Dani Johnson's First Steps to Success

I just had an incredible experience in Washington D.C. over the weekend, and I wanted to talk to you a little bit about it. It was a 3-day business / life coaching session with about 1,000 people attending and it gave me a big mind shift.

Since it was 3 days long, I took a gazillion notes, but I'll only be able to cover some of the basics here. Plus, notes just don't do the experience justice. I highly recommend experiencing it for yourself. But, hopefully some of what I learned can help you in some way.

Who is Dani Johnson?

Dani is a woman who grew up in an abusive home. Her parents were drug addicts. He father physically and mentally abused her, here sisters and her mom. She was sexually molested by family members. Just a terrible situation.

Sometime after getting out of her abusive home, she met someone who told her about a training seminar, similar to what First Steps to Success is now. It was a way for her to gain skills in building a business. Because of that seminar, she was able to go from completely broke to making 6 figures in a short amount of time.

Unfortunately, she married a man she knew for just a few days, and he ran off with her money, leaving her broke (again) and homeless. She was depressed, suicidal and starting doing drugs. Something told her to get up, and keep going. Using the skills she learned at the seminar, she started a business out of the trunk of her car.

She's now a multi-millionare and teaches people skills on how to create their own wealth. She's got a slew of training products, and First Steps to Success is an event she created to really teach those skills.

By the way, 100% of the profits from her trainings and her products go directly to charity, as she's completely financially free and doesn't need to work, but she's motivated by giving to others.

The 4 Steps to Success

The person who sent Dani on that first training seminar gave her 4 steps to success. If you're following a trainer, a training system (like Wealthy Affiliate) or have a business partner or coach, then follow these 4 things and you WILL be successful.

1. No excuses!
2. Don't give your opinions or suggestions. Learn from the experts, shut up and listen.
3. Follow directions! Don't change anything.
4. Invest in yourself. Invest in training and self-development. Forever!

The 8 Pieces to the Game of Life

Work is not your purpose. Work is for provision. Your purpose is a combination of 8 different things.

1. Health, including spiritual, mental, physical and financial
2. Marriage
3. Parenting / your kids (if you have kids)
4. Your extended family
5. Work
6. Fun & adventure
7. Charity
8. Your legacy. What you're going to leave behind

ALL of these 8 things are important and need to be taken care of. These 8 things make up the game of life.

Past, Present & Future

Past:
- Fear does not exist. It's not tangible. It's something YOU make up. 98% of the population lives their lives based on their feelings. Their feelings of fear, especially. Fear comes from the past! And the past is a PRISON.

Present:
- The present is your comfort zone. Living in the present, living in your comfort zone is your casket. Living in your comfort zone is easy, but does not provide contentment. You think you're playing to win, but you aren't even in the game. This is where laziness and procrastination lives.

Future:
- The future is adventure! Leave a legacy! You can write your OWN future!

Money

- Money is seed. It will reproduce itself. 98%'ers eat their seed. 2%'ers are frugal.

- Plant your seeds and create an orchard.

- The fool spends all he makes. The wise refuses to spend all he makes.

Money plan
- Live on 70% of your income
- The rest of the 30%:
- 10% goes to debt
- 10% goes to charity
- 10% goes to savings / investments

- Getting rich doesn't have anything to do with how much money you make! It's about what you do with the money that you make.

- Invest in yourself! Learning is expensive! Paying to learn from other's mistakes is less expensive than learning from your own mistakes. So, pay to learn from people who've already done it! (Like we do here at WA!)

- Cut the FAT from your household expenses. Things like expensive shampoos are luxury items. Enjoy those when you're financilly free. For now, cut out luxury items until all your debt is paid off and your orchard starts to grow!

Increasing Value

- If you're not increaing your value, you're decreasing in value. This starts in the home! Increase your value in the home. Make your bed! Look nice! Be kind to your family. It all starts HERE!

- SMILE! Do you think you're smiling a lot? You're not! Smile more! A frown says "You're not good enough" to people who see you.

- Life and death is in the power of your tongue. Speak LIFE. (Be positive)

- Learn more about people than you do about a product or service and you'll be unusually successful.

- You reap what you sow. Sow good seeds.

- Give people honor by: Smiling, giving them eye contact, listening to them, having a good attitude, remembering their names!

- Get into the GIVING economy. He who is in giving will always get a return.

- People want to feel special and important.

- Personal referrals is the most important way to get your business / name out there. Master the art of personal referrals.

- Sell the results that others want. People are only interested in themselves. They don't care about features and ingredients. They want results!

- Repetition is the mother of skill.

- Facts tell, stories sell.

My Biggest Takeaways

Whew! There was so much more than this. Pages and pages. But I hope this helps you and gives you an insight into some of the wisdom I heard over the weekend.

My biggest takeaways are:

- Treat your FAMILY with honor and respect. Don't treat your coworkers nicer than your family.

- Say to yourself "Who can I help to succeed?"

- Don't let your personality be an excuse.

And, of course...

- Treat others the way you want to be treated. Always the Golden Rule. Always.

Thanks for your time!

- Christina