Jason Capital: Absolutely.

Interviewer: Jason’s the chairman of Capital research International. He served as coach and consultant to Fortune 500 executives, professional athletes, and Hollywood luminaries. He’s been recognized as a top 100 entrepreneur by the White House. And Jason, let’s take a minute and fill in some gaps from that intro and give us a little glimpse of your personal life.

Jason Capital: Absolutely, man. So, what I’m most well known for is the concept of higher status. So, people are – I brought entrepreneurs that’s the name of Tony Robbin’s – and his thing was personal power. You can kind of say that’s where I’m at with Higher Status. So that’s my thing. My mission in life which I’m sure we’ll get into in a little bit is to make 100 million people high status and [inaudible] – simply doesn’t want you to be. So, that’s my focus day in and day out. I work with private clients, I do seminars, we reached 500 people who fly in from 25 countries. So, I ransacked your group camps. I started off doing a lot of online membership sites, and e-books, and things like that.

So, I’m very well versed in internet marketing. But my bread and butter, what I’m doing 99 percent of the day is I’m coaching, I’m motivating, I’m teaching, I’m educating. And everyone from A list celebrities and bestselling authors will come to my events. My private clients – and I work with plumbers, and painters, and everyone in between. In short, I love what I do. I’m very passionate about it. I think that we probably have that in common with what we do and I’m looking forward to hanging out with you today.

Interviewer: Hey, even plumbers need some higher status Fire Nation. And Jason’s the guy that can make that happen. Now speaking of higher status Jason, what’s something that we don’t know about that area that you’re an expert in that as entrepreneurs we probably should.

Jason Capital: Okay. So, that is a fantastic question. I actually – I was holding a seminar last weekend and sometimes when you’re on stage you have a plan. And then you take a left, another left turn, another left turn, you’re lost in moment. Now you’re on a rant. And then, what I love about that thought, is that’s when this spontaneous goal just burst out of nowhere. And you stumble upon this idea that’s been brewing for a while and now it is manifested. And what I was teaching them and then what the idea I’m referring to is that it is now 2017. If we fast forward two years and it’s 2019, we see where the trend is going, and that’s video, right?

People – they don’t read long emails and your newsletters anymore. They’re not reading long blog posts. You go on Facebook, it’s all about live video. Instagram, it’s all about pictures. Now, Instagram Stories, Snapchat – video, video, video. Video is everywhere and it’s not slowing down, it’s only getting bigger. If you go forward two years and you aren’t a starter at least somewhat decent on camera, you’re going to be a severe disadvantage if you’re marketing yourself, your idea, or your company over the internet or through a social media channel.

So, I first just want to issue everyone an early warning that if you are still hiding behind a computer, if you’re not putting yourself out there, whether it’s podcast or video. I really think video is going to be the big one. Then you’re going to miss out severely. You’re going to be at a severe disadvantage. So, the first thing is to gain the awareness of understanding that, “I need to get on camera. I need to start practicing. I need to get good at this thing.” The second is once you’re on camera, what we need to know is that – and I talk about this in Higher Status, in my book – is that the human brain makes a snap judgment about everyone within the first three seconds of seeing them.

If I met you in person, it’s not like I am consciously weighing the data, and the number, and things like that. It happens on an unconscious level and our brain does two things right when we meet someone in the first three seconds. The first thing is it needs to decide is this person a threat or am I safe with them, right? Because if a guy’s coming at you with a machete, you don’t need to think about it, you just turn and run the other way.

Interviewer: Help.

Jason Capital: Yeah. First of all, it’s 2017, why does he have a machete? In the scenario, right? But the second thing your brain does is – once we know that they’re safe and they’re machete less. The second thing is this person high status or low status? And we make – our subconscious brain makes this judgment on a variety of factors from our body language, to vocality, to eye contact, to the way you stand, to the way we walk, to our simple energy, our breathing patterns, pupil dilation. There’s all kinds of things that go into it, but what really matters is, especially on camera as an entrepreneur, that the person watching you assumes your higher status.
Because in life, when you are one of those people who are higher status, doors just open for you. People just respond to you, right? In places where it used to be a battle over idea, you have effortless instruments. It’s kind of this secret language of success that no one talks about. But if you look at all the most successful people in the world from entertainment, to politics, to television, to entrepreneurship, and everywhere in between, they all have this little it factor. And we’ve heard people – Hollywood directors they’re like, “I’m always looking for that guy or girl that has that it factor.” Well, what is that?

It’s not some nebulous concept; it’s what I’m talking about here. It’s higher status. If you can do this, you can make yourself higher status. And really if you can position yourself as high status over video in your websites, your sales videos, your upsell videos, your content coaching video, whatever it might be. You’re going to have such an easier time – one, educating and influencing your audience. And they’re going to pay better attention to you.

They’re going to take what you say at face value. They’re going to listen to you. They’re going to take action on the directives you give them. And the second thing is that they’re going to buy much more easily from you because they like, they trust you, they see you as authority figure. And as we know it, if you have all those things going on for you, selling isn’t going to be very hard.

Interviewer: I love all of this. And Fire Nation let’s just kind of think that higher status as we keep going this interview today because we’re going to be breaking Jason’s journey. His story as an entrepreneur and how he got to where he’s at today dropping these value bombs. And Jason, let’s start with what you consider your worst entrepreneurial moment to date. What’s that story brother, take us through that moment.

Jason Capital: Man, well it’s such an excellent question because there’s so many that I could share. And if I had to pick one, I can remember – so I’m 28 right now. I started internet marketing when I was 20. I moved out of my college dorm room at Michigan State where I was broke. A month later, now my business is making me $20,000 a month at only 20 years old. Then I moved out, and I bought a car, and I thought it was – and basically what happened was over the next two years, I became the smartest guy in the room. And that – I think it hit a crescendo. I remember being at big marketing seminar and it was actually, you know what, it was Franklin’s [inaudible]. It was like 2010.
Interviewer: Oh, yeah.

Jason Capital: And there was a speaker who was going on stage that – so, one of my good friends, he’s the CEO of Bio Trust which is this giant nine figure supplement company. His name is Joe Marin. Just an incredible entrepreneur who most people won’t know because he chooses to hide behind his castle which he owns in Tampa Bay, Florida. But anyways, Joe was there and he’s telling me that, “Hey, dude you have to stay here for this next speaker. The guy’s name is Jordan Belfort. He’s a crazy wolf of Wall Street guy, but he’s going to drop value bombs, he’s going to be the man, you have to stay here.”

And I remember listening to him and Joe was smarter than me. And clearly so did the Belfort guy – had something that I should probably want to work on, that I should learn from. And I just remember sitting there being like, “You know what, I’m really smart. I think I’m just going to go the bar and just hang out with my friends there. And do that thing at the seminar.” And I remember – a few hours later, I meet back up with Joe and some of the other guys. And we get dinner at Donovan’s Steakhouse in San Diego right there in Gaslamp. And I remember just sitting at the table with all these guys, they’re all five to 10 years older to me. They’re all making way more money than me at the time.

And they’re all just going crazy over how powerful this Jordan Belfort talk that they just watched. The value they got, and all the things they learned, and all – the huge impact it’s going to have on their business. And I’m just sitting there the odd man out, right? These are guys who are smarter than me, they’re making more money than me, yet they’re the ones who stayed in the seminar room to learn from an expert. And I’m the one who’s saying, “I’m the smartest guy in the room, I don’t need to know anything. I’m already there,” and I’m just having drinks at the bar trying to pick up girls and whatnot.

And that was the thing. That was the worst moment. It wasn’t like I invested money in some guy in some – I’ve never done anything like that. It was just thinking I knew it all because – there’s a great book by Carol Dweck called Mindset. And if anyone listening hasn’t read it, I highly recommend you go on Amazon and you pick it up. You’ll recognize it because she literally has a testimony from Bill Gates on the cover. But she talks about how there’s the growth mindset and the shakes mindset.
And the person with the shakes mindset, they’re not trying to learn. They’re not trying to grow. They’re not trying to get better. All they’re trying to do is just go out, and then to prove to everyone else that they are smart. They’re cool, everyone thinks they are. And the minute they get that validation, they’re like, “I’m done.” It’s all about – instead of playing to win, it’s all about trying not to lose. And when you do that, you’re fixed. You won’t grow, your business won’t grow, your relationships won’t grow, nothing will grow. And the other side is the growth mindset, right?

It’s the one where your main focus is, “How much can I grow today? How much can I learn from this? I don’t care if I fail. I don’t care if I make mistakes. I don’t care if it’s embarrassing or if I scrape my knee. That’s okay because my highest value is growing.” And I didn’t have that when I was younger. I thought I was the smartest guy in the room. It ended up – at 22 I’m doing well. I’m making multiple six figures in the internet. I lived in San Diego. I’m in debt at 23. I’m dead broke; I had to move back to parent’s basement. I had to regroup my whole life, rethink everything. Start a new business –

Interviewer: Well, let’s talk real quick about that because you talked a little bit – what this whole situation is. But what you got back into your parent’s house. How’d you make that fall?

Jason Capital: So, living in San Diego at 20, 22, 23. So, one I’m being the smartest guy in the room. But the second is because of that, I’m not doing a lot of learning. I’m not doing a lot of growing. I’m not taking any chances in my business. I’m just all about maintenance. And when you’re in maintenance, you can work one or two hours a day. That’s all that extra free time, 23 years old, living in San Diego.

They just recently legalized this green plant that I hear is really popular. And friends of mine were like you should try it. You just inhale and then you feel good. So, that became a really negative habit for about six months. And it was a combination of those two things, watching my bank account plummet. And so, I couldn’t even afford next month’s rent, and they had to kick me out of the apartment, and move back home.

Interviewer: Brutal, brutal, brutal stuff. And Jason if you could break down for Fire Nation. With all those value bombs that you just dropped, what’s the one take away, and just use one sentence to break it down for us that you want to make sure that we get from your story.

Jason Capital: Value learning above all.

Interviewer: Vale of learning above all. Now Jason, let’s talk about one of the greatest ideas that you’ve had to date. Like you’ve had a lot of, “Ah ha,” moments. What’s one? Tell us that story.

Jason Capital: So, this is an excellent question. So, coming back from that basement. I then moved back out to Los Angeles in Santa Monica about a year later. And today I’m known as America’s honest success coach, but four years ago, I was known as America’s honest dating coach. I was named the number one dating coach for men in the world at 25. But I’m building up that business. And the first domino for that was our first VSL for my e-book. And I spent six months recruiting all these [inaudible] getting ready for this launch. And the first time an affiliate mails for you, you need to convert for them –

Interviewer: Yeah.

Jason Capital: You need to make them money; otherwise you’re screwed if you can’t. So, we put out the VS author – I’m betting my whole life on this. I’m betting the farm on it. And they all mail out the first day and the conversions are okay. They’re not going to change my life. Something needs to be done. And I can distinctly remember that especially when you’ve been in that downward spiral and you’re really trying to pull yourself up out of that hole in the ground. You’re going to have a lot of gremlins that come up, a lot of barriers, a lot of internal blocks that you have to fight through them.

And they can take the form of all shapes, all sizes, all sounds. I can distinctly remember staring at my computer screen at the click link stats until 5 p.m. the first, the launch is not going very well, and I’m thinking to myself, “Jason, screw this internet thing. Just go back to – coach clients in person like you do. You’ll just make your 10 or 20K a month that way and that’s all you’re going to do the rest of your life. This internet marketing thing will never work out for you.” And I remember putting on my clothes. I lived at Six and Broadway in Santa Monica. There was a Hooters at Second and Broadway right near the Promenade. And that was where I hung out a lot. A lot of my friends were waitresses there.
I’m like, “Screw this. I’m just going to go there and hang out. I’m done with this internet marketing thing.” And I put on my clothes, and I’m going to the door, and I put my hand on the door handle to walk out of my little apartment. And I cannot open the door for the life of me. It’s like my life will not let my hand this. I’m sitting there like an idiot yelling at my hand. “Open the door.” It won’t do it. It’s a true story. So, I turn back around, I take off my jacket, I sit back down, and I stare at my computer. And I ask myself, “How am I going to turn this around?”

Interviewer: Yeah.

Jason Capital: And I remember meeting a guy named John Benson about six months before. And he was this – he was the king of VSL and all this stuff. Well, once I got into my dating business because while I wasn’t good at marketing yet, I really am – to get the habit of – to dating coaching, just coaching in general. And one thing I know with guys in terms of attracting anyone or persuading anyone is that vocal finality is one of the most important yet under rated thing possible. And I knew that in a VSL, I mean they’re looking at a PowerPoint and they’re hearing a voice.

So, the voice kind of a big deal. I think a lot of people work – that’s kind of everything, right? And I’m watching my VSL and I’m like, “This tone, this is not good. This is wrong. Something’s wrong.” So, I call John and I’m like, “Dude, can we meet tonight. I want to rerecord the VSL. I want you to coach me on the tonality spots, what do you think?” He goes, “Let me get back to you.” And he goes, “Alright. So, we can meet tonight. It’s $4,000 for two hours if you want to do it.” And I check PayPal and I have about $4,500 total at the time, so I’m like, “Fantastic, let’s do it.”

So, I PayPal him the money. I take a cab out to Malibu where John lived and we spent, I don’t know, he went along with me. We probably went four or five hours. We rerecorded the VSL, we got the tonality right. And that was the big thing. And we put it back up the next day. And I email all my affiliates and I’m like, “John Benson worked on this with me. The conversions are up; you have to send more traffic.” So, they all do and we had almost tripled the conversions that day. So, in a single day, and all we did – we didn’t change copy or the headline, it was just the vocal tonality.

Interviewer: Wow, vocal tonality Fire Nation. You know maybe do a double check. Wonder at yourself. Say, “Hey, am I getting the right vocal tonality across? Am I giving off the right vibes? Is my energy up there? And am I giving off the vibes that people are taking in that’s going to make them want to take that next step.” And if you can just again sum it up in one sentence, Jason. What do you want to make sure our listeners get from this particular story?

Jason Capital: Harness the power of your voice because it is the key to your success in life, I truly believe that.

Interviewer: Fire Nation what’s key is sticking you around because we’re going to be dropping some value bombs in the lightening round. So, don’t you go anywhere. Jason, are you ready to rock the lightening rounds?

Jason Capital: I cannot wait.

Interviewer: What was the best advice you’ve ever received?

Jason Capital: It was in a book. It’s called Thick Face, Black Heart, it’s a very interesting title, I know. But the advice was, the world tends to accept whatever judgment you place on yourself.

Interviewer: What was initially holding you back from becoming an entrepreneur?

Jason Capital: Fear of what other people would think about me, particularly my friends who saw every day.

Interviewer: What’s a personal habit that contributes to your success?

Jason Capital: One transcendental meditation twice a day for 20 minutes. And the second one is just – I am obsessed with taking action over everything else.

Interviewer: Break down transcendental meditation real quick.

Jason Capital: Sit down in a chair comfortably twice a day with your feet flat on the floor. Close your eyes and take nice relaxing deep breaths for 20 minutes as you repeat a mantra inside your head. So, you’re not saying it out loud, you just repeat it in your head. And after a few minutes, it’ll start to drown out and you’ll become very present, and very relaxed. And it is going to have an incredible carry over to every area of your life, every [inaudible] from Howard Stern to Jerry Seinfeld and all kinds of other people in between. Swear my transcendental meditation since I started about a year ago. My life has never been better as well.
Interviewer: Do you have an internet resource like Evernotes with Fire Nation?

Jason Capital: No. My advice is get off the internet. Start spending more time outside with your family.

Interviewer: Bare feet by the way. Get on the grass with your bare feet –

Jason Capital: Yeah.

Interviewer: You get connected to the earth Fire Nation. If you could recommend one book, Jason. What would it be and why?

Jason Capital: So, beside my book Higher Status, of course. I would recommend the book Crucial Conversations because this is something that is a skill to be able to communicate with people that you care about, most importantly. When the states are high, when you have that talk with your relationship partner about things that aren’t going well. How do you say it in a way that it actually strengthens the bond between the both of you without pushing them away or making them feel bad? Or if you’re afraid of conflict, how do you have those conversation with your employees and the people you work with? How do you have those, again those high stakes conversations, with the people that matter the most in your life?

Because we spend so much of our time having these sad little conversations with these people, talking about things we don’t care about, they don’t care about it. Even though there’s something deeper, more important we want to share with them or they want to share with us. But because we’re afraid. We’re afraid of hurting them or we’re afraid of conflict, we don’t. And every time we do that, we actually push ourselves further away from that person or they push us further away. So, if you can just match this skill of how to have these incredibly, deep, powerful conversations with people, you will have so much more happiness and connection in your life.

Interviewer: What are you most excited about right now?

Jason Capital: That is a great question. So, about a month ago, I was in San Francisco. I was having lunch with Guy Kawasaki. I don’t know if you’ve had him on the show, but –

Interviewer: Yeah.

Jason Capital: He’s just awesome. Incredible personality, just such a cool guy. And we’re sitting there eating lunch and he pulled up in this $200,000 Mercedes, it’s got the Lamborghini doors where they go up. And he walks in and he’s got a sweatshirt – excuse me – with a Mercedes logo on his sweatshirt. He’s got a hat, it has Mercedes on it. I’m like, “Dude, what’s with the Mercedes?” And he goes, “Well, they sponsor Led Hamilton. And they sponsor some of the most famous surfers and tennis players in the world. And they sponsor me; I’m the only tech guy in the world sponsored by Mercedes.” I’m like, “How the hell did you get sponsored by Mercedes?”

He goes, “So check this out, I was in Germany giving a talk and I posted on Facebook that I would be there. Some of these comments they’re in Germany, they worked at the Mercedes factory, would I like to come in and see how the cars are made?” Naturally, he immediately says, “Yes, sure.” He’s like, “Why not?” He’s taking the tour, one of the executives there is actually showing him around. And he’s – they take pictures of the people that they sponsor up in the factory, he’s looking at them, and he sees tennis, and volleyball, or surfing. He doesn’t see a geek, no internet geeks there.

So, he goes to the executive, he goes, “Hey. You sponsor this person and that person, what do you think about sponsoring me?” And the guy goes, “That’s a really interesting idea.” So, they talk about it. A week later, lawyers drop documents, and now he is officially sponsored. He gets paid to travel the world and speak on their behalf. He gets a free car; he gets all kinds of amazing things. Wall people hear that story; they’re like, “Holy crap. I want to write books so I can be sponsored by Mercedes one day.” To me, that’s not the real lesson in the story. The lesson to me, and the thing I’m most jazzed about right now, is what I call mastering the act, right?

The key thing that got Kawasaki there that most people never would is he just had the balls to ask in that moment, right? He just swung for a homerun. He said, “Hey, Mercedes. Sponsor me.” And he’s done all kinds of things [inaudible] to build the positioning, informed of being valued, to be able to have them considerate it. But he asks, most people are so afraid to ask. So, I’m honestly, I’m just so big on just asking for what I want. What I think I deserve and more importantly, encouraging all my clients, and everyone listening, and everybody around the world to do the same.
And I think a lot of people have a fear of asking because either they’re afraid of getting rejected or they’re afraid of hearing the word no. Or maybe they’re afraid that they will get a yes and they won’t be able to reciprocate accordingly to the other person. And I say, “Screw all that,” right? If you’re afraid and you can’t reciprocate, find the way to give them the skills, or the cash, or the connection, or some way to atone the value if you need to. And if you’re afraid of rejection here’s one of the most amazing things. If we got 30 seconds, can I tell you about a quick study –?

Interviewer: Yeah, let’s hear it.

Jason Capital: in the way of this? Okay. So, they took a college campus. They took a bunch of students, and they had them go up to random people on the street, and ask them for a donation. It wasn’t for like Green Peace, but it was that sort of thing. And what they did before – before the college student went and asked for this donation, they said how many people do you think you’re going to need to talk to until you get five yeses. And most of the college students said that they would need to talk to 20 people to hear yes five times.

Like, “Okay, great. Now go do it.” So, they send them out there. And on average, across the board for all of them, it took an average of just 10 people to hear yes five times. We all have a natural biased built in for thinking we’re going to hear no a lot more than we actually will. So, if you’re afraid of rejection, afraid of hearing the word no, just know that you’re in your own way. You’re making up a story that doesn’t exist. I say, “Ask, and ask, and ask again.” Just like Guy Kawasaki did.

Interviewer: Master the ask Fire Nation. And just think about it too, in the big scheme of things with Mercedes overall budget, I mean what really was it for them to sponsor a guy to give that flyer and just give it a whirl. And they could have pulled the sponsorship after six months or a year if it wasn’t working. But me thinks it was working pretty good for them because they probably really underestimated the kind of reach, and influence, and inspiration the guy has. And guess what?

A lot of people that follow Guy and are inspired by Guy, have money because they are successful on the online entrepreneurialships in the tech world. And a lot of people that follow the best surfers in the world, they’re surfers, and they might not. So, it’s probably working out pretty okay for Mercedes in the short and long run. So, Jason, let’s end today on fire brother with you give us a parting piece of guidance, the best way that we can connect with you, and then we’ll say bye-bye.

Jason Capital: The parting piece of guidance that I’m going to encourage everyone to do is you don’t need to spend eight years obsessively studying the science of human influence, and persuasion, and connection, and higher status. Just be aware of what high status is, and what it means, and just really recognizing that we are all – you included, me included, John – everyone included. We are always unconsciously judging people and saying, “Are they low status? Are they high status? More importantly, where are we in relation to them?”

And I can just tell you if you can find the way through your high status subcommunications to assert yourself as high status human being on video, in your relationships, at work, at home, at the gym, everywhere – the success and the happiness. Just the pure joy that you’re going to experience on a daily basis is going to absolutely blow your mind just like it has for more than 100,000 of my customers who – we sum it the same thing to them. We actually give a report we keep. We have over 12,000 success stories in it. This isn’t just me talking out of my butt, this is a real breakthrough. It’s a real thing.

So, that’s my piece of parting guidance. The best way to connect with me – two places. One, I mentioned my book before. If they want to pick it up, it is free. Right now, they can just go to highstatus.com and follow me on Instagram. I respond personally to every direct message there because I have a lot of fun interacting with customers. So that is @JasonCapital – on Instagram as well.

Interviewer: Boom, Fire Nation. You’re the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You’ve been hanging out with JC and JLD today. So, keep up the heat and head over to EOfire.com. Just type Jason in the search bar. His show notes page is going to pop up with everything that we’ve been talking about today. These are the best show notes in the biz. Timestamps, links galore, and of course head directly over to highstatus.com. And follow Jason, @JasonCapital on Instagram. Send him a direct message on Instagram. He responds to his peeps. Jason, thank you brother for sharing your journey with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you and we’ll catch you on the flip side.