What does it mean to be a master of marketing? For some, it’s about sales and numbers. For others, it’s about creativity and self-expression. And for others still, it’s about making a difference in the world. At its core, marketing is about understanding people and what they want or need. It’s about finding a way to connect with them and give them what they’re looking for. And it’s about doing all of this in a way that is ethical and responsible. That is what today’s guest, Craig Handley, talks about.
As an entrepreneur, speaker, musician, and philanthropist, Craig lives life like extreme sports. An expert in Hispanic Marketing, Direct Response Marketing, and Sales and Brand expansion, Handley is the CEO and founder of the hugely successful “Listen Up Espanol,” which was named #1 in Business Products and Service (#27 overall) on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 list. Handley’s businesses employ over 1,000 employees and have cumulatively done over 500 million in sales within the last five years to Hispanics in the USA.
Tune in to learn about Craig’s marketing techniques and how he creates authentic connections with people quickly and seamlessly.
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Watch the episode here
Listen to the podcast here
Marketing Mastery With Craig Handley
I have Craig Handley, who is someone very special, and you will know why soon. Welcome, Craig, to the show.
I think special is a good word for me.
Craig Handley is an entrepreneur, speaker, musician, and philanthropist. He believes in living life like an extreme sport, here is why. He has cage-dived with great white sharks and rappelled down Table Mountain in South Africa, driven the Baja 500 trail in Mexico, and hiked through the jungles of Malaysia. In Iceland, he snowmobiled across a live volcano, swam in the Blue Lagoon, and dove in the famed Silfra Fissure, which is the only dive site in the world where your dive is in the crack between two continental plates.
He is the 85th civilian ever to jump out of a plane from over 32,000 feet. He is undefeated in his three trips to Necker Island when donning the Sumo Suit. He’s met Ringo Starr and bumped into Paul McCartney before security escorted him back to his table while trying to get a selfie. I don’t know if all that’s true but if it is, that’s a great freaking story.
I got invited to Ringo Starr’s birthday party by David Lynch. He did a bunch of big movies. He’s a big movie director. I didn’t know it but I had indirectly done a project for David that raised a lot of money for the David Lynch Foundation. He invited me as his guest to Ringo’s birthday party in LA, where he won a Love and Peace award from David. It was pretty cool because all of these rock stars that I grew up listening to in my driveway while playing basketball were there in the flesh. Steve Luca from Toto and Joe Walsh was there. All these famous people who have played with Ringo and the All-Stars came to this event, and there were a hundred people.
Everybody was pretty much friends, so I could talk to anybody there for as long as I wanted to, and nobody thought of me as a fan. They thought of me more as family. It was a cool experience. With Paul McCartney, I invited Richard Branson as my guest. Richard said, “I’m already attending but come up to the head table and say hello to me.” Richard was sitting next to his wife, Joan, and then Yoko Ono was at the next seat over, which was interesting.
It was an amazing table. Tom Hanks was there with Rita and Dave Goelz hanging around. Paul came over and said, “Excuse me, do you mind if I say hello to my good friend?” I looked over and said, “All you Brits act like you have been knighted by the Queen. Come on. Can’t you see I’m having a conversation here?” He was laughing.
I’m like, “You act like you are Paul McCartney. What we all know is you are some guy in Canada who replaced Paul after he got in that horrible car accident. You’ve done a great job. Come on. The charades are over.” He was laughing then security was like, “We will be helping you find your seat, sir.” I was like, “No, it’s okay,” because my seat was several miles away from that table. It wasn’t maybe miles. I have been able to create some interesting stories. That’s fun.
That’s what’s so special about you, and I did mean that word, special. It’s because you have such a great sense of humor that it doesn’t matter which situation you are in or what you are doing. Whatever’s happening, you put a nice spin to it where you make people laugh and are lovable. You have a lovable personality, and it makes you the perfect person for marketing because you tell stories. You teach others.
The best way to receive love is to give love.
From there, from all your experiences, you’ve put this great system together. What retreat goers need, and planners are someone to help them with that. I thought, “Who better than you to come here?” Give us some tricks and tips on everything that would work for that type of niche. Thank you for being here.
By the way, for any of your readers, I’m going to talk about the things that people should do if they want to become more relevant in the retreat business and learn how to market themselves and things like that. Indirectly, I didn’t mean to build a company that does a lot of these things for people but we do offer a free audit and strategy. I consider it to be worth around $20,000 in value, whether they hired the team that I built or not. I will be honest, at least 50% of the people don’t hire us but there will be grateful that they received the strategy that they can then go and implement on their own. I’m way past the point in my life where I care. I like making money like anybody but it’s not my priority.
My priority is to create relationships and to support other people where they are at in their life. It’s funny. As a kid, I was bullied. All my life, I spent time trying to give stuff away so people would like and love me because I wanted to be loved. What I’ve learned over transformation and going on my own little retreats is that the best way to receive love is to give love.
That’s pretty much what I focus on now. I give love and give help where it’s needed. I count on the universe and the energy of the world to come back and support me and my dreams, which is the more I help others, the more that works out. Maybe that’s the matrix. If you believe in aliens or maybe you think we are living in a simulation or if you believe in God, he would want us to support others.
What we are here for is to put our best foot forward and use the gifts that we have been able to create, to help others achieve their dreams. As a result, those same people, when they are successful, who do they trust and who they want to work with? The people that supported them when they were building. That’s my whole philosophy in life. Let me help you while you think you are a nobody because I know that you are somebody.
I know that you are somebody who’s going to do great things. You just need the right support. I’m going to support you so that twenty years from now, when one of my connections needs a connection, I will be the call, you pick up. I focus on the long game and helping people knowing that relationships are what build your future.
What I hear from you is what anybody should be doing in life, having a purpose. You’ve created this work that you do into what is your passion and your purpose in life and all of that combined, which makes you great and happy at what you do. This is what we spend most of our life with. I commend you for that because not too many people go that route. Sometimes when you do get bullied when you are younger, you might downward spiral and go a different route but you didn’t.
Maybe I did for a little while. Maybe that’s why you love all this live-life-once kind of deal, and let’s do all this crazy stuff that people would never. You are experiencing life. You are living life. Craig, what’s great about you is that you are living your life with purpose, and you work with what you are passionate about, which makes you a happy person in general.
That’s amazing because most people don’t do that. They live in their safe zone, and entrepreneurship is a scary place to be, which is the retreat space that we are in. They are going out. They are solopreneurs trying to create a retreat. Tell me a little bit more about that. Living your life the way you do.
Somebody once said to me that, “If you are living your life in the right way, 33% of the time, you are happy, and 33% of the time, you are like, ‘Meh,’ you are not happy or sad. You are focused on the end goal, so you are executing. Thirty-three percent of the time, you should be frustrated.” Why is frustration an essential part? If your goals aren’t big enough and you are smooth into sailing through life, then maybe you should have bigger goals if you want to do big things. Now, the other side of that is people do big things, so they can relax, spend time with their family, and enjoy life. Sometimes people say, “Why would I want to put that much pressure on myself?”
You are truly up to the individual. For me, I want to do big things. I want to make a change. I want to make the world a better place. I want to help other people achieve their goals and dreams. I’m in beautiful Nosara, Costa Rica. I drove here from the beach on my four-wheeler. I was swimming in the ocean. It was important to me to come to this call because I wanted to make sure I put my best foot forward in helping your audience with their goals however that I can. Dreams are meant to be challenging on some level, and you should be happy 33% of the time. You should also feel a little frustration here and there if you are pushing yourself enough. The majority, the other 33%, it’s okay to be going through the motions. Make sense?
It makes absolute sense. Thank you for being here. For the people that don’t know, Craig is hugely successful at what he does. This is why I have him here. As we can see, the number one thing, which is pretty much anybody who’s in the retreat space. They are trying to live their purpose. We’ve got that. We are good with that. The other thing is to be passionate about what you do.
We are good with that. The third thing that I see in you, Craig, is the authenticity that you come out with. A lot of people try to be someone they are not or they try to copycat other people. Tell me, how does that work when it comes to marketing? How successful is that? Could it be partly successful if you are mimicking? I believe being authentically you makes you different from everybody else. It’s a sure way to win when it comes to marketing. Tell me your thoughts on this.
I like to be authentic. I like to talk about my failures as much as I like to talk about my successes. They both offer learning for others and myself. I’m not afraid to talk about being bullied. I’m not afraid to talk about all the challenges I’ve had in growing businesses. It doesn’t scare me. Tony Hsieh used to say, “When you are transparent, you can never be compromised.” I always used to like that statement. I don’t mind sharing what I’m making for money on a project.
If somebody doesn’t want me to make that much money, that’s not my problem. That’s theirs. If they don’t want to work with me, that’s okay too. I don’t mind. I do know. There was a time when I would question my worth and value because I was bullied as a kid. It was more important that I was loved than getting paid. Now, I know that when I’m putting a product out, there’s a fair price behind it. There’s a lot of value behind it, and I know what I’m capable of. I try not to get caught up in the emotional aspects of the business.
Some of the people that are throwing these retreats are throwing them because they were abused or bullied. It’s important for them to help others for their own psyche. Transformation is you need to be ready to take a step back and know that you are doing things and why you are doing them. It’s okay to do things at a rate that maybe isn’t what your worst. As long as you know you are doing it and why you are doing it. I do a lot of charity campaigns where I don’t charge as much money but I’m doing it at my cost. Not because I don’t care to make money but because I know by building a reputation within those organizations helps a lot of people.
Your competitors are your best collaborators.
Those organizations are great referral points, where if you are successful with a big charity and you have case studies around it, they are willing to support you. Those testimonials are equal to $10,000 a month in revenue. A lot of times, I still do things less than maybe what I should for what I should charge but I do it because I understand where my value lies and how I will get my value back in the long run. That’s a little bit about mindset as far as an entrepreneur goes. A lot of people who are entrepreneurs are trying to prove themselves to somebody.
There are a lot of people who are doing what they love as far as the passion goes but they are not successful financially because they don’t necessarily know how to charge what they are worth. They end up putting themselves in a bad position. I know many people who can talk to angels or can do different things but they don’t make money they deserve to make because they are in this to help people. They think, “I need to be loved more than I need to be paid,” but you got to pay your bills, so I disagree. You need to charge something for your time and energy.
This happens more than not in this space. They don’t charge the value because they feel bad charging money. Sometimes they have a bad relationship with money. What I always say is the more money you make, the more people you can help and transform. There’s this balance that you have to have. The other thing you are saying about transformation is there’s a reason why they are in because they have been transformed in one capacity or another, and that’s why they are here to help others transform.
What would be, let’s say, the top three things that would come to mind when it comes to putting your name out there as a first-time retreat planner, a host, whatever they may be? What do you think they should do to create a space where people notice them and make them look like experts then coming to them?
There are a couple of things that I would recommend. Let me share my story as far as how social closure is built. I own multiple companies. One is a big call center with 800 people but I retired from my call center because all I wanted to do was write music. As I started to write music like somebody brand new in their retreat business, I needed to start from zero. I needed people to know who I was, not only as an entrepreneur but as an artist and a musician.
I had to rebrand myself. If you are out there looking for marketing, you’ve probably realized that it’s not as inexpensive as you would like it to be. I was looking at content creation for someone to take 10 to 20 hours worth of content every month, edit it, add subtitles, and get it in the right formats. The average cost was around $7,500. Anybody reading this can probably confirm that they got maybe rates around $5,000 to $10,000. When I looked at a couple of different agencies, the average is around $7,500, then somebody to manage my communities, my TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn. That was $5,000.
If someone wanted to build out a LinkedIn program specifically to generate leads, that was $5,000. Now I’m up to $17,000. If I wanted it to be on podcasts, that was $3,000. It was going to cost me over $20,000 a month. I had a woman working for me. Her name is Karen, and she’s excellent at what she does. She was like, “Why don’t I hire a couple of people, and I will manage them for you?” We hired someone internally to do all of my content creation. Sometimes all those things. Another girl managed my communities, and then Karen oversaw the 2 of them, so I have a team of 3.
Overall, it was probably cost to be around $3,000 to $4,000 a month instead of $20,000, which is still a lot but it’s a lot more palatable. It’s a lot easier to swallow. It wasn’t a business. It was people working for me. Over time, I realized that having an expert in each category could be beneficial. We brought in somebody else who became our LinkedIn expert and started building out my LinkedIn and focused on solely LinkedIn. While the other two big content in the other channels. I thought maybe somebody who could focus on my Instagram and my Facebook separately.
Now we had five people working for me but you can only do so many connections on a daily basis. They could spend maybe an hour to two on my account alone. We had some extra capacity, and somebody was asking me if I would help. I was like, “No, that’s not a business.” I thought to myself, “If I charge $5,000 a month, that’s not a huge markup.” We could try five people, and I will do what $120,000 in revenue, and the cost to me is half of that. Not only will I cover my own costs but I will make a little bit of money on top of it. Not much, $600 to $1,000 a month or something like that. Maybe it’s more. I don’t know. Anyway, it’s not that much.
My whole goal was to cover my own costs. We worked on five other people’s accounts, and they loved what we did. They referred five other people who referred other people. Now, I’ve got 50 employees, and we’ve got over 50 clients. We are running all of their stuff for them. Again, that’s what we offer the free audit. Let me tell you the things that work so that people could do this on their own. If they want to get specific, they can go to SocialClose.com and recommend an audit.
The audit starts a process. We get on with the audit. We ask a lot of questions and develop a strategy. The strategy is what we will put pricing in front of you on and say, “This is what we would charge.” Again, if you wanted to hire your own daughter or someone in the Philippines, if you want to steal everything I give you for ideas and give it your own, God loves you. Good luck. Take it and run, and hire us later if you want to. Honestly, I want to help.
In that strategy, more or less, we talk about content and a calendar and being consistent. You’ve got to post consistently. You’ve got to create fresh content every month and create content that engages. Not content that’s designed to sell. Content that’s designed to engage people in your mission and your message. When you have that engagement, you need someone on your team. I use 30 people in my call center, and all they do is type messages back and forth to people who engage.
Psychologically, it takes twenty engagements for someone to go from observer to buyer. You’ve got to find a way to have up to 20-25 conversations with somebody over a 3 to 6-month period for them to want to start to give money to you. My goal is to get a thousand people who are willing to give you $100,000 a year. That’s to get you $100,000 a year as a base salary, ready to quit your job and focus more on your retreat business or whatever business you are trying to build.
I always look for, who are the first 1,000 people that are going to give you a hundred a year? How are you going to build a tribe around those people and get them to help share your content, your message, and your value? Those thousand people are your $100,000 base salary but they are also the way that you get the $200,000 and $300,000. My team would take the content that we would get from you. We would create, edit, and post it three days a week or whatever the calendar suggested to optimize in all areas.
LinkedIn would be a separate campaign where we would be sending out 110 connections per week. You can google them to 150 but we don’t want to put anybody’s account at risk. We recommend, initially, if you are starting, don’t do more than 40 connection requests. The week after, go to 45, then go to 50 then go to 55 but stop at 110 per week. Through that resource, once you make a connection, you could send 2,500 messages a month on LinkedIn, for example.
We will have a team that will start talking to 2,500 people a month on your behalf with a LinkedIn campaign alone. What we would do is we would create content with you, whether it’s videos, blogs, whatever, talking about retreats. We will find people who give it a thumbs up and engage. Find people who comment. Find people who share and start to build out a tribe. As those people join your cause, we say, “We’ve got a folder. We are going to share Monday at 3:00.” You try to get viral with your audience. You try to get everybody to share it at the same time to create a viral component.
If you’re putting the effort to live your best life, 33% of the time, you’re happy.
That’s organic marketing. It doesn’t cost much. If you can create your own content, add your own subtitles, and get your own postings. In my first book, Hired to Quit, I have a bestselling book, the bestseller, in five categories. I did everything myself. Everything I’m telling you to do, I did myself. Now I have a team that does it but it’s not very expensive. We put a strategy together. Our average customer probably gives us $5,000 a month but we have $2,000 plans and $10,000 plans.
Here’s the thing when I get to my inbox, and the sales pitch comes out right away, either I say, “I’m not interested.” It depends how aggressive or I know they are about to and I’m like, “I’m good. How are you?”
I sent twelve pictures in a montage, and it’s all calendar covers where me naked against the car but not making. It’s me with a cheetah. I’m patting a tiger. I make sure it’s okay. It’s not that bad but I do use pictures. My message simply is this, and this is what you should do, “A picture is worth a thousand words.” I was going to send you a 12,000-word essay but we don’t know each other that well yet.
I thought I would send you these twelve photographs of what I’m about. I do think there are some collaboration opportunities that we could have together but I don’t like to work with anybody I don’t get along with. This is me reaching out and saying, “Hey,” and wanted to look at a potential friendship before I want to look at the business.
I want to want to get to know somebody before I think that that’s somebody I want to work with. I do believe that it could be some opportunities. If you want to connect, we chat a little bit and maybe set up a call at some point to say hi and see if it’s true. If there is, great. If not, no big deal.” I don’t push the collaboration in the first message.
I put a picture of you and my daughter, my kids. I’ve got a picture of me jumping out of an airplane, a picture of me with some celebrities. I change up the pictures based on what I’m trying to achieve. If it’s in the music space, I’ve got a picture of me at the piano and singing on stage in front of 15,000 people. I’ve got a copy of a cover of a record that I wrote that got 3.9 million views.
My pictures change based on the campaign we are trying to work on. If you are doing a retreat, you would have pictures appropriate to something along those lines. I don’t think you have to say anything, and you could put creative visuals and emotional visuals in front of us. It speaks much louder than a name you could type. That gets us the highest connection rate. That’s what I would recommend. Don’t try to sell anybody. Again, create relationships and find out how you can help somebody. Don’t go into this trying to sell it. This is the secret.
It’s going into your LinkedIn messages and says, “I see that you are trying to work in retreat business. I am too. I bet there are some ideas we can share that we can collaborate on. Let’s talk.” Your competitors are your best collaborators. Another strategy that I use I tell young people, “My daughter wants to be a veterinarian and rescue animals.” Set up a podcast and interview people who are great at doing that. As you want your business, you already have all of your network and relationship built.
I’ve helped a lawyer own a law firm for under six months through a podcast strategy where he interviewed other lawyers and asked them where the hole in the legal community was in his local town. After interviewing 40 lawyers, he figured out where the hole was. I’m out of shingle and told every one of those lawyers that, “He was filling the hole. Please send over referrals.” He hung out a shingle and had to hire 8 people underneath them within 60 days. He could have been an intern at a law firm for ten years and not gotten to where he got in six months if he had gone the old-fashioned route.
There are so many opportunities now with LinkedIn. Look at your business, and how do you cut out the middleman in building a business? I look at that in music. I work with agencies but they take 30% of my records, so why wouldn’t they go to directors directly and will offer them 20% of my record?” They will make some money by putting my record. It gives me a better chance.
If you are a director, and you are listening to 4 songs and own 20% of 1 of them, which record are you going to put in your movie? I look for shortcuts in everything in life. I look to be brilliant in my deduction of trying to figure out the best way to collaborate with somebody on a long-term basis. I try to be unusual in how I approach people, and that works for me. It will work for you too.
It does. As I said, you are special from day one. I noticed that when we met. You didn’t approach me or anything like that. I approached you to talk to you because I’m like, “I got to get to know this man. He is so funny and interesting.”
I look good in that hat too.
You look good in a hat, for sure. That’s what drew me to you because you stood up, and that’s what it is. Marketing is about standing out, being yourself, and making people notice. I think you are being you. I don’t think you are doing it on purpose. I appreciate that energy. I like that type of energy. I’m drawn to it because I know I’m not wearing the hat. I don’t act very silly in front of you but I’m like you behind the scenes after 9:00 PM when all the filters are gone. I’m a very different person.
You could ask my daughter and my husband. There is no filter. My brain, I’m too tired. I don’t know what happens. All of a sudden, I’m either performing or seeing stuff that doesn’t even make sense but it’s funny as hell. I don’t think I will ever reach the point like you. You are pretty much like that often as a lot.
I have more of a filter now than I used to have. I think things through once or twice before I take action but I still have a very low filter. I like to have fun. I don’t want to make people uncomfortable but sometimes, I will do it on purpose. Sometimes I will say something stupid to see who the people are in the room. To see what their tolerance levels. I always like to look like the dumbest guy in the room and see who people for who they are if someone treats you with respect, thinking I’m a nobody.
Craig, I wrote something about that. I swear to you. I can read it to you now because I find when you are quiet or you let people be themselves without them realizing that, “I know a few things.” You get the true colors out of people. That’s what you are seeing. You see the true colors. I swear I said the same thing. I told you there are a lot of similarities here.
You are who people say you are when you’re not in the room.
I like pretending I’m a nobody and being quiet. Another quote I value is that you are who people say you are when you are not in the room. I love to know that people say good things about me when I’m not around.
When you walk out of the room, is there a trash-talker or is it like, “What a great guy?”
There was a call that you were probably on. It was a group in that we were both participating. I had 12 messages after 1 of the calls that I wasn’t on the call. They were like, “Everybody was talking about you on the call.” I’m like, “That’s good. Everybody said great things. Nice.” I’m glad that people are saying good things about me when I’m not there. That’s what you want to hear. That should be a goal that everybody has in life.
There’s this thing where there’s a balance of that too because you don’t want to be like a people pleaser as someone people take advantage of so they can like you. There’s this balance of being a rug for everybody versus being likable. There’s a fine line because we could pass that line where we are not being respected, people are taking advantage or something like that. There’s this very important thing, especially in business likeability factor that is important, especially for marketing.
Likability is important but it’s valued. It’s fine. It will match up with your values. If you are going to be successful in business, get your core values as to what you are trying to do, focus, and in place. If you have that happening for you, then the people that you will bring to your event and the people that you will surround yourself with from a standpoint of marketing are people that you will probably get along with. Also, look for people who are good at things that you are not.
In other words, I would match up on values first but then look at skillset second and bring in people around you that are good at doing the things that they don’t have to be good at what you are good at. They have to be good at the things you are not good at. I always look for executioners to surround me because I’m an idea guy. I’m able to get a lockdown when I surround myself with people who are good at execution because I got a million good ideas.
Anything you wanted to leave us with?
Everybody asked me to take my clothes off on these Zoom calls but I hesitated. You are a great host. I’m going to pass on that again. You are probably on the tip of your tongue asking, thinking about that. I say inappropriate things once in a while to prove my point. The big thing I’ve already delivered is a lot of the things that I like to deliver as far as the message goes, “Treat people with gratitude. Support them in their dreams and everything that you want to happen to you in your life.” They say 10,000 hours is what it takes to be successful. Put your 10,000 hours in but while you are doing it, build a tribe of other people with similar passions.
Build your tribe with those people who are also putting in 10,000 hours. As they start to be successful, there’s no way that you won’t be brought along. It’s like an ocean wave rolling in. As they are successful, they are going to be still taking your call while they are not going to take anybody else’s because you worked with them while they were nobodies.
To have a long view of whatever your goals are, you can do anything but sometimes it might take 5 to 10 years to get there. Is that too long of a price to pay to have all of your dreams come true? No. Anybody can do anything within 5 to 10 years. You have to be able to dedicate yourself to putting in your 10,000 hours and working alongside others who are putting in 10,000 hours a week. That’s all.
Craig, thank you and for all the value that you’ve brought to my readers. I appreciate it. Everybody’s dream in the retreat world is always to be in Costa Rica like you. Happy to see you there. Where can people find you or your company? Where can they hire you or your company?
I’m easy to find. On all of my socials, it’s @CraigHandley. I even have my cell phone number on the internet. If you google me, I don’t care. Text me. Don’t just cold call me because sometimes, I am a little bit busy but I reply to everybody. I don’t mind if people reach out to me via text. We will set up a call and talk. My email is Craig@SocialClose or Craig@ListenTrust. For any of my businesses, I’m Craig@. I don’t think I’m that hard to reach. I would love to hear from people and help out with anything that I can. Not always saying I can’t help but usually if I can’t, I know somebody who can.
Thank you, Craig. As they say in Costa Rica, “Pura Vida.”
They do say that down here. Love life.
Thank you.
I’m going to write a bunch of records. I’m working on my music and my musicianship.
If you want to be successful in business, get your core values as to what you’re trying to do.
For people who are reading, listen out for his music coming out soon. I know something they don’t know. I’m not going to say what it is but wait for it.
I had a placement in a major film, so that will be fun.
That’s exactly that. Congratulations on that, by the way.
There are more things than that going on in the music space but I’m making progress. It’s a little over a year, and I’m working with some significant characters in the music space, building out a mastery program with Charlie Walk, who, for me, is music royalty. He disappeared. He got me too. I never used that as a verb but in his case, he went away for a week with a girl. She admitted that it was all an accusation for fame or whatever, and it went away. It’s a shame when that happens because people turned away from him pretty quickly. He hid away for about five years, and I’m helping him come back out from under the rocky crawled under and super powerful, talented, and smart.
He cares about people. I’m dedicated to helping him, and we are building some cool stuff, the music mastery program to help others. We are building a TV show and houses around the US where artists can go collaborate and work together to break out. We got some big plans to help a lot of people. I’m excited about a lot of things. I’m working on five TV shows. Starting to film in October. I’m writing some music for some of those. In addition, I will potentially get into one of the TV shows. That will be fun. They want me to be a Chippendale. Why does everybody want me to take off? People are going to be like, “This guy is weird.”
That sounds like a lot but I know that you handle that and more. You are one of those people who handle so much that other people give them one thing, and they are like, “That’s enough. I can.” You have that type of personality where you are like, “I could do this. I could do that.” It’s multitalented. I will even call it multi-passionate.
It’s the people around me. I’ve got 850 employees in building teams and building out people that are experts at what they do and creating opportunities for others. It allows me to build a lot of businesses, and I’m not the guy that’s building them. It’s the people behind me that are so supremely doubted in different areas than I am without creativity and execution or have no business.
I can be the creative arm for a number of businesses and the marketing arm for over 50 businesses as well. It’s building a team of people who can follow my direction and my lead and learn from what I put out there, and they do excellent. In all of my businesses, I’m not even necessary for the success of the businesses anymore. They all do well. That’s the secret to that. That’s why I surround myself with people so much smarter than me. You got to be humble. You got to be fearless. You got to hire somebody who could probably take you out if you wanted to. You got to trust people.
That is key.
I hire people who are smarter than me and trust them. I help them build it up but sometimes it doesn’t help you in the long run. Most of the time, it works out. People are mostly good.
That’s the mentality you need to have to attract good people. If you think that people cannot be trusted or you have a hard time, you are only going to get people that you can’t trust and can’t be trusted. I agree. Craig, it was a blast. Thank you so much for being here. Enjoy your time in Costa Rica. I know you are there often, and your business is partially there. There are a few of them down there and a place that I have visited. It’s stunning. Thanks again for being here and bringing this incredible value to all my readers. Have a good one and Pura Vida.
Thanks. Pura Vida.
Important Links
- Craig Handley – LinkedIn
- David Lynch Foundation
- SocialClose.com
- Hired to Quit
- @CraigHandley – Instagram
- Craig@SocialClose
- Craig@ListenTrust
About Craig Handley
Craig Handley is an entrepreneur, speaker, musician, and philanthropist. He believes in “living life like an extreme sport.”
As such, he has cage dived with great white sharks and rappelled down Table Mountain in South Africa, driven the Baja 500 trail in Mexico, hiked through the jungles of Malaysia, and in Iceland he snowmobiled across a live volcano, swam in the Blue Lagoon, and dove in the famed Silfra Fissure which is the only dive site in the world where your dive is in the crack between two continental plates. He is the 85th civilian ever to jump out of a plane from over 32,000 feet…
He is undefeated in his three trips to Necker Island when donning the Sumo Suit. He’s met Ringo Starr and bumped into Paul McCartney before security escorted him back to his table while trying to get a selfie, and,in Calgary, he had a scarf blessed while meeting the Dalai Lama (which he has since misplaced).
An expert in Hispanic Marketing, Direct Response Marketing, and Sales and Brand expansion, Handley is the CEO and founder of the hugely successful “Listen Up Espanol,” which was named #1 in Business Products and Service (#27 overall) on Inc. Magazine’s 500/5000 list. Handley’s businesses employ over 1,000 employees and have cumulatively done over 500 million in sales within the last five years to Hispanics in the USA.
He started his professional career as a paperboy, winning a contest to go to Disney for most new subscribers at the age of 13, he followed up with 3 years of door-to-door insurance sales, where he again won the companies highest award 8 times. He worked in a call center in telephone sales and again was one of 3 employees (Out of 950) selling over a million dollars a year in product. A respected advisor for hundreds of brands, products, and services in almost every category, he has also contributed articles and been interviewed for leading marketing and business magazines, blogs and podcasts and he’s spoken at conferences, company retreats, seminars, and private masterminds.
