Greetings, SuperFriends!

Do you know anyone that’s worked with Sir Elton John or Elon Musk, sent people down to see the wreck of the Titanic on the sea bed, or closed entire museums in Florence for a private dinner party and then had Andre Bocelli serenade them while they eat their pasta – well, you do now!

Quoted as “The Real Life Wizard of Oz” by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine, Steve Sims is a best-selling author with “BLUEFISHING – the art of making things happen”, he is a sought-after consultant, and a speaker at a variety of networks, groups and associations as well as the Pentagon and Harvard – twice!

He also is a friend of mine from Genius Network, and I think he is one of the most interesting human beings on the planet. This episode goes really wide, really far, and we talk about how can you make anything happen.

Well, what does that mean? It means that you have things that you'd like to happen in your life, things you want to achieve, experiences you want to have, and we talk about how you can actually make them happen – with the person that has made a career for decades from making impossible things happen for people.

And I know you expect that this is going to be another one of these episodes, where we just tell you to “try hard” and “know the right people”, but no – you will be really surprised by what Steve has to say. Even me, Steve caught me multiple times going about things the wrong way, and he corrected me – and I love when someone brings to my attention how I can improve myself! Enjoy!

-Jonathan Levi

Click here to grab a free copy of my new book, The Only Skill That Matters! I've purchased a lot of copies, and I want to send you one for free – I'm only asking for you to cover shipping costs. Click on the banner to find out more!

In this episode, we discuss:

• Who is Steve Sims, what does he do, and how did he get here? [3:30]
• Some of the amazing things Steve has actually done [8:20]
• The next step in Steve's journey [10:00]
• What does bluefishing mean, and how does it work? [16:00]
• What is Steve's process for achieving incredible things? [18:30]
• What usually holds us back from actually going for these crazy things [26:20]
• Extra advice on how to get things done by studying a personal example of Jonathan [29:50]
• What are some things Steve does to perform at a high level? [37:45]
• Some homework from Steve for everyone [41:50]
• Where can you learn more about Steve Sims? [43:10]
• Steve Sims' final takeaway message [43:50]

Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

• Bluefishing: The Art of Making Things Happen by Steve Sims
• Sims Distillery
• An Entrepreneur's Advantage by Steve Sims
• The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
• Find out more about Steve Sims here

Favorite Quotes from Steve Sims:

Transcript:

Welcome to the award-winning SuperHuman Academy podcast where we interview extraordinary people to give you the skills and strategies to overcome the impossible. And now here’s your host, Jonathan Levi. 

Jonathan Levi: Greetings, SuperFriends! And welcome, welcome to this week's episode, which was lovingly handcrafted.

Thanks to a review from talipup who gave a five star review titled “Autodidactic dream team”: As someone who has very little conventional schooling, this podcast has been a staple in my daily life. It provides amazing leads and content to learn as much as possible on multiple subjects. Also as a budding entrepreneur this is my go to for inspiration and book recommendations.

Well, Thank you very, very much, talipup! I so appreciate that, and honestly, it just warmed my little heart.

Onto today's episode, do you know anyone that’s worked with Sir Elton John or Elon Musk, sent people down to see the wreck of the Titanic on the sea bed, or closed entire museums in Florence for a private dinner party and then had Andre Bocelli serenade them while they eat their pasta – well, you do now!

Quoted as “The Real Life Wizard of Oz” by Forbes and Entrepreneur Magazine, Steve Sims is a best-selling author with “BLUEFISHING – the art of making things happen”, he is a sought-after consultant, and speaker, and he's spoken to groups like the Pentagon and Harvard – twice!

He also is a friend of mine from Genius Network – the mastermind that I am a part of with Joe Polish and many other interesting human beings, and I think he's one of the most interesting human beings on the planet. On that note, this episode goes really wide, really really far, and we talk about how can you make anything happen?

Well, what does that mean? It means that you have things that you would like to happen in your life, things you would like to achieve, experiences you would like to have. How do you actually make them happen – from the person who made a career for decades of making impossible things happen for people.

And I know what you’re thinking: This is gonna be an episode where he says: Well, you just got to really “try hard” and you gotta “know the right people”, but no – you will be really surprised by what Steve has to say. And even I, he caught me multiple times going about things the wrong way, and multiple times he corrected me and coached me and said: “You know, if you want to make this happen, you've got to stop doing this…”. And I love that. I love when someone can bring to my attention, how I can improve myself. I know you're going to enjoy it as well. So please enjoy this episode with Mr. Steve Sims…

Mr. Steve D Sims, how are you, my friend?

Steve Sims: I'm cool, man. It's good to hear. You've always just been awhile. Likewise. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. Well, I haven't been able to fly out to Phoenix Virginia's network and I imagine you haven't either. So it's good to connect virtually. 

Steve Sims: Yeah. Strange old days. Yep. Strange days. 

Jonathan Levi: Absolutely. So Steve, I've known you for a long time and I've heard a lot of your incredible stories, but I want to give our audience a little bit of background and I'd love if you traced your biography and your evolution.

Cause I've also always wondered, like how did all this get started for you? How did you get into becoming Steve Sam's and through bluefish? I'd love to hear your superhero origin story. If you would. Wow. 

Steve Sims: Uh, what is very dull? Um, I left school at the age of 15. Um, moved on to my dad's building site. And just realized I didn't fit like all entrepreneurs.

We nine times out of 10, no way we don't fit rather than where we do fit. So, um, I left very early on in the building career. Uh, cause it just, I was like, is this my life? Is this it? Um, and I bounced off of so many different jobs and I kind of run away. I got the chance of a job in Hong Kong. I was in London at the time, got a chance of a job in Hong Kong, through a friend of mine who worked for a bank and they were hiring interns.

For stockbrokers in Hong Kong, I gave, I gave them a resume that had more fiction in it, uh, than, um, a Harry Potter novel. It was just, I think in my resume, I did actually mention, I was related to the queen. It was just so ridiculous. I thought anyone's gonna see it. They're not going to hate me for lying.

They're just going to laugh and think it's funny. And I may get the check. They didn't even notice they would take it about 60 people over. They didn't even notice. So they, they recruited me, flew me over to Hong Kong. Uh, I got drunk on the Saturday and the Sunday with them. Cause I'm really qualified at that.

Um, I did orientation on the Monday and I was fired on the Tuesday. So now I'm in Hong Kong. Now I'm in Hong Kong. No job. They did actually give me a month salary. So at the time I thought I was the richest guy in the planet. Saddest thing was, I was also in the most expensive. Place in the planet, Hong Kong at the time.

Uh, so that went quickly and I you've seen me. So I, by default ended up working as a doorman on a nightclub. And from then, this is where it's funny. This is not where you think the journey would start. This is not where you think you would get the best look, but it gave me the chance to stand on the door and be paid.

To watch humanity come through the door. And I was able to pick groups of people and go what I want to be like him. I like his jacket. I want to be able to wear that jacket. And I got to dream and fantasize and we used to play a game on the door, go in. I wonder if he's a realtor. I wonder if he's an attorney.

I wonder if these people are celebrating a contract, a wedding, a get together a school reunion. We used to play as they would come up to the door. We'd be like, hello ladies, how are you doing? So what are we celebrating tonight? Oh, is my hint. And you'd just, we have this little joke, but the old statement of cumulation of the five people you hang around with.

Well, I was hanging around with broke ass bikers, so I needed to hang around with rich people. Now being the doormen. I knew where all the nightclubs were. I knew where they had the guest appearances. I knew where the celebrities were turning out. So I actually would start going into these rich people and give them a reason to talk to me by going, Hey boys, what are you doing tomorrow night?

I've got this club. I may be able to get you at. Is that of interest to you? And even from an early age, I would start charging them. So I went from basically becoming a party promoter. Just to get them to talk to me just so that I now had a connection with people that I wanted to be affluent people. I went from a party promoter to throw in my own parties on, on low nights in the clubs.

I'd take over clubs on like the quiet nights. And then I started taking over yachts pen houses, mansions. And before you knew it, I ended up working and partnering with, uh, the, the New York fashion week, the Kentucky Derby formula one Monaco, um, The Grammys, all these different events and, uh, um, things going on around the planet and in between that, my clientele were very, very affluent, very powerful because I learned from a very early age, poor people couldn't afford me.

Um, it was no point in me selling to a crowd that were haggling over that 50 bucks. I wanted to go to a crowd where $50,000 wasn't a stretch, right? So I was very laser focused on who I actually connected with. And along the way, they were saying things like, well, I'd like to learn guitar by guns and bow drums by guns and Moses.

I'd love to learn guitar by ZZ top. I'd like to walk on a movie. I'd love to go and see the Titanic. I'd love to do this. Can you do it? And I became like, again, like all entrepreneurs, we thrive on that challenge. I became the man that can, and every time I did something kind of ridiculous, they would talk about it.

I'd end up with another couple of billionaire clients and then I'd go and do this with sir, Elton John, or go and do this well, don't drive a cellie or I'd go and do this in the Vatican. And it just, it exploded to the point that Forbes and entrepreneur magazine called me the real life wizard of Oz

Jonathan Levi: tastic. Well, tell me, tell me some of the crazier stories. I think you you've outlined a few of them, but I don't think people realize in the audience like those are actual real examples. So tell us some of the things that you can share. I don't know if you're allowed to talk about like, you know, people have rumored about you being the man behind the Amex black card concierge, but tell me the things that you can tell me and some, some crazy stories so people can get an idea 

Steve Sims: for just the 

Jonathan Levi: stuff that you've been able to make happen.

Steve Sims: Well, we did actually work a lot for the black Amex, uh, for quite awhile and, uh, bank of America version as well for their high rollers and also Saudi Goldman Sachs. And, um, I've got, I'm trying to think of one of the other big banks, uh, that actually went down. Uh, Jordan, the recession in LA, but yeah, we work for a lot of that major loyalty programs in doing the amazing, but I've sent people literally down to the seabed to see the wreck of the Titanic.

Um, I had a client of mine that wanted a really cool restaurant influence and he told me to pick it. So I closed down the academia museum set up a table of six at the feet of Michelangelo's David. And then as they're sitting, eating that pastor in the middle of a completely closed down museum, I brought in Andrea Bocelli, disseminate them.

So I, I try to, yeah, I try to imagine beyond them a quest, in fact, I've often said never give people what they asked for, give them what they last for and desire for. Um, and most people, funnily enough, they don't dream big enough. So that's where I come in. 

Jonathan Levi: That's incredible. And, uh, and I have often admired you because you have this appetite for creating.

These unbelievable experiences. And, you know, before the show we were talking and you were telling me how, you know, you, you've been making a transition in your own life, uh, to go beyond the blue fish. And I think really, really well timed, uh, given all this coronavirus stuff and all the restrictions on travel, but you're now working more with individuals and sharing how people can live bigger, have crazier experiences.

Tell me a bit about that. Well, it's 

Steve Sims: kind of crazy. Um, if you had said to me, Hey, I want to get into, uh, you know, the, the papal gardens in the Vatican. It wouldn't, it wouldn't have bothered me and I would make it happen and I have made it happen. Um, but I really didn't think anyone would ever want me to look at that business or to look at that life.

And a few years ago we have to back up, but a few years ago, like three years ago, I got asked to do a book. I got a shout out to a Tucker max for making the introduction. I got asked to do a book and the book was, Hey, can you name the famous people you've dealt with? And we could do a book on what they've been up to.

And the bottom line of it is, you know, I've got some rather powerful clients. If I started naming names, I'll be dead by cocktail hour. Um, and so in which case we declined, we then did another speech. Um, and someone heard me and they came back to me and they said, well, Hey, instead of talking about who you do these four, can you talk about how you do it?

And I honestly thought, I thought, no one, no one would ever want to hear about an old brick layer from East London and we've made each other. And so for these people, you know, we know each other, these people that are listening to this podcast don't have any idea of how stunningly good looking I am, but I'm not, I'm not the guy that you would meet at 11 o'clock at night in a dark alley and feel comfortable with.

Um, I'm a big fellow tattoos, earrings, highbrow. Pearsons that kind of thing. Typical biker. Okay. I didn't think anyone would take it seriously. So when we got the book deal, we didn't even have a website. We thought of ourselves. Oh, well maybe, maybe I'll sell 10 copies of that. None of them would be my mum.

One of them had been made just to annoy the kids and that'd be it. And for the first couple of months, sales were low. They were in the hundreds. And then it like went thousands and tens and it just took off. And recently he got released in Polish. It's been translated in Vietnamese, Thai, Japanese, Mandarin, Chinese, you know, all these different.

Places around the planet is actually being translated now in Russian, but it just got released in Poland, in Warsaw, Poland. Um, and they did an event announcing the publishing house, announced all these different books coming out. My book sold out all of their print copies in one day. And it's just become amazing how people have come to me.

So we have had to build a website, build a training program. We do stuff on Sims distillery.com. We have a free Facebook group called an entrepreneur's advantage. And what we do is quite simply just communicate. I wasn't aware of just how terrified people are. Of doing the simplest and stupidest of things to make the largest impact.

And I think if I had a secret sauce, that's it. In fact, my wife has always said as a superhero, my super, my superhero strength or my superhero skill. Is the power of ignorance. I don't overthink things. You would never, ever chat with Joe Polish and gold, Steve Sims. He overthinks thing. He over plans, you would never have that conversation.

And Joe certainly wouldn't because he's seen me in action many times. And so it just became that a lot of people started coming to me and just going, Hey, how can you do this? And here was the DAF thing. If we go back in this podcast, we said that as all entrepreneurs, we love the challenge. Now I've gone from getting you to me out on John and Elon Musk and Richard Branson, those kinds of things, which have been great financial challenges for me, because I've made a lot of money off of it, but there is nothing more exciting and challenging than getting a realtor.

You know, one of my latest clients owns a plumbing. Um, uh, companies throughout Southern California, I've got a client in Paris as launching a vegan line of lipsticks. I've got people that make belts. I've got people that make suits. So I've got people that, um, flip houses, uh, people that are writing books, people that are trying to launch your own podcast.

It's amazing. The kind of people that are coming to me going, Hey, what would you do? And the first thing we do is we stop thinking and we start doing. Um, and it's just become really interesting. And that's where my excitement Lowe's now it's been two and a half years and we've got a pretty damn good following.

I remember just to quickly tell you this. When we got the book, I was caught up into new Yorkers, Simon Schuster, and I was sat down with this girl that was the head of the social. Okay. For the, uh, for the company, this girl looked about 12 years old. I thought it was like bringing a kid to school day. And she said to me, we need to talk about your social presence.

And I said, well, I don't really do a lot of social presence. She said, well, you need the credibility. And I, and I literally just had, I just had an eight page article written about me in Forbes. And I said, I looked at this girl and I said to her, look, I don't want to be rude, but girly, I got an eight page article in Forbes a couple of days ago with me with Richard Branson and Elon Musk.

So I think I'm okay. And she turned around to me and she said, you've got 16 followers on Instagram and no one reads Forbes. 

Jonathan Levi: And I was like, 

Steve Sims: ouch. So I think now for some strange reason, there's a lot of dysfunctional people that follow me now. But, um, I think we're now. I lost check like about 60,000 people that follow me on Instagram.

So it has gone up a little bit thick. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. And it would probably be 60 million. If you shared all of the stuff that you were, if you could share all this stuff that you were doing, I want to ask, you know, that the book is subtype, it's called blue fishing for folks. We'll link it in the show notes at SuperHuman blog.

Uh, but blue fishing, the art of making things happen. What does that mean? Is that specifically making entrepreneurial things happen or. As I understand it. And just from talking to you about the book, which I haven't had a chance to check out yet, but it's really about, I want to make something happen in my life, whether it's climbing Everest, launching a business, applying for a dream job, you know, or having a once in a lifetime experience.

Steve Sims: Yeah. And that's, that's the beauty about the vagueness of the title. It can be anything from winning your dream date to winning your dream job, to just enhancing where you are now. It's basically the mentality of a 15 year old brick layer and how we get to be able to hang out with Elton John. There's a lot of people that are scared of themselves.

They always say that, you know, when you're pointing to someone, four fingers are pointing back at you. People are too scared to try things. We're too terrified to fail. Now here's the dumb thing, and we should really recognize this with the coronavirus, your greatest growth, the greatest inspiration. And we were talking about this just before we went live the greatest profit and growth and lesson.

Always comes from the dark. This moment, you don't get success from success. Something goes wrong and you got, Oh my God. Oh, how can I make you better? And then you go, you don't go two steps above where you were before you go 10. So I wonder in these days of the, of the coronavirus, um, and poster Corona, coronavirus, what relationships became stronger.

What ideas were conceived, what business plans were put on the back of a beer mat, what anger, passion, desire, and lust was developed in this moment, that's going to make you go and do something that you didn't do before. I guarantee you we're going to see some major impact, some major benefit, and some people have really.

Um, I really going to propel themselves out of the gate when we get our loads back on far more than they would have had this never come along. 

Jonathan Levi: Incredible. So how, I mean, we've talked a little bit about, you know, stop thinking so much start doing, but walk me through your process. If you wanted to make something that someone else thinks is just impossible.

Right? I want to, uh, I mean, I've got a, I've got a bucket list one day. You and I should sit on bucket lists because I've been in yours is a lot better than mine, but I've got something on my bucket list that I would love to do. How do I go about making that happen? I don't know the people that are involved.

I don't have the connections. I mean, 

Steve Sims: I stop. Stop, stop, stop. Stop stops. Stop. You just, you've just done it. Okay. You've just done it. They're like everyone else does for a start. Now, I know you've been very successful with in podcasts and you've done a lot of interviews and I've seen you speak and you're a very confident young man.

Okay. But you know, the first time you ever spoke to anyone or the first time you ever did a podcast, it was shit. You know, it was okay. Why? Because the first time we do anything. It shit it's bad. It's not good. And I, you go back to, you know, seeing videos of when you were first on the stage or listen to your first ever podcast or reading your first ever proposal when you got, Oh my God, how did I get going on that?

Here's the point you got going now, nine times out of 10, you say to someone, Hey, if you could do anything in the world, what would it be? And they go, Oh, I'd love to play piano. And then they do what you did. They made one statement about what they want, and then they start giving you a checklist of all the reasons why it can't happen.

The amount of times I've had people come up to me and go, Oh, I'd love to meet them. Walk, brand journey. And then they do as you did, but I don't know how to get hold of them. And I don't have enough money and I'm not really connected in this. They spend more time, more minutes focusing on why it can't happen.

Rather than why it should now. Just imagine if you turned yourself, just imagine you were stupid enough, you gave yourself permission to be stupid and ignorant and you sat there and went. I really like to me. I want John and then shut up. Don't give yourself the excuse. Isn't then go. Alright. So what do I need to do first?

Now when I had a client that wanted to get married in Nevada, come by the Pope. I had no connections with the Vatican. I had no connections with the Pope, but what's the point of me phoning someone up in Idaho. There's none is there. I needed to speak to someone in Italy. So what's the first thing I should do.

Well, who do I know in Italy? I'll phone them up and I'll ask them. Cause at least that closeup, I phoned up a couple of people. They had no idea. I found out the third person, they knew someone that got me closer to the knew someone that was actually within the Vatican that may be able to put me in touch with a white person.

The bottom line of it is no one ever falls onto the roof. You get there by climbing the ladder and people don't see that. They look at the idea of playing piano with Elton John or playing drums with guns and Moses. And they go, but I don't know, guns Moses, no more than likely you don't. There's no reason to clarify or confirm that you, you don't, but maybe, you know, someone at the bottom of that ladder that can get you to the next one to get you to the next one.

Now I've done this for 30 plus years. So if you said to me, Hey, you know, I want to get hold of Steven Tyler. I can do a text, but before I got into the position of doing a text, I had to know someone who knew someone that I could help. They would allow them to help me get to the next page. There were a lot of favors.

It costs me a lot of time, energy thought reward, finance to get to the end person who sometimes I would get there. There's been examples when I've got to the phone or person I've wanted to and they've gone. No, I don't know that. And you've gone crap. I've just spent all this time and energy climbing up the ladder.

To find out you don't want to do it, but here's the daft thing. If you know the last person that's close friends with X, if he's in that circle, he's probably got five other people you would like to have in your circle. So it's been amazing when I've gone for someone not been able to get them and all of a sudden the opportunity to get someone else of equal or even greater.

Has popped up. I'll tell you quite openly. When I was, when I was trying to do, um, when I did the Vatican at the Vatican, the academia museum in Florence, um, museums are very, very, very, very quiet. So when you shut a museum down and you're eating those knives on the plates can become actually very annoying, you know, and it can be very intimidating and not a very pleasurable meal.

So we knew that, um, I always tried to look up what could make this bad. What's the worst thing that could out. I always try to come out, go negative when I'm actually in an event so I can try and highlight some of those things. Um, we thought about getting a string quartet. There was a group of young labs.

I think they were called, uh, ill Valais Vaio. I don't know, I'm probably a Boston, isn't it? And I apologize, but it was these three young lads. The, um, were fantastic opera singers, young boys. And I thought it would be easier for, to, to get them. I reached out to try and get hold of these guys. And I ended up getting hold of someone that could help me, but it didn't think that'd be interested in doing, you know, a gig for six people.

He in pastor in, in a, in a museum. And so there were all these hurdles. And he turned around. He said dumb, but my mate knows Andre, but Shelly and he lives in Tuscany. Oh my 

Jonathan Levi: God. 

Steve Sims: And I'm like, are you kidding? So through one failure, I got someone soup, Harrier, sorry, boys. But you know, a, an icon of Italian music.

So the bottom line of it is the first issue you've got. All of us is we focus too many times on why we can't. Make your dream manifest it. Make your dream in your head, solidify it by stating it. I want to do this and then shut up. Don't allow the negative monkey to jump in there and give you all the reasons why you inadequate your candor.

Don't give those reasons. Don't give them the ability to do the reasons, do the first thing. If you want to climb up Everest, walk towards the bottom of it. If you want to speak to a famous person. Then find out where they go, you know, you, haven't got to be on a text and just find out where they are, get into the location of where they are many, many times when I've wanted to get ahold of someone, very powerful, whether it be a client or a celebrity or star or a singer, I've started hanging out in the vicinities that they hang out in the award shows the garlands, backstage, all of those kinds of things to try and finally get into their face more than once.

So I'm now a familiar face. The amount of times I've bumped into people and they've gone, you know, I've seen you at a few events, you damn right. You have, cause I've made sure I'm there to get this opportunity. So there's, there it is. Start doing, you're going to be shit at it. You're going to be musty.

You're going to be ropey, but just stops. And as Ari myself says, get going, then get good. 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. Wow. That's so incredible. And in it. It's wonderful that it's, it's that simple. It's like stop restricting yourself and start taking the steps. I think it also comes down. You tell me from your experience, but I think it comes down to how bad people actually want it.

It's like you say, you want these things, but are you willing to do the work show up at the events, pick up the phone, make the calls, embarrass yourself by asking, you know, Hey, do you know, could, could you connect, you know, calling up, uh, Some random person in Italy and going, Hey, could you connect me to the Pope?

Like you, do you want it bad enough to do that? And I think a lot of people have to really ask themselves these things that are on their so-called bucket list. Are they willing to put in the effort and time? And if not, maybe they just don't want it bad enough. What, what do you think about that? 

Steve Sims: I think you're right.

Um, I think the other thing is sadly, we're in a laugh in society. We actually liked to laugh at people that fail. Um, if you think of Elon Musk that actually did the cyber truck. Now, the news, the following day, wasn't the fact that he had actually disrupted the auto industry with a truck. It was the fact that his Bulletproof glass broke when they threw a rocket.

Right. You know, we love, we love to laugh. We love to mock. Um, until we can't and Elon Musk said it best, he said they will always laugh at you before they applaud. And that was a perfect example of it. Would that would that rock whenever he did those rockets, uh, to the user, we usable fuel cells. Do you remember those rockets that would land on the platform in the ocean?

Yeah. And what would we see? We would see it land. We would see it tip over and we would see it explode into a beautiful, big, like Cinemax cinematic finale of a movie. And the whole thing would just explode. We saw that so many times. Didn't we? When was the last time you saw it land? 

Jonathan Levi: Yeah, that's not celebrated as much.

I happened to actually go on YouTube once in a while and watch the landings, but I totally understand what you're saying. 

Steve Sims: Yeah. The bottom line of it is we've got TV shows where we focus at people falling over, walking into walls, hitting themselves. We've got a tick tock, Instagram. We've got all of these things where we laugh at the person being shown up.

Now the bottom line of it is I got to notice something that was, that had a continuity between all of my clients. They don't care what you think. They care what they do. And I realized that I don't care. You know, I don't care. I haven't tried to be as good looking as you, I haven't tried to be as suave as Peter Diamandis.

I haven't tried to be, you know, as, as handsome as a, you know, Garrett, Gunderson, Oh, you know, our friends, I haven't tried any of that because it takes zero effort to be me. And then I can use all of my effort to focus on what needs to be done. Too many people now are scared. Of what you think. And the bottom line of it is gives a crap.

You know, I care about what I do. I care about what I can solve. I care about what I can create. I care about what will be my legacy, but you sniggering in the corner because I've just told you my dream is to go up a, um, Mount Everest with an elephant on my back. Doesn't hold any interest or cloud to me at all.

Jonathan Levi: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Any other tips, Steve, for, I mean, that's huge, it's so massive. And I think people are going to walk away from this a little more likely or a lot more likely to actually achieve these things that they want to do. Any other things, tips that you have for folks who are saying, you know, I'll give you one I'll, I'll be open and I'll, I'll share an embarrassing one.

I've wanted to have Tim Ferriss on this show. Forever since day one. And we're now rounding out 300 episodes. Any other tips besides doing the day to day every day, making the first step asking for the connections? What else should I do? 

Steve Sims: So you're coming at it from the wrong angle for start. We know full well here's, here's the thing.

Seven o'clock tonight. You get a phone call before you've answered that phone. Whether it be me, Joe Polish, your mum, your next door neighbor. You can guarantee when that phone rings, the person that's on the other end of the phone wants something. That's why they found. Okay. It's a simple fact. It's simple facts and logic.

Someone's called you because they want something. They may want to check you. Okay. They may want to invite you out for dinner or they may want to sell you something, but they want something. Okay. Your contacting Tim failures, because you want Tim Ferriss on your show. You need to create what will make Tim Ferris want to be on your show.

See, you thought about it from the wrong side of the playing field. Whenever I've gone up to any of the clients that I've dealt with or any of the celebrities or, you know, the famous people that I've dealt with when I've had a client that's wanted to meet them or hang out when there was something like that.

I don't go out to them and go, Hey, my client wants this, you know, can you do it? Or how much Rica you're coming at it from the wrong end. So if you go up to and you go, Hey, I hear you released a book. I hear you support this charity. I hear that you are now a spokesperson for this. Cause I've got a way of being able to draw more attention to that.

Cause, Oh, by the way, my client wants to meet you and this would actually help your cause. So I'm coming at it. With a reason. Now we both know Dan Fitzpatrick, who is a member of the genius network, and he wanted to meet, meet the rock band journey. I ended up putting him on stage where he actually sang four tunes live on stage with the entire group.

He was in San Diego live on site. So he is now the shortest term lead singer of the rock band journey. Now I did that because I found out there's the dramas son. Had autism and Dan's brother's son has autism. So I was able to connect with the band and go, Hey, I'm aware that your son has autism. My client's brother's son has autism.

He understands the challenges. We have a request for your band journey, but I would like to do it, wrap it up around the name of autism speaks to drawing more attention to autism and what could be done and how it can be looked at. . None of those things that I just said, okay, you mentioned dollar signs.

Now. We knew. The managers want money. The venue wants money. We knew there was going to be money involved, but we gave them a reason to want to make it happen. This was going to help the drummer and his family bring awareness to something that's impacting that family. So think of Tim, do your homework.

What is he trying to promote? What is his passion now? We all know Tim. Tim's kind of a weird couch known Tim for years. But find out what is involved in, find out what lights his low bulbs up, and then find a way how you being part of his world can help him do more of what he's doing. Now. The obvious one is when someone's got a book coming out, you can go, Hey, I hear you go to the new book.

I love to promote your book and find out I love to buy 5,000 copies. That's a very shallow way of doing it. It's very easy way. But it's a very shallow way of doing it. But with Tim or with anyone, what's the lesion, there's going to make them want to be on your show longer than every reason you have for them to be on it.

Right. Does that make sense? 

Jonathan Levi: Right. And I think where a lot of people go wrong is they immediately assume what could I possibly offer to them? You know, what could I possibly offer to Oprah? And yet. Coming back to Steve Sims rule, number one, stop doing that. Right. And right away, start figuring out ways.

Stop thinking, stop analyzing, stop nay-saying and just go into creative mode. 

Steve Sims: Yeah. You might just find out what it is. Um, I actually had, um, and he's a friend of ours. Uh, I had someone have breakfast with Oprah Winfrey in Canada and the way that we made it happen was because she was supporting a school and we offered to pay for computers for the school.

Um, she could have paid for every single computer in that school that we paid for on a credit card and probably not even noticed to go through at the end of the month. Um, but we gave her something that she didn't have to think about the benefit. It's something that she was passionate about. Incredible at the moment, one of the worst things that's going on just to, just to embellish on that and just enlighten there a bit more, you need to go to someone with a solution.

You need to say, Hey, I believe you involved in this. I've got this. You have to put some thought in it, the worst statement, and we get this a lot. Now, people conscience go, Hey, if I can be of any help to you whatsoever, just ask me. And I had this, I had this guy contact me the other day that I didn't know very well when he contacted me and did exactly, Hey, Steve, you know, if I can be of any help to you please just ask.

I said, actually, yes. I said, I've got an oil plug that stuck in a 1975 Norton commando. If you could go over here, drill it, retap it. And screw that up, do it by Tuesday. I'd appreciate that. And he came back and he's like, well, I don't actually know anything about motorbikes. And I said, well, why is it now?

My problem. To think about what you can solve. Why are you now my issue to help you help me, but if either come to me and gone, Hey, Steve, I believe, uh, I don't know. And I'm making it up. You know, I drove past your house the other day and I noticed a couple of roof slabs. Uh, we'll miss in. Could I pop over and help you with those?

He's identified a problem I have, and he's creating a solution to it. Hey, Steve, I've been listening to your podcasts and it's a bit gravelly. Have you considered these microphones? You know, again, that's coming to me with a solution. Michael O'Neill did exactly that. Told me I was using a microphone. He made me sound like crap.

So he suggested some different microphones and these are the ones that I'm on now, the shore 50 eights. So go to someone and the amount of times, here's the dark thing. The amount of times I've gone to someone powerful and I've gone. Hey, I heard about this project you're doing, and I wondered had you considered this, this, this, this, and this.

And I'm feeling all Chuck for myself because I've given them a solution to a project that I'm involved in. And the person in front of me is gone. That's a really good angle, but we can the idea of a month ago and I've gone. Oh crap. But they said, Hey, but we liked the way your mind works. I've not. Always got it.

Right. I think there's maybe a dozen projects that I've come to someone with solutions and they've turned around and gone. Yeah, we thought about that. So we decided not to proceed, but not one of them has done anything other than turn around and go, Hey, well, I liked the way that you came with a solution.

Would you care to work on this project with me? And I've gone send me the details. Let me have a look. So people want problem solvers. They don't want opportunists, 

Jonathan Levi: right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Steve, I know we are coming up on time here. I do want to ask you what are some of the things that you do? I mean, you know, a lot of high performing people, what are some of the things that you do to keep yourself performing at an optimal level?

Things that you've learned from some of the incredible folks that you've interacted with? 

Steve Sims: Well, one of them we've already stated is to not care about anyone else's approval. Okay. Really just, it doesn't help you run a vice if you carry everyone else on your odor. So the first thing is you got to ignore everyone and those people in the corner telling you, you can't do it nine times out of 10.

Now, embarrassed. You're going to show them that you can and show them that, that show them up, that they were inadequate to be able to do it. So never worry about anyone else. Peter Diamandis gave me a golden nugget years ago, which is working very well even in today. He said never watched the news because it's the old statement about if it, if it bleeds, it leads and we've got nothing but negativity at the moment.

Why do I want to wake up in the morning, turn on the news station to have the news reporter look at me and say, Hey, good morning. And then spend the next three hours telling me why it's not. So I never watched the morning news. I kind of think that if something big is going on in the world, I'm going to get a text.

It's going to pop up somewhere. I'll hear about it. Worst case scenario. I'll find out about it at six o'clock at night when I'm drinking my cocktail and my day's over. Okay. So I never watched the news. I've never worried about your opinion. Yes. Never worry about news. You can actually download apps that give you, um, breaking news, uh, headlines.

And if you'd like it, you can click on it to get more details. But at the moment, no one knows anything. That's the only fact that we can all agree on. We know nothing about anything yet. It's it makes me laugh every night at 10 30. They have the, um, the sports Roundup, the news station at 10 30, every night here in Los Angeles still does the sports Roundup, even though for the past month, there's been no sports playing, but they don't want to stop this sports.

So talk about, Oh, well there's no sport go. Well, we knew that mate, but you're doing a sports Roundup and it's kind of funny to watch them kind of shuffle around and try and fill up that time. But I don't, I don't focus on the news. I don't focus on the negativity. And here's the one that I think a lot of people miss out on.

I love reading books, but I make sure that every second or third book that I read is a fantasy. It could be the girl with the dragon tattoo. It could be Agatha Christie. It could be, you know, something fantastical and whimsical like Harry Potter. But here's the thing we're in a transactional society. One thing that AI will never be able to do is to dream.

And create and fantasize. We have to get those new ones, those parts, and I'm sure if we had D D Amanda's here, what does it tell us where they were? But we have to get that part of our brain that imagines, that lights up, that imagines we're riding around on a floating carpet, over a mystical world of yellow princesses.

You know, we have to get into that world of fantasy because here's what happens when you come back. Your mind is so open to that, create an and fantasizing that when you look at the problem, you've got you solve it because solving things takes the dream, takes you to be able to create teacher to fantasize.

So I really try to watch movies or programs, but I love reading because when you read it, In your mind is far superior than it will ever be on a TV screen. So I do like to fantasize and dream. 

Jonathan Levi: I love those three. And those are three that have almost never or never come up on the show. So I really appreciate those.

I do want to ask you Steve, for some homework, we can give, uh, people, whether it's, you know, visiting your website, downloading a resource, whether it's, uh, an exercise, a journaling exercise, even if we want to give them a, you know, a specific, uh, task, but what's something people should do while they wait for next week's episode.

Steve Sims: Well, I've already told you that, that everyone should join up onto an entrepreneur's advantage with Steve Sims. That's the private Facebook group, and I'm always dropping stuff in there and we're always conversing over what's going on. But the bottom line of it is you've got to get support. Um, it sounds like a strange homework task, and you're already creating your hair.

I'm pleased to say, but an entrepreneur alone dies. Entrepreneur together we conquer. So we've got to get a group of those challenging, not the naysayers, not the people in the pub to go well, you shouldn't be doing that, Jonathan, you know, ignore that. You need to get those people that go well, that sounds wild and risky.

Why is that so important to your job? You should get those people that challenge you and get you focused. So you need to get the right group at this moment in time. Maybe it's your best mate that you do a FaceTime with. You know, twice a day, maybe it's a Facebook group. Maybe it's someone who jump on WhatsApp and just converse with maybe it's listening to more podcasts, but you need to get support.

You don't want to be focusing on the negativity because today is a phenomenal opportunity for you to get ahead. Absolutely 

Jonathan Levi: mr. Steve Sims. Thank you so much for coming on the show. This has been an absolute pleasure. Couple final wrap up questions here. Where should we send people? You mentioned, uh, the podcast, which we're going to link up at SuperHuman blog.

Any other places you would like people to connect with you, maybe drop your Instagram handle any websites they should check out. Uh, and obviously we will link to the book, blue fishing on the website as well. 

Steve Sims: Uh, well, I'm easy to find, uh, Steve D Sims D for dog, um, or Dash-In whatever you want to think, but Steve D Sims and there's only one M in Sims, Steve D sims.com, but you can find me at Steve D Sims in, you know, Facebook, LinkedIn.

Um, Instagram is where I post stuff, sometimes I shouldn't, but you know, and so I'm easy to 

Jonathan Levi: find. Fantastic. And the last question I ask every guest is if people take away one big message from this episode and they carry that message with them for the rest of their lives, what would you hope for that to be 

Steve Sims: stop thinking and do I 

Jonathan Levi: love it consistent?

And to the point, Steve Sims, thank you so much for coming on the show. This was so fun. I'm glad I finally got to dig into your kind of elusive, uh, history and, and get to know you better. My 

Steve Sims: friend. Appreciate it play beside. 

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