Episode 141: Your Past Does Not Dictate Your Future With Ford Saeks
Your past does not dictate your future. It is for you to decide which pieces fit in your journey and which ones to let go. Amy Vetter interviews Ford Saeks, CEO of Prime Concepts Group, Inc. During the interview, they discuss Ford’s journey from foster care to being a serial entrepreneur. They uncover the belief systems he found no longer served him in the present, recounting with candidness and authenticity the pivotal moments from his ventures and the invaluable lessons he learned along the way. Join this episode as Ford imparts wisdom on financial management, leadership evolution, and the transformative power of personal accountability. Through his narrative, you are not only inspired but equipped with the tools to navigate your own entrepreneurial odyssey in an ever-evolving landscape. Tune in and embark on a journey of self-discovery and limitless potential with Ford Saeks.
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Your Past Does Not Dictate Your Future With Ford Saeks
Welcome to this episode of the show where I interviewed Ford Saeks. He is the President and CEO of Prime Concepts Group Inc. He specializes in helping businesses attract loyal and repeat customers, expand brand awareness, and ignite innovation. He has founded over 10 companies, authored 5 books, awarded 3 US patents, and received numerous industry awards. His expertise extends to AI prompting engineering, where he trains AI to craft compelling content that drives engagement and results. Learn more about Ford at ProfitRichResults.com.
During this interview, we discuss his journey from starting out in foster care to eventually being a serial entrepreneur and coach. We uncovered the belief systems that he no longer finds serve him in the present that he was holding on to from the past. If you find that the stories in this interview were helpful to you, please share them with your colleagues and friends. You’re going to have a great understanding of not only Ford but be able to tap into yourself as well when you read his story. Also, do me a favor. Subscribe to this show and follow when you’re on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so that you get the latest podcast episodes sent to you and you don’t miss one.
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Welcome, everyone, to this episode of the show. I’m happy to be here with my friend, Ford Saeks. Ford, do you want to give a little background on yourself before we get started?
Certainly, first, thanks for having me on as a featured guest. I’ve been a serial entrepreneur since I was about twelve years old. The short background is I’ve been building businesses up for decades. Along the way, three of my companies were multimillion-dollar companies and I learned how to sell through all different channels of distribution. People would ask me how I did that. That led to a speaking, training, coaching, and consulting business and the Hall of Fame, and it started the Million Dollar Speakers Group. I’ve been doing this for a long time. It’s about how you add value and make a profit.
I’m sure we’re going to have a lot to talk about as fellow serial entrepreneurs. To get started, I would love to know where you grew up, what your parents did for a living, and if you had siblings so we can get a little bit of background.
Foster Care And Detention Centers
The background is I grew up in foster care and detention centers and ran around on the street. I wasn’t exactly the model child growing up. I moved out when I was seven years old. At 12, I was paying $17 a month for government housing, living in the projects of North Minneapolis. At fifteen years old, I got into some trouble and was trying to figure out how to earn money other than how everybody in my neighborhood was earning money.
I decided what I would do is I would start a painting company because when I was in the detention center, every time I would drop an F-bomb or cuss, they would make me paint. I started a painting company. In that first year in business, I earned $35,000, which doesn’t sound like a lot. It’s $300,000. That was my first business. Since then, I’ve been going through all kinds of personal growth and development continuously and continually learning.
One of the things I like about your show is you had breakthroughs on how your brain works and how you’re limiting beliefs. I thought, “I’ve certainly had that challenge, so I know I could add value,” but by no means, the more I learn, the more I know I don’t know. Over the years, that’s how I grew up. My clients have been my family. My employees have been my family and my friends like you guys.
Let’s go back. You left your home at seven years old. Where were you living?
I was living around the streets. I was in the foster care program. They got money whether I was there or not, so I was staying out all night or staying at a friend's house. At 12, I filled out the application saying I was 18 for government housing and got my own apartment.
How did you learn how to do that?
I was pretty street-savvy at a very young age.
I don’t remember what location you were at.
Minneapolis, Minnesota.
My family’s from Minneapolis as well.
505 North Humboldt, which is right off of downtown. It’s not a good area that I would recommend you drive through. It wasn’t good then, and it’s probably worse now. When you’re growing up, you don’t notice any difference. When people would say, “You’re adopted. I’m so sorry,” I’m like, “I don’t know what that means. I’m adopted.” There’s no perspective.
How many homes were you in as a foster child?
More than I can count. At fifteen, I went to court and got emancipated, so I became a legal adult. That ended my criminal career. I didn’t want to go to jail. There were a few things that I was like, “Maybe I haven’t made the best life choices up to this point. I’m going to figure out how to do things better.” The more I’ve learned, the more I don’t know. I know I said that, but it’s so true. I hope your audience is into continual learning.
That’s what this is all about. Without your birth parents to model after, who were you modeling after to even know how to survive these different situations?
Originally, it was criminals, hookers, and pimps. No joke. They kept me out of trouble. They took care of the kids in the neighborhood. We weren’t allowed to do drugs. They would’ve killed us. When you have friends around you saying they would kill you, you don’t do it. I got scared straight at a very young age. I never got into drugs. I never went down that road.
When I started my first business, people always thought my parents owned the company, but it was just me. I learned by hiring people who were older than me. In my first painting business, I had three crews working for me. Their average ages were 40 years old and above. They taught me. I would pay them 60% of the job. I would go out and sell the job and they would tell me, “Here’s how much you should charge. Here’s how you should do it.” They’re the ones who taught me. They didn’t want to do the selling. Painters like to do two things. They like to paint and drink, so as long as I was keeping the jobs full and I didn’t have any problem selling the job. I would sell the job and then they would teach me. They taught me construction and painting.
Later on, I learned about finances, chart of accounts, balance sheets, income statements, and ratios. I was on the work program all through high school, which means I filled out my own report card. I did graduate high school, but from 9th grade on, I only went to school for 1 hour a day to check in, and then I had to fill out my own report card because I was the boss. Technically, on the work program, your boss fills it out, but I was self-employed.
Did you ever want to be the other kid? When you were going into high school each day and saw them in school not having all the stress and concerns you had, did you ever feel like that was the life you wanted or this was the life you had and you were happy where you were?
I had a big chip on my shoulder for not having the things that other kids have. I’m 62 years old. I’m sure that I’ve carried that chip right into my whole career. I’ve certainly mellowed out in the last couple of decades. That was probably a big part of my growth, is letting go of the negativity. Where I learned it was when I became fascinated with positive growth. My first memory of something positive was Earl Nightingale’s cassette. I[1] had a cassette called The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale. That was the first time that I’d ever gotten anything positive, and so then I’m like, “Oh.”
Where’d you get the cassette from?
One of the guards in the Hennepin County Detention Center gave me the cassette. That was the first time where an adult had ever really given me good guidance as opposed to, “You’re going to die before you’re 25.” That’s what did it. That’s when I started my first business. After that, I sought out mentors. I read a lot of books, but I was a slow reader. I had to back-skip every other paragraph. It was hard to get through because I didn’t have high school or college to study or learn those things. Out of sheer desire and persistence, I was able to overcome some of those shortcomings and then do things that, looking back, when I tell my story, people are like, “How did you do that?” I’m like, “I didn’t have a choice. You hunt what you kill.”
Belief Systems: You always hunt what you kill.
You don’t know another life until you have a perspective that there is another life. In that cassette tape that the guard gave to you, was there something that he said or that you heard?
Take Personal Accountability For Your Success
For those of you who have never heard of Earl Nightingale, I’m sure you could go to YouTube and type in The Strangest Secret, which was referencing someone else like a lot of speakers. What I learned was it was really about your belief systems and that your past doesn’t dictate your future. It’s not because you’ve had things in your life that it was a choice.
Since that time, I’ve had the opportunity to work with team members from Tony Robbins. A good friend of mine is W Mitchell. W. Mitchell, if, for those of you who don’t know, was in multiple plane crashes. He’s been burned 80% of his body. He’s in a wheelchair. We became good friends. One of the things that I learned from Mitchell, which he’s been through way more traumatic things than I’ve ever gone through, was it’s not what happens to you. It’s what you do about it that happens. There are a lot of speakers who say that, but it came from W Mitchell. Go to WMitchellSpeaks.com and check him out.
Mitchell said, “It’s not your circumstances, your environment, your upbringing, or the amount of money you have in your bank. It’s your mindset. It’s your perspective.” I’ve always come back to that. I still struggle with certain things in business, challenges, physical, and everything else. At the end of the day, it’s understanding that I had to take personal accountability for my own success and my own results.
Am I still struggling with certain things? Yeah. I’m overweight. I’m probably 70 or 80 pounds overweight. I went to the Olympic Training Center as a speed skater in 1984 and ‘87, so I was an Olympic-caliber athlete. I was a pro cyclist. I know what it is to train. The problem is back then, I could eat anything I wanted because I was training 40 hours a week. When I started my sporting goods company, I stopped training and went from 168 to 268.
I understand I control the fork. I understand that it’s up to me. As I’m older at 62, that’s a belief system that I’ve hired coaches for. I’ve hired programs. I’ve been in Noom and a bunch of other tools. At the end of the day, at 8:30 when I’ve been working all day and been on Zoom calls, podcasts, or TV, I’m going to go eat. I’m going to go eat the first thing that’s in the refrigerator and not take the time to cook. I do have pretty good choices because I’m conscious of it, but at the end of the day, if I want to lose weight, it’s the mindset piece first.
I want to go back a little because I talked to, and it was a long time ago, a colleague who was on the streets and joined a gang because that became his family.
I was in one. I don’t usually say that. The gangs I was in back then, we were punks. They’re not the gangs like now. When you think of a gang now, it’s much more rough than what I was in. I was in a group of people. We called ourselves a gang, but it wasn’t that bad.
It was a way to create your family around you or protection. What’s interesting to me is when you started the painting business, when you said, “I gave 60% to the painter,” because a lot of street thought would be to keep everything and afraid to give up that much, what was the mindset where you knew that that was the right thing to do in order to motivate those people?
Trial And Error
I always had a pretty good instinct for being street-smart anyway. I wouldn’t say a chameleon and certainly not trying to say manipulative, but I understood motivations and why people did certain things. When I started the painting company, I knew I wasn’t going to be experienced enough to get the job done. I stood outside a paint store, and as painters came into the building, I would say, “Do you want some paintwork?” They would say, “Sure.”
They told me what to quote and I knew how much money I needed to make. As long as my income was covered, I paid them because they were the ones who were responsible. I knew that if I paid them more, they would do the work. That’s how I had 3 crews and 3 trucks working for me. The average age of my employees was 40. I was fifteen. They didn’t care. They got paid.
I didn’t pay taxes on a lot of things. I didn’t have insurance. I didn’t have liability. This is 1976. I didn’t know what the heck I was doing. Full disclosure, I’ve certainly changed my business practices over the decades. When you’re first starting out, you don’t know what you don’t know. My persistence made me trial and error. That’s what made me a great marketer years later. I’ve invented and sold all different types of products in childcare, automotive, pharmaceuticals, healthcare, and children’s products. I’ve got a bunch of patents and I’ve done a bunch of different things.
What I learned is trial and error. You test something, and if it doesn’t work, you change it. I learned that at a very young age. That’s what made me become a savvy marketer. You can study all you want, but at the end of the day, people vote with their wallets. If they’re not buying whatever it is that you’re selling, whether you’re an employee, an executive, or a company owner, you’re not communicating the value. It always comes down to value for values. If it’s not working, I go back to square one. I’m like, “What are the needs? What are the values? How big of a problem is it?” I price things based on how big the pain is to make the pain go away.
How long did you have your painting business?
I started at 15 and ended it at 21.
Why did you end it?
I got bored with it, frankly. I looked at my future and said, “I don’t think I want to do this for the rest of my life.” I was always into 1 or 2 things at the time. At the time, I was also speed skating.
Where did that happen?
I was in Minnesota speed skating because I was a national-caliber speed skater. I got invited to come to the Olympic Training Center in 1978 and ‘79. I moved with my friend from Minnesota South. We hit Kansas City. We were supposed to turn right and go to Colorado Springs. The friend I was with said, “We don’t have to be there for three more weeks. I know a girl in Wichita, Kansas.” I’m like, “Does she have a friend?” I’m eighteen years old.
We went to Wichita. They boycotted the ‘80 Olympics. I ran out of money and stayed. Where I live is not what I would’ve picked on the map and said, “That’s where I’m going to live.” That started another chapter of my life. I started a couple of other businesses and stayed. Every time I got homesick from Minnesota because that’s where my friends were, I was glad I got separated from the projects. I got away from that. No one knew who I was. I could start fresh. I started a couple of other companies, and those started to be successful. I stayed here.
When did you get the perspective that your life had been different?
“My Mind Got Changed”
The cassette program was the first time. There’s an old saying that says, “Once your mind is stretched by a new idea, it never regains the same shape.” What happened is my mind changed and I realized that my education or lack of money wasn’t the determining factor of my success and that I could still be successful doing other things. Keep in mind. That first year in business when I made $35,000, what happens to a kid from the projects that you give $35,000? They spend $36,000. I had no idea how to manage money. I was making money and spending it faster than I made it.
Belief Systems: “Once your mind is stretched by a new idea, it never regains the same shape.”
Over the years and moving, I’ve always sought mentors ever since that first cassette. My first mentors were books and then cassette programs. I then found out about workshops and seminars and I would attend things. Some of them were crap. Frankly, in some of the things I went to, the people were giving book reports or the information was wrong.
It’s interesting. I remember this. I wanted to get college credits. When I moved to Wichita and started to be successful, people would always ask me, “Where’d you go to college?” I’m like, “I didn’t. I’ve got a work program and high school degree.” I remember when I went to college, I had a test in order to take classes because I didn’t have any transcripts. There were no transcripts that I could use, so I had to take these pre-courses. I passed all the courses and took Economics I and II and English I and II.
In English I and II, I struggled because I didn’t know a verb from an adverb or an adjective. They told me I had a hanging participle and I thought it was a booger. I’m like, “What do you mean a hanging participle? I don’t know what that means.” English was a struggle, not oral, but certainly written. When I took the Economics class, I had a lot of disagreements with the teachers. I then took an Entrepreneurship class. I didn’t know what the word entrepreneurship was, but I realized, “I’m an entrepreneur. They’re explaining this.”
I took some marketing classes. I remember my first class in marketing. The teacher was talking about the cost of goods and markup and he was giving the ratio wrong. When you mark something up, you mark it up 100% to make a 50% gross profit. You have an accounting background. I’m speaking to the choir. I know. The teacher was giving the definition and he was doing the math wrong. I’m like, “You take the retail price minus the cost of goods and get the difference. The difference divided by the retail price is your margin.” I’m telling him the formula.
After the first two weeks of me interrupting him, he came to me and said, “I’m going to tell you something. I will give you an A if you don’t come back to class,” because he was teaching stuff that wasn’t right. He was telling people. I would have to say when he’s done, “I know what he said, but here’s how it happens in the real world because I’d been running businesses. By 22, I had three businesses.”
How old were you when you went to college?
22. I only took those four classes. I took 2 English, 2 Economics, and 2 Marketing. I took six classes, and then I stopped and I never went. Fast forward to a few years ago, High Point University is one of my clients. I don’t know if any of the audience have checked Nido Qubein from High Point University. They’re a client. Nido calls me up one day and says, “What are you doing in August?” I said, “Nothing.” He said, “Can you come to High Point?” I said, “Sure.”
It turns out that he gave me an honorary bachelor of science degree in Business from High Point University, so I have a degree. I graduated from college. It’s interesting because he has only given five of these away. In 17 years, he has only given 5, so it’s not like he gives them out like Tic-Tacs. I said, “We’ve been friends for a long time. Can you tell me why you picked me?” He said, “You’re one of the smartest marketers I’ve seen. I’m tired of you on stage telling people you have a ninth-grade education. Now, you can’t say that anymore. Now, you need to say you’re a graduate of High Point University.” Technically, I have a high degree from High Point University.
Did that bother you that you didn’t have that education?
It only bothered me when other people judged me for not having it. My actions always speak louder than the accolades. Over the years, I’ve hired a lot of college-degree employees. I’ve had over 600 employees. I hired a lot of people who had a degree but couldn’t put a paragraph together. I’m like, “How do they graduate college without knowing basic English skills or basic math skills?” We’re not talking political. For those of you reading, this is for educational and informational purposes only. If you agree with the show, thank Amy. If you disagree, you can come and complain to me.
Belief Systems: My actions always speak louder than the accolades.
The speed skating, where did that come from?
I was DJing at a roller skating rink called the Roller Gardens in Minneapolis. I DJ’ed from the time I was 11 to 19. I skated every day. That’s where I hung out. In the ‘70s, skating was a big deal. I was what’s called a rink rat. I skated every day. I was naturally a good skater. When traveling, the Minnesota speed team came to do an exhibition and they challenged the team. The team that trains for speed skating got out and they set the course up. I got out there and I was wearing jeans. Everybody else is in shorts and spandex and I’m in jeans and a T-shirt. I had long hair. I left the team. It was then that they recruited me and said, “Can you come race for us?”
I started traveling around the United States at speed meets racing and skating, and then that led to being invited to the Olympic Training Center for speed skating. After speed skating, I got into cycling because it was the same muscles. I was fast on a bicycle, so then that led to being a pro. In cycling, there are five categories. One is Greg LeMond and Lance Armstrong. Those are the pros. 1 and 2 are pros, 3 are pros, and then there are amateurs. I had points for a 2, but I stayed a 3.
I was a level two cat racer, which those racers out there know what that means. I didn’t have the desire to try to be Tour De France or anything like that. I wasn’t that qualified or capable, but I was a great sprinter because I had strong legs. They would call me Two Telephone Pole Ford. If I was in a race and there were two telephone poles to the finish, nobody could touch me. I would blow their doors off. I still ride. I've signed up for a few gravel races. One is coming up in a few months. They’re 50-mile rides. I got 1 in July 2024, which is a 100-mile. It’s also recreational rides. I’m still enjoying that.
It’s Not What You Earn, It’s What You Keep
You have a lot of different talents and things that you’re good at that you discovered over time. What do you think is the thing that you’ve been most passionate about or have really seen through all the things of trial and error as the thing that has been the most consistent in your life that you’re drawn to?
Belief Systems: Trial and error: you test something and if it doesn't work, you change it.
Probably being innovative and not letting my circumstances dictate my beliefs. I have strong beliefs there, and I still have self-limiting beliefs when it comes to other areas of my life. In finance, I’ve made millions of dollars. I never managed my money very well. I guarantee most of your audience have way more money in the bank than I do although I’m speaking at $100,000 a month. It’s not what you earn. It’s what you keep. That’s the lesson that I’m looking back on because I can generate money so quickly. I can generate sales so quickly.
I was never brought up with that foundation of the richest man in Babylon saved 10%, tied 10%, and invested 10%. I spend 100%. I know what I don’t know. I got conditioned at a young age of instant gratification as it relates to long-term. I’ve always lived still with that mindset of, “I don’t know how long I’m going to live, so I’m going to live.” Although, I would tell your audience I don’t think that that served me well. Had I been more conservative over the years and been more frugal with my spending, I’d be living on an island somewhere. There’s that.
Is there anything that you would regret that you spent on?
Not really. Mainly, it’s the mindset. Even if there was, I made the decision. I have accepted 100% responsibility for my actions and inaction. If I produced a result, I feel confident that I was responsible. If I didn’t get a result, I do not feel, on an overall percentage, that I want to be careful. I’m like, “I don’t ever blame.” I have blame and negative issues like anybody else, but certainly, at the end of the day, when it comes back down to it, it’s me.
I’ve read some great books over the years and had some great mentors over the years. People that I used to listen to their cassettes when I was younger have become close friends of mine. When I was younger, I listened to Les Brown. I managed Les Brown for three years when he was married to Gladys Knight. I traveled everywhere with him. I did hundreds of events with my mentor. Imagine that.
Tony Alessandra, Patricia Fripp, Denis Waitley, Brian Tracy, all these names that most of your audience probably don’t know who they are were big deals growing up for me. They’re friends of mine. I ate at their houses and traveled with them. I’m not bragging, It’s to let the people know that wherever you are with whatever you’ve got, start where you are with what you have and stop complaining about everything else in the world that’s preventing you from doing it.
Belief Systems: Start where you are with what you have and stop complaining about everything else in the world that's preventing you from doing it.
The part that bothers me when I turn on the news, and I’m not being political, but I’m talking about the entitlement mentality. I’ve hired employees who are still entitled, like, “Why can’t I be on Facebook all day while I’m working?” or, “I want to work remotely. Why can’t I work two full-time jobs?” There is a whole culture of accountability. You’re seeing it with the crime rates. There is an 80% increase in crimes in a lot of cities. I’m glad I’m not there, but Minneapolis was one of the best cities in the world. I loved it. It was called the Mini Apple. I loved the lakes. I loved the whole culture and everything. When I go back there, it’s sad because it’s not like it was.
Going back to answering your question, I don’t have any regrets other than each day I wake up, even if it’s a bad day, I try to make it into a moment. I had a bad moment, not a bad day. Every day above ground is a good day. No matter what I’m dealing with, physically, mentally, socially, or financially, I have to remember I’m responsible. I go back to W Mitchell’s, “It’s not our circumstances. It’s what we do about it.”
Leadership Lessons
How did you take that into leadership? You’ve led a lot of companies.
At first, I led into leadership with command and control. I want to use the word leadership lightly. O[2] ver the years, I used to think that my style was the only way. Since I was a critical thinker and a self-starter, I thought that everybody was a critical thinker and self-starter. I[3] speak on leadership, but I use myself as the poster child of what not to do.
The lessons I learned on leadership were self-taught from spending my own money or losing my own money in 7 and 8-figure types of companies. I learned a lot. What I learned was that situational leadership is really important, applying a certain situational leadership as opposed to the type of person. I also learned that, for me, delegating without details equals a disaster. If there’s one mistake I still make, it’s that. I have a team. I’ll delegate. I’ll have them on a call like, “Here’s what we’re going to do. Does everybody have any questions?” No one has any questions. All of a sudden, we’re headed north and they’re headed east looking for a sunset. There is a whole different outcome.
What I’ve learned over time is that communication is a two-way street, setting clear expectations, knowing who’s responsible and accountable, and who needs to be communicated and informed, which is the racy method. Leadership, to me, is setting the vision. Management is making sure it gets done. I do believe I’ve been a great leader, but I failed when I tried to do the leadership and accountability piece.
For those of you who have ever read Traction by Gino Wickman, he talks about visionaries and integrators. I’m a visionary. 100%. I know I can be on any call and any stage and I’m good. Strategically, I know how to do it, but do I want to sit and do that step every day? Probably not. That’s the piece that if there was a part where I said, “Could you do better?” Consistency and the discipline of following through would be the key.
What beliefs do you think that you’ve had to let go of?
I don’t know how long your show is, but the biggest belief is not being a victim and not blaming the fact that I didn’t have parents, didn’t have guides, or didn’t have this. It’s taking that personal accountability. Along the way, one of the books that really helped me when I was going through a hard time was Eckhart Tolle’s The Power of Now. It’s not a business book for those of you reading, so you don’t have to run out and get it[4] .
What I learned from that book was that all of our stress comes from worrying about tomorrow or regretting yesterday. The real takeaway is whenever I find myself stressed, I step back and say, “What am I focused on? Am I worrying about something in the future or am I regretting something in the past?” That re-grounds me and allows me to wipe the smoke away and start going in the right direction.
Belief Systems: All of our stress comes from worrying about tomorrow or regretting yesterday.
It’s cool what things stick with you. He did a podcast series with Oprah on that book. There was a caller that called in that came in with his arguments of what he didn’t agree with. Eckhart Tolle paused and said, “This is what you need to do. You need to close the book, put it back on a shelf, and come back to it when you’re ready.” There are a lot of things in life like that, things we argue about or hold onto, that until you are ready to hear it or learn it, it doesn’t happen.
My wife’s in health and fitness. She runs CenterWorks.com and a bunch of studios. I know you’re heavily into this and yoga. She’s in Pilates, which we know is different than yoga, but it’s still mindfulness. One of your whole brands is work-life harmony. How do you create that business bliss, and how do you create that work-life bliss?
What happens sometimes is I’ll come home and say, “I learned this new thing,” maybe from one of my clients that’s in health and fitness or something. She’ll look at me like, “Are you kidding me right now? I’ve been telling you that.” There’s that old story that when the student’s ready, the master will appear. She gives me one of those looks like, “If you think that that’s a new revelation, do you see my whole book on that topic?”
That happens to a lot of us. Even podcast listeners or people listening to videos, they’re sometimes not ready to hear it. I know that for me, when I speak and train across the nation because I speak at organizations on business growth, innovation, AI, and a bunch of things, occasionally, there’ll be someone in the audience whom I struck a nerve with. I questioned their beliefs.
I have a saying. I have two that come to mind. One is if you’re asking the wrong question, then the answer doesn’t matter. I’ve had people ask me questions from the stage before. I could answer the question, but I tell them, “You don’t need the answer to that question because that answer isn’t going to help you get where you want to go. That’s not the right question.”
You’re so focused on this thing, but it’s not going to help you in the end.
The other one is that if you have a belief that isn’t serving you, maybe it’s time to get some new beliefs. Whenever I run up against a belief, whether it’s mine or a client because I have high-end coaching clients and strategic partnerships and I’m on the board of companies, if someone comes to me with a belief, I challenge their belief. I’m a critical thinker. I’m like, “Why do you think that way? What evidence do you have that supports that?”
It’s interesting. When you peel back the layers, sometimes, they have a belief with no understanding. It has no bearing on reality. It got ingrained somewhere along the way and it became a fact when it’s really not a fact. Sometimes, when you do that with someone, they’re not ready to hear it. You become the brunt of the bad news.
AI And Marketing
It can be something that worked in a certain time period but doesn’t work in the now. It’s so important to really place all of that in the right spots. How did you get involved with AI? How did that all come to be from marketing?
I’ve always understood that the purpose of communication is the response that elicits. In any marketing situation, if what you’re offering in business or service is B2B or B2C, it doesn’t matter. If it’s working, it’s because you’ve got the right message sent to the right market using the right method. I’ve done hundreds of AB split tests.
I used to be an old direct-response marketer. There’s branding. Branding is getting your name out there. Direct response is, “I’m going to offer A to get B.” It’s a very specific direct response. When the internet first came along, I understood the value of direct response because the internet was all-trackable. I could track how many people visited a page, how long they stayed on the page, what they clicked on, and what they looked at. I really became skilled at understanding cause and effect.
AI’s been around. It hasn’t been the way we think about it, but it’s been around for a long time. There’s always been chatbots and AI. Google has been using AI in algorithms for years. A couple of years ago when ChatGPT launched and then it became beta and then real, I immediately looked at it and said, “This is going to be the biggest disruptor in the world. It’s going to change everything. It’s going to change relationships. It’s going to change education. It’s going to change the industry and the supply chain. It’s going to change everything.”
Since I speak on business, I wanted to make sure I was at the forefront because businesses and organizations depend on me to help them give them trends and insights so that they can add more value, solve more problems, and make a bigger impact on their market. I understood that so I leaned heavily into AI to learn. I went to a lot of events. I read a lot of blogs and watched a lot of videos. I practiced it enough to know, “Here’s the innovation.”
I have a popular program called AI Innovations: What You Need to Know Now. I am speaking on that[5] . I’ll be in Miami speaking to a franchise organization that’s come together of 1,500 people because they want to understand how to use AI. The thing is everybody’s using it, but they think they’re using it properly. In most cases, they’re either giving away too much information or not using it. It’s still the Wild Wild West. Anybody who thinks they’re an expert is crazy. I am an expert with the caveat or the asterisk to say, “It’s changing so quickly that we don’t know what we don’t know.”
Rapid-Fire Questions
Your background is fascinating. Many of your stories have so much purpose behind them, and a lot of the readers will resonate. I like to end each interview with some Rapid-fire questions. I want you to pick a category. Family and friends, money, spiritual, or health.
You pick. I’m open. You pick one and I’ll answer any question you have.
Most people pick family and friends. A lot of people pick health. Money or spiritual? Which one do you want to choose?
Let’s go spiritual. Let’s lean into that one.
That’s fully what I wouldn’t think you would pick, so this is awesome. Things or actions I don’t have that I want as far as spirituality.
Taking more mindfulness and gratitude and taking time to be outside nature and look at the world and realize that we’re only on this spinning ball for such a short period of time. In reality, my email, my outbox, the proposals, and all the crap that I think is important isn’t. That’s how I’d say that.
Things or actions that I do have that I want as far as spirituality.
I do take time to meditate every night. I either listen to or I future-cast in my mind visually how I want the day to go. I do ask myself six questions, like, what did I learn? Did I make an impact? What could I do better? I have self-reflection, and then I let it go and go to sleep.
Things or actions I don’t have that I don’t want.
I don’t think I have anything I don’t have or I don’t want. If I don’t want it, I don’t do it. I’m one of those who believe I control my own environment, so If I want it, I go get it. If I don’t, I try to stay away from it.
Last one. Things or actions that I do have that I want to let go of.
The belief about my past and how I managed money. It’s time to let that go and stop carrying that as an anchor. A part of me is like, “If I let that go, then I won’t be who I am. This is what makes me motivated.” I have some more work to do in that area.
Is there anything that we haven’t talked about or something you want to make sure the audience walks away with from this conversation?
I appreciate the audience that made it this far in the program. Connect with me on LinkedIn. T[6] he key is to connect with me on LinkedIn. Take a good look at where you are with your life. If you don’t have what you want, take personal accountability and take an assessment. Make sure you subscribe to this show. Every week, you can go to create work-life harmony with Amy and get new insights from experts that you can either agree or disagree with.
That’s right. When you’re ready, you’ll hear the messages that are important to you. Thank you so much for being on and sharing your story. I really appreciate it.
You’re welcome.
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For my Mindful Moments with this interview from Ford Saeks. What an interview. First off, I have to say that I so appreciate the guests who come onto the show and are transparent, open, and vulnerable. There are so many stories that have been told over all of these episodes that are in service. They’re in service to you, our readers, so that when you hear these stories, maybe it will help you know that you’re not alone, number one, and number two, that there is a path forward and to learn from their journeys and be inspired as well. I know I’m inspired by his story.
One of the things that really got me about his story that I want to spend these Mindful Moments on is I’ve been thinking a lot about people who make an impact in our lives. A lot of times, we don’t even realize who those people are. It’s a moment of destiny that they crossed your path for a reason and it was your choice whether you were going to make something of it or not. When you do, you may have never seen or heard from that person again.
In his story, Ford had a traumatic childhood experience and went through so much. When he talked about being in that detention center and that guard giving him the cassette tape, the one line in the cassette tape saying, “Your past does not define your future,” was the trigger point that Ford changed his life forever. That guard may never know the impact that he made nor did he do it for any accolades. He did it because he was in service and wanted to help. He hoped that with that one thing, someone’s going to pay attention or someone’s going to change their life.
His impact on Ford and also his impact from Ford to all the people that he extends out to, whether that be people that work for him or whether that be the keynotes that Ford does, this guard has had an immense multiplier effect of handing that cassette tape to him and hoping that Ford does something with it.
I want us to take this Mindful Moment to think about who has been that person in our lives. It might have been this fleeting moment. There might be little points in time where things have happened and you’re like, “How did that even happen? What was the destiny that created that to happen for me? I never saw that person again.” It’s like they were dropped into your life for that moment to send you a message that you’re not alone and that there is hope.
In a lot of these stories, there’s been a teacher, a neighbor, or a parent, and maybe not even your parent, that you watched that inspired you to do the things that you do. If you still know them, reach out and let them know that they made an impact. Let them know what was their impact on you and how that impact transferred to others as well. Change your life. Change your family’s life. Change people’s lives that you don’t even know.
In my own life, and I talk about this in my book, Disconnect to Connect, I did not have parents that were healthy emotionally and that had the family structure that I wanted or needed. I didn’t even know better at the time. As I got older and became a parent, I really had to find who those people were to model myself after. I did not continue the generational push of that.
It was my best friend’s parents. I talk about them in my book. It was by watching them and the family structure that they created. It was the fact that my best friend, which we are 50, still can go to their parents, sit on the couch, and know they’re loved. Her children know that as well that her parents are an extension of her. They love going to their grandparents’ house and sitting on the couch with them as well. That model for me was so important. When I wrote that in my book, I made sure that they knew what an impact they had on me. That impact transcended to my family and my children. Hopefully, it will cut generational patterns. It’s so important to think about who that is in your life and also let them know.
Those are my Mindful Moments with this one. I thought it was really touching hearing that story. I wanted to spend some time on it. For those of you who think that this show is something that could help a friend or a colleague, please share this show. It is so great to be at this place where we’ve had over 140 episodes at this point.
All of you who have been following us along the way, we so appreciate it. Make sure that you have subscribed to this show. If you’re on Apple, make sure that you hit follow so that you get any up-to-date news of things that are happening with the show. I appreciate your support for this and our guests. I look forward to our next conversation.
Important Links
Apple Podcasts - Breaking Beliefs
Spotify - Breaking Beliefs
About Ford Saeks
Ford Saeks, Business Growth Accelerator, has redefined the formula for success, generating over a billion dollars in sales worldwide for companies ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500s. As the President & CEO of Prime Concepts Group, Inc., Ford specializes in helping businesses attract loyal and repeat customers, expand brand awareness, and ignite innovation. Ford has founded over ten companies, authored five books, awarded three U.S. patents, and received numerous industry awards. His expertise extends to AI prompt engineering, where he trains AI to craft compelling content that drives engagement and results.