An Exclusive Interview with “The Motivator” Les Brown!

By: Philippe Matthews

The name Les Brown means a lot to me because it is a name that is responsible for me being in the speaking industry. Without the discovery of this name, I may have never developed the inspiration to step foot behind podium, author a book or host a The Philippe Matthews Show.

Les Brown is to millions, a mentor, a mindset shifter, and an inspiration. To me he’s my friend and I’m honored and delighted to share with you a powerful interview that will empower your mind!

Philippe Matthews
Les, in my book, How To Make Millions When Thousands Have Been Laid Off you told me that one of the hardest things for you to overcome was a poverty consciousness. Could you speak more about this?

Les Brown
“Even before we get to dealing with a poverty consciousness, I think that one of the most important steps in developing wealth consciousness is the step of assessing yourself. Looking at yourself, looking at where you are in terms of your life and asking yourself, ‘is this really working for me?’ ‘Is my life giving me what I want?’ ‘Can I do more than what I am doing?’ I bet you if I asked the people listening on this phone right now; do you have any major goals? I’m sure everybody without question on the phone would say yes, which is why they are on the phone. They have goals above and beyond the average person. The next key question I would ask them is if you had your life to live over again would you have done more than what you have done thus far? Most people will answer yes if they are honest because most people feel in their hearts we can do more. The reason that we are seeking out coaching and information is because most people have enough energy and awareness to go so far and then we plateau out and we need some coaching assistance. We’re looking for a key that can give us a breakthrough that can take us to another level.”

Philippe Matthews
Talk to us about the value of assessing ones self.

Les Brown
“The value of evaluating and assessing yourself; first of all I want to congratulate the people that is on this phone because all of know some people that should be a part of this call and should have you in their ear. All of us know someone who should be serious about developing themselves and getting a larger vision of themselves but the truth of the matter is most people if you ask them, ‘do you want to become successful?’ they will tell you ‘yes.’ ‘Do you want to become wealthy?’ They will tell you ‘yes.’ But the question is not if you want that the question is whether or not you expect that. If you want to become successful and you haven’t become successful; if you want to become wealthy and you haven’t become wealthy then what that says is the information you have right now – your abilities and talents, they have produced the best that you have at this point in time that you can do by yourself. If you expect to go to another level then you have to be willing to get some coaching to get some guidance and mentoring that can take you to a point where you can’t take yourself. I believe most people fail like 90% of businesses fail in this country because most people don’t know what they don’t know and they think they know. So, if you don’t know what they don’t know and they think they know, you’re not open to being on a call where you can hear an interview with someone who has done something that you have not done. Even if you believe the information, the reason we are talking is that all of us in our heart of hearts, we believe what I about to say. All I’m going to do is confirm and validate that which is a part of the consciousness of everybody who is on the phone. My goal is to get past the minds of the people on the phone and get into their hearts.”

Philippe Matthews
You disappeared from the celebrity circuit for a while. What happened to you within the last few years?

Les Brown
“I have discovered this about myself and I have been involved in this work for over twenty years; I’ve earned over 52 million dollars and nobody could have told me given my beginning — born in an abandoned building on the floor and being adopted; identified as being EMR ‘Educable Mentally Retarded’; in the fifth grade moved back to the fourth grade, failed again when I was in the eighth grade; having no college training – no one could have convinced my that I am doing what I am doing right now. What happened is this, what I have faced recently is that all of go so far in life and then we park and we don’t even turn our emergency lights on! We don’t do that because we don’t want to cause attention to ourselves. We take some hits and have some disappointments, we have some failures and experience some setbacks and in a very short time, my mother was diagnosed with breast cancer and passed, I went through a divorce with someone that I loved very much, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer seven years ago and given a two to three year prognosis. I had a highest rated, fasted canceled talk show in the history of television! (Laughter).”

“I took all of these hits in a two year period and I parked. I went back to my comfort zone. When the show was cancelled I cancelled myself. They said the show was not a good show and I said I was not a good person for television and so I threw myself off the path of pursuing a career in television. The concept that Oprah and Dr. Phil are using now was my concept but I parked. I took that failure and saw myself as a failure and I got off that path and I got back to my comfort zone and I made myself feel good by saying at least I make $25,000 an hour as a speaker; most people don’t do that. The average American earns $21,000 a year so I was comparing myself to people who had less talent, less money, less abilities than I did to make myself feel good. As I’m talking about it, I’m becoming angry because I’m angry with myself.”

Philippe Matthews
But Les, you are the king of the Bounce-Back! What did you do or are you doing to you’re your comeback?

Les Brown
“Philippe let me tell you what happened, I’m looking at television a few months ago and saw Wayne Dyer on PBS and I said here we are both in our 60’s and I got jump started! I said, ‘Wayne is still doing it!’ I called PBS and said, ‘hey, this is Les Brown, I want to do a special…’ they said, ‘Les Brown? Mrs. Mamie Brown’s Baby Boy? Where have you been?’ I said, ‘well, I’ve been speaking for corporations and would like to do another special called, Its In Your Hands.’ ‘Oh, we would love to do it; it’s been ten years.’ I said, ‘ten years! My God, I had no idea. I have been parked for ten years. What if I had not been flipping the channels like you did that day when you saw me and didn’t see Wayne Dyer? I would have died with that special and idea still in me. You follow what I’m saying? So let say to those of you who are on this phone, I’m going to say some things to you that is going to conflict with your belief system and your conditioning but don’t listen to me with your mind, listen to me with your heart. I looked at Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Zig Ziglar, Wayne Dyer and Leo Buscaglia, John Bradshaw and I said, ‘whoa, I can do that. I think I can help a lot of people.’ but then my mind said wait a minute Les Brown, you don’t have a college education. Wait a minute Les Brown, you’re not rich, and you live at home with your momma. Hey Les, you don’t have the complexion of connection so for fourteen years I came up with all of these practical, realistic reasons and they were valid reasons. I didn’t have a college education, I never worked for a major corporation, I did not have a book, I was not wealthy, I was not successful – these were valid rational reasons. You can become very rational and that can become a block to you following your heart. I was following my mind and not my heart and as a result of that for over fourteen years I procrastinated.”

Philippe Matthews
So what are you doing now Les?

Les Brown
“I’m reinventing myself. I didn’t even know that I had parked. I took some hits and when my mother died and I went through the divorce and the show was cancelled and I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, I needed a standing eight count. I should have walked in the corner to assess myself but I didn’t do that. I kept slugging and swinging. When life knocks you down try and land on your back because if you can look up you can get up!”

Philippe Matthews
You say you have to live life with a sense of urgency.

Les Brown
“Yes. If you assess yourself and life is not giving you what you believe in your heart of hearts what you deserve, here’s what I want you to do. I do a training called Step Into Your Greatness and one of the processes that changed my life years ago that I want to give you right is to answer this question as best you can in your mind; if you had six months to a year to live, what would you do with your life right now? What you do right now that you are not doing? Think about that for just a moment. If a doctor looked at you and said you have six months to a year to live, would you keep the same job? Would you stay in your marriage if you are married? Would you do the same thing that you are now doing? How would you use your time? Lets say that we had twenty to thirty minutes to ponder that and then I would say to you that whatever came up for you, do as much of that everyday that you possibly can because for all you know this could be the last day that you have on earth.”

• For more information on Les Brown, visit his website @ www.LesBrown.com.
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