Podcast #1 Transcript: Frank McKinney
Filed Under ACT Podcast, ACT Podcast TranscriptsVera Raposo
Interviews
Frank McKinney
www.clickcreateshare.com
www.frank-mckinney.com
Vera Raposo: Hello and welcome to the Action Changes Things podcast. I’m so excited and very happy that you are here with me today.
I am thrilled that this is the first podcast to the Click Create Share website. The reason I’m so excited is because I took a couple of years (about 2 1/2 years) off. I sold my entire online business and took a break from it all and just wanted to really let God direct my path. This is the first of many interviews that you’ll be hearing. It really represents and reflects what I believe we’re all here to do and that’s to spread the message of Jesus Christ out to the world and to inspire people to increase their income (know that it’s ok to increase your income) and make a very big impact on the world.
I’m just excited to get this going with you today. I would love for you to explore Click Create Share (http://www.clickcreateshare.com) and check out our text interviews and all the different articles, blog posts that I’ve put on there and just really get inspired because after inspiration comes acting and just getting going with your business and doing great things for the world.
That’s about it. I’m very excited to introduce to you Frank McKinney. He will be joining me right now.
I am speaking with Frank McKinney who is a Real Estate Artist, 5-time international bestselling author with 3 books he’s just released. His books include Make It BIG!: 49 Secrets for Building a Life of Extreme Success. Another book is Frank McKinney’s MaveFrank Approach to Real Estate Success. Then he has Dead Fred, Flying Lunchboxes, and the Good Luck Circle. Another book he has that is International best-selling (they’re all International bestselling) is Frank McKinney’s Bubble-Proof Real Estate Strategies. And his latest book is The Tap where he talks about how God taps us on the shoulder many times in life, answering prayers and presenting life-changing opportunities.
He is a super hero meets Robin Hood, philanthro-capitalist, risk-taker, ultramarathoner and visionary who sees opportunities and creates markets where none existed before. You can follow our interview along and see his site over at www.frank-mckinney.com.
Welcome Frank. Thank you so much for coming on the Podcast today.
Frank McKinney: That was quite the introduction. I don’t know what we’ve got left to talk about. Actually we’ve got a lot to talk about in very little time so let’s get right to it. Thank you for inviting me on. I’m excited to spend some time with your listeners.
Vera Raposo: Awesome. You’re book, The Tap, is inspired by Luke 12:48 which says from those to whom much is entrusted much will be expected. Can you tell me about your book The Tap and what compelled you to write it?
Frank McKinney: Sure. And I’m sure for the person who heard ‘inspired by a Biblical passage’ is thinking oh boy here he goes, he’s going to pound on the pulpit and he’s going to try to convert me. Listen, I am a sinner saved by the grace of God. I’m a business man who happens to believe that that passage is a great life mantra regardless of what your religious preference is or even if you have one. To whom much is entrusted much will be expected.
Imagine if people listening here; if you pray (and let’s assume most people do take some sort of prayer) inventory your prayer today or tonight and I bet you it contains some form of more – more health, I’m praying for more wealth, more happiness, more love, more peace, more enjoyment – for ourselves or those we love. That’s pretty much what we pray for if you think about it.
The book teaches you (a) how to recognize life’s great tap moments – when God taps you on the shoulder and calls you to more – and (b) how to act on it. And God does reward the responsible steward who is a responsible steward for the more that he or she already has. God tends to reward those people with the more that they pray for.
That’s the premise behind the book. It’s not just a premise. It’s something that I’ve experienced myself and that thousands of other people who’ve read the book have also written and said they’ve experienced as well. Recognizing life’s big tap moments, acting on them and standing back the more that you’ve prayed for come.
Vera Raposo: What is the biggest takeaway that you like readers to have?
Frank McKinney: It’s really just that – that God rewards responsible stewards who are responsible stewards with the blessings they already have. I know it’s a podcast but the image of the book kind of says it all where you’ve got the finger of God coming down tapping you on the shoulder as taken from the Sistine Chapel where you have Michelangelo’s painting of God touching Adam’s finger. We removed Adam from the picture (we had permission) and put you the reader in its place.
That is the takeaway. I want the reader to recognize when God does come down and tap them on the shoulder, calling them to more and then once they say “oh yes now I know, Frank, what a tap moment is” how do we act on it?
Vera Raposo: How do you define success?
Frank McKinney: Boy, success for most people has a financial connotation. I don’t believe that. We’re all in the business of life. That’s the business we’re all in. You could be a business person listening to this or not a business person but we’re all in that business of life.
To me success is recognizing when God is calling you to more, acting on it, seeing the impact of that action have a very significant impact on the lives of those who are less fortunate than you.
That’s the prototypical definition of success.
Listen, success you think brings you happiness. Happiness is fleeting but joy lasts forever. When you recognize a tap moment and then you act on the tap moment and you’ve impacted somebody who’s less fortunate than you, that brings about joy. And that joy lasts forever.
Vera Raposo: That joy is really just within your spirit, everything about you. It’s not something that lasts a day and is gone. It’s overall.
Frank McKinney: Yeah, it’s something you can call on. You can call on that and guess what you’ll want to do it again. It can be something as small as I’m in a hotel right now and every morning when I leave for the day I write a little thank you note on the hotel stationary for a clean room and I leave a five dollar bill. That’s a tiny little tap moment.
My daughter when we go out to eat at Denny’s or something when we’re done I have her walk back into the short order cook’s kitchen and hand the guy a five dollar bill and say thank you for a nice meal.
This isn’t saving the world by building villages in Haiti, these are small small little tap moments that present themselves. I look for them; now I don’t really even have to look, they present themselves to me on a daily basis. You exercise kind of your tap muscle.
It started out with God tapping me on the shoulder asking me to just serve meals out of the back of a beat up old van to the homeless on the streets of Florida one hour a week.
Vera Raposo: Wow.
Frank McKinney: If I hadn’t answered that tap moment we wouldn’t have built 18 self-sufficient villages in Haiti.
Vera Raposo: And made such a change in other people’s lives.
Frank McKinney: Indeed.
Vera Raposo: That’s awesome.
Frank McKinney: When we build a village there is no coming back to the well for more money. It’s made very clear to our partner’s over there or the villager’s that we’re really good at the infrastructure, we’re really good at the master planning, we can fund the villages and get them built but once they’re done you’re on your own. If they fail, they fail then we move onto another location. Well, we always move onto another location succeed or fail. To this day we have had none – zero – of the villages fall into ill repair. They’ve all flourished because of that self-sufficient element.
Vera Raposo: What is the Death Valley Badwater Ultramarathon and why are you a part of it?
Frank McKinney: On your Podcast your people are saying what is this guy? Does he have a functioning multiple personality disorder or what? We’re bouncing around a lot here. We have plenty of time. We’ll slow it down a little bit.
Vera Raposo: Ok.
Frank McKinney: The Caring House Foundation is my spiritual highest calling. Everybody has a professional highest calling, yours may be being a writer or whatever it is you do for a living. My professional highest calling is that of a creator of some of these beautiful homes on the ocean on speculation – beautiful mansions – that I build for people and they buy them from us.
Now, everyone has a spiritual highest calling and the Caring House helped me identify what my spiritual highest calling was and that is to provide a self-sustaining existence for the desperately poor homeless in the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere that being Haiti.
We need to fund those organizations and certainly by the sale of our homes do we partially fund them but we have a lot of donors that really enjoy being a part of the creation of these self-sufficient villages. As a matter of fact we have a lot of Canadians that are a part of the Caring House Foundation.
Vera Raposo: Oh yeah.
Frank McKinney: What we do is we don’t do black tie events, we don’t do cocktail parties, we don’t do golf outings, we do experience events. And be that taking people to Haiti to experience firsthand what their donation has gone to, in other words they get to go see the villages and see the houses that they’ve donated to build.
But I also do this race called the Badwater 135 mile Death Valley Ultramarathon. That’s a mouthful. It is, according to the National Geographic, the toughest foot race in the world. That’s not my claim, that’s their claim! It’s a race that starts at the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere 282 feet below sea level in the Death Valley Desert in July. Right now the race is getting ready to start here shortly.
As the name says it is 135 mile non-stop race run on blacktop pavement. So the daytime temperatures in the air are 130 degrees Fahrenheit and the temperature on the blacktop pavement will exceed 200 degrees Fahrenheit. I must run along with 99 other invitees 135 miles non-stop and I have to finish in under 48 hours or I’m disqualified.
Vera Raposo: Wow!
Frank McKinney: Our mantra is pretty simple. It’s: selectively suffering a little for those who are suffering a lot involuntarily in Haiti.
I bring this on. I sign up for it. I send in my application. I was invited to participate – it’s an invitation only race. So I can’t complain about all the suffering that I go through. But I do it for the benefit of those who are suffering a lot without choice in Haiti.
Vera Raposo: Right. You know something you may not know about me, Frank, is that my daughter endured cancer twice and I just got behind a campaign of some rider’s who are doing the ride to conquer cancer from Vancouver BC to Seattle Washington. That’s the one thing I took away from the whole entire experience between watching my daughter endure cancer twice and going through the whole ordeal of these riders of what they’re going through is that there’s no choice for the person enduring it (the person going through the pain). There’s no choice. You just have to go through it. So the fact that someone is willing to come along side and say ok I’m going to honor your battle and step in and do something for you I think it’s pretty amazing.
Frank McKinney: I think if it was all about just finishing this prestigious race I wouldn’t have knocked it off my bucket list in 2005 when I ran the first one. It would have been about me and the challenge and if National Geographic says it’s the toughest in the world well boy I’m going to be a part of that and then be done. But I realized boy what a great way to raise monies for our charity is to have people – a lot of people donate a dollar per mile or more and we raise a good amount of money from me getting out there and trying to endure this debilitating test of human will.
Vera Raposo: For sure. What would you say to someone who wants to step into more in their life but is nervous to take those steps? They have a business and either they’re a workaholic and they aren’t taking the time and like you said it’s like a bug on their shoulder that they’re trying to flick off or they’re really thinking maybe I can do something. What would you say to someone who’s just nervous to take that step?
Frank McKinney: Let’s just kind of break down the thought process for something like that. The first thing is when we contemplate a significant change or challenge in our life be it physical, relational, spiritual, diet wise, mental, change or challenge (significant change or challenge) in life always involves taking a risk! It does.
When we contemplate that four letter word the other four letter word moves in and takes over and that’s fear.
So,
Change or challenge =’s risk =’s fear
And most often when we get to that stage of fear we stop. We don’t undertake the significant change or challenge.
Listen, I was a one step from the couch every other day six mile runner when I stumbled across this 135 race. I’d never run a marathon in my life. So, of course it was a big change, a big challenge, it was a huge risk and I had a lot of fear. But when you realize that fear is oftentimes associated with risk and a great opportunity to change or challenge yourself in your life we must push through!
You’re going to have regrets in your life. Everybody listening to the podcast has regrets. I would rather regret what I did not what I didn’t do. And so why shouldn’t we?
Listen, I’m afraid every day of my life. I’m terrified of this race coming up. It’s my seventh time doing it but I still feel like it’s the first.
Vera Raposo: Wow.
Frank McKinney: The difference is I don’t want to let fear stop me. I don’t want to let it get in the way. I’ll recognize it for what it is. I recognize that it’s associated with risk and I recognize that it’s always associated with change or challenge.
In your life if you’re contemplating, it doesn’t have to be running across a desert change or challenge but it can be a significant alteration to the way that you’ve been living, embrace the risk that it’s going to bring in the fear (I should say the fear associated with the risk) as a great opportunity to make a change.
The way to make it stick is; there’s a big difference between inspiration – somebody listening to this might be inspired like if Frank can run 135 miles I’m going to run 5, I’m going to get myself in shape or what have you. What I hope that you can do is recognize the difference between inspiration and aspiration.
Aspiration can change and alter your DNA. Aspiration can, once it gets inside you aspire to be more. Aspire to be more like somebody, aspire to be more with regards to your potential.
Inspiration wears off, Vera, but aspiration stays forever. It’s rare to find and the time that you do tap into it are the times that you want to stay with it, embrace the sensation because that’s where (going back to that change or challenge equals risk equals fear) you can make lasting change or challenge is through aspiration.
Vera Raposo: Wonderful. I’m just so thankful that you came on the podcast today because I think it’s going to, like you said not only inspire but actually maybe move some people to action in doing some greater things than what they’re capable of doing on their own.
I believe too that when we bring God into the mix and there’s a scripture that says that God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love and of sound mind. So I think it’s important to recognize that. That we’re not actually born with that and it’s important to walk in that sound mind thought process.
Frank McKinney: When you’re thinking about hey this guy sounds like an overachiever I can’t do all those things. Here’s what I would tell you. I’m nothing more than a sinner saved by the grace of God. I have the same fears that everybody else does. I get lazy and complacent like everybody else does.
What I ask people to do is just identify one small, small, change or challenge that you can close the loop on. With the information that’s available to us out there today, there’s the bombardment of Googling our lives to death (we’re researching our lives to death) be an executioner in the sense that I just want you to just execute on one, one, small change or challenge. And close the loop on it because too often we start something, we become an idea person, we become a hey I’ve got a new idea, Frank, let me share with you all these ideas I have. I’m unimpressed by idea people. I’m impressed by the person who comes up with the idea and executes to completion on the idea.
So, that’s what I want your listeners to do is identify one, close the loop on the one, be the executioner (not as in killing but as in executing) on the one and you’ll begin to build confidence in your ability to make a small change or challenge in your life.
Vera Raposo: That’s wonderful advice for not only life but also business which a lot of our listeners are business owners. I’m really excited to share this with everyone. Thanks so much Frank. I really appreciate you taking the time and speaking with us today.
Frank McKinney: You’re very welcome Vera. It was my pleasure. Make sure when you are closing out your podcast you do go to www.frank-mckinney.com and read more about the books. You can actually read some sample chapters that are free and see if you like the books. You can see some beautiful pictures of the houses that we built on the ocean (the beautiful mansions) and also the villages that we’ve built in Haiti.
Vera Raposo: Nice.
Frank McKinney: And learn more about the Death Valley race and all that. It’s a nice place to spend a few minutes or a few hours at frank-mckinney.com.
Vera Raposo: Absolutely. It’s a great site. I’ve been on it. Lots of wonderful things to read there. Thank you. That’s at frank-mckinney.com. I am speaking with Frank McKinney and I hope you have a wonderful week.
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