Robert Channing's In Search Of
Entrepreneur Heroes Interview
Ralph Zuranski: Hi, this is Ralph
Zuranski! I’m on the phone with Robert Channing. He is
one of the most amazing people that I have ever met. I
met him at Joe Vitale’s seminar Spiritual Marketing
Super Summit. He had coordinated the entire seminar,
complete with the speakers and virtually everything that
you could possibly imagine that goes with a seminar -
maintenance and just creation.
Ralph Zuranski: Robert also is one
of the most impressive people that I have ever seen,
using his mind to bend spoons, to remember things and to
know what people are thinking. It was incredible. I’ve
never been more blown away by somebody’s presentation
than Robert’s when he did a special presentation at
Joe’s seminar. So Robert, how are you doing today?
Robert Channing: I’m doing
phenomenal, Ralph, and thank you very much for inviting
me on this. I’m very honored and I really appreciate you
having me on today.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, your
company is called the Power Performers and I know that
you work a lot with scheduling movie stars, business
leaders and some of the most important people in the
world today to speak at conventions and events. Perhaps
you could tell us a little bit about your company.
Robert Channing: Power Performers
was created around nine years ago. How it came to
fruition is I have been a performer since I was five
years old. I started studying magic, mind reading, ESP
and hypnosis. I studied with David Copperfield, Harry
Blackstone Jr., some of the top mentalists and magicians
in the world. I learned by actually watching them do
what they do.
Robert Channing: I learned from the
best and I learned from the worst. I made it my life’s
goal to be a performer, to be a mentalist, a mind
reader, ESP motivational person. I studied Think and
Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.
Robert Channing: The first book I
ever read on motivation was by Glen Bland. It was called
the Glen Bland Method for Success. It just taught me how
you can change your life. You draw a line in the sand
and by just taking that step over; you can change your
life by changing your attitude and your strategies with
your mind.
Robert Channing: When I was a child,
Ralph, I learned how to do magic tricks and it brought
attention to me. I didn’t have that; I didn’t crave
that. My mother was fantastic, my father worked all the
time and I never saw him. He was a great guy, never made
a lot of money but I never knew that. I was a happy guy
who played Army and Cowboys and Indians.
Robert Channing: But as I grew
older, I was into sports, and I was always into magic,
how the mind worked and I became an entertainer. I
performed at birthday parties for $15. For my first
birthday party when I was 11 years old I performed for
$15 and I learned I could make money doing it and people
loved what I did.
Robert Channing: Then I began to
performing all over the world. I performed for different
Presidents. I performed for corporations and for a lot
of colleges and organizations. At that point, the people
at the organization said to me, “Hey, Bob. Your mind
reading ESP show is phenomenal. Do you have anybody else
that can entertain at our event or speak?”
Robert Channing: At that point, I
said, “I have a friend of mine that can do human
calculations. I have another friend of mine who is a
rock star, Alice Cooper. He can come in and talk about,
for colleges, drug awareness. He can perform.” Then I
created the company Power Performers. So that was my
unique selling proposition.
Robert Channing: These were powerful
people but are the best in their industry, just like you
are doing, Ralph. You’re interviewing the heroes in
different industries that are the best at what they do,
the top 1%. And that’s what I did.
Robert Channing: I created the
speaker’s bureau, or an entertainment agency which is
both. I promote the top speakers, entertainers, sports
stars, and business leaders in the world to
corporations, associations, colleges, private functions
and organizations throughout the country. So hopefully
that answers your question.
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, it definitely
does. Since you are working with the top people in the
industry, one of the major things I’ve realized with
doing the interviews of my heroes is the real heroes are
people that actually provide a quality service to
society.
Ralph Zuranski: They help put people
to work and the true definitions of those people are
entrepreneurs who are not afraid to step out on their
own to follow their dream. What is your definition of
heroism?
Robert Channing: I just spoke to my
wife about that this morning; because I told her I was
going to be on the line with you, Ralph. She said, and
we agreed, it’s the people that make a difference in one
person’s life.
Robert Channing: If I can make a
difference in my neighbor’s life that morning or that
afternoon, maybe once a day and bring somebody up that’s
been down or helped somebody, like I know you are doing
with your family, that’s a hero.
Robert Channing: To me, if I can
change one life, I don’t know who quoted this before,
but it’s a quote from somewhere. If you can change one
person’s life, and make them happy, make them feel
better about themselves or help them in any other way,
you’ve actually helped humanity itself. That’s my
definition of heroism.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true.
Robert Channing: Helping one person
at a time.
Ralph Zuranski: I totally agree. Did
you ever create a secret hero in your mind that helped
you deal with life’s problems when you were young?
Robert Channing: Yes, I did. Well,
God was my hero. I was brought up Catholic. I was an
altar boy for 11 years.
Ralph Zuranski: So was I.
Robert Channing: I remember sitting
in a small church. I came from a little town called
Newport, New York. There were probably around three
people in our little town, one blinking light, one
Catholic Church and one Methodist church.
Robert Channing: I remember doing my
services in the evening, the Stations of the Cross.
There were maybe like five or six people in the church.
I’d be there myself before the mass would start. I’d be
there, present with a Being and that’s what I believed
that yes, there is a God, there is some Higher Power.
Robert Channing: I think that by
being by myself in that big open church and just
thinking and being open to thoughts in the Universe and
to God, is what opened my mind to reality and what I
could do. I can’t describe it any more than that, it was
just a feeling that I had come over me.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your
perspective on goodness, ethics, and moral behavior?
Robert Channing: I know everybody
has struggled with that. I have. I would say that I’m
90% ethical and moral. There’s that 10% where sometimes
you get tempted by money or greed or temptation of any
kind.
Robert Channing: Sex, drugs, rock
and roll, whatever you want to call it. I think my
integrity is up there with the top people in the world.
Robert Channing: I think integrity
is very, very important. If you cheat someone, you are
cheating yourself. It’s a multiple effect. If you want
to track that in business, if you do something well for
someone, I’ve heard this, they are going to go out and
maybe tell one or two people.
Robert Channing: But if you would
hurt them in any way, or take advantage of them, it’s
going to multiply over 100 times backwards. You can
track that as well, Ralph.
Robert Channing: A friend of mine,
Scott Holmes that I hired as a business coach taught me
that and we tracked it one day. It’s better to do well
than it is to do badly. I’ve learned that all my life,
you learn by trial and error as well. I think integrity
is the number one pursuit of happiness in a balanced
life.
Ralph Zuranski: You know, it’s funny
that you’d say that about the 90% doing good and the
10%. One of the heroes that I interviewed is Gregory
Allen Williams. He’s the black cop on Baywatch; he
actually saved a man’s life during the L.A. riots. He
said there is a little bit of bad in the best of us, and
a little bit of good in the worst of us.
Ralph Zuranski: When anybody steps
up to help someone, they too can be a hero at that
moment in time. So he was willing basically to sacrifice
his life if he had to, to help others that were in
difficulty during the LA riots. What do you think are
the principles that you are willing to sacrifice your
life for?
Robert Channing: The principles that
I’m willing to sacrifice my life for? I’ve been
struggling with that. Only because I give so much; I
give, I give, and I give, Ralph. It seems a lot of the
time that it doesn’t come back to me by the people I
give to.
Robert Channing: I’ve learned that
you should not ask for it back. Or expect it back from
the people you give it to, although you would love to
have that back. I’ve learned from studying different
books and the Bible as well is that if you give it to
someone; don’t expect it back from them.
Robert Channing: It will come from
somewhere else. It could come from a baby’s smile that
you just had, a newborn baby of yours. It could come
from, someone gave you a kind word on a plane or a smile
or a thank you. Maybe you just won the lottery, you
don’t know. But it’s going to come somewhere else.
Ralph Zuranski: When was the lowest
point in your life and how did you change your life path
to win a victory over obstacles?
Robert Channing: The lowest point in
my life? You know what? I’m an optimist. There were two
low points in my life. One was when I became a
professional entertainer, and I was very optimistic. I
studied all the best people in the world, and then I
performed my show and I had another gentleman that was
jealous.
Robert Channing: I was probably only
about 18 years old and this gentleman was 36. I was in
the same market that he was in. He would try to shut me
down and put me down, because he saw how strong I was
when I was performing. People were attracted to me and
they loved what I did.
Robert Channing: It was the same
type of mentalism that he did. Although it was
different, it was my personality and he had a different
personality. He was jealous. Actually, it hurt me. My
own true feelings, I didn’t want anyone to feel bad
about me. I didn’t want anybody to look down and say
this guy was bad, or this guy is doing something wrong.
Robert Channing: I almost felt
guilty because I was doing so well for myself that
people become jealous of what I’ve done. Ralph, have you
ever dealt with that before? Have you done so well that
people get jealous? How do you deal with those people?
Ralph Zuranski: Well, again, what
you have to realize is that, what you said earlier, the
consequences of their actions and their personal
integrity. They are providing service to their client,
realizing that you only succeed to the level of quality
of your products and your service to your customers. The
greater the service, the greater the quality, the
greater your success.
Ralph Zuranski: When people strive
to spread evil or not spread good, that has its own
consequences because it’s their thought process. If you
have negative thoughts, it’s going to ultimately
generate negative in your life and it’s the seeds that
you sow.
Ralph Zuranski: Negative thoughts,
negative actions will always reap a horrible harvest
somewhere down the line. Positive thoughts and positive
action, you get rewards but it might not be from the
source where you actually did those positive things.
Ralph Zuranski: But the universe is
impeccable, it never fails and good will always be
rewarded with good, somewhere down the line or maybe
immediately. Evil will always be rewarded with evil;
it’s an exponential type thing.
Robert Channing: I agree. It just
came to my mind that when I was a child, when people got
mad at my mother, when people had something against her
for some goofy reason, or somebody said something, she
would always wave to them. She would always say hi. She
would always have a kind word to them. My mother, I call
her a saint, she was phenomenal, and she still is. She
always does well.
Robert Channing: And that’s what
I’ve learned to do, even when these people are trying to
tear me down in some way, I’ve always come back by being
nice to them and have a kind word for them. Even though,
in the back of my mind, I’m like, I’d really like to do
something.
Robert Channing: But by forgiving
them and having peace with yourself, you’re actually
helping yourself as well as them. Because they don’t
have anything to go back on, they can’t keep their
momentum going with trying to get feed off of your
emotions. Just let it go and keep working with it.
Robert Channing: But what I learned
from that experience is to keep moving ahead. I became
stronger from that, and I got into Think and Grow
Rich by Napoleon Hill. It says; don’t ever mind
what they’re thinking, because they don’t know what you
can do. You only know what you can do.
Robert Channing: Don’t mind the
people that are pulling you down or are trying to. Just
ignore them and have your own schedule of events.
Schedule your time. Schedule your goals, what you want
to do in this life.
Robert Channing: They can pull at
you all you want, but at the end of that, if you draw a
line from here and 100 yards from now and saying that’s
the end of your goal, in between you are going to have
all the obstacles. But remember; keep your eye on the
target, at the end, because you will get there. It makes
it easier.
Ralph Zuranski: What is your dream
or vision that sets the course of your life?
Robert Channing: My dream and vision
that sets the course of my life would be to create,
plant seeds, grow trees that I could shade my family and
friends with when I pass on. So they can live off the
fruits of my labor.
Robert Channing: Also to provide
information and success and knowledge to people like you
are doing. That’s why I’m on the line with you as well,
is for the people that struggle all their life, not
knowing where they want to go.
Robert Channing: I’ve performed for
hundreds of colleges a year. People come up to me after
my program and always say, “What do you see in my
future? What should I do with my life?”
Robert Channing: Tony Robbins always
says, “If you don’t know, pretend that you do know.”
What would you do? And most people will come up with the
answer. At that point, that’s the toughest part in the
world is trying to find out what you want to do with
your life. Once you know, you can plan your course of
action.
Robert Channing: So, by planting
those seeds in these students’ minds or the minds of
people that are listening today, it’s probably one of
the toughest questions. Wouldn’t you agree, Ralph? What
do you want to do with your life?
Ralph Zuranski: I absolutely agree.
I’m just listening to Earl Nightingale in The
Strangest Secret of the Mind of Man. That’s what he
says, 95% of all the people who strive when they are
young to become a success end up failures because they
never set any goals. They are not working for anything
or in any direction.
Robert Channing: They are like a
ship without a rudder. If they don’t have a rudder, they
are just going to wash up upon the shore or the rocks.
If you have a rudder, you can steer your ship. You can
steer your way through the seas and as you coast along,
the winds blowing your sail, you have learned to work
for that. Then you are going to get into some rough
waters again and you steer your way through there.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s interesting
that you say that, because the next question is, is it
important to take a positive view of setbacks,
misfortunes and mistakes?
Robert Channing: It definitely is.
Believe me; even the most positive person in the world
has their setbacks. You can be a positive thinker but
you have to take control. You have to say to yourself,
you need time to grieve if something happens.
Robert Channing: I forget the steps
in the grieving process, but you need to get back off
the floor. If you get knocked down, you’re into martial
arts, Ralph, and I have been too. When you get knocked
down, you need to pop back up.
Robert Channing: It’s going to take
some time after you get the wind knocked out of you to
get back up, but the reason you have to get back up is
if you don’t, you stay down. You’re going to lose.
Robert Channing: Don’t ever give up.
Always get back up, dust yourself off, and keep moving
forward. You will get ahead, you will. You will learn.
You will take the bumps and bruises.
Robert Channing: Just study as well.
Keep the positive, motivational talking coming through
your mind. All the videos and audio courses that I have
taken in the country meaning like Dreams Don’t Have
Deadlines by Mark Victor Hansen, has a great audio
course. Where you are reading right now and listening to
Ralph now, is phenomenal as well. Think and Grow
Rich.
Robert Channing: There’s a lot of
information that you need to keep filling your mind
with, and the top 1% of the country, the people who are
top in their field keep trying to get better, better and
better. CANEI, Tony Robbins says the acronym for CANEI
is Constant and Never Ending Improvement. You just have
keep working and moving ahead.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, you know that
is so true. A lot of times I sit down, I wake up in the
morning and sit down at my computer and just think, gee,
how many new software programs do I have to learn today?
Robert Channing: It’s hard to do it.
Sometimes you just don’t feel like doing it. I know that
you probably agree with this, it takes a tremendous
amount of courage to pursue new ideas. What do you think
about that?
Robert Channing: I agree. I would
say there is another way to look at it. I get excited
about new ideas. I’m excited, I know we spoke before
this interview about a marketing plan that I’m working
on. I’m so excited about it. I think that if you work up
that fire in your belly and the excitement about it, it
is challenging. You get a little afraid sometimes.
Robert Channing: But once you get
into it and you see it starting to work and the fruit
comes off the trees that you planted, that’s what makes
me move. That gives me juice, Ralph. It makes me feel
like what I’m doing is working.
Robert Channing: But also, Ralph, I
study the top people in their industry. If I know
someone in marketing, if I have to learn marketing, I
will go and find the best marketing people in the world.
I’ll call them up and go to their conferences, just like
you do, Ralph. That’s what we are doing right now on the
phone.
Robert Channing: If I need to know
something in the medical industry, well, you just told
me today a few doctors that could help me out with some
blood pressure problems that I have. So I’m going to go
and search them, and track them down, the top 1%.
Robert Channing: So always strive to
find the answers from the top in their field. You don’t
want to learn from someone that’s just starting out,
although you can learn by their mistakes. You want to
take that learning curve and cut it in half, if not more
and learn from the top people that have been studying
all their life. Would you agree?
Ralph Zuranski: I totally agree. I
know that you have done a lot of different things in
your life. A lot of the time it’s very uncomfortable to
pursue your dreams because of people in your peer group,
your life and even in your family that don’t want you to
change.
Robert Channing: They don’t want you
to make transformational decisions in your life that may
leave them behind. Do you think it’s important to
realize that you are going to be uncomfortable a lot
when you are making quantum leaps in your growth in
every area of your life?
Robert Channing: Oh, sure, Ralph. I
remember when I was getting out of high school, my
father told me, “Why do you want to make a career out of
this? Go out and get a real job!” I understand that he
came from a narrow minded search, because that’s how he
was brought up. He was brought up to go to work, work
hard, come home and feed his family and provide.
Robert Channing: I thought to
myself, I was working, in the summertime I worked at a
drapery company in Newport called Reynolds Draperies.
They are still there. They service all the east coast
for stage and scenery curtains.
Robert Channing: I was working
there. I probably earned $150 a week and I probably
worked 50 hours. I would go out and do a show and earn
$150 for a 45 minute show and I would say to myself,
“Why would I work 50 hours a week if I could just do a
show?”
Robert Channing: That was my dream,
that was what juiced me too was saying, “This is my
passion. This is my dream.” No matter what, if anybody
said stop to me, it gave me more juice to keep moving.
I’m the type of person if someone says you can’t do it,
I want to do it even more. I love it, I like when people
say it to me.
Robert Channing: I guess it was the
way I was brought up. My mother was always supportive,
my father was always trying, he was a supporter, but he
tore me down a little bit, and I think that was a good
thing. That’s what created who I am today.
Robert Channing: So, you are going
to have times that people knock you down. You are going
to have it during the day and during the nighttime. You
are going to have it when you are on the road, you are
tired, you are exhausted, and you don’t want it to
happen.
Robert Channing: At that point, you
have to look at yourself and say, you know what, here
are my goals, and read them every day. Write them down.
Put them in front of you, put them on the mirror.
Robert Channing: Read them before
you go to bed, when you wake up in the morning. At
lunchtime, when you are just relaxing, you are going to
feed your subconscious mind the direction you want to go
in.
Robert Channing: It’s going to move
you. Ralph, you and I spoke before about the four
principles that you went over, how the mind works. The
mind works on what you concentrate the most on. You will
get that in your life. So if you can plant positive
seeds and positive emotions, you will reap those.
Ralph Zuranski: Everybody has doubts
and fears. It seems that’s an inevitable part of life.
How do you overcome your doubts and fears?
Robert Channing: I have a confident
in my wife. I ask her some things and she is my
psychiatrist/psychologist sometimes. I have friends like
you. I have mentors, peers and coaches. Also, I go
inside myself, because education means you learn from
the outside, but you bring it in. You translate it and
it comes out of yourself as a process.
Robert Channing: So, by learning to
be with myself, to pray, to ask God to take my concerns,
my heartaches, my wishes and give them to Him, that’s
the release process that you have to do. It comes back
to you, just pray and have faith. Does that make sense?
Ralph Zuranski: That does make
sense. I think probably one of the hardest things in the
world to do is forgive those that upset, offend and
oppose you. How important do you think that forgiveness
is?
Robert Channing: Very, very
important. That was my second challenge. You asked me
before, what was one of my toughest challenges? Well,
the company Power Performers, I hired a few people to
help me out, top sales people in my industry and I hired
consultants to come in and train them in my office.
Robert Channing: I respected them.
They asked me to be in their weddings, they asked me to
be part of their families, and I have generously given
to them. Over given. I would buy them lunch every week,
almost three or four times a week.
Robert Channing: I would take them
on trips, give them bonuses, and buy them color
televisions because they did so well. What they loved to
do was selling entertainment and speaking to
celebrities, and I gave them bonuses them because we
would have monthly goals, weekly goals, yearly goals,
they would hit all the goals.
Robert Channing: After three years,
they decided to, two of them, I won’t mention their
names because I don’t want this to get out, but two of
them actually stole all my business. They stole my
company and downloaded all my information. They put up a
website while they were working for me.
Robert Channing: They came in on a
Friday afternoon and both gave me their resignation and
said, “Bob, we loved working here. Thank you so much for
the opportunity. It was the best job that we have ever
had but we are going to go work for my father in another
industry.”
Robert Channing: This other
gentleman who was a friend of his left as well. They
gave me this big story Ralph. I found out a week later
from one of my clients who said, “Did you know, Robert
that they have their own website and they are in
competition with you?”
Robert Channing: At that point I had
a 24 page employment agreement that every word in the
agreement, Ralph, they went against and they just
totally raped and pillaged my company. I was depressed.
I was down because these were friends of mine that I
lived with for three, three and a half years, every day.
Robert Channing: We laughed, we
cried. We went through 9/11 together. Different things,
one gentleman had eye problems; I went to the hospital
to see him. Two weeks before this, the other gentleman
was having a baby and I brought gifts to them. You can
tell, it hurts me right now talking about it, but that
was about a year, a year and a half ago.
Robert Channing: Since then, Ralph,
my business has tripled. I’ve hired more people, and
I’ve learned that these people were planning and
plotting against me and I had that faith. I believed in
them. I gave. I was blind.
Robert Channing: What I learned form
that was yes, give, but to leave my eyes open a little
bit, to protect myself. Like I said before, when people
say I can do something that’s what inspired me to
motivate this business, to move higher and further.
Robert Channing: I’ve gone further,
and it’s going to go further. I’m going to build this so
that people who work for me can benefit from the fruits
of my labor. I hope that answers that question.
Ralph Zuranski: Did you actually
forgive those people for what they did to you?
Robert Channing: I have forgiven
them. It’s a challenge, because from day to day I’m in
competition with them. Although we are in a lawsuit
because my attorneys, friends and mentors said you can
forgive them but it’s like, for example, Ralph, if you
had a child, or if my child, God forbid, got hit by a
drunk driver and was killed, I could forgive the drunk
driver.
Robert Channing: It would be hard
but you have to serve due diligence and justice, so they
wouldn’t do it again. That’s the reason for the lawsuit.
That’s to hopefully stop them or make them feel…
Ralph Zuranski: What they did was
wrong.
Robert Channing: Exactly.
Ralph Zuranski: There are
consequences for actions. You always need to stand for
the right thing. If people promise and say they are
going to do something, they need to be held accountable
and you can forgive them for the offenses. But still,
they are consequences for actions that don’t have
integrity, that’s for sure.
Ralph Zuranski: Too many people that
should be held accountable are not. I respect that you
are doing that, because people that do that, if they
continue to do it and nobody calls them to accounting,
they just continue on and on. They do it to more and
more people, that’s what I’ve found.
Ralph Zuranski: Too many people,
once they get screwed by somebody they don’t say
anything and people that they know wind up getting
screwed by that same person. It’s hard to tell the truth
about people that aren’t doing their jobs with integrity
and honesty which is what the Heroes program is all
about.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s to show people
just from asking hard questions what type of attitude
and what type of mind process the people that I
recognize as heroes actually have. The neat thing about
those heroes is a lot of them experience service to
others as a source of joy. Do you experience that also?
Robert Channing: I do, I do. Let me
just go back to that last question for a moment about
forgiveness, and here’s what I have learned. By
forgiving, everybody has their own sins that they have
committed, if you want to call it that, or the mistakes
that they have made that they need to be forgiven for.
Robert Channing: So what you
forgive, you can’t expect to be forgiven for some of
your things that you have done if you can’t forgive the
people who have sinned against you. It’s a double edged
sword.
Robert Channing: By forgiving, you
do two things. You help yourself by forgiving them and
you help them, because they need to be forgiven too. You
have to forgive yourself for things that you have done.
What was the question, again, Ralph? I apologize.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s okay. How do
you experience service to others as a source of joy?
Robert Channing: Oh yes, there’s
nothing more than going in and for me, if I can bring it
back to my ESP mind reading show, I go in and read
people’s minds. I make them laugh, I’m a comedian. One
thing that I do is I always surprise my clients with
doing more.
Robert Channing: When they see my
program, my ESP Robert Channing show, motivational talk,
I will deliver to them an experience that they will
never forget. How I do that, here’s one of the things
that I do, Ralph. I’m the only one in the world that
does this. I’m known as the world’s foremost mind reader
and motivator.
Robert Channing: I will mail you a
prediction at your event of what three people, including
yourself, will be wearing the night of the show. I will
mail it out a month in advance; you give me the names
that are going to be at your key event. This is the
climax of the whole show.
Robert Channing: I’ll mail it out;
you will hold it in a sealed prediction. I’ll never
touch it again. At the end of my show, I’ll say, “Ralph,
do you have the envelope that I mailed you a month ago?”
“Yes, I do. Robert, I have it right here.”
Robert Channing: You are 100 feet
away from me. “Ralph, would you stand up a few minutes?
Would you hold the envelope up? Ralph, have we
pre-arranged anything?” You are going to say no.
Robert Channing: Because I give
$100,000 away to anybody in the audience who proves that
I used stooges, meaning that I planted people from the
audience to help me out. I don’t do that. I’ll say,
“Ralph, just to prove that, I want more people to
randomly stand up in the audience. They are going to
randomly stand up, doesn’t matter who they are, four
people.”
Robert Channing: I’ll also say I
also predicted in an envelope what these four people are
going to create in their minds as a dream vacation. It’s
a lot of fun. It’s a show. It’s entertainment. I’ll say,
“Sir, if you were to go anywhere in the world on a dream
vacation, where would you like to go?” That person might
say Hawaii, or Bermuda, or Tahiti. Whatever it is, I’ll
say thank you.
Robert Channing: The next person,
I’ll say, “Young lady, if you were to go with a special
person, give me the name of the person.” They can make a
name up, or they can say their husband, wife, or
boyfriend. They’ll say John. “Okay, John, terrific!”
Robert Channing: Next person, day
month and year. “When would you like to go?” “March 28,
2098.” “Fantastic.” “Young lady, how much money would
you like to spend? You like to spend money, I can tell.”
They will laugh a little bit. She’ll say, “$10 million?”
I’ll say, “Make it something really cool up. They will
say $10,000,428.67. “Terrific. Ralph, would you open
that prediction?”
Robert Channing: You open it up and
it will say, “Hi, this is Robert Channing. I’m sitting
in my office in Hartford, New York in July 21 writing
this prediction for Ralph. The conference is coming up
in January of 2006. I predict the following to be true.
Four people will create a dream vacation. Given this
chance, they will select the following.”
Robert Channing: And you are reading
this, I’ve never touched it. It’s live on the spot. It
will say, first person will say Tahiti. The second
person is going with John. The day month and year is
March 28, 2098 and will cost $10,000,437.67. Whatever
they said, people just drop their drawers, jaws. Not
their drawers, their jaws! You’ve experienced it at the
conference.
Ralph Zuranski: It was incredible. I
almost dropped my drawers there.
Robert Channing: And on the back of
that, I’d say Ralph, turn the piece of paper over and I
predicted what those three names that you have given me,
maybe the VIP of the conference, or the medium that I am
performing for a corporation or association. They will
say, “Jane Reynolds will be wearing a red blouse with
polka dots and she will have on gold shoes with a gold
ring.”
Robert Channing: Whatever it is, I
get right to the details. If I don’t get that prediction
correct, down to the color of the sock or stripe in the
shirt, I give my whole fee to them, my whole paycheck,
which is substantial.
Ralph Zuranski: It’s amazing; I
don’t know how you do it. I was impressed when you bent
that spoon just by running your finger over the top of
it. I thought, oh my God; don’t let him near my mother’s
silverware.
Robert Channing: That’s funny.
Ralph Zuranski: That is astounding.
I’ve never been more impressed with a presentation than
your presentation that I saw at Joe’s. It was one of the
highlights of my life of being at your presentation. It
was incredible and working with you at Joe’s, I ran the
computers and photos.
Robert Channing: You did a
phenomenal job Ralph; and we became instant friends.
Ralph Zuranski: We did, it was just
astounding, and I’ve never been more impressed with any
live entertainment that I’ve ever seen. It was just
incredible. I know that you maintain an incredible sense
of humor, especially in the face of serious problems.
How important do you think humor is in your life?
Robert Channing: I think it’s very,
very important. Humor actually is the proven fact, I
think you know this. When you laugh, it actually creates
endorphins in your brain that stimulate your mind to be
happier. When we laugh, you have to laugh.
Robert Channing: I remember being
depressed when these people left me. I popped a DVD in,
Jeff Foxworthy and a couple of other funny comedians. I
just laughed and laughed, it brought me up. It just
brings your emotional state up. If you ever get a
depressed mood, just put a smile on your face if you
can, those endorphins will make you in a better mood.
Robert Channing: Try to get out,
relax, laugh with your friends, it just brings that
blood pressure down, brings the reality of life back to
you. Look around you, go out in the woods, go out in a
stream, go out with your family, your dog or if you have
a cat.
Robert Channing: Be with that
person, just look up in the sky and say do you know
what? Life’s not that bad, there are people in this
world that are dying, that are going without food and my
little problem is nothing. It feels like a lot, but it
really isn’t.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true. Who
are the heroes in your life?
Robert Channing: The heroes in my
life, one that comes to my mind is Reverend Russell
Little. He is a gentleman that taught me how to do magic
and a little ESP and mind reading when I was a child. I
used to walk to school in the morning and pass his
house.
Robert Channing: He used to use
magic in his sermons to get attention, to make people
pay attention to the Word of God. He used to make his
thumb disappear. He would put sugar in his hand and make
it disappear as I was on my way to school.
Robert Channing: He’s the one that I
had to write a report about, that my teacher gave me in
third grade. What did I want to be when I grew up? I
didn’t know. I want to be a magician. I went and I did
some research, I went right to his house and said I want
to be a mentalist.
Robert Channing: That’s the key,
Ralph, anybody that wants to know what they are doing,
don’t be afraid to ask for advice, because people will
give it to you. Ask and you shall receive information
that you are looking for. Remember to ask.
Robert Channing: So that’s what
happened, I asked, and he brought me up to this room
upstairs, I remember to this day, I walked into his
house, up the stairs, and this whole room filled with
magic props, magic cool stuff, and my eyes, it was just
unbelievable.
Robert Channing: He was a mentor of
mine. He was someone that I respected. He put a foot in
the door when I was leaving his house. Robert, he said,
“See my foot?” He opened his door and put his foot in
the door and said, “What I just did for you, I put your
foot in that door, now it’s your job to open it for
yourself.”
Robert Channing: From that point
forward, I’ve been opening it for the rest of my life.
It’s brought me to meet spectacular people. It has
brought me all over the world to see different people
and different cultures. To do what I wanted to do,
perform, entertain, to make a great living performing,
and have a great speaker’s bureau and entertainment
agency.
Robert Channing: The reason that I
opened that was I had my second child; I was on the road
a lot. I told my wife I need to make some more money not
being on the road so I can spend some time eating
popcorn with you at home and still make some money.
Robert Channing: That’s what I did,
I opened a bureau and I book people and at night, when
I’m on the road and not at home, I’m still making a
decent living and booking people that I respect and
admire.
Ralph Zuranski: Who do you feel are
the real heroes in society today that aren’t getting the
recognition they deserve?
Robert Channing: The mothers, the
teachers. You and I were speaking before that in a
school, the teachers are phenomenal. They are teaching
how to have a job, and to go in the world and work for
somebody else.
Robert Channing: But I think the
Heroes program that you are working on now is going to
bring a different dimension, a different philosophy to
the schools and to kids that don’t work for somebody
else.
Robert Channing: Although it’s a
great opportunity, try to work for yourself and try to
grow yourself to rely on yourself. For example, you can
rent a lifestyle, meaning you can have a job at IBM
making $100,000 a year, have a beautiful home, a BMW, a
car, two children and all of a sudden BMW lays you off,
I mean, IBM lays you off.
Robert Channing: Who are you working
for? Now you are scraping, trying to find a job, minimum
wage, a lot less than you made. But when you work for
yourself, you have investments; you invest in yourself
in your mind, and your opportunities.
Robert Channing: Meaning real
estate, your business meaning when you go out and work,
you are being compensated for your own mind, not by
working for somebody else to make them a millionaire.
Work for yourself to make yourself get ahead in this
life. Does that make sense?
Ralph Zuranski: Boy, that’s good
advice, that’s what all the other heroes have said. It’s
so important to become an entrepreneur and be the
captain of your own ship and direct it to where you want
to go. Just working for other people, you never will be
able to attain the dreams that you have, maybe retiring
down in Florida when you get to be 65.
Ralph Zuranski: And you forget all
the things that you could have done that you wanted to
do that you should have done. It’s the difference
between having a dream and having a life.
Robert Channing: I agree. Robert
Kiyosaki in Rich Dad, Poor Dad, I learned this
from him by reading his books. Books unlock the secrets
of the universe, Ralph, and I know you know this. I
teach my children this.
Robert Channing: My daughter, I ask
her all the time, “Gabrielle, tell your teacher what we
talked about!” She says to the teacher all the time,
“Books unlock the secrets to the universe.”
Robert Channing: They really do, the
books, they have studied different subjects. If I have
an ailment, I’m not going to go to school to be a doctor
to find out how to fix my own ailment. I’m going to go
to the top surgeon or top doctor in the world and I’m
going to get fixed.
Robert Channing: Robert Kiyosaki has
studied how to become a successful person by investing
in real estate, and investing in yourself.
Robert Channing: Here’s the point I
wanted to bring across. Even if you have job and you are
in the job right now, and you are sitting and working
for somebody else, that’s okay. You can be wealthy, and
have a comfortable lifestyle.
Robert Channing: I think it’s a
great lifestyle sometimes Ralph, because my friends are
teachers and they make a comfortable living. They have
summers off. But also what you want to do with your time
off. When you go to work, that’s your time to work but
that’s your living.
Robert Channing: But when you come
home, if you are going to work every day, that’s when
you make your life. That’s why Robert Kiyosaki says,
that’s when you go out and you find real estate, or you
find your business that you can open. You can have the
best of both worlds.
Robert Channing: I’m not putting
down going to work for somebody else because 95% of the
people in this country do that. The top 10% of people,
entrepreneurs, they are doing for themselves and
providing these wonderful experiences and jobs for
people.
Robert Channing: But you can do
both, that’s what I’m saying. I’m not putting them down,
I’m giving the opportunity to open your mind that if you
work for somebody else on your off time, when you go
home instead of watching television or doing something
not productive, go and look at a property. Invest in a
property, invest in real estate. Study commodities;
study how to be a marketing person for internet
products. So that’s my point with that.
Ralph Zuranski: Why are heroes so
important in the lives of young people?
Robert Channing: Well, first of all,
a hero, people look up to different heroes nowadays.
There are some bad examples of heroes meaning there are
some sports celebrities and stars that are smoking
cigarettes and doing drugs and anti-depressants, things
along this line.
Robert Channing: I remember watching
Tom Cruise, a few weeks ago being interviewed by Matt
Lauer on the Today show, talking about psychiatry and
how he thought it was a pseudo science and all this. I
believe a little bit of that, but I believe heroes are
people that have done it before you that are successful.
Robert Channing: You want to model
success and duplicate results. That’s the reason you
have heroes in your life. You see something that they
are doing that you would love to emulate, that’s a
positive in your life that you know if you could attain,
you would be happy.
Robert Channing: How you do that is
just model what they are doing. You become that much
successful in your learning curve. You will get there
that much faster. Does that make sense?
Ralph Zuranski: It does. The next
question is, how does it feel to be recognized as a
hero? I know a lot of the people that I have interviewed
don’t consider themselves heroes. But I think it’s
important to accept the good that you are doing and the
benefits that you have in the lives of others and not be
ashamed to be recognized for the good things that you
do. How does it feel to be recognized as a hero?
Robert Channing: I’m very flattered,
first of all. It’s flattering to even be considered
being a hero. The place I always thought I was a hero
was in raising my family. I never thought I was a hero
in anything else, other than I love doing what I do.
Robert Channing: I’m passionate
about what I do, and I try, whoever I come in contact
with is bring and build them up. So if that’s being a
hero, thank you for knighting me a hero, Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: Well, how are you
making the world a better place?
Robert Channing: Making the world a
better place, I’m providing my experience of how to get
into the industry. For example, when I book somebody in
my company, or my sales reps book somebody, we are doing
a service to our client by giving them something they
want.
Robert Channing: We are doing a
service to the speaker, because all we have to do is
call the speaker and the speaker picks up the phone and
says, “Hello.” We say, “Hi, we have a date for you!” So
it makes their life easier, it makes my life easier, and
our client is happy when they experience a stellar
performance.
Robert Channing: Also the people
that work in my office, I try to give them an
opportunity to improve themselves with goals. I also try
to build people, not just teach them how to make money
but build them. If you can teach them to fish, they will
do that much better in the future.
Robert Channing: You can show them
how to do something, but if you don’t teach them and
implement the information in their minds and take
consistent action with that information, they are not
going to be able to do it on their own.
Robert Channing: I guess what I’m
saying is that I provide an atmosphere to the people in
my life to benefit from what I can do in my own
experience. I hope I made sense with that, I tried to.
Ralph Zuranski: You did. Do you have
any good solutions for the problems facing society
today, especially racism, child and spousal abuse and
violence among young people?
Robert Channing: That’s a tough
question, Ralph! Because there are so many stereotypes,
there is so much racism still. To solve that, the
solution would be to do what you are doing right now. To
give the young kids in this world mentors, heroes to
emulate themselves by.
Robert Channing: Let them know that
if anything they are going through now, there are people
in the past that have gone through things as bad, if not
worse and they have made themselves through it. They
have grown stronger and more successful in their lives
because of that persecution in their life.
Ralph Zuranski: If you had three
wishes for your life in the world that would instantly
come true, what would they be?
Robert Channing: Three wishes. One
would be to the drug industry, first of all, not to have
so many drugs to fix people but to have holistic
solutions and the world to be a better place. This is
going out on a limb here, our government, whether people
want to believe it or not is one of the biggest mafias
in the world.
Robert Channing: We control the
world but we do it for a reason because we have to
protect ourselves. But I would love to have the world be
a utopia like John Lennon used to sing about, that would
be my wish to have a utopia. Almost like heaven.
Robert Channing: The second wish
would be that the young people in this world could be
educated and know how to model success when they are
younger.
Robert Channing: And the teachers
that are teaching them will learn how to teach them how
to manage their life, not so much as how to do the
sciences and mathematics but how to manage their life
with the relationship with themselves their family,
financially, emotionally. I think they don’t teach that
in school now, Ralph.
Ralph Zuranski: I agree. What do you
think about the "In Search of Heroes" program and its
impact on youth, parents and business people?
Robert Channing: I think everybody
in the world should benefit from this and will benefit
from it. I think the word has to get out. I think I
mentioned to you before that I want to do something with
you Ralph, with my Power Performers and I’m going to
promote "In Search Of Heroes" in everything that I do.
That’s one of my life goals.
Ralph Zuranski: What are the things
that parents can do that will help their children
realize that they too can be heroes and make a positive
impact on the lives of others?
Robert Channing: Giving, learn that
it is better to give than receive. Don’t you feel
better, I feel better, anyway. I know that a lot of
people love to get gifts. I love to get gifts but it’s
always hard for me when someone gives me a gift to say
“thank you.”
Robert Channing: I would not feel
like I deserved it, I don’t know why, something in my
psyche but I have learned to say thank you and to
appreciate it. By them giving them a gift, you are
giving them a gift. So be giving, you will receive 100
fold.
Robert Channing: Teach your children
to give, to help, to praise and to praise them. Just
something that I learned by some statistics, I think
there is a lot of validity here, is that if you are a
parent and you have a daughter, you as the male person
will influence your daughter’s life, her emotions and
her self confidence more so than the mother will.
Robert Channing: And it’s true of
the opposite sex, meaning the mother will dominate and
influence the child’s psyche because it’s the opposite
sex. If you learn this when you are growing up, if you
have children, to also compliment, to support, to bring
them up, not in a false way. Of course you have to
correct them, but in a delicate way. Does that make
sense?
Ralph Zuranski: Yes, that really
does. Robert, I just really appreciate your time. I know
how incredibly busy you are. I was just so impressed
with your presentation and just the humor. It still
blows my mind on how you can read people’s minds. I
don’t know how you do that, but it is incredibly
awesome.
Ralph Zuranski: I just really
encourage you to do the Power Performers and do
interviews on those guys to just spread the knowledge
that they have. Excellence is such a fine thing, it’s
such a great role model for young people, for those that
are giving service above self, that are providing
quality and integrity in the fields they are in.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s what young
people need to know, they need to find out how these
people that are attaining the level of success they want
to attain, and listen to the people that they become.
I’m sure that you would agree with this, you have to
become a person that is worthy of incredible wealth and
fame before it ever shows up, or it will completely go
down the drain.
Ralph Zuranski: Just like a lot of
people feared success, once it arrived they completely
dumped it down the drain by their actions. You’ve had a
lot of impact with very famous people. What do you think
about that idea?
Robert Channing: What I think is you
are absolutely right. When I was younger, just to make a
point back to what I was doing was I did very well when
I was 18 or 19 years old and I was at the top of my
field performing in what I did. People used to say to
me, “This guy is going to get involved in drugs, he’s
going to do this or he’s going to do that.”
Robert Channing: But I didn’t do
that. You have to pay your price. You have to do your
diligence. You have to learn. There’s a way, yes. You
can go from to zero to one hundred and cut out that
curve. But most of the time you have to go through the
bumps and bruises. Once you go through those bumps and
bruises and you do obtain your success, you will learn
how to keep it.
Robert Channing: If something is
given to you, if somebody gave you one million dollars,
there’s an old expression, you can spread out all the
money in the United States, put in one lump sum and
spread it out between all the people in the United
States equally. At the end of the year, 10% of the
people would have all the money back.
Robert Channing: That’s because they
learned how to control their emotions their life and
learn by their actions. Meaning, having their goals,
accomplishing them, going through the struggles. Going
through struggles is good. When you go through a
struggle, you are teaching yourself a lesson in life.
Robert Channing: When you do that,
if something was given to me, you won’t appreciate it as
much as if you worked for it. So work for what you have,
appreciate what you have, and here’s something else too.
Robert Channing: Teach your children
to work for what they have, because you as a person, if
you decide you want to build your life up to make a
fortune in wealth and riches with everything that you
do, don’t give your children everything because that
generation will lose it.
Robert Channing: The next
generation, their children will have nothing, and they
will have to rebuild it themselves. So teach the
children that you do have, and the young people
listening today, or reading this interview, is that you
don’t get something for nothing. Work for it. When you
work for it, you will appreciate it, and you will keep
it. That’s all I can say on that.
Ralph Zuranski: That’s so true. I
just really appreciate your time and just the wisdom
that you shared with us. I encourage anybody listening
to this interview that if you ever get an opportunity to
see Robert perform in person, it will be one of the high
points of your life.
Ralph Zuranski: Again Robert, I
appreciate your time and I appreciate what you do in
making such a difference in the world today. So thanks
again.
Robert Channing: Thank you, Ralph.
You are doing a wonderful service. Thanks so much.
Robert Channing Website
