Episode 37: Alex Charfen, Round 2

As promised during the first episode, Alex Charfen returns to the Total Freedom Podcast for more insights on the Entrepreneurial Personality Type.

00:32

Chris: — the first session, I’ve had so much good feedback. As I was just sharing offline with you. People have wrote in saying; “I’m an Entrepreneur Personality Type!” “I get the momentum thing!”, “I get having goals! I’m with you on that, and I want to quit my—“ I’ve had people, man, say, “I want to quit my job. I gotta get started.” “I’ve never heard anyone share it like Alex did.” And I have to feel the same way, man. I mean, you’re so spot-on in your group on Facebook – which, everyone, will be on the shownotes, because you all need to go and get in that group (click here!) – and you’re so on-point understanding the few of us, I think, that really think this way.

01:20 – Catch-Up Round; Where is Alex Now, and What Has he Been Up To?

Alex: Absolutely. Yeah. So Chris, you know, I think you – as an entrepreneur – sometimes you get to a place where, where kinda everything accelerates, but you don’t feel like you’re in that pressed rush or anxiety-type state, you know. And I think that’s where I am. I’m in this really intense new place where business is growing, the attention has gone through the roof, and the effect that we’re having is the effect I want to have, and I think that that makes it very centering and calming.

01:51

Alex: But man, there’s been some exiting stuff. You know, I got to speak with Tony Robbins and Peter Diamandis. Just recently, I was up in Canada. I did – Robin Sharma, it was his event. He invited me.

03:29 – On Being Coachable

Chris: You’re doing great in business. And I look at it, and I look up to you, because I don’t think my business is where yours is at. And I look, and I go, ‘That is awesome.’ I look at the impact. And then, you get on this call, and the first thing you show is that you’re still coachable. That you’re still looking up to other people. And I love that, because I feel as though that shows me how you’ve got to where you are, and how you’re gonna go so big. Because I see a lot of people who are nowhere near as big a business as yours or even mine, and they won’t talk up or share who they are so inspired to go and learn from, so … thank you for that, man.

Alex: Yeah, my pleasure. My pleasure. You know Chris, it’s crazy, because I go to these events and I get to go because I’m speaking. And I watch so many speakers come in and out – and there’s some events I don’t stay for, like, when it’s just internet marketing, or something like – that’s someone else on my team, right?

Alex: It’s Jack who speaks on Nutrition and Physiology in a way that just changes your life. Greg Wells has coached three Olympic teams. Sally Hogshead is like an institution in herself. She knows how to tell people, like, how to find their magic, and she’s amazing. And if you can’t get excited about going to an event and learning from people like that, you’re lost.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Alex: You know? Because, for me, too, now at this stage of the game – for so many years I went, and I was a member of the audience. Now I’m a member of the team. And so, I don’t just get to go watch, I get to go meet and understand and learn from. Dude, I was there every day. I took pages of notes.

05:16 – First Episode Flashbacks

Chris: I know last time, we talked about pressure and noise – a lot – and getting rid of that. We also talked about what an Entrepreneur Personality Type was, and you just put me through it, man!

Alex: Yeah!

Chris: For those who want to see me being coached, go check that out! Because Alex just –

Alex: [laughing]

Chris: — he just smothered me in; “Chris, are you this?” “Are you that?” and I loved it! I got off the call going; “I am! I love momentum. I love having goals!”

06:04

Alex: I’ll give you, like, the two-and-a-half-minute pitch, right? So our organization has discovered, and we’ve written the archetype – I’m holding it right here – there’s … we wrote this book. There’s 500 in circulation, there will only ever be 500 in circulation. But we wrote this book about the Entrepreneurial Personality Type.

06:25 – What is the Entrepreneurial Personality Type?

Alex: We have a framework that shows that we are different. And we believe – and I can prove – that we are a sub-population that’s been overlooked by science, that has been existent throughout history, has been present – and has been misunderstood. And we are physiologically sensitive, cognitively aware, and chemically reliant on momentum. And the world tells us things that show that they don’t know who are. Because when you tell someone who’s reliant on momentum to sit down, or to stop, or to shut up, or to stop asking questions – all you do is provide constraint so that they can’t see.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Alex: And the fact is that – when I say we’re different, I mean we are different. And reality is, is most of society’s systems are structured in a way that – it’s not that they don’t support us. It’s that they damage us. They harm us.

Chris: Right.

07:22

Alex: So entrepreneurs are the most important people throughout history. And human evolution has been caused, actively and proactively, singularly, by entrepreneurs.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Alex: It’s the only force, other than nature, that has caused the proactive evolution of people.

07:56 – EPT’s … Us Against Them

Alex: The problem is, we are so sensitive to constraint that it causes us physical problems, it causes us cognitive problems, and we know it causes us chemical problems. And there’s all kinds of symptoms that look like all kinds of labels up to, and including, suicidal ideation and thought.

Chris: Right.

Alex: And so, sometimes when I talk about the EPT, people say; “Hey. You make it sound like it’s us against them.”

Alex: I want to make it clear; it’s us against them.

08:23

Chris: It’s literally like you read my life story when you talk about it. My business, obviously, and the podcast Total Freedom – people just can’t get their head around it a lot of times; why this is frickin’ freedom to me. Why, 2 in the morning last night, I am up writing goals because I got challenged on my brand and my messaging, and to go bigger. And they’re going; “Why?” You know, “Go spend time with your family or go hang out!” And I go; “I tried that!”

08:59

Alex: … for someone to be up at two o’clock in the morning writing their goals. It’s not self-fulfilment. It’s not; “I’m going to grandiose myself.” It’s not driven by something within is, because here’s the thing: we know that driven within us doesn’t get us up at two in the morning.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Alex: I know that the reason you are up is, you were writing about the contribution you intend to make. The change you intend to have, and the effect you intend to create. We are driven – basely, foundationally, emotionally, everything, spiritually – by contribution.

09:35 – MLM Versus EPTs

Chris: That’s – that’s the other thing. And I thought about this, and I just remembered it, man. There’s a reason why – and this is just for me, personally – there’s a reason why Multi-Level Marketing and Direct Selling never got me. And I’ll tell you why, and here’s why; because all they would say to me is; “You’re gonna make this much passive income.”

Alex: Yeah! Yeah.

Chris: And it just – and I’ve never said this before in my life, but it literally – physically, I was like … “great!” You know –

Alex: Yeah!

Chris: “Wow. I’m good at making money already … yeah.” Like, it was like it literally bounced off me because it wasn’t what I wanted to share. And I remember, about a year-and-a-half ago, making this conscious choice not to be involved or not to look at those things anymore because they just – and same with other things, like property and other things like shares.

Alex: Yeah.

Chris: They never got me.

Alex: Yeah. Because it’s different for everyone, right?

Chris: Right! Right.

Alex: And, here’s what I’m hearing, right? So, like, this stuff that doesn’t create an effect, that doesn’t create an outcome, that you don’t see that greater need … it doesn’t even get you excited, right?

Chris: No.

10:44 – The Challenges All EPT Face

Alex: First, we’re called all kinds of crap. Like, you know that your confusion has been mistaken for anger. And you know that for most of your life, like many entrepreneurs, you’ve been told you don’t feel right.

Alex: And here’s what I mean by that, you know. You’ve heard it like this: “Chris, um. You shouldn’t be so intense.”

Chris: [bursts out laughing]

Alex: Right? Hey, Chris – be more intense.

Chris: Right.

Alex: “Um, Chris?” – and you tell me; how many times have you heard: “Why don’t you share your feelings?”

Chris: Aw, man. Um … I only have one feeling. [laughs]

Alex: [laughs]

11:24

Alex: For us, the confusion is – primarily and centrally – around the way the rest of the world lives. We don’t understand what motivates them, because for us; momentum. Moving forward. It’s the only thing that matters, and that looks like going towards your greatest contribution.

11:41 – The Contribution Equation – A 4-Step Equation That is the Meaning of Life

Alex: So there’s a 4-Step Equation that we teach people like us, because this is really how we get there. The first step is; we lower pressure and noise.

Alex: So Chris, you tell me man; have you had the recognition from most of your life that you have more pressure and noise than those around you?

Chris: Recognition for myself, or others?

Alex: Yeah. For yourself.

Chris: Uh, I … dude. I, uh – [chuckles] Here we go again, guys!

Alex: [laughs]

Chris: When I was seven years old, I was waking up at six in the morning and shooting a thousand shots before school because the only thing that mattered to me was making the NBA.

Alex: There you go.

14:22

Alex: So the second step is this; you ask for protection and support. Here’s what I want everyone to hear – Entrepreneurial Personality Types learn almost nothing standing still, and very little alone.

Chris: Mm-hmm.

Alex: So build a team, join a team, and go fast. Because regardless of where you are in your life, building a team, joining a team, having contribution, working like this! You know, you’ve recruited me to be your extended team.

Chris: [laughs]

Alex: Right? You contacted me and said, “Hey, will you do this, this podcast?” and I’m like, “Heck yeah! That’s a lot of exposure, and I love your style – let’s do this!” So that’s mutual protection and support.

15:30 – Proof: When EPTs get Protection and Support, Strengths and Abilities Show

16:09 – EPT’s are Driven By?

Alex: Here’s what drives every entrepreneur in the world: contribution. But we never state it out loud, early in our careers. We never say, “I just want to do this to make a difference.” Instead, we go and chase all kinds of different things.

Alex: And the fact is that business that make a difference, that make a contribution, that change people’s lives – like Apple and Facebook and Google, the ones that connect people, transform communities – are the most profitable … and also make the greatest contribution.

16:37 – The Full Contribution Equation

Alex: And so the equation is simple: lower pressure and noise, ask for and increase protection and support, strengths and abilities will show, and you can make your contribution.

18:29 – Recognition in an EPT’s Life

Alex: So here’s what’s interesting, Chris. There’s this place where, if you have recognition, life can change. Because for most of our lives as EPT’s, we were running away from something. You went to basketball because it was the alternative to what was in the present. Because if there was something more exciting in the present, you would have done that.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Alex: And most of our alternatives are based on where we go, because we don’t want to be here. And even those of us who build really successful business often do that – running away from our past.

Alex: But there’s this place where if you lower pressure and noise, you increase protection and support, you really get to that place where, as an Entrepreneurial Personality Type you know who you are, and you are transparent with the people around you strengths and abilities show – and when I talk about contribution, it shifts.

21:05 – Obsession

Alex: Okay, you know what?

Chris: What?

Alex: You’re brilliant, man. I want to do this, and I don’t think I’ve done this on a podcast. But I want to share with you about why I think guys like you and I are driven like this. So check this out – when you were younger, and you started going, you couldn’t turn it off anymore, right?

Chris: [laughs]

Alex: Right? Can – can you turn it off now?

Chris: I just wrote – before you asked me that, I wrote the one thing that I want to ask Alex, is about [holds up notebook] obsession.

Alex: — it’s obsession!

22: 07

Alex: — and the fact is, we’re driven in a way that’s different from most. And, so, you tell me if this relates, Chris. Haven’t you been on the hunt your whole life?

Chris: Of course.

Alex: Right? I mean, it relates, right? And when I say, like – you tell me. As soon as you reach that objective you’re hunting, that thing that’s over the horizon – as you cross through it, doesn’t it lose significance?

Chris: Aw-! Absolutely! Absolutely. Like –

Alex: — at the same time?

Chris: It – it’s though – “okay, that’s done, now what?”

Alex: Right!

Chris: You know, best-selling book was exciting until it was best-selling. And then it was – now it’s there, and that’s great.

23:33 – The Sub-Population: Hunters

Alex: Let’’s line up the sub-population, right? Remember how I said we’re a sub-population? So in every species, there’s a sub-population that hunts. And you look at, like, ants – there’s the ones that hunt. You look at animals, there’s the ones that hunt. Like, you tell me; doesn’t it make sense that there’s a sub-population, in human beings, that is driven to get up in the morning and contribute to the tribe.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Alex: That is driven obsessively and compulsively to create an outcome like ‘killing food so we can all stay alive.’

Chris: Uh-huh.

Alex: And driven so much, that as they mature and become wise, they want to turn around and give the wisdom back to everyone else, so that the tribe can keep going.

Chris: Uh-huh.

Alex: We’re hunters. And evolutionarily, we have all the chemicals, all the buttons, all the triggers, that hunters have. And the fact is that if you spent a career hunting in any tribe, maybe you should just be around hunters.

26:45 – Chris: “The thing I really wanted to touch on was; hunters should be surrounded by hunters.”

Chris: How do people get in touch with you?

27:13

Alex: So Chris, you know, we’ve got this Facebook group that we put up, that’s free. And there’s a shortcut to it, it’s; We Are EPT.com . It’s a free resource, I put a lot of videos there, there’s incredible discussion there. And then you can go to charfen.com

29:41 – Chris: “I might have to just keep getting you on this show, man.”

Chris: Every time I talk, I’ve got, like, a page of questions that I want to just keeping asking you – mainly, listeners, for my own self-benefit. [laughs]

Alex: [laughs]

Alex: Well Chris, we’ve gotta get you out here to an event, man!

Chris: Yeah! Yeah, let’s do that. Let’s do that.

30:21 – Alex Leave’s the Listeners With This:

Alex: You know, for anyone out there who has ever felt like you’re different, or you’re a party of one, or you’re – you know; alone. I want you to know that … that’s okay. Society’s systems have conspired against us, to convince us we’re alone. And at no time were we ever encouraged or even shown how unique and how special we are. And the very fact that you’re here, listening, you want to contribute and you feel like you’re different – makes you part of the most exclusive club in history. Because when you read the biographies of anyone who did anything significant in history? They were like us. And they felt the same way.

Alex: So, for anyone who’s felt that way, regardless of what pressure and noise you have in your life, there is nothing wrong with you, and you are not alone.

Alex’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCm7h9ePRONYnfrPmLWAq2Lw

Alex’s Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/acharfen

Alex’s Website: http://www.charfen.com/

The EPT Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/eptgroup/