Empower Your Mindset: Dennis Henson on Habits that Drive Success

Freddy D: 00:03:52

Hey Superfan superstar Freddie D. Here in this episode 123, we're joined by Dennis Henson, a true powerhouse with over five decades of experience in business, personal development and real estate investing.

Dennis is the founder and President of Vanguard Marketing and Investments, Inc. And was a longtime leader of the Arlington Real Estate Investing Association.

He's also a celebrated author, educator and international speaker who's inspired thousands through his best selling books and transformative workshops. From the royal flush of real estate Investing to a Millionaire's treasure Map, Dennis made his mark in real estate.

But in recent years he's expanded his mission to helping people unlock their full potential. His latest book, Real Impact Daily Inspiration is all about building belief, defeating doubt, and developing the mindset for lasting success.

Get ready to be inspired as we dive into the habits, insights and stories to fuel Dennis's life changing approach.

Freddy D: 00:05:05

Welcome Dennis to the Business Superfans podcast. We're excited to have you here, Dennis, welcome to the show.

Dennis Henson: 00:05:13

Thank you Freddie. I appreciate you having me.

Freddy D: 00:05:16

So, as we talked before we started recording here, let's get the backstory of I know that you've got a new book that you put out, but before we get to that, let's talk about your story of what you've done and how you've transformed businesses and all that exciting stuff.

Dennis Henson: 00:05:34

Well, when I graduated from college, I had a bachelor's degree in music education. So I became a band director and my goal was to do better. I wanted to become a college band director because college students had so much more energy.

I didn't have parents you saw and so offered the position at Georgia Tech. I thought that's great. I'm excited about that. So I moved to Atlanta before I was to sign the contract.

I got a call from a company in Tennessee and they said, we want you to come up and interview and I'm not interested. I don't need a job. I'm going to have the perfect job. Director, University of Georgia Tech. And they offered me a lot of things to get me company.

If you're a round trip ticket, it would give you a $25 cigar, buy you a steak, pick you up in limousine. They made it sound great so I could have got a steak in Atlanta. I didn't smoke and so I didn't need the cigar and I didn't care about a limousine.

ound trip ticket, that was in: 1975

I went up there and to make a long story short, they offered me 20 times the salary that Georgia Tech was going to pay me.

Freddy D: 00:07:03

Wow, 20 times. That's a huge number.

Dennis Henson: 00:07:07

It is, it is. And so I took it.

Freddy D: 00:07:10

Yeah. Yeah.

Dennis Henson: 00:07:11

I left the music world and went into business because I thought this is much, much better. And right after they hired me, they gave me three books.

Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, Success, the Glenn Bland Master, and the Greatest salesman in the World, Bob Mendino. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:07:30

Read all three of them.

Dennis Henson: 00:07:32

Okay. And Freddie, I never heard of a self help book. I didn't know about motivation or PMA or anything. I was, you know, band kid.

After I read those books, I was different. I was a totally different person. I was extremely motivated and I was enthused. It was euphoric. It was like a drug. Oh, wonderful. I have to have more.

I've got to have more of these. In 75. There wasn't an Internet, there wasn't a Google, there wasn't even a computer.

So if you wanted to learn anything, you actually had to pick up the phone off the wall or off a desk and call somebody. And kind of books are you reading that help you with your business.

So I started getting all kind of suggestions and I read some books and some of them were good, most of them were not. But occasionally I would hit on one and it would give me that feeling again. So I met Jim Rohn early in my career. It was before he was famous.

He was just a. He was a guy that was trying to make a living and he encouraged write everything down and put it in the journal.

So I thought, I'm going to keep a list of these great books because one day I may want to come back and read them again. There was a company in Waco called smi.

Freddy D: 00:08:58

Oh, I remember them. I flew out there to look at their stuff. Yes. Wow, man. Bringing back old memories.

Dennis Henson: 00:09:05

So you'd send them a check and they would send you two tapes.

Freddy D: 00:09:08

Yep.

Dennis Henson: 00:09:09

You'd listen with two tapes and send them back. So I thought this takes way too long. So I bought a duplicator and so I built a collection of wonderful tapes.

And I had a large territory, had them all of South Georgia and all of north Florida. Consequently, I was in the car a lot and I would take those tapes and listen to them as I was driving there. Big territory.

And every time I heard a poem or a story or a quote, I would put it into German. Now, there wasn't any tape recorder. You had to pull the car over to the side of the road and stop and get out the journal and write it down.

So it had to be pretty impressive for me to stop my car. So that was in 75. And I started collecting. In years past, I got into real estate.

I moved to Texas in 89, and I started doing lots of real estate in Texas, and there wasn't a real estate investor group. I wanted to become a better real estate investor, and I wanted to go to meetings. There wasn't a meeting in Arlington.

You had to go to Dallas or Worth. And the Metroplex is big and has lots of traffic. So to go to a meeting took an hour.

If there was traffic, an hour and a half or two to get to the meeting. So I thought, shoot, that's taking too much of my time is too valuable. I'll start a meeting in Arlington. And I did. It was very successful.

People came from all over Texas, but mostly from Fort Worth and Dallas. And so I could bring in speakers and I'd speak sometimes myself.

And I decided I'm going to start teaching classes, because if I teach advanced classes, I want to teach, want to learn about land trust. And I said, we're going to have an elite last meeting on land trust.

I have a month to learn everything in the world there is to know, because they're going to ask me questions. So that made me an expert on subject to short sale, land trust, private money, probate, everything.

Every month I had some new thing, and I got pretty good at those. So one day, one of those members came up to me and said, dennis, I want you to mentor me. I'll pay you.

I'm about to retire and I want to do real estate. I want to do what you do. So I said, mike, I don't really have time with my real estate business and these meetings taking on an individual person.

And I just really don't see me doing that. So he said, let's go out and eat. We'll talk about it. So I told my wife right before left, I've got to go tell Mike I'm not going to do this.

So we went out and ate. After we finished, he bought my lunch. He had on a coat like this.

He reached to his pocket, pulled out checkbook and handed it to me and said, here, fill this in. And I said, do you mean the amount? And he said, yeah. And I thought, okay, I'll put something here, and this will solve the problem.

So I put a number there that I. No one in their right mind would pay. And I handed it to him. He signed the check, tore it out, handed to me, and never even looked at the number. Wow.

That's when I started teaching. So I started teaching and I thought, if people are going to pay me this kind of money, I better have a pretty good class.

They better know what they're.

Freddy D: 00:12:45

Yeah, they're going to walk out champions. Yeah.

Dennis Henson: 00:12:48

So I did, and they started being successful and they started telling other people. And the next thing you knew, I had this line of people waiting for me to teach them.

Freddy D: 00:12:59

Yeah. What you did there is you created super fans of those students.

And when you got super fans, that's what businesses don't realize is that really, when you have super fans that are out there promoting you, that's better than getting a referral, because a referral is a name with the phone number, and you gotta chase it. When a super fan bring in a warm. It's not really a referral. It's more of an introduction. It's ready to go.

And they're not gonna question the pricing because John or Mary or Steve said, you need to talk to Dennis and get mentored by Dennis.

When I was selling software, my customers would reach out to other tool and die shops and says, you need to talk to Freddy D. And he'll hook you up with the technology. And those sales just happen like that?

Dennis Henson: 00:13:48

Yes. At the meetings, we'd have anywhere from 70 to 150 people there. And I would say, are there any of my students here? And they'd raise their hands.

I say, stand up. And they would stand up. And I'd say, now, if you want to know about my training, don't ask me. I'm prejudiced. Ask any of them. Just pick one right now.

And after this meeting, ask them if the training is any good. And because of that, I just got burned out.

I was teaching so much, teaching four to six times a day, so my students did so well that I became famous for that. And everyone invited me to speak.

I was speaking at real estate groups throughout the nation and expos and in other countries, and podcasts were just getting started. So I was invited to a real estate podcast with the host said, dennis, why are your students so successful?

There's all these gurus out here, but your students really do well. And I said, I just have them change their habits. If they can form success habits, they will become successful.

Then he said, dennis, what is the number one success habit? Can you share that with our listening audience?

And I thought, for a second and said, yes, I have them form the habit of reading something positive every day that leads them toward their goal. So after the podcast was over, Freddie, I said, that was a great answer.

Wouldn't it be wonderful if there were some kind of a tool to help people form that habit? It wouldn't have to be for real estate. It could be for whatever goal they wanted to reach. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:15:39

Because it's applicable to anything. And one thing that I want to re circle back to real quick is when you had everybody stand up your students. That's social proof.

I used to do the similar thing when I was selling technology. I had a daytimer back then because we didn't have smartphones, so I had a daytimer. I had all my customers in there and their names.

I had several pages. I would turn around, and I had a cell phone at the time, but it was a brick.

I would turn around and hand you the daytimer and said, dennis, these are all of my customers. Here's my cell phone. And it was one of those big Motorola bricks and says, you can call any one of them. And I just shut up.

And nobody ever took me up on it because it was such a ballsy move. But I would close the deal. The deal would be done because they felt that if I was that arrogant to say, call anybody, they're all referenceable.

It was done. It was a power move.

Dennis Henson: 00:16:39

So after that podcast, and I was thinking that, wouldn't it be wonderful if there was a tool to help me perform that? It hit me like a light bolt of lightning or something like, Dennis, you've been collecting books, stories, quotes, and poems for 50 years.

You have them all in your computer. All you got to do is put them in a book. And people can form a hack regardless of their time. Have five minutes, 30 to poem.

If they have 30 minutes to read a short story. If they have three hours, they can read one of the books that's listed in the back.

Or if they get home and they're just exhausted and they forgot their reading habit right before they go to sleep, they can turn to the back, book, read a quote, 3 seconds, 5 seconds sleep, thinking about something really positive. And I thought, shoot, I can have this put together in a couple of months because it's all on my computer. I just put it together and send it all off.

ed working on it. That was in: 2018

Freddy D: 00:17:49

What's it called?

Dennis Henson: 00:17:50

And Freddie, I worked on it every day. I literally worked on it every single day for Six years. So it's my baby and I feel like it's going to help a lot of people if they will let it.

Freddy D: 00:18:07

What's the name of the book, Dennis?

Dennis Henson: 00:18:10

Real Impact, Daily Inspiration. So it'll have a real impact on anyone's life and it would give them daily inspiration to move them toward their goal.

On the front of the book is a picture of a land's lamp. Can you see?

Freddy D: 00:18:30

Yep, yep.

Dennis Henson: 00:18:31

Okay. The lamp represents the story of Aladdin who found a lamp and realized, hey, this has magic power.

You rub it in, a genie appears and then the genie says, I'm going to give you three wishes, but you have to tell me what you want. So if Aladdin had never said I want this or this, he would have never received anything. And that's how it is in life.

You first have to decide what do I really want? And I think desires are really gifts from God. They're natural. There's no ant school, but look what ants accomplish.

There's no bee college, but look what bees are able to do. Well, how do they know? There's no one to tell them. It's nature. And nature tells people what they're supposed to be doing.

But since we have free will and can think about other things, we let our butts get into life.

Freddy D: 00:19:34

Well, we get sidetracked. We get sidetracked and we lose the focus.

We're busy in the day to day grind and we lose our aspirations because we get caught up into all the mess of life. And there's actually, there's three types of people. There's the people that make things happen, there's people that watch things happen.

And then there's people that wonder what the muck happened, what happened?

Dennis Henson: 00:20:02

That's great. So the people, when they get this desire, they think, let's say a young girl in high school decides, boy, I would love to be a veterinarian.

That would just be a wonderful life. To work with animals and take care of them and make. Then she says, but she lets her butts, butts get in the way. She says, I, I don't have the money.

I don't know what colleges to go to. I don't know what to do next. She just goes, all of these things get in the way. It's really all in her mind.

And if she can change her vibe to I want to be a veterinarian. And I'm visiting a different veterinarian every single week, asking them what, what they did to become one.

I'm looking for schools that teach veterinary medicine. I'm writing them letters or sending them emails, or visiting. If you know what you want.

And every single day you take a step in that direction, eventually you will get there. Yep. This is like Winston Churchill. He knew he wanted to defeat. And every day he did something and he did the impossible.

It just shouldn't have happened, but he did it anyway. So that's the kind of determination that requires. But if you're reading something positive every day, it reminds you what your goal is.

It's like putting a rudder on a boat or a boat down in the middle of the water with no rudder, not going anywhere, somewhere, where are you going to go?

Freddy D: 00:21:37

Right. You remind me of that product. I talked earlier about setting up 60 resellers around the world.

chunks. And this was: 1997

There was no other way that would have came in. I willed it in, Those were his words. And it's right, because I had the mindset that it will happen. And I did things to ensure that it did happen.

And things line up out of nowhere. Sometimes opportunities and situations present themselves in a positive way. You just gotta be present to be able to step in and accept it.

Dennis Henson: 00:22:31

Exactly, exactly. And if people are listening today, the people that are listening, they have a choice to make. Their choice is, do I want to do better?

Do I want to get to where I want to be faster? Am I willing to do something to make that happen? And am I willing to form a new habit? And it's a simple habit and it's fine.

You read something positive every day that moves you toward your goal. The trick is you have to know what your goal is. You've made a big step. Once you realize this is what I really want.

I wanted to become an engineer, become a doctor. I want to become an attorney. Abraham Lincoln, his stories in the book, he failed at everything he did.

He was really, I guess you would say unlucky or just not very good. But one thing he was good at, he had one talent and that was he could debate. He was really a great debater and a good talker.

So he came into possession of some old English law books and he read those and he loved them. He loved to read. And so he just fell in love with those books and devoured them. And because of that, he started going to court Prompts.

He would go to the courthouse and set in on the trials. And one day he was sitting there and he was looking around at the walls and smelling of the way it smells and hearing the people debate.

And he thought, this feels like home. This is where I belong and I'm going to become an attorney. Now.

When he said that he had less than a first grade education, he had no money, he was deeply in debt, and he could barely speak the English language. And here he is saying, I'm going to pass the bar, I'm going to become an attorney and I'm going to do whatever it takes to get there.

And from that day forward, every single day he worked toward that. And he became a member of the bar. He became either the first or the second most prominent attorney in the state of Illinois.

Most people didn't realize the majority of his life he was an attorney. His business life, he was a successful attorney. As extremely successful attorney, look where he came from.

No education, less than a first grade, no money.

Freddy D: 00:25:08

Yeah.

What you bring up there, Dennis, is something that for SMB business owners, if they stop and take time to look at, what can they improve in themselves as a leader and how can they empower their team as well? Because it starts with the leadership and then it needs to transcend to the team.

And once you do that and you get everybody else to look at improving themselves and you do it collectively, that's completely game changing. Because now everybody's lives are elevated up, the business elevates up and it creates a synergy that carries through to all stakeholders.

Dennis Henson: 00:25:53

Absolutely. That's right. If you want to become a leader, that's a goal.

And so if you form a habit of reading something every single day that makes you a better leader, you instantly start becoming better leader. It's a law of nature.

Freddy D: 00:26:13

And good leaders create super fans of their team. Because a team. One of the things I learned, I've taken several leadership programs, Dale Carnegie stuff and et cetera.

And really what a good leader does is really get themselves out of the way of their team. I look at as a good leader, as a facilitator. My job is to help you, Dennis, do your job as to the best ability that you can.

And so I need to empower you, I need to give you motivation, I need to get recognition, et cetera. And I don't have to worry about me. The team will take care of my success.

Dennis Henson: 00:26:52

Absolutely. That sounds so familiar. Yeah. See, Zig Ziglar had a quote that said, if you can help enough people get what they want.

That's the call you get what you.

Freddy D: 00:27:03

Yep, that's the call. So let's continue a little bit. How does the book work? Let's talk a little bit about that. So is it per chapter?

Dennis Henson: 00:27:14

It's not a book that's read through and through. If you pick the Bible up and read it from COVID to cover, you probably get much out of it. That's not how it was meant to be.

And this book was written to be savored like fine wine. You read a little bit until you find something. In the 5th century, a group of monks got together and wanted to become closer to the scriptures.

So they came up with a technique called lectio divina, where they would read a scripture silently. They would imagine themselves as part of that scripture or that story in the Bible, and then they would read it out loud.

And then for the rest of the day, they would contemplate it. So I was on a podcast like this talking about my book and someone that sounds like Lake Dioda, and I thought, I'll find out what that is.

And I researched, and then that's exactly how this book is supposed to be read. There's a place in the front of the book that says the magic formula.

And if you'll follow that formula, you can do amazing things, just amazing things, achieve tremendous goals that may seem impossible now. The book is laid out in such a way so you can match it to your time. There's long stories and short stories, then poems and quotes, and then books.

So each one of those has a time slot. So you. You have a really busy day, and you have five minutes in between a meeting. Read a poem and you've read for the day.

But it may be a powerful poem, something that really inspires you. And maybe your next meeting will be better than you'd expect it. At least you're going to have a positive mental attitude going into it.

And then if you're exhausted at the end of the day, I mentioned this before, you can read a quote. And how long will that take? Two or three seconds. And you've done your reading for the day.

But the biggest thing that it does is it encourages you to make a goal. What do you want to do with your life?

The man that gave me those three books was named Jack McConico, and he was the vice president of a big continent. And he spent a lot of time with me, which I really appreciated. And he has a library named after him now. So he's very one, this man.

Dennis, where do you want to be in five years, in 10 years, what do you ultimately want to do with your life? And then what legacy do you want to leave behind? I was just a kid. I never heard questions like that. I was stunned. I didn't have any answer.

I didn't know, but I didn't forget the questions. Go. Here it is 50 years later, and I still remember vividly that conversation. And it changed my life.

Freddy D: 00:30:13

Yeah, I've got a similar story.

In middle school and high school, I took drafting classes, and I used to be an engineer, but in between that, I was still in High School, 12th grade, and I got laid off. Because in the drafting world back in the Detroit area, it was feast or famine. You got a project, everybody went to that one company. Project's over.

All right, thanks. We don't need you anymore. So I was pumping gas at a shuttle gas station, and this guy pulls up in a Lincoln Continental.

ell phone in his car. This is: 1975

I just saw him two weeks ago, and we just hit it off, and he asked the owner to have me drive his other car, that it got repaired at the gas station, back to his place. So follow him at his place. He had a wild bachelor pad and all that kind of stuff.

But more importantly, he gave me a booklet, and I still have the booklet. And it had Cyber Cybernetics, how to Win Friends and Influence People and everything else.

That guy changed the trajectory of my life because I started having an open mind because I did read those things, and they are transformative. And that's why I'm sharing the story, because I really want to emphasize what you're saying is it's transformative.

Dennis Henson: 00:31:32

It.

Freddy D: 00:31:33

It's one thing to read them, but another thing is to apply them.

And that's really the secret, is taking your quotes and your stories and really taking time to digest what you just read and then put it into play if it is something that you can put into play.

Dennis Henson: 00:31:55

We're so in tune with each other that you mentioned two books that I hadn't mentioned that are in the first 10 books listed in the back. The books listed in the back are also in priority order, from the best to the worst. And the last is almost as good as the first one.

That was really difficult to make the decision. But if you read these books, each one of them, you're going to be a different person by the time you.

Freddy D: 00:32:23

reading some of the books. In: 1976

I was driving a 74 Corvette. 19. I just changed my thinking. I get rid of that stinking thinking.

Dennis Henson: 00:32:54

Yeah, that's Jim Rohn.

Freddy D: 00:32:58

No, that's Zig Ziglar. Gotta get rid of your stinking thinking.

Dennis Henson: 00:33:02

Zig Ziglar. He had quite a draw, and he said some really interesting things. One of the first things I saw when I got into business was his priming the pump.

That story's in the book. And when I started writing it, I live in. In the Metroplex, and his office is in the Metroplex.

So I called to see, and it's still open, and his secretary is still there. And we became friends. So as I was writing the story, I would send it to her and she'd say, oh, no. It's like she would make change me.

So the story in the book is absolutely perfect. But because she was there, right, she. She knew exactly what was going on. So I'm very proud of that story. Oh, I'm proud of all of them.

The story of Lou Holtz. He wrote me a letter. I sent him the book. He wrote me a letter thanking me for including him in the book and his stories about very powerful.

He wanted to become the coach at Notre Dame, and he'd just been fired. He got fired, and the coach of South Carolina took the job. He wasn't going to make the football coach.

He had a burning desire to become the coach at Notre Dame, which his chances were the same as wanting to become the Pope. Right. Anyway, so that's what having a burning desire will do. Napoleon Hill is where you got that. You have to know what you want.

A definite purpose and develop a burning desire. And this book helps you keep that burning desire. It kindles.

Freddy D: 00:34:42

Yeah. That's important is you got to keep kindling it because life will get in the way and it'll extinguish that dream faster than you can think about it.

Because life gets in the way and you get distracted. Now you're in a reactionary mode and you stop. I'm going to put that aside because that's not going to happen right now.

I got to deal with this right now. And you never go back to it. Or if you do go back to it, decades gone by, and you go, holy moly. Looked at the clock and where did the time go?

Dennis Henson: 00:35:15

Exactly Right. You need something to remind you, keep you on track because your mind goes in a thousand directions. Yep.

Freddy D: 00:35:24

So as we get closer to the end here, Dennis, how can people find you and get their hands on the book?

Dennis Henson: 00:35:30

It's on Amazon, of course. That's really easy. If you just go there and type in Real Impact, the inspiration or Dennis J. Henson.

The easiest way is to go to realimpactlook.com Then there's a contact us that has my email and my phone number. I'm easy to contact. I'm available for speaking, a podcast or radio or whatever. If you just need somebody to cheer you up, I'm pretty easy to contact.

And. And then you can get a free copy of the book on that website just by scrolling down to the bottom where it says podcast attendee.

And because you attended Freddy's podcast, I'll give you the entire ebook with no strings attached. You will not be put on a mailing list. You just get the book. It's instant download. You can have it before we finish the podc.

So you put your name and email in there. You get. Just like that.

And I have an ulterior motive, you know, I'm writing other books and if you read this, you may like it and think, oh yeah, I like the way he writes. I'm one of his books. But mainly it's because I'm 77. I'm not going to be around 30 years from now. I'll be gone.

But I want to still be helping people after I'm gone. And I wrote this book to help people. Not to make a million dollars, but to help a million people. And I can't help you if you don't get the book.

Freddy D: 00:36:57

We'll make sure that's in the show notes. That's a very generous offer and it's also a genuine of you. Like we talked earlier, you help enough people, you don't have to worry about yourself.

It comes back 10 times.

Dennis Henson: 00:37:13

And that's a Zig Ziglar quote and it's in the quotes back of the book. Yeah.

Freddy D: 00:37:19

So, Dennis, it's been a pleasure having you on the Business Superfan podcast. Great conversation, great insights for our listeners.

You and I could probably talk on this stuff for hours and we definitely would love to have you on the show down the road again.

Dennis Henson: 00:37:34

Maybe when my other books come out, we'll talk about that. Thank you so much, Freddie. This has been fine.

Freddy D: 00:37:40

Pleasure is all mine.

Freddy D: 00:37:45

Before we wrap, here's your quick debrief.

Each episode in this nine part series zooms in on one powerful pillar of My Superfans Framework 9 proven steps designed to turn your business from a flicker of potential into unstoppable, scalable prosperity.

The pillars are S Strategize you Unite P Propel E Elevate R Rally F Finance A Automate N Nurture S Sustain each week we spotlight one pillar, extract a game changing insight from today's guest and close with your Superfan success Spark, a bold 24 hour action you can take immediately to move your business forward.

Follow along through all nine episodes, collect each spark and you'll have a step by step playbook to create superfans who fuel rave reviews, rocking referrals and rising revenue.

Then we reset the cycle with nine brand new sparks, fresh guests and even more strategies to help you scale with clarity, purpose and unstoppable momentum.

Freddy D: 00:39:04

Ready?

Freddy D: 00:39:05

Here's this episode Spark Superfans Success Spark. You Unite Align employees, suppliers and partners around shared goals and culture. So here's a top insight.

You change people by helping them form success habits. Then they change each other. Dennis Henson So here's your 24 hour action step.

Pick one positive daily habit like sharing a win quote or a goal and start with your team tomorrow. Rituals create rhythm. Rhythm creates unity.

Dennis Henson: 00:39:45

We hope you took away some useful knowledge from today's episode of the Business Superfans Podcast. The path to success relies on taking action. So go over to businesssuperfans.com and get your hands on the book.

If you haven't already, join the accelerator community and take that first step in generating a team of passionate supporters for your business. Join us on the next episode as we continue guiding you on your journey to achieve flourishing success in business.