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Speech Transcript (very little editing so not exact)

Thank you so much for coming on. Introduce yourself to the squad but first, what’s your favorite color? And why?

I’d say blue. You can see right behind it just think I think blue is it’s just it’s cooling it’s it’s and I just I just respond to blue. Yeah,

super cool. Powerful. I’m looking at the Atlantic Ocean right now and so yeah, I

love it. All

right. So let’s get into this like little kind of time when you’re a younger little dyslexic and a little bullied and and what the steps you were to really kind of level up and take that to help others level up as well.

Yeah, absolutely. And first of all, I do want to say thank you to Scott to be on here with you sir. And yeah, thank you big shout out as well to Marcus for for hooking us up and pill yeah did appreciate appreciate him as well. But um, yeah, so So listen, you know, my story is not one of those kinds of woe is me things right? I think my attitude is whatever kill you makes you stronger and so I grew up like you said you know, I was picked on my nickname was growing up was SPADs right last name Spiro. They came up with bad uncoordinated you know, I was the guy that you know I like you know, I put built up the courage to ask a girl out and she said no and it’s just like that was the way I grew up but it was right because you know what I learned that you could turn these obstacles these challenges they did a post about it today. You can turn it into into your biggest strength biggest weakness and I think I’ve always grown up Scott with a chip on my shoulder I always had something to prove I love the story the stories that you know the brave hearts the Rudy’s the gladiators I love those those movies and probably what drove me to kind of be a martial artist and even in the martial arts. I had a chip on my shoulder I was the least likely to succeed I’m a short guy five foot seven barely you know after pretty much no legs at all after my hips come my feet I mean I’m just sure you know I’m

not laughing at you brother I was such a you and I are brothers from different mothers may we want to really really similar paths MAN

Yeah. But anyway go back and get over what you got to you want to go through and just get into the next level and take it into the next level level up wherever you don’t take what you’re doing what you’re stuck with and stay there get out of it. That’s it right right

what’s your you your protocol if your lack of a better term that you use now to help others really level up to your being a master connector?

Yeah, I mean I you know number one I’m a big believer in you know, being a blessing being a you know, a uplifter to people like you pointed out and I think it’s you know, I love being on social media Mike my pretty much a one trick pony as it relates to social media. It’s LinkedIn right but but I love having the ability to put out videos and put out posts and always You can Okay, well, what can be? What can be a way to be blessing people? When I take calls and have networking calls like you? And I did, sir. You know, I’m always thinking, okay, what can I, what can I do to add value? And I know you’re gonna be on our show, and we appreciate that as well. And so it’s always okay, what can I do to just bless other people? And that’s my protocol. That’s my mindset. It’s not about an agenda. It’s not about a pitch. It’s about okay, what can I do? Because you know, that the law of, you know, the universal law, right? You You reap what you sow you give you get, you know, the law of reciprocity, and all those things were in play. Yeah, man,

how important is reciprocity. Receiving think is everything.

Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I mean, imagine if you go to if you’re a farmer, and you’re like, Okay, I tell you why. You’re talking to the ground right? Now. You talk to the ground and say, Okay, why don’t you? Why don’t you give me wheat? And and then I’ll throw the seed down? No. You gotta eat down and do the work. And then you get the harvest. Right? It’s just the way it works, right? Yeah,

yeah, there’s structure protocol, really, to everything. But what I find a lot, even my clients CBSA you know, they’ll give, give give, right, but they don’t know how to receive what do you tell the people that don’t know how to receive?

Well, one thing I’ve learned in life is you don’t ask you don’t get. Right. Right. And, you know, so. So yeah, but it will come but you got to ask, right? You gotta be, you gotta be bold enough to ask the question, right? You know, just say, hey, you know, like, I love you know, after I’ve done a really a lot of the right stuff, I might say, Hey, let me ask you a question. I get to feeling like you really valued what I did for you. Correct? Get them believe, you know, agree. Let me ask you, is there anybody that you know, that you feel I should speak to that you think would be just fine? What it did with you just as valuable? Oh, you don’t ask you get

you don’t get Yeah, man and ask big to, you know, don’t be afraid. I mean, you know, it’s funny to say, when we’re kids CVU. Like we’re born salesman, right? You go through if you have kids, you go through the checkout aisle, and every year they’re throwing stuff in your face, can I can I can they but we’re conditioned, we’re told no an average of 135,000 times by the time we’re 12. Right? So that’s what we were born salesman. So like, you really want people to like get over that get their asking gear, right, and be able to ask because you’re right, you won’t get I love love that. You said that. So do you work mainly kind of with groups or one on one? Mainly? Steve, what’s your story?

Oh, so I have a lot of you know, I kind of like a cat. I don’t have nine lives. But I have like five lives. Right? So. So what I what I do in the consulting space is I work with companies to help them streamline and automate how they communicate and connect with their clients leveraging artificial intelligence. So I’m working with a team, I’m, you know, I have my initial conversation might be with a CTO, or CFO or whatever, it’s typically in that C space. But in terms of what I’m doing in terms of speaking, right, I mean, you know, I was in front of a room of, you know, 50 or 70 people just the other day giving a talk, you know, so it’s, it’s a combination. Right. My speaking side, are you talking about my entrepreneurial side? You talk about my consulting side, love, you know, it’s all very, you know, obviously LinkedIn live the LinkedIn live show we have right now. Yeah, awesome. Yeah.

So what, what is your secret sauce? If you don’t mind sharing, we may be working with somebody, the blocked a little bit in helping them find their blind spot? What’s a little bit of your secret sauce to do that?

Well, you know, that’s a good point. And so, you know, listen, there’s different very, there’s variations to the level of relationships that you have, right? So like, I’m not a business coach. I do. I’m blessed to be meant to be mentored, and also have the ability to been blessed to have people that I’ve mentored, right. And I’ve learned, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this, but it’s the Johari window panes. And I tell people this, you know, the four window page right one being, you know, what you know about you and I know about you, right, Scott, you’re a pretty jacked, dude. Right? You’re that’s obvious, right? You’re right, I’m not messing with you. I don’t care. The second is what you know about you. And I don’t know about you, right? That’s sort of your, your secret stuff, right? This stuff that you know, right? The third window paid is what you don’t know about what you and what you know about what you don’t know about you. And I know about you that she had blind spots. And then the fourth window paid, which is the most incredible one, which is the great unknown, it’s what you don’t know by you. And I don’t know about you. And that’s your potential. And so working with people that have had the ability to and receive that as well, is those last two, it’s really the blind spots, but you got to earn that. And I’m not going to be able to speak into somebody’s life and show them and share with them their blind spots, unless I’ve gotten real real permission to do that. So I like to, if I’ve not earned that, and even if I have earned it, I like to tell stories. So I’m going to talk about myself I’m going to talk about other people. And in that I’m going to say something that maybe they’ll get it that I might be talking about them but it’s not as it’s not as I don’t know, some people get and I was there I still am sometimes guard goes up right, you know, right? But if you talk Stories and you share sort of something, you know, hey, listen, I know what you’re dealing with I, I felt that same way. And when when my mentor told me he said, Do this, this and this. In other words, I’m saying do this, this and this, but I’m just putting it on me. So they don’t feel like I’m telling them what they should or shouldn’t Oh,

that’s Yeah, cuz you’re, you’re sharing from experience what your mentor might have told you. Yeah. And then they unconsciously competent, pick up on it and be like that maybe I should do that as well. That’s awesome. So thank you. So when you’re starting to work with somebody, man, and again, there’s still a little blocked. Is there any good question that you wish they would ask you, but never do?

It? Great question. Yeah, I mean, I love when people ask me, you know, you know what, what made me do what I do, but no, I that’s a that’s a good question. I’m stumped on that question. I you know, I funny in my career, and one point, there was a guy that was an expert in one area, and we would play chump, the stump. That’s not the job rather. Stump the chump here. I don’t know,

sports show. They’ve never they would try to get the one guy that knows all about sports and stuff. No, I mean, I think that if I was working with you, and you started taking me in and stuff, I would ask, because I know, because of your story, you’re gonna get me to where I want to go if I follow your protocol, right? Or you’re gonna arrange the protocol to work for me, but like, I would kind of ask, you know, how I can maintain it. You know, because you’re gonna get me to a spot. You know, my job as an executive coach is I want to be fired in 10 weeks, you know what I’m saying? I’ll be done. But then the maintain. So thank you before, first of all, thank you for being transparent. I don’t try to stump you on anything. But I was currently questioning like, what Stevie knows a lot of stuff. I mean, when there’s something that’s awesome. Thank you for that, man. So have you seen the movie Back to the Future? Steve?

Of course,

let’s get that Dory with Marty McFly, right? Let’s go back to the Double D’s, the 22 year old Steve, what kind of knowledge nuggets we call them here? What kind of knowledge nuggets would you drop on the tour, double do Steve that maybe help them level up shorten his learning curve and blaster live. And that’s what’s changed a lot. Because you want those experiences they shape, right? But what kind of knowledge you drop into, maybe help them level up quicker.

First of all, I absolutely would have would have said to my younger self, find somebody in your life that can really be a mentor to you, that really, really has the fruit on the tree that that’s been there done that they they have the experience, the knowledge, the lifestyle that you’re looking for, and then do whatever it takes to get around them as much as possible. You know, I would have also taught, you know, told my younger self, do get over your your yourself and start reading and self development. I wasn’t big on that. My my first start of self development happened in the martial arts, which was great. And that taught me how to be a really good martial artist, but I would if I would have known I needed to grow my people skills, especially, you know, I have the person that I had the personality of a of a brick, you know, I’d rather hit you than talk to you. Right, right. And so I would, I would definitely say, read some books, get some people skills, and get a mentor. Those probably are some of the biggest things that if I could go back in time now again, I’m like you and you exactly, Scott, I don’t regret any of that. I think whatever your age, who I am today I do. If I could go back I would definitely get a mentor. And and definitely make sure that I’m working on my people skills, self development, get around the right people get around the mindset.

And listen to that intuition too, because it’s talking about your brother a lot of times when we’re younger, we don’t listen to it. So see, if you have you want your dash remember that little line in between your incarnation date and your expiration date, your life, date and death. How do you want your dash remember?

Absolutely. I appreciate you saying that as well. So, you know, what I’ve learned is true success is how many people how many other? How many people are better off because you were here? Wow. Yeah. And so I don’t you know, and we don’t have kids, so so to me, my legacy is mentorship. My legacy is the people that are better because I’m here. And so I really want to touch as many people’s lives as possible. I’ve I put together a personal mission statement. It’s a little personal, I won’t read it to this to your to your viewership. But it is about basically enhancing and making people’s lives better. And the more people because I’ve been blessed to be around some amazing people and part of an amazing organization where I’m able to have just just incredible growth, personal growth and even spiritual growth. And so if I can bring some of those people there and get their lives to be as enhanced as possible. I’ll tell another story real quick. Yeah. So you know, old man, crotchety old man skeptical a man walking on the beach and, and he sees it a distance a young boy in distance and the boys like throwing stuff in the water. He’s curious what’s going on. And as he approaches the young boy, he sees that there’s 1000 Honey There’s 1000 starfish that that washed up on the shore, it approaches the young boy and he’s like with his attitude of skepticism. What do you do by? He’s like, Well, the boys like I’m, I’m doing some starfish back. He’s like, it’s 100,000 of these suckers, what possible difference you’re gonna make and he’s like, he bends over, picks up one. He said, I made a difference to that one. And you know, what’s one life worth? Right? So if we can change our facts, save one life, or 10 lives or 1000 lives to me, that’s and that’s what my mission is to really make an impact and why I’m pursuing a speaking career heavily because I know I could touch impact lives in a major way. So

good, dude, that’s amazing. It’s like inch by inch. It’s a cinch right by the yard. Yeah, dude, just get little bit little bit little bit. I

love that. You’re gonna love it. Love it. So what do you think people misunderstand the most about you?

Um, I don’t know. That’s a good question. I you know, I’m so transparent about who I am. You know, and so authentic? I don’t know. I mean, I think there’s there are okay, I’ll give you one. So when my mentor told me, he said, All right, I challenge you to go meet three total strangers every day. Mike. All right. And we’re you know, we’re in the northeast, you know, just moved recently outside of New York and Stamford, Connecticut, but still northeast, you talk to strangers, they want to shoot you, you, you know, we were programmed as a kid, you know, talk to strangers, don’t do it. Because you’re gonna kidnap you, you know. So it’s not something you do. Right. Right. I did it. And it was funny. I would have people be like, you know, Oh, this guy’s trying to scam me. What the heck? Like, come on, man. What about like, oh, man, good human behavior. Like who said that? Just because you talk to somebody or reach out to somebody and get that on LinkedIn sometimes? What’s the agenda? When

the agenda is that you share with me? Thank

you. Why don’t we get to know each other see it this way is going to add value. Why bother connecting so that there’s probably that one piece that people still think there’s an agenda here? Sure. No, the agenda is how can it be a blessing to you? I’m sorry, if you think maybe your your self esteem is so low that you think there’s no way that something good could possibly come your way just genuinely like that’s, that’s it. So probably if there’s any misinterpretation is what’s the agenda and the agenda is really, I want to help you,

Spiro, I’ll tell you what, man, it’s like I live in South Florida on the East Coast. Right. So I 95 Corridor runs right up to where you’re kind of from, right. So it’s like when I first moved down from the Midwest, dude, I mean, yeah, I’m a big dude, I’m 61 to 60. Pretty well put together, whatever. But it’s like, I give hugs. Like when you and I meet in the flesh, I’d be like, what’s up? CBT? I tell you, I tell you, I love you all the time even whenever I sense if you love your guts broken, I mean that you down here, like you sell someone from Brooklyn or Boston or whatever they’re like, but but I did a deep dive into why. Right. So I was like, waiting at the population. There’s crazy. Everybody’s on top of each other a lot of places there. These ones are Spaceman so Fergie, you can’t be the hugger, to get them to, you know, like, make a connection with them find something in common, you know, because I just am a Lions fan. And they’re like, Well, okay, I feel sorry for you what I’m saying. So it’s like that I get them and then I’m hugging and stuff like that. Thank you for being transparent with that, brother. That’s frickin awesome. So, outside of anything electronic, what are three things that Steve can’t live without?

Wow. Well, for me, it’s my it’s my relationship with my heavenly Father. We cannot believe that doesn’t offend anyone. But that is

for me. I’m Christian brother. Everybody knows. So it’s okay. To like, yeah,

absolutely. And that’s, that’s super important to me. My relationship with my wife she’s sitting right right nearby. Value where we’re not married that long. Only 32 years.

feel like there’s a few like 32 minutes underwater. I’m kidding. Okay, the spirit. Have you heard that? I’m just kidding.

Anyway, and then yeah, I think one of the things that I love doing is traveling and and I am so happy that masks are off and things are starting to come on out. Especially in the Northeast for COVID Because I love traveling. And that’s a huge passion of mine. So besides that the helping people part and the why I love traveling, is I get to meet people and like so so traveling and

it’s out of South Florida bad I’ll take out some good stuff your brother loved. Oh, man. It’s funny you one thing that I think you forgot us community do. I think you have to have you’re such a connector. You’re a master connector. I love it. I love it. Time to shine today podcast varsity squad. We are back with my good friend Steve Spiro here, the master connector and Stevie one day you and I are going to have you know, a dinner drinks, whatever. And we’re going to talk probably 1520 minutes about each one of these questions. Okay, but you got five seconds with no explanation so you have to turn off the East Coast Hockey and just answer a quick alright my brother. Yeah, let’s do this. Steve What are what’s the best leveling up advice you’ve ever received?

That’s leveling advice what you’ve ever received. I received didn’t get Yeah, basically find a dream and make sure you pursue that dream for sure.

Sure whatever your personal habits are contributes to your success.

I meditate every morning and that has kept me to totally focused that’s for sure.

That’s fantastic brother. So you see me walking down the street. And Fergie looks like he’s a little bit in his doldrums. What book Mike Jami.

I love the book guy, you know the compound effect by Darren Hardy. Great

movie, man. What’s your most commonly used emoji when you text?

Me smiley face because I’ve got this personality that’s pretty driven. And I need to soften up when I message people. They think I’m yelling at them. Smiley face.

Was there any other nicknames? Besides Spanish growing up?

Any other any other languages

that nicknames nicknames other than stuff? Nice. That’s cool. That’s cool. New Year’s resolution this year.

My wife is reminding me that my Spiro here was the other nickname. That was not growing up though. Anyway, you said New Year’s resolution?

Yeah this year.

So I don’t believe in resolutions I believe in commitments, so I don’t do it every

day. Maybe every day I moved to one make someone smile every single day and to unless I’ve hurt you offended you I give zero shits about what you think about me. That’s how I live that’s my resolution. All right. Chess checkers on monopoly. Chess. Love it. What’s your go to ice cream flavor?

But it began hugging time there’s

a the there is a sandwich named Euro. What’s on this sandwich brother

I’m a big a big American cheese guy so I’m gonna I’m gonna probably have to go with two Yeah, basically Turkey and American cheese. Perfect. Yeah, with with mustard and mayo, mustard male god and coastline it

here we go. We got some of them shops on here, brother. Come on down. favorite charity in our organization like to give your time or money to

Alzheimer’s Association. I’m actually going to be doing a talk on it on that locally here and now in Westchester. But my dad suffered from Alzheimer’s and passed away about a couple of years ago. And so the big, big area that I really haven’t

appreciated. I’m really sorry. But thank you. Last question. You can elaborate a little bit on this one. But what’s the best decade of music? 60s 70s 80s or 90s?

Wow. I would say I would say for me 90s. Now for at least a 90s. Because it is it was an area that I started to come into my own right. It’s a beginning you know, the rest of my my whole childhood. It was dark. It was dark for me. And so in the 90s Right I graduated I started my company I was already starting to get you know started you know started already. You’re already at that point, I was already a black belt. I was starting to feel some confidence in who I am. And that that’s that’s it. It doesn’t have to do with the decade itself. But it has to do with where I was at that point in time.

That funny man has something that can just like pop up just a song just bring you back to that time. Yeah, that’s awesome. Do so see how can we find you, brother? What’s that? How can we find you?

Oh, how we finally Sorry, I’m having trouble here and apologize. That’s the easiest way is these bureau.com. Okay, so just you know, it takes me right to it’s like a digital business card. It’s basically like, it’s a really

cool website squad go there. It’s really cool. The spirit.com

And then the other way is on LinkedIn. I’m a big LinkedIn guy. I mentioned it before. So that is a great way just find these these failures. You’ll see the master connector right there on the spot. I challenge you. If you got the if you got Greg. All right. If you got Greg, find me on LinkedIn and connect with me if you don’t, don’t connect with me.

Grit is a monotonous activity, man. You gotta have grit and just get through it everyday. So when you drop in a book

it’s funny you say that? I’m

Pashtoon I’d like to Yeah, the book would freaking be awesome.

I definitely want to drop a book very soon. I’m definitely planning

to write a business parable do selling you want

to Title I already know what I’m doing. It’s gonna be parallel parallel parable based. That is my black belt. You ready? Ready for the Do you remember that? You read a book that Abruzzi broke, which is the Dougie Kudo?

I’ve never read it, but I do know it. It’s actually I think sitting on my shelf. I just never really got through it. So

and there’s also for those who aren’t marginalized is the Tao of boo of poo. Yeah, baby. Yeah, that’s my books gonna be titled. And you know, a black belt. Okay, the Dow of a master connector. The way the Dow is the way of and it’s going to be a bunch of parables and stories and have some really good messages but it’s gonna It’s really gonna inspire but it’s gonna it’s gonna teach in a very storyline way it’s gonna

be for you man that’s what I did you know I’m the you do Bob Berg you wrote the Go Giver yeah you know so he’s like my neighbor so I’m lucky I can write stuff and things get kind of bounced off and it’s nice I can’t wait to read your book dude so make sure I get that advanced copy so do me one last favor because I know you got to scoot here in a minute but what you leave us with one last Knowledge Nugget you want us to take with us internalize and take action

you mentioned it before be Go Go Giver, Bob was on our show. Definitely be others focused right? Get over yourself. Get out of your own way. Know that you can be amazing and go share the love with people out there. Whether you’re doing in sales, whether you’re doing it in in whatever you’re doing, just be others focused, be a Go Giver, and you will see the Law of Reciprocity kick in a major way. And when I started to really shift to being a Go Giver and really changed that that perspective. 2020 in the midst of a pandemic was an incredible year best year yet 2021 was even better and 22 is looking even better than that. So it’s amazing.

Absolutely. In squad we really just got a really short sweet, quick, phenomenal masterclass from my good friend, the master connector, Steve Spiro, you know, they will remind us that what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger, that the obstacles that we go through gives us strength and experience to continue to level up and help others level up. Steve will drop videos, posts that add value and really not expecting anything in return, but it will come to him return because he’s open to that law of mental reciprocity. You know, he’s someone that loves to mentor and like I always say, the more you mentor, the more immortal you become. He’s passing it forward. His passion for Stevie is planting trees that he will never sit in the shade of, because he’s such a Go Giver like our boy, Bob Berg, you know, and that he reminds us Lastly, that to success is you know how many people off are better off because of you breathing air on this planet? So get out there and help others level up.

That’s what my good friend Steve does. He levels up. It’s how he levels up his wealth. He’s humble yet he’s hungry. He’s part of the time to shine today. Podcasts are scheduled during your varsity letter, brother. Thank you so much for coming. I love your guts, man. I can’t wait to collaborate with

you. Appreciate you sir. That’s awesome. Really appreciate the honor. Think back

check soon. Hey, thanks so much for listening to this episode of time to shine today podcast. proudly brought to you by Southern New Jersey real estate real estate excellence who can be reached at 561-249-7266 and online at www dot Sutter in nugent.com. If you’re a business owner or professional who would like to be interviewed on time to shine today, please visit time to shine today.com Flash guest. If you liked this episode, please subscribe on Apple podcasts, Google podcasts, Stitcher, Spotify, I Heart Radio or wherever you get your podcasts. There’s a link in the show notes to our website. Also there you will see a recommended resources. We hope that you will support our show by supporting them. If you like what you’ve been listening to, it’d be great if you could just give us a five star rating and tell your friends to subscribe while you’re at it. I’m your host Scott Ferguson. And until next time, let’s level up it’s our time to shine

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