Dan Pena is one of my favorite high performance coaches, I have watched a lot of his stuff for years and I watch his QLA castle seminars every time he puts them up for the last year or so. Infact the first time I have seen Dan Pena was on a London Real interview.
One of the problems with Dan Pena is that most people will dislike him because hes aggressive, offensive and hes ontop of people. But this isn’t a problem because it filters all the snowflakes away, when I send “friends” videos of Gary Vee, Grant Cardone and Dan Pena for the first time, they always give a bad first impression, due to cockiness, brutal honesty, arrogance, narcissism, but my “friends” reaction is an indicator of their broken mindset not the speakers.
So, why is Dan Penas program so effective?
Firstly, if you want to be very successful, the way someone talks, walks, thinks, swears shouldn’t be a problem, its normally an excuse to not follow someone, people can go back into their pit of guilt free prograstination, most people especially these guys have a lot of value to give, if people are put off by offensive words and aggressiveness, then they will never get all the obstacles to wealth. You need some arrogance at a higher level, because you have mastered some areas and you know you are right, you need to be a confident leader to get people to follow, you need to risk offending people to get the honesty in their face.
I will just talk about Dan Pena from now on because I want to address why hes successful at changing people.
The first filter is the coarse language, brutal honesty, non-pc language, most the snowflakes will leave by now and leave a butt hurt comment and go back to watching breaking bad.
Then on his website, he has three quizzes, Success Test, Snow Flake Test and the Super success test. That should scare a few people off or filter them…
After a bit more video watching of shouting and yelling, telling people he wants people that aim high only, raises the bar massively on what he thinks wealth really is, makes it very clear he doesn’t want people dragging their feet, he is sure to only have the most motivated people begging for a place at his hardcore seminar.
Some losers would argue that of course, he has a good success rate when he’s got all these filters, but real life has effort barriers anyway and it makes no sense to train people that don’t have the undying motivation to see things through, he does this for satisfaction, not just the money, so he wants to get paid (by seeing people successful).
I see these charlatans do this with shitty courses, there is always someone successful anyway regardless of doing their course or not, and they find successful people and can use the social proof to show that their course is worth alot of money. (Dan Pena is not one of these types)
Next filter is the price tag of around 15,000 USD, (this is for 7 days seminar and then 1 year of follow up) the reason why books do not work well in changing people, (despite more info than most courses) is that books are 10 USD and there is no accountability. (I wrote here about best ways to learn) Anyone that has paid so much, travelled so far not only wants it real bad, they also want to get a return, especially if they have borrowed the money or sold everything for the ticket. Sadly this is human nature and its not Dan’s problem, many people will offer free advice or coaching but it gets ignored, (I found this out very quickly) you really have to charge a premium to get serious people in, take massive action and to make them work their asses off.
What do I like about Dan Pena?
- he’s made money and proven himself
- he raises the bar on work ethics (I get so frustrated with people having so many excuses)
- he pushes people to higher goals, this is a good way of making people achieve much more even if they don’t get anywhere as near
- he lets people know there is a lot of sacrifices to make for lofty goals
- he doesn’t tell people what they want to hear, he pretty much knocks everyone down a peg or two when they arrive, egos are a real problem in personal growth
- he holds people accountable and he is really on their back during a mentorship
- he makes everyone dress smart which raises everyone’s work ethics and expectations, the surroundings do that also
- he’s a great speaker, talker, influential
- he’s funny
- he gets emotional and motivates people
- he points out self-esteem is a huge issue
- he’s confident and cocky which makes him a good leader
- he’s not racist, he says everyone is a problem, which is so true!
- he uses a lot of bad language which wakes people up and makes them take action
What do I dislike?
There are a few contradictions in what he says, says he doesn’t care about people, but seems to care, says he has no feelings towards mentees, tells people they deserve/should go off and die if they don’t do certain things…. he says he would put people in hospital over insults. But I understand the shock value, it’s great marketing, I understand that he’s got a job to do, and that’s controlling peoples wild egos.
I actually love his non-pc and don’t give a shit attitude. But I am always thinking to myself under this hard exterior there must be a caring guy… but we all contradict ourselves because we can’t be literal. I say I don’t give a crap about certain peoples opinions but that’s not possible, especially if they are getting an audience, there are always lots of “if’s and buts”, but I notice a lot of speakers talk a lot and there give many things away about themselves. But if he stroked everyone’s ego and tried to congratulate them on previous deals, would it work so effectively? I don’t think so. I am pretty good at figuring people out, but when things do not align, it’s tough for me to figure them out.
My friend messaged him about something negative and he got a long reply in capitals, it was more of a rant but he was added as a friend on LinkedIn anyway, I sent a nice messages of a photo up of Dan next to my computer, saying “Just do it” He read it but no reply, which tells me he responds better to attacks/drama or a bit of negativity. Gary Vee pays more attention to negative comments, but that’s our fuel for motivation.
Dan Pena says “if love got the job done, you wouldn’t be here” this is really key to success because I have seen many spoilt children be worthless in the sense of adding value to anything, but those of us that had our ass kicked, we have become successful to spite those around us!
Our friends drag us down generally because they want us to be safe, our enemies abuse us and want us to fail, our enemies are our motivators, Dan Pena can be that tough father figure that people never had.
Why haven’t I been to Dan Pena’s Seminar?
I said to a few friends that I would go to Dan’s seminar if they would, but at the same time, my business is going well and I want to keep investing and the 15,000 USD cost would actually set back my current investing, its not a lot of money but its a setback. Also, I enjoy my life and what I do, I never want to be sat in an office doing roll-ups and doing a 9-5 pm thing with corporate people around, I enjoy my businesses and my progress. I apply Dan’s motivation and teaching to kick my own ass. He entertains me, I don’t watch movies, sports, soaps or drink alcohol. I have journals, checklists, accountability tools up to my ears, partly to test them for future clients, but for myself when I have some goals I want to achieve, but they get tiring sometimes, so I go in and out of them. I really don’t want it for a year. I like to work my balls off 7 days a week on my own terms. My happiness is more important than financial goals, but if I’m always prepared to make many sacrifices for the right deals, I’m just not going to go look for problems for myself, I would rather follow the path that I am in.
Why do I watch Dan Pena then?
I want to be a high-performance coach, I like inspiring, motivating people, I love helping people change their mindset, I love the process, I love seeing people grow, there are much more lucrative businesses to be in, but I am proving myself as a high performance person, I am getting the skills to help people, I am practising on people around me without them knowing…. one day people will ask me to coach them and I will be able to do a bespoke high-quality coaching/accountability/motivation course/followup/consultation. But like Dan, I don’t want to take any prisoners, I want people that are truly fed up with life and want to make changes. I have my proven record already but nothing at Dans level financially, but higher than most around me.
But it all boils down to the work ethics, processes and the mindset.
Conclusion
If you want to think big, be motivated, raise the bar on your work ethics, know its ok to sacrifice time with friends/family, have your time accounted for, check who you hang out with, and follow his process of making 2000 phone calls to get the jackpot. Then Dan Pena is a good person for you to watch, but if you are too PC and are a snowflake, you won’t like him. (doesn’t mean everyone that doesn’t like him is a snowflake) I suggest you watch a few of his university keynotes, like most speakers he repeats himself and doesn’t have many messages, but he’s also got a good process of buying companies from motivated sellers, putting them together and selling them.
He has so many videos that are amazing, let YouTubes algorithm decide for you
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=dan+pena
Further Reading
