ep. 18 - Mark L. Walberg: TV Personality, Author, and Keynote Speaker
Bio
Mark L. Walberg is a television personality best known for hosting PBS' ANTIQUES ROADSHOW. He started his television career as an assistant at Dick Clark Productions and quickly moved in front of the camera as the announcer for the popular game show Shop Til You Drop and then as host of Burnt Toast, a sports magazine show on ESPN. It was there that the late Brandon Tartikoff noticed his work, and that association produced the nationally syndicated The Mark Walberg Show.
Walberg has hosted and been featured in an array of popular talk, reality competition, and game shows, including the FOX hit The Moment of Truth. He also has hosted home improvement competitions The Mansion andHouse Rules, knowledge quiz shows Test the Nation and Russian Roulette, and won The Weakest Link as a contestant playing for charity. He also hosted the relationship challenge Temptation Island. Realizing a long-held ambition to produce, Walberg created and produced Sunday Dinner.
In 2017, Mark will be releasing his new book, Appraise This: How Life on the Road Taught Me What is Valuable, which will detail the four criteria that appraisers look for in antiques and collectibles that readers can apply to business and personal relationships to increase their effectiveness and value.
Transcript
ep. 18 - Mark L. Walberg: TV Personality, Author, and Keynote Speaker
Kyle Davis: With us today is Mark Walberg, and I know what you're thinking. It's not that Mark Walberg. Just kidding. Hey, Mark. How are you doing today?
Mark Walberg: I'm great. Of course it depends on who's listening. I might be the right Mark Walberg for [00:01:30] some of them.
Kyle Davis: You are always the right Mark Walberg for me. I love it.
Mark Walberg: I always tell people that there's a famous movie actor and a famous underwear model. I'm not him. I'm wearing that underwear, but on Skype you can't tell, so it's okay.
Kyle Davis: I think it's fair. The only reason why I introduced you like that in case people are wondering is that you have great little highlight reel that pokes fun at that. But while we have you on, and just in case some people are kind of going, "Hey, who's this Mark Walberg guy?" if they're not [00:02:00] so familiar with you, just give them you background. Let them know who you are?
Mark Walberg: My name is Mark Walberg, although I have to show my ID quite regularly when I say that, and I most notably, I guess most people would know me as the host of Antiques Roadshow for 12 years, although I've done all kinds of television for close to 30 years, so it depends on what show you saw me on, but for the most part host of Antiques Roadshow has been what most people know me for lately. [00:02:30] Yeah, I guess that's me, although it depends on what circle I run in because most people know me as Morgan and Goldie's dad, my kids, like day to day. Or you may know me from several game shows that I've done and reality shows as well.
Kyle Davis: Yeah. I feel like you're the guy that, and I mean this with kindness when I say this, but people know your face when they see you. I'm like, "I know that face," which I think is a kind of fun thing because I used to work [00:03:00] in media and people were like, "I know who that person is that you work on the show. I just don't remember that name."
Mark Walberg: I talk about that a lot because I get recognized quite a bit, but the difference between actors and what I do, because I'm a host, and my job is playing me. I have to be an authentic version of myself. I always use as a barometer of my success my reaction, my interactions with people I see on the road. Often in the airport I'll meet people. Instead of them walking up to me like you would to an actor and go, "Excuse [00:03:30] me, Mr. Walberg. Can I get a picture? I'm a big fan," my fans walk up as though we've been in a conversation and immediately start talking about stuff like we've been hanging out and having coffee.
I'll get people walk up to me and go, "Mark, this is a watch my grandfather gave me. What do you think?" That familiarity, that feeling as though they have met me before I take as the highest form of compliment and the best barometer of am I projecting an authentic version of myself that people can connect to when they see me in real like.
Kyle Davis: [00:04:00] That's a good segue into the first topic of discussion, which is your upcoming book, which is entitled Appraise That, it's coming out in April, in which you talk about your time I guess with Antiques Roadshow and what it's taught you. You're talking about this authenticity, and there's a reason behind that. Can you tell us what it is?
Mark Walberg: Sure. I've been on Antiques Roadshow for about 12 years, and [00:04:30] every time someone discovers that or recognizes me from that, they think I'm an expert with antiques and collectibles. I have to tell you that after a decade hanging out with all of these experts, I still don't know anything of substance as it comes to antiques and collectibles. What I have learned from these experts is how to recognize value, and some of these tools I'm about to discuss with you are things I've done all my life but didn't realize their value until I broke it [00:05:00] down. What I found is the basic four criteria that appraisers look for in antiques and collectibles when applied to business and personal relationships can infinitely increase your effectiveness and value.
If you bring in a piece of art glass or a piece of furniture, an appraiser is going to look at it through basically four lenses. One, is it an authentic piece or a reproduction? After it passes that muster, the next three define [00:05:30] how valuable it is. It's authentic, but is it rare? If it's rare it becomes even more valuable. Then the third one is it's rare, and it's authentic, and it's in mint condition, and it becomes even more valuable.
Finally, if it has this, provenance, it's not just rare. It's not in mint condition. It's not just authentic, but there's a historical importance to this piece that has added even more value. Of course that makes sense when we're talking about chairs, or art glass, or [00:06:00] rifles, but how does that work when we talk about business and personal relationships? I found that there's no difference, that we can present ourselves ... I always use this example: You could put two chairs next to one another. One is an authentic chair from the 17th century. The other is a reproduction you bought at IKEA, and in that moment they both serve exactly the purpose they're supposed to: You can sit in either one of them.
At the encounter level [00:06:30] with nother more, it works, but beyond that, does the chair from IKEA hold value? The fact of the matter is, as soon as you bring it out of the store, it becomes less valuable every day you use it. What I always talk about is, are you in your business being a priceless antique, a rare treasure, or are you an IKEA reproduction serving a purpose like one that you thought was good, [00:07:00] but would really have no sustainable value in the future? Getting there is much easier than you think.
Kyle Davis: Right. Would you say that it's almost like being first to market with something or at least having maybe the ultimate idea?
Mark Walberg: Yes. That's a great example of rarity. Being first to market is a rare moment. You are the only thing, but we don't often get that opportunity, nor is that within our control. Sometimes we're involved [00:07:30] in a business plan, or a product, or a service that is not first to market, nor is it the only one to market, so that takes rarity right out of the picture, but I say it doesn't because you may have something that's similar, and you may be competing, but your behavior and your relationship to how you bring that to market can be rare behavior. What I found is quite rare is [00:08:00] transparency and authenticity in presentation.
I'm sort of preaching the anti-sales, that it's great to have a spiel. It's great to have a pitch, but what's better is not to even think about what it is you're selling, but to be of service. When you flip the script and you realize that when you go in to see your client, rather than thinking about how you make Presidents Club, how you're going to get this widget sold, I like [00:08:30] to run it through the filter of, how can I present this in a way that's of service, truly of service, to the person I'm speaking with? Then what happens, rather than what I like to call an "encounter," which is a one-time experience, it become a relationship, and it grows from that point, right?
Kyle Davis: Right.
Mark Walberg: By presenting in an authentic manner, you have now displayed what I consider to be rare behavior, which adds to your value because it's not something that's often heard. People don't usually put other people's thoughts before their own, [00:09:00] and one of the strongest things that people can learn is that on the other side of the table when you're pitching or trying to do business, most people really just want to feel as though they've been heard, that their concerns have been heard. If you slow your roll to listen before you speak, you've already displayed what I consider rare behavior, which has value.
Kyle Davis: There is sales 101 my friends. I remember I did software sales for a long time, for a number of tech companies in [00:09:30] New York and San Francisco. We were all about authenticity, and so when everybody asked the price, we're like, "Here's the price up front, but here's why. This is why we're different." I came from a real pushy sales background when I was in college and whatnot, and when I made this pivot to this open and authentic and very transparent way of selling, it became more conversational. It became a service. I still have people calling me, and [00:10:00] I haven't worked for one of these companies for like two or three years, which is [crosstalk 00:10:04].
Mark Walberg: You hit it right on the head. You could probably walk in and I have the gift of gab, and I could probably walk in with very little prep with any product you have and close a deal. Closing a deal is not building a business, the difference between job and career. My first mentor and my only mentor is the late Dick Clark. Early in my career he said to me as we were picking a television show, and I was trying to dance [00:10:30] around the fact that it was similar to other TV shows, I was trying to hide that, he said to me, "Mark, if you have an Achilles' heel, you say it first and it becomes a positive." That's the transparency thing.
I'm not interested in closing a deal today for a commission today. What I'm interested in is closing a deal today that ends up being business for the next 20 years. As a speaker, and that's the only way I can compare it is that my work as a host, MC, and speaker [00:11:00] is I'm not first to market there. There are plenty of people who offer what I'm offering. Why do I have a 99% repeat rate of business with my clients? Because I've made what I would consider the rare choice, which was a natural choice for me, but I've now sort of deconstructed it. I've made the rare choice to not write an act per se.
One of the things I hated when I got in the corporate arena was seeing speakers who obviously were delivering a speech they've [00:11:30] heard that they've delivered many times over with holdouts to put the name of today's client in those spaces.
Kyle Davis: I can tell you that the speakers bureaus, and I'm speaking for myself, but I guess for a larger extent GDA Speaker, we hate that too. It is annoying.
Mark Walberg: I think what happens is for those people who were there, your audience, it's pretty transparent. You think you're fooling them, but they're very well-aware because within the culture of each business is a language. There's a lexicon. [00:12:00] Within that culture anything that is ... Any time you misspeak to that lexicon, you're demeaning the importance of their business. This goes to flipping the script, as I spoke earlier. Rather than going out to say, "I'm going to be awesome here and you guys are going to appreciate how awesome I am," I prefer to go in and say, "You are Awesome. I'm amazed at what I've learned in the short time that I've had experience with you, of what you're doing, and I [00:12:30] admit to what I don't know, but I'm here to be of service to help you be as effective as you can in that time that I have you."
What happens in return is that authentic projection of me truly being there, truly choosing to be interested in their business ends up changing my title from "speaker" to "team member." It changes the relationship. It changes the relationship. It creates a relationship rather than an experience or an encounter. Other people will do great jokes, [00:13:00] and great speech, and great turns of praises, and great seven keys of success sort of thing, but once you've heard it, I can't do it next year. I've heard it.
My situation is I come in and listen to what's not being said and what's being said. I listen to what I'm told about the company and integrate as a member of their culture. Now I have clients like the American Pharmacists Association. By the way, I knew as much about pharmacy as I did antiques, but I MCed [00:13:30] their national meeting for nine straight years. I'm actually an honorary pharmacist now and the voice of their lobby in DC.
Kyle Davis: Congrats to you.
Mark Walberg: Thank you, but what I found is I know how to chose how to be interested at a level that is appreciated by those who are interested and have spent their life's work on something that you and I might consider mundane or of no interest. But for me, if they're interested, I'm interested. I can be authentically [00:14:00] a part of what you are trying to create. Let me be a vehicle or a facilitator of that, and people respond to that. That works in a one-on-one in an office or in a bigger situation as I do. I think it's a huge tool I've stumbled upon and cultivated over the years that's one of the great keys to my success.
Kyle Davis: You mentioned this earlier, and I'm tying it back to it because I think it's important, sometimes the audience can't tell that the person maybe has given the speech 10, 15, 20 maybe 100 times before.
Mark Walberg: [00:14:30] The better ones hide it, yes.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, because the better ones do hide it, but the event planners and the people who book speakers before or people like myself, we're just sitting there, and we watch, and we're like, "This is the same thing." We strive for something authentic because it helps to connect the story to the person rather than, and we talked about this offline [00:15:00] before we went to record, but whether it's on Netflix or Hulu or TV, you can always change the channel.
Sometimes when it just seems so repetitive to me, it's like, okay, I can put this on pause and come back to it. I can watch the YouTube video where if it's the speaker it's the same thing. I want something genuine and new. I want a unique experience to that event at that moment in time.
Mark Walberg: It is relatively easy for almost anyone of us to take our life experience, write it down into a one-hour speech [00:15:30] and use hyperbole and emotion to make a speech flow. You'll touch some lives in doing so. What I prefer to do is listen closely to the room. I say this because for me it's a skill I've cultivated over the years of listening to the unspoken vibe that exists when 3,000 people are in a room, but it's no different if I were sitting one on one with let's say I'm a pharmaceutical rep and I go in with a doctor or I'm an insurance salesman and I go in with [00:16:00] a client. It's no different. The choice is different.
I grew up as a host, as an MC, as a moderator of TV shows, not as a standup comic, although many people have called me a comic. I do a lot of comedy, but there's a difference, and I'll give you an example. Standup comedy is vernacular. That lexicon I spoke about, their vernacular is and the situation is people are passively sitting in an audience with their arms folded saying, "Make me life."
Then someone comes out and says, [00:16:30] "Look at me. I'm going to be funny now." Then they throw their material out, and they either are funny or they aren't. At the end of the day, the comedian refers to that experience as, "I killed it. I slayed it. I murdered them." My experience is opposite of that. As a host, I don't look at me as the focal point. I look at the people in the audience as the important people.
Really I'm there being amused and entertained by you, who have asked me to come speak. What happens is [00:17:00] I can't even begin to talk to you, even though I may have an agenda of what I'd like to share with you, until I have heard where are you because each room has a different dynamic, and we don't realize a we go through our day, or it's harder to grasp when we're busy selling and pushing and having an agenda, being that IKEA chair, that reproduction of what we think is successful.
It's hard for us to slow that roll enough to listen to what's going on and go, "Oh, wait a minute. You're in a different place. [00:17:30] Let me speak to what you can hear right now. Let me truly be selfless and be of service to you." What will happen is you'll end up speaking this language that's authentic and cuts right through, and it is exactly saying out loud, "Look," I come out and say in my keynote, "you're going to see people and you have seen people who have climbed Mount Everest without the benefit of sight. You have seen people who swam from Cuba." Diana Nyad swam from Cuba to [00:18:00] Miami and failed several times. These are great stories.
I'm not that guy, but what I can tell you is I've been successful for 30 years in show business, and I've lived in show business and been married to a wife for 30 years, which in Hollywood years is 120 years. I have two children who have pursued incredibly huge businesses. My son is a naval aviator. My daughter is a professional ballerina, and they both text me four times a day, so something in my world has created success. [00:18:30] What I have done through the entire time is learn how to use those four principles I talked about: the rare behavior, taking care of the things ... I haven't talked about this too much, but condition, meaning take care of.
I keep my relationships in mint condition. The things that I care about, those are infectious to other people. Every time I meet a group rather than throwing some comedy at them, getting out of there, and collecting a check, I create a relationship, which in [00:19:00] antiques world is called a "provenance." That's historical importance. The next time I see them, we don't start from scratch. We build on the last time I saw them.
Most importantly, I call it like it is. I'm authentically who I am. That's why I come out and make a joke about being the lesser Mark Mahlberg because let's be honest: I'm not as famous as that guy, but what I have to say is as important, and while you have heard people talk about swimming to Miami or climbing Mount Everest, we all [00:19:30] have a Mount Everest. We all have it, and it's just as daunting even if it doesn't seem as dramatic. We all have a blind spot. It may not be literal blindness, and I don't have video to show me crossing a mountain pass with no sight, but anyone who's been stopped in what they hope to accomplish realizes that there are blind spots and mountains everywhere, and they're no loses daunting, and it's no less noble to overcome them.
Kyle Davis: Wow. [00:20:00] You mentioned, and I was curious as to how when you mentioned the four ways to provide value, authenticity, rare.
Mark Walberg: Yeah.
Kyle Davis: I get both of those. I was curious as to how you are going to approach the good condition. To just hear you say your relationships that you have are in mint condition, I was like that's a profound statement. That's pretty amazing.
Mark Walberg: You got to break it down this way: Why is condition important when you're collecting? I say it this way: If you have [00:20:30] two ... Let's say you have two Civil war muskets. One of them still has bluing on the barrel, and all the serial numbers match, and there's no scaring or pinning, or anything.
Kyle Davis: I thought you knew nothing about antiques.
Mark Walberg: I can fake it. I can [crosstalk 00:20:45]. What I will tell you is what that says is not this is a more coveted item than that one. It says that through the 150 to 200 years this item has been around, everyone who's come in contact with it or owned [00:21:00] it has recognized its importance and has taken care of it. That makes others want it more than the one that wasn't taken care of.
We have the opportunity to look at ourselves first of all as our most valuable asset. It's the only priceless asset we own. We're the only one of a kind we have in our collection, and everything else we do and realize that condition, which I'll use as ... Another word for "condition" is "care," that what [00:21:30] I care about authentically, others will care about. That's goes back to the first book of sales in the world. It's pretty basic, but it's the difference between pretending to like something and not.
I could tell you that caring about something is a choice. Take care of something as though it matters. Others will recognize that it does matter. Rarity is a tougher one to get around because we look at rarity as there are less of this because it's more valuable, but why? [00:22:00] Because that item has survived, that throughout all of this, this is, "I'm experiencing something that not a lot of people have had a chance to experience." That's what rarity is.
I spoke about how I approach an audience. Compared to my competition out there in the world, my approach is a rare behavior, and I've seen this all over. I use an example in the book of a family that I met along the way. We were shooting at this farm. We needed a farm. [00:22:30] We met this young couple. They had two kids, and they had this small, little farm. What they did was they grow food and they offer it by subscription to their neighbors. Every Friday they bring it to the church, and anybody who's paid the subscription gets a basket of whatever they grew.
What was rare about it was later learned that both of these young ... this young couple had several degrees in other fields. They were highly educated, but what they chose was a rare [00:23:00] choice. Their purpose and mission was to choose to do this co-op farm. I said, "Are you making any money?" They said, "We are doing what are goal was." I said, "What was your goal?" They said, "Our goal was to make the lowest end of middle income for our area of Iowa."
In that was a behavior so rare that it attracted neighbors and others beyond what they could expect. That's an example [00:23:30] of making what seems to be a noble choice. We make common choices every day I like to call reproductions, or we can make a rare choice. That's a left when everybody is going right. Those are usually driven by us listening to an authentic conversation. We make a choice, and when we make that rare choice, even if it's a subtle rare choice, it's shocking to the ear to the people receiving it because so view people make those authentic choices.
[00:24:00] That's our advantage, you understand, that the alchemy here, the making gold from iron or rust or tin is that very few people we encounter in our lives are authentic. That's why when you meet one, you can't understand why they are so powerful, why you want to be around them more. When we're that person even in a minute amount, we display rare behavior, and that rarity [00:24:30] is attractive, and people want it.
Then they listen to what you care about because you obviously are for real. Now it adds even more value. Then because you're listening to them, this encounter, this first experience, this first meeting with them, isn't a meeting that then comes and goes by the end of the afternoon. It's the beginning of a relationship or a provenance that adds value and continues to add value the longer you're in business together. That is not hinged upon closing a deal on that day.
Kyle Davis: [00:25:00] That was some good stuff right there.
Mark Walberg: Well, [crosstalk 00:25:05]. At the end of the day, it's our business and our relationships that are our collection. I've met people who collect. Some people collect discriminately, and everything in their collection has value. Some people just collect, bordering on hoarding. They want as much as they can get, and those are the people-pleasers. They want as many friends and possibilities as they can, right?
Kyle Davis: Yeah.
Mark Walberg: I think it's also important [00:25:30] to clear out the clutter, that you need to keep the meaningful things that have value because when you put something in your collection, you can't just leave it on the shelf. You got to take it out and take care of it or the condition will rot. You have to constantly maintain this collection and make sure it's appreciating in value. We can only do so many things, so it's important to look at everything, every business contact, every encounter we have, everything we're putting our energy in and saying, "Hey is this part of [00:26:00] a collection of value, or is this just stuff?" Get rid of the stuff and keep the collection.
Kyle Davis: Yeah. There's so much, especially kind of like in the business world, there's so much fluff. I have a few friends that do various marketing and research for a lot of companies based off of mailing lists that they can do email blasts on. This is ...
Mark Walberg: Yeah, smile and dial.
Kyle Davis: Smile and dial, kind of all that New Age kind of email marketing [00:26:30] or smile and dial marketing. There's the good list, and then there's the bad list. There's the, we paid for it, and we haven't [inaudible 00:26:38] it. We haven't done anything for it, or we've cultivated this list by having great content on our website and providing a real free service to everybody. Now these are people who want or maybe want to be our customers. It's a real different way of approaching it, but it's so much cleaner, and the value, [00:27:00] and it's a target-rich environment, I guess you could say.
Mark Walberg: We're seeing it everywhere. We look at emerging brands who are really killing it, Dollar Shave Club being one, Uber being another, these companies, right? Dollar Shave Club is the one I got to all the time because what did they do? They were just, they used comedy, but it was really authentic and transparent. "Look, if you're a dude, you really aren't thinking about grooming, although you should." It's really a pain in the neck because when you run out of razor blades, you got to go get somebody to unlock the [00:27:30] thing. Then you get their razor blades, and they cost a fortune.
What ends up happening is you use a terrible blade for as long as you can because you just don't want to go through the process. Their marketing approach is speaking directly, authentically, and transparently without the hype: "We're not the best razor in the world. We're not the this. We're not the that." I'm just saying, "Look, I get it. I get it. It's embarrassing and tough to buy your own razors. We'll send you razors. Just subscribe, and we'll take care of you."
That spoke to a lot. I [00:28:00] gave it as gifts to everybody. Most of the people I felt needed some grooming help, but I think that that is, "Look, we've gone from the boutique to the big box store, now to online marketing. We want less thrill. We want more truth. We know what we want. We want to be able to get it. The people and relationship that we keep are those people who deal with that kind of respect because, by the way, when you think you're selling, and dancing, and tap dancing, and smiling and dialing, and you think you're [00:28:30] getting one over, all you're really doing is being that snake oil salesman.
What I'd rather do is create a relationship with the person that if what I'm bringing to you doesn't serve you today, at least I hope that you see value in me and we can create something that's beneficial for both of us as time goes on because I'm not here for a hit it and quit it. I'm here to create a collection of people, places, and things that add value to me and to those [00:29:00] who are on the other side of it.
Kyle Davis: The one collector, or the one subgroup of collectors that I do look at, and I know a few of them because I grew up with some of them, but the people who collect Coca-Cola memorabilia, and I think from like a layperson or someone who has absolutely no interest in collecting anything Coca-Cola, you're like you've seen that logo a million times. It has nothing for you. But then for them, [00:29:30] to go through the steps, is it authentic? Of course it is, so we're going to move on to the next one: rare. Maybe this was just some little tin thing that they did in 1932, and it was like a limited run. There's that.
Is it in good condition? It's still in the box, mint, perfect. Then the provenance for them is this whole story or have a Coke today or whatever it is that Coke makes you feel when you drink an ice cold Coke when it's a hot day outside, or maybe it's the polar bears around Christmas, whatever-
Mark Walberg: [00:30:00] Santa Claus, who was created by ... I mean, the version of Santa Claus we have was created by Coca-Cola.
Kyle Davis: Wow. Shoot. I totally forgot about that.
Mark Walberg: I was at their archive. I did a whole piece on Coca-Cola collectible,s so I'm with you on this one.
Kyle Davis: Yeah, but I find it so fascinating because, again, as a layperson looking at it, you're just like, "It's Coke." Literally you heard me crack one open before I started. I was drinking a Coke before ... I rarely if ever drink Coke, but I have friends ... I have a friend's mom who doesn't drink Coke, but she collects Coca-Cola [00:30:30] memorabilia, and she loves it.
Mark Walberg: Here's the thing: Collecting in the actual collectible and antiques world, there's no rhyme or reason to it, and it's very fluid and subjective. Value, the value of an item changes as the wind, so what we always advise people in the collecting world is collect what you love, but when I translate this to business, I'm saying love your collection. [00:31:00] You really need to love, find a place to choose that interest, that care that condition, that love. That translates because what you care about, other people care about.
When we talk about condition, authenticity, and rarity of behavior and all that kind of stuff. When you talk about condition, don't mishear that, that if it's not mint, it's not valuable. This is the other thing I love people [00:31:30] to explore. The industry term with an antique and a collectible is called "honest wear." For instance, you can find a Coca-Cola sign that's pristine, and it may not be as valuable to the collector as that Coca-Cola sign that actually hung at a store and has some rust on it because that honest wear might add value.
We as a rare piece in our own collection also should embrace [00:32:00] honest wear. Let me explain why. Honest wear says that not only is this item possibly rare. Not only is this item authentic. Not only is this item important, but honest wear says it's useful, that over the years people have used it for the purpose it served, and it served well and continues to do so. While it may have a scar or two here, I prefer to do business with somebody that has a couple battle scars because they've been in the trenches doing [00:32:30] it than somebody who's pristine.
That's an example of how you, if you're not 20 and not a gorgeous ex-football player or something like that or whatever, or authentic you may include honest wear, but look at it the right way, like I said Dick Clark said, your Achilles' heel is your positive, your honest wear could actually speak to experience, having been there, having been used, having served a purpose. That's a real positive [00:33:00] as well.
Kyle Davis: The only collectible stuff that I'm really aware of, I'm like a car geek. I'm like a stupid car geek, but you can buy a Formula One car that's never hit the race track. The one that are more expensive are the ones that have gone on the race track. Maybe they have a little bumper damage. They've gone into a wall, but there's a story. There's use. We had a podcast we recorded a few weeks ago where we were talking about the most expensive care recently sold in action, which was a McLaren [00:33:30] F1, and it was a former race car. It has miles on it, and they were hard, hard miles, but it wasn't like a show room like under 100-mile car. It had 15,000, 20,000 hard race miles on it.
Mark Walberg: That goes a little bit both in condition and into provenance because from a collecting standpoint, if I had a brand new McLaren but I had another McLaren that has won several races, the historical story of the second [00:34:00] example will be more valuable even if it has honest wear. For us, when we get into talking about provenance, normally it is a qualifier of the history of something up to this point, that it is more valuable because of its importance.
For my audience and for the people who read my book, what I try to do is make this a challenge that you can create ... Provenance has to start somewhere. [00:34:30] Everything is not important until it becomes important, and it's on you and it's the game to play. I look at it all as a game because it's so easy to access, but the game is, how do I make this encounter, this meeting, this moment the beginning of something really cool and important that continues to grow?
Here's an example: You want into Starbucks every day. You see the same barista every day. You order the same drink every day. He says, "Thank you." You say, "Have a nice day," and you go. [00:35:00] That's a pleasant encounter. That's an IKEA chair. There's not value there other than the coffee you just received. What would happen if you chose to be interested in their life. I'm not talking about on a big level. I'm talking about proportionate to the level of contact, but you took a second in that same, "How are you?" and really asked, "Hey, how are you?" You take a moment to actually make that contact, to really be authentic even in the slightest way. You'd be surprised how this is one of those things [00:35:30] that a little goes a long way. It's like concentrate.
What happens is a connection happens, a moment of, "Hey, you saw me. I'm actually not just a guy in a green apron. You saw me here making coffee every day." That begins. The next day you come in it builds a little bit on that. By the third day, you're getting a free croissant. I'll give you another example. I travel a lot in business all the time, and one of the things that happens is I'm constantly checking in to flights, and flights are constantly getting delayed, and people are getting [00:36:00] rerouted. It happens, right?
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mark Walberg: I'll be in line, and I'll watch people come in, as I spoke before, with an agenda of their own: "I need to get on this flight. I need to do this," without any thought about the relationship they're about the enter into. I play it as a game. My kids call it the "Jedi mind trick." I flip the script immediately. For me, it's comedy. It could be anything for you.
When I walk up to the desk, my greeting usually is, "Good morning, airline professionals." I know that sounds cheesy for [crosstalk 00:36:29]. [00:36:30] It gets the reaction you just gave me. They laugh every time, but what it says actually is not so subliminally is, "Hey, I get it. You've got to do this all day. I get that you are the professional and I'm not. I get that whatever it is I need to do, you could do with a key stroke if you chose to. I'm at your mercy, and I respect what you have to do."
If you take that mindset and place it anywhere, what I found is people will actually show off [00:37:00] to show you how much power they have to make what your tiny request is possible. They could do anything: "Look how powerful I am. I can not only do this. I can upgrade you and you don't have to go through Chicago. Watch this. I'll show you how professional I am." That's the Jedi mind trick. What it really comes from is before me making my request of what I need from my day, taking a moment to say, "Hey, I see you. I see how hard you're working, and I heard the person in front of me just yelling at you. I get it. I don't want [00:37:30] your job. I couldn't do your job. I appreciate you. Let's start."
Kyle Davis: One of my favorite things to do is to ask somebody how they are, and always the response is, "I'm fine, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah." Then I follow it up with, "No, really, how are you?"
Mark Walberg: That's rare behavior.
Kyle Davis: Like a deer in the headlights.
Mark Walberg: Exactly.
Kyle Davis: It takes a moment, and then they go, "I'm kind of having kind of a crappy day." I'm like, "Okay, cool. Tell me about it." It just makes things ... you have that [00:38:00] sense about people, at least I do, and I'm like, "Okay, I know you just told me you're fine."
Mark Walberg: We all have the sense. That's what I'm saying. It's that sense you need to tap into. It's all right there.
Kyle Davis: I think we'll shelf it at that, but I think everybody needs to get your book. Again, it's Appraise That. It's coming out in April. We'll do another plug at it when we wrap up. Let's switch and pivot into, and you've mentioned this countless times so far, but you've [00:38:30] done a number of speaking engagements, I guess you could say, but you started primarily as an MC. What I would like to do is what's the backstory before that? Then we can get into what you've done in the MC space and what you're doing now with the [crosstalk 00:38:46].
Mark Walberg: Absolutely, and I'll preface it by saying there are two phrases I cling to all the time. I usually write them on the board or show them on a slide when I'm speaking. One of them is, "If you want to make God laugh, you make plans," [00:39:00] because you're kidding yourself if your plans are realistic. Have intention. Have preparedness. Have energy, but don't plan.
The other one is a quote that I'll probably misquote, but you'll get the gist of it, which is, "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy." It's from Hamlet, which means that your plan in your greatest imagination cannot unfold in the way that it actually will unfold, and the way that things unfold is [00:39:30] often well-beyond what you could even imagine as possible.
While geometry tells you that the shortest distance between two points is a straight line, I'm telling you that your shortest distance could be a circuitous route, but you got to accept the route and ride the wave because everywhere you go, every turn you go along the way is information and knowledge. Briefly, I came out from South Carolina when I was 19 years old as part of a musical theater group of young [00:40:00] kids singing and dancing, nonprofit. By the way, not a great singer, nor a great dancer, just was bringing my best me in, found a place, right?
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mark Walberg: Came out to California, ended up being a singing waiter. Then I got a job on a cruise ship. My fiance at the time also on the ship with me. We went to do it together, got off the ship and got married. At that point I said, "One of us has to get a career." I want to work at Clark Productions as a runner. I made [00:40:30] $40 a day, 20 cents a mile. Everything from that point forward has no bearing in reality and planning. Everything there was me just being authentic as me every day, and opportunities happen, and I jumped into them.
I was being a clerk, logging in invoices. They needed a warm-up guy. We actually were on set with Dick Clark, and they didn't have a warm-up comedian to entertain the studio audience. Dick said, "You know that kid from the office with the invoices [00:41:00] is pretty funny. Let's try him." I went on stage and had no frame of reference, but I was authentic with the audience or related with the audience and realize that I had no material like a comic, so if I was going to try to entertain them, it was only going to last for about two minutes, but everyone in the audience had a least two minutes of something interesting to me, and there are 200 of them.
When I flipped that script, I could go for hours, and I became the top warm-up guy in Hollywood. At the time, $4,000 for a couple of hours worked, [00:41:30] and I was doing every day of the week, now you couldn't get enough of me. One of my favorite things would be to do the job and then not do it the next week, and have them higher somebody else, and they would hire me back for twice the money.
That as the first left turn that took me from my plan, which was just to learn production to ended up on the other side of the camera. There were so many experiences I can tell you that went like that. I hosted my first show, but I wasn't even supposed to be [00:42:00] the host of that show. I got it by default. I ended up getting my own talk show with the late Brandon Tartikoff is the executive producer.
When that was canceled, I had to go back to being a warm-up guy. I had to be humble and go do my thing, but authenticity runs true. Rare behavior and showing up, was there, and before I knew it I was hosting this new reality show that I was diametrically opposed to. It was not who my life is. I'm a married guy, [00:42:30] loyal to my wife, with beautiful children. All was good, and I'm forced to host Temptation Island.
Kyle Davis: I love Temptation Island.
Mark Walberg: But here's the lesson.
Kyle Davis: I remember that, yeah.
Mark Walberg: Here's the lesson: It would have been very easy for me to host Temptation Island with my hands rubbing together going, "Let me see who I can get to cheat?" What I did was say, "How do I host this in a way that's authentic?" That's the only thing that's going to work, so I hosted it from a standpoint of you think as single people, but you're dating and you have problem with your relationship, [00:43:00] you think being single again and dating other people is going to help and answer your questions.
I'm married, and I've been around maybe 10 or 15 years more than you guys have, so I'm going to stand in the place of, "I'll give you what your fantasy is, but be careful what wish for because the answers to the questions you're looking for, I've already found, and they're not here." Standing there was authentic for me. Out of that I ended up hosting Antiques Roadshow, the most conservative, [00:43:30] respected show on television. That makes no sense. If you went by plan, that doesn't work, right?
Kyle Davis: Right.
Mark Walberg: Quickly I'll tell you how that went down. I get a call from my agent saying, "They were looking for a new host for Antiques Roadshow, and they want to meet with you." I immediately said, "Are you sure you've got the right Mark Walberg?" I ended up going to a lunch with the executive producer and her team. They were very postured.
Before we even ordered she says to me right off the bat, "Why do you think you'd be a good host for Antiques Roadshow?" I said [00:44:00] without hesitation, "Marsha, I have no idea. You called me." That elicited a laugh and a nervous sort of moment. Then I said, I searched myself quickly and said, "Be authentic." I said, "The way I see it, you have the best expertise on TV already on the show. You don't need my role to be an expert. I don't know a thing about antiques, and I'm going to venture, guess I'm a lot like many of your audience. I'm a student, and I'm willing to be the student for your [00:44:30] experts." I got the job.
My route has been circuitous, but it's the fastest way I could get there. There are story upon story upon story of shows that have come not through the front door but through the back door. That's what I always talk about: You think you're going in the door selling one item, when in fact you're not selling anything. You're presenting you and the possibility of you, which is far greater than that one item.
I recently produced a show on my own [00:45:00] that aired on PBS and got nominated for an Emmy that I hosted, I executive produced, and I wrote. To make it a series, I have find funding. In the process I was reaching out to people. I reached out to a company to fund the show. Conversation went well, using some of the tools I've been talking about. I created a relationship right away, where we were vibing and it was very exciting. They wanted to have a meeting, so I went to a meeting, and I told them what I'm about, but I listened to what they were about first, as I talked about.
[00:45:30] Three days later they called me back and said, "Look, we love your show, but it' snot going to fit into our model. We can't fund it." I was disappointed, but I said, "Okay, but I really feel good about our meeting. If I can be of service, let me know. If you change it, let me know." Later I get a call out of the blue from my commercial agent. I didn't recognize the number because they never call. Company offered me a spokesperson job to be the host of their commercial, which is running nationally and has paid me far more than I was even asking for.
That [00:46:00] goes back to, "There are more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in your philosophy." It was not my intention to get a commercial. It was my intension to be of service to their company and let my product be the vehicle of service. It turned out it wasn't that that they bought; it was me that they bought.
Kyle Davis: I know the ad that you're talking about.
Mark Walberg: Yeah, it's running all over the place. I can't escape it, and I can go further to say, and this is exactly what I'm talking about, the difference between reproduction and an authentic [00:46:30] piece of collection. Those people I met in that meeting are now my friends and part of my collection. I'm currently in a deal with them to produce a national, prime-time game show based on their technology that's far bigger than what I came in to talk about, and it wasn't anything that I was thinking about until they mentioned it.
Kyle Davis: Do you want to tell people what the commercial is or the company is?
Mark Walberg: I'm now the face of a commercial for 23andMe, which is a DNA testing site. When I met with them, which [00:47:00] was to have them fund a history show that I produced, they were excited about their product. Before I got into my pitch, I had to put the brakes on. I listened to what they were talking about, and I was fascinated. I chose to be fascinated by the possibilities that this DNA service could provide.
In talking to them, we got excited about that relationship. I think they felt validated that I got it, what they're struggling with every day. Now [00:47:30] we're in business on three levels. That's what I'm trying to teach in my book. I'm trying to tell you it's not good enough just to close one deal. You want to create a collection on your shelf of valuable pieces that you can pull out and grab value from every day, and they grow in value as time goes on.
Kyle Davis: It's about the spin-offs, people.
Mark Walberg: That's it. You don't even know what they are. You have to know what they are.
Kyle Davis: I'll tell you a funny little story about 23andMe. It was a Christmas gift from my mom, [00:48:00] to her. She did the full work up, the full genealogy work up and all the disease tests and everything else. My brother did it and I did it. We've always, my grandma is convinced that we have Native American in us. We finally got all the paperwork done to prove it, but if you look at me, I don't look 1/16 Native American. I don't claim to ... I don't do a lot of [00:48:30] stuff. I could legally but I don't, applying for school and all that other fun stuff.
Boom. I send off my test results, and it comes back. Native American. I got it. I'm like, "Yes." What's so unique about it was the breakdown, the European breakdown. I was like, "Oh, wow, I'm such a mutt." I am all over the place.
Mark Walberg: What really came down in our conversation, and this is where we're going, is that when you [00:49:00] boil things down to those four things I was talking about, the DNA testing is really a novel, fun idea, but what really we're selling and what I really am excited about is in this world that is so divisive, especially in our country right now, how divisive we are, how separated we are from each individual, the fact is that there's far greater chance that we're actually cousins than we're not, that the difference in our DNA is so minute that the quibbling that [00:49:30] we do is quibbling with family. When you make that distinction, you immediately relate to everybody a little bit differently.
Kyle Davis: Preach.
Mark Walberg: That was gleaned from listening to what they felt was the purpose of their product. It's so much easier for somebody to sell you on your product than it is for you to sell them. It's so much easier to hear what it is they want to buy and give them what they want to buy rather than saying, [00:50:00] "I know this isn't what you want, but here's what I want." Nobody wants that.
Kyle Davis: I am ... This is an unpaid spokesman thing that I'll do for 23andMe: Do it. You'll thank yourself later. It had everything right. It like said, "You like to eat these kinds of food," because I have the full breakdown. Then what I really liked about it was it didn't show up on mine. It showed up as like other, but from my mom it showed up like we're some percent, very minute but a small percentage of like Sub-Saharan African. [00:50:30] Then obviously the Native American is also Asian. Then it's all these like ...
I had no idea that I'm like Finnish. Like, I'm a Fin? That's crazy, but it was pretty trippy. It had my allergy breakdown: "These are things that you're allergic to." I'm like, "Yeah. I've been saying that I'm allergic to this for a while," which is somebody who probably should go to like an allergist and talk [00:51:00] about it. That's cool. I remember seeing this commercial now. I think it's been running for about a month or so, right?
Mark Walberg: No. It's been running actually since November.
Kyle Davis: November.
Mark Walberg: I think it's [crosstalk 00:51:09] odd times.
Kyle Davis: This is what happened to you on TV, by the way.
Mark Walberg: I'll be sitting. I play poker, and I'll be sitting and playing a tournament. All the screens will come on with that commercial, and then I'm a marked man at the table.
Kyle Davis: Do you do tournament play, or do you do in-house, or do you do legit tournaments?
Mark Walberg: I prefer tournament play. It is the most [00:51:30] true poker in that you've all bought in for the same amount of money. First of all it's less risk. It's not gambling to me. I know exactly what I'm losing from the moment I sit down, but what I like about tournament play, it's who lasts the longest, so there's integrity in your all-in bet. Everybody's playing to not try to survive the longest. I find it to be the purest of the poker games, but I try not to correlate too much of my poker philosophy to my business philosophy because [00:52:00] not that it would hurt my business philosophy, but I don't want my poker friends to know my philosophy.
Kyle Davis: I have a really good friend of mine. He's I guess a couple years ago he's like top five. I don't know if he still is or not. It doesn't really matter. He's really good. He doesn't really care for tournaments too much just because you get-
Mark Walberg: Not [crosstalk 00:52:20] money, yep.
Kyle Davis: That, and you get these first-timers who just do something that's just not predictable, and it just, it frustrates him because he's thinking 17 [00:52:30] moves ahead of you, and then you ...
Mark Walberg: That's [crosstalk 00:52:31].
Kyle Davis: ... do something like that [crosstalk 00:52:34]-
Mark Walberg: Like the classic poker conundrum is that you want to play with people who aren't as good as you, but you want them to have at least an understanding of poker so they make the predictable moves. Like I say all along, you want to make God laugh, make plans, even in poker. You work with what's there. I think that, this is, by the way, a host making a segue back to the topic, [00:53:00] when you learn acceptance and authenticity as a game to play, you spend less time resisting, which is a waste of energy. It's like opening a valve of your energy and running it out like your water spigot is on, right?
Kyle Davis: Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mark Walberg: Butting your head against something is not really great use of energy. Flowing with what's going is no energy. That's the judo concept. Rather than resisting somebody punching you, [00:53:30] you take their force of their punch and use that to topple them, right?
Kyle Davis: Right.
Mark Walberg: The more that we say we use the improv game of "yes, and, yes, and, yes, and," it validates the person you're with. It's far less energy, and you may discover a possibility you didn't even think was there by having an open mind to possibility. Instead of cramming them into what you had already written as the script before the meeting, just let it flow. You got to stay in a conversation, and you'll be respected [00:54:00] for that. For that, you will have displayed a rare choice of being interested in others more than yourself. That's infectious, and that will grow.
Kyle Davis: I'll do a following segue, "Yes, and," but one of the things that we talked about before and what you mentioned was that you were doing a lot of MC work. I think we talked about this actually prior to recording, but just recently you started doing the keynote, which is based off of the book. [00:54:30] That's one of the things. First off, I wanted to talk about the MC hosting stuff within the speaking realm that you've done, and then how the keynote stuff because it comes back to ... Because you mentioned it about the authenticity and feeling like you're part of the company. Talk about that just for a moment because I know we're getting close to an hour, so I want to-
Mark Walberg: When I'm hired as an MC or host for a company, like a product launch or an organizations' national meeting ... I've done [00:55:00] McDonald's. I've done the American Pharmacist, National Pharmacists Association. It goes on and on. I've done almost every pharmaceutical company. I've done Pacific Life Insurance big meeting. My approach is to quickly learn whatever is given to me about that company. When I show up on stage, I'm able to really speak into what they can hear, and my job is to, like any host [00:55:30] ... If you host a party at your house and people are awkward and not speaking to one another, you insert a lot of yourself by introducing people around and getting it flowing, but if everybody is popping off and having a great time, you sit in the back and let it happen.
That's actually a rare choice for hosts to do. What I therefore am 100% committed to is, A, digesting as much of the culture and information as I can get [00:56:00] and only speaking to what I can knowledgeably speak to on stage, not pretending to know more than I know and transparently letting them know that "I'm curious to know more. Would you teach me?" Then I have other tools. I'm great at memories. I remember everyone's name. That really connects me. People really love to have their name known.
I'm able to insert comedy and humor without it being stand-up comedy or dirty or deprecating. I'm able to laugh the same jokes that we're all seeing. [00:56:30] I'm able to have people come to stage unannounced and unprepared and do team-building and fun and stuff to get the day going. Then on the turn of a dime I can interview a former head of state of England and hold my own by being authentically standing in what I know and I don't know.
What I look at is if I come into a corporations who's having a product launch and they've got to go through especially if you look at pharmaceutical sales where they have to not only learn everything from a sales choices that they've made, but you also [00:57:00] have to look at how you stand up against the competition, most importantly the science behind what you can and can't speak to. I take the time to learn that, and so I can support them getting there as quickly as possible.
Then one of the things that add that most people don't is I'm available. At the end of the day when everybody has a cocktail party out on the lawn, I show up there because people want to hang out and talk to me, then I'm there, and knowing when not to be there as well. What I found [00:57:30] is this approach that I have, which is really going into a job with an energy and excitement and a relatability. The fruit of that labor has been that people feel saFe with me and trusted. They feel heard, and I'm able to be credible for the serious stuff and liked for the silly stuff.
I'm that guy you want on your team because I want to be on your team, [00:58:00] and so [inaudible 00:58:00] vehicles. I've done six global meetings of McDonald's. I did three global meetings of Publix grocery stores, like I said, the American Pharmacist Association. My repeat business is my favorite.
Kyle Davis: That's a true testament to the quality of work that you put out there. There's very, and I can just say this on our end, there's speakers who show up or even MCs who just show up day [00:58:30] of, prep, very little, if any. Then the people who, like yourself, who understand it, it's not so much it's striving for repeat business. It's not that. It's providing a better service.
Mark Walberg: That's right.
Kyle Davis: As a result, you get the repeat business, so it's really [crosstalk 00:58:47]-
Mark Walberg: The repeat business is a byproduct. It's not my goal.
Kyle Davis: Exactly.
Mark Walberg: My goal is to ... Look, here's what happens in the speaker situation: Somebody whose job it is to run a company has been cast with [00:59:00] throwing a meeting. The rest of their life for the other years when they're not doing the meeting is not about planning meetings, speakers, and entertainment, and sound systems, and lighting, and things like that, right?
Kyle Davis: Yep.
Mark Walberg: My goal is you've hired me, and there's a projection because you think I'm a TV guy, so you expect me to full of myself and not available. What I like to do is come in and listen to what it is you want [00:59:30] to do. I ask them, "Where do you want to go?" Where do you not want to go? What's the language you used? What language don't you use? Where are your sensitive areas? Where are your strengths?" Immediately my job, I say to them, "I want this to be the easiest meeting you have, and I'm going to be the lowest maintenance host you've ever had."
Kyle Davis: I want to follow this up by saying that Mark is the easiest guy to communicate with. We've been communicating via email, but prior to [01:00:00] recording, he called into the office just to make sure that I got the email for his Skype handle so we could do this as I was walking in. True to your word, you've made this the most low-maintenance ...
Mark Walberg: Thank you.
Kyle Davis: ... rewarding kind of experience because sometimes, man, you got to go through some handler. You might as well be trying to interview Kim Jong-un or something like that. Mark Walberg: Here is a piece of magic that listeners can take and enjoy. It's not difficult. [01:00:30] We think it's difficult. I'll leave you with this thought: We think we're only interested in the things that we're interested in, and if we're not interested in it, we're not engaged. With just a flip of a switch, you could choose to be interested in whatever you're doing. That makes it far more fun for you and more more engaging for those that are already interesting. When you said, "Hey, can you come on my podcast?" I got excited about it, so I was calling you [01:01:00] a half an hour ahead of time because I'm ready to go. I'm excited too. By the way, we've had a great time.
Kyle Davis: We've had a great time.
Mark Walberg: [crosstalk 01:01:07].
Kyle Davis: What's so great about these is I just love the banter, but what's so good about it is some speakers, they just want to tell the story, but what's so unique about you is you're not the prototypical speaker. You have so many different things that you could touch on. I love, and just as we wrap up and we go back we talk about the book, which is Appraise That, you hit [01:01:30] on this authenticity standpoint or this point that you need to have, which is authenticity, which then makes everything else so much easier to do.
It's the binary option: Is it real or is it face? If it's real it makes the other things, the rarity, the good condition, and the provenance, it makes all those other things very not, I wouldn't say easy to grab onto, but it's easier to attain, I guess.
Mark Walberg: That's right. They enhance.
Kyle Davis: They enhance.
Mark Walberg: To that end, this [01:02:00] is the story I love to tell people: I was sitting at Antiques Roadshow, and like I told you, I'm not an appraiser. I'm not an expert, but there's one expert I love. She's about 70 years old. She does art glass, and she has candy at her table, so I always hang out with her. I was sitting there one day, and somebody walks up to the table, busy day, and he's got this decanter. As he is walking up, Cathy the appraiser says to me, "Why don't you do this with him, not on TV but just at the table?"
I said, "Cathy, I'm not qualified." She says, "You'll be fine. Go ahead." The guy hands me his decanter. It's a beautiful [01:02:30] lead, crystal-cut decanter with stopper. I look at it, and I handle it, and he's smiling proudly. I turn it over as you do, and I see the mark on the bottom, and it's Lalique mark, which is French crystal makers, very famous. Even I knew who it was, and when I said it, Lalique, he looked at me like, "Yes, now you've discovered how valuable my piece is. This is exciting."
He wasn't really looking for value. He was looking for show and tell. I'm feeling my way around it, and I turn to Cathy, and I say, [01:03:00] "Cathy, there's nothing wrong with this. It's in perfect condition. It's got the Lalique stamp on the bottom, which would speak to authenticity. Everything seems right, but why does it not seem right to me? It doesn't feel right to me, and I can't explain why."
She beamed like a proud mom. She says, "You're right. It's a reproduction." I looked at the guy because I was so thrilled, and I went, "It's a fake!" He was crushed. Cathy the sweet mom said, Mark, good job, but you need to work on your beside [01:03:30] manner. I tell it as a joke, but the takeaway is you don't have to be an expert to recognize authenticity. It stands out. You don't have to know why. It just is there.
Rarity, by the way, is not always valuable. Here's the last little story. A woman comes in with a rare book. She brings it to the appraiser. The appraiser looks at the book and says, "Yes, it's a very rare volume. I think it's worth about $150." She gets very offended and she says, "Don't you understand how [01:04:00] old and rare this book is?" Without a bat of an eye he says, "Madam, I do, but even rarer are the people who wish to own it." That shows you that what you think, what you think is of value may not be of value to the person you're with, and it's better to listen and just accept it.
Kyle Davis: Ain't that the truth. Probably you should've yelled at him [inaudible 01:04:25] Appraise That. Again, thanks. [01:04:30] It's Mark Walberg. His book Appraise That comes out in April. If you want to read the transcript of today's podcast, you can do so by going to gdapodcast.com. If you are interested in booking Mark for either your hosting or to get that keynote, which is also called "Appraise That." You can call GDA Speakers at 214-420-1999, or you can go to gdaspeakers.com. Thanks, Mark.
Mark Walberg: Thank you so much. Talk to you soon.
Kyle Davis: All right. Bye.
ep. 18 - Mark L. Walberg: TV Personality, Author, and Keynote Speaker by GDA Podcast is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.