508: Becoming a Millionaire with Giovanni Marsico

[INTRODUCTION]

Hal Elrod: Hello, friends. Welcome to the Achieve Your Goals podcast. This is your host, Hal Elrod, and you’re about to hear a conversation with a good friend of mine, Giovanni Marsico. He is a filmmaker. He puts on some of the most extraordinary events I’ve ever been to in my life, and I brought him on today because he and I, we reconnected a couple of weeks ago here in Austin, Texas. He was visiting and I hadn’t seen him in six years. And he’s one of my favorite people. And I probably say that a lot, but I don’t ever say that unless it’s true. There’s a lot of people that I’m blessed to know that are really extraordinary human beings that are making a big difference in the world and really just sweet human beings with big hearts that really care and are doing it for the right reasons. And Giovanni is one of those folks. Today, he’s going to share with you his definition of millionaire, which is different than you might expect, and it’s one that I very much align with. I asked him to share his three new moonshots, his big audacious goals that he is working towards by the year 2030.

And the entire episode today is about how do you go from being an insecure, anxious, overweight… These are his descriptors of himself back before he decided to implement what he talked about today, identity engineering, and really shift his identity to achieve his biggest goals and dreams. And now the work that he’s doing is extraordinary. He is a three-time Emmy Award-winning filmmaker, the founder of Archangel, a community of superhero entrepreneurs, leaders, and game changers that are making the world a better place through mission-driven entrepreneurship and philanthropy. So, you are in for a treat today. He has a new movie that you can watch free this week only, and then the movie goes back in the vault as it came out until next year. The movie is called Hero. And the last year when he did this with his movie, Dreamers, over 100,000 people watched that film during this preview week. He does this where once a year the movie comes out early. You can watch it for a week. And then he goes, takes feedback, and then it comes out officially the following year. So, he’ll give you that website later. Well, it’s TheHeroMovie.com.

And before we dive in, I want to take a couple of minutes to, number one, thank our sponsor for today’s episode. But then I want to share a quick announcement and it’s an announcement you might know about, but I want to give you some of the details that you may not know about regarding the new launch and release of the Miracle Morning, Updated and Expanded Edition. So, some things you might not know about that you’ll want to know about, hang tight. First, I want to thank our sponsor, Organifi. Organifi is our long-time sponsor. They make this show possible and they support our show. They have for many years now. They make the highest quality organic whole food supplements possibly on the planet. And I’m a fan. I’ve been a customer before they were a sponsor. And that’s the only reason that I reached out and said, “Hey, would you guys sponsor the show? I use your products. I love your products. I know your founder. I think there’s a synergy there.” And of course, it worked out.

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All right. And now before further or before we go into the episode, this is it. If you’re looking on YouTube, you can see the new edition of The Miracle Morning. I know thousands of you have already preordered the book, but what you don’t know is I’m actually trying to get the Miracle Morning on the bestseller list. And the reason for that is that it will get more credibility. Like, I personally don’t care about the bestseller lists, but my team has kind of convinced me this will get more credibility in the mainstream, like bookstores and media if the Miracle Morning has Wall Street Journal bestseller and New York Times bestseller. And so, we’re trying to pre-sell 10,000 copies to get on one of the bestseller lists. And so, if you do that, if you preorder the book, you get the immediate implementation kit, which is a 60-minute Miracle Morning masterclass that I recorded exclusively for the launch of this book. It’s not available anywhere else. And I talk about sequencing your SAVERS, a concept that I had never talked about until this masterclass. It’s a one-hour masterclass and it’s got a full multi-page handout to help you apply it to your life.

The second bonus you get is early access to the Miracle Morning, Updated and Expanded Edition. Get the first 30 pages of the new book. Get a five-page sneak peek of the Miracle Evening chapter and a five-page sneak peek of the Miracle Life chapter. And then last but not least, you get two brand new unreleased guided Miracle Morning app tracks, The Miracle Evening and the Miracle Life. So, this new content that’s in the book, you’re getting a ten-minute plus guided track on the Miracle Evening to set you up for blissful bedtime and better sleep and a ten minute guided track on the Miracle Life, which will elevate your consciousness to a state of inner freedom so you can be truly happy and enjoy life. You can preorder the new book at TheNewMiracleMorning.com. That is TheNewMiracleMorning.com. And if you order five copies or more, you get all those bonuses for five people plus five tickets to the Miracle Year Live virtual event. That is a two-hour event taking place on December 14th only for people who preordered five copies or more and I’m going to help you set yourself up for your best year ever in 2024.

So, anyway, I know that was a lot. Thanks for sticking with me. You can preorder your copy at TheNewMiracleMorning.com. And without further ado, let’s talk about how to make your dreams come true with my good friend, the one and only, Giovanni Marsico. Enjoy.

[INTERVIEW]

Hal Elrod: Giovanni Marsico, it is good to see you again, brother.

Giovanni Marsico: Thank you, Hal.

Hal Elrod: So, you and I had not seen each other in person for years. It had been I don’t know how many years.

Giovanni Marsico: Six, five maybe.

Hal Elrod: Six years?

Giovanni Marsico: Yeah.

Hal Elrod: And then the cool part is, so I find out you’re in town the other day, right? And I texted. I’m like, “Gio, I miss you, man. I have to see you.” And we ended up being able to go grab smoothies together. And I honestly like you’re one of those people that you make me happy. Like, when I hear your name, when I hear your voice, when I look at your face, I love. I think it’s just there’s something that you radiate. And so, it was so great to see you again. And then now that like we’re back in touch and we’re texting and now you’re on the podcast. So, man, I love you and I’m so grateful that we reconnected.

Giovanni Marsico: Can I share a super quick story about that morning? It made my whole day. So, we were ordering our food. We’re at SunLife, I believe, SunLife Organics.

Hal Elrod: SunLife Organics. Yeah.

Giovanni Marsico: And the server was so polite and so nice and said, “Hey, so how’s your morning?” And without skipping a beat, you said, “It’s a miracle,” and I think I fell over. That was my favorite thing ever. So, thank you for that.

Hal Elrod: And one of the funny part is that might be the first time I’ve ever answered that way. That’s not my standard answer.

Giovanni Marsico: That’s awesome.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. And I think maybe because usually people don’t say, “How’s your morning?” You say, “How’s it going?” I don’t know but now it just, honestly, it was weird. Like, when I said that, it was like I channeled you. There was something about like being in your presence. You standing next to me, that was my answer and like maybe the first time I ever said it. Yeah. So, thank you for co-creating that moment with me, man.

Giovanni Marsico: That was perfect. Thank you.

Hal Elrod: All right. So, how do I want it? You know, I will have already introduced you once we’re talking now. Alright. People will know who you are. But I’m just going to say that I, you know, maybe I think the first time I met you might have been at Archangel Academy. No. Mastermind. I don’t know. It doesn’t matter. We met and then I went to your event, and here’s my whole point. I went to your event, Archangel Academy in Los Angeles, maybe Long Beach near L.A. And I told you this when I saw you the other day like I was getting ready to put on, I think, my second-ever live event. And I’m texting my business partner, Jon Berghoff, the whole time. I’m like, “Jon, I wish you were here. What Giovanni does, it’s like nothing I’ve ever experienced at an event before. I think it opened up with like an opera singer and like the lighting was crazy and like the effects.” I mean, like you create this multi-sensory cinematic, emotionally engaging experience that was unlike anything. And when I told you that the other day, you’re like you view events as your art, right? Am I quoting correctly? Yeah.

Giovanni Marsico: My art is my events and my films. And for that specific event that you first came to, it was so funny. We were in a hotel banquet room and I thought, “These rooms are boring. I need to spice it up.” We actually had three outdoor lasers inside the hotel, and we had to get special permission for that just to create a wild effect. And I think when you have a room full of successful, high-achieving type people, most of us have something that starts with the letter A like ADD or something. So, to keep that audience’s attention, it can’t just be talks. I mean, the talks were all amazing. Your talk was amazing. There has to be another level or multiple levels on top. So, I think about things like esthetic and escapism and entertainment and creating emotional moments and in the end, really creating memories because to me I’m a memory maker. And if people leave thinking, “Wow, that was…” like, you’re talking about it now, then I’ve been successful.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. No, that’s so true. And there are so many events I’ve been to that I don’t even think twice about. They didn’t impact me that way. So, yeah, you also mentioned your films and I want to really get into the new film, Hero, but I want to wait on that. There are some other things I want to chat about first. And then last year your film, Dreamer, came out. You’re wearing a shirt that says Dreamer right now. That was just phenomenal. And I love, you know, you put on these events, you make these films, right? You mentioned that’s your art, the films and the movies. I want to start here. Just based on a conversation that we were having and you talked about, you shared that you have a different definition of millionaire. This came up when we were having a smoothie the other day, and then you talked about how that may be your next film and like you’re really leaning into this new definition or your definition of millionaire. So, let’s start there. What’s your definition of a millionaire?

Giovanni Marsico: I define it as someone who impacts a million people. So, I mean, when people ask me, “What is your definition of, let’s say, wealth?” I think most people go to accumulation of things or accumulation of assets, whether it’s money or houses or cars or real estate, whatever that looks like. And to me, it’s an accumulation of memories. It’s diversity of experience. And then when it comes to the word, millionaire, I never resonated with the money thing because that would be about me. And I prefer to switch the light or the spotlight in the opposite direction and making it about the people being impacted. So, to me, the definition of millionaire is someone who impacts a million people because those are the stories I think we actually care about.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. All right. Yeah. You know, you make $1 million because you sold some widget in China. Not very inspiring, right? But you help a million people get what they want. I mentioned that before we started recording that one of my favorite philosophies in life, in business is the Zig Ziglar quote, which to me is in alignment with your definition of millionaire, which is if you help enough other people get what they want, you can have everything that you want. And I call that being selflessly selfish, right? That if you actually focus on serving first and not like, “How can I make $1 million?” Because that can often lead to living out of alignment with your values. It can lead to doing things for the wrong reasons if you will. And I just think this is a great place to start because for everybody listening, I think now they have a little glimpse into your values and into your heart. It’s like, “Oh, okay, so this guy I’m about to listen to isn’t just like most entrepreneurs where they’re trying to just make money. And if they help people, great. If they don’t, great. Like, what’s the fastest way to the cash is what some entrepreneurs are asking.” And I think that you’re like, “What’s the biggest impact that I can make?”

And actually, I think that segues into my next question, which is the topic of moonshots, and I’ll let you define that. I can define that, but I want you to define what a moonshot is to you. And I know you have three new moonshots, and this is really of our conversation the other day. We were talking. I’m like, “I wish we had recorded this.” I’m like, “Why don’t we do it on the podcast and talk about the same stuff?” So, what are your three new moonshots to achieve by the year 2030?

Giovanni Marsico: Well, I believe the phrase moonshot came from NASA in the 50s and 60s when they were shooting for the moon, meaning we want to land on the moon. So, it means a really big, audacious, almost impossible goal. Almost ten years ago when I launched my Archangel business, I thought I had moonshots and I had at the time these really big goals. All of them have happened. And now I thought I should do this again. I want to do this again. I want to play at a very big level. My theory is if life is a story, how do we make it a bestseller? And I thought, how do I also inspire a lot of people? And I came up with these three moonshots, first of all, to inspire me. I need a GPS, like a North Star, and these really let me up and get me out of bed in the morning. The first one is in the year 2028, we want to do an arena tour where we’re going to have a million people attend our event in 12 months. So, very inspired by the music world, people like Beyoncé and Taylor Swift, who are doing these really big tours. Now, we’re not Beyonce and Taylor Swift. However, the dream is how cool would it be. Imagine you and I going to different cities in arenas or stadiums sharing this kind of message around being the best version of yourself and how to impact a lot of people. And so, that’s the first moonshot.

The second one is to produce a film that wins both an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize. And there are asterisks on this one because I don’t actually care as much about the awards. I care about creating art that would deserve those awards. So, that’s kind of how with these goals. It’s like, what kind of film could I possibly create? And we want to make one movie every year at least. We’re on track for that. So, that’s the second one. And the third one is to help 1,000 people become millionaires so that in the next ten years we’ve impacted a billion people together.

Hal Elrod: Wow. So, an arena tour, have a million people attend the events, the tour, in one year. And like you said, it’s an important point, which is like if these musicians are doing it, right? And I took my daughter to see Taylor Swift. It was like her dream and we had to make that happen. And it created an amazing father-daughter memory but I don’t know that she walked away with tools to transform her life and live into her full potential, right? And you imagine a million people in one year experiencing a transformative event. I think that could be a game-changer. And I like what you’re saying about the film. Like, it’s not about the rewards. I love that reminds me of a Jim Rohn’s philosophy. It’s the purpose of a goal is not to hit the goal. The purpose of a goal is who you become on your way to try and hit the goal. If you hit it, cool. Bonus. If you don’t, the development, the personal growth, that lasts forever. And so, I love that. It’s like what film can I make that is worthy of an Academy Award and a Nobel Peace Prize and then helping a thousand people become millionaires? I’m assuming under your definition, right, which is a million people or a thousand people impacting a million people. And I’m not good at math. You said that’s a billion people overall?

Giovanni Marsico: Billion, correct.

Hal Elrod: All right.

Giovanni Marsico: I want to share something quick, too, because I have two distinct ways of how I set goals and I call them Odyssey goals and Destiny goals. And Odyssey, the word means a long voyage. So, Destiny, I think we kind of know the definition. Destiny goals are what I just shared the moonshots like the really big in the future thing. Odyssey goals are how do I live day-by-day to achieve those destiny goals. And that’s to me where all the magic happens and that’s why I love your book because your book was one of the first books I ever read on having ritual and routine, and it changed my life and I think I’ve shared it with you. But since reading your book the first time, that year, well, in the year 2016, the year after I read your book, I lost 70 pounds and I’ve kept it off. And I met the woman of my dreams and we eventually got married. I quit my past career in real estate, went all in with Archangel, started doing our big summit events with 1,500 people, up to 3,000 people. All of these things happened once I discovered this what I call Odyssey goals. And I want to share my extreme gratitude for you for being the catalyst of all of that.

Hal Elrod: You are so welcome. And the fact that I could play a part in what you’re doing now is a huge honor and a huge privilege. So, Destiny goals, that’s the outcomes. That’s the way that most people think of a goal. And then the Odyssey goal and why? Odyssey is what? O-D-Y-S-S-E-Y? That’s the word Odyssey that you’re talking about?

Giovanni Marsico: Correct. It comes from storytelling. Like, I love stories, right? So, to me, life is a story, so we’re so hyper-focused on these destinations when it’s the journey that has the most excitement and fun and adventure. And we can’t forget about the day-to-day. We can’t forget about the awesomeness of being present and what unfolds as you’re going along your journey.

Hal Elrod: Yeah. So, what does a day look like for Gio like these Odyssey goals? Is it where you set the Destiny goal first and then you go, “Okay. What’s my daily activity need to be, the process I need to engage in each day that will ensure that as long as I’m doing that day more often than not, four or five days a week, I can’t not move in the direction of that Destiny goal.” Is that kind of it or how would you explain it?

Giovanni Marsico: It is. Well, part of it is I set these moonshots to feel impossible. And then, I think to myself, who do I need to become to make those dreams a reality? Not necessarily what do I need to do, but it’s an identity thing. And then from that identity place, it’s what skills do I need to acquire? I see identity as a skill set, meaning it’s easier to talk, let’s say, as an athlete, if you want to get into professional basketball, there are certain drills that you have to do and practice all the time. Those are skills. But then you build confidence in those skills and then you master the game and then you become a pro. I think life is like that.

There are certain skills you need to acquire, like confidence, like selling, like negotiating, like relationship building that people assume their personality traits or people assume they come naturally, and yet, you can actually practice them, especially if it’s outside your comfort zone where all the growth happens and adopt them into your identity and become the person that achieves your biggest goals. You may not be that person yet, but it doesn’t mean you can’t do it. And if you have those destiny goals, it stretches you to grow in that fear zone outside of your comfort zone.

Hal Elrod: I’ve heard you talk about identity engineering. Is that what you just spoke of? Is that how you would define that?

Giovanni Marsico: Correct. Yeah, I mean, you’ve known me for a long time. For people who know me for 20 years, I used to be insanely anxious, like bad depression, bad health, low confidence, super shy. Now, literally, I’ve spoken to an audience of 20,000 people in an arena. And I had zero anxiety before getting on stage. I can go to any stranger and not because I was born that way. It’s actually the opposite. It’s because I trained in the opposite of my past identity. I was insanely introverted, so I trained myself to be extroverted. And I can kind of go both ways, it’s a skill.

Hal Elrod: So, how do you do that? What can people take away? Is that reading books on how to be who you want to be? Is it using affirmations? Is it all of the above? Like what?

Giovanni Marsico: It’s all of the above. Actually, you’re going to love this. The three very first personal development books I’ve ever read, I was 19 years old, were 7 Habits, Stephen Covey, How to Win Friends & Influence People, and Think and Grow Rich. And do you know where I got all three of those books? In a training session at Cutco.

Hal Elrod: Cutco? That’s so funny. Those are three of the first books, I think, that I read.

Giovanni Marsico: I was producing these events when I was a teenager, and I loved it. And I thought, “I need to get better at selling. How do I get awesome sales training?” And that’s how I joined Cutco. I was like, “This thing seems awesome,” and I felt like I really suck at sales. And it’s a perfect example of identity engineering. I used to say to myself, “I suck at sales” as if it wasn’t part of my identity. I suck. And I worked at or with Cutco selling Cutco knives, which I know you’re very familiar with, and actually, learned the skill of selling but also relationship building.

Hal Elrod: On this topic of identity engineering, I want to go back again in your life a little bit for a real-life example, and I think, that’ll be helpful for people. You went from being, again, you said, introvert, anxious, insecure real estate agent. And now, you’re putting on events with thousands of people at them. You’re making these blockbuster documentary films that your last film Dreamer, correct me if I’m wrong, was like somewhere in the neighborhood of over 100,000 people watched the debut of that movie. Am I right?

Giovanni Marsico: Over 100,000 during our free premiere week. And that was in 2020. And that film went on to win three Emmy Awards.

Hal Elrod: I mean, that’s just bananas. Nobody could predict that this real estate agent, this insecure, overweight real estate agent, is going to be an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker with 100,000 people watching your film Dreamer the week that it came out. So, take us a little bit on that journey of that transition between how do you go from, because I think there’s a lot of people listening that maybe, whether they’re a real estate agent or– nothing’s wrong being a real estate agent, I have lots of friends that are successful real estate agents. In fact, some of my most successful friends are in real estate. But somebody, let’s say, that’s in a career that they don’t love, they don’t feel fulfilled, which obviously, I felt that was real estate for you. And then you make this leap to where now, you’ve got these moonshot goals that have the word millions in them, right? Well, it’s different to have that word in their goals. Where’s that transition? How did that happen?

Giovanni Marsico: I think, well, the success from real estate, even not liking it, afforded me the chance to invest in myself. So, I started investing in coaches and personal development and attending conferences and mastermind groups. And there’s an amazing story. I actually came up with the Archangel idea at the same time I started real estate. This is 2009. But I thought, “I need the money, I need to pay the bills. Let me do this real estate thing first. And then, sometime in the future, I’ll launch this Archangel project.”

And then the year was 2012 and I was doing really well in real estate. And I bought a ticket to an event called Genius Network that I know you know of because I did it with you, and our friend Joe Polish runs that. And the ticket was $10,000 for one ticket. And that was the most I’ve ever invested in myself. And it was like massive imposter syndrome and I felt like I didn’t belong, all those kinds of things.

And this is the year 2012. I was 35 years old. And at the time, right before the event, I said, in five years, I’m going to launch my Archangel project when I turned 40. They sat me at a table. And this is kind of fun. They sat me at a table next to Peter Diamandis, who’s the founder of X Prize.

Hal Elrod: I knew you were going to say Peter, for some reason.

Giovanni Marsico: Ray Kurzweil, who is one of the smartest people on the planet, and Naveen Jain who is a billionaire building rockets to go to the moon, all these…

Hal Elrod: Didn’t he write the book, Moonshots?

Giovanni Marsico: He did, actually. So, that’s the table I was at. And I mean, I consider myself pretty smart and I felt like the dumbest person at that table. And it was life-changing because being in that environment was so inspirational, motivational that on the flight home, I said, “I’m not waiting five years. I’m starting now.” And I started journaling my business model and launched a year later. And it was because of that catalyst of being around those people.

And I thought, part of what I’m doing now is I want to introduce the world to those people that I call real-life superheroes, like me and you now, because if that could happen to me and I felt very ordinary before that, I think any of us can go from ordinary to extraordinary just by being inspired to know what’s actually happening, to know that Iron Man and Spider-Man aren’t the only superheroes, even though I love them. I’m a nerd when it comes to comic books, you know that. But Hal Elrod and Giovanni and all of these people are superheroes, too. And we have, I think, the same responsibility to share these stories.

Hal Elrod: I love that. And to me, that’s a really good segue way into your film Dreamer, which, by the way, Peter Diamandis was the founder of X Prize, right? He was one of the people that were featured in the movie Dreamer. Talk about that. Now, remind me, and I apologize for not knowing this, was that your first film or was there anything before that?

Giovanni Marsico: That’s my first film. And my partner, Nick Nanton, who I also met through Joe Polish, that’s his 8 millionth film. He’s a director. He’s won, I think, 22 Emmys. And he approached me. He said, “Listen, I love doing these movie projects. And a lot of them, sometimes we fundraise with communities and you have an awesome community. Do you want to partner up?” And I said, “Absolutely, but it can’t be tense or dramatic or negative.” I think the one right before it was about child trafficking that he made. And I thought, “I don’t want that. I want something uplifting and positive and creating hope.”

So, I came up with the Dreamer idea. And the idea being in a lot of these words, even millionaire sometimes has a negative connotation. Dreamer often means someone who only dreams and doesn’t take action. And I grew up being told to stop dreaming, get my head out of the clouds and stop daydreaming, but that’s my superpower. And there’s a lot of people like me. So, I wanted to showcase stories of people who had big dreams but actually did something with them and impacted millions of people with them.

Hal Elrod: Amazing. Amazing. And so, tell me, remind me of the stories. It’s been probably a year since I saw the movie, although you did just make it free on YouTube. I’m going to watch it with my daughter, so I’m really excited now to watch it with her. But talk a little bit more about the film. Who’s in the film? What are the stories? I know there were four, give or take, through lines. What were the stories?

Giovanni Marsico: Yeah, there’s a bunch. So, Anousheh Ansari, who– and some of them are all interconnected. She’s the first private female citizen to go to space. And her big dream was to go to space. And we tell her amazing story of how she did that. And then Jessica Cox, who is a pilot who flies planes, but she has no arms, so she flies planes with her feet. And no one thought that was even possible. And we have footage of her flying. It’s wild. And then Peter Diamandis and the whole X Prize story.

And Dean Kamen, who’s the founder of the Segway, and he’s an inventor who’s invented a million things. And he’s this very eccentric, awesome human who lives in this huge compound that we got to film. And it felt like I was in the real-life Iron Man’s house. If you could just imagine Iron Man’s House from Robert Downey Jr. films, he has his giant workshop. He has robots. It’s nuts.

Hal Elrod: That’s why I remember you calling him the real-life Iron Man in the film, yeah.

Giovanni Marsico: It’s wild.

Hal Elrod: All right. So, Dreamer came out last year, debuted 100,000 people. And now, you have a new film that is coming out. Talk about Hero, man. And by the way, I have to admit, I was hooked because Dominick Cruz, former WEC and UFC champion, who I have been to his fights, I’ve watched him in person, I told you I met him on a Southwest Airlines flight when I was coming out of the airplane bathroom, and he was right there waiting for the bathroom. I was starstruck, huge fan of his. And his mindset around being a champion is phenomenal. So, I know it’s one story in the film and you can talk about that.

And yeah, who were the main stars of this film? And what is the purpose of this film compared to Dreamer? Dreamer was about getting people to realize that you can dream big and these are people that did that, that maybe were told they had their head in the clouds, but they made their dreams a reality. And then now, we shift to this film Hero. Talk about Hero.

Giovanni Marsico: It’s based off of Joseph Campbell’s hero’s journey or maybe even challenges, the idea that people assume a hero is someone with superhuman abilities, like in the films. And I believe everybody can be a hero and go from ordinary to extraordinary with your own story. And we’ve taken four incredible humans with very diverse backgrounds and pasts who’ve all gone through their own sort of hero’s journeys to transform themselves and become something extraordinary as inspiration for millions of people.

A lot of these people, let’s say, on television and you only see the highlight reels or the success, but you don’t see the journey and the struggle and the transformation, right? So, Dominick’s story is unbelievable. And then we have Remi Adeleke who started off in the Bronx and then getting into a lot of trouble with drugs and stuff and then getting arrested, and then by guardian angels, somehow getting into the Army and eventually the Navy SEALs and becoming a top SEAL, and with that experience, connecting to Hollywood. And then Michael Bay had him consult on a Transformers movie, then they had him act in the Transformers movie. Now he’s been in a bunch of movies. Now, he’s directing and writing. It’s like the craziest stories.

And then Mandy Harvey, who I fell in love with when I first saw her, she was a contestant on America’s Got Talent, and she came out and played and sang and she’s deaf. So, she lost her hearing at 18. And she sings and plays ukulele and guitar perfectly. And she got a golden buzzer from Simon Cowell. And her story’s unbelievable.

So, those are the kinds of stories in this film. And we screened it a couple of weeks ago for the first time for an audience in a theater. And it was super emotional. And then it was like a five-minute standing ovation with roaring applause. And I thought, “Well, this is nuts.” So, I can’t wait for people to see this movie.

Hal Elrod: Yeah, yeah. And tell me, when does it come out? And my understanding is there’s a free…

Giovanni Marsico: It will officially come out in 2024. However, from November 10th to 17th of 2023, depending on when people listen to this, we’re doing a free global online premiere. Anyone can opt-in and register to watch it free.

Hal Elrod: Amazing. Amazing. Yeah, I’m going to get this out next Wednesday. So, that’ll be during the premiere. So, if somebody is listening to this right now or watching this and they want to go watch the film Hero for free, where do they go?

Giovanni Marsico: TheHeroMovie.com.

Hal Elrod: TheHeroMovie.com, y’all, you will not be disappointed. I have not seen the film yet, but I just know Giovanni’s work and his commitment to excellence and I’ve seen Dreamer and I’m so excited to see this film. I’m going to watch Dreamer with my kids here in the next few days, and then I’m going to watch the film next week during that free viewing period. So, everybody listening, go to TheHeroMovie.com to watch the film.

And what’s next for you, Gio? I mean, as a guy, you’ve got these moonshots. You mentioned you’re into one film a year. Do you have the next film already in mind?

Giovanni Marsico: I do. We should talk later.

Hal Elrod: Are we allowed to know?

Giovanni Marsico: I can’t share details yet, but there’s stuff in the works that I feel like are very aligned with you. I’ll just say that.

Hal Elrod: I love it. I love it. And then also, you’re putting on your first event in Austin, Texas, if I’m not mistaken, next year, correct?

Giovanni Marsico: Correct. That is in May of 2024. And then we’re bringing back our big summit events in the fall, and then we’ll have more larger summit events that will eventually get into arenas, so that by 2028, we can do our…

Hal Elrod: Hit that moonshot of a million people impacted from your events in one year. It’s amazing. Man, if people want more, Gio, again, like I said, you’re just somebody that I want to be in your world, you inspire me because you are such a dreamer and you are such a hero and you think so big. I find that it’s weird. I feel like, for me, actually, and maybe it was my cancer journey that threw me off course a little bit, but I feel like as I get older or it was the cancer, but I’m a little more cautious than I used to be, like I need to hang out with you more because I’m like, “Oh yeah, this is what it’s like to have no ceiling on what’s possible and think limitless.”

So, where is the best place? Other than obviously going to TheHeroMovie.com to watch the film, what’s the best place for you to follow you, to listen to you? Whether it’s social media or website, where’s the best place for you to get more Giovanni in their life?

Giovanni Marsico: So, if you go to that website and register, we can communicate from there through email. Instagram and YouTube are also the best ones @giovannimarsicoofficial on both of those and follow me there.

Hal Elrod: Awesome, man. Well, hey dude, thank you for the work that you’re doing, Gio. Thank you for leading by example for what’s possible for all of us.

Giovanni Marsico: I’m so honored that you’ve had me on your show, and I can’t wait to see you again.

Hal Elrod: Oh, man, I appreciate you. All right, goal achievers, thank you for listening. You just got to hear from one of my favorite people and head over to TheHeroMovie.com. Tell me the dates again, Gio, real quick.

Giovanni Marsico: November 10 to 17.

Hal Elrod: November 10th through 17th, you can watch the movie totally free. And then it’s going to be back in the vault until it’s released in 2024. So, make sure you watch it while it is available. Goal achievers and members of the Miracle Morning Community, I love you, I appreciate you, and I will talk to you all next week.

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