Ep 221: Mindset Shifts For Rebuilding Your Life When Everything Falls Apart with Coach Martin Salama

“The world doesn’t happen to you — it happens through you.” — Martin Salama

What if losing millions, a home, a marriage, and a BMW all within a few months could actually be the best thing that ever happened to you? For Martin Salama, that’s exactly what it was. In this episode, Martin shares how he transformed personal and financial disaster into a powerful coaching philosophy — one that helps entrepreneurs not just survive chaos, but thrive because of it.

Martin is known as The Architect of The Warrior’s Life, a coach who specializes in helping people live incredibly full lives — despite (or perhaps because of) the bumps in the road. After building and losing a multimillion-dollar business, Martin turned his own lessons into a seven-figure coaching program with a risk-reversal strategy that’s as bold as his personality.

We Also Talked About:

• How Martin’s five-year dream project collapsed overnight — and why it was the making of him

   

• Why most people stay stuck in a “why is this happening to me” mindset, and how to shift to “through me” thinking

   

• What reading The Four Agreements unlocked for him about anger, people-pleasing, and personal responsibility

   

• His journey from being a people-pleaser and control freak to a confident, compassionate coach

   

• How he built the “Live Incredibly Full Every Day” (LIFE) framework

   

• The problem with “done for you” coaching programs — and how Martin’s model is different

   

• The power of guarantees in business (and why Martin’s guarantee is a true game-changer)

   

• The gift he gave — and received — by donating stem cells to save a life

   

RESOURCES MENTIONED

• The Four Agreements by Don Miguel Ruiz (affiliate link)
• Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki (affiliate link)
  
• Who Not How by Dan Sullivan (affiliate link)
  
• Martin’s book: Worrier to Warrior (affiliate link)
• Connect with Martin:ConnectWithMartin.com

Want regular access to tips, techniques, and advice from experts about growing your business? Sign up here.

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Trudy Rankin is the host of the Online Business Launchpad Podcast, Director of West Island Digital and the founder of the Online Business Lift-Off program.

Affiliate Disclaimer: If you click on links on this page and then make a purchase, I may earn a commission (at no extra cost to you).  I am a proud affiliate of these resources because I use them in my own life and business.

TRANSCRIPT

Episode 221: Mindset Shifts For Rebuilding Your Life When Everything Falls Apart with Coach Martin Salama

Trudy Rankin: Why does everything keep happening to me? That’s what Martin Salama kept asking himself after he lost his entire business and his marriage within months. But through self-discovery and coaching, he found a new way forward. And created a unique mindset approach to help others find peace and fulfillment as well.

So how do you stay positive when it feels like everything around you is falling apart? Martin’s journey of resilience could be the inspiration that you need. In this episode, Martin shares how he turned personal setbacks into a coaching framework designed to help people overcome negative self-talk, stop people pleasing and build a life they truly love.

We take a look at how he helps entrepreneurs move from worrier to warrior, all while learning the importance of being true to yourself. So if you are navigating your own challenges or you’re feeling stuck, Martin’s journey will resonate with you and offer actionable ways to regain control and positivity in your life.

[00:01:00] 

Trudy Rankin: Welcome to the Online Business Launchpad podcast. I’m Trudy Rankin, and I bring you stories, tips, and advice from online entrepreneurs who have overcome problems and challenges to get to success, because if they’ve done it, so can you. My mission is simple. I want to help you solve the challenges you face as an online business owner so that you can have more time and money for yourself and your family, and more choices in how you live your life.

Martin, thank you very much for being here. 

Martin Salama: Thank you so much. I appreciate it. And it’s one of my favorite topics to talk about, is how to stay positive no matter what’s pissing you off. 

Trudy Rankin: So, before we get into the topic at hand, can you just tell us a little bit more about you, your background, and what you do now.

Martin Salama: Yeah, [00:02:00] absolutely. So, as you said, my name is Martin Salama. I live in Brooklyn, New York on the other side of the world from you, how you could call me down under, it depends on how, on your perspective on who’s up above and who’s down under. But yeah, so I’m in Brooklyn, New York and I’ve lived here almost my entire life. For about 20 years

I lived in New Jersey, which is the next state over. So not very far. I’ve always stayed in the tri state New York area. And for most of my life, I was a businessman. And today the term is, I was an entrepreneur. Back then we didn’t use terms like entrepreneurs. But yeah. And in the early two thousands, my wife and I were working on a project to build a multi million dollar health club and tennis center in New Jersey by the Jersey shore.

And it was taking us about five years to get to the point of being able to start construction. And that was because we kept on to running into different things. Oh, we’ve got to find the land. Then we’ve got to find an engineer and we’ve got to get a [00:03:00] feasibility study to make sure it’s worth doing.

All these things kept on holding us back. And we’d go to the bank and they’re like, yeah, we love this project. We can’t wait for you to get all the approvals. We’re like, Oh yeah, we need to get approvals from the city, went into the city and that took up a lot of time because they keep coming back to us with different things of, Oh, by the way, now that you’ve gotten this done and that done, we need you to go out and hire a civil engineer.

I’m like, okay, what does a civil engineer do? Oh, they help you with traffic patterns and parking and oh, okay. So even though we had parking figured in there, they wanted to make sure that it was enough parking and how it would affect the traffic and all that. So time was going on and we’d go back to the bank.

And we’re saying, Hey, this is still going on. Like we like it, keep going, but we’re not going to fund it until you’re ready. So I had to go out and find other ways of funding the project, you know, loans investors, all those things. Refinancing the house a couple of times. And in the early 2000s, that was an easy thing to do here in the States, they were pre financing at any minute.[00:04:00] 

So finally, in the summer of 2008, we got all the approvals and I go to the bank and okay, we’re ready now. I’m three and a half million dollars in, let’s go. And yeah, we’re not lending now. What? What are you talking about? You’ve been telling me you can’t wait for this project.

Yeah, well, we were, but then, things are slowing down now. A month later, the financial world fell apart. Bernie Madoff, subprime loans. I don’t know how much Australia knows about these things. I assume you guys got just as bad hit, badly hit as we did. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, there was, it was pretty bad news. 

Martin Salama: Yeah.

So yeah. And overnight I was wiped out when that happened. I lost absolutely everything and I stopped paying my mortgage, stopped paying my car payments. That’s how bad it was. And a few months later, my son says, look outside. And they were towing away my BMW. It was repossessed, and I was like, Oh my God, that never happened to me before.

[00:05:00] Eventually the house was foreclosed on. And because I lived in New Jersey at that time, foreclosures were rampant, right? And I lived in New Jersey and they were so backlogged that they foreclosed on the house, but before they did anything else they let us live in it for years. until they finally said, Oh yeah, we remember about you guys now.

So, and it was eventually foreclosed on maybe seven or eight years later. Crazy. But I went into a deep depression for about a year. And when I started to come out of the depression, I was like, okay, what am I going to do with my life now? I’d gone through therapy and coaching and all these things to help me get to this point of deciding this.

And I thought about what I liked to do. I was like, I was always a businessman. I never really loved. being a businessman. So here’s my opportunity to like reinvent myself. So I thought about it and I realized I’d always been involved in [00:06:00] community events. I was the leader of a bunch of community organizations for many years.

And as a leader, people would come in and say, but Martin, I can’t do what you’re doing. But I don’t want you to do what I’m doing. I want you to do what you’re good at. And I would talk them through it and say, okay, this is what you’re good at. So then let’s find a role for you doing something like that.

And I started to realize that I was coaching them. So I was like, Ooh, maybe I should become a coach. So I started looking into it and I found a great coaching school and I decided, I went to the school. I said, look, I’m really, I have next to no money. And I know you can tell me I could go get financed, but I’ll never get approved.

So they go, I said, let’s come up with a number and I’ll pay you that month money every month. I’ll figure it out and I’ll pay it to you. Did it. The guy was great. And he said, here’s one thing though. I won’t give you your certification. until you pay off your loan. So you pay off the money. I’m like, that’s fair.

It’s a negotiation of all good. Went in, did it. By the [00:07:00] way, I paid it off by the time I was finished anyway, but it was still, it was good motivation for me. About two months before I was going to start the school training was my 24th wedding anniversary.

And my wife gave me a very interesting gift that day. She said, I want a divorce. And I’m like, there are 364 other days you could have asked me for this. Yeah, not too romantic. I didn’t say it that day. I should have, but you could imagine the spiraling emotions I went through, Trudy. It was really something.

I was like, just when I thought I was getting back on my feet, ready to go, why does everything keep happening to me? And you know what? Those words resonate with me now, because as I started going through coach training and understanding what those words meant, I realized. The power of the words is what was driving me.

And by my saying, why does everything keep happening to me? I was looking to blame everybody [00:08:00] else without taking any responsibility. And now I say things happened through me. A lot of people say things happen for me. I think that’s a little selfish to be honest. I don’t think God’s up there saying, Hey, what can I do for Trudy today?

Not that he doesn’t care about you. He probably, he loves you, but he’s not only thinking about us at every, any moment. He wants us to do the work and then he’ll support us. If he thinks it’s the right thing for you. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Wow that’s a lot for somebody to have to go through.

Cause, the, the time you’re talking about when all of the subprime mortgages, the whole collapse of that. That sort of resonated around the world. And even if it didn’t impact on the financial, economy of a particular country, people are still watching and going, Oh, my, I hope that never happens to us.

So it’s a, it was a really intense time. And ouch, personal things happening. This really can knock you around. So what did [00:09:00] you do? To be able to help you move through on past what was happening there, because you’ve obviously have. So, so what did you do? 

Martin Salama: So, I, at that moment when she told me this and I like picked myself off the floor emotionally and said, okay, now what I said, well, I’ve already made this decision to go forward with this coaching training.

I think I’m going to continue to do it. And I think honestly, here’s God again. I think it was God tapping me on the shoulder and saying, Oh, so that’s what you want to do. Well, let’s make sure that you realize what you’ve got to go through it so that you change. So let me let’s hit rock bottom.

And right before I was going to the school, they sent me an email with a bunch of books to read. They said, read a couple of these books. It’ll help you out. And one of them was the four agreements. by Don Miguel Ruiz, you know that book Trudy? No, I haven’t heard of it. Oh my goodness. Well, it’s one of the books It’s [00:10:00] one of the books I keep right on my shelf behind me the four agreements Okay, and he says the life comes down to these basically four agreements. Be impeccable with your word. Don’t take anything personally. Don’t make assumptions. And always do your best.

Aren’t they fantastic? 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah, those are good. Those are good words to live by. 

Martin Salama: And I was like, wow. And when I read that second one, don’t take anything personally. I felt like he had just given me a secret. Everybody in the world had been telling me my whole entire life, specifically my parents and my father to that point.

But I was never ready to hear it until that moment. And it was as if somebody had turned on the lights in a stadium. That’s how glaring it came down. I’m like, wait a minute. I don’t have to feel like everything that goes on is about me. I don’t have to feel like the world is on my shoulders. And I started to unpack things that like, I realized now I look [00:11:00] back.

I was a people pleaser. Most people don’t recognize that. They won’t even admit that they’re a people pleaser. They go, I just like to make everybody happy. Now I call myself a recovering people pleaser. But with that came a couple of other things as a people pleaser, you want to make sure you’re making everybody happy.

But, and you want the recognition that comes with making them happy. And you’re a control freak for me, at least. And. You’ve got to make sure that everything going exactly as you want it to go and you get it and you find it. And when things aren’t going that way and you’re taking it personally, I had a very short temper.

I’m like, what the hell? I’m doing everything and nobody’s recognizing or I’m not getting the preference or whatever. And I started to realize that was the crux of it is that I needed to change how I reacted to things and started to respond. So the first thing I said to myself, and I knew this was going to take me time was.

I’m not going to do anything for anybody else. I’m going to take care of myself [00:12:00] first, as long as I’m not hurting somebody in the process. And even for people, please, as they’re like, well, I feel like I’m going to hurt their feelings. No, that’s not the hurting I’m talking about. And I had to learn that no is a full sentence.

Trudy Rankin: That is a hard lesson to learn. And I have to say that for me, that has been a really hard lesson to learn. And so talk us through your process from going from there through into getting into your coaching. 

Martin Salama: Yeah. Yeah. So here I am, I’m going through the coaching and it’s changing my life.

I would like to say it changed it overnight. It didn’t. And looking back, it’s a good thing that it didn’t, because it needs to be sustainable. It needs to be where it’s not. You’re not going to go back to your old ways. And that was the first thing I had to recognize is that the things I was doing, my default tendencies, could be changed.

I didn’t have to overreact to everything. I didn’t have to have every conversation turn into a confrontation. And that was because I was [00:13:00] always having my guard up. So as I started to realize that and change it, I saw the changes in myself and it wasn’t for me to save my marriage or make sure that I could be near my kids all the time or anything like that.

And that was a big part of it. Also, I had to realize I had to do it for myself. if it was going to mean anything and if it was going to be sustainable. So as soon as I finished coach training, I was like, okay, what kind of coach do I want to be? And it was funny because a friend reached out to me on Facebook saying, Now that you’re divorced, I come from a very close knit Jewish community here in New York City, okay?

And, most people, even when they get married, don’t leave our town. They just don’t. And even though I lived in New Jersey, I was in a satellite of that supportive Jewish community, where everybody would go down for the summer to that same town. To that same community, just a different town, but all in the same summering together.

And she sends me a message saying, now that you’re divorced, are you [00:14:00] ready to start dating? `And I’m like, and I know this woman for 40 years. I’m like, Kelly, but you’re married. She goes, not me, you idiot. I’m your matchmaker. What are you talking about? What is this fiddler on the roof? So we started talking and we got on a call and about an hour later, she says, I got to tell you, Martin, I never met a man so well put together after a divorce.

I was like, Oh, wow. I guess it’s the coaching. She goes, well, then maybe you should coach people around divorce. So I became a divorce recovery coach. Because I understood the emotional rollercoaster that people go through, whether you ask for it or you’re asked for it, you’re going to go through an emotional rollercoaster.

So I started off doing that as my thing is coaching.

Trudy Rankin: That’s really interesting. We all need friends like that, don’t we? Somebody who can observe where we have, where we’ve gotten to and just give us feedback. That’s really [00:15:00] powerful. 

Martin Salama: Thank you. 

Trudy Rankin: So, so, and basically in terms of, so you, you did divorce coaching for a while and are you still doing divorce coaching or have you moved 

to a…

Martin Salama: Not so much. As I developed, as I, grew and changed, I found needs for me to change what I was doing, who I was coaching. I, we always need to be recognizing that you’re changing and how the changes affect you and those around you and where to take it. So, after a few years of coaching that I realized I was the happiest ever was because I was liking myself and loving myself.

I even started to date. And I want to, when I would go on those dates, it would be with this mindset. If I wanted to learn what their values were. So to see if we are compatible value wise, because I had learned through coach training that my values, which I never really understood until coach training and my ex wives were totally different.[00:16:00] 

All right. And that probably was a contributor to the failure of the marriage. We had 25 years. We ended up making to our past our 25th till it was finalized the divorce. We had 25 years and we have four children and eight grandchildren together. So, but I look back and say, other than those children and grandchildren, the best gift she ever gave me was asking for divorce.

Because we would have stayed in this codependent relationship because I was never going to stop it. I actually, I was just on the phone with her about a half an hour ago about one of our kids. Thank goodness we have a decent relationship these days. So as I developed, I was like, okay, I am something else.

I want to help people move forward. And one day I was doing one of these things that I never did before. And I’m ADHD. I was, meditating. You can imagine what an ADHD guy like is meditating. I’m like, when is this going to be over? Here I am, [00:17:00] all those things, but like, when is it going to be over?

And then I finally, and I had this download and when I finished meditating, I wrote for two and a half hours and out of that came a word life that I turned into an acronym. live incredibly full every day. And I started saying, I want them to show people how to enjoy life so that they can live incredibly full every day, have a happy life and a meaningful life.

Cause there’s a big difference between the two.

Trudy Rankin: Yes, there is most definitely. 

Martin Salama: So that’s what I started to coach around. And I was doing that for a few years, building my practice around that and solidifying some of the practice, some of the, Tools, the practical tools that I would do with my clients.

And along the way, I would look for these coaching courses that I thought were going, give me everything I need so that I could make a great impact in the world, make some great money as along the way. And I’d get into these coaching programs and I’d spend all this money only to find out that they said they were done, two, done [00:18:00] with you or done for you.

But really what they were done to you programs because it was almost like a bait and switch.

Trudy Rankin: I like that. I haven’t heard anybody call it that before the whole done to you course or coaching programs there that I like that. That’s really good. 

Martin Salama: All right. Thank you. So here I am now I’m coaching and I’m putting my program together.

I wrote a book about how to go from being somebody who worries all the time to somebody who’s a warrior. So warrior to warrior. And that came out of COVID that phrase. Cause here we are, we’re in COVID and we’re two, three months in and they’re saying, Oh, you’re just going to be under lockdown for two, three weeks. It went into months.

And one day I turned to my wife, I got married by the way, again, 2018. I got married again to a wonderful woman and our values were aligned from the first date. And then that was my thing. I would go on dates and see, okay, I’m not, my values aren’t aligned with this woman. And which was fine, which is what you need to do to find out on a first or second date.

[00:19:00] So I’m very happy. I got married and thank goodness I did because I don’t think I would have gotten through COVID alone. So I talked to her one day, it’s middle of May. And I said, let’s go to Manhattan. Let’s go to New York city. Take her kids. She has three kids. Let’s go to New York City. And we go to New York City.

And if anybody knows anything about the traffic in New York, it could take you forever to get anywhere. Well, that day I drove straight down Fifth Avenue and didn’t miss a traffic light. And I looked around and I’m like, where is everybody? What is everybody so worried about? You could still wear the mask, even put on gloves, stand six feet apart, go to Central Park.

There was so much that you could do. Where were they? And I realized that I had recognized that what they were worried about were things that I had worried about so long, but had gotten to the point now that I don’t worry about them anymore because it’ll all figure itself out. And I got home [00:20:00] that day and I went onto Facebook and a Facebook messenger, live stream.

And I said, guys, I get it. I know what you’re worried about. So let me show you how to go from being a worrier to a warrior. And I started to coach people around that and created the practical steps that I’d been working on, put out a book and did some other things as well, my course and all that. And then I started to realize, you Where I’m really great at, this is good, but what I’m really great at is helping people figure out the coaches, consultants, figure out their message and get them to where they need to be so that they can do what I’m doing and loving doing and what they love and take all what I learned, all the little things I’d learned from these other courses that worked and didn’t work and put it together in a course that works, but do it in a way that I’m coaching on results instead of just information, because that’s what everybody does.

They coach on information. Go do this stuff and it’ll work. But just because it worked for Joe doesn’t mean it’s going to work [00:21:00] for Bill or it’s going to for Patty. Everybody’s different. And that’s where I said, I’m going to put in what I call a risk reversal strategy. The risk is just as much on me, if not more.

So I put together a program and I call it the Seven Figure Abundant Entrepreneur Program. Guaranteed to get you to seven figures within two years or less. 

Trudy Rankin: That’s a pretty strong guarantee. So what is your guarantee? 

Martin Salama: So here’s my guarantee. In the beginning, you got to learn on information.

So there’s a 12 and a half percent investment into the program. of the full investment. And then you don’t pay me again until you start to get results. So the guarantee is I don’t take another dollar until you are making money and making enough to cover it. And even then we go, okay, are you ready to pay?

No. Okay. Why not? Let’s figure out why not? Let’s get you to the point where you feel comfortable with that. I’ve had one person say, Oh my God, I’m moving so fast. I want to give you more money. Great. But are you ready for it? Well, I’m [00:22:00] like, I’m telling them, I want to make sure you’re making the money.

So that you feel good about paying me instead of saying, Oh my God, how am I going to pay him? 

Trudy Rankin: That’s interesting because guarantees are really important part of the, of building the confidence in people’s minds that they are going to be able to use what you have to offer to achieve their goals, their dreams.

And so what kind of a thinking process did you go through to come up with such a strong risk reversal type of a guarantee? 

Martin Salama: Yeah. So I said, let me take these courses that I’ve taken, see what is working and what’s not working and why they’re working and why aren’t they working? And then I said, I’m going to build a better mousetrap as it were.

Okay. I’m going to figure out the things that didn’t work and understand the mechanics of it. And really the main thing that didn’t work was they expected you to understand things that you knew nothing about [00:23:00] and expected you to go figure it out on your own. Oh, just do Facebook ads and cross testing and double testing.

And I’m like, I don’t understand what any of that means. And so when I put this program together, I realized there’s three things that have to be in place. One, you have to have the right system, okay? And that’s the blueprint that we create with you as to what your business is going to be like.

What’s the system to get you where you’re going to go? And that can get you the first level, like to the six figure number. The next one is you have to have the right mindset. So I bring in my warrior to warrior coaching to get them in the right place because as much as they believe in my product and as much as they believe in me, if they don’t believe in themselves, The rest doesn’t matter.

It doesn’t matter because they’re not going to do it. And I say, here’s another guarantee. There’s going to be chaos and that’s okay. But the other guarantee I give is if you don’t [00:24:00] give up on yourself, I won’t give up on you. I’m going to keep on coming back. And even when you start to give up, get ready to be up in your face in a good way, in a loving way.

And then the third thing is you’ve got to be scalable. And that’s talking about understanding what’s your zone of genius and what should you be spending your time on, that you are going to be happy and profitable in there. And the things that you don’t want to do, or even better, don’t know how to do, like creating a CRM, a funnel, the landing pages, all that stuff, you farm out. And I learned this from a great man named Robert Kiyosaki, right? Rich Dad, Poor Dad. 

Trudy Rankin: I think a few people have heard of him. 

Martin Salama: Yep. Rich Dad, Poor Dad. And what he said, I heard him say this to me directly. It was in a group of people, but he said it to me. To us, I want to be the dumbest person in my own business.

And he said, I [00:25:00] want to surround myself with the people who know to do what I don’t know how to do. So I turned it to I want to, the people that know how, work with, and, the people that know why. That doesn’t minimize the how’s jobs, because each one of them have their own why as to why they’re doing what they’re doing, but they’re good at writing software.

They’re good at knowing how to do marketing or sales or the CRM or whatever. So you surround yourself. There’s a great book. I just lent it to my wife. It’s called “Who, Not How”. Figure out who you could do the things that you think you should be doing, how yourself. 

Trudy Rankin: Who wrote that book? 

Martin Salama: His name is Dan Sullivan.

Trudy Rankin: Oh, that’s right. Yep. Dan Sullivan. I’m going to put links in the show notes to some of these books. So I’ve got a few questions and I want to follow on with the thought that you had, can you share maybe just a story or two of some of the people that you’ve helped coach through to, as you said, the seven figure sort of success [00:26:00] level that’s your guarantee.

Martin Salama: I’m going to be totally honest. Nobody’s there yet, but a couple of them are very close to being there. Okay. So I’m going to look up something that somebody wrote for me. Okay. Their words speak louder than mine, right? 

Trudy Rankin: Yes, absolutely. Testimonials are like the thing. 

Martin Salama: Exactly. So Andrea, and Andrea is an interesting story because when I was talking to Andrea, she, the first time I met her, she sent me an email, replied to an email I sent out.

She said, I almost deleted this and I decided. Let me call the guy. And now this is what she said. I’ve spent thousands of dollars on coaching, but no one could take my unique program and make it work until I had a conversation with Martin. His program has helped me move past the roadblocks. And now I see the possibilities clearly.

I’ve been thoroughly impressed by the systems and feedback I’ve received and has [00:27:00] made a huge difference in how I approach my business. 

Trudy Rankin: That’s a nice testimonial. Very nice. 

Martin Salama: And she, the first call we had with her, she said, Are you going to change my program? And I said to her, I don’t know. Why are you asking that question?

She says, because every time I speak to one of you guys, that’s what you want to do. You want to change my program. I said, well, I have to learn what your program is. And what ended up happening is I didn’t need to change her program. I just need to show her how she can take her program and fit it into my risk reversal model and what she wants to do is she helps trauma informed coaches.

Basically, people go through domestic violence and what she wants to do is have 50 women in 50 states in the US coaching her program to help domestic violence victims get through their lives. 

Trudy Rankin: Wow. That’s 

Martin Salama: such a beautiful mission. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Yeah. But also very hard to make [00:28:00] a business out of.

Martin Salama: Well, that’s the thing. Most of these women, they go, I want to be impactful, but I’m afraid I’m not going to make enough money. So in her statement, in her impact statement, which is like an elevator speech is something we teach. We go through very early in our program with them so that they can go out there and just present themselves.

She says, I want to help trauma informed coaches make an impact and be profitable. In her case, she wants to help them get to six figures, which is like $250,000 dollars. Great. So we put a program together for her to be able to create programs that way. 

Trudy Rankin: Wow. Wow. That’s impressive. 

You said you had a couple of people that were getting close. Can you share another case study with us? Another story? It doesn’t have to be somebody who’s nearly up to your level. Just somebody who’s been able to significantly change the way they think about what they’re doing because of the coaching that you’ve given.

Martin Salama: Give me a moment. Let me find Jason. He wrote a long one, but we cut it down a little bit, but those who know me well know that I’m [00:29:00] always looking to connect individuals with those of trusted character who have the right value at the right time.

Those who know me also know that I seldom do program promotions. Oh, he was promoting my program. This is one again. This is one rare case I’m excited to have the privilege to help promote not merely a powerful program of value, not merely an event whose proceeds from his program introduction go to a wonderful charity, but I get to promote a program and professional mentor who I’ve come to trust and believe in my friend, Martin Salama.

The outline and details of his charity workshop are below. So when I do a workshop, okay, what I do is I charge 27 for a four hour deep dive workshop. And all of the money goes to a charity, right? And it’s a cold gift of life. He goes Martin and his team have actively developed unlike others who provide advice, Martin and his team actively developed your unique program alongside you.

The program not only works standalone, but also provides an exceptional additional offering that isn’t meant to Replace what you already may have. [00:30:00] It develops a genuinely synergetic offering to your business and fuels revenues and actual profit. 

Trudy Rankin: Okay. That’s, that sounds, it sounds like it was very successful.

I’m interested in what you just talked about the workshops. 

Martin Salama: Yeah. 

Trudy Rankin: So what was the thinking behind setting up workshops where you charge, to be honest, there’s not, 27 isn’t a whole lot, but in it for a four hour workshop and then you give the proceeds away to charity.

What made you decide to do that? 

Martin Salama: Well, I realized so many of the people out there, these guys are doing 45 minute webinars, and they’re charging 99. And at the end of it, Or even if they’re doing it for free, they’ve given you next to nothing in the webinar, other than to tease you to click on a chat on, on a link to buy the whole program, set up all that stuff.

I’m like, that’s not the way it should be done. So I said, I’m going to pull away the curtain and show everybody from the beginning to the end, what it’s going to [00:31:00] be like. And then at the end of it, say, I’m doing this for charity, because if you sign up for free, most people aren’t going to come, right? Oh, great webinar.

I’m going to go for free. Most people don’t show up. So if you charge, now you pay, they’re going to pay attention. So I said, if you do it with the money is going to go to a donation, to a good charity. Now you even feel good about making that payment. Not knowing that it’s not going to line my pockets and that I’m not in it for the money.

Even I get a thousand people at 27. Okay, very nice. But that’s not what it’s about. I’d rather that 27, 000 And I picked gift of life. This is an organization that helps people with leukemia, blood diseases, find a match for either bone marrow and or stem cells. And I picked them because I was fortunate enough in 2018 to donate my stem cells and save somebody’s life.

And I realized all the costs that went [00:32:00] into doing that, which was nothing for me and nothing for the recipient that the gift of life took on. So I said, okay, let me pay back to them in that way too. 

Trudy Rankin: That’s a really interesting story. And one more curiosity based question, and then we’ll start to wrap up.

Martin Salama: Absolutely. 

Trudy Rankin: But, this whole stem cell donation thing. How did you find out about that? Tell us a little bit about that. 

Martin Salama: Absolutely. So in 2006, there was a little girl in my community who had leukemia and they spread the word, okay, everybody come out this day and swab your cheek.

We need to find a match for this girl. Over a thousand people came out and swabbed their cheek. I found out later, do you know what it costs for each one of those swabbing kits? Between 60 and a hundred dollars. 

Trudy Rankin: Ouch. 

Martin Salama: Gift of Life pays for that. And they go out and they fundraise and all that. Anyway, so a thousand people came out and [00:33:00] nobody matched her.

And about a year later, she passed away. Fast forward to 2018. I’m about a month away from getting married. I get a call. Hi, this is the Gift of Life. Do you remember in 2006, you swabbed your cheek? I’m like, yeah. Well, you’re a match for somebody in the country who’s got leukemia and needs your stem cells.

Would you be willing to donate your stem cells? I’m like, well, I’m about to get married. It depends on the timing, but yeah, well, no, it’s going to be a few months and so on and so forth. Now, four months later, I went to the hospital. For the week before they came every day, sent the doctor to my house to give me a shot to increase my stem cell production for a week.

Then that day I drove to the hospital and sat in the blood donation room for maybe five or six hours. They took the blood out of one arm, took out the stem cells and put the [00:34:00] blood back into my body. And they come at the end, they go, okay, here’s the bag of stem cells. I go, okay. We’re going to fly it cross country.

Wow. Okay. And two years later, I get a letter in the mail. Hi, my name is so and so. You saved my life. And he’s telling me his history before, during, after, and I waited until I was better to write you. And he says, by the way, I just want to let you know, we were a 10 out of 10 match and I’m Scandinavian. And I’m like, well, I’m North African, Middle Eastern.

This was God’s hand coming in to say that I need to save this person’s life. 

Trudy Rankin: That is really interesting. An interesting way to get to the point where you’re actually able to help somebody. So, yeah, so shout out to Gift of Life, I think, in terms of a really impressive service that they provide.

Martin Salama: A hundred [00:35:00] percent. So, when I’m teaching people, I go, we’re going to help you build a done for you workshop and you decide what organization means something to you. You can imagine Andrea is going to do something around trauma informed, domestic violence and stuff like that. Each person will have their own pet charity that they want to do. What we’re going to do for them, we’re going to help them build their own workshop. We’re going to give them the CRM, all that backend stuff. And as they’re building their business, we’re going to help them find the right support to do the third thing, scalability. So yeah, 

it’s all there.

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. Wow. That’s impressive. One more, one more super quick question. And then I’ll get you to share some contact links, but you mentioned that you’d written a book. Do you want to just talk very briefly about your book? 

Martin Salama: Sure. Sure. So, I called it worrier to warrior. Okay. And what I did is some people have read this book and Oh my God, Martin, you’re very raw in that book.

You’re very [00:36:00] vulnerable. I’m like, well, yeah, I have to be, because if I don’t share what I’ve gone through, how could that other person know that I could help them? 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. 

Martin Salama: And the way I wrote this book and my course, is on this mission of not only giving you the information of what it is, but giving you the practical tools to put it into practice to make the difference.

So many times you read these books and they’re like, okay, but now what? I didn’t want a now what? I’m like, here what? This is what you do now. 

Trudy Rankin: Yeah. That sounds really interesting. So I’ll put the link to that in the show notes. Martin has been really great talking to you, listening to your story.

Martin Salama: Thank you. 

Trudy Rankin: We’re all on journeys, and you have a fascinating one. So, if people were more interested in either finding out more about you, or in reaching out to you for some help, where would they go? 

Martin Salama: So I’ve made it very easy. I created a page called connectwithmartin. com. That simple.

You put in that, you can [00:37:00] find out about it in my next workshop. I do them about once a month. You can buy my book. I actually also created a card deck from my book as handy, tangible things you could use at any moment. There’s free gifts down there. There’s a lot. You could even click on a button to make a free conversation with me if you want.

Trudy Rankin: Okay. Now that sounds good. And we’ll put that into the show notes as well. So that was connectwithmartin. com. 

Martin Salama: That simple. 

Trudy Rankin: Excellent. Great. Martin, thank you so much. 

Martin Salama: Thank you.

Trudy Rankin: Thank you so much for listening to my conversation with Martin Salama, his practical wisdom on staying positive and leading a fulfilling life no matter the challenges is something that we can all use. If you’d like to learn more about Martin’s work or reach out, go to connectwithmartin.com where you’ll find resources like his book, courses and free gifts to get started on your own journey.

And if you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review. Your feedback [00:38:00] helps more people find the podcast and ensures I’m providing the kind of value that keeps you coming back.

So thanks again for listening, and until next time, stay positive and keep moving forward.

So until next time, keep taking those steps, big or small, toward building the business and the life that you want.