It was around December back in 2016 just a few shorts weeks after I had just caught the on different industries that have uncapped potential for income. I went into sales and I was excited and hyped up and I was absolutely terrified. For reasons I couldn’t even mentally wrap my head around at the time. I soon found myself forcing new conversations with people passing by me on a daily basis. If you got within arms reach of me I was going to try and get you to at least say something back to me.

Now just to clarify I did not pitch or even talk about the product I was selling with the person unless I felt it was appropriate, my goal was to work on the skill of grabbing and holding someones attention. I did this cause I knew I had to become an expert at starting conversation with people. I knew I had to become incredibly skilled in being able to grab someones attention and focus to me and what I had to blab about. As many times as I succeeded I had nine times as many failures. I realized day and day how awkward it can be to try and force conversations on people that really didn’t want to talk to some skinny Cuban-American boy walking around through Downtown Miami. 

I came to realization that if I were to plan on socializing and creating new mutually beneficial connections with individuals then I must attend gatherings and events where the purpose of the function is for individuals to socialize. Being that Miami is a very social location I figure this shouldn’t be an issue. I started exploring around different bars and lounges only to find that ego ruled the stage. The levels of intoxication of the individuals who attend these venues regularly can be difficult to connect with for one who does not partake in consuming alcoholic beverages routinely. I have never personally been a huge fan of drinking. I enjoy the feeling of being not drunk over the feeling of being drunk any day. So in my efforts to connect and make genuine connections with others in these environments showed to be counter productive due to their habits, and values do not align with my own. 

I start thinking there has to be better places for me to meet genuine people I can get along with and trust, so I download this app called MeetUp. I start scrolling through and find some cool “meetups” that I think I would enjoy to participate in and I start attending a few. Sometimes I would bring a current friend of my own. Other times I would go by myself forcing myself to meet new people and socialize with others. I attended a group of stock trader who were all well over 50 years old. I came across this one group that enjoyed to play with fire and play drums arranged in a circle on the beach. I found myself stumbling upon another group of people who would gather and play board games while drinking craft beers. The conversations I began to have with these individuals were incredible and I had an incredible journey exploring through the different clique of the community and participating. 

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One Monday afternoon I found myself scrolling on the application finding what club or group I was going to incorporate myself within today. The words popped out to me in bright bold red letters “AXEN CLUB“. Confused as if this would involve the use of axes during the gathering I clicked the details to find more information. I see the words:

“A weekly in person goal support group for your goals. In the meetings we encourage and inspire one another to achieve our dreams. Our meetings are set up to be weekly goal setting/achievement accountability meetings to help all members thrive and flourish by having a community of helping one another.”

I start to think okay let me give this a shot. This should certainly be a great place to go and make some new friends possibly even make potential business connections with others. I get in the car and drive to some warehouse in the outskirts of the Wynwood area and find a garage door wide open and a ramp leading up inside the building. I peak my head inside to find a group of maybe 30 people gathered around sitting as this man who claims to be named Dynamo, is standing in front of the group talking about the way we have experiences, thoughts and intentions that all surround actions and can greatly influence the course of our decision to act or not act. 

I sat down in the back and listened intently as I was still doing my best to gain a better understanding of what I just walked into was. Few moments later as the leader of the group separated the large group into small pods of 4 or 5 people I find myself seating around a wooden desk. I will go ahead and skip some of the small details in regards to what we said and such in the group as others shared very personal information which I would not feel comfortable sharing on their behalf nor would it be respectful to do so. 

When I walk out of that room I felt less alone that when I walked in. I felt a sense of connectivity to my world around me. I felt like I had a team behind me now. A team that choose to be on my side and not because they were forced to or obligated to support me. When you come to an agreement to be honest, respectful and seek to create a space where others can do the same you create something that is organic.

I found that in this space there was a room of people who understood the value of helping others and asking for help when needed.

I found that in this space people had burning passions to create, love, share, explore and experience a life of gratitude and abundance.

I found that in this space people trusted on another, people held each other accountable, and people felt like they belonged.

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It was nice to find people who wanted and enjoyed to help others. They are out there. They are growing, laughing, exploring, achieving incredible goals and they are always looking for more company. If misery love company then success loves connectivity and I can promise you that if you look you will find the ones who want to help you and see you win. If you don’t know where to start see if your city has an Axen Club you can jump in. If you do dream big, and have a list of goals that you plan to cross through in this life time then connect with some other like minded people who are after the same thing. 

Personally I can tell you right now, the only reason you are reading this post right now is thanks to me participating in Axen Club myself. I currently lead the group here in Orlando, Florida on Tuesday Nights. So I am a bit biased, although just to clarify, just because I lead the group in no way shape or form does that mean I am any more qualified or have achieved more goals than you. I lead because I want to empower more people to continuously reach for their greatest potential just like Dynamo empowered me. 

With that being said, for those who seek to climb up together, we will see you on the mountain top!