“Stop Wasting Time!” The Brutal Truth About Money That EVERYONE Needs To Know | Dan Martell

I'm who I am because of where [music] I came from. Things got really crazy. I was hanging out with people from the Hell's Angels, learning stuff I definitely shouldn't have been learning. One day, my brother calls me up and says, "Don't come home. The police are waiting for you." >> At 17, I was in a high-speed chase with the cops behind the wheel of a stolen car. And then I [music] smashed into the side of the house. And in that moment, everything changed. >> I know this because I went from broke [music] at 24 to selling my first company for millions at 28. Today, I've exited three software companies, generate over 100 million in cash [music] a year, and now my only goal is to help others and motivate them to find success the way that I did. The path to [music] success isn't complicated. It's just hard. And I can teach it to anybody in a few steps. >> Do you think you could have changed without hitting that rock bottom? No. >> Zero. >> Why do you think things felt so hopeless to you at that time? [music] >> Yeah, it's tough. It's It's kind of interesting. I was shooting I was shooting the other day with Co. I just there balling just even think I [music] mean it's like it's still really tough but how often do you think about it? >> I get emotional thinking about it because I'm just like looking at my life today. It's pretty cool. Like could have went the other way, man. >> Yeah. >> So it's uh Yeah. I mean every week for sure, sometimes once a day just cuz like I literally look I Nobody's more surprised about what I like how I live my life today than me. Like I'm like I don't forget I don't I don't forget the other people I met. Like that was a dark period of my life, man. I didn't I didn't want to live. That's that was kind of the decision I made when I stole the car that if the cops get me, I'm going to pull. >> Does it make you more sympathetic to other people that are in that situation or does it make you think like whatever situation you're in, you can make it better? >> Definitely more sympathetic. I mean, my superpower is empathy with the kids. Like I I I love adults, but I also think a lot of adults are adults and you should treat them like adults. But when I meet another kid that's like struggling with life, dude, I just get down on one knee and I just like my mission is very simple. I just want to help kids not feel broken. I went my whole teenage years just feeling like I was broken. I was I was I mean for since I was 10, it's like can't play with Dan. I have to hide in the woods to play with my neighborhood friends. It's like it's kind of crazy. So yeah, man. It it's something that um I think allows me to be sympathetic, but also because of where I came from, man, it's like any like when when you hear people say anything's possible, I like I'm like no, it's like legit possible. It might take you a long time. It might take you 17 25 years, but man, if you just like wake up and just decide to make better decisions, like that's the start. >> How did you get to that point though of stealing a car? Essentially what happened was I I'd been in and out of jail. Like I I've been in and out of the system. I I was put into foster care when I was 11, crisis center, group home for a year. I turned 13 in a group home living with people that were like 17 in and out of jail. So like I was I was raised by a bunch of people that didn't have the most positive kind of uplook on life. And and then what happened was I just, you know, I ended up I broke into a house, stole a bunch of and my mom found them and she told she called the police and my brother called me and he says, "Don't come home cuz the cops are looking for you." I was like, "Well, what where do I go?" And he's like, "I don't know, man, but you can't stay here like in the city." And he met me and he gave me all the money he had in his like life. Literally like emptied his bank account. like that bank account. Like he emptied his piggy bank and he gave me $63.50 and he said, "Get out of town." And like that was that was a wild moment. And then I actually went and lived in the woods for 2 weeks. Nobody knows this. I've never shared this. And what scared me is I went for a walk. I had a there was a this like an old hunting camp my buddy Scott had. And I went for a walk with the and um I was going to pull the >> No. What stopped you at that point? >> God. It was it was like I was sitting in this field with the under my chin and I knew if I just like pushed down like thumb on the just pushed down it would have stopped and I was just I was just in I was such in a dark place. So, and then I just took the and I like threw it and you know freaked out and called my brother to come get me and that's that's when I stole the cars. Like I just had to get out of here. So, I like started trying to like let things calm down for a couple weeks but then it didn't and the cops were still looking for me. So, stole the car to drive to Montreal. I'm Canadian. So, >> why do you think things felt so hopeless to you at that time? Well, dude, the first time I went away, if you want to if you want to make pe somebody feel like less than dirt, pretty much juvenile detention is that. And at 15, I got sentenced for essentially 2 months because of, you know, shoplifting and getting in fights. I I had there was a reason I went away. And after that experience, it was so scary. There's no the guards are there but they're not really there. And if and so then then what do you do? You fight back and then you get put in the hole. And then the hole is the worst thing could ever happen to you. I mean they strip you down your underwear and they don't even tell you how long you're going to be in there for. So after I got out the first time I remember there's this guard and I was like you know nice to know you like I'm never going to see you again. I'm not going to be back here. And he says I'll see you soon. This smug guard a-hole. And I was like no you won't. He says, "We always do." And I had no idea what he meant. A year later, I'm in a high-speed chase. So, it's kind of wild that like even though I didn't want to go back, I couldn't make better decisions to change my life. And I think that's what it was. It was just like it had to get it had to get hard for me to finally realize like I got to make a change. >> Do you think you could have changed without hitting that rock bottom? No. >> No way. Zero. Zero. Dude, I'm the most hardheaded back then, man. I would argue with everybody. You don't understand. Like, dude, I was just that, you know, that I'm sure you guys went to high school or to school with that kid. You know what I mean? I had a look in my eyes like I don't have that look anymore. I used to this like I don't know, man. Like just troublemaker. I never made good decision. It was It was almost like there was a black cloud over my whole life. My dad would joke about it. It's like my brothers would go do something, nobody gets in trouble. Dan goes and does the exact same thing. Dan gets arrested. Like, so I wish I mean, I went I went to rehab the first time when I was 13. 21 day program. Dude, I I went to rehab high as a kite. Like, there was no part of me that took anything serious. What would you say were the predominant emotions going through your brain at that period of time in your life? Like, that made you so upset? Was it like pitying yourself? Was it just overall depression? Was it like anxiety? I mean, my parents are still alive, so it's obviously a it's a tough thing to talk about and we have a beautiful relationship. Like, it's kind of wild. But there was a part of me that was very angry at my dad. My dad, again, he had four kids. He was doing the best he could. He just worked a lot. He was never there. And what I ended up learning at a very young age is when I act up at home, my mom has to call my dad and he comes home. It wasn't positive attention, but it was attention. And that's that's how everything escalated. Man, I had a temperature like I would get so upset that I would see red and literally hyperventilate to the point where in my room I would break everything. Like if I asked you to smash everything in this room violently, that's how I would act as a 10, 11 year old. Like the reason why I had to go live in a crisis center is not not because of cuz like my brothers and sisters didn't I had to because of just like this temperature this like internal rage that I would see. I and and where that came from I don't know. Do you ever still feel that today? >> I I don't anymore. There was probably 10 years ago was the last time I felt I felt it. >> Do you think you're completely rid of that? >> No. It's there. I'm who I am because of where I came from. And it took me a long time to figure it out. The business stuff I actually felt was quite easy because like growing up, you know, people are like, "Oh, how are you such a risk taker?" I'm like, "Oh, this is nothing." I used I broke into somebody's house and stole their like you understand that sentence. Like I knew the person had and I broke in to steal. >> How did you determine that house? I >> But he told me this is what I'm telling you about risk. Like the ri the business risk stuff I do today is so a joke considering what I like that that's why like and and what's crazy is all the stuff I'm telling you I didn't tell anybody for 15 years. So like I would like live this like life of like that's who I was and then I got clean and changed my life and people you know then I finally had success in business but I knew that part of me. So that's why when people ask me like, you know, where do you find why are you such a riskier? I'm like, oh, this is nothing. >> So if you could get a good read on people, what do you look for today? Like how does that apply? >> That is wild. It's wild, man. I can I can tell the language people use what they believe about life. I can I can you could say words and I could tell you about a belief that you didn't even know you had just by the way you explain your situation, language you use, body posture. I also went to rehab for 11 months. So I spent 11 months every work, every cleanup at rehab, we shared our personal stories. That was the rule. It's like you partner up with somebody else in rehab and then you clean and you tell the story. Either you listen or you tell. So I did 11 months of like hearing people tell me their crazy stories about their life and and challenges and then got to see how they were living in this world. So it's like I had 10,000 hours of thin slicing human behavior at 17 18 and then when I got in business and people are like how did you know that person was going to screw over? I'm like oh but again I didn't tell anybody what I went through so nobody knew. But I I I I mean it's it's kind of like a superpower that sometimes I wish I didn't have because >> So if you're going to teach somebody how to get those skills, what would they look for? >> I mean, let's say you want to get into business like as an investor. I invest in a lot of companies. >> I'm looking in their eyes to see if they believe what they're saying. I actually don't care what they're saying. I care that they believe. If anybody's ever experienced, you know, like angel investing or investing or real estate, I mean, you're essentially making a bet on the person. There's no world where everything works out. So then the bet is the person communicates in a way with certainty and conviction and also that you can trust they're going to make the right decision when things get tough. So what's interesting is people that avoid the red flags, red flags don't go down. A lot of people act the same way they've always acted. That's why like adults, I'm like, "You're an adult. Once you're 27, your brain's kind of baked." So, I would just teach people like listen to what they say. What do they choose to amplify? Um, if they do say things that feel like a red flag and your gut says something, trust it. The most money I've ever lost was in not listening to my gut. Period. Full stop. Like, you know, most people know, hires, employees, whatever. Um and then I would say listen to the words they use because you know hope should maybe like these are all like people communicate their beliefs in the language they use to describe and if you can listen to that or even just asking people I met um met a guy named Patrick once and he was so good he would ask your birthday he would ask your relationship with your parents and I knew what he but I knew what he was He was doing that. He might have done it on purpose or not, but he was essentially trying to figure out what is your default even your your um there's science around what age you are like if you have brothers or sisters what number like are you first born second born >> and that creates character traits >> right so I would I would just ask those questions and just look for it like this is the thing is people will literally tell you who they are without telling you if you just listen for it and I always go back to why why are you sharing this with like that's the question I ask right and what's interesting is from a psychology point of view. When women communicate, they communicate like this. Like one of the things I find fascinating is when women meet other women, they're immediate to share how hard life is for the most part. I'm being very Oh yeah. They're willing hard life is. Oh my god. How's your day? Oh yeah. Yeah. >> I actually agree with >> No. No. They say it all the time. Yeah. Yeah. My wife will literally tell the worst thing that happened to her to a person she doesn't know >> because when they communicate, they communicate. Now that I've shared this, how close do you feel we are? Men, when they communicate, they communicate this way. >> Now that I've shared that, where do you see me in the totem pole of status? >> So the ones when you ask yourself, okay, well, why would they tell me all this stuff? They're doing this. And if they have to start the conversation from there, why? Because they're trying they they feel insecure. >> So when people overshare, you literally you just cut through all social fabric and you're just like, why are you telling me this? >> No, I don't say anything, dude. I'm I'm Oh, you just try to draw your own. >> I just pay attention. I don't I I can talk a lot and I've also learned to listen >> and people will just show you who they are >> and they won't even know they're doing it just by and that's the thin slicing that I learned at 17 in rehab that I didn't realize was one of my superpowers in business. You know what's interesting is your ability I wonder if they're connected. Your ability to be able to see a person for who they are based off of how they speak. If if that is related to your ability to appear nothing like what you shared at the beginning of this podcast, the struggles that you went through earlier on in life, like that usually would be indicative of a of a person of completely different character than who you are today. >> Yeah. >> Like if you're able to hide that and come off as something else. I think there was a part of me when I when I was in rehab. I remember one of the the staffs, Mark Pence, he would always prod me and he would say, "When are you going to start doing your program?" And first time I said that, I'm like, "Well, I've been here for 6 weeks. I'm doing the program." He goes, "When are you going to start doing the program?" What do you mean, when am I going to start doing program? It'd be great for you to start doing the program. And he would say this every week, every time I see him. What he was sharing with me is I had the ability to be a chameleon. I had ability to understand what you wanted to see. I could act that way to get you, you know what I mean? Like, and he saw me do that, which meant I wasn't being honest. I wasn't truly doing the work. >> How long did it take you to find success after all that? >> A long time. And what was the first little win you got? >> I mean, the first thing, it's kind of funny. So, I got into code. I learned how to code in rehab. That was like, you know, that was the weirdest. And also the thing that I'm most grateful for is that I became obsessed with just writing code software. This is, you know, 97. I get out internet's early days. I'm talking ICQ dial. You guys are probably way too young, but anyways, I just I became addicted to writing code. It was my happy place. I didn't like talking to people. I was trying to stay away from my old friends. I was kind of a bit of a hermit, but I would just write code and I would build stuff. And one of the first things I built was for my dad. It was a vacation. Like essentially he needed a page for a cottage he owned and he was renting it out. This is again 97.98 and I I told him he's like could you build it? I said I could but it's going to cost 600 bucks. I needed the 600 bucks to to rent the servers. Okay, this is before Amazon Web Services. So it's company called oneonone. 600 bucks gets you a like a physical server for a year that you can install and configure stuff. And I wanted to learn this programming language called Cold Fusion. So he gives me money and I build this app to manage his cottage to build a page. Okay, this is early days of the internet. But I had an idea that well my dad has a cottage and then there's like all these other cottages that rent out that I could probably get them to pay me for a page. That was the first thing I ever built was uh essentially I my buddy Dave is like there's a magazine in the city. It's a travel a tourism guide that has all the air the bed and breakfastes and the cottages for rent. He said, "Those people would pay you for that page. It's called Maritime Vacation." >> And I built a Microsoft Access database, loaded up all the addresses. I paid my little brother like to do it. And then I did a mail merge. And then I just did a essentially a form letter, but I didn't know what it was. And I just printed off this >> sales page that said, >> "If you want a web page for your bed and breakfast or cottage, you know, send me $30 and fill out this application form and I'll load it up on the website and I'll send you back your link. And if you want the photos back, send me back five bucks. So my dad shows up one day, checks the mail, and there's like 13 envelopes. >> And the first thing he says to me is, "What did you do?" And we sat down in the kitchen, it's a little apartment, and we started open up the envelopes. This is back when people literally put money. That was like my first money ever building something I built was building these pages for bed and breakfastes and vacation rentals. So, if we skip forward a little bit in the story, at what point in your life would you say you finally felt rich? So, back in September, I bought this warehouse that you're seeing right here. And honestly, it's an extremely stressful and strenuous process. And honestly, one of the hardest parts is finding an agent you can actually trust. And that's exactly the problem today's sponsor, Fast Expert, was built to solve. 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Fastexpert has helped over a million people find real estate agents and work with top rated professionals nationwide. Check them out at fastexpert.com/ceoff hour and you can see which agents best fit you in your area. Once again, that is fastexpert.com/iced coffee hour or you just click the link down below in the description. Thank you so much to Fastexpert for sponsoring this episode. So, if we skip forward a little bit in the story, at what point in your life would you say you finally felt rich? I think my default right now I would have said I don't even feel rich. Like I don't like rich is an interesting word. Somebody said it best. They said if more money wouldn't change your day then technically you're rich. And I would say from that definition 100%. And it's been a while. But [sighs] I like to think of rich as just like am I living to the fullest of my potential and like always not just like the money side but if I think like the money side my accountant called me one day I was 27 26 and he was like do you want to hear something cool? I still remember I was driving on this little kind of internal highway in the city called Von Harvey and you know it was a Blackberry back then the big blackberries the keyboard and he goes um hey man want to hear something cool I'm like yeah he goes you got a million dollars in cash like retained earnings after taxes all that stuff just cuz I never when I built that company I just like sold didn't mess with it didn't I was so scared to mess it up like this I went a long time that's why when you say how long did it take you to get some success I went even that first company that people sent money in the mail failed and then I did another company with my brother hosting company that didn't work out and then it wasn't until my third company and even that for the first year even though I made money I didn't really know what I was doing so when my accountant Mark called me up to tell me I had a million dollars in the bank account my response immediately to him was that good I'm 27 with a million cash in the bank account and I asked him if that's good he laughs he goes yes that's very good that's a really young age like and I didn't think it was impressive and I was worried I was going to lose visit the next day. >> And that's like a while ago, too. So, a million back then could be like two or something. >> More than that, probably. Probably three. >> I'm not that old, you guys. >> Maybe 10 million. [laughter] >> I will attack you. >> That'll be the thing to sell. [laughter] >> 19. >> It's been 10 years, but today's the day, >> dude. It was 1950s, [laughter] right? >> Like 20 grand. >> That's That's crazy. I mean, a million dollars at 27. >> Yeah. >> Okay. And then So, what did you do from there? That was after exiting that first company. >> No, that was while I was building the company. I exited the company a year later. Even then, like I made like 8 million bucks or something after taxes. Like I didn't have to work again. >> Was that on the exit? >> Yeah. Yeah. I owned the company and it was like I think I I remember the my accountant telling me um it was like I could live I could make like quart million dollars a year for the rest of my life, you know, 4% or whatever after all the taxes. >> And I don't even know like I didn't even feel rich then. It's like maybe the reason, you know, I I always look at trauma responses. I'll be honest with you, like this is just when I see somebody that's on the street and they're homeless and they're addicts and they're begging, I don't see a big difference between that person and me, which sounds wild, but let me tell you why. There people respond to their their stories and unfortunately some people can have a negative response to it and other ones can positive. So like the person that's a high achiever never never stops you know what I mean they're they're for the most part when you start this is my story when I started it was to fill a void right the not enoughness and the only difference between the person that's on the street addict etc is they had a negative response to the trauma the person that's a high achiever and very successful they struggle with the same stuff that keeps the person on the street they just have a positive response to it the overachiever [gasps] so like I think that's Why? When you say when do you feel like you're rich? I don't think I ever felt that way because there's always something I was trying to become to overcome the not enoughness. If that makes sense. >> What are the biggest misconceptions people have about money? >> That your bank account's a reflection of your beliefs. That one people aren't going to like. >> What do you mean by that? >> Your net worth is a reflection of your self-worth. Period. Full stop. If you don't have more money, it's because you don't feel you deserve it. Because if you didn't feel like you deserved it, you would fight for it. And I can prove it. If I took half of your money away tomorrow, you would act different that day. So if you'd act different, it means that there's a level that you feel you deserve. And if it goes away, you then, I mean, we've all been there. >> So, so then, so I call those the highs. And what happens is most people oscillate. If you're good, you kind of oscillate up. But most people go up to down, up to down, up to down. And the trick if you want to optimize for making money is to make the old high the new low. So you got to act as if the old high is the the low. That is 100% based on the beliefs you have about what you've created or not. And I think that's that's a big one where people think that their bank accounts are reflection of maybe their education or their opportunities or their skill set. And it is. But it starts with the do I feel like I deserve for it? And we all know these people that are talented that never ask for anything. Then we know these other people that are not talented ask for stuff they shouldn't even asking for. And sometimes they get it and then they get these opportunities and live a life that the other person's going, "How did they do that?" >> So you think people disagree with you on that take? >> Yeah. >> And why do you think that is? >> Oh, cuz if they agree with it, then it shows them that the way they've lived their life is a lie. Like that truth, if they believe it, >> takes everything that they, you know, university background, etc., and essentially avoids it because they've put their self-worth into these other things. And I'm saying no, it's do you feel worthy? Like do you literally feel like if you want 100 million, go get it? And again, they'll be like, oh, if it's 100 million, then what about my time and what about my family and all the sacrifice? And I'm like, no, those are all things you make up to stop yourself from deciding to go do something cuz I didn't tell you how to give up all your time. You can still strive and desire something and put constraints in place, but it's just to not even desire to do it. That's the biggest thing about money. >> This is interesting. It's like the meta of how to make a lot of money. It's like the philosophy that one should have if you do want to earn a lot. We're gonna get on to like what that looks like in application and the actual direct things that you can do to make a lot of money. But first, I want to lean a little bit more into the into the philosophy. I'm curious, what are like the primary things that people need to look inwards at to see if they're in a place philosophically speaking about making a lot of money? I'll give you I'll give you really tactical and again people don't want to hear this but first off if you are the wealthiest person you know and you don't have other people around you that are further along then it'll make it almost impossible for you to get ahead because if you try to the people around you who don't understand that will ask you questions that get you to second guess yourself. That was the big thing I learned in rehab. How am I supposed to get sober if I stay around the same people that were selling and doing right off the gate? I had to get into a different environment. So, I think that's the first question is are do when you share something positive with the people in your life, do they cheer for you or do they tear you down? And unfortunately, most people, they don't have those cheerleaders in their court. That's one. Two, everybody thinks that you get paid for doing hard work and the and unfortunately that's not the case because if that was the case and the person putting the roof I mean today this is hot outside. Imagine somebody putting a roof on a house today. That's hard work. This is not hard work. So it's not getting paid for how hard you work. It's the value you create in the world. That's the world we live in. That's capitalism. If people don't like it, go to another country that's different. But the truth is is like you just got to be honest with yourself. Do you create value that other people value? It's not even that you think is valuable because a lot of artists think they're like really good artists, but if they don't learn the skills to create value by telling stories and doing the reps or trying to figure out some really unique ways to create art, then nobody else is going to that there's no value there, right? And then the other one I think is just like what do you believe? You know, when I mentor these kids, I always I always ask them you have two people. You have Mr. Grumpy Face and you got Mr. Happy Face. And you're walking around and there's people out there that want to be helpful. Who do you think those people in the world that want to be helpful are going to help? Grumpy face or happy face? Happy face. Okay. Then audit your thoughts. Audit your questions. Like if somebody says to you, "There's more opportunity around the world than anybody's ever seen." Do you agree with that statement or do you argue against it? Like that's the victimhood mentality. So, a lot of people that don't agree with me when I share this. >> All they're trying to do is fight for their stuck. Like, it's kind of wild. You know, we talk about like human psychology. The amount of fighting people do to fight for their limiting story is wild to me >> because I don't do that anymore. I hang out with people that are like trying to be like, "Oh, that's cool, Graham. You should do this. You know, Jack, what about this?" And it's like, "Oh, gez, I don't know. That's that's big." That's that's what you want to get around. But most people literally argue with you to fight against you. And I think those are things Those are things you can just ask yourself. Do I see opportunity in the world or do I think everything is scarce? Do I I mean, there's like a trillion dollars that exchange hands today. Did you get a piece of it? It's there. Somebody got a piece of it. >> Go get it. >> Speaking of that, how would you make $10,000 a month for the average person watching this and that's their goal >> right now? Right now. >> Easiest way. Yeah. I think I got a video coming out on it because we we did a little challenge video. Okay. Okay, I'm going to give very tactical. First thing I would do is I would load up Chad GPT, ask it to create a real estate offer. And the reason why I do real estate offer, as you know, every real estate agent's web or phone numbers on the internet like right off the gate, let's solve the lead genen problem. >> Okay, so I go on chat GPT, I create an offer to use AI to automate the marketing for a real estate agent. And then you you literally just ask the chat, the AI to give you the script to do the phone, the cold calls. Okay. Now, as soon as people hearing this, they go, "Yeah, but nobody's going to answer their phone." No, they do answer their phone. I could literally I I'll pull up the real estate agents right now and start cold calling and they'll answer. Now, can I sell? That's a different skill. What I do when I'm doing cold calls, first three to five, they're throwaway. You just get them done. Like, you almost shouldn't care because it won't matter. You got to get in the energy of the playfulness to try to get the person to stay on the call. And then the whole point is you want to just schedule a call to show them what you've built. now. And the people are going to go, "Well, Dan, I've never built AI before." Okay, cool. Well, schedule the meeting. Like, get the calls done, get the meeting scheduled, and then you got time between when the meeting scheduled tomorrow and today to go figure out how to do a demo to get a real estate agent to go, "Oh, that's cool." And then I would go on the internet and I would be like, "Real estate I I mean, I did this the other day. It was like um real estate listing AI Tik Toks or whatever." And like you can you can do a lot using these tools that are free tools to impress a real estate agent to get them to give you a couple hundred bucks a month or 500 bucks or a thousand bucks and then it's just a numbers game cuz if you can sell one you can sell 10 you can sell a thousand. And to me that is such a very clear specific tactical thing that they could do any person listening this could do but then it goes back to their beliefs. I think that a lot of opportunity, I'm sure we'd all agree, is in bridging that gap between like the antiquated way that a lot of businesses are run, like the traditional corporate way, even mom and pop shops, bridging the gap between that and AI. >> Mhm. >> Because there's just like so many businesses that operate on this older older strategy, but if you introduce them to like instantaneous answers solutions with AI, there's so much opportunity. you you just show them like one of the demos I like to show people is this product called Atlas your atlas.com and it's it's a lead gen cuz like have you ever tried to like hire somebody in a local business and you're like calling no nobody's even answering. This is what's interesting about local businesses is they all complain they don't have enough leads and yet if we called a 100 local businesses we might only get 40% that answer the phone. So their phone rang with a potential client and they couldn't even answer. So, your Atlas is an AI that will literally answer the phone, answer the questions, and schedule a sales call or follow-up or demo or whatever. Fully automated. And if we called it and you would hear it, it sounds like a person. It's I got fooled by that, >> dude. Because it even does a background noise. It has like the tap tap tap and the tonality. >> When I was calling it was like, "Um, hold on one sec. Uh, hold on. All right. Uh, give me one second." And then it was like, "Okay, we had this." It fooled me and I'm like, "Wait a second. This is >> Is that real or not? >> This isn't real. It's a It's a person or it's it's not a person. >> I'm I'm telling you, >> you got me. It took me 20 seconds to figure this out. It's like this. I I had no idea. >> But even if it was AI, just the fact that it can answer the phone for inbound and schedule a call or answer a question or or get somebody's contact and upload in your CRM, put them on the email list. Like that magic cuz I think AI the best stuff feels like magic. That magic is available in every part of the business. financials, marketing, sales, operations, ideiation, strategy. It's just people are still not they don't know how to use it. You know what I mean? Like do you guys use AI >> all the time? >> What's the use case that you wish people knew more of? Like what do you do with it that you're like, "Oh, people got to start." >> We use it to enhance our audio a lot. Like that's been one of >> That's Yeah. >> Um I use it with idea creation. If I'm trying to bridge a gap between two subjects, like let's say I'm talking about the stock market and I want to find a really easy segue to real estate, I just give my script to chat GBT and I say bridge a gap four sentences between these two that make it flow perfectly and it just gives me five options and then of the five I'll be like that's a great one. I'm going to tweak it but I'm going to use that frame. >> You nailed it. >> Uh taxes we've been >> taxes are dude like I told my wealth manager I was like dude you're not going to have a job soon. I love you, but it's all going away. >> I got a great one. Um, I have six properties and between those six properties, they're they're all throughout Los Angeles County. I have two policies on each. One is a landlord's policy, one is an earthquake policy. And I have the amounts that I was charged on my AMX card, and I could see at the end of the year how much I'm charged from it. I was charged about $16,000 a year. But I didn't know which charges went to which properties. So, I ask my insurance agent, "Could you tell me exactly how much I paid in 2024 for the insurance broken down by property?" He does it and I realize, "Wait a second. His only add up to 14,000. Mine add up to 16,000. Where did that $2,02 go? I have no idea." And I went back and forth with him over email for 6 months. He said, "I can't find these extra charges." And he pulled up every little thing. I uploaded all the doc the whole email thread to chat GBT and I and I said here are my charges. Here are his. Here are all the policy numbers. Find out where the discrepancy is. And within a minute it found it. I was overcharged for one policy that was never refunded and it found it. It found it by the by the thing and it was broken up into smaller little categories. That's why we couldn't find it because it was like a $700 charge, a $4 thing that was charged to this. But it found it. And then I sent him the chat GPT version. It's like, would you like me to put this in a PDF that I could send to your insurance? Yes. >> I sent it to him. He looked back. We got it resolved. >> But this was 6 months and it just found it. >> It was nuts. >> It's like the first time I showed my dad, my dad was he would have been 63 at the time. He was at my event and I was like showing him some AI stuff and he's like, "How much is it?" I said, "Dad, it's free." He couldn't believe it. He's like, "Can I use it to like create a lease agreement for a tenant?" I'm like, "Yeah, well, how'd it do that?" I said, "It's well, I can't explain you the math, Dad, but it's AI." He's like, "That's better. That agreement put stuff in there that my current lawyer didn't even think of doing." And I said, "This is the thing, Dad. It's got perfect information of everything that's ever been done." I sit on a board. >> Sometimes I get behind. I don't look at the board deck before the call. I get on the call and I'm while I'm on the call realizing I haven't reviewed all the minutes and the notes and all that stuff. I just upload it into a custom project in GPT and said act as an investor. Here's the company. Here's all the details. What are the five questions I should be asking the CEO? Waited my turn. I asked the first question. The CEO couldn't believe that I found a gross margin detail on the 37th page of the financial report. And all the other investors were like, "How did you know to ask that?" I was like, "Well, I read the information." >> You know what I mean? Like, it it's it's doing that and it's doing so much more. Like, I just I look at it and I think of like directors versus doers. Like, the future is to the directors, the people that know how to use it to get the stuff done. Like, GPT5, it's not out yet. >> The rumor is is that if you've seen any of the operator stuff, which is like the browserbased task execution, it'll log into software and do stuff for you. They're going to integrate that into the chat. Meaning that right now you use it to like research and like, hey, I'm going to this country. I want to put together a travel plan. But in five, you then say and book it. >> And it will do all the booking. All the doing >> and >> I just like and people are like, "But you wrote a book about executive assistants and virtual assistant." I'm like, "Yeah, all the doing they do today is is going away." But do you think that this is a bad thing in the sense that people will never learn how to think for themselves? Because I do find quite a lot of mistakes in chat GPT. I worry that at some point people are just going to be reliant and say, "Well, my source is chat GPT because it told me so and like that's the sources because that says it." >> We've been there before. So I'm a big fan of like looking at history as kind of a predictor. So like you just think of all the people that are like instant, you know, medical experts because they went on about.com because of some symptoms, you know what I mean? Like so there's there is a history of us using technology to kind of selfserve that could be harmful. >> But I think we're going to get to a point, let's say just in the medical space, where it will be considered malpractice for you not to use AI. Like I don't want a doctor based on how his night went last night with a newborn deciding if he saw something on a scan or not. So the thing is once you understand that the way AI is built today and it will change next week and next month is just a fancy autocomplete. It doesn't do math well and that's where there's a lot of issues. It does it does predictive text really well. That's why marketing was one of the first use cases for it. in the future it will fix that predictive analytics part so that it is accurate and I'm talking like months away like there's a company called precision that does like business analyst kind of um dashboards and I think it's precision.co co and they ran into this. But essentially what they're going to do is continue to use like the coding um it's called the tool in software. So they'll use the tool to do the analytical part but still use the AI to do the strategic part. So you have the dashboard data that's accurate but telling you what you should do in your business that's based on strategy, right? Based on who you are, the context, your employees, how big it is, the comp structure, your tax, you know what I mean? Like and I think that it does really well. But you also gota that's the part that is the director versus the doer. Like a good director I'm gonna pay because they have domain experience and they know when something comes back that it's wrong. >> And that's I think that's where like AI is really good. There's three types of intelligence. There's analytical intelligence, there's creative intelligence, and there's emotional intelligence. And if you think of what AI is world class at, better than most humans, analytical intelligence. It you'll never be able to outthink. We're talking PhD level doctorate research projects with the new reasoning models. That's today. And then the creative part, writing ads, helping you with your scripts. It can do it, but what it lacks is taste, right? It lacks experience. It may get there, but today it doesn't have it. But I I would say if I'm betting on how do I defend myself against AI, it's the creative part and it's the emotional part. It's the EQ side, right? I mean, as long as humans are still involved in the process of getting things done, the emotional intelligence will always be needed. >> You know what I think is going to happen? We're going to get our own AI that we're going to grow up with that's going to know us so intuitively well, and you'll never be able to exit that because it's got all of your info. >> Yeah. Built in. And you could start doing this at like 13 years old, working with your chat GBT, grow up with it, and by the time you're 50, my gosh, it knows you better than >> dude. It knows it right now. You can actually ask it prompts like >> I do that all the time. >> Yeah. Like what what what's my shadow side I don't want to acknowledge. >> That's a crazy question to ask the AI or ask it what do you know about me? >> How does it know? And that's Sam Alman the founder or you know Chad GPT or OpenAI. He's stated like we want to be the AI that does that and then you can use Claude and Gemini and the other ones but we want to be the layer of personalization above. What's interesting if you think about it is how does this apply when you have people at work and they create IP at work and then they go take a new job. That's an interesting question I've been thinking about is like how do you take essentially your work experience with you when a lot of it was filtered through the AI co-pilots for your job and you've built these like best practices with the AI at work but then you take a new job and they're saying well you can't take it with you because that's we own that IP nobody talks about that but I think about it a lot >> I think for relationships too that people are going to have robots that they could just >> Dude I heard you can do match No chatbt could have the craziest matchmaker ever. Think about it in terms of that for you have like user profiles and then if it's collecting which it doesn't collect the data it claims it remains on the platform but like if you could say who in the world matches my personality perfectly >> and then this user over here in like Iowa. >> That's wild. >> I'd love it. Imagine you upload your photo and you you it gives you like a hundred faces and you rank attractiveness >> of like all these faces so it knows exactly what you like, body type, facial structure, eye color, hair, everything. >> People would pay like $50,000 to find their like partner for life. >> They do that today. It's just they're they're only the pool. Yeah. >> To be like that. >> Yeah. >> They pay it. They don't get that. >> And could >> dude, imagine they just scan Facebook. like it's got all the data. Like I think of like the data sets to train this saying it already exists. >> That's a fantastic idea >> to find the one the one in a billion. You could what you could probably do is just create an app that does that and then you copy all of your user memory upload it to the site and then people just do that and then take pictures of yourself like you said it generates photos of people you say you like. Dude, that right there billion dollar business. I'm going to tell you a bit of I'm going to tell you a bit of a morbid idea that I had that I think it's a great idea that someone's going to think of this at some point. >> Uh you have let's say a parent or someone who's getting older. They could upload their voice through everything >> into a cloud or into like chat GBT and it asks them all these questions about themselves. How would you answer this? What is your thoughts on this? but enough so that it has like a lot of data, voice, everything. >> When they pass away, you would be able to call in a phone number or hear this person's voice and talk to them and it talks as though it's them >> and it but it would I think it would help people. >> I don't think it's that morbid. I don't think >> I mean people freaking grab their animals and stuff them and put them in their home and I think I hope you I mean if you guys do that that's cool but like that's kind of [ __ ] that's >> I'm just saying if someone you're waiting to see what you're saying to me like looking in your eyes I'm like dude I touch it would help you feel good if someone passes away >> and you could just say you know I miss this person I'm going to go and talk to them I know it's not them but this is what they would say it just makes me feel better that there's they're always there a part of them is is that I could talk to >> what's interesting is us, the three of us are already creating that. So whether we want it to exist or not, it already exists for people like they're doing this right now like with the coaching models and stuff where you can just like create a phone number where people call and they can ask Dan Martell or Graham questions. So >> I think it's interesting that the more content's created that like you know my kids definitely with my YouTube like they'll be that that exists like they could do it now. >> I I don't think it's that morbid. I think it's actually a beautiful like Yeah, it kind of brings up this idea that the amount of people that live for their parents' approval that aren't even alive fascinates me. >> Yeah. >> In that same breath of life like >> there's a Black Mirror episode like that, is there? >> Yeah. Yeah. Her husband passes away and she calls this number and they deliver a new husband. It's AI so it's not >> the husband passes away, calls the number, gets a new husband. new husband with his memory uploaded to that robot >> and he acts a bit differently and she says, "Oh, you wouldn't actually do this and it reprograms. Okay, from now on I'm going to do that." And so like over time it molds more and more like him. >> It just it it became an unhealthy obsession that she would spend all of her time with >> she overcorrected into like the perfect husband of her husband >> kind of. >> How about don't nag me. the the he wouldn't have done that. [laughter] >> He is perfect now. >> Why did I wait? >> The ending was that she couldn't move on because she was so attached to this thing and then part of the grieving process was you can't have you can't rely on that. So maybe it holds people back. But >> yeah, >> I think it would be a unique thing to be able to call someone who's passed away. >> Yeah. And talk to them. [clears throat] >> Yeah. >> For those unaware, we've used our sponsor notion for years to keep the iced coffee hour running. Everything from guests to sponsors to workflow. It's the glue that holds everything together. And now with Notion Agent built in, it's gotten way better. 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You know, there's a great quote that says um things that can be electrified will be cognified. So, that's an interesting idea. everything. That's And I don't know if you guys saw some of these robotics companies, the humanoids, like the Tesla Optimus, but my favorite one's Figure. So Figure has called Figure. Yeah, Figure 2. >> And it's like sitting there grabbing parcels off the UPS line and sorting and packing it down. And you swear it's not real. Like it looks fake. >> And it's getting to the point where like that in two years when it's taking care of the dirty, the dumb, and the dangerous jobs. And then all that cost savings gets bubbled up in the economy. I don't know, man. I see a world where we're going to get to a place where like food, transportation, and shelter is kind of taken care of through robotics. >> Yeah. I saw one there was a robot doing floors in a house. >> Yeah. >> Like one robot replaces two workers perfectly installing floors. >> Yeah. I think I think the cost of a house should go down dramatically just because you could utilize these robots and these things to build a house in like a third of the time. >> Yep. No, no breaks, no complaining, 24 hours a day. >> And I and that's why like the humanoid for form factor is the best one cuz it's a generalist robot. See, there's we we went through this like period of like specialized robots. You see them in like car manufacturing plants. And the argument now is we go humanoid because the world was built for us. So everybody talks about self-driving cars for example. What about when the robots drive the cars and every car becomes self-driving? So I just I think people don't see that >> curve and you know the construction. I mean I thought we'd be have 3D printed homes by now. Like I used to watch like the 3D printing kind of the big stuff with the cements and all that. >> I think it's more zoning. It is it is the it's even like the you know the prefab you know like box homes and stuff really haven't taken off either but >> I looked into those those are really interesting but but bringing in plumbing and everything to them and then you're more than the cost of just building it from scratch. >> Y yeah I think the robots though because they're generalized robotics like the one that does the UPS line that morning worked at the BMW factory and it's the same robot that grabbed the stuff and helped build the car that also grabbed packages. That's and the the reason the CEO talks about like the home will be the last one to do is because you know accidentally knocking over a candle and burning a house down or having the robot run out of power and fall down on a baby. Like those are serious concerns. So they're going to wait to do the home last and use the manufacturing and like the facilities first and the dangerous doll and you know um >> dirty jobs that nobody wants, right? And that's why they've started with those jobs where they're dangerous. People are losing fingers or >> underwater welding. That seems like an easy one. Put a robot down there. >> Just get some gaskets on those motors and put them underwater and they just And it's crazy because they can learn with only 60 hours of training data. 60 hours of watching a human do the job. That's today. So it might get down to >> an hour. >> I want to see robots making other robots. >> That's >> that would make me happy. >> You brought something up. >> You go into your like basement, you see a robot creating its own thing. You're like, "Hey, what's up?" Hey, nothing. Don't worry about it. >> It's got lasers. But that was like somebody asked you. They're like when did you know AI like was going to be something special? It's when I saw AI write code and it was before GPT35. It was like >> six five six years ago when I watched the AI write code and realized that it could write code for itself. At some point it was just logical that eventually the robot makes robots and the code writes code. And then you see this right now with reasoning models. If you use an 03 model and tell it to write the code, you can watch it write code to solve problems for itself. >> It's kind of wild. Like if you expand that little window and say, "Show me what you're doing." It's it's searching the internet and it's trying to figure out whatever you asked it to do. And if it gets stuck, it will write code to get unstuck. >> So when does it become a problem? When do they take over the world? >> My biggest concern is just the evil. So, like I grew up and I saw some evil stuff and those people exist and I'm just worried that I think that's what Elon is trying to do with like Grock and he started open AI as a nonprofit to essentially say hey if you know these superpowers in the world or these companies you know the fang companies have access to this like we got to make sure that everybody has access to that's like his essentially like antidote to the problem. That's also why he's doing Neuralink because he knows that if the AI goes into super intelligence, not just general intelligence, now we as humans need the ability to the IO of a human is very slow. Input output, it's it's our thumbs and our cortex, but they the AI airdrop stuff. So if we don't have the ability to have the AI and talk to it the speed that the computers can talk to each other, then if it gets malicious, we can't protect ourselves. That's just real. Like it will get there. It's just I think Elon is one of the few people that are like, "Hey, we need to make sure Neuralink works. We need to make sure AI is available to everybody and not just controlled by a small group of companies." And then it's like everything in the world with nuclear power, whatever. Like it's it's really positive and it's also potentially the worst thing could ever happen to us. But people go, "Well, isn't that bad?" I go, "How are you going to stop it? Show me your phone." Like, "What are you talking about?" I said, "What kind of phone you got?" "You got the latest phone?" "Yeah, I got the latest phone." Cool. I dare you to stop wanting the latest stuff. Exactly. Every human on earth is born with a DNA that says, "I want a better life," which means a nicer home, which means a better phone, which means So, so, you know, I don't know who said it, but I think it was on Rogan where he said that humans are the bootstrapper to artificial intelligence. Like, we we might be the biological bootstrap. The bootstrap is kind of like software thing. So there's like a bootloader in operating systems to >> kick off this synthetic intelligence. >> Whether you like it or not, it's probably it's going to come and I don't know, man. Then we have a conversation of are we in base reality? >> I do think that we're getting a little distracted cuz a lot of people are going to be clicking on this video to learn how to make money. >> Let's do it. >> Cuz that's what a lot of your content is about. We've been watching it and we really enjoy a lot of these like life lessons, personal philosophies, how you can make a lot of money. I'm curious, what is one life lesson that you listen to when you were younger that you wish you didn't? >> Wow. That I listened to when I was younger that I wish I didn't. I mean, it's all the the money stories, man. Money doesn't grow on trees. Like the what what other ones? Um the life [clears throat] lessons, man. And I had to deal with everyone like like the money is evil. Like money's a fork, man. Like people are like money's bad. I'm like is a fork bad? It can it could feed you, nourish you or it could also somebody. So is it bad? It's a tool. I think that I used to believe I had a belief for a long time that if I don't go bankrupt, I'm not successful. >> What do you mean by that? I just kept reading stories of people that I admired that went bankrupt. And I thought to myself, well, if I admire them and they're successful, then I guess I have to go do go be so successful I lose it all to build it back up to prove that I'm successful. Like, that's a dumb story. That was the dumb that one I probably held on to for 10 years. >> The dumbest of dumbest. And then I remember sitting there and I asked myself a question. What am I pretending not to know? Well, I'm pretending not to know that I can hire people that can fortify my wealth so I don't lose it. So, hire the people and then let them be your partners in the financial planning. So, it's like that was a weird one. Um, I don't know that that that that people that are rich are evil. You know, growing up and, you know, not a lot of stuff and, you know, you'd be on vacation and you see a nice car and, you know, my mom would say, "Oh, that guy's in the mafia or something." Well, I don't want to be in the mafia. Do I have to be in the mafia to drive a car like that? Do I have to be evil if I drive a car like that? Like, that's it. It was It was just all the beliefs that are just simply not true. And sometimes I wonder, did I believe those things because it allowed me not to play towards what I was trying to create? You know, almost like self-sabotaging beliefs [gasps] >> or allowed me to live in this like story or you know what's the opposite. It's hard to tell yourself that you really want something. >> Totally. >> Because as soon as you realize that you do like through and through, >> then if you don't achieve it, it's like everything's lie. This is why people don't say their goals publicly. Because if I tell you what my goal is publicly, then you're going to ask me about it next time I see you. So most people live these kind of like quiet lives of desperation for a desire to create a life that's bigger. They don't tell anybody because as soon as they tell people, then then they're accountable. But if words create things, and they do, that's how you everything you've ever gotten in your life is on the backside of a conversation. Whether you know it or not, that's how it's always been. Humans buy from humans. People do things with humans. It's conversation, video, content, all that stuff. And the words we use are what create those opportunities. I always thought it was the opposite. When you say something, people reinforce it and you get the same feelings of satisfaction as if though you actually did it. Like if I tell >> That's when you ideulate. >> Yeah. Same word cuz I'm not Yeah. >> Yeah. >> That's when you say like like I'm going to go to the gym every day. >> And Jack's like, "Oh man, Graeme, that's awesome. Yeah, you're going to go to gym and I feel great. Look at what I just did. And then I never do it. My my is is my whole philosophy is the opposite of that is just I never say anything. >> Quiet. Just Yeah. Watch this >> cuz I but I'm also superstitious that if I say something then maybe me putting it out there is not going to happen. So I'd rather just not say. >> I used I used to actually in high school I used to believe that when there's like contests in class >> I would just be like I'm not going to win. I'm not going to win. I'm not going to win. And then I won. >> I created this belief that if I just believe I'm not going to win I'm going to win. >> Yeah. And if you think you're going to do something, then it's not going to happen. >> Just it's not it's not true. >> Yeah. >> Statistically, it's not true. If you actually ran the numbers and tried both, it probably would work. It would work better. And the reason why is because even the idea was ideation. When you talk it out loud and the person says, "Yeah, let's go." You at least had to say it. And I think that's what's interesting. But like the more you tell people what your goals are, if you think about like somebody runs a marathon, better yet, >> vegans or crossfitters, how do you know they're vegans or crossfitters? >> Yeah, vegan will tell. I'll tell you as soon as possible. So, it's interesting because I remember the first time I did an Iron Man, I just decided I'm going to do an Iron Man, but then I started training and I was talking about it and I was tracking it and I was changing my calendar around it and I was so then I realized the the the the frequency of the talking about the goal went up by like a thousand. So, was it that I did the work or that I talked about it and I kept talking about it? It was front of mind. So, it's like that whole like, you know, when people talk about like manifesting, I don't know if it's it's literally just like based on the brain and the science. It's you create a heat-seeking missile towards an outcome. The more you talk about it, the more people hear about it, the more they say, "Hey, have you tried this equipment? Have you done this? Have you talked to this person? Have you watched this video? You know, have you watched the uh you know uh freaking dude uh James Lawrence who did a 100 iron mans in a row, right? And you watch this video and then you feel more motivated. So it's like that doesn't even get presented to you if you didn't say something in the first place that essentially allow you to create a goal. Like that's that's the thing I'm fas if you look at every successful person in the world from Elon to Steve to everything they spoke their future in existence. I always wonder though if it's even helpful at all to look at the most successful people because they are so far outside of the norm of like the bell curve of personalities and character that it's like why would you even look to someone that's just not remotely close to you at all. Like I feel like the you take the most successful people, you look at their personality and it's just like all of them they got like you know they have Asberers or they have something going on that you're like okay do I really want to follow in this person's footsteps when their code their genetic code is completely different than >> yeah I think I think what happens is that there is survivor bias right and especially CEOs because CEOs are typically like louder and blah blah blah and so people see that but the the pattern matching I think is a useful you know, strategy because >> and it's not necessarily like the CEOs or the Opras or the the Richard Branson, like the people that are wellknown because there's a lot of people in the private equity space that nobody knows that are billionaires >> and if you watch their character traits, there's stuff to learn from them. So, like >> I don't know, I'm I'm a fan of I I guess my whole life has been a byproduct of pattern matching. It's like if I'm here and I want to go here and these people are doing this, I first ask myself, who do I need to become? Cuz to me, it's not the skill. I can develop the skill. I can learn to code. I can learn AI, but it's like who am I that's going to make like cause self-sabotage on the way up. And I think that's what stops people from making their first 10K. So, what habits or practices do you recommend for anybody if they see themselves living like a mediocre or average life that want to turn into something exceptional? >> I think it's less about adding and more about subtracting. So, it's less about, you know, people ask me like, "What do you It's what I don't do. I think how can you possibly change your life for the better if you talk about the negativity and lack in the world, the scarcity in the world, the you know, so I think right off the bat, you know, just change change the way you run your day. I mean, everybody knows like a morning routine that starts off with like water, a workout, reading something good for the book or from a book, gratitude journaling, like those are very simple habits that that provide energy for the day, clarity for the day, writing down your intention for the day, those habits, but it's like you got to stop all the other stuff. >> Okay, let's let's break down because you said it's subtractive, not additive, but then you added the morning. So, okay, so let's let's get a little granular here. First, let's talk about the morning routine. Yeah. >> Okay. If you were to break down the absolutely perfect morning routine for everybody watching right now to set them up for success, what would it be? >> Brian Johnson's protocol blueprint. >> 9 hours and you finish. >> Dude, when I talk to these people like Ben Greenfield, >> wake up at 2 a.m. >> It's like, how do you travel the world and still do this? You know what I mean? So, like I think there's the if you just again, if you ask Chad GPT, analyze all the most successful people in the world, look at their morning routines, what do they all have in common? you will find these these things. One, they typically get up earlier than most people. Do they get up at 4 in the morning, 2:30 in the morning, 6:00 in the morning? It's just earlier than most. And the reason why I think is because anytime you get out of bed when you don't want to get out of bed, you start the day off by telling yourself, I'm doing something I don't want to do. That just like I had a client once and he had like 17 alarms. like every 3 minutes he had an alarm and he' go to bed and he'd set like six of them and he just like snooze and just Yeah, I don't know if I'm triggering any of you like are you guys snoozers? Like do you hear the snooze button? >> Like I couldn't understand why he had all these alarm set and it was just like he built this habit of like delaying the start of his day. So I think right off the bat, you know, go to bed on time and get up earlier. That's a great start. Most people would agree. I know that changed my life when I started even just getting up at 6:00. cuz I get up at 4 every day and have for almost a you know 5 years but I just started with 600 like 15 years ago and that was a change you know and then I would say make sure you have a plan for the morning most people get up and they don't have a plan I think if you your plan is to read you know feed your mind I think reading books to give you insight it's not even it's not even reading to learn it's reading to get your mind focused on positivity like that's why I read like I I've read 1 1600 books I don't need to read another book like I I do it because I want to remind myself what I've already consumed. It's more of a remind, not taught. [gasps] And then I'm a big fan of writing out like gratitude. I think gratitude is like it doesn't matter how bad of a day you are. My my kids, you know, they're two boys, they fight all the time and anytime they're in a fight and like I break them apart, I just have a conversation about gratitude because it's just the instant. You can't be grateful for something and be pissed off. Like it's those emotions kind of cancel each other out. >> [gasps] >> So, I think gratitude journaling, I use a five-minute journal. You know, my buddy Alex started this company. It's just really easy. So, five-minute journal, gratitude, and then I like to move the body, man. I think exhaust the body, tame the mind. Like this morning, we're working out. I was explaining this to Cohen on my team. I was like I think of like Etcha sketch. You know that the red etch sketch? >> When I work out and it's like the last two reps and you're you're like feeling the pain and you push, it's kind of like a reset on the mind. It's an etch a sketch. So you might, you know, have a lot of self-doubt, doing a bunch of podcasts today, nervous, speaking, whatever you got going on, right? Big opportunities, got to present to your boss. And to me, the workout in the morning, even if it's 25 minutes, is just this beautiful reset. Not necessarily to get in shape, but just for the mind. And if you had to like distill it into the minimum effective dose, I think that's what you got. And you could probably get it done if you want to go real fast in about an hour. >> That's interesting. It kind of reminds me, I always think about this. We had Dr. K on the podcast and he always talks about singlepointed consciousness, which is the idea or onepointed consciousness, which is the idea that your brain is every every fiber in your body is all oriented towards one goal. And if you're on those last two reps or whatever and you're hitting maximum atrophy, then you can't think about anything other than those last two reps. And it's like about orienting your life to find those moments because I think that is kind of that brain etch a sketch refresh where afterwards you have like a moment of clarity. That's interesting because I usually I found that I have the best workouts in the afternoon like I'm able to push myself the hardest cuz I'm not tired in the middle. >> No calories. >> Yeah. It's probably that >> it's 100% food. >> But the but the difference is if I were to work out earlier in the day maybe I'll have more mental clarity throughout the That's why I work out in the morning and I used to work in the afternoon because I had kids and I had to stay up late and then not get up early and I like the reset in the afternoon like a lunchtime workout. I used to do that for a few years. But the value of getting the workout done in the morning even if I I usually wake up and I work and then work out at like 8:00. So I'll even push off cuz I like to like the morning for me is such a precious time to create connected to my creator. Like that's my morning that I'll do an 8 a.m. and it's still the mental reset for the day 100%. And it's also flow state. When you're in flow, you don't worry about going to the bathroom. You don't have insecurities. You don't have concerns. Like flow state is this single point of something. That's why most people have the best ideas in the shower, driving, or at the gym because they're doing a thing that lets their brain kind of go on autopilot and then they're they're kind of like this this mind thinking about problems and open loops and then they get downloads because of that single point of focus. Right? Most people drive home and don't remember how they got home. Isn't that interesting? Most people leave their office, drive home, and they don't really consciously remember driving home because they're in a flow state and they don't use that time to improve their life. I I would I would give myself something to think about like what problem do I need to solve today? >> One of my biggest things I stopped listening to music in the car, now it's just podcasts. I get so much done. >> It's I will tell you this, my wife told me this and I thought she was a psycho. She goes, "When I drive, I don't listen to anything." That's crazy. Do you guys listen? Like, do you have to have something play? >> Sometimes I I just >> You've driven without music or a podcast myself before. >> Yeah. But it's >> when she told me that she does this and it is her happiest part of her day. I thought that was fascinating. Then I asked myself, what am I trying to be distracted from? And then I remember one time I was working with this coach Stephanie and she said go for a walk in the woods. I said, "Okay, for how long?" She goes, "You'll know when you're done." And I'm kind of a systems guy like is it hour? She goes, "You'll know." Like Mr. Miyagi style. And I went by myself in the woods. Like when I run, I run trails, but I'm always listening to podcasts, books, music, something, right? Like I'm like I make phone calls. I call my friends and just talk while I'm running because I don't want to be like out in the woods doing nothing. And I remember going for this walk and just being like, "Oh my gosh, there's a totally different level of existence when you can be comfortable in the silence." Like, I got it. I finally got my wife, who I thought was completely crazy, driving in silence. Just how wild that idea is. >> At what point do you begin to buy back your time? >> I'll tell you why I'm smiling. >> Yeah. cuz I listened to you talk about that period of your life where you were editing like three videos a day or something and I was like Graham why are you do like I literally before I ever met you >> cuz no one could do it like me. >> I know, bro. But it's like it's and you're not wrong. >> Here's the way I like to explain it to people. 80% done by somebody else is 100% freaking awesome. And if that's not good enough, be better. Meaning that there is a world where if you had to sit down, document how you do it, it could have got done. Okay? And I teach this in my book. It's a 108010 principle. 10% upfront ideation, 80% execution from somebody else. The last 10% is integration where you didn't have to not be involved in the editing. You just need didn't need to be the primary editor. I met a guy that's got like I don't know 10 million on YouTube and he was doing the full stack and he's sitting there trying to say like you know I don't have time to go to the gym and I don't have time for this and I'm and I'm just like you know I try to shut my mouth if people don't ask but like when I watched you do that I was I was it was kind of fascinating to me because I think the most ex the the biggest expense in your business is anytime you're doing stuff that isn't making you the most money. And when I heard you say that, I was like, "Bro, you could have been getting so much time back to go do more real estate deals or other stuff that what's what's funny is I did have Alex who helped me with my editing." And some of those times I realize like I wish I just had edited myself because sometimes it's it's good for me to edit and I just >> I get flow% and I need that break. Sometimes I would finish like planning, filming, I send it off to Alex and I'm like, "Oh [ __ ] now I just got to go back to planning." I didn't have that like break in between. >> Yeah. I mean, the way I look at it is um you know, my background is studying like agile and like manufacturing. So, it's it's it's always workflow left side raw materials, right side finished goods. So, when I help anybody think about buying back their time, I go, "Okay, well, what's the production line of value in your life? What do you do?" Right? And then we just map it out and I go, "Okay, what part do you feel you don't ever want to do? Let's put that in red." And then what's the stuff you really enjoy doing? Like editing. Cool. But even in the green stuff, so red is stuff I really hate to do, like invoicing and consolidating bank accounts, all that stuff. Green might be editing, but even in the editing process, what parts do I want to be involved in and which parts I don't? So like capturing content, putting it on the drive, clipping it out, da da da, like you could have even just paid somebody to do the first 50%. they would have got you half that time back and then reinvest that time in the thing that makes you more money. And like that's that's the nobody's ever built a million dollar business doing $10 task. It's impossible. Like I'm assuming you do have people in your life that support you. House cleaners like No. Geez Louise. Then you pulled it off. >> My wife Macy does a lot of the >> Exactly. Yeah. I just think like if you're trying to optimize for wealth, if somebody wants to make 10 grand or you know, I mean, especially people are making 300 grand a year in their business, 300's like this level where you can spend 1,500 bucks a month, a couple grand a month to get back quite a bit of time in a week. I'm talking like 30 hours back in a week. >> Like what? Like laundry, cooking, >> dude. Just errands. Do you know how many people waste time just driving around town running errands? I haven't gone to a retail store or whatever in years. Like I don't like I mean I don't want to like it's not a flex but like I don't even put gas in my car. I don't there there's a you can live a life where you only like I hang out with people I love my family my friends my co-workers or I do things that I love to do. Like that's those are two things. Anything that's not that I try to create an allergic reaction to it and on purpose leave it there until I find the solution to get it done. And that's the creative game to try to figure out how do you build a machine that runs a machine. I don't if I get involved then I'll always be involved but if I like step back to build the machine so it gets done at the level I want it to and document it and train them I get to buy back my time and with that time I can decide do I want to go increase the quality of my life spend time with people I love or do I want to go create a business or make more money but there's just no way to get out of that and you'll always hit what I call the complexity ceiling like we all have it I have it today you guys have it you have a ceiling of complexity that you're able to deal with and anything above that you feel over your skis and you pull back. So, the only way to get that higher is to actually do the work to figure out what skill do you got to acquire, what beliefs do I have to adjust so I can learn to let go. Most people just can't let go cuz it's scary. >> What do you think has been your biggest waste of money? >> I mean, I lost a couple million invested in a company that sucked. That >> What happened? >> I had to sign a document so I couldn't talk about it, but I can talk about without the details. I just got, you know, like when you're in business and you like have a little success and you start to feel really good about yourself, so you start doing a bunch of other stuff that you probably shouldn't be doing. That's what happened. I like got to a point in my career where like after you learn and you like go through some tough times, you kind of feel like you have the mightest touch. So you start agreeing to do stuff. So I like bought this guy's company and thought I'm going to turn it from, you know, 2 million to 10 million. And and essentially I underestimated the fact that I'm not going to run the company. You got to run the company. There's a reason you sold the company. It's probably because you're not talented enough to run the company. And uh after about 18 months of it, it was and it was the massive time suck. Not even time suck, emotional suck. I just had to like literally I called my business partner who was part of the deal with me and I was just like, "Bro, I got to like call my loss." So that was a tough one. I felt bad because I felt bad for the CEO that of the company we bought the company and my business partner cuz like we had to swallow the pill. I would say things that I buy that I feel is a waste of money. I just it's tough because I don't think I would spend money on things that I think is a waste of money. >> What are the best things to spend your money on? >> Time. It's literally time. >> So like what what specific things? >> Oh, what are my favorite things that I spend money? So I have I have a I have a I would say and I'm going to put it through the filter of my wife Renee. Okay. There are people in my life that she would she would get rid of me before she got rid of them. One of them is Betty, our house manager. Betty runs the family for us. Like when I say when I say she runs a family, [gasps] she's it's the house manager role is something I learned from my friend 12 years ago. And essentially and and people can have this at a part-time role, but it's what their job is to be accountable for everything the parents would be accountable for. I'm talking about credit card expiring, passport deals, insurance, all that stuff, paperwork. I man I manage my personal finance in zero. So Betty manages all my accounts personal as a P&L for my life in zero. right now. That's that I thought that was pretty clever. Like, how many people do you know run their personal home as its own business in a P&L? They don't. But if you do it that way, then you can have other people actually own it, almost like a GM, general manager. So Betty manages all the details, the coordination, the maintenance so that when my wife and I want to do stuff like buy a home in Cabo like we just did, we don't h there's no like, okay, do we have the time for maintenance and like try to figure this out like Betty owned that, right? And I think like that to me cuz it takes care of the personal stuff so my wife and I don't have to worry about like putting furniture together. Instead, we get to play with our kids or go to the gym. Like, dude, I would I would sell every one of my super cars before I ever got rid of Betty. And the same thing for my assistant, Ann. Like, I would sell everything I own before I got rid of those two. >> How much is getting a person like that? >> I mean, I pay her like close to 100 grand a year. >> Yeah. My my executive assistant more, but she's more of a chief of staff. >> And basically, you're saying like, "Hey, we're going to go on a trip." And she's like, "Okay, I'll get everything ready." >> Oh, you have no I mean, so we're going we're taking the kids out of school. We're doing world schooling for nine months, leaving in September. 18 countries, 50 or Yeah. 18 countries, 50 cities. She planned it all with us. Like all of it. Like found an educator that's going to travel with us. Interviewed them, managed it, put the budgets together, figured out all where we're going, booked the first, you know, month worth of hotels, [gasps] figured out what the kids are going to do with the educator, trained the educator. Like they they if you allow yourself to let go, now my wife likes to be involved in certain things that involve the kids, which totally makes sense. So there's a difference between accountability and in and consulted. Okay? So there's this thing called the RECI matrix. Responsible, accountable, consulted, informed. [gasps] My wife likes to be consulted about my kids education stuff. I personally don't care cuz I think every kid's homeschooled. It's whether the parents know it or not. I homeschool my kids. I just don't formally do it, if that makes sense. >> Sure. So then um you just work with the person and let go and just say, "Hey, here are the things I need you to be accountable for and if you need to let me know, like you can let me know or not and that's okay. And here are the budgets. You're allowed to spend 5 grand, Betty, without ever asking me. You just have to tell me after you do it." And and what's crazy is a lot of people don't even know how to work with a house manager. So I've created a whole document that lets people like not only figure out how to hire, but what to get them to do. So, if people want to just find me on Instagram, uh, Dan Martell's on Instagram, just message me, house manager, direct message. I'll send them the link directly. No opt-in, no nothing. >> And what's she gonna do when chat GBT5 takes over and stop doing? >> I told her this. I told my assistant and her. I think what happens is that the And it's true. I think like >> she gets more efficient cuz she gets 80% of her time back and then we talk about, okay, what else could we do? Do I like I have enough work for my assistant and because she's more of a chief of staff, she coordinates all the legal financial kind of coordinations of people, but I think it's just a retraining and a recalibration of like what they work on, you know, just like where else can I create value in my life that I'm not doing because I don't have the time and can they help me with that? >> What's the best investment you've ever made? >> My wife. Like not obviously I'd invest in my wife. >> She's watching this. >> Yeah. Just >> Okay. But really though, >> intercom as a software company. I invested in intercom, the chat software. They haven't gone public, but that was a big one. >> What is the most luxurious thing you've ever spent your money on? >> This watch. It's kind of dumb. >> What is one daily habit you'll never skip? >> Working out. >> Name one software or tool you cannot live without? >> Chad GPT. >> What's the best book you've ever read? >> The Bible. >> What's the book you've gifted the most? >> Thinking Grow Rich. I'm at 6,000 copies. >> Wow. Who is an entrepreneur you follow the the closest? >> Elon for the first principles thinking. What is your favorite failure or setback you've ever experienced? >> The time I offered everybody in my company 15 grand to quit. >> How many people said yes? >> Unfortunately, 36%. Yeah, that was that was a dumb day. >> How How much How much did productivity >> How much >> Zappos would brag about how they would offer people five grand to quit after the training? >> How much did productivity slow after those 30 days? >> Six months of just hell. I I created a world of hell that was self-inflicted. It's funny that that was advice that maybe you should have ignored. >> Yep. >> You know, >> yeah, I'm a slow learner. >> Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. We'll link to all your information down below in the description. And for anyone who wants, by the way, the uncensored version of this cuz I know there's going to be parts that we had to kind of cut around. Uh feel free to join the membership. You get to watch this full episode completely uncut. It helps us out, too. And uh Mikey is doing a lot of the work uh behind it. So, a lot of it just goes to Mikey. Thanks, Mikey. See you guys.