MBA2611 Extended Interview: Dan Martell - The Shortcut To Business Success

24:09And that was bad. And then I kept training and then I end up cutting my heel wide open, my Achilles. And that was an issue. And I remember like everybody around me saying, maybe this is a sign, you know, maybe this is a sign that you should take it easy. People would say this, like, calm down, Dan, maybe you're running too hot. Maybe you should chill out a little bit. And I got so mad. I was like, maybe this is actually exactly what I need to prepare me for what I'm about to go through. Maybe what I've been asking for, this is what gets me ready to receive. Maybe everything that's ever happened to me my whole life is going to prepare me for the moment where I can actually be ready for the challenge that's going to be facing me and that it's not that I should stop or slow down.

24:55So when I think of like all the perfect, beautiful introductions, conversations, you know, even you were mentioning Rob earlier, I still remember when And I was talking to him and Liam and just like all these people have come into my life. I just believe all of it is just like perfect. But I think it's a response to your energy. I think that had I been different, I would attract different people into my life. You know, when you go to those events that you talk to people, you can just trust the fact they're in this room. They're good people. You don't meet. Like I said, you attract what you see impress.

25:25I was always leading with my ideas. I wasn't leading with fancy cars and make a lot of money in six months and, you know, young hustler millionaire. I was like, hey, this is how you beat churn. This is how you build a go-to-market. Here's how revenue recognition works. Just nerdy business concept, but the people that showed up were just like, I called them kind warriors. They were like kind people that were willing to do the work. That's why I was never surprised when I would meet people and they'd be like, man, I met this guy and it's just like me. And I'm like, yeah, that's kind of how it works.

25:54That's how community works, right? It's curated. Totally, totally. A few years ago, you wrote a book, one of my favorite books, because I think people, I don't know if you, have you trademarked buyback your time? I don't have a trademark, no. Okay, because people talk about this phrase all the time. Well, I think people have been saying that word before I ever wrote a book about it. Okay, but I feel like you've made it a thing. Oh, I brought it into the lexicon for sure. Yeah, totally, yeah. So you wrote this book and it's a topic that is beyond like this idea of like, okay, outsource and buy yourself some ready-made meals.

26:29It's not life hacks. I think what people don't understand, and it takes a very long time for people to get this, especially people on a job, is your time is the most valuable asset. Like, you cannot make more time, okay? The breadth I just took is numbered. And it could be my last. And it's definitely, you know, not going to increase over time. It's not unlimited, yeah. Yeah, exactly. You obviously have the lens of business. You have the lens of life when it comes to, like, hey, how do you take control of their most valuable asset again? How do you figure out a way for you to let money allow you to live a life that you want, but also how do you utilize your time in ways that light you up?

27:10While you launched this book, you actually did what you practiced, what you preached, and you started to transition out of being the guy that was doing everything in SaaS Academy. I got really lucky. I told you this. I got really lucky. I got in when you were doing the sales calls. You were doing the one-on-one calls and the checkups. You were doing the monthly calls with the group masterclasses. You were doing the events on stage teaching, probably 60 to 70 percent. You know, you get Patrick Campbell up there, but whatever, you know. But a couple of speakers. Yeah, some time. I was on stage for two days.

27:44So were you feeling forced to be like, I got to do what I'm writing about? Or did the transition happen before you wrote the book? No, I mean, I've been doing the buyback principle my whole life. I mean, I wrote a book about how I was able to scale companies, how I was able to live an integrated life, how I was able to really become the person. I mean, the premise is very simple. The world rewards those that create value. They don't reward those who work hard because the guy that built a cement wall works harder than I do. And unfortunately, the compensation I'm going to receive for what I do in a day is going to be a lot, a lot, a lot more than that person that built that wall.

28:21So if you understand - I just want to stop there for a second because some people might hear that and feel like, well, that's not fair. That's not whatever. and we're playing in a game called the marketplace yeah and the marketplace right now values certain things yep and you're either valuable in those things or you're not right and there's obviously a spectrum and you're you're somewhere in between some people are becoming less and less valuable as days go by because of ai and all of the technology is happening every day but that doesn't mean you're not valuable in society it doesn't yeah and and that's a different value Like you can be, I can value your soul, but I'm not going to give you everything in my bank account.

28:59So like, I'm, this is not a debate about like your humanity. This is about the size of problems you solve for other people. Cause that's what labor is. It's like you pay somebody to solve a problem for you and somebody can clean your windows. That's one size problem versus fix your car when it's not running. So whether you like it or not, you get paid based on that. And at a certain point, you need to trade better some capital to get some time back to go invest to be better. And that's what buy back your time at the core is about. It's, you know, until you get to a place where you have more income coming than time to like have to go be better and become the person, then that's the whole trade.

29:38And those are the time trades. And that's all I've gotten really good at. So even with SAS Academy, you know, I remember when I mapped it out, I was like, I love to coach. Here's my thing. in my book, I call it the production quadrant, right? The drip matrix. So in the top right quadrant is production, which is I like to create new frameworks and coach. I don't like to repeat myself. And that comes from software. Anybody's written code, it's called dry. Do not repeat yourself. So what I did is for a while, and the reason why it's like I had to do the sales call to build the frameworks to then hire a salesperson.

30:10And I did. Then I had to build a marketing program until I could afford to hire somebody. And I did. And that's in my book. I call it the replacement ladder. So if you look at the timeline of SaaS Academy, I was just executing the framework. And then you came in right after, like probably a month before I handed off the sales calls. And then I kept the coaching, but then I got rid of the onboarding, but you were already in by then. And then I had to create the catalog of frameworks for growth. The videos and all that stuff. Yes. And I knew there was about 350 because I broke down SaaS business into six components.

30:39And then each one of them had like these three accelerators. And like, I knew what I had to build, but it took time because I wasn't going to just like sit there and create them right away. I used the events and the monthly training sessions to create them. With the vision, I always knew to write a book because then the book would become the certification for the coaches that would then teach the methodology, which just came out three months ago called Software as a Science. So like I knew where I was going to end up. It just, like everything, it takes time. And it's been fun because I honestly don't think I can think of another coach that started as a face of their company, still owns it, and it continues to grow, and they're no longer involved.

31:16Yeah. And I'm essentially the president on the board. Johnny's the CEO and the team runs it and it's incredible. And we have incredible coaches and we monitor it. And yeah, we just had the largest event we've ever done. And it's just, and it's beautiful. And the NPS scores are off the chart. So that's, I'm proud of, but honestly, like that's how I built my Martell Ventures. Like, you know, I've never stopped investing. And then I started buying software companies with Kevin at Big Band Software. So he's my partner in the acquisition side. And then Martell Ventures, we incubate software companies now.

31:44So I've always just done software. The coaching has just been my outlet for teaching. And then with the media stuff I'm doing now, that's just my version of amplifying that. And that's been the latest like new skill acquisition. Because I mean, if you wanna become more value, you gotta go add skills that become valuable. Communicating, persuading, leading yourself, dealing with your mindset, improving your belief systems. those are all incredibly valuable skills because people, like I mentor these 14 year old kids for free. It's my King's Club program. And like, I remember the first day I just taught them the simple concept of positive expectation versus negative expectation.

32:25I was like, you got two people, Mr. Happy Face, Mr. Grumpy Face. Who do you want to help? Yep. Happy Face. How about we just start with that simple premise of trying to be a happy person? Wow. And they were like, oh, I get it. Exactly. So right now you might be neutral because you're an introvert and you don't smile. I would encourage you to smile at every person you see for the next week. Build that happy face character, right? And then guess what? That's valuable because being a happy person on a team is actually valuable. It's something I look for. And then you can add the skills to make yourself like actually create and be more productive.

32:57But I just think that is the essence of buying back your time is being a better time trader. Right. I used your book when we sold Webinar Ninja. I went all in on Hunter MBA and I wanted my life to be different because total transparency. I was working 16 hours a day with Webinar Ninja. I didn't prioritize my health. I didn't prioritize my relationships. I didn't prioritize what I love. I love the snowboard. I love travel. I was just putting that one day, one day, one day. And I saw this like window of opportunity. It was like, OK, now I can kind of shape this business the way I want. I went to your book and I thought, what are the things I want to do and only do?

33:37Right. And really, it's just the content I want to teach because that's what I've been doing all my life. And we've built a team a whole around that. And that was really like such a small concept, but so powerful. We're just like, what do you like to do? Just do that and get everybody else to do everything. Like, I don't have to do all the other stuff. No. Especially when you have some capital, it's easy to kind of like, OK, now I can do this and hire the best. By the way, like, it's so great to hire the best, to work with the best. and it's just a great feeling. It's a cheat code. Cheat code, but then you realize, I actually am not good at this.

34:12Like I thought, oh, I can't let somebody else do it. No, they're better. Most people don't realize that to be great at something is to actually communicate how it works. Like, you know, Tom Clancy? Yeah. Okay, so he just came out with a bestselling book called like, you know, Defense Protocol or something. Last month, bestseller. He's a hunt of red October, Patriot Games. A lot of the video games, Rainbow Six, all that stuff. The Amazon show that's really popular. Yeah, Jack Ryan. Yeah, Jack Ryan. Okay, he died in 2013. So most people don't even realize that you can be an artist and create a process for creating your art.

34:49And after your time here on Earth, it continues to pay massive dividends. Well, so explain me that, people that think you're a magic snowflake, that nobody else can do the thing you can do. It can be done. And I use those examples or the Warhol, the factory. so Andy Warhol, he created art, but he had a whole team of people that supported him because he knew that his favorite part of it was the ideation, where Steve Jobs would Johnny Ives, where he would just be like, look, I want you guys to tell me what the state of the art of the hardware looks like and let me try to figure out how that's going to be applied where this human interaction meets innovation and technology.

35:25And that was the fun part for him to go into the design studio to play around with these pieces of hardware and interface design, but he wasn't sitting there at a routing machine. Right. Right. He got to collaborate. And I just think like when you give yourself permission to really go all in on the thing, I mean, Mr. Beast is probably the modern day example of this. And you see, he talks about it all the time. He's like, I just have a bunch of clones and they follow me around and they help me do stuff until they get good enough to do it without me having to be involved. And then they take it off my plate.

35:57And he literally says, this is how I built, you know, Beast films. It's like, I just kept throwing stuff over my shoulder until the person could catch it and do it. And it worked. And then all of a sudden, now he has the largest YouTube channel and the biggest, you know, he just did beast games. It's like, I mean, I just think that that's how it's always been. It's just, I guess, nobody ever talked about it. And a lot of people, unfortunately, they did it, but they didn't know they were doing it. And I just codify things. I'm a principal's teacher. I don't even want to talk about the steps per se.

36:27I want to talk about the principle behind the steps so that you can apply it to the different areas of your life. Yeah. And it makes it more fun. And the coolest part about that, Omar, is you'll do this for the rest of your life because you enjoy it. And anytime - That's the coolest part. Dude, Martell Media is me doing what I love to do in a way that I'll never have to not do it because I enjoy doing it. And if there's any aspect of it that I don't enjoy doing it, I don't mind giving it up to somebody else because even if I could do it better, my disimpassionate version of it will never beat an up and coming passionate version of it from somebody else you know i'm saying yeah like i might be able to edit better today but my lack of desire to do it and it feels like a grind versus somebody else dude your energy that you used to create the thing is felt by the viewer yeah the energy the book the reason why the book did so well dude i poured my heart into it every word every comma every sentence it rewrote it three times, it's like, I knew I was writing it for, I knew that I wanted it to hit the right way.

37:26And that energy I put into it, I think was felt by the reader. And I just consider that always the ultimate form of expression in art is just, if you don't love doing it anymore, you're better off finding somebody else that is like super, like still nerdy about it, right? Like they're just like still in that off phase and mentor them and give them those pieces and then just, you know, collaborate. I think, I think co-creating with other people is like my favorite thing about business the co-creating is great but also this concept of like who's the best in the game like the people that i admire most did this like i'm an you know unashamed big big michael jackson fan and thriller is the best-selling album all the time because the producer is quincy jones the guy has the midas touch everything he does is amazing you know rest in peace just passed away.

38:16You know, you look at all the great athletes, they have great coaches, they have people that are helping them, and they've done it before. And for some reason, we want to have this badge of honor of like, I did it myself. You know, and I was talking about this at MicroConf, that I'm not a big fan of this narrative that's happening on X, where everybody's just feeling so proud of themselves of, you know, I'm doing, you know, 500k MR ARR, and I'm a solopreneur, and I've built this software by myself and I do the coding at night and I do the marketing by day. It's like, there's nothing to be proud of, bro.

38:49You're doing this on hard mode. Like, why are you doing this? You know, and I'm sure you've seen it as a coach. But do you think it's, I personally think it's fear. I think it's, you're, you're scared to kind of get people involved in your world. What do you think the reason why people just want to kind of like, I'm going to plow through the value by myself? Well, I know personally, I used to think that. So back when I started my first company, my first successful company, I hired my coach, Bob, and we did pretty well. A couple years in, we got to a new plateau and I hired a different guy, Stu.

39:24And Stu, I met through my dad. My dad worked at Siemens Westinghouse, so like big fortune, whatever, 500. And Stu was like a consultant that they brought in that lived in another city but then i kind of reached out to him because i was in a tough spot i remember i was talking to stew and i was running into a negotiation issue around ip ownership with a massive company we're doing some software stuff for yeah and he goes why don't you call your dad i go why would i call my dad and he goes dan your dad's one of the best business minds i've ever interacted with in my whole career what are you And I was like, my dad?

40:00He's like, yeah. I go, nah, we're not calling my dad. Let's figure this out, you and I. He's like, why? I say, well, I want to do it on my own. Dude, you want to know where my tough love comes from? People like Stu in my life. He said, that is the dumbest thing you've ever said to me. And I'll tell you why. He goes, you have access to somebody that cares a lot about you, that would actually put the time aside to meet with you, to teach you what I know. he has the answer. I've seen him do this. The thing you need help with right now, he literally knows how. And your ego is in the way of getting that help.

40:35So do you care more about doing this on your own or winning and doing it for your team? Which one is going to win right now? And I said, I'll go call my dad. And I remember two things. That's a friend for life. My dad never been more excited to receive a call from me. And two, gave me the answer in 30 seconds that I needed to hear. I didn't even understand how these clauses work. And that's when I realized like, I'm going to take advantage of everything I've been given. That's why it's funny. Like I have a lot of friends that are really close to me and they never asked me for advice. It's not because they're like, oh, Dan's a coach, he gets paid.

41:10I'm not going to take advantage of it. Like I want to, if you're my friend, I want to help you. I don't, you don't need to be in my program or anything. And I think it's just their fear of success. So I know why people don't do it because they literally are scared of how successful. Most people think it's fear of failure. I actually think it's fear of success. Yeah. I think there's something you believe about being successful that scares you, right? Some negative belief. And that is showing up in your life today in the form of sabotage, telling yourself, I got to do it all myself. You're silly.

41:46Because if you had that time back, you could go be way more productive doing the thing that made you more money to accelerate your path to that future vision. But you have a belief about what that means. And it could be the belief is that if I have other people that help and they take the credit, then nobody's going to believe that I'm as good as I think I am, which comes from a place of insecurity. Let's talk about that. I was shaking my head there because you told me that on a call. You told me you're afraid of success. You had this concept of you won't grow into pain. Nope. And I didn't get it for a while.

42:17But once I got it, you know, my parents didn't come from money. My parents are immigrants from Egypt, came to the US, had to read and learn the language. My mom was an elevator operator until she got her degree. She worked hard. My dad worked hard. My dad was in sales. Great, great parents. They were never ahead with money. We never had a lot of money growing up. I was lucky enough to be in a home that I didn't really feel poor, but we were poor and i think deep down i realized when you told me that after a long walk on the coal that i think i'm afraid i'm gonna screw up being rich because i've never had money to deal with it you know always kind of just kind of went month to month or whatever okay we're doing all right now but never never had to worry about how to invest or how to you know yeah what if i get a big windfall everybody knows and i lose it yeah those are all real fears i literally think that whatever your goal is, you either have limiting beliefs or negative beliefs.

43:12The limiting beliefs are about your abilities. The negative beliefs are about the people that have achieved. So if you think about just the concept of being rich and you have a negative belief of rich people being selfish, how hard are you going to fight to go be rich if you think rich people are selfish? What if you think that rich people don't pay taxes? What if you think that rich people are compensating for something? Or what if you think that, you know, whatever, like there's just, or that I'm going to lose it or that I won't know how to manage my money or whatever it is. But again, I'd like to make a list of that stuff and bring it to the surface so I can evaluate it and be honest.

43:49See, a lot of people, it's fear of failure, fear of judgment or fear of success. And most people are so capable and they know their light is so powerful. They allowed themselves to shine it, that it scares them to even think about what that could look like. even with social media people listen to this podcast and they're like man i'd love to have a podcast yeah but then they're worried well what if i was massively successful and now all of a sudden i'm getting fake accounts made up of me yeah asking people to invest in could dude i mean non-stop like these are the things but some people have these these fears what if i accidentally say something that was a private conversation but now it's on my pod and it's public and then the person hears it and they get mad at me.

44:30Again, all real concerns. But at the end of the day, your fear of success is the thing you have to go work on. So I say the world will show you where you're not free. Your insecurity about being successful is the work to go do. I think what helped me a lot was I had a chat with my sister, Mona. We were close growing up. She's an older sister. I have two older sisters, but we were closer in age. She said to me, you're already successful what are you talking about like you know i talked to my friends about you they're like brothers like a big podcaster blah blah like like that ship has passed like you know like what are you afraid of and i was just like oh i never thought about that like i've already done better than my parents i've already kind of uh from a financial point of view from a from a business point of view like impact yeah and um and that kind of helped me along with your advice.

45:22I haven't seen you in four and a half years. And when you walked through my door, I was like, dude, this guy looks great. Thanks, man. This guy looks great. I want to talk about, you know, your transformation in terms of prioritizing your health, prioritizing your fitness. What was kind of that moment where you're just like, I got to I got to take this seriously. And why? Because you weren't unhealthy when I saw you. No, yeah. No, I mean, I was I was doing in CrossFit back then. I was running. I just wasn't disciplined. I lied to myself, man. I lied to myself about like, you know, at the time, you know, I would have been 40 and like a young family and like I wasn't fat, but I was, I was chubby.

46:03I was like, you know what I mean? I was carrying some extra weight. And what happened was just this like realization that I don't look the way I feel. I, I, and I hope people understand this is like, and I don't look the way I should for the amount of effort. Workout every day. I caught sweat every day. I was doing Ironmans. I was doing races to try to keep the weight down. I'd eat like crap, right? But if you're doing triathlons, you're literally burning extra 2000 calories a day. So you can kind of be a little loosey goosey with your meal. And I remember just getting to a point where for me, everything in life is like, who do I need to become to achieve the next level?

46:40It's not how do I do it? It's who do I need to be? because I believe we don't create success. We attract success by becoming an attractive person that pulls that like, and I knew I needed the energy. I needed the physicality. I needed the presence. Like if I really want a shot at communicating to young people to like, they can't look at me and go like, oh, that's just a dad, right? Like it needs, there needs to be kind of a thing. And I'm hanging out with a bunch of guys on the media team that are all like bodybuilders and stuff. So I went all in, man. I made a 90 day commitment to have visible abs.

47:14I didn't know how to do it. It was a whole thing we documented on my YouTube channel. And I went from, you know, 17 % body fat, which is not crazy, down to 4%, like full cut, like full progressive overload, macro-based nutrition. And it's a year later and I'm the same, like same effort. I work out every day. Bicep veins is a McLaren of the body, I say. So like, you know, it just become culture. it's just yeah i'm unapologetic about it because i went for so long lying to myself so sell it to the listeners like what benefits outside of looking good health is wealth like if you i call it quiet confidence like a lot of guys that i help like with their macros or their progressive overload their training style once they they get lean and ripped and i'm talking like like not good for your age i'm talking like undeniably different than the rest of the population, you just don't have to say anything.

48:10You see it in somebody's face. You see it in their presence. And it's just like, that comes with a ton of other things, right? Your confidence goes up. Most people don't have the money they want, not because they're not skillful. It's because they don't feel they deserve it. You don't get what you think you deserve. You get what you think you're worth. And if you're not willing to fight it because you don't keep the commitments you make to yourself, you're lying to yourself. And I know when I say that, I trigger people. good. Dude, if my truth shows people where they've been living a lie, that's what I'm here for.

48:41And I used to live that lie. I used to use races as a way to keep my fitness in check or like, you know, I don't need to use food as a way to comfort myself anymore, right? Like, I'm doing a whole day of media. I got meal prep in the car. Food is fuel. I want to use it because like, I didn't know that micronutrition is how you feel. Macronutrition is how you look. Calories is how much you weigh. Well, once I learned that, I was like, okay, well, how I look is macros. What do I need to change my macros? Well, I mean, the whole thing, right? And like carb loading and cutting your fats and all this stuff is just, most people don't even track their food.

49:14And then they have all these beliefs again. What's the belief? Well, life would be boring. My life isn't anything but boring. It doesn't mean I don't have the opportunity to go have a fun meal. I just don't do it every day. The energy is off the charts. The influence, man, you know, like most kids, I mean, the truth is, is the biggest abuse to a child is an unlived dream of a parent. well, that's facts. And that one's really going to get people going. But it has to be said, man, like the amount of parents that I see come and drop their kids off at King's Club and they drop them in and they say, you know, it's a hundred kids max out, it sells out every time.

49:49And I mentor these kids, parents aren't allowed in the room and they wait outside. And I watched them essentially like, please go listen to this person. Right. Because I can't. I didn't do the thing I know he's going to teach you and I would love that for you. So please go listen to this person. I want to freaking grab all the parents and put them in a headlock and say, hey, it's time for you guys to step up. It's not too late. Zero too late. Yeah. Dude, I know like what's fun about being here is 20 years ago I was here. 20 years ago I was a broke backpacker traveling around Australia. Yeah. Today I fly around on my jet and like have a beautiful life.

50:2220 years from now, man, what's that going to look like? 20 years from that? Like, I just think that people, even if you're six years old, you can transform your life in six months. A thousand days at most. A thousand days. You know this. A hundred million or a hundred dollar MBA and a thousand days of consistency. Dude, it took me 90 days to transform my body. Yeah. I documented the whole thing. It's all on YouTube. I share it all. It's all free. Yeah. One of my favorite tips from Scott Adams, one of his books, is just show up to the gym every day. That's all you got to do. walk through the doors because once you're through the doors i'll do a few reps okay i want to get on the treadmill like whatever but what i found in terms of exercising every day is that it's such a huge confidence builder because you learn that you're not breaking promises to yourself dude that is how confidence is built keeping the commitments you make to yourself in private yeah period full stop yesterday was one of those gym days yeah i went in the gym i literally looked at sam who's traveling with me and I said, no part of me wants to be here.

51:27Today we do the work. Today is the day I actually earn the confidence because there's no part of me that wants to be there. The days I want to be there, that's easy. Okay. I land after a 16 hour flight and I know to reset my body, going to the gym is an incredible habit. And I just had to get through the front door. 23 minutes later, I'm laughing at how good I feel. Literally. I'm like, prioritize the pump, man. Pump cures all. Like just getting that exercise in changed my whole energy. And that's why happy face, grumpy face. Like these are very simple concepts and it teaches you so much. So it costs nothing really to work out.

52:04You can do air squats and pushups and sit-ups. You don't have to go to gym, but if you go to gym, you should. And that skill set of learning to dial in your nutrition, you know, going to the gym, deferred gratification. Like it doesn't matter where you're at in your life. getting your fitness and your health in check is a beautiful foundation for success, period, full stop. And it's something you can control. You can't control the weather. You can't control the news. You can't control politics. You can't control anything. You can control what you put in your mouth and what you do with your body.

52:33And it can start right now. And a diet can be started halfway through a bag of chips. Yeah. And I remember vividly when things were challenging at Webinar Ninja, and I was going through some tough times and I had to make some tough decisions. the gym was like my retreat because it gave me a chance to one be in my own head listen to my books you know do that kind of stuff but also it gave me a chance to feel like i can control something like i i have full control over this and in business sometimes there's a lot of things out of your control you know and sometimes you don't make the right decisions and you feel like oh why did that happen all that kind of stuff but the gym is kind of a constant you can always go back to and it's kind of almost like a i don't want to offend anybody but it's a bit of like a temple where you get to have some form of meditation where you're just like and everybody do you like like you said find your thing what maybe whatever it is maybe it's you know there was a quote at the gym yesterday on the wall and i shared on instagram and it said there there's no amount of hurt the iron can't cure and i was just like yes that is great like no amount of hurt all right no amount of hurt the iron can't heal right and it is that is that is that mental place for people to go Because think about it, in the moment where you want to stop doing that rep and you do one more, you just taught yourself something beautiful.

53:49Huge. Yeah. And again, it's so subtle yet so impactful. And then you walk around with this quiet confidence. Yeah. You don't have to say anything. You're proud of yourself. You woke up and you went to the gym in the morning or at noon to reset your energy for the afternoon when you know most people didn't. You don't have to say anything. You walk into that meeting, notebook out, ready to go. I'm winning already. Yeah. You won the day, man. It's just like, that's been the unlock for me is bringing that level of quiet confidence into every aspect of my life, especially as a content creator. I think creating content is the ultimate personal development program.

54:24Dude, you wanna find where your demons hide? Go grab your phone and start talking to it and post it on your Facebook. You wanna see what the world will talk about when you start sharing your ideas and you wanna read those comments? You will learn more about yourself, creating content than going to therapy. yeah what hurts what doesn't all that dude you'll find things that you didn't even know about the way you look or sound that that other people will clearly communicate you're just like wow that one was tough but i think in that place of intention of trying to help other people yeah like you will find yourself yeah like i've become more dan the more i've created content because the only way to do it and for it to resonate is just allow yourself to be you through the camera there can't you can't wear a mask especially when you're doing consistently there's no way you're a chance yeah because then then then you're always like you're stressed out and it's just like oh i didn't i didn't have the energy that it's like no just be you right everybody is really great at being themselves it's the thing you can be the best at and you know bring everything to you and i think it's just a great personal development program where you just do the work i want to share with you something before we wrap up i'm a huge basketball nerd i I love basketball.

55:36It's the through line of my whole life. Played basketball in my life. It's good. You're so tall. It'd be sad for the basketball industry if you didn't play. When I see someone who's tall and doesn't play, I'm like, oh, we could use you. I believe it's very controversial. I don't know why it's controversial, but I believe Michael Jordan's the best player of all time. I think he's the GOAT. It's not even debatable. If you know, you know, if you've seen him play, the dude just took over. You know, you couldn't do anything about it. But Jordan didn't become Jordan until 91 when he won his first championship.

56:0591, he won his first championship. And it was a couple of years after Phil Jackson joined the Bulls. And Phil Jackson is known as one of the best coaches, if not the best coach of all time, 11 rings. Coach Kobe, you know, crazy. Guy's unbelievable. Zen master. And the reason why Jordan didn't win a championship without Phil Jackson as coach was because he wanted to do it all himself. He was dropping 55 a game. He was dropping 60s in the playoff. Still losing. Can't get to the finals. And then Phil Jackson taught him to trust his teammates. You got to trust your teammates. You got to be able to delegate.

56:41You got to be able to pass the ball. You got to be able to get them involved early. Don't just forget about them. And that's what got him over the hump. He, in 91, he won his first championship, 20, 92, 93, the first three-peat. and for me those are the best years of jordan because he was just fresh out of learning from his coach learning how to make it happen and another thing you may not know about me i'm a huge a little bit of a sneaker head i love sneakers so as a as a new tradition i wanted to get you something and as one of my coaches that has helped me throughout my time and my phil jackson i'm not calling myself jordan here but my phil jackson i got you a little something so these are some very special Jordans.

57:22How did you, did you know about this? These are some special, special Jordans. Dude, I don't have a pair of Jordans. You gotta open these up. These are special. This is gonna be my first pair. So, first of all, like, did you, do you know my size? Yeah. Rene told me. Come on, dude. Come on. Come on. So, dude. So, these Jordans are, there's a part of the 91, 92, 93 championship. The sneaker, he wore those championships. That's really kind of you, man. Yeah, and I love them because that's what started it all for him. Dude, I heard it was funny. This morning I was watching TikTok, and some guy was asking.

58:01He was talking to Jordan, and he asked the question. He said, you know, who would have won, the Bulls of back in the day or the Lakers of today? And he goes, that'd be a tough one. And I mean, probably the lake, you know, probably us, but only only by a couple of points. He's like, really? He goes, yeah, I mean, most of us are retired. I believe I know. And I was just like that confidence. Yeah. I was like, yeah, that's why you look at his mental capacity in movies or is a documentary. That's what it is. Dude, this is an honor. Thank you so much. Thank you. And thanks, man, for just the friendship and the mentorship throughout the years.

58:46I do think that we live in a world that's very small. And I feel like we've been lucky enough to get to know each other over the years. But I do feel like there were some forces that helped us get to know each other. And I'm really grateful for that force. So am I, brother. Thanks for reaching out. That's cool. Thanks, Omar. Take care. I hope you love this conversation with Dan Martel as much as I did. He's not only a successful entrepreneur in my book, but he's also one of the most down-to-earth, curious, giving people I know. He's not only a friend or a mentor, but he's an inspiration. His story is proof that anyone can turn things around in their life and achieve great things if you have the right mindset and the guidance along the way.

59:28If you enjoyed this episode and you want to learn more from Dan Martell, head on over to his website, danmartellwith2ls.com, and you can grab his book, Buy Back Your Time. It's one of the best investments you can make in your growth because it shows you through his buyback principle, which is the principle in his book, how to scale yourself and spend your time on what matters most to your business and your life. You can also check out everything else he offers on YouTube and his podcast over at DanMartell.com. Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of The$100 MBA Show. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't just keep it to yourself.

1:00:04Share it with a friend, with a family member. Send a text message, a WhatsApp, a messenger. Put it on social media. Send them an email. Tell them over dinner, whatever you want to do. The point here is that share this episode so others can grow just like you just grew in this episode. I'll see you in the next one. Take care.