$100M CEO Explains: How to Get Ahead of 99% of People with AI (Dan Martell)

24:59Dan Martell:It can be learned. You guys know this. Vision, right? To me, it's like, what vision do I have for a future that doesn't exist that should? That is the nuance that should. A lot of people can have a vision and some of them are crazy AF, okay? We all know these people. They're crazy. They talk about crazy stuff. None of this stuff ever comes true. But then there's the people that talk about a future tomorrow that doesn't exist that should and they build it. And that's a human thing, right? AI right now just resolves to the lowest common denominator of the world's average, which is pretty high for most people.

25:36Dan Martell:It's your 220 IQ cousin named Marcus. But it'll never create the next thing. It's not willing to take a risk. It's always going to be predictable. And innovation has never been predictable. The art forms that we all consume today, nobody saw. Open Claw was created by one person, a guy named Peter, sold for a billion dollars. How many billions of dollars have been invested in AI in the last two years? Probably 100 billion. Why didn't any of them see what Peter saw? The AI can't do that. So creatives are always going to have a job if they're willing to partner with the AI and not do 90 % of the stuff that they don't need to do.

26:15We 100 % agree. I mean, it's been crazy. I think the last few weeks, just for example, like a thumbnail that we had, But we had the CMO of Nike on a few weeks ago, had a thumbnail. We're like, what if we had him at a table? And we made it in probably 15 seconds, and it looked spectacular. And it won the thumbnail test. And that's just crazy to see us of how we're integrating it. That's like one really tiny example. You mentioned, though, 220 million views on social. I would consider you pro at content. And I want to know in your definition, what does that mean to be professional at content? Because you guys are going balls to the wall at content.

26:50You're on YouTube. You're on Instagram. Every platform. It's everywhere. It's everywhere. So what does that mean? Like when was the conscious decision to the team of, all right, we've sold these three companies. We're now here. We've wrote a book. I now think this is what is going to take, you know, a portion of our company.

27:07Dan Martell:It's actually a fun story. Okay. It's a wild story. And it's not the story that anybody knows because, you know, people see it today and they make assumptions, right? Most of the people that know me now, they're new to my world in the last six months, but but they didn't see what I did to get to where I am. 11 years ago, I make a commitment to myself that after I sold my last company, Clarity, that I'm going to post every week. And I did it for my kids because I realized if something happens to me, I have nothing captured. That was the original intent for starting on YouTube. And I figured as a leader, as a CEO, as an entrepreneur, a skill that would be really powerful to develop is communication and being comfortable on camera.

27:49Dan Martell:I was awkward. weirdly awkward. I three months in the studio, I wanted to practice doing one shot takes, couldn't get it together. My video guy at the time was like, wait, get you two cameras and edit. And I said, no, you're giving me an out. I don't want it. I need to learn that. How do you be role? And, uh, after three months, luckily patients, I figured it out, but I went eight years at the 1500 view club but i never missed a week eight years eight years you wanted it i just i made a commitment i i i tell this people often it's like if you want something you gotta you gotta dedicate a decade which sounds like a lot but it goes like this can i ask you a question yeah eight years 1500 views was it you're just still learning the craft like looking back were there clear mistakes that you were making okay so for eight years i celebrated the wrong thing i celebrated my consistency right and i think a lot of people make this mistake where they're like i show up every day i go to the gym every day bro you don't look like you go to the gym he pointed at you specifically i did it he didn't point out i'm wearing a larger shirt today dude okay all right There is a fucking weapon hiding under here.

29:07I just don't want to show it, dog. I just don't want to show it, dude. Sam knows what I'm pushing under the head. Should we do just tarps off? Yeah. Last half.

29:14Dan Martell:Last half, tarps off. Skins. So again, I was proud of myself for never missing a Monday in eight years. What changed was the book comes out. This is three and a half years ago. I wrote a book called Buy Back Your Time. and I, you know, you write a book and you hope it does well. I mean, nobody writes a book hoping nobody reads it, but I was like, man, it'd be really cool if a couple thousand people read it. My publisher, I asked them at one point, I said, what would make you happy? And they say, you know, if you sold 5 ,000 copies in the first week, that would be, that'd be awesome for us. And it comes out and it sells almost 20 ,000 copies and it keeps, and, and it doesn't do this, which is what traditionally happens with books, which is up and then down.

30:01Dan Martell:And it starts to go. And probably two months in of that happening, it occurred to me that the thing I've been asking for my whole life, I'm a person of faith. God gave it to me in the blue book. And I remember I was walking in the mountains and I was debating because I knew, I kind of knew what he was saying is like, hey man, yeah, you could go back to building the next company. You could go and keep investing in companies or you could support the book. But I knew what you guys, you guys know what that means. It means going pro. I did eight years of being an amateur and I've, I had to make a decision because you said I was pro.

30:43Dan Martell:I didn't call myself, but I know what happened is I made a decision to go pro and people that you just ask yourself a simple question. Okay. You have the weekend warrior athlete and you have a pro athlete. What's the difference between both? Does the pro athlete train when they feel like it? No. Do they have crappy equipment or good equipment? The best equipment. Do they train with other people that are at their level? Yes. Do they have a coach? Yes. Do they have a team? Yes. So when you say what was the difference and What were the bad habits is whatever is not that. I did that. I was inconsistent.

31:24Dan Martell:I wasn't trying. I didn't look at my number. A pro athlete measures 17 different data points on a daily basis to see how they're performing on just the human part, not on the performance of the sport part. And that was what the decision was, was a clear delineation of pro. And then I'll tell you the two things that I think everybody can look at if they want to ask themselves if they've made this decision. It's the bank account and the calendar. I was bragging before how little I spent to do what I do. I would brag. I taught this. There's videos of me teaching this. I do two days of shooting once a quarter to generate all 12 weeks of content.

32:07Dan Martell:I bragged about this shit. There's no way you get pro once every 90 days doing YouTube. And I was like, I wonder why I only get 1 ,200 views on videos or 800 views. Well, no shit, bro. You don't, you're not even trying. You're not even like in the. So that's what I did. I made a call. Hired my buddy, Sam. Him and I partnered up. I gave him an unlimited budget. Unlimited. Oh, that's wild. Like even today, friends of his that know him go, you have no idea. And he knows. He's not, you know. But when I say unlimited, I mean like. Blank check. I never said no. Never said no. He's not wasteful, but I never said no.

32:50Dan Martell:And I gave him my calendar and I said, I will retool. And I had to call up business partners, retooled 70 % of my week, had to retool everything at the beginning. But now we do everything we do in three hours a week. All of it. Like I said, nobody in the world does content the way we do it. That's why people literally flying on their private jets to Canada where we live to come tour the studio because they can't comprehend when Sam, And, you know, he's doing his content and everybody's messaging him. And they're like, how do you do this? So now you're back to bragging about how little it takes.

33:22Well, this is what's funny is that. Full circle, baby.

33:25Dan Martell:Yeah. So what you learn, it's kind of like the pro athlete that ends up playing later in their life. They don't have to. You don't have to work as hard. Right. So I just don't. It's stored up. What does the three hours look like? What is going on in that period of time? Two longs, one short. That's it. Boom. Two longs, one short. And then from the longs, we're going to get how many, you think? 15? I do one, the short clips. I do two YouTube videos in those two hours. So I do a video. So two videos a week. I think we publish two a week. And then the shorts, do like 20. But again, it's the 28 years of experience.

34:06Dan Martell:John Maxwell has this great quote. He says, it has to be stored up for it to come up. Some people don't have enough stored up. Yeah. And they get mad because it's taking time, but they don't realize that time is the storing up for it to coming up. So it's like, if it comes out too early and we see these craters where it's flat, it's vanilla. It just blends. There's no substance. There's no - It's like the 18-year-old life coach. It's 100 % that, right? But what's funny is that 18-year-old life coach is complaining that it's not moving fast enough for him. It's like, bro, you don't got anything stored up yet.

34:40Dan Martell:You should go travel the world a little bit or go and get your heart broken for it. times like have you seen this kid must be can't be older than 11 okay he's going to high school dressed in a suit and like trying to get them fired up have you seen this i've seen this guy it's hilarious and you can just tell these kids just they're like who fucking hired this little kid like good on the kid for getting on it early like love the drive but it's you know there's something to be said about being 11 trying to fire up the kids a couple other things that is reminded me of what you said two things one growing up playing little league baseball there was uh i went to memorial park and there's a softball field and um after practice there would always be like softball games going on one time jose canseco just like or no i think it was jose canseco's brother who's literally they look like they're the same they're twins yeah talking about how like you have to put in the work then you become good he comes up and hits i've never seen a ball hit as hard as he does he came up hit the ball like over you play memorial he hit it over like softball to softball field over i do that and he doesn't chill out and then he doesn't even run around the bed he just walks back to the dugout yeah which is hilarious the other thing i wanted to bring up he doesn't run the base no yeah yeah he's just like yeah i'm just that good it's gone um the other thing i wanted to bring up is there's a interview of john mayer and jerry lorenzo and it's a complex interview have you seen this yeah i'm i i would say my half a tiktok is ai and artists oh interesting oh yeah um like comedians talking about their craft musicians talking about their craft yeah i've seen all john mayers talking about how he the voodoo well he he has a famous story of how he was drinking a lot and he had a really bad hangover and he had a conversation with himself and he's like all right john like how much of your potential do you want right now?

36:40Do you want 70 %? And do you want to still be having fun? Or do you want all 100 %? He's like, I want 100%. He's like, all right, that's all that needs to be said. Reminded me of what you said of like, he went pro in that moment.

36:50Dan Martell:He did. Yeah. How many people, this is what's interesting. We know all these greats. How many other greats were sitting around that never made great because they didn't make that decision? Think about that. How much sideline people in the stands, admiring the people on the field of play, could be there if they're willing to ask themselves that question. What percent of your potential do you want to activate? That's the question. What's crazy to me, and that's why I think AI is cool and all that, it'll never replace that. It'll never replace the human drive, the H to H, right? Human to human, this.

37:29Dan Martell:There's something, we all experienced it during COVID when we were all on Zoom calls. And there's the magic got lost in the digital transmission. Like it never will capture that. And I just think like that's kind of what I would say drives me the most is just watching people activate that part of them. When you you had a low point in your life that you talk a lot about. Right. What were you what was that inner dialogue like during that period of time that got you to turn everything around in a moment where maybe it didn't feel like that was possible?

38:07Dan Martell:It wasn't very nice. It wasn't very kind. You know, I was 16 when I probably hit rock bottom. And, like, really rock. Like, not getting kicked out of my house. Like, you know, I was juvenile detention the second time. So it was, what was I saying to myself?

38:35Dan Martell:I was having that conversation about if

38:43Dan Martell:maybe it might be better if I just

38:52you know because

38:56Dan Martell:I loved my parents and I loved my brothers and sister And I knew at that point I didn't make a lot of good decisions. I knew the pain. I was just imagining because I felt guilty about it. So I just thought maybe I should just end it, right? So it's, yeah, man, I had a lot of sad moments.

39:22Dan Martell:And what changed, though, and why I'm here today is I had, I got in a fight. So I was in, I was in, it was an adult prison. So it was actually a prison with cell blocks and everything. And I got in having breakfast and some guy said something. And in prison, it's one of those things where if somebody calls you a goof, you gotta, if you don't, you're just going to get picked on all the time. So the guy calls me a goof because I finished all the coffee and we get in a fight. It's like full on going off. Guards come in, grab us and throw us in the hole, which is solitary confinement, which I'd never been in before.

39:56Dan Martell:And it's probably the worst thing you could do to a human. So I strip you naked. You're in your underwear. I don't tell you how long you're going to be in there. The lights are on 24-7. You don't know what time of day it is. They let you out for 30 minutes in this like concrete, literally the size of this room, 30 feet up fence.

40:18Dan Martell:And on the third day, what I think is the third day, the door opens and there's this guard standing there named Brian. And he's just like his face. now brian had been there for probably worked there for 10 years seen a lot of kids come and go um he was super disappointed and and the thing about brian is he wasn't there when the fight happened he was he was he wasn't working that day he came back and brian was like you ever have like an adult in your life that was like a cool adult he was the cool guard like guards are not they're not really look, they're called COs, you know, correctional officers.

40:58Dan Martell:And most of them are not nice and nobody likes them. But everybody respected Brian because he would, you know, look the other way if you wanted a second dessert. Or he wouldn't give you a hard time for keeping your light on too long if you were working on something or whatever, whatever. And as long as you respected him, he'd respect you. And I remember him opening up the door and he's just like, gives me this look. Like, what are you doing? and so anyways he says follow him and i'm we leave the area and we're walking down in the prison if you've never been in a prison like there's a place you walk and there's a place you literally have to walk if you take a step next like something they just think you're running or doing something so we're walking down the hallway and the door to the cell block is there and we go past it.

41:46Dan Martell:Now I've never stepped a foot past the bottom corner of that door. The next door is the guard unit that overlooks the two cell blocks, right? From our side, it's a one-way mirror. So I can, I've only ever seen the mirror. I've never seen the other side. And he walks up to the door, he opens it and he says, come on in. And I'm 16. I, I think I'm either going to get attacked sexually. I don't know. Why? He's just like, get in here. I listen. I go. He grabs a chair. Sits me down. Nobody else in the room. It's the inside. First time I see all the lunch bags and all this stuff. He sits me down and he just asked me a question.

42:33Dan Martell:I said, what are you doing here? I was like, well, I got in a fight with Kurt and they threw us in the hole. He said, not. not that. He goes, what are you doing here in this place? I was like, like here? I was like, well, I had a stolen car, high speed chase and drugs and he goes, no, not that man. What are you doing here? Because I've been working here for a long time. I've seen a lot of kids and it makes no sense to me

43:05Dan Martell:that you're here. He goes, I see you doing your homework. I see you staying out of trouble. I see you trying to do the right thing, man. Like you're not like the rest of the kids and I need you to know you're just not, you're not supposed to be here.

43:22Dan Martell:That was the moment I think that there was like a seed planted. Like, and I remember the conversation, you asked what was the mental, the argument I was having with myself? He doesn't know he's, maybe he does. What does he see? did he see was he talking about me like it was literally this like I almost denied this is the crazy part is the the line between how close I was to rejecting that comment scares me thinking about like the family I have today and just the life like it's just wild and Brian believed in me man and he definitely believed in me when I didn't believe I deserved to breathe the air I was breathing and that was the beginning and it wasn't quick it was two more months had to prove myself got released to a rehab center most people did six months i did 11 had some shit i had to work through it was at the end of that program where i actually discovered computers it's crazy bro like it was built in an old church camp and i was helping rick the maintenance guy clean know one of the cabins there's an old computer and a yellow book you know i never touched computer and i opened the book and i'm like holy fuck it's english like it's not zeros and ones and i just tap tap tap chapter one tap tap tap enter hello world and i i literally this is how dumb i am i was like oh maybe i'm a computer programmer like maybe maybe i'm so stupid in my life decisions because i was meant to do this you know and the crazy part it doesn't matter if and i'm not a great programmer i'm a good program not a great programmer because i hired those guys and they're like you know neck beards and like they're just different um but it didn't matter man it became my new addiction it became the thing that i obsessed over it became the thing that i would stay up till three in the morning and and just my eyes were bleeding and i just couldn't stop and this is 1997 right when the internet came about and that's that's been my life man and it's like to think back what's crazy is this year i'm speaking at the portage graduation fundraiser it's 25 years wow yeah that they started i was in the second year that they were oh it might be 25 or 30 it might be 30 i think yeah it's a 30 year anniversary because i was 17 i'm 46 and they were open a year before so i even think about the people that got together to talk about building this place if they didn't build it in time for me to like my dad has spoken publicly a lot about portage saved and gave him his son back

46:12are there conversations you can point to where you've been on the other side where you've recognize someone else's potential where they maybe haven't seen it before and then you have a conversation with them and it kind of helps them like it helped you yeah

46:33Dan Martell:you know what's crazy is i could sit here for 17 days straight and tell you those stories because i actually believe everybody's purpose sits right next to the worst thing that's ever happened to them. People ask me that all the time. Dan, how do I find my passion? I'll tell you where it's at. You won't want to go look. You know, it's probably in a box at the bottom of the ocean that you don't want to talk about, pretend happened, whatever. I don't know what it is. I just know what it is for me. So as you ask me that question, I can look at people in this room, outside this room, where I've had those conversations with them.

47:12Dan Martell:genuinely I mean it I truly mean it I told you earlier my favorite thing to do is seeing the potential in people and let them know about it I want to I want to let them hear like I see it but I see their 10 potential right and they get asked themselves that my okay with 10 percent or do I want 100 because all the vices and the bullshit that's what's holding you back and it took me a while to figure that out man that's why I do so much work with youth, my King's Club program, or, you know, I was sharing with you guys earlier that I, you know, it took us two years to give 10 ,000 copies of Think and Grow Rich to every kid in our town.

47:50Dan Martell:But that was part, that's all part of that place that I came from. You know, my, the thing I try to do with my content to help entrepreneurs is help them build a life they don't grow to hate. Because if you don't know how to do that, it's easy to do that. but my purpose is to help young people not feel broken that is i will i will fight for that i will put my head through a wall for that you know so every king's club i do that times a hundred kids when you literally when you ask that question i can point to like chase and mark like all these little dudes you've probably seen some of those videos yeah dude it's like the coolest because they're listening they're they're they're they're locked in and i know the responsibility i have and I know the power I have to get down on my knee, look them in the eyes, and tell them, bro, you're 11, and you're here.

48:45Dan Martell:You already won. Be soft on yourself, man. Don't stop. Keep coming back. These are your peers. These are your homies. I guarantee you, you're impressed with me. I'm impressed with you. and I know if you just do what you're doing now and don't stop well if you think what I did is impressive you're gonna laugh because when you're my age it's just a numbers game like it's impossible I think uh something that I struggle with some a lot of people I think listen to our show struggle with is we're so hard on ourselves so hard I I mean we could have a huge episode we could do really well for the month and I'm still thinking well like I'm not at this place that I know I can be at and I'm wondering with people you've coached maybe it's something that you've talked to yourself internally you've seen a lot of success what is something that you could say to to me and that group who is struggling with that tell me more about that though I I think I think it's just like a drive and a want to to be better but I think that like when when you accomplish something when I accomplish something I'm speaking for myself it still just doesn't fill this like this like void almost you know it's like the goalpost just continues to be moved you almost don't really like sit and like be almost grateful for what you what you hit and I feel like as we've been building this thing you know we just hit 200 episodes which is really cool it's really cool really cool but i'm not thinking about 200 i'm thinking like what is the next awesome conversation that's gonna like sit in this chair that's gonna impact the group that listens to us and and keep growing this thing to a place where i know it can go and it's almost like frustrating you know the deceit like yeah you you have people that come up to us and say like yo your show is so cool i'm like man i don't feel like that right this second you know that's something I feel like I've been battling with that we've been battling with.

50:47Dan Martell:I can offer a lot of perspectives. Trying to figure out which one do you need to hear right now in this moment?

51:01Hmm. Even with business too. I mean, it's like we had a crazy month a few months ago, but it just doesn't fucking feel. I know. I know. The money, the money comes and I'm like, I made this fucking LinkedIn post. I'm like, this is crazy. And you got people who are like, yo, you did this. And I'm like, well, it sure doesn't fucking feel like that because the money flies right out. And then you're on to the next week of back trying to sell or back trying to grow. I got a question for you. Well, Mr. Dan, thanks. Okay. How much of it is you wanting more for yourself versus comparing where you're at to maybe some of your peers or other people?

51:39I think both. I think that I think it's really easy here specifically to get caught in that trap of I mean we live in one of the richest cities in the fucking world. Yeah you walk outside there's a fucking Ferrari right outside your building like looking right at you like you know so I think there's like a part of that that for sure is comparison that I can recognize but I think the other part of it is like this it's almost like what you're saying it's like this uh it's like this thought of like wasting kind of what we have. It's potential.

52:08Dan Martell:Let me offer you this because it addresses both of those perspectives. And this is Dan's, like I can only teach what I've gone through. And I a thousand percent resonate with that. I went through it in my 20s. I was so determined to prove everybody wrong. Okay. I have that. Oh, dude, growing up, like you understand, I was voted most likely end up dead in a ditch in an institution or in prison for the rest of my life. And like the amount of parents that I was on the you're not allowed to be friends with Dan list. Like I had to hide in the woods just to hang out with my friends. So the amount of dark energy drive to like fucking stick it to them.

52:56Like my buddy Mike's mom made me millions of dollars.

53:02Dan Martell:like tens of millions, like that one woman and her one decision to force me to stand at the end of the fucking driveway on the sidewalk and not, would she literally, I'd be calling. She would answer and say, stop calling Dan and hang up on me. And we were supposed to hang up. So, what happens is you want to win so bad that you build this, this getting shit done muscle. The problem is, is that you never celebrate because in the moment of celebration, you feel like you'll lose your edge. So what's interesting is you win and you know you should, but you won't allow yourself because you're worried if you do, you're going to take a step back.

53:53Dan Martell:And the crazy part is that all entrepreneurs do this. Entrepreneurs that win, And what's funny is they think they win because of their edge. And I would argue you won in spite of your edge. Because I'll tell you what will allow you to win even bigger is celebrate with gratitude and most importantly to yourself. Like honor it, man. Like comparing yourself to that guy. What if he's been doing the entrepreneurial game for 27 years and you're on year four, five, seven, 10 even? It's not the age. it's the entrepreneurial age and they're all different. So that's why when these kids are like, oh my God, I look up to you.

54:34Dan Martell:I'm like, you're 11. Can we talk about where I was? I was in a foster home. I wasn't at an entrepreneurial program like this. So you're better than me if you want to just compare times 10 right now at 11. So there's that part there is that we don't allow ourselves to celebrate, okay? Now, the reason we don't is because there's, we don't, it's a, everything we do is around essentially do i feel loved do i feel enough and and it's you don't feel worthy of it and because you don't feel worthy of it you never allow it in and you're always chasing it and there's no amount of money recognitions accolade achievements that will ever get it that's the fucking that's the funny joke of life and unfortunately there's only two types of people to get it.

55:21People that go through so much massive pain and have some chance of creating some moment

55:26Dan Martell:of enlightenment, or they go and they, they climb this ladder of achievement and get to a place where they get to the thing they thought would make them happy and then wake up and realize that they feel worse. And then they started and that's not enough to ever make them feel enough. Both of them will end up to the same conclusion, which the cool part is, is you can get there today right now, which is be massively involved in the creation of your life and unattached to the desire of it needing to be anyway. Can you repeat that one more time? Be wildly involved in the creation of your existence, of your life, of this moment, and be unattached to the desire of it being or happening in a certain way.

56:08Dan Martell:I love you guys. Don't know you guys. You guys are humans, you have souls. I want this to be the best pod you ever do for you guys. If it's not, it is what it is because it couldn't have been any other way because it wasn't. And what happened to me as a kid, no frustration, no wish it was different, no nothing. See what I'm saying? And it's like, when you can get to a place where you're like heavily involved in the art, again, most artists would be like, no, I need to, I need the pain. I need the, you know, a lot of comedians are like, I need to drink because that's where my funny comes from. A lot of musicians are like, I need the heartbreak.

56:48Dan Martell:I mean, I look at MGK, I'm like, bro, enough now. Like, fuck, come on, man. Like, you're allowed to be good, man. You can create good music without going and doing another whatever you're doing. Or he won't. And it'll be his story. And, and again, it's the, it's the, that's my edge. And I would argue, no, it's not. It's in spite of that. It's the entrepreneur that's like Mr. Gohard, Steve Jobs, as screaming at people. That's why I'm successful. Guess what? I know people that are not like that, that are more successful than you. And I bet if you look back at the moments you had to spend trying to fix the problems, you created what I call emotional shrapnel because you showed up that way.

57:31Dan Martell:You took those out of your life. You would be 10 times further along. They're like, oh yeah. Or the moments you acted out of fear because you wish that, you know, you're scared to ask the person for some help because you're worried they say no. Why? Be an attached man. Ask. They say no. You can't control that. I don't control anybody. I create a reality for myself. You have your own. That was a really, that was a very helpful perspective. I really, really appreciate that. Nobody asked me that stuff, but that's actually is where I spend most of my time. Did you struggle for a long time to like detach from the stuff that you went through at an early age?

58:11Dan Martell:Yeah, I was that guy. I had to win and then win. It was probably two big exits till I finally realized like, oh, I'm running away from something. I'm running away from the shame. Dude, I didn't tell the story I just told you guys for 15 years. The first time I ever told it, it's a wild story. Oh, man. My buddy, Jason. Well, he's my buddy now, okay? But this is 15 years ago. It's not even 15 years ago. It might have been 12 because he celebrated his 10-year anniversary at this moment. 12 years ago, a guy, cold emails me named Jason to ask me to speak at an event. Now he says Tim Ferriss is going to speak there.

58:55Dan Martell:I'm like, okay, who are you? No socials, no nothing. My buddy Clay's speaking. My other buddy Mike's speaking. You know what? Worst case, the guy doesn't know how to run an event, but we'll all get to hang out. So I say yes. I show up. It's 150 people. In the room is Tim Ferriss, Mark Echo from Echo Clothing. I mean, luminaries, the founder of Canada Goose. I'm like, oh. And this guy Jason, who I didn't know at the time, says to me, oh, by the way, whoever gives the best talk, I'm donating$25 ,000 to the charity of their choice. Now at that point, he invited me to speak about marketing because I was a marketing guy.

59:36Dan Martell:And my charity, my whole life, the thing that I did three times a year, four times a year, I'd go speak there, I'd give all my money. It was Portage. And I realized I have a chance to help this organization that saved my life, but I'm not going to win talking about growth marketing. so I I go okay I may change my talk is that okay he's like yeah no problem as long as you know the audience here for you share what you want to share so I go see my wife Renee she's in the room okay we had a one year old she's pregnant she doesn't know the story she has no idea I said I gotta go back to the hotel I gotta draw out some stuff and And when I come back, if you're going to be here, I'm assuming you'll be here, just make sure like sit down and I want to talk after.

1:00:29She's like, why?

1:00:30Dan Martell:I was like, it's just some crazy stories and you might not have heard them and we should talk after. She's like, you're scaring me. I'm like, don't worry about it. It'll be good. So I leave, do my thing, try to draw like a narrative arc of like, how am I going to explain what I just, you know, a lot of pieces to pick from. And I'm crying the whole time. Like, it's very emotional. I'm trying to process before I get on stage. I come back and I'm about to go up and Renee goes, Hey, I hope it's okay. But my parents wanted to surprise you. Oh fuck. I said, okay, just make sure they don't leave. Like we're going to have to talk.

1:01:04Dan Martell:And she's like, why do you keep saying that? So I get up and I share, you know, essentially how I almost took my life in a high speed chase. And luckily the gun got stuck. And then I shared the lessons I learned from that and talked about Brian and talked about kind of my life today. 15 minutes. And when I was done, standing ovation, everybody was in tears. I look over, Renee's in tears. Her mom's in tears. And I get off stage and her mom gives me the biggest hug. And all I hear in my ears, I finally get it. I get you, Dad. I didn't get you before, but I get you now. And I'm so sorry that happened to you.

1:01:51And I'm like, I appreciate it.

1:01:54Dan Martell:I'm just glad you guys know who I am. Like I lived 15 years, not that I was being somebody else, but nobody really knew. You know what I mean? That was the beginning, 12 years ago, where I realized that maybe the thing that I went through that hurt me the most was the most powerful thing I had to help other people. That's a crazy, I was like, oh man, I've been chasing this thing called success. and the thing that I wish nobody knew about me is the tool that I have to actually transform and help other people the most if I'm courageous enough to share it. And what's wild, I didn't share it again for two more years.

1:02:35Dan Martell:Because I was like, I don't know, man. Even after Tim came out to you, Tim Ferriss is like, Dan, I've known you for a few years. I did not know that about you. I was like, boy, I knew that about me. and um and then i just started playing with it people ask me you know how'd you get started and sometimes they would ask me well what were you like as a kid and i was like oh let me tell you and so i had more time but it was crazy is when i finally wrote my book buy back your time my dad found out like my parents are alive and we didn't talk about this as a family this is something was like a no-go zone that's why my wife had never heard about it and nobody We talked about it.

1:03:12Dan Martell:We all went through this really challenging time as a family. And somehow, miraculously, we all kind of work our way through it. And now my two brothers are entrepreneurs. I'm an entrepreneur. Just beautiful. Like, you just wouldn't know that meeting them today. And he calls me up. And he goes, hey, I heard you're working on a book. I said, I am. What you putting in it? I said, I'm going to tell my story. He goes, all of it? And I said, yeah. He goes, I don't think your mom would be okay with that. It wasn't. My mom had no shits given. Like, it wasn't my mom that had the problem. And I said, well, Dad, are you asking me to wait until you move on here from Earth for me to tell my story to help people?

1:03:58Dan Martell:Because that's, well, no, I just don't think your mom would be happy about it. And I'm like, I'll have to talk to Mom then. But I'm not not going to put it. It's the first sentence on my vote. It's the first.

1:04:15I don't know.

1:04:18Dan Martell:I hope the AI stuff helps people, but I honestly don't give a shit about it. That's all like the bubble gum. It's a fast food. It's what people want to know about, but that's not what's going to change their life. What's going to change their life is understanding that behind the decision of what AI platform they should use, there's a conversation about who is the person using the platform. because if we all have a genius 220 IQ cousin named Marcus and you got one of his cousins named Jake and Jake only wants to talk about sports scores and play video games with Marcus. But then he's got this other cousin named Sophia and Marcus just wants everybody to win.

1:05:03And Sophia goes, I want to be a rich real estate person

1:05:07Dan Martell:and Marcus has wanted to help me and he's got a 220 IQ and all things, all things. I'm just going to ask Marcus to help me and I'm not going to second guess him. And she builds a 10 million year portfolio in 12 months because Marcus does it all for her. What's the difference? Two cousins, two different outcomes. That's interesting to me. It's the thoughts inside the mind that stop people from, to your guys' point, actualizing their potential. Because it's there, it's latent. It's just it's available to everybody. You know, that's the human experience. And guess what? AI will never replace that.

1:05:45No, AI is never going to have a 20-minute combo that we just had on this show. Yeah, Dan, I don't know if it's you or the white monster, but I haven't cried on the pod in a minute.

1:05:59Dan Martell:We're playing the white monster. Yeah, dude, I blame this thing for everything. Oh, man. Why am I so emotional? oh yeah that was great that was that was amazing so thank you for sharing that because i i also didn't have i had no idea about that so if someone um like if someone is struggling to be okay with sharing that it's tough for like do you have a device like it took you a while to to to open up and share that story and granted that is you've gone through heavier shit than 99.9 percent of people so um but i would also argue that like um there's people who have gone through way less crazy shit but to them because it's their own life they think it's fucking maxed out level 10 what's what's crazy is you know i do a lot of work with youth and it doesn't matter if a you know super well-adjusted 14 year old boy gets his heart broken for the first time it could be devastating and to some other 14 year old it could be not a big deal so it's like when people hear that they often say well my life wasn't as crazy but i this happened to me i'm like look feelings are feelings man so it's like how do you learn to be able to share that in a way that is not a reliving it because that could be re-traumatizing um just absolutely demolish you emotionally where you don't feel good talking about which i can totally resonate with and that that was a challenge i mean right after that happened i was like okay that was an attempt i need to learn how to do this because it was i was a puddle on stage.

1:07:49Dan Martell:It was, it was, it was a lot. Like I was not wanting, that's why it took me like two more years to ever get to a place where I felt comfortable to try. So I, I live in San Francisco at the time and I sit down with my buddy, Matt, Matt worked for Wired Magazine. He was a writer. So he's a storyteller. He was one of my favorite writers. And I sit down with him at this Italian coffee shop in little Italy in San Francisco. And I was like, Matt, I got to tell you a story. I know you've known me for a few years, but there's something you've never heard before. And if you don't mind i want to share it because i need your help to teach me how to share it and he goes all right yeah what is it and i kind of do some version of what i did on stage and i'm like snotty and red-faced and just a mess and then he goes how do you feel right now sharing that with me and i go oh my god it's like just feel like overwhelmed he goes yeah man it's hard for me to like you're making me feel that so it was interesting because he was he's like you want my help I'll give you some initial feedback your intensity makes me feel that he goes I get what you're trying to do but you're making me live too much it's cool I I said what do you mean he goes look you can tell me those parts like you could have told me this like this and you could have felt the feels and that's cool but then you could have moved on and told me the lessons and that would have actually made it, it would have worked better for me.

1:09:14Dan Martell:And he goes, if your goal is to use that to help people, just we gotta not do that, we gotta do this. And that's, you know, so my advice to people that have gone through things that they have shame around or it's tough to talk about or there's a lot of feelings around is you just have to, you gotta inoculate the, you gotta just, it's exposure therapy, you just gotta talk about it. And I always tell people, cause like I get that question a lot, I just say, well, who do you trust? Give me three friends. and next time you're with them, just be like, hey, is it okay if I share something? It might be a little hard for me to share this, but it's just something that I feel like I want you to know about me and it's gonna be hard for me to share.

1:09:50Dan Martell:So I'm just gonna like, give me some space. I'm just gonna do it and then I can answer some questions because like all stories, we don't know, like we live it and then we gotta figure out how do we communicate it in a way that actually, because nobody's sharing that because they want to make somebody else feel bad. They're sharing it because they're hoping that they can take some insight from it. So it's literally just doing it. So like I'm at a point where I told Sam, like if nobody asked me, I'm not talking about it anymore. Because like I don't like, but you went and I was like, oh man, he asked me.

1:10:25Dan Martell:And I'm just one of those people where I'm like, I got to be here in this moment, right? Deeply involved and attached. So when you asked me about the conversations, I was like, they were not very, I literally like I had a flashback to like the darkness. but it also is perfectly exactly what it should have been. And I think, I think if people, and I really hope people are inspired by that because I hope they find the courage to share their stories. Cause that's, that's what I want to hear. Like I, I, I don't feel like I know somebody until I know what you've gone through. Like I literally don't, I call it success theater.

1:10:58Dan Martell:If you're going to be Mr. Success on stage and tell me about all the fucking money you made and not tell me about all the setbacks and challenges. I don't want to, I personally would rather my time back. And I'm going to leave. But, you know, and that's the challenge. A lot of people, they're just like, this happened and this happened. And then every once in a while, you get a glimpse of like a challenge. You know, like, oh, they're human. Yeah, well, no shit. I even find this, because I went and I started studying story. Okay. Because like I said, it's like AI, my feed, or like creatives, writers, musicians, comedians.

1:11:33Dan Martell:And I remember, I don't know who was talking about. they were talking about narrative arcs and screenplay writing, and they were talking about villains. And one of the interesting things that great writers do with a villain is they'll have a scene where, let's say, a cat fell off, you know, a building and the villain saves a cat. You know, but this is the same guy that wants to kill the whole Gotham or whatever, you know what I mean? Like the Joker saves the cat, Joker wants to kill Gotham because it shows his humanity. and it's and we can't it's kind of interesting that like even when people are scared to not like they think like oh everybody thinks i have my shit together it's like you have no idea how much more people are going to want to see you win if they also know you don't have your shit together and it's that duality right it's the it's the you know the bigger the villain the bigger the hero so if you don't tell me about any of your villains your vices your challenges i think that's why like a lot of people we admire we like them because they're like oh they're real they talk about the reality they're not trying to sugarcoat it there's a quote that i love that we've talked about on the podcast and we've talked about it before in other places but experiences are unique but feelings are universal.

1:12:56And when I heard that, it unlocks something of like, oh, that's why if you hear something super specific that someone went through, you weirdly relate to it way more because even though you didn't go through that specific experience because we all have very unique experiences, but the feeling that the person experienced while going through that experience is what we can relate to. We've talked about it before how, you know, Brayden was working this dream job. I was also working a dream job. Like Brayden was working for the Lakers. I was on tour with a famous DJ duo. We were both burnt out wanting to do our own thing.

1:13:38And so while not many people can say they've worked for the Lakers or they've been on tour, they can relate to being burnt out from the job that they're working or wanting to go down an entrepreneurial route, but like still having to work the nine to five. And so I think when it comes to building a personal brand and, you know, we obviously we've talked about AI a lot. It's like AI can't replace that. It's like AI doesn't know those, the nuances of the experiences that you went through.

1:14:07Dan Martell:Well, you guys talk about it, which is the most essentially authentic, like the brand is you. Sure. It's the fingerprint. You know, I was actually on our way to Portage. So Sam would come with me, my creative director, and we would go drive because I'd go speak to the kids. Like every new batch of kids, I would always go in and kind of be the guy that'd been through the program and tell them what life will look like. Because the biggest challenge for people that go through addiction is the fear that after I get sober, my life is going to be boring and like it's just not going to be fun. So it's like it's hard to get clean when you're like, I don't want to live that life.

1:14:47Dan Martell:So I always go back and I kind of, you know, I'm like, hey, show up in a supercar. They're like, oh, hey, you were like us. And I'm like, yeah. You were here. Yeah. So. You drove here sober? And so I'm with Sam. This is a long time ago. This might have been six years ago. And you understand, the Sam that we all see on Instagram today was not the Sam of six years ago. Okay. He didn't really talk much. Okay. He now talks. He doesn't talk that much, but he talked very little. and we're driving and he just asked me a question. He goes, he goes, what did he ask me? It was about shooting content. Do you remember Sam?

1:15:30He said, yes,

1:15:33Dan Martell:he was, he was, he was, he was, he wanted to create content but he was worried that nobody wanted to hear from him and it was a very innocent question and I'm, you know, And again, this is before I went pro. I'm still an amateur, but at least I'm posted on YouTube. So I just say to him, I said, oh, do you have any friends? He goes, yeah. I said, how many friends you got? I said, I don't know. I said, well, just like, do you have five? He goes, yeah, I have five friends. So the good news is, bro, there's 8 billion people on earth. And if you got five friends, you have five people that like your flavor of life.

1:16:09Dan Martell:And if you shared yourself fully, 100%, and that's what you guys teach, Like, that is you. Out of the 8 billion, would you be okay if 10 million followed you? Well, of course. I go, then that's what's going to happen. The problem is the 8 billion, they haven't heard from you yet. And as long as you put the message out, because like, think about this. This is a cool idea. You're only aware of people that is uniquely, they're in your life of awareness because of you. Because there's a lot of people that create content online. I don't know who they are. It doesn't mean I didn't see them. I just didn't resonate with them.

1:16:51Dan Martell:So I kept scrolling. So like our, if everybody wants to create a personal brand, it's very simple equation. Get as many reps out there to get people to see for your tribe to then follow to build your audience. And as long as you have friends, at least five, because some people might not. And then I'd be like, okay, maybe content may not be your game because you're not a nice person. I don't know why you don't have any friends. But then those people will be the people that, and then you don't have to be anything other than you. I would think the biggest failure in creating a personal brand is creating a perception of you that you're not, that every time you go out in a public, you have to act or perform.

1:17:40That would be torture.

1:17:44Dan Martell:And you don't have to do it because if you don't do that and you just show up as you, then the person that shows up at you attracts the people that resonate with you, Sam's friends, then those people are your homies versus trying to be somebody else like Dan or, you know what I mean? And it's like, don't do that. Just literally, it's almost like, I think most people don't give themselves permission to be full them. Here's what I, and you want to know what my definition of full them is? Show me the group text thread that you have with your college friends. I might get arrested. Exactly. Could get us in trouble.

1:18:19Dan Martell:Could get us in trouble. That is full you. That version of you that they all know and love, put that on camera. Yeah. See what happens. I think that's also why we, like we like to have fun and crack jokes on the pot. And I think that's why people resonate with it. We know that we're not, you know, there's so many other podcasts out there that talk about business and entrepreneurship and personal brand and content. And maybe some of them are a lot more knowledgeable about certain areas than us. But I think where we can win is we have good banter between us. We like to keep things lighthearted. I think we can ask some good questions and like we bring ourselves into it.

1:19:02And then also like on the back end of the podcast, we'll have what we call the after party. It's like a post pod debrief. We'll talk about how the episode went and then talk about things that are going on in our lives. And I think that you're right. Being able to bring yourself fully. Granted, some of the group chat stuff doesn't. No, man.

1:19:19Dan Martell:Put it this way. What if. OK. You guys know Oliver Anthony. You heard a song, Richmond, North of Richmond. Sure. OK. One video changed his life. OK. You don't know the story. Guy struggled in his life, drank too much, couldn't keep a job, mid-30s. Musician, though. Playing at somebody's backyard party. Somebody pulls out his old phone and records him singing that song. And it ends up, it's the, I think it's the first song to ever be top of Billboard that wasn't, it was an independent. It just went, it just went. what if he didn't approve and or allow that video to to get shot because of his own head space junk crap beliefs what if the thing that you want which is more audience sits on the back side of you unlocking a little bit more of that group chat like you're zany crazy unique right Right?

1:20:27Dan Martell:Because if you think about a Joe Rogan, what makes a Joe Rogan Joe Rogan? He does drugs and he's a fitness nut and he's a comedian and he's into politics and his best friends are the biggest conspiracy theorists in the world. And he's a fingerprint of himself. But I will tell you what he is and The Rock has that and so does Oprah is he is 100 % him. And you can't pay him no amount, a billion dollars to have a guest on his show I'm not doing it because he said I don't talk to people I don't want to talk to so like there's even this I really think the thing that we admire and there's different flavors of it and we think it's this thing we think oh because he talks about this or he does this is no what you see is a person that is himself like I know I personally know because I've met a lot of these people and they always say the same thing is he the real deal is he really that way in person yeah he is The fact that you think he's not tells me more about you than him.

1:21:28Dan Martell:Just saying. What's interesting about that, too, is I have found it. I'm 30. I find it way easier now than when I was first starting out. Wait till you're 40, bro. Yeah. I can't wait. I can't wait. No fox goes right through the roof. Yeah. Especially now that I'm engaged, too. I'm like, I ain't trying to impress any girls. Wait till you have kids, man. They'll make you feel so. Yes. Because as long as, one, you know yourself way more. Like I've been waiting to make a piece of content about this and I need to go back through the old hard drives. I just haven't yet. I look at me trying to vlog or make YouTube videos and it's so not me.

1:22:14And I thought I needed to show up in a certain way because one, I wasn't comfortable in my own skin yet. And two, I saw it working for someone else. and this was also at a time where like the youtuber was screaming at the camera what's going on guys yeah foosie tubes yes yeah yeah um and so i look at that and i'm like man well no one no wonder it didn't work but two um i like empathize with that version of myself but it's also hard to look at that because i'm like man you're just like so not comfortable with yourself and you feel like you have to show up a different way yeah so the cool part is but you don't think other people see it

1:22:59Dan Martell:no but they do of course they feel it i mean they may not even know they may not even know what to call it but they feel it it's so content i consider it so i work with a lot of entrepreneurs and i have these five daily non-negotiables and one of them is you have to post three videos direct to camera every day. Now I give them the out of doing it as a story. So it's only around for 24 hours. The ones that like really want to double down on this, they post it as a reel, that's better. And they think it's a marketing thing. And I'm like, oh no, this is a you thing. That commitment to talking to your camera, to trying to communicate, to overcome every insecurity that might come up, to overcome the desire to not feel like doing it, to not want to do it, to not have to deal with your cousin leaving that comment like they keep doing every time you post.

1:23:53Dan Martell:Like whatever. The internet telling you about insecurities you didn't even know you should have. I didn't even know certain things that people leave to tell me about me. The backside of that is the ultimate personal development program. It's the, I cannot, dude, I've done it all. I've spent a lot of money on seminars and books and coaches and all of it. And I will tell you, Nothing has taught me more about me, gotten me comfortable with me than having to create content. And the fun part, to your point, that I hope people really take to heart is if I'm starting to play guitar, I don't write my own music.

1:24:36Dan Martell:I play other people's music because I need to learn the art of the guitar. Like I need to learn how to play the guitar. What are the notes? So you play all these other songs, Stairway to Heaven, Nirvana, Teen Spirit, et cetera. And then if you do it long enough, you find your voice, you find your art form. There's no musician out there that did not Ed Sheeran. They all started this way. So it's almost a rite of passage. Yeah. Right? It's just how quick can you progress through it? Are you going to still be playing Nirvana, Teen Spirit for 25 years? And some people do, the cover bands, right? They never do the original.

1:25:15Dan Martell:Why? Because it's safe. Because everybody sings along. Feels good. I get a little bit weekend gigs, right? But I never, ever did the thing that I knew in my heart I should have done, which was make my own music. I was editing other people's videos when I started. I would download them. I'd cut them. That's how I was practicing. I remember I went out the first time, and I'm like, I'm going to shoot something. And then I shot something. I got back, and I was like, this is dog water. This is horrific. Like, I need to figure out what these guys are doing that I can mimic and go out and put it into the real world because I'm just an editor.

1:25:45I can't shoot to save my life. And that's kind of how I started to do it. Same exact way.

1:25:49Dan Martell:How do you learn to draw? Trace. Yeah. How do you learn? My son edits videos. He literally would see a video and he would just try to replicate it. He's just learning the tools. Talk to us about taking your family around the world. It was wild. Okay, because I loved watching your stories about the world schooling. What was that actually like? and how did you come up with a curriculum to help your son in this new world of, of like everything business of where we're going? Cause it's not what it was like when we were kids. It's not for sure what it was like when you were kids. It's like the thought of sending my son or daughter to a school and to college and spending what we spent to go to school.

1:26:30I just don't think it's going to look like that when we have kids at all. No. See, my whole thing is like, I think you got to send your kids to college for the life experience so that they have stories to share in their content. For sure. Preferably a better one this way, Wisconsin. Preferably an Oregon. It's all part of the story. A more superior school. But go ahead. Tell us about the world schooling.

1:26:53Dan Martell:Well, first off, you need to know that it took me 10 years to convince my wife to do it. Oh, really? Yeah, it's probably the thing I'm most proud of. Selling was the dream of getting my wife on board. 10 years. Every year. Every year, do her annual planning. No. Please, no. Come on. We can, no. You have two boys. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And how old are they? They're 11 months apart, but they're 12 and 13. Okay. Okay. So, so I get it. You know, we had Irish twins, they're called. Okay. Two kids, two pregnancies, but essentially twins. So it was a handful. Like they're just always, and it wasn't till nine, 10 years old where she was like, oh, things are starting.

1:27:31Dan Martell:You know, they can, we travel a lot. We always did two new countries a year, but it was always these short sprints or like maybe six weeks in a country. and then um finally we're in australia two years ago and we're planning the year and the second half of the following year was open and i was like you know what september we should do you want to do the world schooling like can we do this and she's like i maybe what would that look like and i was like oh my gosh i have an in like then she never replied what would that look like it It was always no. And I was like, what does it need to look like?

1:28:08Dan Martell:You know, sales 101. What needs to be true for us to get this done? Like that's everybody listening to do that. So I give it to her. She makes a list of 17 things. I have to start working through it. And essentially she agrees to it. Okay. But I have, this is December. I got nine months to figure it out. So, but we do it as it pertains. And the plan is nine months of the school year. We're going to do around the world this way. And then we're going to go south. So we went Europe across all the way, Asia all the way back. And then we're going to go South America. From a schooling point of view, the cool part is I'm in AI.

1:28:48Dan Martell:And what I created, so the fun part about me having all these companies is I build AI frameworks to help my team learn AI. So I already knew what the world was going to look for because I created it for my team, you know? And essentially we've built these AI playbooks for every department. But what's unique about the way I teach things is principles-based, not tools. Because again, what's going to always last forever? The principles, the tools will change. And if anybody listens, if they want this, I can give them to them. Like if anybody, yeah, if they want the playbook, just follow me on Instagram.

1:29:24Dan Martell:Okay, do this. Okay, follow me on Instagram. They have to message me AI 505. Okay, done. If you follow me, message me AI 505. I'll send you my internal AI playbook for the business departments that I then use to create the curriculum for my kids. Done deal, let's go. And so what we did is, it was funny because we actually signed them up for an AI powered school that didn't work. Okay, so we thought we're going to pair, because I believe every kid's homeschooled. It's whether the parents realize it or not. so i brought my here's what i want them to learn i was hoping the school would bring them this platform would bring them the math and the all that stuff dude i don't know if you guys have maybe you guys went through this math i can't understand my kids math i can't do i i didn't do well in math but it's not even math i don't even understand what they're talking about they're like oh you do this weird thing and now you get to a number i'm like it's called a division it works it's like a long division's a lot and nope they have a different way of doing it now not like that did you know in school the way they they grade now i don't again maybe you guys went through this there's no uh out of a hundred or a to f's oh that's right i had a to f what is it oh it's um emerging extending progressing advancing we got to talk to the canadian sounds like we got to talk to canada that's a canada dude it's because there's no bad this is there's no negative participation trophy yeah we're emerging that means you're failing literally emerging it's probably for failing yeah like it's wild so jimmy's emerging into a dumbass jimmy's gonna get kicked out of school he's emerging himself home so but that's what we did we literally i would uh take one son in the morning my wife would take another we'd go to a coffee shop i would work they would try to do this online platform it never worked they said you can't use charge dpt to do it i'm like well watch me and uh luckily uh they they did progress but it was because of what i taught them not dude it was like they were still memory it was like an ai power platform that really didn't sure it wasn't what you would think if i you here's what i thought an ai powered school platform is you like soccer your favorite uh player is ronaldo every exercise physics math math health should be soccer ronaldo because that's what i would do nah it was the ai part was the assessment had nothing to do with the curriculum they're still reading crazy things from greek mythology that made no sense that they would never have to use ever in life and i'm like this like if you're studying physics just let them learn it through the lens that they want we're gonna get there like today if everybody like i'll give you guys some like game notebook lm Have you heard of Notebook LM?

1:32:06Dan Martell:I saw you make a, the only reason I know is because of your post. Dude, I have access to all the paid tools. My favorite free tool that teaches me the most is Notebook LM. It's from Google. And what is it? What exactly is it for? You give it any topic you want to learn. They actually created it probably for Google's employees because once you see it, you're like, oh my gosh, this is how. yeah, so you give it a topic. You can give it anything. You can give it agentic AI. It searches Google and the internet for PDF research papers and YouTube videos specifically to the topic, synthesizes it into a AI powered chat window on just that topic.

1:32:46Dan Martell:And on the right side, it creates assets. Some of those assets are infographics, slide deck, video, my favorite podcast on just the topic, mind map, flashcards. so it has like 13 different you know graphical outputs from the content and you can chat with it so i've used it for investing in companies i use it for learning new topics you can go deep on the mind you can talk about your shadow side you whatever you want to talk to it about but it's it's almost like uh i called it accelerated consumption it's a it allows you to go from i know nothing about this to i feel like i could teach it to people because it and it's all dynamic It's perfectly like the podcast feature, two people talking, and you can call in and ask them questions.

1:33:38Unreal.

1:33:39Dan Martell:Oh, yeah. Oh, I didn't know about that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can call in. They're like, oh, we have Dan. Call in. Dan, what's your question? Well, since we're talking about quantum computers, I'm curious, how does a qubit really work again? Yeah, you can ask it anything. Wow. To cap us out here, what are the platforms that you are playing the most in right this second? What do our listeners need to be tuning into? I'm going to think of my pie chart of my life. So there's a platform that we've created called Apex, which you could think of as like an agentic orchestra. That's what it stands for.

1:34:09Dan Martell:Agentic platform for execution. So this is what my Kai, this is what my Reese, this is where my virtual AI employees run. And it works like an open claw. If you're familiar or you've heard of open claw. So that's Apex. I would say that's 70 % of my time now because it does everything. I mean, I wrote in the last seven days, 150 ,000 lines of code. I wrote, I talked to Kai. And when I analyzed that two years ago, that would have cost me$2.4 million and taken 5.5 months and a team of seven to do. That's where we're at today on just the software side. That's. And is this apex that you're talking about?

1:34:50Is this the internal thing that you have? Yeah. That's my own platform we built. Wait list is out, right? We can get on the wait list.

1:34:55Dan Martell:You can go on the wait list. Yeah. Apex.host is the website. But I haven't released it because it's so wildly powerful that I've only given it to a handful of my leaders because I need to make sure I don't have people get arrested. Like they literally, if they did the wrong thing, because they can do anything. You can call people. It can send emails. It can. Yeah. And it just, you give it an outcome and it just. Boom. Marcus, my genius IQ cousin just goes nuts and he might not know where the guardrails are. So that's where I spend 70 % of my time. uh claude chat co-work would be the other uh 20 and then 10 manis okay and manis is what i like about it and what you notice when you use a lot of ais a lot of it's just waiting for it to finish yes so i just i'll have like five active projects i'm working with apex i'll have four active chats with Claude.

1:35:53Dan Martell:Sometimes I use the chat as inputs to Apex to try to get clarity and then plug it in. And then I'll have some Manis things going, like I'm working on my next book. So I was working on some book stuff. I'm working on some real estate stuff. That's because Manis is really good at creating like really complete visual diagrams, like stuff you'd have to hire a designer for. Yeah. Oh my gosh. Like I love my designer, but dude, he's like, yeah, I'll get it to you next week. and then three minutes later I sent him what I asked him to do. I was like, I can't wait, and this is pretty good. And you're fired.

1:36:27Dan Martell:Not fired, but that's back to the point. I'll go to you when I want to have the banter. When I want to have the collaborative arguments, you. When I need a thing produced, man is. Fun. Yeah. Before we let you go, someone that we really like consuming their content is a guy by the name of Taki Moore. And I know that you're quite close with him. He's one of my best friends. And we've talked about mentorship and helping people out. And if I'm correct, I believe he helped you out when you started stepping into the offer space, offer creation and coaching space. I would love to know what he has helped you with as far as in this next chapter of your life, the offer creation, the personal brand space content.

1:37:18Like what has he helped you with that helped you take that side of your business to the next level and maybe could help one of our listeners as well?

1:37:27Dan Martell:So I'll tell you why Taki is such a beautiful and, you know, one of the themes is coming up over the last few days is just relationships. There's a lot I could share. So I'm going to answer your question and give some insights to the listeners. So there's two parts to this. The best relationships you can have are people that not only you can learn from, but you can also support. And I think a lot of people, they never get those friends. You guys have that for each other. I can see it. So what happened is I found Taki eight years ago because I didn't want to do the online stuff because I judged all those guys and I didn't want to do it that way.

1:38:10Dan Martell:Luckily, my buddy Jason, who I told about who ran that event, he's the one that connected us. He sat us together at a dinner and I didn't know why. I immediately figured out why in a minute because he knew I was about to not do the thing and he wanted me to write the book and do that stuff. So Taki just was like, oh, well, yeah, you're doing it wrong. So then I brought Taki in eight years ago to just help me formulate the framework. Like I didn't know any of that stuff, the IP stuff, the how do you do the YouTube stuff and all that. So it was fun as I did that and I took it and I just ran with it, you know, And Taki tells this story often.

1:38:45Dan Martell:He's like, Dan never came to any of my trainings or anything, but he's my most successful student because I just executed. I'm the kind of guy, I call myself a frustrated builder. Like, I don't need to be convinced. I'm in. Just give me the blueprint. And then I took it and I built one of the largest coaching organizations in the world. And then Taki, two years ago, came to me and asked me, he hired me to coach him. That's hilarious. it's hilarious but you need to understand our relationship like we're homies we vacation our families like we're like literally i was just with them a month ago we're trying he was supposed to come to me as cabo like tomorrow right and so it was really cool because and this has happened a few times in my life where i've hired people to coach me and then eventually they asked me because it's just different parts like i'm good at scale i'm good at growth so because what's interesting when you talk about the offer stuff the stuff that i think talkies do now you'd have to ask them but like it was you know he says it was like well i watched what dan did and then i'm like okay so like the the the video stuff he's now doing now was him sam and i being like bro you're the most unique person we know you never wear shoes okay the pants nobody knows these other parts about his life he has nine kids yeah yeah okay he he's the most he's like the dosakis man and he's and I've shared this so many times on every coach or person you follow online, you name them all.

1:40:14Dan Martell:Their name is on Taki Stripe account, but you might not have heard his name. So like,

1:40:25Dan Martell:I have a lot of love for Taki, like a lot of love. Like I wouldn't be teaching people if it wasn't for Taki because I, as a software guy, I've always built software companies. I'm a software guy. And then he taught me how to unpack what I knew. And like, I mentioned him in my book, like, like, and so like recently we've done a few podcasts together, which is probably the ones you saw. And it's just so cool to like steel sharpen steel. Like we're still like, every time we get together, we're like, like these two school kids just being like, Hey bro, what are you up to? So get this. And like, we just, just banter.

1:41:02Dan Martell:but I will tell you what did he teach me that's that I think most people wouldn't know um

1:41:15Dan Martell:oh man it's such a good lesson no amount of whiz bang wizardry marketing will will will make up for the fact that you don't know what the fuck you're talking about because he knows he knows his art craft so good that you just need to sit in front of him at a dinner and go i gotta hire this guy like he's just and for him it's like breathing air like we sat down in delmar south of here seven years ago and he pulls out his ipad and he does his mozart thing i was like can i have that yeah no this is for you and i'm like oh my gosh you just every problem i was worrying about it. You just drew it out and it was just clear as day.

1:42:00Dan Martell:If people don't go study him and you're in this space, you're just silly because you'll get to see what mastery looks like. It's truly Aaron Sorkin of his space. He's going to be here in a few weeks, so we're super excited to chat. Yeah, we're going to get him on the show, which we're super excited about. This has been so much fun, Dan. Thank you guys so much for episode 201 of the 505 Pod. If you're still here, please hit the sub button, drop us a like, and we'll see you guys all next week. Peace. Dude, welcome back to the after party where the white monster is flowing and so are the tears. That was one of my favorite pods I think we've ever done.

1:42:33I made it here again. I mean, I just keep getting here, man. You guys can't contain me. You cannot contain me. Dude, Brayden found some secret AI thing that's getting him on this list. It keeps me at the top of the list now. I'm not having him in the back door. I walked in the front door today. You were one of the first people here at the party. Showing up a little early. A little bit. What, when's too early to show up to a party? You know, whenever you show up, you know, if you're before Fig, a little too early. That was, that was crazy. I think we went 64 different directions in a good way. Well, so what's interesting, a big way we determine if we're in like flow state.

1:43:18Premium flow. premium flow as they call it is how much we have to look at our notes and what i thought the conversation was going to be it it was kind of like that at the beginning and then we went deep on some personal stuff i didn't realize as much um i didn't realize he had gone through as much as he had i didn't i didn't really know much of his backstory um and to hear it oh man it like powerful shit. I think a lot of people can listen to that and you might not be in as low of a place as he was in his life at a very young age. At 16, I mean, in and out of foster care, you know, like he was saying and in a correctional facility.

1:44:07Dude, being in... 16? What's it called? What did he say it's called? Juvenile detention? No, no, no. When you're alone. Oh, in solitary confinement. I couldn't even imagine. I couldn't even imagine. I think something that I really took away from that portion of his life and his story was how this random correctional officer believed in him. and how people, all of us included, sometimes it's really hard to believe in yourself that you can go accomplish something and it just takes a random person, a mentor, a coach, or a friend to shine that belief onto you that you didn't know that you had in yourself.

1:44:51And while he's saying all this, it's funny because our conversation obviously originally started with AI. But what we kept going back to, it felt like we came back to this four, five, six times was the humanity of everything that we do and why that actually is what people connect with. If we were just little bots, it wouldn't be the same. Nor would this conversation that we have on this show is much different than another pod because we try to bring in these personal stories that are not just surface level what you're going to find anywhere else or what you would find on that person's channel.

1:45:23You're trying to go a layer deeper and give them something that maybe we didn't know before. And I feel like we got to a lot of places that we didn't know about Dan through this episode. But I keep going back to that. And he brought it up and other guests have brought it up. Other guests have brought it up after the pod. I'm not worried about AI taking over. I still think that the backbone of it all are good people sharing their story. And it is going to be your helpful little co-pilot. it. And the things that he shared with us today is mind blowing what they're using it for, what the future of their businesses are looking like, what the future of our business is looking like with it.

1:46:07It's crazy. And it was really, it was really cool. But I did not expect to go the places that we went today. No, that's the beautiful thing about the podcast. Like AI couldn't do that. No. And I also think that getting to talk to someone as intelligent as Dan around AI, I was expecting it to be you know same feeling in a way as you get when you do scroll x or twitter whatever you want to call it and it's so easy to go down the doom state i sent you and reef a video what yesterday yeah yesterday i'm like did you listen to this guy talk about ai you can get really it can get dark yeah very quickly um and so hearing someone like dan who's in the thick of it understands it and says, look, creatives aren't going anywhere.

1:46:54Just the workflow might be a little bit different. But till the day we die, you know, the human connection is the most important thing and telling stories and sharing that thing. But it's going back to what you brought up and what he brought up about the, you just sometimes need someone to believe in you. um i forget what team but there is a short stop the team's color is red and he's really good and he just signed a new contract with a new team we're talking about in the mlb mlb baseball okay the red teams are the socks i know the cardinals anyways it's you're not going to remember it if i throw him out there he threw out he got he signed a very large contract okay and then got off to like the worst season of his entire life and so the fans it might have been the phillies or the reds or something started booing him okay and then there's a guy who's uh he makes it his channel is all he's like a super fan and he makes uh videos about this team anyways he goes why don't we stop booing him and next time he comes up to the plate we cheer him on and i guess the fan base really listens to this guy on YouTube.

1:48:10Every time he would come up to bat in the future, like the next game, standing ovation. And then he hit a home run. Oh, wow. And it reminded me like, yeah, sometimes you just need someone to believe in you because inevitably it's easy to get in your head and lose your confidence or lose your way. And sometimes it just takes someone like that correctional officer to believe in you to turn your life around. We believe in you guys. Fuck yeah, we do. We know you guys are doing really cool stuff. We know you're going to get whatever you want out of this life. I also really liked the part that he was saying about how it's not this one way or the highway.

1:48:52And right now, I feel like it's very easy. I was telling him about the distraction of everything that's going on. If you open my Instagram Reels feed right now, every video is like, comment this to get this thing. And I'm like, okay, do I need this thing? but he's pokemon trying to catch them all so it feels like i'm like oh download this thing download this thing download this thing i really liked what he said is like keeping the main thing the main thing and just focusing on what is like the big lever right now what do you need what do you need in a business you need fucking leads great how do we get leads the way we get leads might change a little bit with this new systems and with these things that are out there but okay you need leads great you need something that you're selling people you need a service you need a software.

1:49:33You need a business of some sort. Like, what are you selling to people? What's your thing? What's your lever? Great. Then you need fulfillment. And hopefully you need reoccurring people coming back. That's it. That's how businesses fucking work. It's not rocket science. But it's really easy to get wrapped up in the rocket science of everything that is going on right now. And it can feel very overwhelming. And I think it can cause people to not want to play the game it almost reminds me of you know before ai really came to the public there was always a new like get rich quick thing in the sense of e-com drop shipping drop shipping um bitcoin amazon affiliate amazon affiliate we can all we can all name them yes and uh you all i think we all know someone who every six to 12 months was like i was doing drop shipping last year but this year I'm doing this.

1:50:24It's day trading now. Exactly. And seems like that's how he kind of feels about the platforms and the tools. It's like there's so many. It's like it's never about the tools and it will never be about the tools. Yes. The tools are changing so quickly to be able to keep up with it. You just need to worry about, like you were saying, what are the bottlenecks in your business? What do you need solved? What's going to move the lever? What's going to make you the most money and utilize ai to help you with that yeah i i think it's it's so easy and to get wrapped up in all the shit that's popping out every day and every news article instead of just focusing on like all right what what can we build today that's going to solve this one problem that we keep running into and the crazy part too is he's like yo everybody's caught up on like this chat clod or um it's a chat or clod or gemini or grok sure he's like bro agents y 'all have no idea the agentic side of it and the dude i want the fucking thing that he has that he's not letting people have the b-roll thing dude the b-roll thing but also it seems like i think we can i think we can talk to our little buddies and try to figure something out but i'll tell you what i i think um something that I'm already doing with OneDrive.

1:51:42I didn't even tell you guys this. Oh, this is crazy. Okay, you ready? I've uploaded one whole hard drive to my cloud. Okay. So now if I search for something in this OneDrive, it'll tell me in seconds where it's at in the drive. Oh, wow. Because it has access to the whole drive. It's a little sus. If you have shit on the drive, you don't want people to see. That sex tape of yours? Yeah, exactly. From 04. I just don't want that to leak. But it's really cool because I'm like, oh, I want this one clip that I know exists or like I know that I know I named it this thing. Yes. And it just finds it, which is really cool.

1:52:14So I know that this is not far off from being something that we can use to find B-roll because it's something that we struggle with all the time is the finding of the clips. We're like, we're making ads right now for a new cohort. And it's like, we need this one ad or this one clip from the cohort call. So then we're like, when was the cohort? It was nine weeks ago having to go back. It sucks. Or even dude, it's terrible to find the stuff. So I get it like, that's going to be crazy to be like oh this is young fig yeah this is fig in college i'd love all my college clips to be organized i'd love to see all my lakers content oh i made all these things the lakers that's them boom and be able to honestly offload it off my phone because i just have thousands and thousands of videos because we're always taking videos i'd love the travel stuff to be in one thing like that's gonna be super helpful that's a cool part though about shit that's gonna come out here in the next like three four five weeks seriously which is crazy to say we it's not you speak dude ah five years from now six years from now when there's fucking flying cars it's like nah dude 10 11 days from now when we can do we can do this thing yeah that that is uh that is really cool i i also just like and i i felt this from dan you know his team you are what like you what you radiate what you put out is what you get back that's what i felt with the people that were here yeah yuli we're gonna we're gonna put you in a we're gonna get a custom shirt for you black shirt yeah we need 505 we need a 505 shirt we need a uniform yeah i was you got everybody Yeah, the whole crew walk up, you know, and I was like, okay, we got to step it up.

1:53:37I get it. Militant. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They all got the matching shirts on. Media. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. We're not fucking around. I liked it. That was funny. We're going to get Yuli a custom 505 hat. Okay. I was thinking about this. Tell me. I know that we want to do merch again. Okay. I think we should just rip trucker hats. I like that. Sick truckers. Little 505 trucker hat. So easy. I like that. That'd be fun. Right? Yeah. how many of you guys would cop a trucker hat it'll be swag I like that let's make trucker hats it'd be fun I mean I wear a fucking hat all the time you gotta show up the flow gets hair transplant wears hat yeah dude what's up with that did I wear it you know this is the thing for me man I'm always late so by the time I take goose out for example this morning we're gonna leave at 820 I take goose out at 814 and Goose is taking a little long to go to the bathroom.

1:54:33I'm like, dude, we got to go. We got stuff to do. So I go up. I'm like, I'm going to do this, this, and this. That doesn't happen. I can't do my hair now. I've already brushed my teeth and mouthwash. I don't have time to do the hair. That's why the buzz thing is cool because you just roll out of bed. You're ready to go, man. But you didn't like the buzz. You want the flow back. I do want the flow back. The buzz was cool. Honestly, I'm shocked at how fast my hair is growing. Me too. I wanted... Shocking, actually. Yeah. It's crazy. Because I was worried that I wasn't going to be able to grow it out for the wedding.

1:55:02I got still over a year until the wedding. Which, by the way, I might have to invite Dan to that now that I'm thinking about it. Dan, we have a bachelor's trip. Kids can't come. Dan, are you... Can we stay at your house in Cabo? Because I'm thinking... What are you charged to rent out the house in Cabo? It's probably pretty sick. I do like that he talked about the consistency thing. And that was interesting. He was optimizing for the wrong metric. Yeah. And I kind of feel like I'm going through that right now. And with your content. So I've posted every single day. Some posts have been way less effort than others.

1:55:45And I feel like I'm finally starting to figure out what's performing the best or not. But I think going into this year, because consistency was such a difficult thing for me, in my mind, I was like, well, if I just post every single day and if I stay consistent, everything else will just take care of itself. And I now am thinking I don't necessarily know if that's true. And I'm wondering if I actually, if I don't, it's one of two ways. either I stop being a little bitch and I say, how much of my potential do I want? And if I can do higher quality content every single day and stay really consistent, or the percentage of what I consider much higher quality content, have that consistent, or instead of posting seven days a week, maybe I post four or five days a week.

1:56:44and every piece of content is like really high level. Do you think that is the route? I don't know. I haven't. I low-key think it is. Because I think it gives you, you're a creative guy. We're creative guys. It gives you a chance to like recharge the creative juices. Yeah. And I also think that. You know what I mean? I think you'd also like making four or five bangers and seven and you're like three or four of these or whatever. I don't know. That's just me. Yeah. And what's interesting too is I had a buddy of mine named Brian who I was talking to the other day and I was texting him because I sent him a video that I had made because he's also doing some hospitality content.

1:57:27And I sent him a thing. He's like, dude, I haven't even seen like the last eight things you've posted. And I wonder, and maybe it's just because maybe the content that I'm posting every single day is not of like the caliber or the quality that I know that I can post. So maybe I'm getting punished for that. But I wonder what a, like in an ideal, in an ideal world, you're posting, I think every single day, super high quality pieces of content. But for sure, I just think is one, one person. I wonder if it, if it does more for you to go less. I look, and I think the answer is yes. And also too, another thing that I was thinking of is if I'm trying to go for a more luxury.

1:58:12higher end personal brand because I want to start working with like the luxury boutique hotels. If I maybe change my strategy, uh, anyways, just kind of talking out loud here, but I do like what he said that consistency isn't enough. And then he kind of made a decision. He was like, I was consistent every single week for eight years. He's like, but I needed to make the decision to go pro. I gave Sam a blank check and said, let's fucking run it. The fact that they've generated 200 million views in 30 days is ridiculous. It's like, I can't even fathom that. That's insane. We're hyped when we hit like a million total views over the course of four years of podcasting.

1:59:00That is actually crazy. 200 million. He's like, we're maxed out on every single platform. I know. Dude, you guys don't want to know what's coming. It's going to get dangerous. It's going to get dangerous. Don't let the kids get an agent. Don't let the pod hit 100K on Instagram. What are we going to name them all though? We got to come up with a funny group of Pebble, Sand, Big Rock. Yeah. Well, my little Mac mini is called King Rock. King Rock. That's his Gmail. Yeah. I'm going to have to cut that out. I want someone to guess his fucking password. We're going to cut that out right there. Snip.

1:59:36So funny that he's like, yeah, my agent is talking to Betty. Betty's a real person. She has no idea that Kai is not. That was insane. Mailed the letters. It's crazy. Sent her the letters. Said, Betty, print these out. Ship these out. That's crazy. Crazy. I really like the part we were talking about. Wait, where was it? Oh, let me find it. Let me find it, please. Let me find it. Oh, okay. I really like the part where we were talking about how most people never celebrate wins because I heavily feel that. And I really loved the advice that he gave during that segment because I think it's something I struggle with.

2:00:19I think it's something everybody struggles with. You get a win and you're auto like start looking forward. You just change the goalpost. And then you never celebrate. Then you're like feeling kind of empty because you're like, well, I should be celebrating because this is cool, but I don't feel anything towards what we just did because now I'm on to this next thing. What was the last big win you had that you feel you could have maybe celebrated a little bit more? Maybe like making that horse racing dock was cool. I think though that as soon as it was, and because I think it had no monetary, there's no, like I don't make any money from doing that.

2:00:57Right. Sure. Like, it's just like, I just did it for fun. It was like a passion thing. Right. It's hard for me to like quantify because my brain is so like, we did this thing. We made this much. like that that's like this is a good thing for for me like the time like how i gamify things right so doing that was like i stayed up all night for like four nights finished it i'm like yeah you get a few thank yous and like this was really good which is super cool but it's like hard for me to quantify like putting that thing out like why you know what i mean i don't i don't know if that makes if that makes sense so it's a it was a it was a it was a really cool thing to put out but i feel like i'm so focused on these other areas of the business that that was a really cool thing to like put that piece of content out into the world that i've never i've never shared that story before no one knows about that story and so that was cool but it i feel like it gets swamped by the other things that are keeping me up at night if that makes sense i almost think that you're trying to you're trying to quantify art yes no totally and you can't i know because there's no you can't be like oh i got yes i got 27 people to give me a you know an applause and i had five people say this was super super good but last time i made this, I only had three people tell me it was super, super good.

2:02:26So I'm improving. And it has nothing to do with business. Yes, I know. I know. And that's why that's an interesting example, because that should be something where you're just like, I'm proud of myself for making it. And then it's, it's not. You're not quantifying based off of how other people perceive it. It's just people perceive it how they want to perceive it. And then I'm just proud of myself for making it. But I think being proud of yourself is hard to allow yourself to. Oh, God. Yeah, he was right. When he said it feels like you lose your edge, I feel that exact. When he said that, I was like, completely.

2:03:09I would much rather be more rigid and not emotional and be like, what's next? yeah what can i eat next and what can i do next then be like you did so well uh-huh like i feel like i know whoopty fucking do yeah who gives a fuck what you think dude no but that's like this weird and i don't know if it's from sports or from like growing up around people who are entrepreneurial and seeing how they operated because i feel like it kind of programs you when you're super young like that so i don't really know but i found that i found that to be very interesting um i also really liked what he said about how you know half of what he consumes is ai and half of it's like storytelling yeah and i still think and we think we've told you a bazillion times i think story wins every single time and how dan has all of this life experience built up and all these stories to pull from yeah because of the experiences that he's had he's you know shared that like his early childhood and then growing up and having these companies and wanting to impact people more and writing a book.

2:04:11And you have stories to pull from when people ask you questions. It's not like you're just reciting a script, right? And I think that a lot of people have to go skin their knees and go do things or try things and at least say, oh, I tried this and I failed, but now I have like a crazy story about it. Like when I came, I remember when I interviewed for the Lakers job, they go, what have you been doing? I was like, well, I graduated school and the next week I moved to Indonesia to try to start a company and we failed. but I had like all this story to tell. I was like in the interview, I was like, you're not going to meet someone who has like this kind of content.

2:04:45Like I can do travel. I could do sports. I could do whatever you want. I'll do this. I just came off of like living in a foreign country for two months and I didn't make it. And it was a way better story than, I graduated and I worked this job and now I'm here. It's just much more interesting. I had stuff to pull. It's like, I've been trying to sell. I've been hopping on sales calls every day. Like I'm willing to, if you guys need stuff to sell, like I'll do it, whatever. Uh, You're like, brother, we're just... What do you guys need? Yeah. You guys need me in the sales department? I'll go over there.

2:05:11You know? It was just a different, a totally different interview process because I had, and I was super, still super young, really not a lot, but like had a couple stories to tell and had a few like punched in the mouth moments of like, this sucked. Like, you know? I think of someone like Dan, who even though he said he's been making content for like 17 years or whatever that still means he started even a little bit later and i would say dan at least he came on my radar probably he's 46 he said 40 yeah i think 46 47 so he came on my 29 bro he was our age when he started making sure that's crazy to think about which and it's very different it was very different back then

2:05:56like he came on my radar at 40 like in his 40s gary v didn't start making content until he was in his 30s. I'm pretty sure Jay-Z said he didn't make his first song until like 27, if I'm not mistaken. Caleb Ralston, he like worked for Gary and Alex and Layla and then decided to go all in on his personal brand. Greg from Bloom, he didn't, he was like, I didn't feel like I was worthy of even sharing knowledge. Like I needed to like really learn the game even know what the fuck I was talking about before even going all in. And you can see just in Greg and just in Caleb, they're seeing massive success in like such a short amount of time.

2:06:48It's because of the 10 plus. Yeah. Like you got to put in the work, especially now with AI, like people's bullshit detector is just, it's automatic. And like people now are going into a piece of content just so skeptical. I've also noticed as I've been posting every single day, the stuff that is getting the most comments or DMs or just like meaningful analytics in my mind is when I'm sharing a lesson that I've learned and then attaching it to a personal story. And that's something that like. That makes sense though. It makes sense. And AI. When you say that out loud, you're like. Well, yeah, yeah.

2:07:35I mean, it's like, it's so basic. But I think it is, even though it is basic, I think it is very profound. And it kind of helps you, helps you realize that like that is something like you said that AI can't compete with or you don't need to worry about AI with that. Because if you think about any creator or artist or, you know, even entrepreneur, someone with a personal brand, they're so unique. They're so themselves and they lean into it. And then you feel like, you know, a lot of personal things about them because they're willing to open up and go there and share their story. But those are the people that you resonate with the most.

2:08:21And I don't think even with these freaking quote unquote, like the AI influencers or AI content that's going to be put out, some people might resonate with it. But, you know, I think there's also going to be a lot of people who are going to crave that human stuff. And you'll win if you allow yourself to go deep and share more about yourself. Yeah, this was this is a fun episode. We also I don't know if you guys took note. We got headphones on, baby. Dude, we're so back. You guys have no idea how back we are. We've never been more back as a unit. The BK Lounge, a.k.a. this studio. By the way, talking about building personal brand IP, this studio, we're calling it the BK Lounge.

2:09:03I like that. Really like that. Braden and Costas. Boom. So, yeah, BK Lounge. Anyways, BK Lounge is sounding good. Yeah. We had to take down these wood panels because on the opposite side of this wall is a breaker unit, a breaker unit, which is good for audio quality, super good for audio quality. It was causing crazy electrical frequency. So on, on the past pause that we've had to do, I've had to do a little bit of like tampering with the audio, getting rid of it. What's weird is it like was showing up heavy in the headphones, but not super, super heavy in the actual audio, at least not all the time.

2:09:43Most of the time it was like usable. Uh, now no frequency at all. and the headphones make a difference yeah we you feel that it's like you me and dan we're just like yeah yeah it's like we're an avatar we're just like all holding hands yeah you know yeah just feeling like we're right here right here with the boys that was fun that was crazy yeah we just said we this is episode 201 so 200 of these genuinely feels like that we were just talking about this on a walk we started seven months ago yeah we started potting about seven eight months ago pretty crazy and it's nuts to think about four more years of the pod what and where where it could be yeah i was going back through um because i was making a video for 200 next week it was like oh welcome back to the 505 pod dude it's fucking hilarious yeah to look back on this is like what we were doing where we're at here's your 17 camera tips yeah dude and then the first guest we ever had on rob rob was the first guest we ever had on your buddy rob showed up high sort of baked out of his mind dude that was fucking crazy we've had a couple of people show up fucking high to the podcast it's crazy so funny man but yeah what what what's up with people thinking they can i'll tell you what what's up with people thinking it's a good idea to show up to a podcast under the influence of something.

2:11:05I think that when they come in here and the lights are bright, they're like, whoa. What's going on, man? Just pretty funny. That is comedic. What a fun app. This is 201. Hope you guys are still here. Hope you've loved it. Is there anything that I have to share? Anything else that I have to share? Brayden got some cool pants and a few different colors from Sheen for Coachella. Are you ready for Bieberchella? I'm locked in. You guys have no idea. Dude, we're going to just be dancing in the desert. I'm going for a functional shoe this year. Yes, you have to. This might be the go-to, even though I think they'd get ruined.

2:11:38But I want to be just traversing the desert. You picking up what I'm putting down? These Air Force Ones, terrible shoe to wear to the desert. Horrific shoe to wear in the desert. No, yeah. I mean, yeah, they're heavy and not comfortable. See, this is arch, dog. You don't have any of that. I want some arch. Dude, if there's a rock there that I need to get over, no problem. I'll be fine. I wouldn't even be phased by 12 miles. Not a problem to Solomon. Not a problem. Can you name me three other artists that are going to be at Coachella besides Justin Bieber and Sabrina Carpenter? No.

2:12:15Yo, Becky G, right? She's the other headliner? No way. No, she's not the headliner. Becky G's not the headliner. Who's the other one? There's a Latin artist who's the other headliner. Let's see. Let's see. Let's see. Coachella 2026. I'm also curious. Who is the third one? Let me know. Let me know what. There's a Latin artist. Oh, you were close. Who is it? Carol G. Carol G. I knew it, bro. I was close. I don't even think I know a Carol G song. What I'm doing, I'm going there for vibes in a good time, man. Vibes in a good time? That's what I'm doing there. You'll see me out on the desert. It's a good lineup.

2:12:48I can't wait. I always have a good time. You know what song I can't wait to sing? I really hope that there's no overlap with fucking artists. Tell me. somber 12 12 to 12 i will be live oh okay that's my guy i will be living at somber i will be singing my little heart out at somber can't wait hopefully we see you guys that'd be pretty crazy running some rocks in the desert we have a little rock meet up at the at the bright thing what sahara tent do you mean me it's a harris sign front left no the what's the little the cylindrical rainbow thingy my bobber yeah they're like the kite thing no the rainbow oh yeah yeah the main thing the main thing that spirals uh-huh we'll do a meetup there yeah okay cool we'll do a content at the top at the top yeah just like 50 of us yeah gosh this is so fun episode 201 ladies and gentlemen please we'll see you guys all next week peace