Do You Have What It Takes To Be A GREAT Entrepreneur? Feat. Joe DeSena

31:06And he says, listen, listen, man, when you're tired of selling sugar water to kids over there at Pepsi and you want to come change the world, freaking call me back and we'll do it together. Boom. And he hangs up, right? He was evangelical at the cause. Sugar, water, and Pepsi changed the world at Apple, right? And Scully, who's making millions of dollars, he's CEO of one of the most powerful companies in the world, looks to his wife and she says, I think he's right. We aren't changing the world. And it was that one cause-oriented evangelical phone call from Steve Jobs, and it exuded out of his pores every stage speech he gave, every one-on-one, every board meeting.

31:41When he'd meet with their software engineers, when he'd meet with the programmers, He was always evangelical internally and externally and built a culture of one of the greatest movements of all time in the history of business There's great lessons there about being Evangelical the greatest presidential or political leaders have an evangelical property about them the greatest salespeople do the greatest dads the greatest pastors They're evangelical aren't they? So you've got to become more of an evangelist for your cause and your mission number one number two you have to sell a big enough dream to your team to your company to your clients to the people around you that the dreams of everybody associated with you can fit inside the one you're selling it's got to be big it's got to be bold it's got to be expanding number three it's got to be repetitious you can't get tired of saying the same things over and over and over again one of the deficiencies of leaders that are weak is they constantly think they have to say new things to old people creating new things to say to old people the best leaders say old things to new people they say the same things over and over again to more and more new people new teammates new employees new recruits new clients new speeches new groups right they say old things to new people they're repeating over and over the vision and the cause of their business of their movement these are great communicators the next thing all great communicators understand whether it's words, physiology, the look you give somebody, or writing.

33:10Influence is energy. It's the transfer of energy. It's getting you to feel about my company, feel about my mission, feel about my product, feel about my cause, what I feel. They're conscious of transferring energy to people because that's what moves people. That's what gets them to act. It's not just the words. It's not just your face. It's not just how you're dressed. it's an energy transfer. There's a hook by the way. You can't transfer to me that which you're not experiencing yourself. You have to physically be experiencing it in the moment. It can't just be the words you're reading from a sheet.

33:43You have to really believe it. One of the reasons a lot of salespeople struggle or recruiters struggle is they just don't believe enough. They don't spend enough time making the case like a lawyer litigating to themselves about how powerful what they do is and the more and more you really believe if you're a true believer you can evangelize your product you can evangelize your message so invest more time in your own belief in your research in your knowledge finding third-party articles magazines blogs things that reinforce whatever it is you're doing that feeds your own belief that way you can give it to me you can't give it to me if you don't have it and so they don't spend enough time spend more time feeding your own belief and be conscious of the transfer of energy to another person.

34:28There's a great study out right now that I was just reading about bees and them deciding which flower to pollinate is based on the energy the flower puts off. They sense the energy from the flower and they move towards that one deciding to pollinate that one. Well, if you want more people to pollinate your business, pollinate your life, if you want to track the right relationship, the right amount of money, the right clients, the right employees, the right recruits, the right vendors, the right support. You've got to be putting off that energy because people are going to pollinate it somewhere.

34:59You want them pollinating with you, right? And that's an energy feeling they get from people. The bottom line is people got to be, when they get around you, they got to feel something special about you, special about where you're going, special about your cause, special about your mission, that something special is happening, something historic, something big, a big old dream. In fact, one big enough that my dream can fit inside the one these people are selling me. Right? And so this is the key of moving people. The number one skill, go all the way back to the beginning. My number one skill that if I could keep only one would be this right here, the ability to persuade people in multiple areas of my life.

35:40How do I get better at it? Transfer energy. Number one, feed your belief. Number two. Number three, make sure that it's repetitious over and over again. Say old things to new people, right? And you've got to be evangelical and sell a big old dream. The bottom line is that this is a process that never ends of growing us, of growing our ability to persuade people. One of the things about communicating as well is doing it with a lot of specificity. Great communicators, great influencers, great persuaders are very specific and very clear about what their message is. And so even communicating yourself and leading yourself, I grew up walking this beach right here, this exact beach.

36:20And I didn't live like this, but I told my family someday, told myself someday, I'm going to live on this beach. I didn't know who these people were that owned all these beach houses. I didn't know exactly how you got one. But I began to repetitiously transfer that energy to myself about my dream over and over again, literally thousands, if not millions of times. And now someday it happened. Now that day is here. And I live on this beach as one of four homes that I own. And so that's how you communicate with yourself and others, that transfer of energy. I can tell you that in my own situation, I'm always trying to, how do I evolve it?

36:51How do I modify it? How do I feed my own belief more? How do I sell it bigger? How do I back it up with more facts? The best leaders sell a big old vision. They tell a great story. The best people I know are great storytellers. Remember this, facts tell, stories sell. Most people make decisions emotionally from the story they Rationalize it logically with the facts so make sure you're selling a big dream a big story And then you give people the facts. This is the way we begin to move people in our lives This is the skill of entrepreneurs This is the skill of building something big and building something small and building something permanent too is your ability to persuade Focus on your energy focus on your belief level and focus on refining your message The last thing is this, say it faster and say it quicker.

37:40Less is more. You don't have to tell them everything you know. Leave a little bit to the imagination. One thing that happens, the longer and longer we're in business, the longer and longer we're around, the more and more we learn. We feel compelled to tell someone everything we know about our product, everything we know about the business. And that's not how you energize people. You give them just enough and then shut up. My dad used to tell me when I was a kid when I'd be asking for money to take my girlfriend to the movies He'd say hey don't sell past the clothes Right he had already agreed and I'd keep selling them I'd keep selling them and sometimes I'd lose them with this extra BS I'd be giving them so I want to challenge you don't sell past the clothes so of all things in business Right time management goal setting vision identity all those things we're going to talk about in the on this channel are very important but if you can't communicate, if you can't persuade, you are toast.

38:33The last thing I would say to you, how do I get better? There's lots of books, lots of tapes, but it's really for me, it's modeling. I learned to model certain people initially and then modify, model and modify. So I would model people, not copy them, but I would model certain people's styles, one or two different people. And then I'd modify it to fit my own personality, model and modify, right? Don't try to create everything on your own and don't try to copy somebody else that's different than you. You got to be you. So model and modify. The last thing I would tell you is to the extent that you can transfer this skill to other people will be to the extent that you can scale your business.

39:11So it's one thing to be able to persuade yourself and transfer energy. It's an entirely other thing to equip other people around you to do likewise. The best leaders are not just evangelical about their cause can't just transfer energy they have the ability to transfer that skill of transferring energy to other people and then you begin to build your movement whether that's one or two or ten or twenty five thousand or millions and millions of people sometimes your clients can be your top evangelizers for you when they use your product so it's your ability to transfer that skill and you have to do that through repetition the way to transfer the skill of energy to people is through repetition and role play.

39:52Repetition and role play. Far too many people just talk and teach their teams how to do things. They talk at them rather than work with them. The way you get me to do it is there's no substitute for experience. A hundred hours in the classroom is worth one hour in the field. A hundred hours of teaching is worth one hour of role play where we do it together. Getting them on the stage. When I started speaking, one of the great speakers, that he was an older guy so this is going to date him but when I first started speaking I got on the stage and I would open up for this one speaker and when I'd come off stage he was really older guy but he'd say what was it like to play on stage with Elvis meaning he was the Elvis right but I got to know what it was like to be on the same stage with the Elvis of speaking at that time and in business too often we just talk at people and don't let them get on stage with you Elvis there's not enough role play there's not enough engagement and so it's repetition over and over repetition is the mother of learning repetition is the mother of skill it's the mother of owning it over and over and over and over again until it becomes reflexive because when the words and the message and the energy becomes reflexive then when you're under pressure when you're stressed when you're down when the clients objecting you reflexively respond with your habit but if you don't have that habit that reflex you begin to respond and lose energy and so the reason repetition matters is it allows your responses to be reflexive under pressure.

41:17And then the second thing is role play. There's no substitute for that experience of being on stage with Elvis. I say it, you say it. I say it, you say it. And it's not just the words, it's the feeling. It's the transfer of energy. The number one skill of entrepreneurs and leaders of entrepreneurs is the ability to persuade and hope these were some of the tips that you should be conscious of of becoming world-class at it. Knowing you'll never be world-class at it. Knowing we can always get better, we can always stretch, we can always grow and improve our skills in multiple areas. So I get asked all the time, how did I get so much attention on social media, in my businesses, email list, etc.

41:52I can tell you straight up, it's been Constant Contact. If you don't know who Constant Contact is, you need to know about these guys. Constant Contact's award-winning marketing platform has helped millions of small businesses, mine being one of them, stand out, stay on top of mine, and seek big results fast. They've got an easy way to promote your business with powerful tools like email, SMS marketing, social media posting, and they even do events management, what they've done for me in the past as well. You're going to reach new audiences. You're going to grow your customer list big time and communicate more effectively to sell more, raise more, and grow fast on social media.

42:27So get going and start growing your business today with a free trial at ConstantContact.com. Just go to ConstantContact.com right now. Constant Contact, helping the small stand tall. constantcontact.com what happened like what's gone on with you the last seven years that's caused this stuff to explode like this by the way real af the top podcast in the world yeah i mean uh the mfco project before that which may or may not resurface yeah no it is it's coming back i know but i didn't know they knew right it's coming back it's coming back so like what's been some of the keys to you doing what you've done the last say seven eight years what's happened first of all i'm surrounded by killers dude like that's the thing we got to understand you know what i'm saying i've got tremendously successful smart intelligent people around me in every direction so my brother who's the ceo of first form now um my executive team the people who show up there every day these are incredible people and um they do they do the rowing of the boat right and uh the truth is what happened was is is you know everybody developed everybody leveled up everybody got better and um you know i don't think there's anything magical about it i think it's basically what we talk about all the time with people you know which is executing day in and day out, day in and day out for years.

43:54And as things, the more days you execute, the more they compound and they compound and compound and compound. And eventually the growth goes from gradual to steep. And I think over the course of our business life, if you own a company, you go through many of these phases where you go very slight growth or even flat for a while, and then you go up and then you go very slight growth and then you go up. And, you know, when people think of, of entrepreneurship or growing a brand or business, a lot of times they think it's just a straight line or it's just straight up. And, and dude, as we know, just kind of like the meme, you know, it's like this.

44:31Yep. And, uh, and I think we just, um, you know, I think we figured out a lot of things on how to, how to really get good at what we do. And, and really what it comes down to is great people doing great things to help people with what they're coming to our business for which is in my case they want to get more fit they want to get mentally better uh and you know with our affiliate program they want to make some money yeah so we do a good job at all three of those things serving the need of the customer in an obsessive way the thing i think of the most of with you is culture you're a culture builder and that culture has allowed it to grow exponentially even without you driving it all the time but you've been the driver you're giving it to sal and you're right in your businesses but the truth is like the brand has been you the driver has been you i think one of things that you talk about better than anybody is like because of social media and most of the bs that's out there is i think people underestimate if we're just gonna have a real conversation me and you about what do we talk about behind the scenes because that's what i get asked what do you and andy talk about behind the scenes here's the truth we don't talk usually when things are going great we talk when things are not going great yeah and i think if we're gonna have a real conversation that helps entrepreneurs or just humans today we need to let them into our lives like the real life i'm sitting in a room right now that's just a mind-blowing room there's 30 cars in here yeah collective value of these cars is what in this room roughly probably around around between 30 and 40 million 30 40 million dollars of cars plus the building the house that's attached to this a former president of the united states lived in grant like it's crazy right it's way harder than people think yeah it's way harder it's way more debilitating to be an entrepreneur, mentally taxing, emotionally taxing.

46:11I sent you a video a few weeks ago of a very successful guy who got asked in the interview, Hey, if you had to do it all over again, as an entrepreneur, would you do it? And he, or what would you advise? Would you give yourself? And he says, I don't think I would do it. And we both went, I don't know that I would either. If we're being really real, talk about that just from your perspective, how the real stuff of being an entrepreneur, mentally, emotionally, and physically, the toll that it takes on somebody, Not the pretty stuff that they see. Everyone's in Turks and Caicos. Everyone's tan and partying and in nightclubs, but the real stuff of building something great.

46:45How hard is it on all those aspects? I think it's harder than anybody could possibly imagine that hasn't done it. And this is why I get so frustrated with the current state of the environment of entrepreneurship on the internet. Yeah. Because we have a lot of people who haven't really built anything. They've maybe built a little cash flow, but not any asset or not a real company. And they tell everybody that entrepreneurship is for everybody. And unfortunately, entrepreneurship isn't for everybody. It's statistically only for seven to 8 % of the people. And only 1 % of those people actually ever become millionaires.

47:19And when we statistically break that down and we look at the way it's marketed, it bothers me a lot because I think a lot of people get sucked in who would be tremendous entrepreneurs, tremendous contributors. What's an entrepreneur? Somebody who is a part of a brand who takes ownership of the brand, who operates at a high level and cares and, and helps to build whatever it is that's being built. So they work inside a company. Yes. Okay. Yeah. And I've got, I'm blessed to have just unlimited amounts of those kinds of people. Um, and I think when we talk about the mental toll and this actually leads into why the book was written and why 75 heart was created you know a lot of people are confused they think i'm out here trying to be david goggins right the f**k i am i'm trying to survive yep you know and um that takes a certain level of toughness and as you know contrary to what a lot of people think i struggle a lot um i have real struggles my my i struggle mentally there's a lot of pressure it's a lot of pain it's a lot of frustration and it's extremely difficult and um i feel an obligation to be honest about that with people because i feel like because everybody looks at it on the internet as it's like it's such an easy thing for everybody to do yep what happens is is that a lot of young people get sucked in and then they can't get it done or they can't win with what they're being told.

48:43And because they're being told a false reality of it, they have a false expectation. And so when they get in and they're like, holy, this is actually really hard. They blame themselves. They think it's them. And I see this every day. I see this in my DMs. I talk to people and they, you know, so I just feel like it's better to be honest with people about how hard it really is and what it really takes so that you can prepare yourself for the journey. And I think that's the proper way to present entrepreneurship, which is why I'm so big on mental toughness, because as entrepreneurs, you know, we are we are.

49:19Actively choosing to walk the unbeaten path, right? Like we are actively choosing to do a life that most of our friends, most of our family, most people are never going to understand and they're going to attack you for it. They're going to say, oh, you know, why, why, what do you, why do you think you're too good for everybody? What, what do you, what more do you need? Like, you know, you remember where you came from or you still mess like the amount of negativity that comes with doing things outside the norm of society as an entrepreneur is so hard to deal with that. You have to be prepared to deal with it and then not only deal with it, but also learn how to leverage it.

49:57and uh you know the truth of the matter is man and i talk with emily about this all the time and i talk with you about this all the time um it's hard yeah and it beats the out of me and and like dude i feel at 25 years in business first form is only 14 years old but i've been in the same line of business for 25 years with supplement super stores um i feel like an old man sometimes me too you know what i'm saying like i feel i feel like and then when i do the math how many hours I've worked. I've worked a full lifetime, many lifetimes already, many. So, so it's, you know, I get a little frustrated.

50:33Actually, I get highly frustrated with the way that it's presented in real life. You know, there's a lot of fake and it really doesn't bother me from an aspect of people are cheating. People are going to cheat in everything that they do. That's the nature of human beings. But what bothers me is the good people who are honest, that want to build something that gets sucked in. And then, you know, what I think about is like, how many good ideas, how many good businesses, how many cures, how many good solutions are lost because the expectation of the path is painted to be something that it isn't. And people who would otherwise succeed if they just knew what to prepare for quit.

51:09And then us as human beings and business lose out on a lot of good things. Yeah. We're cheated out of their greatness because they've been presented a picture. By the way, you're exactly right. The value of what you're talking about is immeasurable for everybody listening to this because being an entrepreneur is so difficult mentally physically emotionally by the way I think it's worth it yeah but and sometimes I wonder whether it is I do too so I mean I really do and but but I think this is the real talk because when an entrepreneur begins to experience these things they're like well this isn't what I see I must be doing it wrong or I'm not cut out for this or my business doesn't work because I'm feeling all these things and we're one of the few two people maybe the only two there's probably somebody else it's like actually if you're experiencing all of this heat setbacks financial catastrophes emotional catastrophes people stealing from you suing you like they shouldn't you're probably on their actual right path as an entrepreneur and all stages are difficult one thing most people don't see with you because the story becomes dated because you're so successful now is I want you just to tell the audience because they may not realize this because yeah we're in here with you know I don't know you have hundreds of millions of assets now you built a company that's a billion dollar plus brand and even at this stage it's not roses and bubble gum most of the time but the first decade for you it's harder now really it's harder now than it was in the beginning it's harder than when you were living in the back of a supplement superstore no no question okay tell them about that and then tell me why it's harder now well that's how we started You know, we start Chris and I started in 1999 with so good with$12 ,000 from painting the stripes on parking lots.

52:47We had a buddy who had a striping company who was gracious enough to give us a job. And at that time, it paid very well for a couple of young kids. Right. We were making like 20 bucks an hour, which back then was like making like 100 bucks an hour. Right. So we were able to save a little money and start this business. And the first store, we we bought the shelves at home. We literally bought the shelves at Home Depot. we built the counter out of particle board from home depot and like uh metal roofing and like our friends and family helped build it and uh that's how we started our first day we sold seven bucks our first inventory order was ten thousand dollars that we financed on credit cards um which we got totally screwed on i thought we were getting a good deal that was my first business lesson you know um and dude like we just started and uh and you slept in the store yeah for on and off for the first three years slept in the business what you make the first five years the first two first three years I made nothing like we didn't make anything and this is the other thing we both worked other places to kind of keep the business open stay on that yeah before we move off I think that's another thing entrepreneurs need to hear so did I I stock shelves at night the first two years I don't think enough entrepreneurs are hearing you may need to have a job outside of your business to stay in business well you know how like the young guys now they talk about side hustles right yes like so so like for me the side hustle was the store right if you were if you were if you're today in today's language right you would say the side hustle was the store my main deal was doing these other jobs and I took the money there Chris took the money there and we kept reinvesting in the store and um you know the first time I got paid was three years in I got paid$695 a month and then for seven years that's all we made$695 a month so for the first first 10 years I was in business.

54:38Now remember, this is a different era. No social media, no way to get your word out. None of that. The first 10 years, I made$58 ,380 combined for 10 years. Not a year total. Yep. And by the way, the reason that matters and the other thing you said matters, just I love how our brains think similarly. I think for a real entrepreneur, that's still a three to six year window. It may not be a decade if you're doing things right, But you're going to go through two, three, four, five, six potential years of no profit, potentially, in order to build something that is profitable for a while. And it's not get rich quick.

55:12In fact, if you got rich quick, I see these guys getting rich in two or three years. I'm like, that's someone who won't be rich in a decade. Correct, because you don't learn the lessons along the way. The delayed gratification and the beating that you take when you first start something is actually necessary because that's where you learn most of your skills. Most of the things that we teach these guys That you talk about on your show That I talk about on my show And that we teach in Arte Or to whoever would come ask us Those are things we learned in the beginning Those are things we learned when it was really f***ing hard How's that harder now then?

55:43Someone's looking at you, they're like Dude, you slept in the back of a supplement superstore For a few years You made 58 grand the first decade And then First Form starts to grow You become a brand MFC Now that part was fun right that part was that part felt easy okay you know like that the the part where everybody's kind of seen me in my life that part felt easy okay um when i say it's getting harder now the reason it's harder a couple reasons it's harder now one we're entering a phase of quote-unquote big business right it's no longer 10 of us in a room or 20 of us or even 50 of us and we can say all right guys this is what we got to do and everybody goes and does it now we have to coordinate a massive amount of people to go execute, right?

56:29And as you know, coordinating a massive amount of people to execute is very difficult. And so there's that, that part is very difficult. The other part is, you know, when you get to this level of business, for me, it's almost like you're starting over because you don't know any of that shit. Like you don't know, I don't know, I didn't, I do now, but I didn't know the financial lingo. I didn't know how to, and the reality is to get to that next level, that big business level, you have to create partnerships and you have to work with people because there's, like we talked about when we did my show, you know, the 20-year room, right?

57:05Yeah. There's, you have to start playing ball with the bigger players, otherwise they keep you out of the game because these people own the market at the top of the game. So it's just, it's just different, dude. And - Isn't it also the pressure of having - Dude, that's what I was going to get to. Yeah. It's the amount of like these guys who are all sitting in the room with us. I love these guys. Those get those people at HQ. I love those people. Yeah. And like knowing that you're responsible and that they've invested in their lives into my project that we've started so long ago. Our project. Is a tremendous amount of weight to bear.

57:43You know what I'm saying? These people have families. They have kids. They have people to provide for. And if like if we don't if we if I make the wrong call or we make the wrong move or we do something wrong. there's consequences that are outside of us. And, and that's, that's a lot. I think also as you get older, that becomes more of the forefront. Like, dude, you know, when you start getting to be able to take care of yourself and, you know, you're not starving anymore and you get to the point where you can do some cool. Like both of us have been able to do. You start to like, look around and you're like, well, man, all these people, they got to win too.

58:19Yeah. You know what I'm saying? I think I'm going to tell you something about you. Okay. That's the thing I'm most proud of. of you is that right there is that no no wait let me just say it's real because people don't people see a side of you that's like this just in crazy intense he's pissed about what's going on on social media he's pissed about what's going on in culture they don't understand the nature of where it comes from and I'm one of the few people that can give people context very few entrepreneurs they don't care they get to a point I'm just gonna be in real they build their company up then they just decided to exit.

58:51Who cares what happens to everybody else? And you have this thing about you, which is probably why you've been successful. You're really hard on people. You're a hard dude to be around. You're a hard dude to be in business with. I'm in business with you. I'm a hard dude to be friends with. You are. But, but by the way, you're also, if, if my car broke down in the middle of the night, I just said this to somebody yesterday about you, that whole analogy, I know for sure who I would call. Yeah. And it'd be you. Yeah. And, and so you're also a great friend to have, but you're hard because you set incredibly high standards.

59:17Yeah. Right. And you care deeply. And the thing I admire most about you, I just want to say this to you, is that the challenge is if you're one of those people and you're nodding, you're like, I care about people, too. You're in for a difficult ride once your business gets big, too, because now you've got your customers you care deeply about. You've got the people that work with you care deeply about. You've got society you care deeply about. And this stuff wears on people. And it's the thing about you that I admire the most. It wears on you. I think it's almost like any great leader has that right, but I want people to know that about you The other thing that I want I want you to I'm gonna ask you this in real time and I want you to answer it honestly For me my greatest strengths are my greatest weaknesses when I harness them.

59:59They're great They've also been the things that have hurt me the most in my life And then for me, I would say one of my great strengths is my intensity level I run real hot I thought I ran the hottest of anybody I've ever met until I met you and then there's I don't know maybe I handle it differently than you I think I've been good for you you're you're you've gone through that maturity process I haven't gone through yet yeah but I see you doing it yeah but to talk about that for a minute so you're you're one of your great gifts it's not people don't know it's actually your brilliance and your marketing mind and your branding which we'll talk about in a minute but from an emotional personality trait you you got to run hot michael jordan tom brady andy frisella whoever myself at my level whoever it is elon musk you you cut open these humans they're a little bit crazy yeah right and if you're a little bit crazy i like you but for you i want you to be as probably no one's ever asked you this before on camera that is one of your great strengths it is also one of the things that is hard for you in your life too, right?

1:01:05Like, this is the truth. So how do you feel about that sincerely? Like, do sometimes you wish you could just lose it? Sometimes you just go, I want to throw my hands up, man. And like, I don't want to care anymore. Or if you have accepted, like, I'm going to be crazy and you're going to see me at 65 years old and I'm still going to be nuts because, I mean, you look at these guys that are, who are you like politically? It doesn't matter. there's like 70 80 year old dudes trying to run the world still right like there's just some people that are just wired for crazy yeah and maybe they just need to accept that's who they are and i ask you that because there's a lot of people listening to this because in their family they're the crazy one yeah their version of it in their family they're the unreasonable one they're the crazy one they may not yell and scream like you do but in their family they're like everyone's like what is wrong with you yeah right and maybe there is something slightly unhealthy about it right or wrong i had an interesting conversation with uh zoltan who's the yeah from five finger death punch he's a brilliant man i told you about this yes and we were sitting he was sitting exactly where you're sitting we were talking and he brought up we were talking about some of the issues i have with running hot because he runs hot but he's very calm and um you know one of the things that I've been working on is trying to accept that as reality because when you look around when you're wired that way and you're wired for for winning which is the truth um I hate f***ing losing dude I hate not being competitive I hate being bad at s*** and it's not about winning like to me it's about I f***ing hate losing and um I would say that the fact, the combination of me being wired with hating losing and me being as tense as I am is the reason for the success 100 % personally.

1:02:56Um, but it's also the reason for, you know, a lot of failed friendships. It's also the reason for, um, you know, maybe when I was younger, I would deal with people the wrong way and actually hurt them. Um, so there's some regret that comes with that and there's also a lot of self-analyzation that comes with that that basically you know you look around at everybody else man and you see especially right now with victim culture right like you see all these people getting attention off of the things that have gone wrong in their lives and I don't talk about those things that have happened to me I don't talk about the bad things in my life like we've all had bad things I'm looking at one there's a scar on the left side of his face he was stabbed yeah most people don't know that yeah yeah and uh I think the underlying truth is that, yeah, it creates a lot of wins, but it creates a lot of difficulty too and a lot of mental anguish because you're not like everybody else.

1:03:57When you're built different than everybody else and you have this desire for more and this desire for achievement and this desire to win, everybody else looks at you like you're f***ing. And they'll tell you that too. What the f*** is wrong with you? Why can't you just relax? Why can't you just do this? Why can't, because I'm, I'm just not built that way, man. And, um, as I've gotten a little bit older, I've gotten better at accepting it. Um, and it's sort of embracing the fact that this provides a lot of good, but there's a lot of, there's a lot of things that make that you have to deal with that come that aren't so good.

1:04:32It is interesting. Cause sometimes when I'm with you, I'm like, I wish I could get them to wind down a little bit, you know? And then there's this other part of me brother that I'm like I I have friends that are like different than me politically like you and I don't agree on everything politically or socially or um the personalities are different I have other friends that's okay bro because like it's it's it you can be wrong once in a while well I appreciate that but I but like I wouldn't I wouldn't I don't think I think unreasonable people change the world yeah they do and I like that there are unreasonable people no matter what form that takes.

1:05:07And the unreasonable people change families. Unreasonable people are the one. Yeah. And so however that manifests itself for you in your life, if you're listening to this, I think weird equals rich and normal equals poor. And I don't mean that just financially. I mean, in life. Yeah. Like, bro, you're a damn roller coaster. Yeah, I know. You're a roller coaster. And you know what? The ride is worth it because life would be boring without you. Yeah. And the world would be boring without unreasonable. What would the world be like without Steve Jobs? What would the world have been like without Henry Ford?

1:05:40Right. What would the world have been like without some of the great leaders we've had, you know, geopolitically around the, around the planet, the great entrepreneurs, advanced culture, right. And they change families. And so if you're listening to this, stay unreasonable, but have some grasp, have what I think you've had happen in the last three or four years and I take credit for this some of it is you become a much more self-aware person yeah for sure and I think self-aware that's a fair that's a fair comment too like you should take some credit for that like real talk because being around you like you're one of the only people that when I do get upset you you help me work through it as opposed to just reacting and that's something that I I truly appreciate thank you bro you know like Like the one thing I could say about the people that are around me is that they have a lot of race.

1:06:31Yeah. You know what I'm saying? They also have a lot of gratitude, Andy. Yeah. And that's important. Look, there's certain people in the world that just shake things up all the time and they're hard to be around and they win championships. Yeah. OK, that's what Belichick does. That's what Phil Jackson did. That's what great leaders do. You saw Jordan talk about it in his documentary. Perfect. I mean, he was crying about it. Perfect. Because like he's out here on the court demanding the best of all his teammates and they hated him for it. That's right. And that bothers him. Now, you know, it bothers him.

1:07:00And by the way, some of them to this day still don't get it. But you know what they got from being around him? Rings, championships, wealth, notoriety, which is now their whole identity. Correct. Yeah, that's right. Do you you say something that I love? And it goes to 75 hard. You've then created things in your life, though, to give you some mental peace and fitness. So not only is it developmental toughness for you, but like we'll put it up on the screen right now. If you're watching YouTube and if you're not, I'll describe it. What did you weigh at your heaviest? Well, I don't know, but the heaviest I ever saw on the scale was 350.

1:07:34350. Yeah. So probably a little bit heavier than that. That was once I got the courage to get on the scale. OK, so you had been heavier than that. Yeah. And now, just so you all know, like this is a 245, something like that. Yeah, 250. And he's a big dude and he's shredded and he's in great shape. So you've not only just changed your brand, you've become, you've become wealthy. You've built multiple big brands and you've changed your body. Okay. And so you've been, you, you have created a catalyst for change in your life. How is it 75 hard? Is it doing hard things? Is it cold plunges? Like what's the stuff?

1:08:09Is it all of that crap? Like what has changed you? Cause here's the other thing about you. I'm just going to say, I'm watching your face. you never spend any time taking any credit for it. You, you do not allow yourself, even as we sit here to look around here and where we're sitting is the most impressive room I've ever sat in, in my life. Okay. And you've done some remarkable things in your life. My, my frustration for you as your friend is, I wish you'd enjoy it more. Same time, same time success leaves clues. very few humans have changed their body their finances their brand and their businesses to the extent you have the last decade on the planet listen to me on the planet okay and by the way also even though also the way that you treat people is you've always been kind behind the scenes you you're great with people bro off camera you literally said to him i heard you you just i want everyone to hear this then i want you to answer the question we were lighting up these really good cigars yeah and he asked about them and then you handed him a cigar yeah right this is this is someone that works with you that is behind the scenes on the camera and i i heard this just so you know and you literally because people that see you screaming on tv all the time okay and you literally said to him hey bro anything you ever want or need just ask me and i'll give it to you yeah you just said that off the camera to this guy just so people know so give yourself a little bit more grace and credit, okay?

1:09:35You said something in your recent interview with Alex Ormosi. I want to read you the quote here. You said, I don't play checkers in business. I'm playing chess. I've already got things happening that set up the next several moves. So my question is, how often do you see people doing what you stated there versus taking a path that's a shortcut, not playing the long game, right? And the reason that I ask is I love social media, and the other side of me is not so much of a fan of social media because I believe it has pushed people to build for comparison instead of playing the long game and reaching their own potential and leaving the legacy that they should.

1:10:22I feel like they're more motivated by the comparison of social media as opposed to playing chess. By the way, you ask such great questions, every single question. Yeah, social media has contributed to the worst thing an entrepreneur can participate in, which is immediate gratification. That's what social media makes you do. I got to do it now. I got to go on the vacation now. I got to buy the house now. I got to piss through the money I'm making now. And so it contributes to immediate gratification. Great entrepreneurs, by and large, resist the temptation to do things that gratify them immediately.

1:10:53They play long game instead of short game. And most of the coaches, if I'm, I don't want to say this negatively because I don't like when people get on other people in the industry, but most of the coaches that are out there don't know what they're doing and they're teaching you how to play checkers. And that's a real dangerous thing because the people that win long-term are playing chess. They're playing the long game. That doesn't mean they don't take wins short term, but they're not thinking. And by the way, when the economy constricts, okay, like it's starting to a little bit, supply chain issues start happening, rates go back up, you know, all these things.

1:11:28The temptation is to play the short game. That's the temptation. The temptation is to preserve, hold on to. And I got to tell you that it's why most people get wiped out in bad economies and why the few that rise up during when the economy gets rough, end up collecting land. When things get like this, you're grabbing market share. You may not be as profitable. Maybe you will be more profitable. But what you're doing is you're gathering market share. Mauricio Yamansky was on my show. He's a big time realtor, owns the agency. And he goes, I don't know over the next two or three years if I want to make more money or not.

1:12:02I might. I might not. But I can tell you this, I'm gathering market share right now. That told me immediately this is someone who's playing the long game. They understand it. And the truth of the matter is, is there's a combination of different circumstances happening. My daughter and I were talking last night. She came back. She ended up coming back late last night from Clemson. We're going to have dinner when I'm done here today. And we were talking about business. I said, you know, Bella Boo, one of the things that keeps coming out on my show, I have a lot of longevity experts. I was just in Costa Rica last week doing stem cell infusions.

1:12:32And I said, Bella Boo, I said, you know, you're 20 years old. I said, you know, you're probably going to live to 120, maybe 150. And I've had many experts on my show over the last eight to 10 weeks alone that are starting to really believe that if you can live another 20 or 30 years, you're probably going to get another 20 or 30 years with the way cancer treatments and genetic reprogramming is going and what we now know about stem cells and what we know about anti-aging and the creation of new blood vessels, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And I said, so Bella Boo, you're going to be in business a long time.

1:13:10See, when daddy's dad was in business, my dad was an employee, but had he had a business, my dad was going to be done working at 65. My dad retired at 65 years old. He didn't retire with any money because he had a son that was rich, but he retired at 65. I said, Bella, you'll be barely hitting your prime at 65 as an entrepreneur, as a business person. You're going to live a long time. Now, that means a few things. Number one, you're going to have a business for a long time. Number two, you're going to need a lot of money to live that long and maintain your lifestyle. way more money than right now.

1:13:41Retirement age is 65 or 70. Average person dies around 80. And most people are retiring with nowhere near enough money to live comfortably into that age 80. What happens when it's age 130? And that may sound outrageous. That is not outrageous. Like there are going to be people that are currently alive that are going to live to 120 and 140 and 150 years old. That's a fact. You could have a lot of money. So how out of your mind silly are you to do things short term right now so you have a good December of 2023. You're going to look back in 30 years and go, what in the world? My vision was so small, so in front of me.

1:14:23I was playing checkers. Chess is mandatory now how long you're going to be in business, how much money you're going to need to save to stay in business, and all the things that you're going to need to be equip the change as the industries evolve and technology changes. So you got to play the long game because you're going to live a long time. Amen, dude. I couldn't agree more that it is hard, man, in this world of social media to restrict yourself from that. You know, there's there's that temptation in front of us every day, man. I want to know why, by the way, can I say one thing to you? Like, why are you building your business?

1:14:57Is it just to produce money? Like a lot of people to like lately to me are like, I'm just building a business to exit it. that's a terrible reason to start a business is to try to exit. You will do everything wrong trying to build a business to sell it. Right. If you do all the opposite, you'll juice profitability short term. Right. You'll make a commitment. You can't. So to me, let me say a couple of things about this. I've never said this in an interview. I love business. I want to build business because it's a way to build wealth. But for me, business is also a form of expression. It's an art form.

1:15:32It's a legacy. It's a statement as to who I am as a man to some extent is reflected in this business that I build. And so I don't just step back. Why do I do what I do? Is it just to make a buck? And that's OK. You can do OK with that. But do you think Elon Musk right now, if you think he's a pretty good entrepreneur, do you think he's doing it to make a buck? Or has he got some legacy play? You think he's playing checkers? You think Jeff Bezos is playing checkers? You think my friend Tim Cook, who runs Apple, you think he's playing checkers? Are you crazy? Because it's not just about money. It's a form of expression.

1:16:13It's an art form. It's a way of making a statement about who you are as a person. It's a way of making the world better, of contributing. And I think success is your responsibility. I think if you don't like the way the world is going right now, there's one group of people who are going to change it, and it's entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs change things culturally. They do. They run stuff. And if enough entrepreneurs get together and say, no, these are the things we stand for, for freedom, for faith, for capitalism, for whatever those things are that you stand for, for a form of expression, for opportunity, for creativity, for building something beautiful and magnificent.

1:16:52for doing good work, for doing something you're proud of, for being the best at something, for taking pride in a day's work and a job well done, for treating people well and rewarding people well and keeping your word and keeping your time commitment. Man, then business becomes something you can't cheat the game. You can't cheat the game. You got to be somebody who's committed to doing something great with your life and business is your sport. I'm not a great golfer anymore. I was a pretty good golfer. I played baseball. I was pretty good. Not good enough to play in the big leagues. This is my sport.

1:17:25This is my hobby. This is where I make a statement as to who I am as a man. It's through my business. It's not the only place, but then I can also live my values out in my business as well. So this is, I'm going to spend the majority of my life on this stuff, the majority of my day. Why would I not think it's a big deal to play the long game? Long answer to a great question.

1:17:50you