Innovative Strategies to Design Your Life and Business with Dan Martell

0:28So, hey guys, listen, we're all trying to get more productive. $10 ,000 worth of courses that are in there that come with the app. Also, some of the top influencers in the world are all posting content in there on a regular basis, like having the Avengers of personal development and business in one app. And I'm honored that he asked me to be a part of it as well and contribute on a weekly basis, and I do. So go over there and get signed up. You're going to get a free tuition-free voucher to go to an event with Brendan and myself and a bunch of other influencers as well, so you get a free event out of it also.

0:53So go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed.

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2:06This is the Ed Miland Show. All right, welcome back to the show, everybody. I'm so excited today because this is the first interview I've actually done in this location physically that you see on Zoom all the time. But the real reason I'm excited is the man that I get a chance to have the conversation with. He's somebody that I believe in a great deal. I'm very proud of. I've been honored to have a chance to coach him behind the scenes the last few years. And I don't take that likely the responsibility of coaching somebody. And the reason this interview is going to be incredible today is because this man's content and his knowledge level about so many different topics is so vast and impressive that you're going to enjoy this entire ride today.

2:46He's got a book that I read cover to cover in two days called Buy Back Your Time. It crushed when it came out originally. Thousands and thousands of copies sold. And he is a serial entrepreneur, unbelievably very wealthy and successful man, but he's diverse in his content and his message. Proud that he's here today. Dan Martell, welcome, brother. Thank you. It's an honor. This is a beautiful place. You've built literally heaven on earth. This is so cool. Thank you, man. Appreciate this. So you built your own version of heaven on earth. I we're gonna go a lot of directions today because we can go business we can go life relationships but even physical because you look great but I think I don't usually do this on the show because I don't think there's that much interest level in people's stories typically but yours is so extraordinary that I think to go to a nine-figure net worth like you've done you know unbelievable success you've had at a young age too I think we got to go back and then see the other Dan Martell when you were young?

3:44I mean, like, let's even go all the way back to like the 16 year old one. Yeah. So tell us about him. I mean, I, I grew up in a really challenging home. There's no other way to say it. My mom was an alcoholic and I struggled. I had a lot of energy. I had a severe anger issue. I got diagnosed with ADHD when I was 11. So at a young age, all I heard was there's something wrong with Dan. And that caused a lot of challenges for me in school, with my brothers and sisters, with my parents. And at 12 years old, I got taken out of my house due to my anger issue and put into crisis centers. I pretty much was raised in the system, foster care, group homes.

4:31And one bad decision led to another bad decision to a point where I ended up a drug addict as a teenager. And by the time I was 16, I had ended up in juvenile detention twice. It's kind of crazy because it got so bad that there was a point where I didn't even feel like I deserved to breathe. The air was breathing. And I had decided to run away. I stole a car, had a handgun, in a backpack. and I took a exit off the highway on my way trying to get away from the city I was living in and the cops were looking for me and I ran into a routine roadblock and I took off and maybe I watched too many car movies because I thought maybe I could get away and ended up in this neighborhood and but you're in a full-blown car chase oh full car chase yeah the road I stopped at the roadblock lied to them said it was my mom's car I didn't have my driver's license I I take off.

5:33And I ended up in this neighborhood, and I saw an open garage door. And I thought, I mean, again, I'm high and drunk. I don't even know what's going on. But I think to myself, I can get into that garage. Maybe I could close it. And again, too many car movies. And I came in the driveway going way too fast, and I just smashed it inside the house. Oh, my gosh. And in that moment, I decided to go for the gun. Go for the gun. And point it at the police and let them take my life. and for whatever reason as i was pulling on the gun and pulling on the gun it got stuck and next thing i knew the cops ran up and grabbed me i mean i my feet didn't even touch the ground they flew across the front yard and they frisked me and threw me in the back of the cop car and it was the next morning in this small town jail cell i woke up i didn't have much faith then and i just said, God, if you're real, I could use some help right now.

6:29I could use some help. So I got, I got sentenced to two years due to the severity. I had some other things on my record and, um, I ended up getting sentenced to five months in an adult prison. Well, I got sentenced for two years, but I was, I was in this adult prison that had a juvenile section in a place called St. John regional correctional center and um anybody that's ever been in prison it's probably the worst thing you can do to somebody and what changed for me was i got in a fight there was this breakfast situation where this kid kirk you know starts yeah just just started mouthing off and the thing in prison there's certain words you just don't say and he said one of those words and you know it's just and you know we got thrown in in the hole solitary confinement wow yeah and this is adult we're talking in your underwear concrete bed stainless steel toilet and sink and you're 17 or 18 i'm 16 16 and they don't tell you how long you're in there for it's kind of their way of punishing you so i was there for about three days and on the third day the door opens and there's this officer named Brian standing there and he wasn't there when the fight happened and he was he I didn't have an older brother I didn't have a somebody to look up to the people I was hanging out with twice my age teaching me stuff I shouldn't be taught so Brian was a guard an officer that if you respected him he'd respect you look the other way if you want an extra dessert or whatever and he's super disappointed and he opens the door and he says follow me and I kind of you know follow him out he gives me my clothes and as we're walking back anybody that's ever been to any prison like you follow the line you don't go anywhere it's your hands behind your back and we go past the door to the cell block which is where you know i stayed to the next door which is the guard unit and no inmate is allowed in i mean never seen it's the other side of the one-way mirror that was in our cell block and he asked me to follow him and i thought it was a test and I follow him in there and he sits me down and he pulls up a chair and he looks me in the eyes and he goes what are you doing in this place and I said what do you mean I said I got in a fight with Kirk and they threw us in the hole he says not that he goes what are you doing in this place and I said well I got in a high-speed chase and you know drugs and he goes it makes no sense to me dan you don't belong here and if nobody's ever told you this i believe in you wow and you need to get out of here i remember him saying you need to get out of this brian was an angel

9:27it planted a seed in me i can't even explain it it was it wasn't even had anyone ever said that to you prior i'd never heard yeah nobody yeah i was i was dan that always got in trouble i was dan that couldn't play with my neighbor my friends i was dan that had a special class in school i was dan that just always got caught always angry dan and all this potential was buried in you it was amazing about you just unpack this just real quick spoiler alert he's worth nine figures has millions of people follow his social media incredible marriage and family and a book that sold hundreds of thousands of copies, et cetera, et cetera.

10:04So the reason I wanted him to start with this, because by the way, some of that I knew, but not all of it. I didn't know about Brian. And the reason I start with that is when you meet you, like I remember when we first met, and by the way, before I met you, people had told me about you. Absolutely zero chance that that was your background, meeting you. Clean cut dude, very successful, unbelievably polite, kind, kind of quiet and gentle like he is. There's a beast in there too, though. But the idea that that's who you once were and this is what you've become is like a mind-blowing thing for me.

10:35That you are basically, if that gun isn't stuck between the seat, you're probably not here breathing anymore in that cop chase, right? That thing's stuck. I mean, I'm picturing this young boy trying to pull this thing out, and his life is about to end, and he's decided it. Flash forward, you're sitting here in my saloon, and we've become great friends, and you're becoming this huge influence in the world. he speaks on john maxwell stages tony robbins stages i mean he's become this huge even as i say that back to you is there a little part of you that just it doesn't even and i can't even tell you if i'm not proof that there's somebody bigger helping like i just i get emotional because i think my two boys yeah why though what about that makes you emotional just how much i love them and none of this would be here i i wouldn't if i didn't get through that dark dark period that really just started me on a path like this is a crazy part it started me on a path of self like personal development i would have never did the work to become the person who my wife would even been with my wife is an angel yeah she if i met her a year before I met her, she would not have put up with me.

11:53So like I go back and then I look at my brothers, my brother Pierre, like we all went through issues as kids. He's one of the most successful real estate guys in Canada right now. I want to talk about your brother real quick. So there's this story, because by the way, in all of our lives, if we're looking for them, God does send people to send us a message. I really believe that at different times. Now, whether or not you're open to it at the time, receptive to it at the time, whether it's even the right time. But there are moments in our lives where it can change. By the way, your life could change right now listening to this or watching.

12:26You just make a decision right now that you're going to change your life and that the lessons we're going to cover in a few minutes because we're going to go into lessons and tactics and strategies soon. You could make that decision right now. You could already be doing great and go, you know what? There's another level of happiness, bliss, influence, wealth, abundance, success, faith. And you can make that decision as we're talking today too. That's why I wanted you here. It's not by, you're the first person in person in this place that I've had, and I wanted it to be you for that reason. But one of these other people, and then this shows a lot about you, this story as well, is your brother.

13:00And what does$63.50 mean to you when I say that to you? You're going to get me going. yeah i want to get you going my brother is one of the best entrepreneurs and i know a lot of great entrepreneurs one of the best entrepreneurs but when i was a kid what happened was is that i had did this break and enter and that's where i got the gun i stole it from a house wow wow i know i'm i had so much shame around this stuff ed it's um it took me 15 years to even share this story I didn't want people to know but I also realized that that is probably one of the most powerful things I have so my brother calls me up when the night and he goes you can't come home the police are waiting my mom had found the guns called the police and he tells me where to meet him at this old auditorium concrete building this parking lot kind of out of the way and we met up there I was on my pedal bike he pulls up and he had this old 50 cc you know road bike he got when he was 15 or whatever and he pulls out all the money he had emptied his pockets 63.50 and he says it's not much but you got to get out of town and it just he never knew for years how much it meant to me like for years i thought i never i never he never said i love you we didn't grow up that way but It just, the act just had such an impression.

14:30And then you fast forward. This is, I think I'm two years into my first successful company, close to being a millionaire. And I was putting everything back into the business, back into the business. I'd save a little bit of money. And I'm 20, 27, 28, 28 years old. Took me a while to find success in business. And my brother calls me up and decides to quit his job. He worked at this place for six years. He was a mechanic. he wanted to buy the shop the guy lied to him you know eventually said i'm not selling you the shop and he says well i quit and he calls me and he never calls me and i go to his house i said what do you want to do he goes i think i want to be a home builder which is he was a mechanic and i'm like dude why do you want to be he goes i actually hate working on cars and i'm like probably a good thing to figure out this young and um he goes but i have no money i said i got you and i I wrote him a check for everything I had in my savings account,$173 ,000.

15:31And I said, bro, I don't care if you ever pay me this back. Just always make the right decision, and I'll never be upset. My dad found out. He said, that's the dumbest thing you've ever done. I can't believe you did this. This is how brothers end up never talking ever again. It became one of the most beautiful decisions ever. That is incredible. Yeah. That is incredible. The reason why, though, this is what most people don't know. is because I was invested in him and him and I, we ended up doing personal development together. You did. We were reading books. We were going to seminars. We traveled around.

16:06It was looking back and just talking to so many people that didn't have that kind of relationship with their brother. It's one of the things I'll always cherish. You know, this reminds me a little bit of where I want to go now. I want everyone to have the stage set. That is an insane story that he gives you$63.50 out of his pocket, gives you everything. You come back years later, give him everything out of years, but it's$1.73. $1 ,000, right? But it's rare that you get a chance to have two functioning, high-functioning entrepreneurs and personal development people in a room together. It is. And I had a chance earlier this year, Andy Fursella and I sat in his bar for my show.

16:45One of the best. Yeah, it was one of the best podcasts ever. And we just kind of chopped it up a little bit about tactics and strategies, thoughts, concepts, whatever. And you and I have obviously talked a lot about this behind the scenes because I was honored you chose me to help coach you. Heck yeah. And I've watched you take things to a level that are even beyond even what I saw for you this quickly. And so let's start about that. So, hey, guys, I want to jump in here for a second and talk about change and growth. And, you know, by the way, it's no secret how people get ahead in life or how they grow.

17:13And also taking a look at the future. If you want to change your future, you got to change the things you're doing. If you continue to do the same things, you're probably going to produce the same results. But if you get into a new environment where you're learning new things and you're around other people that are growth oriented, you're much more likely to do that yourself. And that's why I love Growth Day. Write this down for a second. GrowthDay.com forward slash ed. My friend Brendan Brouchard has created the most incredible personal development and business app that I've ever seen in my life.

17:39Everything from goal setting software to personal accountability, journaling, horses, thousands of dollars worth of courses in there as well. I create content in there on Mondays where I contribute as do a whole bunch of other influencers, like the Avengers of influencers and business minds in there. It's the Netflix for high achievers or people that want to be high achievers. So go check it out. My friend Brennan's made it very affordable, very easy to get involved. Go to growthday.com forward slash ed. That's growthday.com forward slash ed.

18:11This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians. These are things people say about drivers who switch their car insurance to Progressive and save hundreds. Because Progressive offers discounts for paying in full, owning a home, and more. Plus you can count on their great customer service to help you when you need it. So your dollar goes a long way. Visit Progressive.com to see if you could save on car insurance. Progressive Casualty Insurance Company & Affiliates. Potential savings will vary. Not available in all states or situations.

18:51When it comes to what your family eats and drinks, you know your choices matter. You're the expert because you know what fits your life. And getting it right starts with good information. That's why America's beverage companies are sharing more information about our ingredients at GoodToKnowFacts.org. No spin, no judgments, just the facts straight from the experts for more than 140 beverage ingredients. Visit goodtoknowfacts.org. I look back on my life because you know about my story. There's a part of me like it's hard to explain what happened with me. That's the weird thing about our space. Let me give you all the steps, but there's a big part of it that you can't explain.

19:37and all I can feel in that moment is God's grace. Literally, I have this dream that I have when I pray where God literally picks me up and carries me and then just puts me back down in a particular place. So I just got goosies telling you that. So I know that's an important part of your life. The other part of it, though, that I can conclude is that I worked much harder on myself for many years than I actually did at my business skills for a while. And I want you to talk about that a little bit. How important is it that someone truly, like you just said, you and your brother, invest the real time in working on themselves?

20:13Talk about that for a second. I think most people would be super unimpressed with me if they knew how much effort went into becoming who I am. I worked at it. I don't actually think I'm that skillful. I'm just willing to do the work on a daily basis. And even in business, it took me seven years to finally ever make a profit. And that was two failed companies. I think most people, when they start in business, the first five to seven years is just to get good. Yeah. Like just to get good. And some people want to be rich right away. I agree. Don't you think social media contributes to that? It took, I see it all the time.

20:47Like these kids that come up to me and they're like, I want to be a, this literally 16 year old kid said, I want to be worth a hundred million by 30. I was like, I don't know how, good luck. I mean, like, I don't know you, but it's going to require some deep work because you emotionally, skill wise, you just don't have it. It's going to take that. So, you know, and anytime I go speak to like detention centers, to at-risk youth, they're always asking me like, what is it that made you different? And it was just that, you know, and I learned this from Jim Rohn, you know, we don't create success. We attract success.

21:21like you have to become a person who can bring into your world other and i think this is interesting i think most people feel guilty when they attract it so i have a friend she she naturally has this essence where people want to help her and she pushes it away sometimes self-sabotage because she doesn't feel worth it i relate to that i've never said that on a show before and I didn't realize I had that until maybe the last three or four years. But I think I've never thought that about me. Like I've worked hard on myself, my identities, this or that or the other thing. And I think there's different elements.

22:01I've never said this. We should talk about this on any show ever, including my own. I've worked really hard on my own identity to the point where I can attract success, right? Like you've just said and feel that, you know, people want to help you. People want to help me. However, I think there's been this little element from trauma when I was a little guy that I haven't fixed that is quietly working oddly behind the scenes to sabotage my success. And I didn't realize it until maybe even this year where people go, well, that's impossible. You've had all this success. Well, maybe I could have had more.

22:37Maybe I could have enjoyed it more. Maybe I could have created less chaos and stress along the way. but i think that dude is still sometimes there even for me do you have any of that or is that dude gone forever no he's always there i have to i go to god i have to go to god me too i have to yeah i ask myself several times a day a question that keeps me on track because if it was left to dan trauma dan issues feeling like he's worth nothing i would self-sabotage and that question is how can i appreciate even more god's grace and guidance in this moment see when when those say it again how can i appreciate and you got to add the even more comma even more god's grace and guidance in this moment because when opportunities like you texting intro me to john maxwell my heart stops i i'm imposter syndrome's coming up left right and center and i gotta go i gotta go how can i appreciate this moment even more god's grace god's god's guiding me and it's it's interesting because i think he on purpose closes doors that we're not supposed to like and we don't realize it but that's the only way he can guide us into those positions where we can have other people's support so the idea of okay my agreement to myself is every day i will control the controllables i will work on myself i will do all caps the work and then also when those opportunities come into my life accept them like i just had such a hard time people would want to until my book came out okay but a year and a half ago i didn't ask anybody for anything ever before i could feel that i could tell you never i could tell even when we were when we were coaching you know regularly monthly your discomfort with even asking me for an introduction to somebody or anything like that yeah why did you write why of all the books though now did you write buy back your time like that that's i mean by the way it's outstanding it's not a book like oh good concept like actual tactic after tactic but why does that matter do you feel like you found a good rhythm in your life of time productivity all that other stuff and what would be one thing you'd share from it yeah the everybody that asked me about the tactics of the business size you know I can go strategy on execution, but none of that's possible without building a business I don't grow to hate.

25:02And I did this to myself. My first success where I became a multimillionaire, I built a business that I became a prisoner to. And it was so painful, that weight, that it caused me my relationship. It cost me my health. It cost me the – my parents didn't even want to talk to me. I was just a horrible – I was just so in it. and i didn't know why it was working i was scared it was going to fall apart that i just i just did what i could do and what happened was is that i had to learn how to because i feel like ed you're the same way man like when we do something we're in i'm looking at this property and i'm just like okay this is ed's in and well how do i do it in a way where i don't wake up one day and just absolutely sabotage my whole life i got two young boys i've got a wife i've got friends i've got commitments I've made to people.

25:53And I had to figure out a different way to do it. So the big premise of the book, the buyback principle is we don't hire people to grow our business. We hire people to buy back our time. Because if we hire people to grow our business, it sucks our time. But if we use our calendar first to figure out where we're spending our time and hire people to get that time back, then the bigger we grow, the more time we have. Most people have a hard time letting go i was one of those people and every time that i messed up i got overwhelmed i i created chaos in my life i had to go back to my calendar and just figure out and for a lot of people it's not it's it's very inexpensive you just got to be willing to realize that you're not that important like we all i mean dude i used to think if i didn't touch it it's going to fail and i got to be involved in this and can you invite me to that meeting and and uh before you approve that can you call me first and talk about bottlenecks are called bottlenecks because they're at the top is it worth it this level because you're at a real high level and be honest like if it's not tell me like right now you're you were just at tony's event you were with maxwell before that you're flying here to see me yeah you know you got a team you got now the the i guess i call it pressure of notoriety of being on social media you gotta i know what this is like You have to manage your own money.

27:14There's things that come with the trappings of it. I just had a guy that I was interviewing. If I interviewed him or not, or I'm prepping for an interview, he goes, the happiness zone, believe it or not, is people that lack financial resources typically are unhappy because they're struggling most of the time in their life and suffering. Then the mega wealthy are actually also equivalently not happy because of all of the trappings that come with massive abundance. His theory was the people that are the most happy have their financial means met plus a little bit more. My experience has not been that.

27:48My mega wealthy friends, and you're one of them, half are really, really miserable. The other half are not. They live in abundance. They give. They contribute to people. Is it worth it? And be honest about it. Everything that comes with it mentally, physically, emotionally that comes with having to be at your level. it's a beautiful question

28:14i think one of the biggest flexes that you could have is a life you're proud of and i'm so proud of my life because i did the work because i realized that i don't want to stop creating and i don't want i i think in the subtitle my book is build your empire i want entrepreneurs to build a business so this is what empire my my definition is is a life of unlimited creation you never have to retire from and is it worth it it's not easy but i don't want easy i didn't choose easy i'm proud i i'm willing to do hard things and having the resources i mean i just got back speaking in miami at these events but in between events we're going to detention centers and when i'm talking to these kids and i'm and i know what i look like and i know that they look different than me but i tell them like at 15 i was in the place just like this and a kid comes up to me afterwards he shakes my hand and he says you're the first millionaire i've ever met wow oh all the time all the time these kids have never and they're like now they're not listening to me if i haven't done anything with my life right see that's that's the challenge why i nobody actually will listen or care until you win it's true so how about we win i think it's worth it i think when i look back at the opportunity i had as you talk about often to be the one yeah that's why i get emotional about my story my life my dad literally my dad watched my talk yesterday at tony robbins online virtually and he texts me and he goes you got to be a genius i don't know how you remember all that stuff i love that he just doesn't get it by the way man enjoy that.

29:55I miss that my dad would say those things to me. What you've done though, I want you to talk about this concept. So I think most people, even listening right now in my audience, as you know, are there, there are people who care about their lives a little bit more than most. Yeah. They're more self-aware. They want more abundance. They, I, I just think they live more alive or want to. But even in my audience, because many of them are my friends, they are in a life that they would prefer not to be in in some way. It's either a relationship they would prefer not to be in, a body they would prefer not to be in, a job.

30:35And many of them have done what you said originally too. They've actually built a business that was their original dream. But if they were being honest right now maybe it isn't anymore yeah and you have this great concept about the difference between living by default and another thing and at any time you could lose the other thing and and that other thing is design which he's going to talk about but I want everyone to listen to this at one time you could have been living by design and now you're living by default in that original design. I know it's a deep way to go, but talk about the difference between those two things and how you switch to living by design.

31:17It's such a nuanced thing that most people don't even realize it's an option or that that's their life. And I would say for the most big part of my life, I was living by just being responsive opportunities and people. And now that might afforded me a different lifestyle. Then it came with the pressure. It came with the feeling out of control the anxiety i mean there was one time i went to see my doctor because i had a pain on my back and he like looked at it and he goes are you stressed i said no why is that he goes um well tell me what's going on in your life and i was like oh well we just raised uh two million dollars for my new startup oh my wife renee she's she's pregnant and we decided to move back to canada raise our kids he goes i'll be back and he went he got some this bottle with some medication in and he shows me a picture and he says, you have shingles.

32:10Whoa. Yeah. He goes, you might not feel stressed, but your body's stressed. And I was living life by default. What I do now is I decide upfront and I'm, and I, and it just had to be part of it. I decide what I want to create, where I want to go, who I want to create it with, how I want to do it. And I use my calendar to drive that. So I don't wake up and go, Oh, I wish I would have spent more time with my kids. It's in the calendar. You know, a long time ago, I learned if something's important to me, if I say it's important, people say it all the time. Oh yeah. My kids are important. Okay. I want to look at two things, your calendar and your bank account.

32:47Show me where you've designed your life through your investment of your time and your money that your children are important to you. Where are the vacations? Where's the nights? Where's the, like even, and again, I just took all the stuff that I did in the business life because I had some success there, struggled in the relationship and just said like, well, what am I doing right here that I should be applying to my home life? And it was just a simple idea of going, okay, I'm more intentional. It's just intentional. It's, it's not saying, you know, cause like you can't be successful in business if you're not intentional.