Brutal Truths About Money That EVERYONE Needs To Know Before 35 | Dan Martell

27 Nov 2025 · 1 h 24 min · 29 chapters

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In short

Dan Martell shares “brutal truths” about money and success, arguing that wealth is driven less by skills or effort and more by self-worth beliefs, environment, and value creation. He also discusses how AI can help people make money faster (especially in lead generation and sales) and warns about over-reliance on AI outputs.

Guest backgrounds

The episode is primarily Dan Martell (entrepreneur/investor). He describes growing up in foster care and juvenile detention, then later becoming a software founder who exited three companies, generating $100M+ in annual cash and helping others through coaching/mentorship. Other speakers appear as interviewers/hosts, but no additional guest identities are clearly specified in the transcript.

Key claims

Bank accounts/net worth reflect self-worth; people oscillate between “high” and “low” and should raise the “new low.” Success requires creating value, not just working hard. Trust your gut red flags. Surround yourself with “cheerleaders,” not people who tear you down.

Notable examples

A first business built in rehab (ColdFusion/early web) that earned his first money via paid listings; later, an accountant told him he had $1M cash at age 27. He used ChatGPT to find an insurance overcharge after months of back-and-forth. He demonstrates AI lead-gen via an automated phone-answering tool (“Atlas”) and suggests using ChatGPT to generate real-estate outreach scripts.

Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.

Chapters

Tap a time to open that second in VO

A Life Transformation Story

0:30 to 1:10

Hear Dan Martell's journey from a troubled youth to a successful entrepreneur.

“I'm who I am because of where I came from.”

Rock Bottom and Resilience

1:10 to 2:30

Dan discusses hitting rock bottom and the pivotal moment that changed his life.

“Do you think you could have changed without hitting that rock bottom?”

Empathy and Helping Others

2:30 to 4:04

Explore how Dan's past fuels his empathy and desire to help troubled youth.

“I just want to help kids not feel broken.”

Consequences of a Troubled Childhood

4:04 to 6:38

Dan reflects on his childhood experiences and their lasting impacts.

“63.50 and he said get out of town and like that was that was a wild moment and then And I actually went and lived in the woods for two weeks.”

Understanding Risk and Business

6:38 to 9:07

Discover how Dan’s past shaped his views on risk-taking in business.

“It's like my brothers will go do something.”

Reading People: A Superpower

9:07 to 14:00

Learn how Dan developed a knack for understanding people through communication.

“but he told me this is what I'm telling you about risk.”

The Power of Listening and Observation

14:00 to 15:00

Learn about the significance of listening and observing others to understand them better.

“because they're trying they feel insecure so when people overshare you literally you just cut through all social fabric.”

Finding Success Through Coding

15:00 to 18:00

Discover how coding became a turning point in Dan's journey towards success.

“And first time he said that, I'm like, well, I've been here for six weeks.”

Defining Wealth and Richness

19:33 to 21:47

Explore the complex relationship between money, self-worth, and personal fulfillment.

“So if we skip forward a little bit in the story, at what point in your life would you say you finally felt rich?”

Understanding Money Misconceptions

21:47 to 24:48

Uncover common misconceptions about money and how beliefs influence financial outcomes.

“And unfortunately, some people can have a negative response to it and other ones can have positive.”
Show all 29 chapters

Philosophical Insights on Wealth

24:48 to 28:00

Gain insights into the philosophical aspects of making money and personal growth.

“their education, their opportunities, or their skill set.”

Episode Discussion

28:00 to 42:00
“You know, when I mentor these kids, I always ask them, you have two people, you have Mr.”

AI and Personalization in Relationships

42:00 to 44:00

Exploration of AI's potential to personalize relationships and matchmakers.

“And then you can use Claude and Gemini and the other ones, but we want to be the layer of personalization above.”

Morbid AI Ideas and Their Implications

44:00 to 46:53

Discussion on using AI to recreate deceased loved ones for comfort.

“that I think it's a great idea that someone's going to think of this at some point.”

Morbid AI Ideas and Their Implications

47:00 to 48:18

Discussion on using AI to recreate deceased loved ones for comfort.

“It's the glue that holds everything together.”

Morbid AI Ideas and Their Implications

48:23 to 49:28

Discussion on using AI to recreate deceased loved ones for comfort.

“Their Xero plan gives you reliable coverage for just$0 a month.”

The Future of Robotics and AI

49:28 to 55:40

Predictions on how robotics will change industries and everyday life.

“You know, there's a great quote that says things that can be electrified will be cognified.”

Lessons Learned About Money

55:40 to 56:00

Reflection on childhood beliefs about money and their impact on success.

“I do think that we're getting a little distracted because a lot of people are going to be clicking on this video to learn how to make money.”

Challenging Money Beliefs

56:00 to 57:25

Discover how personal beliefs about money shape our perceptions of success.

“listened to when you were younger that you wish you didn't?”

The Power of Conversation and Goals

57:25 to 58:39

Learn how verbalizing goals can create accountability and opportunities.

“And, you know, you'd be on vacation and you see a nice car and, you know, my mom would say, oh, that guy's in the mafia or something.”

The Power of Conversation and Goals

1:00:07 to 1:00:25

Learn how verbalizing goals can create accountability and opportunities.

“It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks.”

Creating an Effective Morning Routine

1:00:25 to 1:03:24

Explore the essential components that contribute to a successful morning routine.

“It's you create a heat-seeking missile towards an outcome.”

Finding Clarity in Silence

1:03:24 to 1:10:03

Understand the value of silence and reflection in enhancing mental clarity.

“if you talk about the negativity and lack in the world, the scarcity in the world, you know?”

Finding Comfort in Silence

1:10:03 to 1:12:00

Learn how embracing silence can transform your perspective on productivity.

“And then I remember one time I was working with this coach, Stephanie, and she said, go for a walk in the woods.”

The 10-80-10 Principle for Time Management

1:12:01 to 1:14:48

Understand the 10-80-10 principle to efficiently delegate tasks and reclaim your time.

“I didn't have that like break in between.”

Investing in Support: The Value of a House Manager

1:14:49 to 1:17:00

Discover how hiring a house manager can enhance your life and productivity.

“And with that time, I can decide, do I want to go increase the quality of my life, spend time with people I love, or do I want to go create a business or make more money?”

Creating an Efficient Life with Trusted Help

1:17:01 to 1:19:54

Learn how to effectively collaborate with assistants to optimize your time.

“And essentially, and people can have this at a part-time role, but what their job is to be accountable for everything the parents would be accountable for.”

Lessons from Business Failures and Insights

1:19:55 to 1:21:45

Gain insights from personal business failures and the lessons they impart.

“And they can stop, they can start doing.”

Lessons from Business Failures and Insights

1:22:20 to 1:22:34

Gain insights from personal business failures and the lessons they impart.

“crafts award-winning non-alcoholic beers for those who want to be part of every round.”
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Transcript

Automatic transcript. May contain errors.

0:00Dan Martell:Thinking about refreshing the carpet in your home? Now's the time to do it. For a limited time at the Home Depot, get 10 % off installed carpet projects on trusted brands like LifeProof, LifeProof with PetProof Technology, Home Decorators Collection, and Traffic Master. Plus, with installation starting at just 49 cents per square foot, upgrading your space is more affordable than ever at the Home Depot. Offer valid June 11th, 2026 through June 28th, 2026. Exclusions apply. For licenses, see homedepot.com slash license numbers. I'm who I am because of where I came from. Things got really crazy.

0:34Dan Martell:I was hanging out with people from the Hells Angels, learning stuff I definitely shouldn't have been learning. One day my brother calls me up and says, don't come home, the police are waiting for you. At 17, I was in a high-speed chase with the cops behind the wheel of a stolen car. And then I smashed into the side of the house. And in that moment, everything changed. I know this because I went from broke at 24 to selling my first company for millions at 28. Today, I've exited three software companies, generate over$100 million in cash a year. And now my only goal is to help others and motivate them to find success the way that I did.

1:04Dan Martell:The path to success isn't complicated. It's just hard. And I can teach it to anybody in a few steps. Do you think you could have changed

1:11Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:without hitting that rock bottom? No.

1:13Dan Martell:Zero.

1:14Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Why do you think things felt so hopeless to you at that time?

1:17Dan Martell:Yeah, it's kind of interesting. I was shooting the other day with Cohen. I just started bawling, just even thinking. I mean, it's like... It's still really tough, but how often do you think about it? I get emotional thinking about it because I'm just like looking at my life today. It's pretty cool. Like couldn't went the other way, man. Yeah. So it's, uh, yeah. I mean, every week for sure. Sometimes once a day, just cause I, I literally look, I, nobody's more surprised about what I, like how I live my life today than me. Like, I'm like, I don't forget. I don't, I don't forget the other people I met.

1:53Dan Martell:Like that was a dark period of my life, man. I didn't, want to live. That was kind of the decision I made when I stole the car that if the cops get me, I'm going to pull it.

2:01Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Does it make you more sympathetic to other people that are in that situation or does it make you think like whatever situation you're in, you can make it better?

2:09Dan Martell:Definitely more sympathetic. I mean, my superpower is empathy with the kids. Like I love adults, but I also think a lot of adults are adults and you should treat them like adults. But But when I meet another kid that's like struggling with life, dude, I just get down on one knee and I just like, my mission is very simple. I just want to help kids not feel broken. I went my whole teenage years just feeling like I was broken. I was, I was, I mean, since I was 10, it's like, can't play with Dan. I have to hide in the woods to play with my neighborhood friends. Like, it's kind of crazy. so yeah man it it's something that um i think allows me to be sympathetic but also because of where i came from man it's like any like when when you hear people say anything's possible i like i'm like no it's like legit possible it might take you a long time it might take you 17 25 years but man if you just like wake up and just decide to make better decisions like that's the start how did you get to that point though of stealing a car essentially what happened was I'd been in and out of jail.

3:16Dan Martell:Like I I've been in and out of the system. I was put into foster care when I was 11 crisis center group home for a year. I turned 13 in a group home living with people that were like 17 in and out of jail. So like I was, I was raised by a bunch of people that didn't have the most positive kind of uplook on life. And, and then what happened was I just, you know, I ended up, I broke into a house, stole a bunch of and my mom found them and she told, she called the police and my brother called me and he says don't come home because the cops are looking for you i was like well where do i go and he's like i don't know man but you can't stay here like in the city and he met me and he gave me all the money he had in his like life literally like emptied his bank account like not bank account like he emptied his piggy bank and he gave me 63.50 and he said get out of town and like that was that was a wild moment and then And I actually went and lived in the woods for two weeks.

4:17Dan Martell:Nobody knows this. I've never shared this. And what scared me is I went for a walk. I had a, there was a, it's like an old hunting camp that my buddy Scott had. And I went for a walk with the, and I was going to pull the. No, what stopped you at that point? God, it was, it was like I was sitting in this field with the under my chin and

4:44Dan Martell:and I knew if I just like pushed down, like thumb on the just pushed down, it would have stopped. And I was just, I was just in, I was such a dark place. So, and then I just took the and I like threw it and, you know, freaked out and called my brother to come get me. And that's, that's when I sold the cars. Like I just had to get out of here. So I like started trying to like let things calm down for a couple of weeks, but then it didn't. And the cops were still looking for me. So, sold the car to drive to Montreal. I'm Canadian. So,

5:13Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Why do you think things felt so hopeless to you at that time?

5:16Dan Martell:Well, dude, the first time I went away, if you want to, if you want to make somebody feel like less than dirt, pretty much juvenile detention is that. And at 15, I got sentenced for essentially two months because of, you know, shoplifting and getting in fights. I had, there was a reason I went away. And after that experience, it was so, scary. There's no, the guards are there, but they're not really there. And if, and so then, then what do you do? You fight back and then you get put in the hole and then the hole's the worst thing could ever happen to you. I mean, they strip you down your underwear and they don't even tell you how long you're going to be in there for.

5:57Dan Martell:So after I got out the first time, I remember there was this guard and I was like, you know, nice to know you. Like, I'm never going to see you again. I'm not going to be back here. And he says, I'll see you soon. This smug guard, a-hole. And I was like, no, you won't. He says, we always do. And I had no idea what he meant. A year later, I'm in a high-speed chase. So it's kind of wild that even though I didn't want to go back, I couldn't make better decisions to change my life. And I think that's what it was. It was just like it had to get, it had to get heard for me to finally realize, like, I got to make a change.

6:37Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:do you think you could have changed without hitting that rock bottom no no way zero zero dude

6:43Dan Martell:i'm the most hard-headed back then man i would argue with everybody you don't understand like dude i was just that you know that i'm sure you guys went to high school or to school with that kid you know what i mean i had a look in my eyes like i don't have that look anymore i used to this like i don't know man like just troublemaker i never made good decisions it was it was almost like there's a black cloud over my whole life. My dad would joke about it. It's like my brothers will go do something. Nobody gets in trouble. Dan goes and does the exact same thing. Dan gets arrested. Like, so I wish, I mean, I went, I went to rehab the first time when I was 13, 21 day program.

7:20Dan Martell:Dude, I went to rehab high as a kite. Like there was no part of me that took anything serious.

7:26Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:What would you say were the predominant emotions going through your brain at that period of time in your life? Like that made you so upset. Was it like pitying yourself? was it just overall depression was it like anxiety i mean my parents are still alive so it's obviously a it's a tough thing to talk about and we have a beautiful relationship like it's kind of wild

7:49Dan Martell:but there was a part of me that was very angry at my dad my dad again he had four kids he was doing the best he could he just worked a lot he was never there and what i ended up learning at a very young age is when I act up at home, my mom has to call my dad and he comes home. It wasn't positive attention, but it was attention. And that's how everything escalated. I would get so upset that I would see red and literally hyperventilate to the point where in my room, I would break everything. If I asked you to smash everything in this room violently, that's how I would act as a 10, 11 year old. Like the reason why I had to go live in a crisis center is not, not because of, cause like my brothers and sisters didn't, I had to because of just like this temperature, this like internal rage that I would see.

8:44Dan Martell:And, and where that came from, I don't know. Do you ever still feel that? I don't anymore. There was probably 10 years ago is the last time I felt, I felt it you think you're completely rid of that? no it's there I'm who I am because of where I came from and it took me a long time to figure it out the business stuff I actually felt was quite easy because like growing up people are like oh are you such a risk taker I'm like oh this is nothing I broke into somebody's house and stole their you gotta understand that sentence I knew the person had and I broke in to steal how did you determine that house?

9:21Dan Martell:but he told me this is what I'm telling you about risk. Like the, the business risk stuff I do today is so a joke considering what I like that. That's why I like, and what's crazy is all this stuff I'm telling you, I didn't tell anybody for 15 years. So like, I would like live this like life of like, that's who I was. And then I got clean and changed my life and people, you know, then I finally had success in business, but I knew that part of me. So that's why when people ask me like, you know, where do you find, why are you such a risk there? I'm like, oh, this is nothing.

9:56Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:So if you could get a good read on people, what do you look for today? Like, how does that apply? It's wild.

10:03Dan Martell:It's wild. I can, I can tell the language people use what they believe about life. I can, I can, you could say words and I could tell you about a belief that you didn't even know you had just by the way you explain your situation, language you use, body posture. I also went to rehab for 11 months. So I spent 11 months, every work, every cleanup at rehab, we shared our personal stories. That was the rule. It's like you partner up with somebody else in rehab and then you clean and you tell the story, either you listen or you tell. So I did 11 months of like hearing people tell me their crazy stories about their life and challenges and then got to see how they were living in this world.

10:44Dan Martell:So it's like I had 10 ,000 hours of thin slicing human behavior at 17, 18. And then when I got in business and people are like, how did you know that person was going to screw you over? I'm like, oh. But again, I didn't tell anybody what I went through, so nobody knew. But I mean, it's kind of like a superpower that sometimes I wish I didn't have because... So if you're going to teach somebody how to get those skills, what would they look for? I mean, let's say you want to get into business. As an investor, I invest in a lot of companies. I'm looking in their eyes to see if they believe what they're saying.

11:19Dan Martell:I actually don't care what they're saying. I care that they believe. If anybody's ever experienced, you know, like angel investing or investing or real estate, I mean, you're essentially making a bet on the person. There's no world where everything works out. So then the bet is the person communicates in a way with certainty and conviction, and also that you can trust they're gonna make the right decision when things get tough. So what's interesting is people that avoid the red flags. Red flags don't go down. A lot of people act the same way they've always acted. That's why like adults, I'm like, you're an adult.

11:55Dan Martell:Once you're 27, your brain's kind of baked. So I would just teach people like, listen to what they say. What do they choose to amplify? If they do say things that feel like a red flag and your gut says something, trust it. The most money I've ever lost was in not listening to my gut. Period, full stop. Like, you know, most people know, hires, employees, whatever. And then I would say, listen to the words they use because, you know, hope, should, maybe. Like these are all like people communicate their beliefs in the language they use to describe. And if you can listen to that or even just asking people, I met a guy named Patrick once and he was so good.

12:44Dan Martell:he would ask your birthday, he'd ask your relationship with your parents. And I knew what he, but I knew what he was doing. He was doing that. He might've done it on purpose or not, but he was essentially trying to figure out what is your default? Even your, your, there's science around what age you are. Like if you have brothers or sisters, what number, like are you first born, second born? And that creates character traits, right? So I would, I would just ask those questions and just look for it. Like, this is the thing is people will literally tell you who they are without telling you if you just listen for it.

13:13Dan Martell:and i always go back to why why are you sharing this with like that's the question i ask right and what's interesting is from a psychology point of view when women communicate they communicate like this like one of the things i find fascinating is when women meet other women they're immediate to share how hard life is for the most part i'm being very oh yeah they're what they're really hard life is oh my god how's your day oh yeah yeah i actually agree no no they say it all the time yeah yeah my wife will literally tell the worst thing that happened to her to a person she doesn't know because when they communicate they communicate now that i've shared this how close do you feel we are men when they communicate they communicate this way now that i've shared that where do you see me in the totem pole of status so the ones when you ask yourself okay well why would they tell me all this stuff they're doing this and if they have to start the conversation from there why because they're trying they feel insecure so when people overshare you literally you just cut through all social fabric.

14:11Dan Martell:And you're just like, why are you telling me this? No, I don't say anything. Dude, I'm - Oh, you just try to draw your own - I just pay attention. I don't, I can talk a lot. And I've also learned to listen. And people just show you who they are. And they won't even know they're doing it just by, and that's the thin slicing. That I learned at 17 in rehab that I didn't realize was one of my superpowers in business.

14:32Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:You know, what's interesting is your ability. I wonder if they're connected. Your ability to be able to see a person for who they are based off of how they speak. Like if that is related to your ability to appear nothing like what you shared at the beginning of this podcast, the struggles that you went through earlier on in life, like that usually would be indicative of a person of completely different character than who you are today.

14:56Dan Martell:Yeah.

14:57Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Like if you're able to hide that and come off of something else.

14:59Dan Martell:I think there was a part of me when I was, when I was in rehab, I remember one of the staffs, Mark Pence, he would always prod me and he would say, when are you going to start doing your program? And first time he said that, I'm like, well, I've been here for six weeks. I'm new in the program. He goes, when are you going to start doing the program? What do you mean? When am I going to start doing programs? It'd be great for you to start doing the program. And he would say this every week, every time I see him. what he was sharing with me is I had the ability to be a chameleon I had ability to understand what you wanted to see I could act that way to get you you know I mean like and he saw me do that which meant I wasn't being honest I wasn't truly doing the work how long did it take you to find success after all that a long time and what was the first little win you got I mean the first thing it's kind of funny so i got into code i learned how to code in rehab that was like you know that was the weirdest and also the thing that i'm most grateful for is that i became obsessed with just writing code software this is you know 97 i get out internet's early days i'm talking icq dollop you guys are probably way too young but anyways i just i became addicted to writing code it was my happy place i didn't like talking to people i was trying to stay away from my old friends.

16:16Dan Martell:I was kind of a bit of a hermit, but I would just write code and I would build stuff. And one of the first things I built was for my dad. It was a vacation. Like essentially he needed a page for a cottage he owned and he was renting it out. This is again, 97, 98. And I, I told him, he's like, could you build it? I said, I could, but it's going to cost 600 bucks. I needed the 600 bucks to, to rent the servers. Okay. This is before Amazon web services. So it's a company called one-on-one 600 bucks gets you a, like a physical server for a year that you can install and configure stuff. And I wanted to learn this programming language called ColdFusion.

16:49Dan Martell:So he gives me money and I build this app to manage his cottage to build a page. Okay. This is early days of the internet. But I had an idea that, well, my dad has a cottage and then there's like all these other cottages that rent out that I could probably get them to pay me for a page. And that was the first thing I ever built was essentially my buddy Dave is like, there's a magazine in the city it's a travel tourism guide that has all the air the bed and breakfasts and the cottages for rent and he said those people would pay you for that page it's called maritime vacation and i built a microsoft access database loaded up all the addresses i paid my little brother like to do it and then i did a mail merge and then i just did essentially a form letter but i didn't know what it was and i just printed off this sales page it said if you want a webpage for your bed and breakfast or cottage, you know, send me$30 and fill out this application form and I'll load it up on the website and I'll send you back your link.

17:44Dan Martell:And if you want the photos back, send me back five bucks. So my dad shows up one day, checks the mail, and there's like 13 envelopes. And the first thing he says to me is, what did you do? And we sat down in the kitchen, it's a little apartment, and we started opening up the envelopes. This is back when people literally put money. That was like my first money ever, building something I built, was building these pages for bed and breakfasts and vacation rentals.

18:11Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:So if we skip forward a little bit in the story, at what point in your life would you say you finally felt rich? So back in September, I bought this warehouse that you're seeing right here. And honestly, it's an extremely stressful and strenuous process. And honestly, one of the hardest parts is finding an agent you can actually trust. And that's exactly the problem today's sponsor, Fast Expert, was built to solve. For those unaware, FastExpert is one of the largest platforms for connecting people with top-performing real estate agents across the country. The way it works is super smart and super simple.

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19:14Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Fast Expert has helped over a million people find real estate agents and work with top-rated professionals nationwide.

19:33Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:So if we skip forward a little bit in the story,

19:36Dan Martell:at what point in your life would you say you finally felt rich? I think my default right now, I would have said, I don't even feel rich. Like, I don't, like, rich is an interesting word. Somebody said it best. They said, if more money wouldn't change your day, then technically you're rich. And I would say from that definition, 100%. And it's been a while. But I like to think of Rich as just like, am I living to the fullest of my potential? And like always, not just like the money side. But if I think like the money side. So good, so good, so good. New markdowns up to 70 % off are at Nordstrom Rack stores now.

20:14Dan Martell:Stock up and stay big on shoes, tops, dresses, accessories, and more must-haves for summer. Join the Nordic Club to unlock exclusive discounts, shop new arrivals first, and more. Plus, buy online and pick up at your favorite rack store for free. Great brands, great prices. That's why you rack. My accountant called me one day. I was 27, 26. And he was like, do you want to hear something cool? I still remember where I was driving on this little kind of internal highway in the city called Vaughn Harvey. and you know it was a blackberry back then the big blackberries the keyboard and he goes um hey man want to hear something cool i'm like yeah he goes you get a million dollars in cash like retained earnings after taxes all that stuff just because i never when i built that company i just like sold didn't mess with it didn't i was so scared to mess it up like this i went a long time that's why when you say how long did it take you to get some success i went even that first company that people sent money in the mail failed and then i did another company my brother hosting company that didn't work out.

21:16Dan Martell:And then it wasn't until my third company. And even that for the first year, even though I made money, I didn't really know what I was doing. So when my accountant, Mark, called me up to tell me I had a million dollars in the bank account, my response immediately to him was, is that good? I'm 27 with a million cash in the bank account. And I asked him if that's good. He laughs. He goes, yes, that's very good. That's a really young age. And I didn't think it was impressive. And I was worried I was going to lose it the next day. And that's like a while ago

21:43Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:too so a million back then could be like two or something more than that probably yeah i'll be three i'm not that old you guys maybe 10 million i will attack you that'll be the thing to set off 1930 it's been 10 years but today's the day dude it was the 1950s right 20 grand that's that's crazy i mean a million dollars at 27 yeah okay and then so what did

22:10Dan Martell:you do from there that was after exiting that first company that was while i was building the company i exited the company a year later even then like i made like eight million bucks or something after taxes like i didn't have to work again was that on the exit yeah yeah i owned the company and it was like i think i remember the my accountant tell me um it was like i could live i could make like quarter million dollars a year for the rest of my life you know four percent or whatever after all the taxes and i don't even know like i didn't even feel rich then it's like maybe the reason, you know, I always look at trauma responses.

22:42Dan Martell:I'll be honest with you. Like, this is just, when I see somebody that's on the street and they're homeless and they're addicts and they're begging, I don't see a big difference between that person and me, which sounds wild, but let me tell you why. People respond to their stories. And unfortunately, some people can have a negative response to it and other ones can have positive. So like the person that's a high achiever never, never stops. You know what I mean? They're there for the most part, when you start, this is my story. When I started, it was to fill a void, right? The not enoughness. And the only difference between the person that's on the street, etc, is they had a negative response to the trauma.

23:23Dan Martell:The person that's a high achiever and very successful, they struggle with the same stuff that keeps the person on the street. They just have a positive response to it, the overachiever. So like, I think that's why when you say, when do you feel like you're rich? I don't think I ever felt that way because there's always something I was trying to become to overcome the not enoughness, if that makes sense. What are the biggest misconceptions people have about money? That your bank accounts are a reflection of your beliefs. That one people aren't going to like. What do you mean by that? your net worth is a reflection of your self-worth period full stop if you don't have more money it's because you don't feel you deserve it because if you didn't feel like you deserved it you would fight for it and i can prove it if i took half of your money away tomorrow you would act different that day so if you'd act different it means that there's a level that you feel you deserve and if it goes away you didn't i mean we've all been there so so then so i call those the highs and what happens is most people oscillate.

24:24Dan Martell:If you're good, you kind of oscillate up, but most people go up to down, up to down, up to down. And the trick, if you want to optimize for making money is to make the old high, the new low. So you got to act as if the old high is the low that is a hundred percent based on the beliefs you have about what you've created or not. And I think that's, that's a big one where people think that their bank accounts are a reflection of maybe their education, their opportunities, or their skill set. And it is, but it starts with the, do I feel like I deserve for it? And we all know these people that are talented, that never asked for anything.

24:58Dan Martell:And then we know these other people that are not talented, asked for stuff they shouldn't even be asking for. And sometimes they get it. And then they get these opportunities and live a life that the other person's going, how did they do that?

25:07Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:So you think people disagree with you on that take? Yeah. And why do you think that is?

25:11Dan Martell:Because if they agree with it, then it shows them that the way they've lived their life is a lie. Like that truth, if they believe it, takes everything that they, you know, university, background, et cetera, and essentially voids it because they've put their self-worth into these other things. And I'm saying, no, it's, do you feel worthy? Like, do you literally feel like if you want a hundred million, go, go get it. And again, they'll be like, oh, if it's a hundred million, then what about my time? And what about my family and all the sacrifice? And I'm like, no, those are all things you make up to stop yourself from deciding to go do something.

25:44Dan Martell:Cause I didn't tell you how to give up all your time. you can still strive and desire something and put constraints in place, but it's just to not even desire to do it. That's the biggest thing about money.

25:55Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:This is interesting. It's like the meta of how to make a lot of money. It's like the philosophy that one should have if you do want to earn a lot. We're going to get onto like what that looks like in application and the actual direct things that you can do to make a lot of money. But first I want to lean a little bit more into the end of the philosophy. I'm curious, what are like the primary things that people need to look inwards at to see if they're in a place, philosophically speaking, about making a lot of money.

26:20Dan Martell:I'll give you really tactical. And again, people don't want to hear this, but first off, if you are the wealthiest person you know, and you don't have other people around you that are further along, then it'll make it almost impossible for you to get ahead. Because if you try to, the people around you who don't understand that will ask you questions that get you to second guess yourself. That was the big thing I learned in rehab. How am I supposed to get sober if I stay around the same people that were selling and doing right off the gate, I had to get into a different environment. So I think that's the first question is when you share something positive with the people in your life, do they cheer for you or do they tear you down?

27:04Dan Martell:And unfortunately, most people, they don't have those cheerleaders in their court. That's one. Two, everybody thinks that you get paid for doing hard work. And unfortunately, that's not the case, because if that was the case and the person putting the roof, I mean, today, this is hot outside. Imagine somebody putting a roof on a house today. That's hard work. This is not hard work. So it's not getting paid for how hard you work. It's the value you create in the world. That's the world we live in. That's capitalism. If people don't like it, go to another country that's different. But the truth is, is like, you just got to be honest with yourself.

27:39Dan Martell:Do you create value that other people value? It's not even that you think is valuable because a lot of artists think they're like really good artists. But if they don't learn the skills to create value by telling stories and doing the reps or trying to figure out some really unique ways to create art, then nobody else is going to, there's no value there, right? And then the other one I think is just like, what do you believe? You know, when I mentor these kids, I always ask them, you have two people, you have Mr. Grumpy Face and you got Mr. Happy Face. And you're walking around and there's people out there that want to be helpful.

28:11Dan Martell:Who do you think those people in the world that want to be helpful are going to help? Grumpy Face or Happy Face? Happy Face. Okay. Then audit your thoughts. Audit your questions. Like if somebody says to you, there's more opportunity around the world than anybody's ever seen. Do you agree with that statement or do you argue against it? Like that's the victimhood mentality. So a lot of people that don't agree with me when I share this, all they're trying to do is fight for their stock. Like it's kind of wild. You know, we talk about like human psychology, the amount of fighting people do to fight for their limiting story is wild to me because I don't do that anymore.

28:48Dan Martell:I hang out with people that are like trying to be like, oh, that's cool, Graham. You should do this. You know, Jack, what about this? And it's like, oh, geez, I don't know. That's that's big. That's that's what you want to get around. But most people literally argue with you to fight against you. And I think those are things those are things you can just ask yourself. Do I see opportunity in the world or do I think everything is scarce? Do I mean, there's like a trillion dollars that exchange hands today. Did you get a piece of it? It's there. Somebody got a piece of it. Go get it.

29:16Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Speaking of that, how would you make$10 ,000 a month for the average person watching this? And that's their goal.

29:22Dan Martell:Right now?

29:23Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Right now.

29:23Dan Martell:Easiest way? Yeah, I think I got a video coming out on it because we did a little challenge video. Okay, I'm going to give very tactical. First thing I would do is I would load up ChatGPT, ask it to create a real estate offer. And the reason why I do real estate offer is, you know, every real estate agent's phone numbers on the internet. Like right off the gate, let's solve the lead gen problem. Okay, so I go on ChatGPT. I create an offer to use AI to automate the marketing for a real estate agent. And then you literally just ask the chat, the AI to give you the script to do the phone, the cold calls.

29:56Dan Martell:Okay. Now, as soon as people hearing this, they go, yeah, but nobody's going to answer their phone. No, they do answer their phone. I could literally, I'll pull up the real estate agents right now and start cold calling and they'll answer. Now, can I sell? That's a different skill. What I do when I'm doing cold cows, first three to five, they're throwaway. You just get them done. Like you almost shouldn't care because it won't matter. You got to get in the energy of the playfulness to try to get the person to stay on the call. And then the whole point is you want to just schedule a call to show them what you've built now.

30:26Dan Martell:And the people are going to go, well, Dan, I've never built AI before. Okay, cool. We'll schedule the meeting, like get the calls done, get the meeting scheduled. And then you got time between when the meeting scheduled tomorrow and today to go figure out how to do a demo to get a real estate agent to go, oh, that's cool. And then I would go on the internet and I'd be like real estate. I mean, I did this the other day. It was like, um, real estate listing AI TikToks or whatever. And like, you can, you can do a lot using these tools that are free tools to impress a real estate agent, to get them, to give you a couple hundred bucks a month or 500 bucks or a thousand bucks.

31:00Dan Martell:And then it's just a numbers game. Cause if you can sell one, you can sell 10, you can sell a thousand. And to me, that is such a very clear, specific, tactical thing that they could do. Any person listening to this could do. Then it goes back to their beliefs.

31:16Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:I think that a lot of opportunity, I'm sure we'd all agree, is in bridging that gap between like the antiquated way that a lot of businesses are run, like the traditional corporate way, even mom and pop shops, bridging the gap between that and AI. Because there's just like so many businesses that operate on this older, older strategy. But if you introduce them to like instantaneous answers, solutions with AI, there's so much opportunity.

31:41Dan Martell:You just show them. Like one of the demos I like to show people is this product called Atlas, youratlas.com. And it's, it's a lead gen. Cause like, have you ever tried to like hire somebody in a local business and you're like calling, nobody's even answering. This is what's interesting about local businesses is they all complain they don't have enough leads. And yet if we called a hundred local businesses we might only get 40 to answer the phone so their phone rang with a potential client and they couldn't even answer so your atlas is an ai that will literally answer the phone answer the questions and schedule a sales call or follow-up or demo or whatever fully automated and if we called it and you would hear it it sounds like a person isn't i got fooled by that dude because it even does the background noise it has like a tap tap tap yeah and the

32:24Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:tonality when i was calling it was like um hold on one sec uh hold on all right uh give me one second and then it was like okay we have this it fooled me and i'm like wait a second is that real or not this isn't real it's a person or it's not a person i'm telling you it got me it took me 20 seconds to figure this out it's like this i had no idea but even if it was ai just the fact that

32:46Dan Martell:it can answer the phone for inbound and schedule a call or answer a question or get somebody's contact and upload it in your CRM, put them on the email list. Like that magic, because I think AI, the best stuff feels like magic. That magic is available in every part of the business. Financials, marketing, sales, operations, ideation, strategy. It's just people are still not, they don't know how to use it. You know what I mean? Like, do you guys use AI? All the time. What's the use case that you wish people knew more of? Like, what do you do with it that you're like, oh, people got to start doing more of that?

33:22Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:to enhance our audio a lot. Like that's been one of the easiest. Yeah. Um, I use it with idea creation. If I'm trying to bridge a gap between two subjects, like let's say I'm talking about the stock market and I want to find a really easy segue to real estate. I just give my script to chat GBT and I say, bridge a gap four sentences between these two that make it flow perfectly. And it just gives me five options. And then of the file, I'll be like, that's a great one. I'm I'm going to use that frame.

33:49Dan Martell:You nailed it.

33:51Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Taxes. Taxes are crazy.

33:53Dan Martell:Dude, I told my wealth manager, I was like, dude, you're not going to have a job soon. I love you, but it's all going away.

33:59Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:I got a great one. I have six properties. And between those six properties, they're all throughout Los Angeles County. I have two policies on each. One is a landlord's policy. One is an earthquake policy. And I have the amounts that I was charged on my Amex card. And I could see at the end of the year how much I'm charged from it. I was charged about$16 ,000 a year. But I didn't know which charges went to which properties. So I asked my insurance agent, could you tell me exactly how much I paid in 2024 for the insurance broken down by property? He does it. And I realized, wait a second, his only add up to$14 ,000.

34:35Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Mine add up to$16 ,000. Where did that$2 ,002 go? I have no idea. And I went back and forth with him over email for six months. He said, I can't find these extra charges. And he pulled up every little thing. I uploaded all the whole email thread to ChatGPT. And I said, here are my charges. Here are his. Here are all the policy numbers. Find out where the discrepancy is. And within a minute, I found it. I was overcharged for one policy that was never refunded. And it found it. It found it by the thing. And it was broken up into smaller little categories. That's why we couldn't find it. because it was like a$700 charge, a$4 thing that was charged to this, but it found it.

35:17Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:And then I sent him the chat GPT version. It's like, would you like me to put this in a PDF that I could send to your insurance? Yes. I sent it to him. He looked back. We got a result. But this was six months and it just found it.

35:30Dan Martell:It was nuts. It's like the first time I showed my dad, my dad was, he would have been 63 at the time. He was at my event and I was like showing him some AI stuff. And he's like, how much is it? I said, dad, it's free. He couldn't believe it. He's like, can I use it to like create a lease agreement for a tenant? I'm like, yeah. Whatever your thing, it could be anything. Canva helps you make that thing a thing.

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36:50Dan Martell:Well, how to do that? I said, it's, well, I can't explain you the math, dad, but it's AI. He's like, that's better. That agreement put stuff in there that my current lawyer didn't even think of doing. And I said, this is the thing, dad. It's got perfect information of everything that's ever been done. I sit on a board. Sometimes I get behind. I don't look at the board deck before the call. I get on the call and while I'm on the call, realizing I haven't reviewed all the minutes and the notes and all that stuff, I just upload it into a custom project in GPT and said, act as an investor. Here's the company.

37:19Dan Martell:Here's all the details. What are the five questions I should be asking the CEO? Waited my turn. I asked the first question. The CEO couldn't believe that I found a gross margin detail on the 37th page of the financial report. And all the other investors were like, how did you know to ask that? I was like, while I read the information. You know what I mean? Like it's good. It's doing that and it's doing so much more. Like I just, I look at it and I think of like directors versus doers. Like the future is to the directors, the people that know how to use it to get the stuff done. Like GPT-5, it's not out yet.

37:53Dan Martell:The rumor is, is that if you've seen any of the operator stuff, which is like the browser-based task execution, it'll log into software and do stuff for you. They're going to integrate that into the chat. meaning that right now you use it to like research and like hey i'm going to this country i want to put together a travel plan but in five you then say and book it and it will do all the booking all the doing and i just like and people like but you wrote a book about executive assistants and virtual assistants i'm like yeah all the doing they do today is is going away but do you think

38:28Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:that this is a bad thing in the sense that people will never learn how to think for themselves because I do find quite a lot of mistakes in ChatGPT. I worry that at some point people are just going to be reliant and say, well, my source is ChatGPT because it told me so. And like, that's the source is because that says it.

38:45Dan Martell:We've been there before. So I'm a big fan of like looking at history as kind of a predictor. So like you just think of all the people that are like instant, you know, medical experts because they went on about.com because of some symptoms, you know what I mean? Like, so there's, there is a history of us using technology to kind of self-serve that could be harmful. But I think we're going to get to a point, let's say just in the medical space, where it will be considered malpractice for you not to use AI. Like I don't want a doctor, based on how his night went last night with a newborn, deciding if he saw something on a scan or not.

39:22Dan Martell:So the thing is, once you understand that the way AI is built today, and it will change next week and next month, is just a fancy autocomplete, it doesn't do math well. And that's where there's a lot of issues. It does predictive text really well. That's why marketing was one of the first use cases for it. In the future, it will fix that predictive analytics part so that it is accurate. And I'm talking like months away. Like there's a company called Precision that does like business analyst kind of dashboards. And I think it's precision.co. And they ran into this, but essentially what they're gonna do is continue to use like the coding, it's called the tool and software.

40:01Dan Martell:So they'll use the tool to do the analytical part, but still use the AI to do the strategic part. So you have the dashboard data that's accurate, but telling you what you should do in your business, that's based on strategy, right? Based on who you are, the context, your employees, how big it is, the comp structure, your tax, you know what I mean? Like, and I think that it does really well, but you also got to, that's the part that is the director versus the doer, like a good director. or I'm going to pay because they have domain experience and they know when something comes back that it's wrong.

40:30And I think that's where like AI is really good.

40:35Dan Martell:There's three types of intelligence. There's analytical intelligence, there's creative intelligence, and there's emotional intelligence. And if you think of what AI is world-class at better than most humans, analytical intelligence. You'll never be able to outthink. We're talking PhD level doctorate research projects with the new reasoning models. That's today. And then the creative part, writing ads, helping you with your scripts, it can do it, but what it lacks is taste, right? It lacks experience. It may get there, but today it doesn't have it. But I would say if I'm betting on how do I defend myself against AI, it's the creative part and it's the emotional part.

41:13Dan Martell:It's the EQ side, right? I mean, as long as humans are still involved in the process of getting things done, the emotional intelligence will always be needed.

41:21Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:You know what I think is going to happen? We're going to get our own AI that we're going to grow up with that's going to know us so intuitively well. And you'll never be able to exit that because it's got all of your info. Yeah. Yeah, built in. And you could start doing this at like 13 years old, working with your chat GBT, grow up with it. And by the time you're 50, my gosh, it knows you better than anyone else. Dude, it knows it right now.

41:44Dan Martell:You can actually ask it prompts. Oh, I do that all the time. Yeah. Yeah. Like, what's my shadow side I don't want to acknowledge? Yeah. That's a crazy question to ask the AI or ask it. What do you know about me? How does it know? And that's Sam Altman, the founder of, you know, chat GPT or open AI. He stated like, we want to be the AI that does that. And then you can use Claude and Gemini and the other ones, but we want to be the layer of personalization above. What's interesting if you think about it is how does this apply when you have people at work and they create IP at work and then they go take a new job.

42:16Dan Martell:That's an interesting question that I've been thinking about is like, how do you take essentially your work experience with you when a lot of it was filtered through the AI co-pilots for your job and you've built these like best practices with the AI at work, but then you take a new job and they're saying, well, you can't take it with you because that's, we own that IP. Nobody talks about that, but I think about it a lot.

42:39Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:I think for relationships too, that people are going to have robots that they could just - Dude, I heard you can do match. No, it's true. ChatGPT could have the craziest matchmaker ever. Think about it in terms of that. For you have like user profiles. And then if it's collecting, which it doesn't collect the day, it claims it remains on the platform. But like if you could say who in the world matches my personality perfectly. And then this user over here in like Iowa.

43:05Dan Martell:That's wild.

43:05Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:I love it. Imagine you upload your photo. Yeah. And you it gives you like a hundred faces and you rank attractiveness of like all these faces. So it knows exactly what you like. Body type, facial structure, eye color, hair, everything. People would pay like$50 ,000 to find their like partner for life. Oh yeah. They do that today.

43:24Dan Martell:It's just, they're, they're only the pool. Yeah.

43:26Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:To be like that.

43:27Dan Martell:Yeah. Like they pay it. They don't get that.

43:30Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:And Chad GPD could draft a prenup.

43:32Dan Martell:Dude, imagine they just scans all of Facebook. Like it's got all the data. Like I think of like the data sets to train this thing. It already exists.

43:39Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:That's a fantastic idea. Yeah. To find the one, the one in a billion. That is your best match. What you could probably do is just create an app that does that. and then you copy all your user memory, upload it to the site, and then people just do that and then take pictures of yourself. Like you said, it generates photos of people. You say what you like. Dude, that right there, billion dollar business. I'm going to tell you a bit of a morbid idea that I had that I think it's a great idea that someone's going to think of this at some point. You have, let's say a parent or someone who's getting older.

44:11Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:They could upload their voice through everything into a cloud or into like chat GBT. and it asks them all these questions about themselves. How would you answer this? What is your thoughts on this? But enough so that it has a lot of data, voice, everything. When they pass away, you would be able to call in a phone number or hear this person's voice and talk to them. And it talks as though it's them. And it, but it would, I think it would help people. I don't think it's that morbid.

44:40Dan Martell:I don't think it's morbid at all. I mean, people frigging grab their animals and stuff them and put them in their home. And I think, I hope you, I mean, if you guys do that, That's cool. But like, that's kind of fun. I'm just saying, if someone, you're waiting to see what you're saying. Like, look it in your eyes. I'm like, did I touch a nerve?

44:54Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:It would help you feel good if someone passes away. No. And you could just say, you know, I miss this person. I'm going to go and talk to them. I know it's not them, but this is what they would say. It just makes me feel better. They're always there. Yeah. A part of them is,

45:07Dan Martell:is that I could talk to. What's interesting is us, the three of us, are already creating that. So whether we want it to exist or not, it already exists. for people like they're doing this right now like with the coaching models and stuff where you can just like create a phone number where people call and they can ask Dan Martell or Graham questions so I think it's interesting that the more content's created that like you know my kids definitely with my YouTube like they'll be that that exists yeah like they could do it now I don't think it's that morbid I think it's actually a beautiful like yeah it kind of brings up this idea that the amount of people that live for their parents' approval that aren't even alive fascinates me.

45:51Dan Martell:In that same breath of life.

45:53Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:It's a Black Mirror episode like that. Is there? Yeah. Her husband passes away and she calls this number and they deliver a new husband. It's AI. So it's not the husband.

46:03Dan Martell:Sorry, her husband passes away, calls the number, gets a new husband. A new husband with

46:06Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:his memory uploaded to that robot. And he acts a bit differently. And she says, oh, you wouldn't actually do this. and it reprograms. Okay, from now on, I'm going to do that. And so, like, over time, it molds more and more like him. Yeah. It just, it became an unhealthy obsession that she would spend all of her time with the Sai.

46:24Dan Martell:Would she overcorrect it into, like, a perfect husband? Yeah, into, like, the idealized version

46:28Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:of her husband. Kind of. How about don't say that? Don't nag me. Yeah. He wouldn't have done that. He is perfect now. Yeah. Why did I wait so long? But the ending was that she couldn't move on because she was so attached to this thing. And that part of the grieving process was you can't have, You can't rely on that. So maybe it helps people back. But I think it would be a unique thing to be able to call someone who's passed away. Yeah, and talk to them and hear them. Yeah. And for those unaware, we've used our sponsor, Notion, for years to keep the iced coffee hour running. Everything from guests to sponsors to workflow.

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49:27Dan Martell:The world we're going into, the world we live in, like I haven't been this excited since the Internet. Like, legit, this is this is bigger. You know, there's a great quote that says things that can be electrified will be cognified. So that's an interesting idea. Everything that's I don't know if you guys know some of these robotics companies, the humanoids like the Tesla Optimist. optimist but my favorite one's figure so figure figure two and it's like sitting there grabbing parcels off the ups line and sorting and packing down you swear it's not real like it looks fake and it's getting to the point where like that in two years when it's taking care of the dirty the dumb and the dangerous jobs and then all that cost savings gets bubbled up in the economy I don't know, man.

50:12Dan Martell:I see a world where we're going to get to a place where like food, transportation, and shelter is kind of taken care of through robotics.

50:20Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Yeah. I saw one, there was a robot doing floors in a house. Yeah. Like one robot replaces two workers. Yeah. Perfectly installing floors. Yeah. I think, I think the cost of a house should go down dramatically just because you could utilize these robots and these things to build a house in like a third of the time.

50:39Dan Martell:Yep. No smoke breaks. No complaining, 24 hours a day. And that's why I like the humanoid form factor is the best one because it's a generalist robot. We went through this period of specialized robots. You see them in car manufacturing plants. And the argument now is we go humanoid because the world was built for us. So everybody talks about self-driving cars, for example. What about when the robots drive the cars and every car becomes self-driving? So I think people don't see that curve And, you know, the construction. I mean, I thought we'd have 3D printed homes by now. Like I used to watch like the 3D printing, kind of the big stuff with the cements and all that.

51:20Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:I think it's more zoning. Yeah, it is.

51:22Dan Martell:It is even like the, you know, the prefab, you know, like box homes and stuff really haven't taken off either. But I looked into those. Those are really interesting.

51:30Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:But bringing in plumbing and everything to them. And then you're more than the cost of just building it from scratch.

51:36Dan Martell:Yeah. Yeah, I think the robots though, because they're generalized robotics, like the one that does the UPS line that morning worked at the BMW factory and it's the same robot that grabbed the stuff and helped build the car that also grabbed packages. That's, and the reason the CEO talks about like the home will be the last one to do is because, you know, accidentally knocking over a candle and burning a house down or having the robot run out of power and fall down on a baby. Like those are serious concerns. So they're going to wait to do the home last and use the manufacturing and like the facilities first and the dangerous doll and, you know, dirty jobs that nobody wants, right?

52:14Dan Martell:And that's why they've started with those jobs where they're dangerous, people losing fingers or -

52:17Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Yeah, underwater welding. That seems like an easy one. Put a robot down there.

52:21Dan Martell:Just get some gaskets on those motors and put them underwater and they just, and it's crazy because they can learn with only 60 hours of training data. 60 hours of watching a human do the job. That's today. So it might get down to an hour.

52:34Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:I want to see robots making other robots. That would make me happy.

53:06Dan Martell:for itself. At some point, it was just logical that eventually the robot makes robots and the code writes code. And then you see this right now with the reasoning models. If you use an O3 model and tell it to write the code, you can watch it write code to solve problems for itself. It's kind of wild. Like if you expand that little window and say, show me what you're doing, it's searching the internet and it's trying to figure out whatever you asked it to do. And if it gets stuck, it will write code to get unstuck. So when does it become a problem? When do they take over the world? My biggest concern is just the evil.

53:38Dan Martell:So like I grew up and I saw some evil stuff. And those people exist. And I'm just worried that, and I think that's what Elon is trying to do with like Grok and he started OpenAI as a nonprofit to essentially say, hey, if, you know, these superpowers in the world or these companies, you know, the FANG companies have access to this, like we got to make sure that everybody has access to it. That's like his essentially like antidote to the problem. That's also why he's doing Neuralink because he knows that if the AI goes into super intelligence, not just general intelligence, now we as humans need the ability to, the IO of a human is very slow, input, output.

54:14Dan Martell:It's our thumbs and our cortex. But they, the AI, airdrop stuff. So if we don't have the ability to have the AI and talk to it the speed that the computers can talk to each other, then if it gets malicious, we can't protect ourselves. That's just real. Like it will get there. It's just, I think Elon is one of the few people that are like, hey, we need to make sure Neuralink works. We need to make sure AI is available to everybody and not just controlled by a small group of companies. And then it's like everything in the world with nuclear power or whatever. Like it's really positive and it's also potentially the worst thing could ever happen to us.

54:54Dan Martell:But people go, well, isn't that bad? I go, how are you going to stop it? Show me your phone. Like, what are you talking about? I say, what kind of phone you got? You got the latest phone? Yeah, I got the latest phone. Cool. I dare you to stop wanting the latest stuff. Exactly. Every human on earth is born with a DNA that says, I want a better life, which means a nicer home, which means a better phone, which means, so, so, you know, I don't know who said it, but I think it was on Rogan where he said that humans are the bootstrapper to artificial intelligence. Like we, we might be the biological bootstrap.

55:24Dan Martell:The bootstrap is kind of like software thing. So there's like a bootloader in operating systems to kick off this synthetic intelligence, whether you like it or not, it's probably, it's going to come. And I don't know, man, then we have a conversation of, are we in base reality? I do think that we're getting a little distracted because a lot of people are going to be clicking

55:46Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:on this video to learn how to make money.

55:48Dan Martell:Let's do it.

55:48Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Because that's what a lot of your content is about. And we've been watching it. We really enjoy a lot of these like life lessons, personal philosophies, how you can make a lot of money. I'm curious, what is one life lesson that you listened to when you were younger that you wish you didn't?

56:02Dan Martell:Wow. That I listened to when I was younger that I wish I didn't. I mean, it's all the money stories, man. Money doesn't grow on trees. What other ones? The life lessons, man, I had to deal with every one. like like the money is evil like money's a fork man like people like money's bad i'm like well is a fork bad it can it could feed you nourish you or it could also somebody so is it bad it's a tool i think that i used to believe i had a belief for a long time that if i don't go bankrupt i'm not successful what do you mean by that i just kept reading stories of people that i admired that went bankrupt and i thought to myself well if i admire them and they're successful then i I guess I have to go be so successful I lose it all to build it back up to prove that I'm successful.

56:54Dan Martell:Like, that's a dumb story. That was the dumb, that one I probably held onto for 10 years. The dumbest of dumbest. And then I remember sitting there and I asked myself a question. What am I pretending not to know? Well, I'm pretending not to know that I can hire people that can fortify my wealth so I don't lose it. So hire the people. And then let them be your partners in the financial planning. So it's like, that was a weird one. I don't know that people that are rich are evil, you know, growing up and, you know, not a lot of stuff. And, you know, you'd be on vacation and you see a nice car and, you know, my mom would say, oh, that guy's in the mafia or something.

57:31Dan Martell:Well, I don't want to be in the mafia. Do I have to be in the mafia to drive a car like that? Do I have to be evil if I drive a car like that? Like that's it was just all the beliefs that are just simply not true. and sometimes I wonder did I believe those things because it allowed me not to play towards what I was trying to create you know almost like self-sabotaging beliefs or allowed me to live in this like story or you know what's the opposite?

58:00Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:It's hard to tell yourself that you really want something.

58:03Dan Martell:Totally.

58:04Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Because as soon as you realize that you do like through and through

58:07Dan Martell:then you gotta do it.

58:08Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Then if you don't achieve it I know. It's like everything's lost.

58:10Dan Martell:This is why people don't say their goals publicly. Because if I tell you what my goal is publicly, then you're going to ask me about it next time I see you. So most people live these kind of like quiet lives of desperation for a desire to create a life that's bigger. They don't tell anybody because as soon as they tell people, then they're accountable. But if words create things and they do, that's how you, everything you've ever gotten in your life is on the backside of a conversation. Whether you know it or not, that's how it's always been. Humans buy from humans. People do things with humans.

58:39Dan Martell:it's conversation video content all that stuff and the words we use are what create those

58:46Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:opportunities i always thought it was the opposite when you say something people reinforce it and you get the same feelings of satisfaction as of though you actually did it like if i tell jack that's when you ideate yeah same work because i'm not yeah yeah that's when you say like like i'm gonna go to the gym every day and jack's like oh man graham that's awesome yeah you're gonna go to gym and i feel great look what i just did and then i never do it my my uh is my whole philosophy is the opposite of that is just i never say anything quiet just yeah watch this because i but i'm also superstitious that if i say something then maybe me putting it out there it's not going

59:24Dan Martell:to happen so i'd rather just not i used i used to actually in high school i used to believe that when there's like contests in class yeah i would just be like i'm not gonna win i'm not gonna win i'm gonna win and then i won i created this belief that if i just believe i'm not gonna win i'm gonna

59:35Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:to win yeah and if you think you're gonna do something then it's not gonna happen just it's

59:39Dan Martell:not it's not true yeah it's statistically it's not true if you actually ran the numbers and tried both it probably would it would work better and the reason why is because even the idea with ideation when you talk it out loud and the person says yeah let's go you at least had to say it and i think that's what's interesting but like the more you tell people your goals are if you think about like somebody runs a marathon better yet vegans or crossfitters how do you know they're vegans or CrossFitters.

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1:00:29Dan Martell:They will tell you as soon as possible. so it's interesting because when I remember the first time I did an Ironman I just decided I'm gonna do an Ironman but then I started training and I was talking about it and I was tracking it and I was changing my calendar around it and I was so then I realized the the the frequency of the talking about the goal went up by like a thousand so was it that I did the work or that I talked about it and I kept talking about it was front of mind so it's like that whole like you know when people talk about like manifesting I don't know if it's it's literally just like based on the brain and the science.

1:01:02Dan Martell:It's you create a heat-seeking missile towards an outcome. The more you talk about it, the more people hear about it, the more they say, hey, have you tried this equipment? Have you done this? Have you talked to this person? Have you watched this video? You know, have you watched the, you know, frigging dude, James Lawrence, who did 100 Ironmans in a row, right? And you watch this video and then you feel more motivated. So it's like that doesn't even get presented to you if you didn't say something in the first place that essentially allow you to create a goal. Like that's the thing I'm fascinated.

1:01:27Dan Martell:If you look at every successful person in the world, from Elon to Steve to everything, They spoke their future into existence.

1:01:33Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:I always wonder, though, if it's even helpful at all to look at the most successful people because they are so far outside of the norm of, like, the bell curve of personalities and character that it's like, why would you even look to someone that's just not remotely close to you at all? Like, I feel like you take the most successful people, you look at their personality, and And it's just like all of them, they got like, you know, they have Asperger's or they have something going on that you're like, OK, well, do I really want to follow in this person's footsteps when their code, their genetic code is completely different.

1:02:09Dan Martell:Yeah, I think I think what happens is that there is survivor bias. Right. And especially CEOs, because CEOs are typically like louder and blah, blah, blah. And so people see that, but the pattern matching, I think is a useful strategy because, and it's not necessarily like the CEOs or the Oprah's or the Richard Branson's, like the people that are well-known. Cause there's a lot of people in the private equity space that nobody knows that are billionaires. And if you watch their character traits, there's stuff to learn from them. So like, I don't know, I'm a fan of, I guess my whole life has been a byproduct of pattern matching.

1:02:42Dan Martell:It's like if I'm here and I want to go here and these people are doing this, I first ask myself, who do I need to become? Because to me, it's not the skill. I can develop the skill. I can learn to code. I can learn AI. But it's like, who am I that's going to make like cause self-sabotage on the way up? And I think that's what stops people from making their first 10K.

1:03:03Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:So what habits or practices do you recommend for anybody? if they see themselves living like a mediocre or average life that want to turn into something exceptional?

1:03:13Dan Martell:I think it's less about adding and more about subtracting. So it's less about, you know, people asking, like, what do you do? It's what I don't do. I think how can you possibly change your life for the better if you talk about the negativity and lack in the world, the scarcity in the world, you know? So I think right off the bat, you know, just change the way you run your day. I mean, everybody knows like a morning routine that starts off with like water, a workout, reading something good for the book or from a book, gratitude journaling. Like those are very simple habits that, that provide energy for the day, clarity for the day, writing down your intention for the day, those habits.

1:03:54Dan Martell:But it's like, you got to stop all the other stuff.

1:03:56Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Okay. Let's, let's break down. Cause you said it's subtractive, not additive, but then you added a morning routine. Okay. So let's, let's get a little granular here. First, let's talk about the morning routine.

1:04:06Dan Martell:Yeah.

1:04:06Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Okay. If you were to break down the absolutely perfect morning routine for everybody watching right now to set them up for success, what would it be?

1:04:15Dan Martell:Brian Johnson's protocol blueprint. Nine hours. And you finish by noon. Dude, when I talk to these people like Ben Greenfield, it's like, how do you travel the world and still do this? You know what I mean? So like, I think there's the, if you just, again, if you ask chat GPT, analyze all the most successful people in the world, look at their morning routines. What do they all have in common? you will find these things. One, they typically get up earlier than most people. Do they get up at four in the morning, 2.30 in the morning, six in the morning? It's just earlier than most. And the reason why I think is because anytime you get out of bed when you don't want to get out of bed, you start the day off by telling yourself, I'm doing something I don't want to do.

1:04:53Dan Martell:That just, like, I had a client once and he had like 17 alarms. Like every three minutes he had an alarm and he'd go to bed and he'd set like six of them. And he'd just like snooze and just, Again, I don't know if I'm triggering any of you. Like, are you guys snoozers? Like, do you hear the same as button? No. Like, I couldn't understand why he had all these alarms set. And it's just like he built this habit of like delaying the start of his day. So I think right off the bat, you know, go to bed on time and get up earlier. That's a great start. Most people would agree. I know that changed my life.

1:05:23Dan Martell:When I started even just getting up at six, I get up at four every day and have for almost five years. But I just started with six, like 15 years ago. And that was a change, you know. and then I would say make sure you have a plan for the morning most people get up and they don't have a plan I think if you your plan is to read you know feed your mind I think reading books to give you insight it's not even it's not even reading to learn it's reading to get your mind focused on positivity like that's what I read like I've read 1600 books I don't need to read another book like I I do it because I want to remind myself what I've already consumed it's more of a remind, not taught.

1:06:00Dan Martell:And then I'm a big fan of writing out like gratitude. I think gratitude is like, it doesn't matter how bad of a day you are. My kids, you know, they're two boys, they fight all the time. And anytime they're in a fight and like I break them apart, I just have a conversation about gratitude because it's just the instant. You can't be grateful for something and be pissed off. Like it's those emotions kind of cancel each other out. So I think gratitude journaling, I use a five minute journal. You know, my buddy Alex started this company. It's just really easy. So five minute journal gratitude. And then I like to move the body, man.

1:06:32Dan Martell:I think exhaust the body, tame the mind. Like this morning we were working out. I was explaining this to Cohen on my team. I was like, I think of like Etch-A-Sketch, you know, the red Etch-A-Sketch when I work out and it's like the last two reps and you're, you're like feeling the pain and you push, it's kind of like a reset on the mind. It's an Etch-A-Sketch. So you might, you know, have a lot of self-doubt, doing a bunch of podcasts today, nervous, speaking, whatever you got going on, right? Big opportunities, got to present to your boss. And to me, the workout in the morning, even if it's 25 minutes, is just this beautiful reset, not necessarily to get in shape, but just for the mind.

1:07:12Dan Martell:And if you had to like distill it into the minimum effective dose, I think that's what you got. And you could probably get it done if you want to go real fast in about an hour.

1:07:21Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:That's interesting. It kind of reminds me, I always think about this. We had Dr. K on the podcast and he always talks about single pointed consciousness, which is the idea or one pointed consciousness, which is the idea that your brain is every, every fiber in your body is all oriented towards one goal. And if you're on those last two reps or whatever, and you're hitting maximum atrophy, then you can't think about anything other than those last two reps. And it's like about orienting your life to find those moments. Cause I think that is kind of that brain etch a sketch refresh where afterwards you have like a moment of clarity.

1:07:55Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:That's interesting. Cause I usually, I found that I have the best workouts in the afternoon. Like I'm able to push myself the hardest. Cause I'm not tired of the middle calories. Yeah. It's probably that a hundred percent food, but, but the difference is if I were to work out earlier in the day, maybe I'll have more mental clarity throughout. That's why I work out in the morning.

1:08:11Dan Martell:And I used to work in the afternoon because I had kids and I had to stay up late and then not get up early. And I like the reset the afternoon, like a lunchtime workout. I used to do that for a few years, but the value of getting the workout done in the morning, even if I, I usually wake up and I work and then work out at like eight o 'clock. So I'll even push off. Cause I like to like the morning for me is such a precious time to create connected to my creator. Like that's my morning that I'll do an 8am and it's still the mental reset for the day. A hundred percent. And it's also flow state. When you're in flow, you don't worry about going to the bathroom.

1:08:43Dan Martell:You don't have insecurities. You don't have concerns like flow state. is this single point of something. That's why most people have the best ideas in the shower, driving or at the gym because they're doing a thing that lets their brain kind of go on autopilot. And then they're kind of like this mind thinking about problems and open loops. And then they get downloads because of that single point of focus. And most people drive home and don't remember how they got home. Isn't that interesting? Most people leave their office, drive home and they don't really consciously remember driving home because they're in a flow state and they don't use that time to improve their life.

1:09:20Dan Martell:I would. I would give myself something to think about. Like, what problem do I need to solve today? One of my biggest things, I stopped listening to music in the car.

1:09:28Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Now it's just podcasts. Dude. I get so much done.

1:09:32Dan Martell:I will tell you this. My wife told me this and I thought she was a psycho. She goes, when I drive, I don't listen to anything. That's crazy. Do you guys listen? like do you have to have something played?

1:09:44Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Sometimes I just am silent.

1:09:46Dan Martell:You've driven without music or a podcast? I've tested myself before.

1:09:50Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Yeah, but it's not like a thing.

1:09:51Dan Martell:When she told me that she does this and it is her happiest part of her day, I thought that was fascinating. Then I asked myself, what am I trying to be distracted from? And then I remember one time I was working with this coach, Stephanie, and she said, go for a walk in the woods. I said, okay, for how long? She goes, you'll know when you're done. and I'm kind of a systems guy, like, is it hour? She goes, you'll know it, like Mr. Miyagi style. And I went by myself in the woods. Like when I run, I run trails, but I'm always listening to podcasts, books, music, something, right? Like I make phone calls.

1:10:27Dan Martell:I call my friends and just talk while I'm running because I don't want to be like out in the woods doing nothing. And I remember going for this walk and just being like, oh my gosh, there's a totally different level of existence when you can be comfortable in the silence. Like I got it. I finally got my wife, who I thought was completely crazy, driving in silence. Just how wild that idea is. At what point do you begin to buy back your time? I'll tell you why I'm smiling. Because I listened to you talk about that period of your life where you were editing like three videos a day or something. And I was like, Graham, why are you doing it?

1:11:00Dan Martell:Like I literally, before I ever met you. Because no one could do it like me. I know, bro. That's the thing. And you're not wrong. Here's the way I like to explain it to people. 80 % done by somebody else is 100 % freaking awesome. And if that's not good enough, be better. Meaning that there is a world where if you had to sit down, document how you do it, it could have got done, okay? And I teach this in my book, it's a 10-80-10 principle. 10 % upfront ideation, 80 % execution from somebody else, the last 10 % is integration. Where you didn't have to not be involved in the editing. You just didn't need to be the primary editor.

1:11:39Dan Martell:I met a guy that's got like I don't know 10 million on YouTube and he was doing the full stack and he's sitting there trying to say like you know I don't have time to go to the gym and I don't have time for this and I'm and I'm just like you know I try to shut my mouth if people don't ask but like when I watch you do that I was I was it was kind of fascinating to me because I think the most the biggest expense in your business is anytime you're doing stuff that isn't making you the most money. and when I heard you say that I was like bro you could have been getting so much time back to go do more real estate deals or other stuff that what's what's funny is I did have Alex who helped

1:12:16Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:me with my editing and some of those times I realized like I wish I just had edited myself because sometimes it's it's good for me to edit and I just you get in the flow I get in flow 100 % and I need that break sometimes I would finish like planning filming send it off to Alex and And I'm like, oh shit, now I just got to go back to planning. I didn't have that like break in between.

1:12:37Dan Martell:Yeah. I mean, the way I look at it is, you know, my background is studying like agile and like manufacturing. So it's always workflow. Left side, raw materials. Right side, finished goods. So when I help anybody think about buying back their time, I go, okay, well, what's the production line of value in your life? What do you do? Right? And then we just map it out. And I go, okay, what part do you feel you don't ever want to do? Let's put that in red. And then what's the stuff you really enjoy doing? Like editing, cool. But even in the green stuff, so red is stuff I really hate to do, like invoicing and consolidating bank accounts, all that stuff.

1:13:11Dan Martell:Green might be editing, but even in the editing process, what parts do I want to be involved in and which parts I don't? So like capturing content, putting it on the drive, clipping it out, da-da-da. Like you could have even just paid somebody to do the first 50%. They would have got you half that time back and then reinvest that time in the thing that makes you more money. And like, that's, that's the, nobody's ever built a million dollar business doing$10 task. It's impossible. Like, I'm assuming you do have people in your life that support you, house cleaners, like, no, geez, Louise. Then you pulled it out.

1:13:43Dan Martell:My wife, Macy, does a lot of the. Exactly. Yeah. I just think like, if you're trying to optimize for wealth, if somebody wants to make 10 grand or, you know, I mean, especially people are making 300 grand a year in their business. 300 is like this level where you can spend 1500 bucks a month, a couple grand a month to get back quite a bit of time in a week. I'm talking like 30 hours back in a week. Like what? Like laundry, cooking. Dude, just errands. You know how many people waste time just driving around town running errands? I haven't gone to a retail store or whatever in years. Like I don't, I mean, I don't want to like, it's not a flex, but like, I don't even put gas in my car.

1:14:17Dan Martell:I don't, there's a, you can live a life where you only, like I hang out with people I love, my family, my friends, my coworkers, or I do things that I love to do. Like that's, those are two things. anything that's not that, I try to create an allergic reaction to it and on purpose, leave it there until I find the solution to get it done. And that's the creative game to try to figure out how do you build a machine that runs a machine? I don't, if I get involved, then I'll always be involved. But if I like step back to build a machine, so it gets done at the level I want it to and documented and train them, I get to buy back my time.

1:14:49Dan Martell:And with that time, I can decide, do I want to go increase the quality of my life, spend time with people I love, or do I want to go create a business or make more money? But there's just no way to get out of that. And you'll always hit what I call the complexity ceiling. We all have it. I have it today. You guys have it. You have a ceiling of complexity that you're able to deal with. And anything above that, you feel over your skis and you pull it back. So the only way to get that higher is to actually do the work to figure out what skills you got to acquire, what beliefs I have to adjust so I can learn to let go.

1:15:19Most people just can't let go because it's scary.

1:15:22Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:What do you think has been your biggest waste of money?

1:15:24Dan Martell:I mean, I lost a couple million invested in a company. That sucked. What happened? I had to sign a document so I couldn't talk about it, but I can talk about it without the details. I just got, you know, like when you're in business and you like have a little success and you start to feel really good about yourself. So you start doing a bunch of other stuff that you probably shouldn't be doing. That's what happened. I like got to a point in my career where like, after you learn and you like go through some tough times, you kind of feel like you have the Midas touch. so you start agreeing to do stuff so i like bought this guy's company and thought i'm going to turn it from you know 2 million to 10 million and and essentially i underestimated the fact that i'm not going to run the company you got to run the company there's a reason you sold the company it's probably because you're not talented enough to run the company and uh after about 18 months of it it was and it was the massive time suck and i mean time suck emotional suck i just had to like literally call my business partner who was part of the deal with me and i was just like bro i gotta to like call my loss.

1:16:19Dan Martell:So that was a tough one. I felt bad because I felt bad for the CEO that of the company, we bought the company and my business partner. Cause like we had to swallow the pill. I would say things that I buy that I feel is a waste of money. I just, it's tough. Cause I don't think I would spend money on things that I think is a waste of money. What are the best things to spend your money on? Time. It's literally time.

1:16:39Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:So like what, what specific things?

1:16:42Dan Martell:Oh, what are my favorite things that I spend money on? So I have a, I have a, I would say, and I'm going to put it through the filter with my wife, Renee, okay? There are people in my life that she would, she would get rid of me before she got rid of them. One of them is Betty, our house manager. Betty runs the family for us. Like when I say she runs a family, the house manager role is something I learned from my friend 12 years ago. And essentially, and people can have this at a part-time role, but what their job is to be accountable for everything the parents would be accountable for. I'm talking about credit card expiring, passport deals, insurance, all that stuff.

1:17:15Dan Martell:paperwork. I've managed my personal finance in zero. So Betty manages all my accounts personal as a P &L for my life in zero. Right now that's that I thought that was pretty clever. Like how many people do you know run their personal home as its own business in a P &L? They don't. But if you do it that way, then you can have other people actually own it almost like a GM, general manager. so betty manages all the details the coordination the maintenance so that when my wife and i want to do stuff like buy a home in cabo like we just did we don't there's no like okay do we have the time for maintenance and like try to figure this out like betty owned that right and i think like that to me because it takes care of the personal stuff so my wife and i don't have to worry about like putting furniture together instead we get to play with our kids or go to the gym like dude i I would sell every one of my supercars before I ever got rid of Betty.

1:18:10Dan Martell:And the same thing for my assistant, Ann. Like, I would sell everything I own before I got rid of those two. How much is getting a person like that? I mean, I pay her like close to 100 grand a year. Yeah, my executive assistant more, but she's more of a chief of staff.

1:18:24Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:And basically you're saying, hey, we're going to go on a trip. And she's like, okay, I'll get everything ready.

1:18:28Dan Martell:Oh, you have no idea. I mean, so we're going, we're taking the kids out of school. We're doing world schooling for nine months, leaving in September. 18 countries 50 cities or yeah 18 countries 50 cities she planned it all with us like all of it like found an educator that's going to travel with us interviewed them managed it put the budget together figured out where we're going book the first you know month worth of hotels figured out what the kids are going to do with the educator train the educator like they they if you allow yourself to let go now my wife likes to be involved in certain things that involve the kids which totally makes sense so there's a difference between accountability and in and consulted okay so this thing called the racy matrix responsible accountable consulted informed my wife likes to be consulted about my kids education stuff i personally don't care because i think every kid's homeschooled it's whether the parents know it or not i homeschool my kids i just don't formally do it if that makes sense yeah sure so then um you just work with the person and let go and just say hey here are the things i need you to be accountable for and if you need to let me know like you can let me know or not and that's okay and here are the budgets.

1:19:33Dan Martell:You're allowed to spend five grand, Betty, without ever asking me. You just have to tell me after you do it. And what's crazy is a lot of people don't even know how to work with a house manager. So I've created a whole document that lets people like not only figure out how to hire, but what to get them to do. So if people want to just find me on Instagram, damartellat2Ls on Instagram, just message me house manager, direct message. I'll send them the link directly. No opt-in, no nothing.

1:19:54Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:And what's she going to do when ChatGPT5 takes over? 100%. And they can stop, they can start doing.

1:19:59Dan Martell:I told her this. I told my assistant and her. I think what happens is that the it's true I think like she gets more efficient because she gets 80 % of her time back and then we talk about okay what else could we do do I like I have enough work for my assistant and she's more of a chief of staff she coordinates all the legal financial kind of coordinations of people but I think it's just a retraining and a recalibration of like what they work on you know just like where else can I create value in my life that I'm not doing because I don't have the time and can they help me with that. that. What's the best investment you've ever made?

1:20:34Dan Martell:My wife. Like not, obviously I'd invest in my wife. She's watching us. Yeah. Just. Okay. But really though. Intercom is a software company. So I invested in Intercom, the chat software. They haven't gone public, but that was a big one.

1:20:47Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:What is the most luxurious thing you've ever spent your money on? This watch. It's kind of dumb. What is one daily habit you'll never skip?

1:20:55Dan Martell:Working out.

1:20:56Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Name one software or tool you cannot live without.

1:20:59Dan Martell:ChatGPT.

1:20:59Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:What's the best book you've ever read? The Bible. what's the book you've gifted the most?

1:21:03Dan Martell:Thinking Grow Rich. I'm at 6 ,000 copies. Wow.

1:21:07Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Who is an entrepreneur you follow the closest?

1:21:09Dan Martell:Elon for the first principles thinking.

1:21:11Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:What is your favorite failure or setback you've ever experienced?

1:21:14Dan Martell:The time I offered everybody in my company 15 grand to quit. How many people said yes? Unfortunately, 36%. Wow. That was a dumb day.

1:21:23Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:How much? Who told you to do that? How much did productivity? Remember Zappos would brag about how they would offer

1:21:29Dan Martell:people five grand to quit after the training?

1:21:31Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:How much did productivity slow after those 36 months of just hell?

1:21:35Dan Martell:I created a world of hell that was self-inflicted.

1:21:39Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Funny, that was advice that maybe you should have ignored.

1:21:42Dan Martell:Yep.

1:21:42Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:You know?

1:21:43Dan Martell:Yeah, I'm a slow learner.

1:21:44Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. We'll link to all your information down below in the description. And for anyone who wants, by the way, the uncensored version of this, because I know there's going to be parts that we had to kind of cut around, feel free to join the membership. You get to watch this full episode completely uncut. It helps us out too. and Mikey is doing a lot of the work behind it. So a lot of it just goes to Mikey. Thanks, Mikey. See you guys.

1:22:19Dan Martell:Athletic Brewing Company crafts award-winning non-alcoholic beers for those who want to be part of every round. With over 185 flavor awards, they're exceptional NA beers that fit your lifestyle and any social occasion. Summer's full of good times and athletic fits right in. Go to athleticbrewing.com to have brews delivered to your door or find them at a bar, restaurant or store near you.

1:22:40Iced Coffee Hour Hosts:Near Beer. Athletic Brewing Company. Fit for all times.

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Timestamps:
00:00:00 - Intro
00:00:55 - Reflecting on where he started
00:02:39 - Why he stole a car
00:04:43 - Feeling hopeless growing up
00:06:08 - Rock bottom and turning point
00:06:55 - Spiraling and losing control
00:08:17 - Does he still feel rage
00:09:27 - How he reads people now
00:10:35 - Can reading people be taught
00:15:08 - His first major win
00:17:46 - Sponsor - Fast Expert
00:19:03 - When he first felt wealthy
00:22:46 - Misconceptions about money
00:24:57 - What to focus on internally
00:28:17 - How anyone could make $10K/month
00:44:54 - Sponsor - Notion
00:46:04 - Sponsor - Helium Mobile
00:51:30 - When AI becomes a real threat
00:53:43 - A life lesson he’s grateful for
01:00:35 - Habits that lead to success
01:08:20 - When to buy back your time
01:12:54 - His biggest waste of money
01:14:07 - Best things to spend money on
01:18:04 - Rapid-fire segment
01:18:19 - Most luxurious purchase
01:18:24 - Daily habit he never skips
01:18:27 - The tool he can’t live without
01:18:31 - Best book he’s read
01:18:38 - Entrepreneur he studies most
01:18:43 - His favorite failure

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