These Principles Made me So Rich I Questioned the Meaning of Making Money

I'm going to share with you the 11 psychological principles of Success. These principles are what the top 1% use to generate wealth into their lives. I've personally used them to go from a broken teenager with no vision to building a hundred million dollar business empire. So without further explaining it, let's start with the first principle. Welcome to the Martell Method. I went from rehab at 17 to building a hundred million dollar empire and being a Wall Street Journal best selling author. In this podcast, I'll show you exactly how to build a life and business you don't grow to hate. And make sure you miss anything by subscribing to my newsletter@martelmethod.com the first principle is the Memetic Theory by Rene Girard have you ever wanted something just because somebody else had it? When I was 23, I didn't care about the latest gadgets until my buddy showed up with a brand new BlackBerry. Some of you guys are too young to know what they are. Seeing him with it made me feel like I had to get one. This cool keyboard and all that stuff. But I actually already had a flip phone. Why did I want it? Because he had it. Because I started seeing other people with it. My friend just showed me that it was there. There. The mimetic theory states that people copy the desire of others. If someone else wants something, you might want it too, just because they do. Have you ever had a friend that gets super excited about some new thing that they really, really, really want to get and all of a sudden you're like, maybe I want that. Why is he so excited? It's actually used in marketing today all over the place. Think about celebrity collabs. When you see a new product launch and they have all these celebrities targeted ads where they promote influencers, affiliate referral programs. I watch Carhartt come out of nowheres and everybod wearing it Champion sweaters. I don't know if you saw that. It's funny because I remember one time hearing a culture expert talk about they said, if you want to know what's going to be hot, go watch what the kids are wearing. In high school, they're almost like taste makers for the culture because they understand the mimetic theory is that if the kids are wearing it, then the parents have the desire of what their kids are wearing so they can feel involved. I see it all the time. I see it on TikTok on social media. And understanding how those ideas get planted and propagate through the market is actually a psychological theory that you can use in your life Before I share principle number two, we've got a goal of hitting 1 million subscribers. So if you haven't already, click subscribe and turn on notifications. Which leads us to principle number two, which is the framing effect. Have you ever made different choices based on how the options were presented to you? Think of it this way. If you go see a doctor and they're trying to convince you to have a medical procedure, which one do you think is going to get you to say yes? That the procedure has a 90% success rate or that it has a 10% failure rate? Which one is going to ease the patient? Well, 9% success is a lot better than 10% failure. Information is presented will actually persuade somebody to make certain decisions. And you can use this in all areas of your life. There's so many examples you might see out in the world. Think about going to the grocery store and seeing ground beef. 90% lean beef is going to get more people to decide to purchase than 10% fat beef. It's not actually what you say. You could be saying the same thing, it's how you say it. And that's where the frame matters so much. Think of like gourmet steak for $30. That's one way to do it. Or you could say discount steak, $25, but it was 30. Some people might decide to do the discount stake because it was 30. Now it's 25. So it feels like a good deal. Political polls, 75% approval versus 25% disapproval. The presentation essentially will shape the perception of the person, the information, how it's packaged. The frame of a message can change its meaning. Knowing this, when you're writing copy, when you're communicating, when you're doing marketing, understanding how to say what you're about to say, Presenting the information that way will get people to make a decision in your favor. Which leads us to principle number three, which is the Ben Franklin effect. Have you ever liked somebody more after they helped you out, after they gave you a hand? When I was 21, the guy living down the hall from me asked me to borrow my toolbox to fix his bike. I didn't even know. And for whatever reason, afterwards when he came back, we had a little chit chat. And now I kind of liked him. I just lent him my toolbox. He brought it back, we said hello, and eventually we became friends. And I realized that that is actually a psychological principle that is something you can use in your favor. The principle states that if you do someone a favor, you're more Likely to like them. It's bizarre because we always think that helping somebody else will make them like us, not the other way around. At the end of the day gets you involved in who they are and what they're doing. You can apply this to your sales calls, your consults, anything in your life. All you gotta do is have them help you out. You can do that by asking them a question about something they might know better than you. I think about when I go to the airport and I need something from the person, I might ask them something completely unrelated, like, can you tell me where the bathrooms are? And they're like, yeah, they're down there. And I'm like, like, cool. And I go there and when I come back, sounds crazy, but now they're invested in me as a human. So if I ask them for an upgrade or ask them to change my flight, they're more likely to do it. Another way to think about it is a favor done is a favor earned. See, when they help you, they're invested in the outcome. You know, there's one of my favorite lyrics from a pit bull song called Feel this Moment that says, ask for money, get advice, Ask for advice, get money twice. If you want anything in your life, ask for advice. They'll help you. And what they're doing is they're co creating the future with you. It's kind of fascinating. The more they help you, the more they want to see their plan come to fruition. So just ask them for it. Before we get back to this episode, if you prefer to watch your content, then go find me on YouTube. I have this episode on YouTube. I'm Dan Martel on YouTube. Just subscribe to the channel. Turn on the notification bell because then you'll get notified in real time. It'll tell YouTube to tell you got a new episode so you'll never miss anything. Now let's get back to the episode which leads us to principle number four, which is the backfire effect. Have you ever become more convinced of your belief when somebody challenged you on it? I remember when I was 22, I was convinced that a low carb atkins style diet was the best way to stay fit. I remember a friend sent me this article debunking the myth. But instead of me like studying it and reconsidering it, I just doubled down. I doubled down on what I believed. I doubled down around eating meat and cheese and all these incredible things. And it turns out there's a different way. But what happens is when you challenge somebody, it can actually have the Negative effect. So if you want to get somebody on your side, understand that as soon as you get them to disagree with you through their own biases, they can't change their mind. The more you push, the more they resist. Think about all political debates around the economy, healthcare. Somebody has a belief and you challenge them, boom, they go all the way in. Even if you show them proof, then they're gonna like get on their heels and be like, well, I just think that's fake news. Or, you know, that article is part of a cover up. They dig in hard to get them on your side. Instead of attacking their belief, ask them to explain it to you. And somehow that might get you the opportunity to kind of bring them down a different path. Which leads us to principle number five, which is the Bader Meinhof phenomenon. Have you ever started noticing something everywhere? After first learning about it? When I was 20, I learned about a rare car model, the Nissan 300 ZX. And after that I started noticing them everywhere, everywhere as I turn. There was one of those cars. It was kind of crazy, even though I had never paid attention to it before. You might have noticed this with yourself, with a pair of jeans, maybe some jewelry, a bag, a house style that you like. Even strategies I'm teaching you today. Now that you've heard it, you'll start to see it everywhere. Well, did it just magically come into life? No, they were always there. This theory explains why after you learn something or notice something new, you start seeing it everywhere. It feels like it's happening a lot more, even though it's not. And that's why you got to be careful what you focus on, what you spend your time on. What I've learned is the universe reveals what you pay attention to. That's why I always say the world isn't as it is. The world is as you are. If you know what you're focused on, you will create more because what you focus on actually expands. If you want that new car, visualize it, look for it, and you'll start seeing examples. You might find out that the person at your work just happens to have that car. And you might ask them to take you for a drive at lunch. It's so important because awareness creates abundance. And if you're aware of the abundance in your life, then you can use that to find examples to support your thoughts. I love this theory because it proves to me that what I want is actually in abundance and it's all around me. But if I don't focus on, if I don't think about it, I'll never see it. You could literally be sitting next to the person that could solve the biggest problem in your life. But because you don't realize those people exist because nobody's told you, you don't find them. Think about all the times where you just call it serendipity. We're like, that's so crazy. I was just thinking about that. It's because the Beter Meinhof phenomenon is present. Essentially, your brain needs the ability to filter out all the extra information that it doesn't need. So you have to give it priority to be able to decide what it filters on. And that's why you start to see these examples of the things you recently just talked about or learned. Even a word. Maybe you just learned a new word you never heard before, and all of a sudden people are using it in every sense. Is it just that they happen to start talking that way? No, it's always been there, but now it's in your filter. Before we get back to the episode, if you want to jumpstart your week with my top stories and tactics, be sure to subscribe to the Martell Method newsletter. It's where you'll elevate your mindset, fitness and business in less than five minutes a week. Find it@martell method.com which leads us to principle number six, which is the Dunning Kruger effect. I'm gonna hurt your feelings right now, okay? So I hope you're okay with it, but have you ever felt a little overconfident about a new skill or something you've learned? You know, When I was 17, I was introduced to, and I thought at the time, I've got to be a computer genius. I never touched a computer my whole life. We didn't have a computer in my house. In the first 20 minutes of ever touching a computer, I got it to print out. Hello, world. I know you're thinking, Dan is a genius, but I'm telling you that it didn't matter. That confidence came from this concept, the Dunning Kruger effect. Most people don't realize that they're not as good as they think they are. If you ask most people, how good of a driver do you think they are? They say, well, seven or eight out of ten. How good your memory? Oh, I got great memory. Are you a funny person? Yeah, I think I'm pretty funny. 6, 7, 8 out of 10. Most people give themselves a higher score, and the reason why is because they don't actually have a lot of experience. So what's interesting about this effect Is that the people who don't know much about something often think that they know a lot. Well, those that truly are knowledgeable around the topic tend to doubt themselves because they understand how big and vast that topic is. So just be wary of this principle and leverage it to your advantage. And one of the best way is to realize that the more you know, the more you need to know that you don't know. I know every time I start a new company, I'm probably wrong. There's something about my assumptions. It's not going to work out. And because I have the confidence to figure out how to do it, I don't put myself in a situation where I just run blindly saying yes to stuff without validating and verifying things. And that's typically what early and first time entrepreneurs do. Confidence without competence is the most dangerous thing out there. Knowledge is a double edged sword, so use it for your advantage. Which leads us to principle number seven, which is the illusionary truth effect. Have you ever believed something just because you heard it several times from different people, repeated not because there's any facts or substance behind, but just because it was repeated so many times? In my early 20s, I kept hearing that cholesterol was terrible for your health. All over the place, terrible. Cholesterol, bad, bad, bad. Even though I knew the science didn't support it, I started avoiding foods like cholesterol entirely. Come to find out, Your brain is 80% cholesterol and it's also a much needed micronutrient. It this principle suggests that if you hear something false repeated enough times, you might start to believe it's true, even if you know it's not, which is crazy. I remember I used to do these events and I would tell the audience how to feel by saying it over and over, you know, because the feedback forms would come back and say I felt rushed. And I was like one second. So the next event I ran, all of a sudden I started telling people, you guys are picking this up. This is at the perfect pace. Everybody's moving along quickly. Feedback form started saying, man, I felt perfect, perfect. And the pace was great. Why? Because I said it so many times. I essentially use that to hypnotize the audience into feeling a certain way. So how do I use this? I make sure that I protect myself from it. So if I hear something a lot, I go, cool, that's interesting. I got to go verify it for myself. Because if not, you might just adopt it as a truth that's just simply not true. So protect your environment and especially the inputs you allow into your mind. I always say, trust but verify, follow your gut if there's an intuition, because most people just parrot others and that doesn't make it true. Which leads us to principle number eight, which is the endowed progress effect. Have you ever felt more motivated to finish something because you were given a head start or maybe got a quick win? For example, in 2019, I got on TikTok early and it blew up 500,000 followers in six months. And that initial traction, which was crazy, sparked some motivation for me to go all in on creating content. It's why I'm here. Mr. Beast had the same thing. When he was early days just recording himself playing Minecraft, one of his early videos went viral. And then because of that, he goes, oh, if I did it once, I could probably do it again. So he just kept going and going, but nothing new happened for over a year. But regardless, he was hooked and he's now become the Mr. Beast we all know today. Largest YouTuber on the planet. How do we use this? Well, small wins lead to big successes. So if I can get a small win, then I'm more likely to keep building because momentum is only created in the mind. So if I feel confident, then I'll keep doing it. For example, I have a fitness program. The first 16 days is to do a cleanse. The reason why is because I want to get people a result as fast as possible. So on average, people release 14 pounds of weight in the first 16 days. I do that to get the early win so that they're more likely to stay consistent once I introduce the new macros and my progressive overload training style. That's why we use the endowed progress effect to get people the wins so that they're more likely to stay consistent over the long term. And by the way, if you're interested in my fitness program, just message me the word macros on Instagram and we'll see if you'd be a fit for my program. Before we get back to the episode, if you actually want to know what my real life looks like and see the people and the businesses and the companies I buy and my family and just like how I make it all work, go Follow me on Instagram Dan Martell 2 Elder Martell on Instagram, it's where I show the behind the scenes, the real deal, real time. I'd love to see you there. Have an amazing day. Which leads us to principle number nine, which is the IKEA effect. Have you ever felt more attached to or proud of something just because you helped create it? I don't think so. I know for me, if I'm involved in building it, I'm, like, proud of it. It's just like when I create strategy with my team, I always have to get them involved in the ideation so they feel invested in it. What you create is a reflection of you. So if you're involved in it, you'll feel better about yourself. Involving customers in product customization or prioritizing your product roadmap is a great way to get them involved. So think of it this way. Involvement breeds attachment. When people help build the plan, they won't fight the plan. The effort invested creates value. I mean, it's why IKEA has a very low return rate. Because if everybody's got to make all the furniture and they feel like all this effort went into it, it's not as easy to disassemble it and bring it back to the store. It also puts all the labor costs on the customer, not on the company, which is an amazing business model if you think about it. People value the things they're involved in. So if you ask somebody to help you clean up the workspace, they're going to have more pride around it. If you ask people to help define the plan to overcome a problem, they're going to be invested in the plan. If you have your team involved in the recruiting process and deciding who you hire, then when they eventually get hired and join your team, they're going to be more committed to seeing that person win. So they're going to show up, ask questions, support them. The IKEA effect is probably one of the most powerful leadership strategies that great leaders do. They just don't know that they do it or how to actually do it strategically. And that's why I wanted to share it with you. Which leads us to principle number 10, which is the scarcity effect. Now, have you ever felt more urgency to buy something because you thought it was in limited supply? Like, if you didn't make the decision right now, you might not get it. I remember a while ago, I was 28, and I was at a seminar and some guy was selling real estate. It was back in the day when the whole housing market crashed and you could buy 10 houses, houses in Detroit for $100,000. I wrote him a check, and I became a homeowner of these 10 dilapidated, literally rundown homes. It turned out that in many ways, I kind of got taken for a scam. Didn't know it at the time, even though my spidey senses were like, you probably shouldn't do this, Dan. There was something about getting access to it and knowing it was going away at the end of the day that made me decide to write that check. So here's a big idea. People value things more when they perceive them to be scarce or limited in availability. Essentially scarcity creates value. The entire luxury industry is built on this. They limit supply on purpose to keep the pricing power high. I mean I'm into supercars and I will tell you the whole concept around allocations of certain car models. When you see these new cars from McLaren or Ferrari or Porsche etc, Lamborghini be announced like these new hypercar models, they're already pre sold which creates this desire for those models that then pulls the whole brand up. The purse industry does the same thing. My wife went and bought a purse, she could buy that model. Those ones on the wall, those are limited only for select customers. If you want that purse, you have to buy these three other purses. So limited supply increases demand because people want it. So it creates this halo effect over the brand when other people have desire to own it. Here's a perfect example. I've been looking at the GT3RS. It's a Porsche, it's a very nice car. It's like 350,000 right now and it's not worth the price. If you actually look at the investment in that car versus the other cars in the supercar category because it's not to technically considered supercar. I know I'm gonna get some hate for that one. But you can't get it. And for some reason because I can't get it, I kind of want it. But what I've learned is what's rare is precious. And you can use this in your business by making certain offers, certain opportunities limited to a handful of people create the scarcity so it drives demand. Which leads us to principle number 11, which is the Pygmalion effect. Has someone's belief in you ever push you to achieve more? When I was 17, I found myself in jail and there was a guard that noticed my potential. And I'll be honest, his encouragement, his words, pushed me harder than I ever thought was possible. And I ended up working to get released to a rehab center and change my whole life. That one conversation transformed my internal belief of my value. It was because of this guard's belief in my potential. The Pygmalion effect, it's a real thing. When people have high expectations of someone, that person tends to put perform better because they want to live into the expectation the person has for them. See what one person believes the other can achieve. And it's the coolest thing in the world. Because every person has this superpower. Your expectation for somebody else actually shapes the outcome. If you believe they can do it and you tell them, you'd be surprised what they'll step into. And it doesn't take much. You could see somebody doing something on the side of the road. Take one second and just say, hey, I want you to know that's impressive. And then all of a sudden, that belief in them creates the reality in their world. The Pygmalion effect is one of the most powerful ways as a leader to get people to expand into the possibility for who they think they are. Most people are insecure about their capabilities and having somebody else express their confidence in who they are. I always tell people, like, borrow my confidence in who you are. If I'm working with you, I want you to know you're incredibly talented. And if you don't feel confident, that's okay. Just borrow mine. I think you're amazing. Dan thinks I can do it. I could probably do it. Yes, you can, because I'd rather you swing for the fences and miss than not take the swing in the first place. If you want to learn the top 15 laws of the top 1%, click the link and I'll see you on the other side. Thanks for listening to Martel Method. If you like this episode, could you do me a huge favor and go leave a review? This helps us get the podcast more ears and helps more people get unstuck, reclaim their freedom, and build their empire.