133. 10 Common Traits Of Our Successful Multi-Millionaire Friends

Outsource everything. Set yourself a minimum hourly rate of your personal time and anything below that hourly rate you outsource or you delegate or get rid of Furious. They'll optimize so not have to deal with any. They're also very good at saying no to a lot of things. They'll hire experts to help them achieve. A lot of my successful friends spend so much money on coaching and mentoring and advisors and consultants. Welcome back to another episode of the Ben and Bergs Podcast. I'm Ben, your favorite high school dropout and founder of collective shift alongside Ms. Burgs, your favorite MBA and CEO of Collective Shift. Join us as we bring you world class crypto research and strategies to help you dominate this crypto bull market as well as a behind the scenes view of us scaling a fully remote subscription research business. And if you like the Bennett's podcast, we'd love for you to subscribe if you're on YouTube or if you're on Apple podcast, Android, Spotify, wherever you are. If you leave us a follow that'll help us grow the podcast and bring this to you each and every week completely free where we try and digest the world of crypto and personal growth to help you win. Now today we're talking about what we've learned about spending time with successful multimillionaires. I recently moved in with one, he's a good mate of mine. He runs a massive marketing agency in Australia doing multiple millions of revenue per year in the, in the eight figures a year which is just absolutely awesome. And I obviously spent a lot of time with him and you know, a part of the, we're part of the entrepreneurs organization, Aaron and I, and we just get to spend a lot of time with some of the most successful founders. So the entrepreneurs organization, for example, there's a minimum revenue mark you need to be to even join that membership group. I think it's about 1, 1.2 million. And then there's events and groups and sessions and we go into another one tomorrow we get to just be around successful people and see what they're they're doing. And there's a lot of lessons bugs that I've learned from like you know, moving away from Tassie, you know, over here when I was just on my own and I joined the Group 3 EO three years ago to be and surround myself with smart people and constantly I'm the most dumbest guy in the room. And what you learn from these people that have done what you're trying to do is like a Cheat code to fast tracking your ability to become more successful and be like them because you can model yourself off what they do. And you know, compared to the everyday person, some of the things they do made are very different.

It's very counterintuitive, isn't it? And every month, you know, you catch up with them. You got your group, you've got your accountability group and you can take any challenges you have. Then you'll come away with like, you're like, nah, the world's ending, this is too hard, it's all over. And you come away with five or six strategies you never would have thought of.

Yeah, it's, it's awesome. And sometimes it's a little bit too much because you're like, it gets it not. It's not competitive, it's a little bit ego driven where like someone's always got the new tactic or the new thing that they're doing, or the new hire or the new product or the new business model or like always, everyone's always got that new thing that someone's doing and you walk away and you go, fuck, like I need. You know, you walk away with 12 things you think you should be doing and you can't possibly achieve three of them in the, in, you know, in the time that you want.

That's what I've noticed when I go to the larger EO trainings where there's, the founders are in there and they're exactly like that. Where they could like, I got this car or I hired this, or I'm using AI in this way, or I'm doing sales and it's just, oh, I've gone up like 50%. But in like the key executive program that I'm in, it's more like we're just like, this is where we're at. Like we all help each other. It's not like the brags of like what we're actually doing and how the business is going.

It feels like yours is like you're just, your group is just a bunch of smart people trying to fix the problems that we create.

Yes.

And we're over here just trying to figure out like, you know, who can get their credit card over the bar first to shelf that they're paying for drinks.

Like that's it. Or who could, who could drink the most or who could, who can like, you know, get the most phone numbers at the bar or whatever, even though you're married and like, and like with us essentially. So the founders of the visionaries and then the GMs and C levels are the executors. We bring that and integrators, we bring that vision to life. So it's more just complaining about our founders going, shit, they want this, how do we get it done? And they come away with some strategies to get it done.

But the commonalities, I think there's a few very similar themes across, like seeing successful people do what they do. And you know, I guess we just wanted to share some of that and even just for ourselves, like this is stuff that we've learned along the way and stuff that I have modeled myself on. But also there's a few things that don't also align, you know, with, with what I want to be doing and how to be spending my time. But so I guess, yeah, what we're trying to explain here is just like from the, the access that we've got, what are those common themes that these people are doing? And I think for starters, burgers. The biggest one that I see is they just outsource everything. Like these guys are not doing, you know, the basic normal everyday stuff that like, you know, mom and dads would be doing. Like they're outsourcing things, they're getting EAs to do things, they're getting cleaners, they're doing whatever they can to like make sure they're doing low value tasks. You know, it's saving a lot of time.

They're making sure that they're being used at their highest utility and they're trying to duplicate themselves constantly. They're always looking for points of leverage, whether that's an EA where you can download your brain and they can do things for you. Or this person can do this task 80% as well as I can. It needs to go to them. Or constantly syncing with people to let them know what's going on, your on in your head so they can execute. Or doing like the EOs, like the.

Management system where everyone in your company speaks the same language and they rate things the same way and everyone knows what's going on is that cohesion across everything. It's phenomenal.

I think what I see a lot of people doing, like a tactic that I've seen use pretty consistently is like some. You set yourself a minimum hourly rate. Yeah. Of your personal time and anything below that hourly rate, you outsource or you delegate or get rid of. So let's say you set yourself a $500, you know, hourly rate or $1,000, whatever might be anything below that, going grocery shopping, filling up your car, doing your washing, cooking, you know, Walking the dog, whatever those things might be that are lower than that, you're either delegate and get someone else to do. So you can utilize that time to do higher value things or you get rid of it altogether.

Yeah, that's exactly it. So the things, and Tim Ferriss has a beautiful little diagram on this. In the four hour work week, we'll put in the show notes about how to do a task and it's like, do you enjoy it? Yes. No. Is it like an obligation or revenue generating? Yes. No. And it's like eventually goes to okay, you need to do this or delegate it or eliminate it.

Yeah. And, and, and I think it also lines up with what you just said. Like they just don't do stuff they don't want to do.

Yeah.

There's a task or a project or you know, I'm trying to think like some of the, some of the common things like you know, a lot of it's around like cleaning, cooking, like basic admin duties. You just outsource the stuff that you don't want to do and you can replace that because if you count up like all the time you spend grocery shopping, walking the dog, cleaning, maybe trying to figure out what your gym routine is, like all these things you can, you know, like in individuality are quite small, but you add them all together, probably takes two, three, four hours, you know, a week that you're utilizing that you could be doing other things.

Yeah. And just think about the mental burden you have of doing that, like trying to figure things out, your schedule, doing extra things. So if you do all of those things, like the majority of people can do that and you know you're going to be competing with a lot of people and you're going to be very average or very burnt out, one of the two. But if you think about what are those things that I can automate, how can I get more time in my day? Where are the points of leverage? How can I be above average? You will be able to achieve more than the people that aren't doing those things. Yeah.

And even thinking about that, like even from a money perspective, another thing that I see a lot of people do, you know, and you do this quite well, like you taught me, a lot of this is like really going hard on your own personal finances and looking at like how you're utilizing your money, whether that be cash, you know, let's say you want to buy a car, using post tax dollars to buy that car. So you're, you know, you're paying the government 30 or 40% and then using the cash after that to buy a depreciating asset, you know, versus what someone with a business would do would be lease that vehicle. Look for government incentives, use pre tax dollars. You write off half of that with business, you know, expenses, you know, thinking about the ways you can get more out of your money than just bowing in and thinking for more of a poorer mindset.

Exactly right. And what you touched on here is they're always looking for opportunity. Every time I get together with EOers, they always come in, they're like, oh, did you hear about this, this government grant? Or I've got this trainee, how can I get them on this program? Or I'm going to go get a Tesla because the FB FB benefits are huge. They've always heard. Or like there's this new fund that I'm investing my money in and it gives me this return because they're using this point of leverage. There's always, they're always opportunity seeking so their little antenna are always up, always listening, saying, hey, what's new? What's out there? Who can I talk to? What's the latest thing I can implement to get more leverage and catapult myself forward.

Yeah, I love that very opportunistic, very shiny object syndrome. But then on the flip side, I think they're also very good at saying no to a lot of things. You know, I think ultimately like some of what I've learned as well, like, you know, it's taken a lot to also say no to like all the opportunities that come our way. Like there's just more and more things that you could be doing, but it's not about what you do, it's about what you don't do.

Yeah, I agree. I think I want to do a separation here between personal and business. So personally in the EOs that I've seen and successful people outside of EO, so this could be business owners, doctors, or even people that aren't that rich but have very successful lives, like maybe researchers or something like that, or educators. Personally, they say no to a lot of things. So they protect their time because they know if that time, like if they're doing something and they're like, I value my time at here or you know, this isn't going to get me in the direction they want. They're very clear on what they want to achieve and if what you want them to do takes their time and doesn't go towards them achieving it, they're not going to do it. They will have sometimes set Away for like volunteering and helping people out and generally good stuff. The majority time is no, I found when it comes to business because their antenna, they're always after opportunities. They'll bring in heaps of opportunities. They'll get super excited and oh my God, I went to this conference and they told me this and we need to implement this immediately. Not having thought things through and it's like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. We're in the middle of doing like, you know, this big transition is going to take another six months and you want us to drop that and do. Yeah, it only take a few days. Like this guy did it. His company is fucking amazing. And you, you are one of those guys you get, Yeah, I saw this guy. He's got this sales team. It's amazing. We need a sales room, we need a war room. We're going to fill it with a bunch of misfits. It's going to be like wolf Wall street, like, oh, he was almost out and out and now he's like a multi millionaire or billionaire, whatever it may be. And like, you need to bring it back. And like, okay, like, and what, what One of the EOs actually told me was his GM was like, okay, we can do that. But here's the thing. If we're going to do it, you first have to wait two weeks before we start it and we have to commit to it for 90 days. And he finds that after two weeks the excitement and energy has worn off. He's like, no, we're not doing that. And if you commit to it for 90 days and you'll go down a path of bull crap, then you know that like, okay, we're not going to put all that effort in and people have to commit to it and they have to work on it and that stops most of the kind of stuff. So I really see that separation between personal and business.

Yeah, that's a good point. And I think as you said, like, these people are very driven to, to get the results that they want. Like, and, and whether that's finding new opportunities to achieve that thing or by saying no to a lot of things to achieve that thing. Like they, they know what they want and it's like nothing will stop in their way to go and to go and do it. Like, they're very driven. Like, I don't mean any ers that are like, like that are not built that way, if that makes sense.

I find that people that achieve success in their lives, whatever that is to them, whether it's sport, business, family, raising Your children the way you want, whatever it is, having money.

They do it because they're very clear on their vision. They know what they want unequivocally. And I think a lot of people don't put the time in to understand what they want. They like, I want to be rich, want to be on a beach. Like no. What, what drives you? What do you want to do in your day to day? And you have to be very clear. You got to wake up every morning, you got to stuff your head with that vision. That is the only thing that you go for. And everything you do must align to that. And you can move and you can change along the way. But the majority of people don't do it. What do they do? They wake up, you go on your phone, your head's already getting stuffed with things that other people want to put in there. You go to work, you're fulfilling someone else's vision. It's like, what are the things that you want to do? You can go to work and that's fine, but you need to define what you want in your life and stick to it and every day work towards that goal.

Yeah man, I totally agree. And another way they do that to get to the place they want to be, if they don't know the path to get there is they'll hire experts or people that have done it before to help them achieve that thing. Yeah, you know, that's one of the biggest things. Like I, a lot of my successful friends spend so much money on coaching and mentoring and advisors and consultants and all this sort of stuff to help them achieve what they want to do. You know, whether that's getting a pt, where that's getting a, a marketing advisor, with getting a CEO coach, whether that's getting a relationship coach, like so many of these different, different areas of your life, you can either go and figure it out yourself and spend the time making the mistakes and learning the lessons and trying to figure out what the fuck you're supposed to be doing. Or you can just go and spend money on someone that's done it before. That can help you get there faster and save a bunch of time. And I see so many of my business friends that are successful that like will, will nearly not do anything new without paying for someone to help guide them.

Exactly right. And think about it. In life, you either spend your time or your money. Time's the most valuable, non renewable resource. And if you've got something that you've heard about that can help you achieve your vision, let's just Say you're unfit and you don't have energy. You need more energy in the day. You go get a pt, you don't start going to the gym and trying to figure it out. You pay for a pt, you go there. Day one, you've already got an expert, and you're way ahead of where you would be if you did it yourself. Yes, you need to burn down on your cash, but it is the fastest path to get you to where you want to go.

Yeah, Yeah, I totally agree, man. And with that as well, they put themselves first. I think this was a great point that we. We put here. Like, they know that, you know, because a lot of the. And the most successful people that I know, like, have optimized their life to a point where they don't even do that much work anymore. Like, yeah, they optimize to do only the most valuable things they could do the things that they enjoy the most. And they put themselves first. Like, they're spending more time with their friends, they're spending more time with their family, you know, more time off than their actual businesses.

That's it. They've structured their business so it can run without them. They only need them for certain critical tasks, but that's it. They stop there. They only do the critical tasks, and they trust other people to go and execute the other things. They're not running around like headless chalks doing a million things. Like, no, the business is structured to run without them so they can live the life they want. And you brought this to me. You actually said it. They use business as a vehicle to live the lives they want.

That, and that is the most important thing. If I. If there's something that I've learned from these people, it is his business is just a vehicle. They might not like the product, right? Like, one of my mates runs a coffee bean business, right? He likes coffee, but he's not in love with coffee beans. But he has a sick business that he's been doing for 10 or 12 years that he owns 100% of that he hires and he's hired a GM and he pays a GM and a good salary with a revenue share who does majority of the work and just makes a fat. A fat salary and a fat dividends every quarter and lives life like, awesome. He plays golf two or three times a week. Like, that's exactly it.

And it doesn't have to be business as a vehicle for your life. It can be investing your money as a vehicle for your life or a job as a vehicle for your life. So even if you have to work 40 hours a week, if it's flexible working and you can do stuff before and after work and pick your kids up or, you know, it's not super stressful and it pays you well, like, they're all vehicles to be able to live the life that you want and structure it in the way that you want.

Yeah, yeah, totally agree. And, and with the life they structure, I think some of the smaller things as well, like they'll just optimize to not have to deal with any. And what I mean by that is like, you know, for example, right, they're going on a trip. They're not getting up, packing their bags, and then ordering, you know, an Uber X in the morning and getting some guy showing up who's probably going to, you know, crash the car on the way there and he's on his phone and, you know, like, it's, there's, there's a car or a chauffeur that's already pre organized with a guy you already know who does your bags, who rolls your bags in. You're flying business class. You don't go through the main line of the airport security. You go through the VIP line, You get on the plane, you sleep on the plane. You have a good feed. You're not up in economy saving a bit of money. Like you, you pay for the, I'd say luxury, but also you pay for the, like that ability just to skip all the nonsense.

You're paying, yeah, you're paying for convenience. They understand how much that is actually worth. And people are like, oh, and this is a big mind shift for me. So I'm always like, oh, business class is like, let's say $4,000 more. I'm like, well, I'd rather spend that on my holiday. And that's because given the money I've got and the way I think about money, but the reality is, why not just go for it? Earn heaps more money so I can live the life that I want. But that, that is what this whole thing is about. It's like, if you want to live a life that costs you $250,000 per year, go make $250,000 per year. Or your alternative is to live the life you have now, earn $100,000 per year and live that life. And obviously you don't just go there overnight. It's something you have to structure over a decade or two to get to that level of where you want to live. And you have that choice. Do you keep growing and spending Money and getting to that level so you can have all of those conveniences or are you happy with what you've got now?

Yeah, yeah, 100%. And, and, and we, we should probably preface in saying that, you know, not everyone has to live or should or want to live the life that these people live. I think, like, you know, to your point, that burks, like, I think for a lot of these people it's like, it's not a. And even I've been thinking about this a little bit more recently. It's like, you know, trying to reframe your thinking from can I afford this or how can I afford this or what do I need to cut to do that? Versus how can I just earn more or make more to do those things? Like, rather for thinking from this like scarcity mindset, looking at it from an abundance mindset and thinking, what could I do to achieve that?

Because we, scarcity is also like guilt and shame, like, why am I spending all this money? Why am I doing this? But that's a very like closed, fixed up mindset. Whereas if you're like, how can I afford to do that? And again, this is not like people have this concept of having a rich life as being able to afford whatever you want, not looking at your credit card.

Buying the best of everything. That's not reality. A rich life is. You get to choose what you spend on. So it might be something like for me, I will never compromise on food. I have the best food, I shop at the best places. I have the best like of that, right? But then there's things that I don't care so much about. I don't care that much about clothes. Like I wear T shirts and shorts, right? Or people might, I don't have like, I've got a car, but it's not like top of the range to be fancy, $200,000 car, right? But I still like that. And like, I won't compromise on things like in my house or schooling or whatever it may be, but other areas, I don't care. And you get to choose where you have those areas in your life. And I find business people do that quite well. Like a lot of them are like, they have comparisons, right? Where they'll live in a really fancy area. And they're like, okay, well I'll live one suburb over, right? Because these guys are like extreme and they've got the big house, the big boat, the big whatever. And a lot of the EOs, I know they used to compete there, but now they're like, I'LL live one suburb over. Don't really need a boat. I'll go out on their boat. They've got the super fancy car. I'll live here. And they have that kind of level of comfort. It's still a very rich life. But then, like, they go, oh, I'll go on a bigger holiday, you know, I'll go fly first class. I'll do this, I'll do that. You get it? Really get to choose what's important to you.

Yeah, I mean, that's the most important, right? Because I think we've also met a lot of people with it. Fake. Fake that they have what they want. Right. Or, like, you know, they're leveraged up to the tits. They're actually, like, in. In, like, excruciating debt.

Like, you can. You can see it on their face. You can always smell it when you stand next to them. Just, like, them trying to. You've met them in one second, they're telling you what they've got and showing you their bank account, their watches. I'm like, bro, are you okay? Like, seriously, I love their suits. And, like, that's how they signal that they're worth something. And it's like, no, we could just talk, you know, about how you're doing and your family. Like, we don't need all that kind of stuff. It is crazy.

And that is the downside, I think. Not the downside, but you do get that other side of.

Eo. But even just spending time with those people, like, especially new people, like, I feel as though some people just have a point to prove, and it can just become a little bit of an ego. Okay, who's got a bigger dick contest?

Oh.

Which I don't really. It's just not that.

I don't care. It's like, don't tell me about how good your life is. Like, tell me about what's your biggest problem? Like, what's it like? Tell me the real story. Like, what's really going on.

So I had this thing. Like, I've had this for decades. Whenever I meet people, I want to know who they are. And it's like, especially when there's a new friend that comes into the group, and I'm like, I kind of, like, poke and prod, and I want to know something. Like, what are you passionate about?

Or what are you really into?

Or what do you really hate? And when you find a thing, you're like, oh, yes. You're like, great. This is who you are. They're like, I hate it when people do this thing or just like, I'm mad for like marathons or something like that. They just get really into it, like, who are you and what do you do?

Yeah.

Oh yeah, that's good. And look, we got a couple more things here and we've talked about this, just briefly touched on it, but I want to go deeper. These people, all of them have a good team around them. They trust experts and they don't micromanage them. This is so important. I've found. They just fulfill them with the vision where they want to go and they're not like, do this task, do this, do that, because they value their time and they don't want to piss that person off if that person isn't doing the right thing. They'll bring in and be like, hey, look, let me tell you again, this is my vision. This is where I want to go and give them more guidance and direction. But they don't micromanage these people.

It's fascinating. I was listening to a podcast yesterday and one of the quotes was that he mentioned like, B grade players don't complain about how much work they have on because A grade players love how much they have got going on and they want to work around other A grade players. And I'm like, that makes so much sense. And if you can have a team of A grade players around you 100%, like all, all the business owners that, that have great quality companies that aren't doing too much, have a great team to run it like that, that's the end of the day. Like you've got to have great people that can run the show and. But you've got to be able to instill that vision and that, that belief in those people to go and do it and not micromanage. Because I think once you go into that realm and you starting to track people's time and you're, you're installing software on their computer to see what they're doing, like there's no trust there.

Nonsense. Yeah, absolutely not. You get them to justify their time. Who wants to work for a person like that? That's just crazy.

Yeah.

And man, they put themselves first. This is a key one. So they put their physical health first, their mental health, then their families, then their sport or whatever they want to do and then it's their business. That's the hierarchy that they have.

That was one of the guys that I had up in my business course up in on the Gold Coast, a guy that, who was 78 years old, third generation property company, family business, $800 million plus revenue per year. He came in and said for his whole life running his company, the three orders of his life were family and friends, sport, then business. Business always came last. Yeah. And he. He's doing 800 million a year in revenue.

That's amazing, mate. That's. That's definitely the way to be. And I just love that they. It's like the. You put the oxygen mask on yourself first, right? You need to look after yourself first. After you're looked after, you can look after everyone else. We've made this mistake where we put the business first. We end up burning out, getting sick. You see it all the time. And I think you need to go through that cycle quite a few times to actually learn it and understand it. Because you kind of think like, oh, these guys are making so much money, it's a privilege, but you need to structure your business that way from the start or your life that way or your job that way. So it actually serves you.

Yeah, great.

And one thing I've just thought of as well, when I think about these people is they're always meeting new people. They're always happy to have a chat, meet someone new. You know, they might get a new perspective or they might find out some new information. They like talking to people in different kind of fields. It'll always like, kind of like catch up for a coffee, that kind of thing. It's like there's a regular cycle of meeting new people and it goes along with that stimulus and exposure because they want to be on the pulse, they don't want to be left behind. They need to know what's going on and. And they're always asking questions. Ben, have you noticed that? Like, furious. Yeah. Like, we've got a guy in EO and he was like, kind of stressed out about his business and he went to lunch with a billionaire. And this guy's just chilling and he's got 60 businesses and he's like, bro, how do you structure that? How do you have 60 businesses and you'll relax. He's like, tell me everything. And then he started learning, like, he's like, this is how I do it. These are the meetings that I have. This is why I don't have to worry because that person owns that business. I only have like a one hour weekly meeting with them. It's just incredible. They always, they're not afraid to ask the pointed question and find out the answer. Like, how does that work? The guy that you live with as well runs a very successful business. He's exactly the Same. He'll go up, he'll talk to the old guys. He'd be like, tell me how this works. Like, what do you do? Tell me everything. Just absorbs it like a sponge.

Yeah. I think you have to be. I think. I think that learning mindset, like, always looking for progress and growth and learning new things and new skills and new ideas, like, that's. That's a part of it. I think if you start to have a closed mindset and start to think that you know everything well, that's when things start to start to turn around.

Yeah. And most people won't ask the question because they don't want to be vulnerable. They want to seem knowledgeable. But I find that in. And that that's in a lot of jobs where it's a status game, but in business where it's a wealth game. You know, these people have had the problems you've had, and there's no bullshit. You just got to cut through it and be like, how do you do this? And they'll help you out because they've been in your position.

I love it, mate. I think that's a really good roundup of. Of things that we find anyway, are the most common among successful people. And maybe. Maybe you've got some successful friends as well. Maybe you are successful yourself. I wonder if there's anything else that, you know, we've missed from here. We'd love to hear from you. You can either tweet at us at Ben and Bergs on Twitter or if you're on Spotify, you can actually leave a. Leave a question at the bottom. Feel free to let us know what you think. We missed anything. And we hope you find this valuable. As I said at the start, if you like listening in, we'd love for you to give us a follow on your podcasting app or give us a subscribe on YouTube. It helps us grow the podcast by getting us in front of new people. And we'll continue to bring this to you every single week completely free. And we thank you so much for listening in. It's awesome to continue doing it. And we're slowly growing burks. We're getting there. More and more people are joining the journey.

I love it, mate. We're just going to keep growing and keep building. And thank you, champions for listening.

Thanks, guys.