IGNITE - Weekly Growth Meeting

Really? So I try to like see. Today might be YouTube. Oh man, I did arms today. Oh, you did? It hurt. Do you do like shoulders with your arms? Yeah, I do. Yeah, I do. Uh, so we try to do shoulders, arms, which is so shoulders, biceps, triceps, and then do chest and back and abs. You do? Yeah, yeah, it does. There's— you're not wrong, you're not wrong. All right, ladies and gentlemen, how are you? How are you? How are you? Um, Avery, when that Craig gets back, just do me a favor, okay, babe? The minute he walks in, walk up and just— okay, okay, you can do that. Appreciate you. Yeah, I can read her lips. All right, uh, Mariko's camera is not working. Are you getting plugged up, Mariko? Um, yes, I don't know why I can't— oh, look, here we go. You got it, buddy. There you go. Good job. Good job. We missed you this morning in the gym, bud. What'd you say? I said we missed you this morning working out. Oh yeah, I end up having to drive because the flights start getting delayed, so I end up— oh, that's what happened. Yeah, I got notification that you canceled the flight and I didn't know if you did decide to go ahead and drive down or what the What's your— right, yeah, so one of my, one of my friends is already in Little Rock that lives in Dallas, so like I didn't want the flights to get canceled because some of the lights went off in Little Rock, Arkansas. Oh, so I got in late. We ended up driving last night and I got in. I was gonna say, what time did you get here? Midnight? Nice. All right, good morning, good morning, good morning everybody. We are going to kick this off, um, oh It is June 8th, and we have been working with the series The War Within, coming out of the Committed series, where we all decide in our lives, are we interested in a better life? Are we truly committed? And more times than not, when we actually make that emotional, verbal commitment to saying, I want more out of life, I want to have a better life, life starts fighting back. And I can promise you this, there's a lot of methodology, there's a lot of studies done on it. You know, when we're comfortable, when we just— I don't say cower down, but, but kind of cower down to just accepting life as it is— kind of not hard. You know, it's a comfort zone. It's a It's a place in our life that there's really no disruption, but there's also no growth. And when we finally decide that we're tired of living paycheck to paycheck, we're tired of, you know, when a catastrophic event happens, a car breaks down, water heater breaks or medical bills, and we just have to liquidate our savings and we finally say we're done and we say we're committed, so we're going to do more. Now you're going against the tide. So good morning, everybody. I'm Dr. Toby Potter, The Unshakeable Investor. This is the Ignite Series program. And as you— as we talk about being committed, there's a battle that takes on that's within us. You know, I've heard many, many analogies of that. There's a— there's a dark wolf and a white wolf. A black wolf and a white wolf that lives within us. The black wolf is evil, is bad, is comfort, is drift, is mediocrity, is just, you know, that. And then the white wolf is success, is glory, is happiness, is fulfillment, is God-filled. And they're both equally strong. But it said that the one you feed is the one that wins. So do we feed that comfort? Do we feed that I'm only interested, or do we feed that I'm committed? And when we, when we start feeding it, this battle takes on, and we've been talking about it. And so last week we talked about drift and we talked about that, you know, drift is the devil's way of, of showing you that you're not ready, showing you that You know, I can— I need to take care of this first, or I need to get this resolved first, or I'll start tomorrow. But all these excuses, and that's what we're going to talk about today, is the War Within, Module 3, the War Against Excuses. And so we're going to jump into that because most of us have said the excuses so many times. That we now believe it to be the truth. And it's by far the truth. And when we understand, when we fully understand our purpose and our calling, and we recognize and realize what's been holding us back, it's so much easier to face the battles. Um, I will tell you, and, and, um, when you have an illness, when you have a pain, when you have a situation and you don't know what it is, you don't know what's causing it, your mind takes off and it comes up with all these catastrophic situations. And more times than not, our mind creates this, this fear of this disastrous problem that's not real. But the minute we recognize what the pain— or what's causing the pain, what's causing the illness— it's so much easier to deal with because now we have something to focus on and we know that there's, there's a result at the end of this. I want us to understand life is the same exact way, and I'm trying to, I'm trying to, to just to bring this to surface today, that it really resonates with everybody, that you understand why you are where you are. Zig Ziglar said it better than anybody, that everybody is exactly where they chose to be in their life. You are exactly where you are based upon the choices you've made. And if you don't like where you are, then look at the choices that you made, recognize them, and then determine what new or different choices you need to make to be able to get to where you want to be. And that's what the Ignite program is, is all about. It's all about being able to fully understand and diagnose what's holding you back. And once you see it, once you recognize it, it's an easier battle. When I was growing up wrestling, we would walk in and you'd— back in, back in the '70s and '80s, I don't know if many of you were around back then, but we we had brackets on the wall and the bracket would be your weight class and it'd be 20, 30, 40 kids in there. And of those, only a few of the studs did you know who they were. Everybody else you didn't know. So we would immediately would say, okay, who's my next match with? And on the first round you didn't have the ability, but on the second round you'd say, hey, I got, I'm getting ready. I won my match. So I'm getting ready to wrestle this guy and he's up now, right now on mat 3. 3. And so we go over there and watch and watch them wrestle. And we knew we had to wrestle the winner of that match. And it gave us the ability to see who our opponent was, who we were getting ready to go to battle with. And from that, seeing it and understanding it would build confidence or fear. And so, but the minute we saw, the minute we understood, you could put a plan in place. And I could see their weakness and I could see how the other person was able to score, maybe not even win the match, but score. What common denominators and how I could move forward with an attack. When you fully see what's holding you back, when you fully understand the resistance, you can, if you are truly committed, as we talked about in the last series, If you're truly committed, you will put a plan in place to overcome your excuses to achieve the results you're looking for. And I want us all to really dig into this today and think about your own life because I can promise you as we go through this, this is going to resonate with all of you. So the war within, the war against excuses, the stories destroying your future. Most people don't fail because life is hard. They fail because they become experts at explaining why they can't win. And it drives me crazy. They've said it so many times to themselves that they actually believe it. Say this slowly and then let it land. Every excuse sounds reasonable. Every excuse feels justified. It comes wrapped in logic, dressed up in circumstances, and delivered with complete sincerity. But here's the truth most people never wanna face. Every excuse sounds reasonable. See, you've said it so many times, or maybe other people have said it. So if everybody is thinking this, then there must be some truth to it. Every excuse feels justified. Well, that makes sense. Emotions and circumstances combined to make an inaction feel not just acceptable, but necessary. We're going to go into this deeper, so I'm not even going to try to get off into rabbit trails. And that's a trap. Every excuse sounds reasonable. The mind is masterful at constructing believable narratives. Your excuses will always make sense. Your excuses will always make sense. So many times in coaching, we talk to people and we hear their life story. How much they want to get into real estate, how much they want to have a better life, how much they would love to achieve this financial freedom. And we say, hey, then if you're ready and willing and committed, then we just need an investment from you, a payment. Oh, oh, well, I can't do that. Well, why not? Timing's not right. Not for me. We have surveys that are sent out, and so many times it comes back and says, I understood it. It was very well explained. It just wasn't for me. That's an excuse. Being broke is for you. Living paycheck to paycheck is for you. Being miserable, getting up each and every day, driving to a job that you hate is for you. And then every excuse here— I love this one the most— has a cost, and that cost is compounding daily. The price is not— that's not paid today. It's paid in the currency of your future. See, either you pay for your future today or you pay for it tomorrow. Either you make a commitment, a decision to have a better future, a better life, a better fulfillment, Today you make that decision and then you sacrifice for that, or you don't and you sacrifice for the rest of your life. This is what most people just fully don't understand. The most expensive thing that you'll ever own is an excuse that you refuse to let go. The cost is your future, and your future is non-negotiable. It's non-negotiable. The War Against Excuses: The Story That Destroys Your Future. That's what we're going to discuss today. The most dangerous lie. This lie comes from the others. People lie to you. They minimize your potential. They question your ability, and they project their own limitations into your world. These lies sting, but they're visible. You can identify them, reject them, and move on if you chose. You can see where so-and-so's limitations is holding me back. You have the ability to reject that and move on with your own dreams. Or we start telling ourselves the same lies. And this lie is a lie that destroys your future. The lie that you are the author of the narrative and you repeat it with absolute conviction. And the biggest lie is one, one of two, is number one, the timing is not right. It's the most When we want to get out of our comfort zone into a better opportunity, we know we would love to be there, but then the first thing that happens is that we start thinking about all the things that's going on in our world right now, first and foremost. Secondly, then we start thinking about, well, what if it doesn't work? What if I fail? And therefore we say, well then, if that's the case, if the outcome is potentially negative, then I need to be better prepared. So right now is not the right time for me to make this move, to make this decision. It's the biggest lie we live in our life. The most dangerous lie is not the one someone tells you, it's the one that you tell yourself. You hear the noise around you. And you, and you hear how so-and-so may have tried to do this or tried to do that and failed. And therefore you say, well, I don't want to do that. I don't want to fail. I don't want to be seen as a failure. So therefore I want to be better prepared. This is that overthinking that we talked about last week. That's that overanalyzing. That's I have to have everything perfect first before I go down that road. And that is an excuse that you're living a lie. The lies we tell ourselves out loud— here we go. These are not hypotheticals. These are the exact phrases that have quietly derailed thousands of lives. And I need you guys to hear this. It is so important that you fully understand. I don't have enough time. Total nonsense. You have 24 hours in a day like everybody else. The difference is, where do you choose to spend that time? Most of us get busy doing nothing. Most of us have a routine that is hard to break out of. Therefore, you're right. Look at Toby, I put 12 hours in today and I get that. What did you accomplish? And is it the same 12 hours you've been putting in for the last week, month, year? If so, stop. That's where— this is where I need this to resonate internally with you. This is where I need you to fully understand and fully Think about your own life. Put a mirror in front of you and say, is this me? I don't know. I'm not sitting beside you. I would love to. And with our coaching, with our students that we coach, we are sitting beside them. We have accountability. But if you say, I just don't have enough time to start another project, let's stop and think about the projects you're doing. Are they getting you where you need to be, want to be, not need to be, want? Zig Ziglar said it, people will do exactly what they want to do. If you want to stop drinking, you will. If you want to stop smoking, you will. If you want to stop being broke, you will. But if the sacrifice to do that is bigger than your willpower, then you'll come up with an excuse to say, well, you know, I can do that tomorrow. I'm too old. Holy cow, ladies and gentlemen. Colonel Sanders started his franchise at the age of 62. Vera Wang started designing at the age of 40. Ray Kroc didn't even start McDonald's until the age of 52. You're not too old. I'll tell you when you're too old, ladies and gentlemen. When you're on your deathbed at the age of 35, 45, 65, 95, it doesn't matter. When there's no more time, now you're too old and it's too late. That's what I want you to understand. I'm too young, I don't have enough experience and knowledge. I don't hear that too often. I hear it every now and then. But today's tools, resources, technology, the younger you are and the sooner you get started, the quicker your success will be. And I don't think we have too many young ones on here. I need to learn first. This drives me crazy. This drives me just crazy. I need this. Going back to this, I need to have more information and have more understanding, more clarity. I have to have everything, all my ducks in a row. That is somebody's lie that you're now living. The one— this one's disguised as wisdom. You know, once I have all the knowledge, all they're sending me, Toby, that's the smart move. Well, I'm going to tell you, ladies and gentlemen, we fly the plane while we're building it. Okay, we fly the plane while we're building it. And we build empires. So I don't agree with this, but most of the time it's sophisticated procrastination dressed in intellectually clothing. Action takes and teaches what you need to know. Here's what I will tell everybody. You don't know what you don't know. So what good is it to spend weeks, months, years being educated to be educated in the wrong information. I want you to think about that. You don't know what you need to know because you don't know what path you're going down. And until you start traveling down that path, do you then understand the information that you need to continue moving forward? And then, of course, this one we've already talked about. I'll start next month. Next month becomes next quarter becomes next year becomes next decade. I'll start tomorrow. Biggest lie we always tell ourselves. I'll start when our savings account gets to here. I'll start when the kids move out. I'll start here. I'll start there. And it's just an excuse. There is no tomorrow. There is no tomorrow. Today is the only day that matters. It's no different than the, the March— was it March of 100 Miles or whatever? Oh yeah, yeah, that's going on right now. Yeah, yeah. One step at a time. One step at a time. So I'll tell you a parable. A horse and a young kid was traveling through the woods late, late night. Foggy, terrible visibility. And the kid was scared. And the horse said, son, why are you so scared? He said, well, I just— I can't see the path in front of me. I can't see where we're going. He said, but can you see the ground right below your feet? He said, yeah, then all you have to worry about is taking that next step. Only worry about taking the next step. We can't see what tomorrow brings. We're not God. But we believe in faith. We believe in our abilities and we believe in an opportunity, but we're so scared to take advantage of it because we're so worried about trying to have a guarantee of success. And let me tell you, ladies and gentlemen, The success is not the story, the journey is. And you're going to fail. And if you don't, you're not trying hard enough. Well, Toby, I don't, I don't want to fail. Nobody wants to fail, but you will. Accept it because that's what makes you so powerful. That's what makes you so invaluable. To those around you that says, wow, this, this, this person failed, but yet rose above. This person was able to be beat down, was able to be distraughted, and yet they didn't give up. And now look at what they have. See, they have all these rewards, but they also have battle scars. And that's what's impressive. If you ever watch a war movie or an action movie, the hero is always beaten up, shot, stabbed, butt kicked multiple times. But because they don't quit, they're triumphant. In real life stories, when you hear, like the movie The Lone Survivor, The Navy SEALs that were in Afghanistan, they got annihilated. The one SEAL that made it through to tell the story was shot, stabbed, beaten, exhausted, near death several times. But he had success because he didn't quit. Life is the same way, ladies and gentlemen. Excuses are lies. We tell ourselves these stories not because they're the truth, but because they make inaction feel tolerable. They're self-constructed fiction that we have chosen to live as a fact. The moment you call an excuse what it actually is, as a design to protect your comfort, everything changes. The minute you can diagnose it, the minute you can see it, the minute you can recognize it, it changes everything. Because one of two things now happen. One of two things now happen. Either you push it aside and say, no more am I going to use that excuse, or the guilt within you starts eating at you. Your self— your subconscious now starts taking over, said, hey, you recognize that as an excuse, you recognize that as the reason why you're not growing and building, but you're still succumbing to it. Your internal body will tell you, your mind will tell you the things we're talking about today, what you're accepting as a lie and what you're moving past. See, discomfort is the price for growth. Every time you choose an excuse over action, you are choosing a smaller version of your life. A smaller version of you. You're accepting to be mediocre. You're accepting to be less than great. The truth is uncomfortable, but it's the only thing that can set you free. If you're struggling in your life, and maybe it's not a massive struggle, maybe, maybe it's just little things that you're wanting to achieve. Wanting to accomplish that you're struggling with, or it may be catastrophic. It may be a marriage. It may be, I'm sick of this job. I'm sick of the, you know, every month I have to budget for my bills. I'm sick of it. And figure out what excuses it is that you're accepting as the gospel truth. Maybe even write them down. If you really want more, if you're really committed, like we talked about in the last series, write those excuses down, the ones that you think are true, and then analyze it. Is this really the situation I'm in, or am I just being comfortable? Am I just being conservative? Am I just being, you know, a good steward? See, I hear that all the time. Well, Toby, the Bible says that we should be a good steward, so therefore I can't go carelessly into life. I don't think the Bible ever says that. Look at Jesus Christ himself. Do you think he went conservatively into the life? Do you think he went, you know, quiet into the night? No, he was the most disruptive person during the time. There was no caution. In fact, well, you know, not only did he throw caution to the wind, he was the wind. So don't tell me, well, that's what good stewardship is. No, it's not. Show me in the Bible where it says that, because I can't find it. In fact, when I go to the person that I admire the most, Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior, I look at his life, his 3 years on on this earth, and he was the most disruptive. He went against everything that the rules, the laws, and the leaders and his ancestors had spoke about. He disrupted it all, was extremely uncomfortable every second of every minute of every day. If he could do it, why can't you? And don't use the Christianity as your excuse. I guarantee you that'll be your biggest downfall. Nowhere does the Bible say be conservative, be of sound mind and body, and, and, and make sure you got all your ducks in a row before you take on a challenge. In fact, it says just the opposite. It says live by faith and trust that I am the Lord. You're God. Trust and believe in me and I will deliver you. I'll show you 10 to 1 verses, 20 to 1, 30 to 1 verses that says go as you are called and don't worry about anything but trust and believe in me. What is an excuse? An excuse is a story. It's not a fact. An excuse is a story. I want you guys to hear that one sentence. An excuse is a story. It's not a fact. Carefully constructed narrative designed to make inaction feel not just acceptable, but logical, reasonable, and even victorious. The human mind is an extraordinary— extraordinarily gifted at writing these stories, and it does it automatically and convincingly. See, the human mind will construct reasons for you to be comfortable. The human mind will give you all the fear that you've trained it to do. It's natural because we were raised this way. You want to know why only 2% of the world has great success? Because their mind is different. Their mind says, "I will," not that, "I can't." The words "I can't" never come out of their mouth. The words that, you know, "I can't today," "I can't right now," the words "I can't" never come out of their mouth. More times than not, they'll say, "Let's do it. Let's put a plan together and figure out how." Excuses are not born out of laziness. They're born out of self-preservation. When the brain perceives threat, whether that threat is failure, rejection, or the unknown, and we talked about medical issues, we don't know why we're feeling this way, we get scared, we get anxious, we start coming up with our own reasonings or anxieties. It fires the excuse generation engine that protected you from this discomfort. The real definition, an excuse is a story designed to make inaction feel acceptable. Every one of you that have these ambitions and that have not acted on it, think about why that is. Didn't have the money. Didn't have the know-how. Didn't have the support. Timing wasn't right. Excuse, excuse, excuse, excuse. And I could go on and on and on and on. You need to ask yourself, each and every one of you, what is the reason why I am not sitting on a beach right here, right now, today, living my best life? My excuse? Because I'm here teaching you guys about excuses. Why is it that I don't have all the fulfillment that I've ever wanted in life? If you're struggling in your marriage, financially, both relationships, it doesn't matter. If there's something that's not working right in your life, ask yourself why. That person was a jerk. No, that person wronged me. Too damn bad. Until you can become grateful for everything you have, good, bad, or indifferent, nothing will change. Excuse says you don't have to do this. Here's why it's not impossible. Here's why now isn't the right moment. Here's why you're not the right person. That's an excuse. And the devastating part is the story is always told in your own voice. Therefore, you believe it the most. I lost control. There we go. Here's what excuses help you avoid. This is the architecture of the excuse. It appears to protect you, but what it's actually protecting you is from the very experience that would transform your life for all eternity. Here's the 4 things that excuses shield you from and why each one is costing you everything. Ladies and gentlemen, I want you to, We're gonna go slow on this, right? These 4 excuses right here will stop you from being the most successful person you can ever be in any facet of your life. Responsibility. Are you taking responsibility for who you are to become? If there's always an external reason that you never have to look inward. Avoiding responsibility feels like relief, but it strips you from the one thing that could change your life. See, I get so tired of when I hear, oh, if this would have taken place, I could have done more. If that would have happened, I'd have had more. If this person would have done their part, I'd have done more. In fact, ladies, I'm going to tell you, I've used this as we're building this coaching program and as we're launching. I've never had to work my ass off as hard as I have lately to achieve something that in my mind should have happened overnight. In my mind, for who we are, what we've done, what we offer. This should have been an overnight success, a literally overnight success. And I've been so upset for so long because this person didn't do what they said and that person did. And then I realized, Toby, stop. See, I had to take responsibility and quit passing the buck. And I've shared with you guys 100 times, these courses, this Ignite courses, is impacting me more than I could ever imagine. But see, if I can improve, if I can learn, I know, damn sure know, you guys can improve. Because I'm right next to perfect. We talk about there's God, there's Trump, and then there's me. And so if I have imperfections along that, then, you know, I gotta fix it. And if I need fixing, Lord knows you all got a lot of work to do. Number 1, number 1, responsibility. Number 2, failure. You cannot fail at something you never attempt. I love this statement. You can't fail at anything you don't ever attempt. So you need to be failing every frickin' day. Every day you need to fail. Because through that becomes growth. From that becomes education. The information that you've been seeking comes from failing. The information, the education, the transformation come from taking action. Rejection. Oh my gosh. Oh my gosh. Les Brown says it better than anybody. What other people think about you is none of your damn business. And I want to— when I heard that, it was probably 6 months ago in one of his speeches, and I'm like, oh wow. See, I thought that I needed to be, um, this, this inspiration to all, and I needed everybody to think that, that I have the information, I have the knowledge, I have the skill set, so therefore I'll fall. No, it does— because you're never going to please everybody. Somebody's always gonna find a flaw. And if you're so worried about those that find flaws, you're gonna destroy the ones that do believe in you. Putting yourself forward means risking a no. Excuses keep you safe and invisible. But invisibility is not safety. It's a slow assurance that your potential from the world will never be seen. Rejection. Who cares? Who cares? In all honesty, ladies and gentlemen, you want your community, and that's all you need to worry about. There's 8 billion people in this world. Don't try to please them all. Try to find your community and those people. Birds of the same feather will flock together. And then accountability. Responsibility and accountability goes hand in hand. When I take responsibility, I now hold myself accountable to my actions, my activity, my results. I will tell you, my two oldest brothers have always worked together. They built several different companies together, but the last one they built, they— they— and I had the opportunity to come work for them early in life, 25, 30 years ago. And I chose not to. Number one, I didn't like them, much less want to go work for them. But one of the things growing up, I was always that black sheep of the family. I was the kid that was rebellious. I was the kid that had all these dreams, all these aspirations, all this life is better outside this farm. And as fast as I can get outside this farm, I'm going to go. And they weren't. They were like, oh, this is Dad's farm. It's our duty as a job. So when they started their company together, I chose no. And I've always said, if it's going to be, it's up to me. And so as I started building my companies and they started building theirs, and there was this argument back and forth, as brothers do, comparing success to success, I said, you know, I'm glad you guys are having great success. How would you be doing it by yourselves? Because see, I'm doing this by myself. I'm accountable for what I achieve. I don't have you guys to lean on. And when I have success, it's by my drive. I don't care about what they do. I can only control what I do. Accountability demands performance. It demands standards. Excuses eliminate accountability. By making every outcome someone else's fault and some circumstances and consequences. See, be accountable for your inaction. When you don't take accountability for your laziness, when you don't take accountability for your inaction, then therefore you are making an excuse. Stop, stop. Why do I keep losing that? Okay, yeah, but they also help you avoid growth. This is the devastating truth: every single thing excuses protect you from— failure, rejection, accountability, responsibility— is precisely the raw material that growth is made from. See, if you're not falling flat each and every day, ladies and gentlemen, let me tell you, you have already succumbed to mediocrity. If you're not failing every single day, somewhere you are not driving hard enough. Well, Toby, that just seems like that's just negative. No, moving forward regardless is the most positive thing you can ever do. Moving, especially in today's society when everything is going at lightning speed, technology, communication, marketing, everything is going so damn fast. If you're not moving forward, you will get passed up. And then you're going to come up with, see, the time just wasn't right. It wasn't for me. It's not in my cards. Holy shit. Who dealt you a hand of cards? Maybe he was a crook. Maybe he was a card shark that played you for a fool. There's— and, you know, sometimes you want to just line those people up that come up with those, those quotes and shoot them all because all they got— those were losers that made justification as to why they're a loser. Well, it wasn't in the cards for me. I got a black cloud hanging over me. I'm just, it's not in my DNA. All that is just nonsense, people. Stop it. Because here's one thing I do know that is across the board, believer or not, there's one God who created man in his image. And if he created me and you, and everybody, then he created us all with the same talent, the same opportunity, and the same purpose. And if we're equally created, then we equally have the right, the entitlement to success. Every time you choose an excuse, you're not just standing still, you're moving backwards. And here's why: because life is passing you by. Every day you're standing still, you're getting further and further and further and further away from your potential. The person you could become is waiting on the other side of the very discomfort you keep escaping from. Go ahead. I don't know what happened to it. Maybe my mouse is dead. Why do people make excuses? I want you guys to put it in the chat. I want you guys to put it in the chat. Why do people make excuses? I probably already gave you God, Trump, and then there's Toby. That's right, Craig. Why do people make excuses? Throw in the chat real quick. Fear. Staying comfortable. Come on, there's, there's 50 of us on here. There's only 2 people responding. Let's go. Dump it in the chat. Why do people make excuses? To justify mistakes. Lazy justification. Self-doubt. That's right. When you ask most people why they make excuses, they'll point to the circumstances. Avoid accountability. Fear of failure. The timing is wrong. I don't have the reassurances. Nobody supported me. The market wasn't ready. The market wasn't ready. I've heard that one so many times in our real estate world that we are heavily embedded in. The market sucks. I've heard it now for almost 4 years, but yet last year We bought almost 300 units at $0.40 on the dollar. So I don't know how the market sucks. I don't know how in 12 months you can earn almost $8 million in asset profitability if the market sucks. I would— holy shit, if the market sucks and we're able to do that, could you imagine what we could do if the market was great? I'll take it. But it's a mindset, ladies and gentlemen. If Nick and I could go out and in 16 months acquire almost 300 units that today are worth close to $20 million, about $18 million, and we owe 3, 4, we owe 8, 8.5, and they're worth $18,000. That's a, that's a million dollar a month profit in the worst market that everybody says is, is, oh, the market's just not right. I don't know how the market gets any better. The problem is a mindset that everybody else is making excuses because it's harder. Now trust me, did we work our ass off? Absolutely. Did Nick get pissed at me time and time and time again because he'd bring me deals? I'm like, I don't like it. I don't like it. See, I knew there's so many deals out there that we didn't have to take the ones that look good. I wanted the ones that were great. I wanted the ones that were slamming, and I was not in a hurry. We passed up 40, 50, 60 deals to get to the ones that we did take down. But see, if you want to use that as an excuse that the market is not right, the timing is not right, it's just not right. That's on you, because there's other people in the world that are having tremendous success in any industry. He keeps on muting. Every no brought us closer to a deal. Every no brought us closer to another deal. And what was amazing was how once we started bringing deals to us, or once we started doing deals, people started bringing deals to us. Pierce. Pierre. Pierre. Pierre, what you got, buddy? Unmute yourself. Did he accidentally put his hand up? All right, all right. The deeper reality: most excuses are not about circumstance at all. Strip away the surface narrative, and beneath every excuse you'll find the same thing. And I saw probably 8 or 10 people remark to it— fear. Fear. Fear. False evidence appearing real. Fear. False evidence appearing real. It's a story. It's a story that you're telling yourself that says, here's why not now. Not weakness, not laziness, not lack of ability. Fear. And fear is a universal human experience, which means everyone who has ever accomplished anything worth accomplishing has had to move through it. I want you to understand that every one of us have fear. As a parent, as a business owner, as a husband, as a wife, there's fear of letting people down. There's a fear of being rejected. There's a fear of failure. And I'm telling you, ladies and gentlemen, please stop. I'm begging you, stop. Face that fear. Is he on? No, Chandler or Taylor? Yeah, Taylor's on. So I'm going to tell you a funny story, ladies and gentlemen. I'm going to tell you a funny story. We talked last week about fear. We talked about my son-in-law who's a fireman, right? Everybody remember? Raise your hand. You remember telling story about my son-in-law? Yeah, has a fear of heights. This is the funniest thing. You're all going to love this. Has a fear of heights. He has to get up on an extended ladder sometimes to get into an external building. He has to rappel off the side of the building to come into a floor. They go through trainings, all this. He is scared to death of heights. Right. And I said, each time he drills doing those things, he faces that fear. To achieve that success so that when the situation is real, when there are lives at stake, he can't think about it. He has to react. And they drill it and drill it and drill it so that it's second nature. And you too have that same opportunity that whatever your fears are, you do them and you will fail. But you're going to continue doing them until you don't fail anymore, until that fear is no longer. So I told that story, and then the very next day he's in a training. Y'all ready for this? He's in a training. They're rappelling off of a bridge. He literally gets the harness on. He gets his feet on the deal. I'm going to try to demonstrate this. So he has his feet on the bridge. He's got the rope and he goes, okay, and they let the rope go and he falls. Boom. 12 feet. Bam! Now he's okay. We can joke about it today, but that fear of falling is real. Now, did he say, guys, I'm done, I throw in the towel, I'm not gonna be firing anymore, you guys dropped me from 8, 12 to 10 feet, 10, 12 feet? No. See, the fear is still there. The reality is there. He could fall. He landed flat on his butt. His back hurts. I thought it was hilarious because we just talked about him overcoming his fear of falling, and then they dropped his butt. Um, but things happen, and you don't just quit. You don't just give up. You understand that there was a mistake, there was a situation, beyond his control. He did everything right and it still didn't work out, but it wasn't catastrophic. And so he now has a secondary checkpoint. When you fail, you learn. If you don't learn, then you didn't try. Most excuses not about the circumstances, they're about fear disguised as logic, limitations, and practicality. Go ahead to the next one. The 5 faces of fear. Fear of failure. We talked about that. Fear of responsibility, fear of success, fear of your own capability, and fear of criticism. On a scale of 1 to 10, go into the chat real quick. On a scale of 1 to 10, how many of you have these fears? 10 being yes, I have it. 1 being nope, none of this. Be honest. And you don't have to be honest to the crowd, but be honest. On a scale of 1 to 10, do you see these as real fears? 0. Steve, love it. Steve. Craig, whatever, Craig, you're scared of me. Love it. See, when we have— and I guarantee you, Jake, 90 days ago you had lots of fears. You've grown so much, and that's what's impressive. Yeah, there's, there's always these fears. Fear of responsibility, because the bigger you become, the more responsibility you have. The fear of reject— of, of missing out on those responsibilities. Fear of criticism absolutely would be a 10, 90 days. Yep, yep. And you see, working with you, talking with you, seeing you overcome that and transforming your life. You just got a big contract just the other day because you got out of your comfort zone and you had an amazing success just like a week ago. See, that's what I want you guys to understand. It's real. Every bit of it. We all face this. And those that decide to make and take the actions will face these fears and achieve their success. Will they have failures along the way? Will there be rejection along the way? Will there be criticism along the way? Absolutely. Absolutely. Next. Fear disguises itself as logic. This is why excuses are so convincing. Fear doesn't say, I'm scared. Fear says, this isn't the right time. Fear says, you need more preparation. Fear says, be realistic, be realistic. That is so far-fetched. I told my brother, hey, we're going to do 1,000 units in 12 months. He said, "It's not gonna happen. That's stupid. You're just asking for problems. It's not even real." I think he even said, "It's not even realistic." I didn't care. Was it gonna be hard? Absolutely. But the success is worth the pain. Fear speaks in a calm, measurable language of wisdom, quote unquote. So that you never question it. The moment you learn to hear fear beneath the logic, the excuse loses its power over you. The moment you learn to hear fear beneath the logic, the excuse loses its power over you. Every reasonable-sounding excuse is fear in a business suit, dressed up, articulate, art— articulate, completely convincing, and working against you. Go ahead. See, here's the cycle of excuses. The difficulty, hard, arises. It appears it's going to be tough. Fear then shows up. Well, if it's tough, I might not succeed. I might get rejected. I might get criticism. It may not work. So therefore, then we start making excuses. Do I have enough money? Do I have enough time to devote to it? Do I have enough support? Maybe I'm not ready. I don't have enough knowledge, information, education. Okay, then because of that, I'm going to delay my action. This is the cycle. And as we all know, this symbol, this is infinity. Means it never ends until you break that cycle. Until you say enough is enough. Until you say, I want more. And I'm not just interested in more, I'm committed to more. Go ahead. Excuses becomes your identity. I want a better marriage, then fix you. I want a better job, then fix you. I want more income, then fix you. See, everything can be fixed once you fix you. Everything can be achieved once you are right. Nothing will be achieved until you are right. Let me, let me just say this one more time. Nothing will be achieved. Nothing will be fixed until you fix you. And the way you do that is write down. Here's, here's, here's, here's the challenge. We're out of time. So here's the challenge that I want you to want for next week. I want you to write down where you want to be in 90 days from now. Better job, better income, better marriage, feel better. I don't care what it is. I want you to write that down. Just write it down. I want more. And then whatever it is, more freedom, more time with my family. More income, more opportunities. I want more. And then list those on the left-hand side. Then on the right-hand side, write down and be honest if you're serious as to why you don't have those. What's stopping you from having those? What is the thing or things that's stopping you from achieving what's on the left side. And then look at it. Now, I will challenge you this. If you think your excuses are real, if you think that, Toby, I want all these over here, but I can't get them because of this, then I'll challenge you, book a call with me and I'll show you those are just excuses. If you're serious, ready and willing, for me to expose your mindset, I challenge you to book a call. And I promise you, nobody will book a call. Nobody will book a call because you know I'm right. But so in that, when you write down those reasons— you're saying are reasons, I'm gonna say they're excuses— then really look at it. Is this really true? Or have you just convinced yourself that that's the truth? Because now it's your identity. When you're living paycheck to paycheck, when you hate the job you're doing, when your relationship with your spouse is unfavorable, it all centers around you. There's one common denominator, and that's you. That's you. So let's fix you. And it's 100% right here, 100%, your mind. I don't— I don't have my book. I didn't write the book Unshakeable Self: Spiritual, Mental, Physical just to put words on a book. I wrote that because it's the life that we live. I wrote that because I saw it empower me. You bringing it? Of course, my princess, my queen. Come here, baby. Come here, come here, come here, come here. My queen, ladies and gentlemen, my queen. This is the book. Let me read, let me read this. I read this all the time. Oh, hey, Ray Knox, this is your book. I need— right, I know you aren't— Ray, I need your address. See, this is your book. It's, it's— oh, you got his address. Well, we still— we're going to ship you the book, but let me read this to you guys. I want you to listen to this, okay? And then we'll wrap this up. The dedication: to the battle-worn, the bloodied, and the beautifully broken. To those whose souls have been scorched by life's fires, yet who still dare to rise from the ashes. To those who have fought wars in silence, carrying wounds the world could not or would not see. To the warriors who kept walking forward even when every step felt like betrayal, even when hope felt like a stranger. To those who have screamed into the darkness only to answer themselves with another breath, another fight, another day. You were never abandoned. You're being forged. You're being made mighty. And this book is for you. For the unseen battles, for the sacred scars that whispers of victories, The world will never understand for your defiant rebuilding in the face of devastation. May these words stand as a monument to your journey, a reminder that your suffering was not meaningless, your strength was never accidental, and your destiny is carved from the very stone that tried to crush you. You are the unshakable ones. That's this book, ladies and gentlemen. That's the dedication. It's the most powerful words you can ever imagine to understand. It's short, it's direct, it's to the point. And I can tell you, nowhere, nowhere in this book— and I'm not trying to sell you my book Nowhere in— it's on Amazon. You can go to Amazon, books by Dr. Toby Potter. It's like $7, $8, $9. I don't know. So if you're interested, go buy it. It'll help feed my children. Um, but this— there's nowhere, nowhere in here does it say the excuses are okay, laziness is okay, your life is, is more impacted than most. Nowhere. Because see, here's the one thing that, that I never understood until now, why I went through all the things that I've been through as a child from the age of 5 until today, and I'm older than that today. So I've got a few years of battle scars. I never understood why am I going through all this? Why did I have to suffer? Why did I have to Lived that life. And I know today because— so that there's nobody on this call or any other call ever says they had it worse. Not one. Now, there's a lot of you who've had it bad. There's a lot of you that have gone through things that are heartbreaking. But none of you have ever had it worse. So I can sit here today and tell you, if I can do it, if I can share with you the battles, the fear, the disappointments, and yet not one time did I allow allowed the excuses to run my life, then you shouldn't either. I've allowed excuses to impact my life. I've allowed excuses to dictate things that they shouldn't have. I have fallen short each and every day, but I start recognizing them and I start realizing it. And then I overcome it. See, I'm no different, ladies and gentlemen. I create these courses based upon what's going on in my life. Every one of these courses is exactly what I need to learn, what I need to implement, what I need to execute. And if I need to do it— remember, there's God, Trump, then Toby— if I need to do it, you do too. So I, I look at what's going on and what I've learned from my daily struggles. And I put this out there for you all to be a part of it, for you all to apply it, for you all to say, shit, this is for real. Now you can do one of two things, and there's nothing I can do about it. There's nothing anybody can do. You can accept it and make change like Jake, like Steve, and like many others have. Because I'll guarantee you, and we're going to start having more and more testimonies, but I'll guarantee you they've all allowed excuses to run their lives for a period of time and then said no more. They recognized it, they realized it, they hated it, and then they made a transformation. Jake Moore just started with us 4 months ago and his transformation is unbelievable. Now, what's going to be fun is Stephen Tonks was bigger than Jake. And when Jake now becomes more fit than Stephen, it's going to be unbelievable. It's going to be unbelievable. But what he's even already doing in his own business and the accounts that he's getting and the blessings that he's getting simply because he said, "I want more," and then threw everything else out the window. That's all he said. I want more. I want more for me. I want more for my family. I want more for my business. I want more for my future. I want more, and I'm sick of these excuses stopping me. And he plowed forward. He plowed forward. Stephen did it years ago. I do it every day. It never gets easy, ladies and gentlemen. And the more success you have and the more transformation you create and embed, the bigger the battles. But you know what? We don't lose. Why? Because we don't quit. We don't quit. All right, ladies and gentlemen, it is after 9:00. Any comments and questions real quick? You got anything in the chat, Nick? Just calm. Yep. It is. We'll pick this up again next week, but I want you guys to make those columns. I honestly want you to make those columns. Here's what I want. Here's what I want to be. Here's what I want to become and what's stopping me. And I want you to just do this exercise. And then when you do that, if you're honest with yourself and you, and you believe those are real reasons, book a call with me. You have a book a call link in there. And yeah, we'll send this out to everybody. Book a call if you honestly think, Toby, I hear what you're saying, I want more, but here's why I can't. The two words I hate the most. And I'll say, you know what, by the time we're done with our conversation, you're going to agree with me or you're going to hate me. And either way, I'm okay because I will expose what's going on in your world. I will expose why you think you can't and why that is just your belief, the story that you're continuing to tell yourself. That's it. It's a story. It's a story. All right. Anything? No questions or comments? All right, all right, we will pick this back up Monday morning, 8 o'clock sharp. We'll finish this series and move on— or this module— and move on to the next module. The battle within you is real, ladies and gentlemen. I know it's real. I know it's real, dog. We're not going to sugarcoat it. There is a battle going on within you, but you are of God's children. You have the power of God within you. You have him fighting those battles for you. Take advantage of it. Have a great week. See you on Monday.