Can You Build a Personal Brand While Working Full Time ? (Escape the 9 to 5)

What if I told you 5 years from now, the real risk won't be you staying at your job. It'll be never building anything outside of it. Most high-income W-2 professionals, they don't actually hate their job. What they hate is the quiet feeling that they're capable of so much more and they're not building anything that belongs to them. We want to talk about how to build a brand while working your W-2. We're going to break down this into a triple-A effect: awareness, alignment, and action.

Let's get into it.

Building your brand, but having awareness. People will sit in their jobs and be so unaware of their own demise. Yeah, because they sit in a repetitive clock-in, do do the work, go home, eat dinner, go to sleep, repeat. They live in this hamster wheel and they don't realize it. They are making little micro objections that they're completing their tasks, but when you look 10 years from now, or when they look 10 years from whenever they started, what will they actually have? A promotion?

Promotion, maybe, or they'll be in the same spot. But I think it's the limiting mindset that they think that's all their life is going to be and they don't know anymore. They might be a little uncomfortable, they might sense some friction within them, but they're doing the best with what they have. Or at least I hope so.

Yeah, and that's the thing is that they're doing the best of what they have, but that's the only thing that they know that they have.

Yeah.

And I think that's what the problem is, is they're inside this box and they don't realize there's so much more out of the box. And I know this because I lived this.

I think we've all been there.

All been there. If you've never ventured out to start a business or any other lucrative anything out there outside of whatever your clock in, clock out is, you would have no awareness. Yeah, that there's so much growth, there's so much potential. You see people driving these fancy cars and nice designer clothes, the watches, and it's like, oh, it must be a lawyer, must be a doctor.

No, it's such a foreign concept too, because before we got into entrepreneurship, you're not— when you're a W-2, you're around a lot of W-2s. And if you're a W-2, you're— at least for me, I wasn't watching a lot of mindset things, maybe wellness, but not so much mindset because what am I going to do, mindset my way into my next promotion? Maybe. But I didn't have a lot of drive in my job as a W-2. So the moment we started getting glimpses of seeing mindset things online, being around more entrepreneurs, then it slowly broke that barrier to reveal more of that to us and planted the seed in us that there could be more. But I think if you never break that barrier, you're not around it, you don't know. It's like that curtain that's in front of you.

You don't know what's behind the curtain.

No.

We have all these dark shaded curtains that are sunproof.

And they don't want you to see the curtain.

They don't because they're afraid and they don't want you to leave and they want you to stay stuck.

Yeah.

And I say this because I literally work these 12-hour shifts and I go to my job and I see the same jokes when I walk in. It's like Groundhog Day. It's ridiculous. To say, oh, there he is, there goes Justin the Swole guy. How was your workout, sir? Every single day, like, I already say in my mind what they're gonna say because it's literally the same thing every day. It is insane now that I'm thinking about it. They watch the same TikTok videos. They have it— oh, they have phone stands and they watch TikTok and Instagram and scroll on it like it's TV. Like, that's their thing. And they do that for 12 hours. And all they do is talk hella smack about all these people that are doing something that they're too afraid to do because they say Oh, that's BS, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, look at her. She's got this fat butt, but she's going to the gym. She's not at McDonald's. Or look at this guy with this, with this car. Yeah, he must do drugs. He must do this. He must be a scam. Like, it's crazy to think that that's the mindset that you're limited to. And those limiting beliefs are such a real concept.

And it's kind of sad, right, that you're in your job that you should be getting some fulfillment out of. Yeah. Being passionate about to some extent, at least I hope so, because that's the career you chose. But you're doing something while you're on the job to get that dopamine fix, to escape what you're currently in, which is crazy. Escape your reality while you're at work.

The reality that you went to schools, paid, paid all this money, got all this debt in to be in this profession that you really didn't know if that's really what you want to do, but you chose to stick to it. And now you're trying to now make up the sacrifice of, is this what I really want, by financially chasing the dollars to hopefully replace that void of I don't know if I want this, but the money is good.

Yeah.

And you stay in that, that cycle forever. And then you, you don't know what to do. I have to go back to school. I got to get my master's because I can't grow in the company, the business. The next thing for me, from a nurse to be a nurse practitioner, start my own business, go back to school, get more debt, take all these classes I don't need to take. And then you stay stuck, plugged in this system and you're never happy.

I think when you start from that institutional mindset where you have to go to school, that's all you know.

Yeah.

And for me too, coming out here and getting my master's, getting more reputable college, and then maybe med school in the future, that was just the logical step that I had to take to do more for my life.

That's what you're supposed to do. That's what we're taught. We're taught to get the good grades, go to school, get the good job, raise the family, die hopefully with no debt, and that's repeat, repeat it. And there's no growth. And it sucks because you're just draining yourself. You're killing yourself because you're not growing. And you might be growing in your job. You might be learning new things. You might be feeling gung-ho, at least in the medical field. I'm saving lives, quote unquote, depending on who's coming through the door. Then you feel some type of, ah, yes, this is what I went to school for. But it takes so many people to be able to get that satisfaction, the patients that you have to see or There's, there's— unless you have a very good boss, and that's a whole separate thing, is your management, that leaders are placed as leaders to lead. But a lot of the leaderships in these institutions have zero leadership skills.

Yeah.

And it's sad because they're leading everybody down the dark path. And that's— I don't want to be there. I mean, you go to your jobs and you see more people looking up other jobs to work at than actually looking more how to progress in our own job. I mean, that's insane.

And that's the thing with being a W-2. The only way to progress is one, a promotion, or two, job hop. And that's why people are always looking for a job or working their tails off to be promoted.

Yeah.

And it's not always giving results to the company. Sometimes it's rubbing the right shoulders in the company, kissing butt in the company, sleeping with the right person in the company. Exactly. So you're not really putting in actions that are fulfilling to get to where you want to be.

You're doing what you have to do to to climb the corporate ladder. And then when you get that promotion, you're still gonna want more.

And then you're not drinking your own Kool-Aid, you're drinking the company's Kool-Aid.

Yeah, and that Kool-Aid is tainted. And it's doing what to you? Tainting yourself. It's gonna cause cancer. The cancer is what? Of your brain, because now you're brain rotting, scrolling on Instagram and TikTok, trying to escape this reality by chasing dopamine rush. 'Cause you're unhappy with what you're doing.

And it's crazy too, 'cause they want you to drink the Kool-Aid, but the moment you don't feel like, Why am I doing this? I don't want to do what all of them are doing. They almost exile you because you're not one of them anymore. You're kind of raging against the machine.

Yeah.

And at that point, it's either get a new job or what's the next step?

Or they kick you out because they know that you're not being a part of the program that they programmed.

Yeah.

So they try to push you out the door.

And I saw it all the time. All the time. And I was in the internal battle too in my corporate job thinking, Okay, am I going to keep living my days out here in medical sales, just hitting my KPIs and whatever my leader says to do to reach that goal, I'm going to do. And I'm going to go to these networking events with them and basically be a mini version of them. And I want to be a version of me. I don't want to be a mini version of anybody else.

Yeah. Then you lose that identity because you're living in someone else's shadow. You're not creating your own.

Then you wake up 2 years later like, who am I?

Yeah, what am I doing? What people I pushed away? Who have I become? I'm going out to these parties and drinking because that's what they do, and I have to— I have to make them happy, so I have to do what they do. You're losing that self-identity. You're not building your brand. You're not building anything for yourself. And, but then the issue is that people who lack the self-awareness, they don't want to face that awareness, because if they do then it becomes a pushback and they all become resilient and they become like, oh no, like we talked about this the other day. People who are happy, we bully. We pick on the people who are happy. Why are people so gung-ho? Why are you so happy? You need to be upset. You need to be miserable. This is not a happy day. This is a sad day.

And I'm sure people that are blissfully happy all the time, we almost see it like, what's going on with you? Like, what's off?

Yeah.

What kind of Kool-Aid are you drinking?

You're on drugs. You're in a cult. There's something going on with you. You shouldn't be acting this way because that's not the norm.

Because misery wants company.

And that's all everybody is, is miserable. And they are all miserable in their own situations that they created. And, you know, people always say, oh, you must be born in the right circumstance. You might be— you're born with money. And from a lot of people I've come in contact with and talked to, people who are doing phenomenally well, they've all had no money. They all had their back against the wall and they realized, I want so much more. There's so much I believe in myself that I want to give or at least do and accomplish that I can't do that when I have to tell my boss, hey, hey, is there any way I can go to lunch a little early today? Oh, hey, it's my mom's birthday tomorrow. Is there any way I can— somebody can take my shift or—

oh, I can't.

Oh, it's okay. It's all right. She'll understand. Like, you should not have to be in those positions. And we allow these— the money that we're chasing to keep us in these positions because we're too afraid to confront it or do something different because we want to conform and we want that comfortable paycheck that we know we're gonna get every other Friday. Okay, I know I gotta pay my bills and I know I'm gonna get this check, so it's safe. The safety net, the comfortability we sacrifice ourselves for.

If you're listening to this and you're a high-income W-2 professional and you feel like you're working hard but building nothing that's actually yours, let me talk to you for a second. You probably make some really good money. You're disciplined, you're driven, you've built a solid career, but deep down inside, you know you're capable of doing more. And I don't mean no more shifts or more ownership. Maybe you thought about building something special online using your knowledge, your experience, maybe even your perspective, but you either overthink it or you don't start because you don't have a clear structure. Now, that's why I created the Post to Profit Challenge. It's a live 3-day coaching experience with me. We do it all on Zoom, and you also get private access to a community with other high-income professionals building alongside you. And during those 3 days, I walk you through how to position yourself properly, how to turn what you already know into a simple offer, and how to build towards multiple 5-figure months using your content. If you're serious about building something that's yours instead of just collecting a paycheck for someone else's dream, click the link below and join the next Post to Profit Challenge. And if you're serious about implementation, I highly recommend to upgrade to the VIP because that's where we're gonna go and dig deeper into your specific situation live. All right, now let's get back into the video.

That was the hardest thing, is knowing that I'm on someone else's schedule, so I'm rushing to get to a place that someone else wants me to be. And I was so worried about taking time off during the year to see my family that I haven't seen in like a year or two because for, for a job. Yeah, for a job I wasn't even happy at. Yeah, and it's crazy to think, but that's just the status quo that you grow up thinking has to be.

Yeah.

And I mean, W-2 is not for everybody, just how entrepreneurship is not for everybody. So some people are okay doing that, which is totally fine. There has to be both sides.

Some people need that structure where they need to be told what to do. They don't know how to think for themselves.

And both are hard, but you choose your hard. And I'd rather have a hard entrepreneurial life where I have to work my tail off to get to something that I built myself than have someone else control my life and dictate everything.

I've learned that when you look at stuff that's hard, and realistically nothing is hard. Being broke is hard, making money is hard. It's all in how you, how you frame your mind around that perspective on what truly is hard. Everything is hard to do. So if you look at it the opposite way, everything should be easy. It's easy to make money, it's easy to be broke. Yeah, it's, it's, it's how you view it. And I think a lot of people view making money as such an impossible thing that they have to sacrifice their time for their dollars, but they don't understand how to leverage their time to really make the money. It shouldn't be hours per dollar. It's— I don't know the other saying that it should be, but when you're putting in, when you're chasing, uh, profit versus just your daily income, that's where it becomes more lucrative, where I shouldn't have to be— I mean, if you make so much money, $10,000 a day, and I could break it down hourly, it's fun to say, oh yeah, I made make, you know, X amount of money a day or an hour, cool. But you should be chasing that lump sum, not the dollars and the pennies. Yeah, that's how you would really grow. But that's— people are— they don't think that way. They just think of, I'm worth only $40 an hour, that's my human life value on this earth. And that's insane to think, to put yourself in that position, which is why when you chase these promotions and try to chase these raises or go back to school for a higher certificate to then put another dollar amount on as you for that hour, you're never going to be satisfied because you should have infinite value in how you value yourself. And that's why people devalue themselves. That's why people get obese. The divorce rate's high because they have no self-reflect. They have no self-awareness. They have no self-motivation.

Yeah, and awareness is a big thing. I think if you're at a W-2 job that you are aware that you are happy at, that is great. I think that if you found that in a corporate job that's stable, amazing. But if you are trading your time for money at someplace that you're not happy with, I think you have to really dig deep in yourself and evaluate, is this what I want to still be at in 10 years? Is this what I actually want to invest my time in? Because the longer you in it— you're in it, the longer it's going to take to— or the longer you're in it, the harder it's going to be to get out of it.

Yeah.

So it's better to rip the mandate off sooner than later. Of course, do it strategically, but I think awareness is a really big thing. Um, are you okay with still being in that same job, same company, same career in a decade? Would you look back and have regrets?

Yeah.

And if so, then look at your options. Try to figure out the next step and be aware of that, because I definitely don't want to be the person that's looking back many years from now regretting my life because we only have one.

Yeah.

And that is, that is probably the scariest thing I can even think of.

Just looking back and running out of time. And that's what most people who have money, who are wealthy, they value the time.

Yeah.

They don't value the money. They realize that the time makes the money. And when you have billions of dollars that you have, but you only have a little bit of time left, it's, it's sad to say, like, When I looked at my mom's finances and we went over her lifetime, she's getting into retirement. Her birthday was the 24th of February. Um, she, uh, accumulated over a million dollars in her life, and then she was just like, oh my God, I made a million dollars. And I'm like, yeah, where's it at? You know? And she just sat there and she thought about it. She was like, wow, I worked and I made $1 million, but I don't have $1 million. And I was like, that's a realization she came to as she's getting ready to retire. If you put yourself in that mindset now— and I love my mom to death and I would never disrespect her. She put in hard work. She raised me. She did everything she could for me.

She did.

It's up to me to be able to have that realization while I'm young that she has now and then empower myself so that way I could take care of her and then my future children so that way I don't have that realization, but I'll have a seed that's already planted for them and keep that momentum going where that wealth will always be building, not trying to catch up.

Yeah, and I think that's a big thing too, is when you're trading your time for money and you're at a stable job, it's easy to think, oh, I'm just gonna spend this on XYZ, Amazon this, uh, car this, you know, let's pick up those car payments because the paycheck is stable. So you're getting money in, in 2 weeks or every week, whatever it may be, and you're not seeing value in that money at that moment because you think, oh, it's coming again. But when you're building something for yourself and money is not stable, entrepreneur life is hard because it is, it takes a lot to get off the ground and things change. So many variables can change on a dime and you are the business.

Yeah.

So Knowing that you need to protect and grow what's coming in, you actually see the value of money.

Yeah.

And you can either be really smart with it or really dumb. But when you're in a W-2 job, it's easy to see you made $1 million in a lifetime and say, where did it go? Because that paycheck was stable. There was no value to the money.

Yeah. And that's what people lose the value of. They look at money as I need the money to live. They work— they don't work to live, they live to work. Then that's— well, that's the opposite. Entrepreneurship lives to work because they enjoy the work so much, but then W-2, they have to work to live because they need that paycheck to make those monthly requirements to not lose what they have because they dig themselves in the hole. But people don't understand how to leverage the money that they have, and they don't know how to use money as what it is, and that's being a tool. You use the money as cash flow to continue to build more money because money moves and it should circulate through whichever you're doing. If it's buying real estate, if it's using your life insurance policies, and then build residuals, do that, anything you want to do. People don't know because people aren't taught how that works. People just receive the paycheck, they spend it, they receive it, they spend it, and it's just this endless motion and they never really use what the money needs to be done, and that's to invest back into yourself. And when you invest in yourself, and that's— that right there is a diluted thing, or it could be overwhelming because, well, I went to college, I invested in myself. Okay, you kind of did. How much of that money did you spend going to a bunch of random classes that you are not even using to then be in a career that you're still not trying to be in? Is that a wise investment? And this was brought to my attention, which I thought was so genius, you know. We get out of high school and we're thrown all this money before we're even 21 on taking out these student loans for hundreds of thousands of dollars. Oh, just pay it back when you'll be— when you, when you graduate. Oh, Parent PLUS. Yeah, just tag your parents on it. Just here's the money, go to school, do what you're going to do. And how many people are so screwed getting out of college with a, with a degree that they don't even know what to do with now because now they need experience to then get into the field that they want to get into, or they have to live with their parents now to then make some type of money to then get into the career or whatever they want to do. Yeah, it's so mind-blowing. But then you have to be 21 in order to get a business card or, or open up an account with this or something like that, to drive. Like, it's what— it's insane to think about how the institutions work when it comes to promoting go to college, go get a job, because it's just feeding back into the economy of corporate world. And you need the W-2 employees because Again, with them, that's why we had the McDonald's. That's why we have any other franchises that are around here, the janitors, you know, everybody has a role and some people get comfortable with it. Some people just, that's all I need. I just need to, there's enough to get by and I'm comfortable with that. That's perfectly well. But for those who desire more, they don't have to have that. They can think bigger. They can do better. Yeah, they just got to take the action and be aware of it. Yeah, I said a lot. Sorry.

No, you're good. So let's talk about How to—

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Use your W-2 job as leverage to pursue what you're actually passionate about, and that's a very good thing because because people always say, well, I don't have time to do this. I don't have time to do that. That's always the one limiting factor is I don't have time. If you really looked back third person, you're out of body and you're watching yourself throughout your day, where does a lot of your time go? Mostly it's going to be scrolling on Instagram.

Scrolling Netflix.

With all the shows. Did you see the new season of Love Island? Did you see the new Stranger Things? I watched all of it.

Yeah, going to dinners every other night with friends, family, whoever it may be.

Every weekend going out with the boys or going to the parties, clubs, if you're still doing that. And all those times can be used to reinvest into yourself by learning more about something that you want to do, maybe doing investments, maybe just mindset stuff to get yourself out of the mindset of what you're in. Those are some key things. But the problem is, is that people don't have that around them. Their environment is what's contributing to their downfall. The product of the environment, the nature versus nurture. If I'm with my boys in the W-2 and that's all we're doing, that's all I'm going to be doing is going out to go get the beer and then we're going to go to the sports bar after work and just go hang out.

Exactly. And I think that's where the shift needs to happen, because when you're in a W-2 job— not every W-2 job is like this, but usually when you get off your shift or you leave the workplace, you want to shut it off because you're exhausted from a day where you didn't want to be. So you want to go and try to have some fun or get some dopamine hit because you weren't happy at your job. So this was me too. You would clock out to maybe— well, gratefully, I at least went to the gym, but I would watch Love Island and Netflix and all those things, hang out with my friends, go out to eat, party on the weekends. Like everything you said, that was me. And I think that you need to really shift that mindset to think, okay, I actually need to do something valuable with this excess time instead of trying to get some dopamine fix after I left the job that I don't want to be in. Yeah, because it is— it was for me, so I'm sure is for a lot of people— mentally exhausting being in a job that you don't want to be at. So understandably, you want to do something good for yourself after. Yeah, but you need to shift that mindset to do something good for yourself that's going to help you in your future rather than just like numb the pain of your current job. You have to be so uncomfortable with yourself that I want to get out of this job. So let's do something that's going to feed back into my cup and not just be temporarily enjoyable.

I guess how do you do that though? Like that's, that's where most people get stuck. Maybe they do have the self-awareness, maybe they see the problem. But they don't know how do I even get that ball rolling.

I think surrounding yourself— if you don't have people around you that are in that mindset, at least whether it's W-2 or entrepreneurial, finding that community online, watching a video, that's a big thing. Um, there are so many resources out there, whether it's women, men, family people, I don't know, Alpha Male. There are a lot of people out there that are going to give you content that would help you make that next step. And I think searching for it— luckily we're in a time where social media is big. You don't have to physically go and see someone. You don't have to find a mentor in person. You can find a mentor online. Even if you're not communicating with them, you could just consume that content and at least get that first step to start giving you the motivation to want better for yourself. And that's something honestly amazing about our current state of life because you can find that online. We are exposed to so much. We're exposed to even so many careers and opportunities that our parents never had. So there's no better time than now to take advantage of that.

It's true. And because, I mean, thinking about while you're saying, I'm thinking about, well, how do I get exposed to that stuff? How do I even know to search that? Because All this stuff has been going on for decades, centuries. The Tony Robbins, all these people who've been big entrepreneurs, who have big brands and names and community. And I find myself, and I'll use myself as a perfect example, when I went to work, I literally would just sit there at work and just make it through the shift. Oh, I'm just here to take their money. Oh, this is an easy shift here. And while I was there, I was not using my time to actually use it for investing in myself, watching videos, reading stuff, books or anything like that. What did I do? Play video games, scroll around, just have idle chitchat, gossip at work about who's doing what and what's doing wrong this. And I did this for years. And once I finally found the unhappiness that I was having and seeing people who were successful and people who grew up with me or I grew up with and I'm watching him do phenomenal things. I'm like, what the hell? How did he— what's he doing? And then I start getting a little nosy, paying attention to it, and I just see the patterns that they've done, and it's not what we're all doing. And it's like, oh crap, so that's how you do it. You just don't do what they're doing, you do what they're doing. The success leaves the clues, and people don't know how to follow the clues to reach that success. And once I was able to find that, I started having that realization where it's like, and I don't want to say woke, but like I woke up from the dream and I see everybody else complaining about the same things they've been complaining about for 5 years at the job, unhappy about their pay. Oh, corporate's making us do this here. Oh, these patients are checking in when we know we work in the ER, but we're getting upset that they're still coming in. No, no shit. Like, and it's like we are still upset about the same things. And once I realized why are we upset, why am I upset? Oh, they don't have the awareness of their situation, but I do. Not saying I'm better than them, but it's like that was such a coming to Jesus moment for me that I said, wow, I was like that the whole time. That's why I was so miserable. That's why I was so in this box and the box is open. So now it's like endless possibilities of just excitement and happiness. Like, oh my God, I could do this. I can do that. I could do a business for this. I could do coaching. I could sell life insurance. I can build brands for people. It's endless. And I understand why people say this generation has the easiest time to make money because they have so much opportunity. And toss in AI, like, it's insane.

I think when you get so uncomfortable with your job, you have to— you know how they say you pay attention to the things that you focus on? So, you know, like, if you see a red car and you really want to buy a red car, then all of a sudden you see only red cars on the road, things like that.

Yeah.

You probably have a lot of these people around you already. You just don't know it, or you don't pay attention to it because you're so involved in your WT job. Probably when someone does talk about something where it's self-growth, you just bypass it.

Yeah.

And so maybe being a little bit more hyper-aware in your day in, day out to find those things and look out for those things, that only then you'll start seeing it.

And that's like being open to those conversations.

Just being open.

A lot of people aren't. They'll hear something that's outside the norm and they immediately dismiss it, shut it down. They go against it because it's like, that's stupid. Why would you do that? Why would you invest in that? Why would you— like, a lot of people push back so hard. I jokingly brought up one day about, yeah, oh yeah, people pay like $25,000 to talk to somebody who's making billions of dollars. Why would somebody do that? So stupid. Well, because they've already know what to do and That's years of experience condensed into whatever time frame.

A cheat code.

Yeah, it's a cheat code to life. And they're like, I'm never going to give somebody that much money. That's so stupid. I will figure it out on my own. Okay, figure it out on your own. Spend the next 20, 30 years doing the same thing to come to that same conclusion, to probably charge $20,000 to the next person because you realize, man, that was a lot of effort. Oh, I can give my information away for this much? Yeah, that's how much I value myself as is $25,000. For this conversation, not $40 an hour for this conversation. And people don't have that. They don't think that way. They'll give all their money to college to go get the degree to be in a situation. They'll spend all that money on a car that's going to break down. It's going to have problems and pay more money into it to get a new car. But they won't use that same money to put back into them, their biggest asset. And it's crazy that they're not open to that conversation.

Well, probably comes down to also a skill. You don't think you have a skill that's that valuable, which is why their beliefs are so limited. Yeah, there's like, there's no way I can even have that, a skill that's valuable. So I don't even want to hear it.

That's true. And a lot of people feel like things that they are good at, they're saturated. Had one friend, he watches guitar stuff all day, every day. And I'm like, dude, won't you just do something with the guitars? Oh no, I wouldn't do anything with guitars. What do you mean? You're watching stuff all the time. Are you good? I'm pretty decent. Oh, won't you just, if you don't want to play for somebody, won't you just teach them how to do the basics at least? I'm sure there was somebody that was where you were. Oh no, that's, no, everyone does that. Immediately just dismiss, dismiss, dismiss. And it's like, all right, I'm not even going to push it. I'm going to leave it as that because they're stuck in that and they don't want the growth. They don't want to question. They just want to put a period at the end and then have it be that, not leave it open-ended.

Exactly. And I think in their heads too, it just seems like more work.

It does, yeah.

They're already working a full-time job. Doing that is more work. And if he's okay with staying in that position, then okay, great. But I think finding a way to make what you actually like to do profitable is super important to do, especially while you're super uncomfortable. You need to strike when you're at your lowest point because then you have nothing to lose.

And you made a good point there because you said it takes more work to do something new. It takes the same amount of work to stay where you're at. To sit there and be miserable and unhappy and look for other jobs and all this stuff. I mean, it's the same amount of effort. You're doing what you don't want to do.

That's true. You're taking up a lot of emotional bandwidth looking for other jobs, still walking into your job that you're looking at other jobs for.

Yeah.

And it's almost like being in a relationship where you're half in, yet you're still looking at other girls or other men.

Oh, for sure.

Yeah. And so you're not always— you're not fully fulfilled from your relationship, so you are You know, looking around, and I'm sure everyone in that scenario can feel it. Your job can feel it, you can feel it, and then maybe other people can sniff it out that you're looking.

Yeah, you're doing yourself a disservice. Yeah, you're doing 100% your customers, your clients, your patients a disservice because you're not giving them your all. Because what you thought you went to school for, whatever you thought you were going to do, now you realize, oh, this isn't for me.

Exactly.

But I'm stuck because I have to do this, but I'm too afraid to make the change.

And then you probably even make your current situation really suffer. Yeah, because your leaders are probably seeing you not putting the 100% that you used to put in.

Yeah.

Or the patients are feeling it.

But then there's also the leaders who are in the same position to feel in the same way you feel, and they're putting that on you as well, too.

Yeah, they could be projecting it.

Yeah. They're unhappy with their situation. Maybe they're— and their boss is probably, oh, my boss is pushing all this on me and I hate this job. I hate this. But then my subordinates, I hate them too, so I'm gonna make them suffer. Like, it's like an endless downfall. Talk about a real MLM. Like, that's bad.

That's true MLM. And when I was in corporate, that's why I always kind of gave my leaders grace too, because I knew they would try to do as much as they can for me. But they're also feeling the heat from above too. So it's like I don't even wish to be the middleman either.

That's why I would never want to move up. Yeah, I'd rather stay right where I'm at. Justin, why don't you become a chargers? Why don't you get into management? Absolutely not. Because management just puts a target on your back. Because other people want to be managers because there's only one. And only for them to get paid more, they have to take your spot there. And then the people above me are unhappy because they're getting hit back by whoever above them. So their numbers have to make sense. So I'm getting hit on both ends. Yeah, diddy. And that's just terrible.

And at the end of the day, that is corporate because it is the business. So they want to make money, so they want to make sure they squeeze everything they can out of each person down the line.

Yeah.

And everyone slowly going down wants to squeeze a little bit more at the person below them because they want to do less work.

Yeah.

And that is the big reason why I got out of corporate, because at the end of the day, you're a number. You may be valued by the person right above you, but to the person way at the top that has no personal connection to you—

who makes all the decisions for everything.

Exactly. If they need to downsize, they don't care.

They will snip you right out. Trim the fat.

That's the scary part, because you can be in a phenomenal job that you're happy in that you love your leaders, you're fulfilled, and you get fired because it's not your business. And maybe you might never find another position in WT Drop that's that same scenario. You might never find another company that you align with, whatever it may be. So that's another reason why I think pursuing something of your own is important.

I'm glad you said that.

Even if it's a side business.

Yeah, a side hustle. And I'm glad you said that. It was a good segue into alignment, the next A. Okay, I see what you did there. You didn't realize it, did you? No. I like that we're in sync with it. We're on the same page, almost alignment. And that's what most people end up skipping. They skipping on the alignment because they don't have that awareness. So they don't know how to align themselves with their next step, with their brand, with their identity, with their cause, with their communication, their, their, their experience. How do I align my values, who I am, to what I want to do for the rest of my life? Where retirement isn't an option because I like what I do. That's why I want to work till I die, because I enjoy it.

Yeah.

How do people find that alignment?

Trying new things. If all you do is your job, that's all you know, maybe you can transfer that skill from your job to being a solopreneur or make a small business. Or you need to find something that you're actually passionate about, or you're already passionate about something and you want to find out how to make that lucrative.

Yeah.

So I think that's where the alignment comes. You have to be aware first. So once that awareness happens, you know where you're at, you know what you, what you're good at too, you know where you want to be, you know where you don't want to be, then you can start becoming more aligned with whatever actually makes you happy.

Yeah, your values and what you value.

Exactly.

A lot of people don't know what their values are, and some people aren't even aware of their talents. And when you're always third person, you can always give somebody a great idea on something they should do, but then they never have that that they don't see that in themselves, unfortunately. They're like, I couldn't do that. Like, dope, but you're dope at that. You're so great. Crystal, you're amazing at baking bread. You should sell bread and teach others how to make the same bread. I can't do that. I don't want to do that. And it sucks because it's almost like you want to, like, jump in their body and make them do it just to realize, man, this is a great opportunity. Yeah, but then they're so timid, or it's like, ah, it's a lot of work, or I just don't know. And those what-ifs and all that overshadows that true alignment. And it's— and that's where, like, for me, I felt my alignment was communication with other people who didn't have the alignment themselves. I want to align people with, dude, you're amazing at that. Yeah, you could do this, this, this. Here's your name, here's your colors, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. I got 7 clients for you. Go get it. Yeah, like, I love that stuff. I love seeing people break out of their shell and realize, man, you know, that sounds like a good idea. Why didn't I think of that? Why didn't I do that?

Well, I was watching someone online a while back. I can't even remember who it was, some another, like a smaller mindset person or a communication specialist. And they were talking about finding what you're passionate about. And for someone that doesn't know what they want to do, what they're good at, you want to ask someone near you. And they said, don't ask someone that you're married to or your mom, ask someone that you're close to, maybe like a friend, but not necessarily your partner, and ask them what they like about you. And this will work. So for example, if I'm thinking you want to find out what you're good at, what you like, or what you're passionate about, you ask me, what do— or wait, how does this go? I'm trying to think back.

What do I like about you?

Yeah, okay, you ask me, what do you like about me?

Yeah.

Okay, and then you're probably going to say something very superficial. Then I keep asking you to dig deep, but why? And as I keep pressing you for like 5 to 10 minutes, you're eventually going to get really deep and you're going to eventually start talking about yourself. That's the psychology of it instead of me. And once you start talking about that, those are the skills you like about yourself, what you're good at. And that's a good exercise that we can do at one point in time.

I like that.

But I thought that was really interesting because I didn't expect him to say that, that you're going to start talking about yourself and what you align with. Because I'm like, oh, you're just probably doing those 10 layers deep exercise for, you know, the other person and for you to start talking about yourself. And that's truly what comes out because then you start running out of things to say.

You do, because there's only so much I can say about you and it's kind of like I have to make it relatable.

Exactly.

Then you start finding out what you like and then you start realizing you have— yeah, you have your own aha moment. Like, oh wow, I didn't realize I like that. And that's huge. Like the power of why exercising and digging deep, digging deep It's almost like a child, and it's like children are geniuses without realizing they're geniuses, and we take them for granted because a child will ask why so many times on the same thing that you run out of ideas to explain the why. But then they're on to something there. If you turn that and ask yourself why for your actions, and then you keep asking why, you're going to keep running to the point where you have to actually say or come to conclusion, oh wow, this is actually why. This is why I wake up to go to my job, because I remember that my sister passed away 7 years ago and that my mother felt this way. And I didn't want my mom to have to work another day in her life, that I chose to make this accomplishment today because I want her to have the best life for the rest of her life. Like, finding that is difficult when it's so underneath the surface.

And too, maybe you can be happy at your W-2 job, but you just aren't in tune with your why. Like, you forgot, you strayed so far away to your why. And so doing that exercise to remember, like, oh shoot, yeah, it is because I want to set up my mom in the future to retire so she doesn't have to work again, or whatever it may be. And then you actually find purpose in those daily things you do again. And it could be anything. You could be a janitor and have purpose, but being in tune with your why. And if you can't even find that in your W-2 job, I think that's when you really need to start being aware.

And that's something— when you said janitor, because I was listening to Omar. If you guys aren't familiar with Omar El-Khatori, He's one of my mentors. He works with Myron Golden, another phenomenal mentor. So I indirectly work with Myron Golden. Valuable information and knowledge is just chef's kiss. It's wow. He likes to look at situations very uniquely where a janitor would say, oh, you have to clean this room up. He was like, no. He said he had a maid come over, not a maid, but cleaning service come and clean his house. And she was just like, oh yeah, I cleaned your house. And he was like, no, you didn't. You transformed my house. And she was like, well, so thank you. And he was like, no, I'm serious. Like, my living space is— it feels transformed. You didn't just clean it, but you made this environment so much better. Like, I feel better walking in. You didn't just clean it up, you transformed it into a whole new area. And I'm like, wow, that's where you need to find your value in what you do. You have to reinvigorate exactly how you are and what you really do to really give yourself true value. And I think a lot of people, if they had some alignment with themselves on what they value, instead of just saying, this is what I am, reframe it, repackage it that I do this and this is the outcome. This is who I am, you know?

Yeah.

Instead of just saying, oh yeah, I'm a Cancer, so I'm just going to be hardheaded. Well, no, break that limiting belief. You know, I'm more than just a Cancer. I'm this soft-shelled creature that can make others feel this type of way. Yeah, that happens to be a Cancer. You know, that kind of thing.

Yeah. Are you the one who told me about that one study of, um, actually cleaning crew in a hospital and their satisfaction with their job? That could have been, maybe. Okay, if it's not ringing a bell, it was, um, a situation where in a study they ask people how satisfied they are with their job, and once in— let's see, I'm trying to think, I don't Maybe you didn't tell me.

I didn't tell you.

Okay. Sounds like you were trying to play it off. I was going to take credit. Anyways, okay. So from what I recall is that this cleaning crew in a hospital, their job satisfaction was very low. You'd think, okay, you're just there cleaning beds in a hospital. But once they told them that them cleaning these beds increased people's patient outcomes by a certain percentage and helped them have a better quality of life, actually have better health outcomes gave them true, like, fulfillment in what they were doing. Like, wow, I'm actually contributing. It was a, it was a large number too.

Yeah.

So once they were told that and it really was instilled in all of them, like, we're not just cleaners, we're actually helping these patients have better outcomes.

Yeah.

Then their job satisfaction skyrocketed because they found purpose, a deeper purpose in what they were actually doing.

Yeah, I like that you said that because literally in my ER I don't read my emails because I feel like the emails are like the news. You open up an email, it's nothing but bad stuff. It's like, you guys are doing this wrong, this was run wrong, we should have seen this, you have to do this, this is due by this date. It's like, I don't want to see that stuff, so I just don't open my emails there. And I see that management, and going back to bullying the happy people, there's no kudos, as they like to call it. There's nothing that promotes happiness or good jobs to individual employees. Yeah, it might be a group effort, which is just like, okay, cool, I can sprinkle the whole ER. You guys are all doing phenomenal, but again, you're making me feel like a number in the whole pot. I want to feel like Justin in there. So I felt some type of way where I went ahead and I emailed each individual staff that I work with who I like in the ER on them doing a good job and what they do specifically. And I wanted them to realize it does not go unrecognized. And I did that for these various employees. And they were like, one said, Justin, I saw your, your, we call it Get Rev. I saw your Get Rev and it literally made me cry because I thank you for that. And it's like, I'm not the one that should be doing this. Yeah, but I did it because as a peer and I want to see and I want to uplift and I'm all about uplifting the next person. I wanted that because the value that they're doing— I'm doing CPR on people. I'm making sure that people are staying alive in the ER. I don't feel value anymore. Yeah, I'm not getting the praise. I shouldn't have to get praise, but at the same time, it's like I'm doing all this job for this company, but individually I don't feel fulfilled. But at least my bosses or whomever can give me that, that fulfillment, that satisfaction. Like you were saying with the janitor. Yeah, because I feel like a janitor.

It's probably just a reform that needs to happen and any business that people need to give each other more kudos.

They do.

They need to uplift each other. And it's hard because once there's a bad seed that's really unhappy, it starts tainting everybody else. And so you got to put more bright seeds.

Yeah, dig up the weeds and plant new grass.

Yes, exactly.

But instead they let the weeds fester and then all the good seeds die and they leave. They go to different places. They don't want to work there no more. And then you have what, a crappy toxic environment? And then staff says, Guys, what can we do to fix this?

And that's why leadership specifically, you know, founders of a company and trickling down, they need to be smart about who they put in leadership because people follow naturally.

Yeah.

So if they have a good leader, they know people are going to bat for them. They know that they align with their morals or their motto, whatever it may be, and they actually live by it. And they, they instill confidence in the people below them. Then they will be loyal to a fault and they'll be happy. So it does truly have to come from the top down, and they need to be comfortable, you know, pulling the weeds. But it— that, that doesn't happen. Like, they just want to get their money, and as long as they don't hear all the drama happening below, they don't care. And it's sad that it's like that, but there are some good companies out there that truly actually follow that top-down model.

Yeah, um, they're usually smaller ones, but I mean, they do exist though. And they take care of their people. And that's huge because they realize that I would rather pour into my employees and in my company because I know that that's going to tenfold my clients, my customer satisfaction, because every— if my company is happy, same thing with a marriage. If my house is happy, my business is going to be happy because we're both going to walk out these doors and be so happy about what we're coming back to that we want to uplift other people because we're so uplifted.

Exactly. And one good employee would outweigh 10 bad employees, especially because they're probably turning and burning. You're spending more time training people than actually giving back. So if you just invested more into your employees, um, as a business owner or as a leader, then that would increase your productivity by— I want to say tenfold at least.

Yeah, 100%. Yeah, and that's where the alignment comes from, is aligning your values your morals, who you are as a person with what you want your brand to be and how you're able to get rid of those limiting beliefs that you may have while you're at your job, that you can build something, set that seed of, man, I think I could do this and then slowly water it and then watch it grow to the point that I can leave my job and then I can actually be a part of the alignment that's really me. And for that to happen, you have to take action, which is your third A for the AAA. Action planning, because action takers are money makers. People say that they want to do stuff all the time. I'm going to do that. I want to do this. I will do that. It's— there's never— those are all future tense. It's easy to talk about what you can do or what you did because, oh, back in high school, which is everyone's classic go-to. Yeah, in high school I weighed this. Oh yeah, I used to back in the day, you know, I was a lot different. I was a lot bigger back then, you know, but there's no I am. There's no like right now. People do not take for granted or people take for granted what they could be doing right this second. I say I'm going to be building this, but I'm starting right this second because I already have the plans in motion. I'm going to post my first video about my business or what I'm going to do. I'm going to take the opportunity right now and call that one person that I knew was doing well and wanted to connect with them because I want to be like them. Take the actions today and people don't do that.

I think once you do get the awareness and alignment, you need to really think, who do I want to be? So for example, your friend that plays the guitar wants to be someone that actually makes a difference in a lot of other people's lives and shows them how to play the guitar online or whatever that may be. And you make, you know, a killing off of that. Ideally, of course, you want a good profit out of that. If he is that person making $100,000, $200,000 by doing those things online, what is that person actually doing? And then reverse engineer it. So knowing what that person's actions are gonna take, the person you wanna be, you do it today. And I think that's an important exercise to do, an important thing to implement, because you have identity crisis at that point. You're still in your W-2 job full-time, but you're telling yourself you gotta do these actions to be this other person. So I think doing that daily alignment with, okay, that's what that person is, that's what they're doing, I need to do that today, and that's where I'm gonna be. Because if I'm not doing that all today, I'm never gonna get to that place in life. I'm never gonna be that person that's doing those things because I can't even start it now.

Yeah.

So I think that would be the first step if I could go back in time and really have that strong mindset. That's what I tell myself every single day.

Just do it.

Yeah.

And I like that you said that too about the— hold on, I'm kidding. I stuck my finger here.

Oh, okay.

You build resentment when you don't take those actions. You get frustrated because you know what you should do, but you're so hesitant about it. And then you have that resentment in the future. I mean, everybody who— and I talked to a lot of older people, and I always ask, you know, even if it's they're married and they're like, oh, I've been married for 50+ years, I always ask, oh, what's the secret? And they always give me the same kind of answer. Just listen to what she says. Like, it's always something like that, but then it always turns into whatever you're going through, deal with it that day. Don't wait till it becomes later because it's going to get festered and it's pent-up stuff there. Just handle it.

Yeah, communicate.

Communicate it early on. And everybody likes to put things off because a lot of people don't like to confront things and they feel out of place or because it's new, it's like, oh, I would rather do this instead of that because I'm too uncomfortable to confront that.

It's easier to avoid.

It's easier to avoid.

It is. It's our natural instinct to go into avoidance. And it was mine for a very long time and still in certain situations is.

Yeah, because if it's something that makes you uncomfortable and I'd rather go to my comfort, I'm going to go do what I normally can do that I know I can do. So that way I can stay away from the things that I'm afraid I can't do. No, and that's the problem.

It's a protective mechanism because if you never try, you never fail.

Yeah, exactly. And that's why when you do actions, it reduces the fear. And I always— people who always are afraid and hesitant of doing something new, I always ask, you know, well, how did you get to where you're at today? You're doing what you're doing now. Well, I mean, yeah, you started, you tried, you messed up, probably. Cool. And guess what? You learned from that. And then now you're this person here at this job. Now you know how to do this XYZ. You could do that again. You know the old saying, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Like, get rid of that. Yeah, you could teach— as long as that dog can think and move, teach that dog a trick and make it learn a new trick, and it's gonna do a great trick. Even if it's a trick that sucks, it's still a trick. Yeah, so get it, just do it. And that's the problem, people want to have every excuse on why they can't do it and how— why they shouldn't do it. But realize that your unhappiness that's going to get you nowhere.

And on that too, the confidence to do that first step, the confidence to do that step every single day to get to where you want to be, it's not confidence knowing that you can do it. It's confidence with being okay with failing. Yeah, being okay with failing day in, day out until you're not failing anymore. Because the only way to not fail is to keep doing it. And if you don't fail the first time, great. But if it takes 100 times failing to get to that time you don't fail, Great, but you're still getting to where you want to be. And sitting with yourself, really evaluating, okay, what's worse, me failing today on that task or failing 100 times until I get there and eventually getting there, or still being where I'm at?

Yeah.

And in 10 years still being here, which one's more scary? And I think a lot of us don't analyze that and think, okay, obviously the one being here in 10 years is more scary. Let's freaking do it. Let's go.

Yeah.

But we don't think of it. We're avoidant in our head, so we don't even process it. But then we should add the avoidance— don't be avoidant— to that step of the A's, because that gets you to action.

Exactly. And that's why I put myself in the frame of 20 years from now and really sit in the pain. I see people who are doing the same thing I'm doing, but they've been doing it for twice as long as I have. And I'm like, absolutely not. And I see them miserable, overweight, whatever it may be. And I'm like, let me just sit in the pain that they're experiencing and let me realize that that's not what I want.

Yeah.

And let me feel that, like, really bask in the suckiness of their situation. And it's sad to say, but in order for you to not do something that someone else is doing, you have to know what they're doing that hurts so that way you can say, I don't want that.

Yeah. And the best way to see your future is to look at people that have been doing what you're doing for a very long time. And if you're looking at those people thinking, dang, I don't want to be that like, Hell no, I'm running far away from that situation. Yeah, then, then just start.

Exactly. And that's the thing, just start. That's what people can't do. Yeah, because they got to get through the excuses.

And that's why you got to be aware, you got to align, you got to not avoid. You just got to take the action. You got to take the action. So process those things, do not run away from it, because we only have that one life.

We only got one chance, Eminem would say. One life, one chance. I remember the song though. You're really good at Eminem.

What song is that?

8 Mile.

Oh, I didn't like that song. What? That's like a staple.

That's crazy.

I didn't even watch that movie. That's a movie, right? No?

All right. So the question is, should you quit your job? No, don't go all in. Don't go all in. Sure. Don't— if you're in a situation where you don't want to lose your life and lose everything that you're around, that you have, you built so much, you don't necessarily have to just throw it all away. You have to be strategic with how you move. And Alex Hormozi said this great— you— it's not like a cool quote. I don't have anything like that. I'm just going to give you the framework of it. When you go to your 9 to 5 or whatever you're working, 12 to 12, 7 to 7, whatever it is, you just do that. Just get it done with. And after you're done, that's when your work really starts. That's when you really start to build what it is that you truly want. Because when you give the excuse of, oh, I can't do this because I went to work. No, no, no, no. That was just paying the bills. That, that job right there is to make sure that these lights stay on. What you really need to do is focus on what's going to keep those lights on without you having to go to work. That's the key thing that you have to really realize there. Yeah, that's what we had to realize. That's what got us to where we're at now and going to take us even further because we knew we wanted so much more where I don't have to miss days where we're together, anniversaries, birthdays. If she's sick in the hospital, I can't go there because I'm told no. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely not. 401(k)s and stuff. No, no, no, forget all that stuff there. You have to really put the stuff into action and really think about why you want to leave, why you're unhappy where you're at, but at the same time leverage the time that you have and invest in yourself because you are your biggest asset, and I can't stress that enough. I hate seeing people who do such phenomenal things and have so much potential throw it away because of the self-limiting belief that they have because they have no sense of community. Their spouses don't believe in them, their friends don't believe in them, and they just succumb to that whole area of their life where they don't know to grow, but they just tread the water and just hope for the best. And keep God in the middle too, because without him— he gave you the gifts that you have, your talents, we call them gifts— and it's your duty as a steward to provide those gifts to the community, to the world. And by you keeping those gifts to yourself, you're not doing any service for anybody else, including yourself, because you're not being fulfilled with using your talents and who you are and what defines you. And when you define yourself, you define your brand, you define your integrity, you define your future, your family, and your family's family. Always remember that this whole life is bigger than you. Just make the move. Triple A action. On the same page.

On the same page. Exactly. Did you want to share a little bit about, like, our transition and what that looked like?

Yeah, our transition is still in progress.

Yeah, well, for me specifically, when I was transitioning to now full-time insurance business owner, I was so unhappy with my medical sales job that every single break I had, I would pull over to the side of the road. I'd have my laptop sometimes even— I won't— I hate to admit this, I'm a safe driver, but opening my laptop while I'm driving to peek in, and I would pause to call these people, sell insurance. Right when I get off work, on the way home, if someone reaches out to me, I'm pausing to the side of the road on my way home too. Every single moment in between moment I had, I was using that time valuably. If I had a break— I'm not saying I was on the clock working my other job. If you do that, no one, no one needs to know. But every single moment in between I had, I was doing the dang thing that I wanted to do eventually. And it got to the point where I did that so much that I felt comfortable in myself that I was like, okay, I'm making a better income than my current job. Now let me see how long I could do that consistently. And once I did that for a couple months consistently, I'm like, okay, I feel safe enough to jump. And so I jumped. But it wasn't until I put in that work day in, day out with every freaking free time I had. I hated it. I was suffering, but I knew it was temporary. I knew it was temporary to get to where I wanted to be. So I had to go through that phase, very uncomfortable phase in life, to get to a phase in life where I can actually continuously invest in myself. Even though I'm working probably just as hard, everything I'm doing is investing in myself instead of losing my mind playing that double life. Yeah, you will feel it, and you will get to a point where you are so fed up with it. That double life is going to be hard, but stick with it. Stick with the double life until you get the other better single life back. Yeah, or get to that single life that you want to be at.

Like a bird leaving the nest and getting ready to fly. It's too skeptical to take the flunge or the plunge until it gets pushed, and then now it's flying.

Yeah, so don't think It's going to get a lot harder before it gets better, but stick with it. I promise you it's worth it.

It really is. If you guys aren't familiar with the Valley of Despair, that's the biggest thing is that you just go through this valley and then you get deep into it where it's despair until you climb it and you're up at the top and you're soaring. And you learn so much from failure. A lot of people want to avoid it as much as possible, but the failures are what sticks to you. When you're in class, Let's say like you were back in school and the teacher called on you and you said the wrong answer and you felt so embarrassed. You felt like, oh my God, everyone's laughing at me. But you remembered that feeling. You remembered feeling that wrong answer. And you start to remember the right answer after you were told the right answer, because that right answer is what kept you going. It's like, oh, okay, I'll never forget that now. Those are life lessons. When you don't look at the failures, look at the failures as teaching. As what I shouldn't do. Okay, I learned not to do that. Don't just dwell on the failures, but just learn from them and apply them. Because when you apply them, you apply not to yourself but to other people, and then you start learning. Now you're a leader. Oh, don't do this, follow me this way, as God would, as Jesus did with his disciples. You know, I'll show you the way. This is how you start building that trust, building your brand, building yourself up there. So fail as quick as possible so that way you can have those learning outcomes. And then really scale from there.

Exactly, and use that W-2 job or whatever stable job you're in, even if it's another business that you're in that you want to get out of and go to another business. If you're being an entrepreneur to entrepreneur, fail quickly using the money from your other job to fund you and learn those lessons so that you're in a, you're going up in the valley despair. You're no longer in the valley despair, you're going up at that point. Yes, it's going to be like this probably forever, but you're— it's still upward trajectory. So I think that that's very valuable that you said that and mentioned that, because you're gonna fail a lot. So even if you're not having a steady line of being lucrative while you're trying to live that double life, you're at least using that time to fail. Whether it takes you a couple months, takes you years, you're getting to a better place, and you're actually putting the actions to make your life better and not look 10 years from now and say, what the fuck did I do with my life?

Exactly. And that's the biggest thing too, is like you, what's worse, failing a few times for a few years or working the same job for 10 years and wishing that you had started to fail because you're really failing and you failed for 10 years because you're still stuck in that same position and now you're too old to make a decision to make a difference. I would choose to—

And you're never too old.

Exactly.

Every tool.

Don't forget that, by the way. Take the plunge and do it. Can't stress that enough there.

Yeah. Well, wrapping it up.

Wrap it up.

All right. So I know that was a lot. That was good.

It felt good. I feel like I vented.

Yeah, you did let out a lot.

I felt like I just—

a little therapeutic.

It did feel therapeutic. It felt good. I think I just felt frustrated for the people who are frustrated but don't know how to express themselves.

Yeah, and the thing with Justin too is that he sees a lot of good in people and sees the value they bring, the skills they have even though they're not using it. So you get so frustrated when you're like, dang, you could be doing a lot more. Like, I wish I had that skill you have it but you're not using it.

Yeah.

And it's hard because you want to inspire them to do something but they can only take action, they are their only person that can take action.

If they see it themselves.

They're in their own way.

Exactly, that's why an ideal only sounds good when it comes from from them.

Yep. Especially have to think of it themselves.

Exactly. You know, that was a good idea. I'm glad I came up with that. I'm glad you did too.

But I led you down the path. Exactly.

And that's the thing too, I like that you said that because it made me think of, um, persuade versus convince. Yes, persuade versus convince. And in sales, convincing somebody is trying to do something in your best interest, to convince somebody to do something in your best interest. Persuading somebody is to get that person out of their own way so that way they can finally make a good decision to do. So we're not trying to convince you to start a business, build your brand, do something on the side to finally do your happiness. We're trying to persuade you to get out of your own way so that way you can build your business, build your brand, build some happiness, and have a happy family life and build something that's everlasting. That's what we're trying to do here.

Yeah, exactly. And this is not an MLM. We're not trying to recruit you to our business. We don't want you as an employee. No, we just want you to do better for your life.

We want you to do better. But I will say, though, I'm glad you said that as well, too. We're not recruiting, by the way, but community is a powerful tool. If you fail, fail with others, fail with a leader, fail with a coach, somebody who's monitoring you to be able to help you understand the failings that you have. Rather, if you're doing sales and it's recording of your phone calls, to hear how'd you miss the sale. Or if it's a life coach— I don't say life coach— if it's just a coach who's getting you to build your brand, have them understand, you know, make them— get them to portray to you why you're failing in maybe your marketing or maybe your content, stuff like that. Because without that constructive criticism— and it can't— don't let it be your friends, because your friends suck. They're not going to help you because they're probably in the same position as you, so you don't want that. You know, misery likes company, that's what that's gonna breed. But somebody who is above you, you know, like up there, somebody that you want to scale up to one day, have that kind of person be the one that say, let me walk you through exactly what's going on so that way you can learn from it quick. Rather if that's paying for somebody or if it's just getting in a community of an inner circle of some sort, mastermind, whatever you have to do, plug into any community that really fits your specific needs and who you are and who you resonate because that's really gonna help you scale and keep your mind sharp and focused and not— and get rid of those what-ifs. And it's gonna be like the, well, what now? You don't want what-ifs. What now?

What now? Exactly. And if that's you where you're thinking like, I need to just start, comment on this post or this, this video saying what you want to do, or even give us a little shout out that you want to take that next step. Even if you're not verbally expressing what you want to do and you don't want to put it out there yet, you're too scared, at least share it a little bit to make that first step and speak it into existence a little. And also on Instagram, follow us. And if you are doing something really good, you're making that step, tag us so that we can cheer you on and build that community. Because even if you're some random tagging us in something good, I want to be like Hell yeah, that's awesome. Like, keep doing more of that.

Love that right there. Yeah, because that right there is community, and that's what we're all about here, because we want all of us to be on the same page and the same page to accelerate. Thank you guys for tuning in with this podcast. It might have been a long one, I don't know, we just kept going. But if you like this, like she said, comment down below, tag us in your videos, or even just post a video about something invigorating for yourself there to say that this is a new chapter in my life. And I'm ready for it. If that's you, like the video, subscribe, comment down below. We'll catch you in the next episode. Peace.