We Changed Our Room and It Changed Our Income (Here's What Happened)

You ever scroll past somebody online doing the thing that you want to do and you ask yourself, what do they know that I don't know? I used to think the same thing. I used to think it was time. I used to think there was some type of strategy. And then I went to a 2-day workshop with my Inner Circle and watched people accomplish in a single afternoon what some people would take months, if not years, to be able to do.

Write down the 5 closest people to you. You're an average financially, morally, religiously, —of those 5 people around you. And if you don't want your future to look like that, be that average, change the room.

Familiar dysfunction feels safer than unfamiliar freedom. Invest in yourself.

You deserve to be selfish.

You might be making great money being unfulfilled and unhappy, but it's costing you you. You can't hold yourself accountable.

You need a second person in there, no matter what. And your spouse, as much as I know you love me, I am not that person. What do you think someone is losing every day when they stay in the wrong room?

I would say that—

Now that we're back home from our trip, settling back in, reflecting, I want to ask, when we first walked into that room, what did you feel was different than everything— than anything we've been to before?

I think what was different about this room is that though there were so many different people from different walks of life, different businesses, different backgrounds, everybody was there for the same reason. And I think about that fencing company. That dude was making $40 million. $40 million for fencing and not like sword fencing, like building, like I'm thinking he's building walls for Mexico, you know, I'm thinking like he's on Donald Trump's team or something. But he's $40 million in an fencing company.

Yeah, I don't even think he's selling the materials. He— they're putting them up for people. Yeah.

And then you have the lady, uh, Kathy, who was an engineer transitioning to become a tutor for kids. Like, you go from an engineer of doing— I'm thinking the, the paragon theory, what is it? Pirag— oh my God, wow, I feel stupid now. What is it called? Pythagorean theory. Yeah, yeah.

Do you even know what that is? Yes. What is it?

I don't remember, but the triangle and then the base times— yeah, hypotenuse. Yeah, I'm thinking about that. Sorry, I don't know why that came to my mind. I thought like a blueprint and then Pythagorean's theory.

People are gonna call you out in the comments.

That's okay, we're both wrong, we're both idiots. Okay, it's all right. But anyways, and that's why I need her to tutor me. Okay, but she's becoming a tutor for kids. And I think that that room itself was— there was no, like, competition because we go to a lot of networking events and we go to a lot of high rollers pulling up in Lamborghinis and the G-Wagon suits and cocktail dresses and, oh, you know, people that are prissy.

Yeah, it's almost like, what can you do for me?

Exactly. And it was not the environment. Everybody was there to learn together and to help each other, which was weird and different. And I say weird because it was it was simple, it was easy, it was a safe place. Yeah. And I think that's something that— it felt warm. Yeah. And everyone wanted to give, not just take. So that was the whole different experience for me when we walked in the room. It was— I guess it was a safe place.

Yeah. And you could tell that everyone there was actively working on themselves, not only their business, wanting to scale to $100 million or whatever it may be, But they were working on their mindset and they're working on their heart. And you could tell that because they were doing that, they wanted to give back no matter what stage they were in. And that was really enlightening to see and feel and experience as, you know, your support system there. And it was definitely different. Yeah, you could tell it was almost like we were all nurturing each other, nurturing each other's businesses.

And that was the cool thing about it because there was no gatekeeping. It was like people paid a lot of money for themselves and they're giving stuff away. And I think that it was a workshop. I think that that itself was what the table was set as. It wasn't a seminar, it wasn't a keynote speaking thing, it was a workshop, meaning you're going to put in work. And I think that's what made it so intimate and so so valuable. Yeah, because people were there to provide assistance with the other person and to network while we're there and not just take. But again, it was a gift-giving session. I agree.

The most value, at least from my eyes, that we took back from that experience wasn't in the speakers, which was, you know, we learned a lot, a lot of good gems, but it was in the one-to-one conversations and relationships that we had and created at that workshop that where we were just getting intimate and deep in our businesses and how can I help you, what did I learn, what have I invested myself through my years in my business that I can get back to you. And it was almost— I could see why it is worth it to fly out and meet not only the person who put it together but the people in your community, because you almost sprout the relationships that may last a lifetime. And you never know when that next person's going to be your business partner or whatever it may be. It was so valuable, and you could tell that your values align because the person who put it together attracts the same people with the same morals, which, you know, you could tell these are dang good people, good heart. They're actually giving to give back. And yes, create income, but give back, give value rather than just make a quick buck.

Yeah, that proximity is like what made the entire thing powerful. And having a circle of people, I think that's what makes the value of the entire trip the best part, because when you don't have people around you that align with your values, or share the same goals, the same, the same beliefs, it makes it very difficult to grow. And the timing of us going on this trip and then coming back and talking about church, because you brought that, you brought up that, you know, Pastor Darryl Black, he brought up the people around you, your 5 people is your environment. That's why you are where you are, because of the people in your proximity.

Yeah, and for those listening here, our pastor this past Sunday had us write down, take notes of the 5 closest people to you. Write down their names. Now you're an average financially, morally, I guess religiously, of those 5 people around you. And if you don't want your future to look like that, be that average that you're imagining in your head of those 5 different people, your best friends, your family, whoever you hang out with most. Those 5 people changed the room. And I couldn't agree more. But to be called out like that, that was, that was huge. Yeah.

And it was huge. And it was huge for me because I didn't have 5 people to write down. I'm like, I wanted to write down stuff, but I didn't. I didn't know what to write down. Because when I look at my life in my circle, and granted, I create circles for people, who lean on me for the knowledge, for the— I don't want to say motivation, but the encouragement to continue to keep doing what they're doing and showing up.

Yeah. And the knowledge. Yeah.

But for me, for myself to lean on, because every coach needs a coach, because we're always wanting to get to a different level. I don't have a circle of people in that realm, that spectrum, to keep me accountable who I hold dear to say those are my people, we're like this. Yeah. And I find that I felt bad because I recognize people in my life who I would say are my brothers or I would say are in my circle. But then I'm like, well, one, I don't see them as often.

Yeah, because you have people that you're learning, that you look up to, you have coaches, but you don't have 5 tight, almost like your co-businessmen that you're arms with each other. Yeah. You're like a shell to each other to walk forward into the next step of life.

Yeah, I don't have that. And I— there's a lot of people who I come in contact with that don't have that either. And they think that, well, I have my buddy Brad and Brad's doing this great thing, but then we don't have— him and Brad don't have those intimate conversations on helping growth take place. Like those hard-hitting questions on, you know, where are you at mentally right now? Like, You said that you were going to make that post, but you never did. What happened, bro? You know, somebody that kind of calls you out a little bit, not just continues to carry you on, patting your back when things are always easy, or, you know, it's going to get better, it's all right. Like, no, like, no, I want— how is it going to get all right? Give me the framework, give me the structure, help me keep myself accountable. Like, those are the people in your circle that will help you propel.

That iron sharpens iron. But I challenge you because I say that you're probably ahead than everyone in church that was able to write down 5 names and wasn't happy. I challenge your thought on that, that you are a step ahead of all those people because you already distanced yourself because you knew that wasn't where you wanted to be, and you're already seeking after what you want to be, and you already have your hand out. You're working with people, but it takes time to get that best man beside you, that best businessman beside you. Have 5 of them. It takes time. It can take years to find even just one solid person, more so multiple. And that comes with trial and error, finding people that align with your morals. That you could find someone that's making a billion dollars, but would you get in bed with that person business-wise? Would you take their advice because they're dancing with the devil? No. So I think it's powerful that you didn't have 5 people write down yet because you're in that phase where you're leveling up and you're ahead of most people.

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 going to go and dig deeper into your specific situation live. All right, now let's get back into the video. That's a good perspective. Yeah, I didn't think of it that way. And yeah, I guess that is true that I've already taken the initial steps to recognize my circle of who I've already had in my group and who you want to have. And it's like there's people I would want to drag in my circle, but I don't want to drag them in my circle. And I think that's what the issue I was having where I would great friends with, with, I'm not gonna throw names out, but I'm great friends with this person. And we have these good conversations, but he's complacent with where he is in his life business-wise and doesn't want to grow. He'll complain. But then he doesn't want to grow. Meanwhile, I'm sounding like a dreamer saying all these things. And then, oh, yeah, whatever you decide to do, man, I just support it. Like, no, you don't support it. Like, that's the thing, because you're just throwing it out there. Yeah, you're watching from the sidelines, seeing if it works or not. Like, I need you to be there on the court with me playing.

Yeah, he's just watching you gamble and he's not being like, yeah, yeah, press that button and keep going, man. Yeah, it's almost like, let's see if you hit the jackpot.

And I think that's what I was feeling when I was thinking about Ryan Atkinson, but I've already taken the initial step on recognizing the circle, which is something I should give myself grace to.

Yeah, because you're, you're reaching out and you're coached and you're around a lot of people that are already— they're dreaming big. They bought in, or they're actually living part of their dream, but they want to scale. They want to dream bigger. And to them, you're not far-fetched. You want something bigger for your life. You don't want to just be in a Joe Schmo W-2 job, which is okay for people, but you, you just wanna— you want more than that for your own self. and you're going to seem normal to those people. Yeah. But for other people that are very complacent, you're not normal. Yeah.

And I think that's what the workshop helped me realize, because those are all people who left their circles or trying to restructure their circles by bridging alliances with other people in different circles. And not to keep going around in circles, talking about the circle thing. I think that— and I don't even think this, I know that— you have to be intentional with the groups that you want to show up to. And everybody that came out to that workshop was intentional by going to the workshop and putting in the work to be a part of the group that's there, to pour into the group. And when you're not trying to intentionally look for somebody and you think it's going to naturally fall into your lap, it doesn't work that way. Sometimes you have to extend that hand out and then hopefully somebody who you you recognize and you value is going to grab it back. I agree.

And it was almost overwhelming in a sense that there wasn't one person I didn't meet that I thought I could really see those people in our life, whether it's beneficial to proximity of financial business, great relationships, they're actively seeking God. And so many aspects of our life, I like, wow, we really aligned. And I almost felt overwhelmed because I wanted to spend more time with each of those people, but we clearly didn't have the time, and we just planted the seeds with a lot of people. But I wish I had more time with all those people. I was overwhelmed because I was like, wow, these, these are quality people, and I want more of that in our life. And I wish we had more of that here in, in our town, in our city, which they're probably here, but we just need to find them. We need a Give it time.

That's what this is for. Yeah, have these conversations and be visible online. That is true. Because no one knows what we don't know. It's not about who knows best, it's about who's known best. And if people know what we do, they're going to gravitate towards us, and then they're going to want our assistance, be in our circle. Maybe somebody that's even above where we are, maybe they like what we're doing and says, I was there and I love what you guys do. Follow me. And we happen to have the same values. Yeah. I mean, that's why we show up doing this. I think that's powerful and that we're already taking, you know, because to push back on what you pushed on, we're already taking the initiative doing something like that.

I agree. We're already reflecting out what we want to come back. Yeah.

And that's the one thing about that group that was beautiful is that everybody there had a standard in place. There was what they tolerated day to day. And that's the difference between people who have goals and have standards, because goals are your checklist, a to-do list, but standards are what set you apart. Standards are what separates and has you tolerate what you're doing day to day. And that's the proximity that we need to be around of all the time and the proximity that we need to create for others to be a part of.

I agree. And I would say to a lot of people that we met were already successful people, but the fact that they wanted something more, something that aligned more them, they're willing to restart their whole life and find success all over again was really encouraging to see that you can hit jackpot more than once in life. Yeah. Or it's worth it going after it.

Because you won't go after it, you think it's going to come to you when it's not going to come to you. And if you don't know what you're looking for, sometimes you don't recognize the things that are in front of your front door. I don't know why I tried the rhyme, but yeah. Yeah, it was almost distracting.

It was distracting.

It was distracting my mind.

Well, you talk about proximity a lot. Well, we talk about proximity a lot, but what did you see in that room? What did you experience that proved that it's more than a concept?

What I saw was things taking place. Actions were already in action. Money makers were moving. There was no, I need to do this, I'm going to start doing this, I wish I did this. Everyone already had a foundation set and was already building. They wanted to figure out how do I build faster, not necessarily the shortcuts, but I want to know the things that aren't the wrong things to do to help save myself time to get to the goal that I want to get to. I think that was one of the— I know that was one of the things that was there, that people came with tools, with already stuff in progress. Yeah, I came to with a script already for recording. Some people say, I don't even have a script, I don't even know what I'm even talking about, let alone even thinking about writing a script to write a— to make a video. Yeah, we came here to make content.

Whether you're in the 100,000 phase or 40 million phase, we were all there to create a clear brand that we can scale as well. And it was nice to see that everyone was there willing to already give what they learned along the way to everyone else.

Yeah, there was no gatekeeping. Yeah, everybody was sharing information. Like Shambo, Shambo paid I don't know how much money. I mean, he's been a part of Tony Robbins group, all his masterminds. Read his books. And Buddy paid a lot of money for all that knowledge. Yeah. And in our short conversation, he was giving me all the game that he could give me in that short 5, 10 minutes in conversation we were having. Yeah. And it was so much more valuable than people I've worked with for over 10 years in an unhealthy environment.

Every single one of those people there were already actively investing in themselves for a year or several years or decades, and you can tell, you could tell they were investing in themselves because they had a lot of value to bring and how to almost uplift the other person and show them their value. That was powerful.

There was like a certain glow that people had, and they didn't think about any issues that they were having as far as what monetary values people think when it comes to investments and investing in themselves and paying this price for this. Everyone was there to give, and it was so powerful because everyone was already aware of the delayed gratification that comes by just giving somebody something. Because we're forging new relationships, we're planting seeds in good soil. They'll one day harvest the fruit from the relationships. To people reaching out to me. I'll use me for an example. Like, I'm getting messages about, hey Justin, what mic are you using for your podcast? What are you using for your thumbnail? What font is that? Like, people reach out to me. I just started a podcast. I'm 8 episodes in. We're 8 episodes in. And I'm already looking like the guy for the podcast. Your setup looks legit. Like, bro, it's crazy. I'm like, yo.

Yeah, because you learn very fast.

Yeah, I, and I learned from the people that are already doing it. And it's one thing just to watch people do something and to see it, but to actually interact with them as well and to take in their real world— real world. I don't know how to say that. Their, I guess, their words lifetime while taking their words in real time. In real time. No, that was hard to say. That's like a tongue twister. Whoa. Wow. Wow. Wow. I gotta practice my W words because my lips.

You're stressing me out.

The number one question I usually get from people like you is, Justin, how the heck do you get your videos to look and sound so dang good? Well, the truth is it all comes down to the gear that I use, and you'd probably be shocked with how affordable it actually is. So what I did was put together a full list of the gear that I use, and I want to give it to you. If you're listening to this or watching this, just click the link in the description box and check out my full gear guide for every budget. Now let's get back into the conversation. But taking people's words as they were in real time, it was well more valuable than just consuming a how-to video on setting up your podcast studio. You guys hear that? It's our dog. She's going through some things. She's old. She's old. 14 years old. She's pushing though. And the reason why being in that room was so powerful is because you really don't realize subconsciously what you're taking in every single day by the people you're interacting with. The habits, the words, the mindset, the ability to do things, the limiting beliefs on what you can't do. That stuff plagues your mind every single day you're in the wrong room with people.

And even if you don't intend on it, you're absorbing everything around you, everything that that person says, their tendencies, their habits, you're absorbing it and your brain is like, it's natural to mimic it. So the more you're around people that cuss, you're going to slowly start cussing and it's going to be natural because it's the normal, it's what you accept around you.

And what's normal is like, it's a biological thing, like that's how our brains are wired. People think that it's just this thing that's out there, no, it's like a part of our anatomy. Yeah. How we take in information. Monkey see, monkey do is a saying for a reason, because when we see it, we hear it, we think it, that becomes us at some point because we can only be ourselves alone so much before we get into an environment and start thinking like them. That's why they say if you're gonna think like a millionaire, be with a millionaire. If you're gonna think like a broke person, be with a broke person.

Yeah, and for all my girlies watching this, my guilty pleasure One of the things I'm ashamed to admit, but I am a Love Island stan. And when that new season drops and I am watching it, and you know it drops day after day, it's a daily episode. Justin knows when it's Love Island season because he says, you're seeing more likes. I hear you keep saying likes. And it's because I'm listening to it. I'm listening to the females on there say like, like, like, like, like. And I naturally, I've worked so hard to take like out of my vocabulary And just like that, it's back. Just like that. Just like that. Like is back. Just like, just that it's back.

Yes. The likes are ridiculous.

And that's prime example. They don't even have to be in my home. They're in my mind. They're in my eyes. They're in my ears. Yeah.

And that's exactly what I mean. Even Church was talking about that with the core people and you and what the music you listen to. When you start listening to all the cursing, you're going to be in your mind cursing. He was talking about pornography. If you're thinking, watching pornography, you're going to be thinking pornography in your mind.

That's true. You're going to start seeing people around you more sexually.

Yeah, you have those images in your mind that's just there, plaguing it. And how do you get out of that? By stepping into a different room, into a different area, because that becomes your standard. Your standard with being an alcoholic is going to be from your environment of other people that go to the bar after work, drinking all the time, to the drinking before work, drinking after work, and spiraling down, going downhill. Standard of starting a business with people who want to continue to grow. Well, I'm going to be around people who are doing businesses and they want to continue to grow. That's my new standard because I realize that I need to keep going, not sitting down. And I almost run a rhyme again. I was going to say get start slow and I don't know why I want to rhyme. So weird. Okay, anyways.

Cut it out. Sorry. What's the thing that you thought you knew, but when we showed up to that workshop, you completely had your mind changed?

I don't think I went there knowing enough. I went there open-minded because I feel like if I go there already have an expectation, then I cut off things that I could be missing out on. There's already going to be a wall in my mind because I'm disregarding solid information.

Like, well, there wasn't anything that you had your view on that someone said, whether it's a fellow person in the community or the person who put it together. There wasn't something that said like, whoa, wow, I was completely wrong on that, or wow, I didn't know it could be done like that, I had no idea.

Like from my perspective, like me saying, wow, I didn't know it'd be done like that. I mean, if you want to get nitty gritty, we could talk about AI. We were talking about people leveraging artificial intelligence to help their business and people don't realize. And I guess I had a small aha moment for this because I kind of— I already know a lot of this, but people don't realize when you're going to prompt your AI You want to create a prompt for a prompt, meaning I need— prompt me this. Here's— you brain dump on, on whatever you're using. I'm using Claude nowadays, but at the time I was using ChatGPT. Brain dump on ChatGPT telling exactly everything that you want, and then you say create a prompt that I can prompt for this action, and I want to put it in a document or something like that. Like, people were taking those prompts and then applying it and making whole documentations, or taking transcripts from YouTube videos and making a prompt for that to make it easier and digestible. So that was like a slight aha for me. I mean, if you wanna get technical with certain things that happen during a workshop, I think—

like you wanna make a universal prompt that you can share with other people for them to prompt their AI. Yeah. Yeah.

For yourself or for other people to help. Yeah. Because a lot of people get overwhelmed with AI and AI will hallucinate, they call it, when it starts running off with other thoughts, which you wanted to be very precise. You gotta learn how to train it. That's one key thing that a lot of people there didn't know how to do. I think that my biggest thing is when I was on stage speaking, and when I was asking the question on helping people realize where they're at and break out of the habits that they're in, my voice got more passionate when I kept talking about when you're surrounding yourself with people who are in the box. And that story that Shambo told was like that. I think that was my moment right there that I wasn't thinking of, like, a powerful perspective is that we're born out of the womb, we end up in a box. The box is the incubator, the cradle that we're in. We grow up in this box as a kid. We drive to school in a box. To go learn in a box, to come home to eat cereal out of a box, to go and grow up to go into more school of a box, to drive to work in a box.

To work in a cubicle that's a box.

To work in a cubicle that's in a box, in a big building box. And then after we do everything that we can, after we go back home into our box, we die and end up in a box. So our entire life is being trained to be in a box. And I think that that was one of the biggest, like, wow, that's pretty deep. Like, I didn't even think about that. But the visualization that you get, because you picture yourself being born, you picture yourself driving to work, you picture yourself making the calls or working on a computer in your cubicle or wherever you work, learning at your desk, which is a square box, like, that's there. And subconsciously you're thinking about staying in this box because it's safe. Yeah. And that safe box with all the protected corners and edges and closing the lid so I don't Worry about what's happening, you close your mind. And then once you open that box and realize there's a whole world out there, which is what happened once we started a business together. That perspective was so brilliant that when I gave the speech on people who are told, well, you want to make more money, go back to school, get your master's, get your specialty, go back to the box, go back into the box. And you stay unhappy because I might still make more money. But I'm still going to have the same problem I had back when I was a little broker or whatever you want to call it. I had less money is that I'm still capped at my income. I'm still capped at my time, my salary. I'm still capped by my boss because they're going to tell me what I can and can't do. And I still have the unfulfillment and same unhappiness, but I'm trading my time for that money to pay my bills and I stay locked in this box. And my passion was I want people to realize that they could do so much more. So that there was my aha moment where I was— I felt my passion. And I also had the visualization on a very— I don't know what's the word I'm looking for. I don't— that's the structure of how it could be lined up as far as growing up in a box.

Yeah, that you can escape the matrix. That you don't have to go back to the box. There are so many other ways. And there are so many Avenues for life that you need to open your mind to see what, what are the possibilities? What can I do? You can do anything. You can do anything. Go pursue anything you want to be like the Magician we met. Pursue whatever the heck you want. You can make it successful if you love it. Do it. Find that passion. Find, find what you love and find people that you love to do it with and do that. Yeah.

So the fact there was a magician there, that was crazy. There was a magician at the workshop.

There were literally so many people, even our friends that we met that owned huge franchise that's even here down the street from us, yet they want to pursue something together, husband and wife, outside that huge franchise that they own across the whole entire USA. So it was really cool to see that. But where am I going with this? I don't know.

But I will say, since we're talking about couples doing things, I do take I'm trying not to look at things negative anymore. And I've been doing really well at that by looking at stuff way more positive. And that was a big mind—

mind shit— mindset shift.

Yeah, my mind was shit.

But this mindset shift, you gotta bleep that out.

Yeah. But yeah, you know, always have regrets or looking back at things we could have done. Instead of looking at the things that we could have done, look at the things that are now. And what you can be doing. And I think that us doing a business together at a younger stage of our marriage and learning and having these conversations, not even 2 years into our marriage, I think is well ahead of people who have been doing something for 10+ years and then want to step back and say, we've had so many problems with our marriage. Now we found God. Now we've decided to do a business together. Now we're doing stuff together because we were growing apart. So I don't take for granted the stuff that I've been exposed to has been helping me tremendously already bypass so many years of turmoil. And I would start focusing on giving more grace to the things that we've already taken in, and that we're already applying to our lives versus saying, I wish we'd started that podcast when we were younger, or before we had kids or whatever the case may be, because now we're setting the table for our children.

I agree. It's almost as if we did feel like we're behind, but we're actually ahead of the game. We're not behind. We're perfect timing, I would say. And I mean, even look at Mel Robbins. I think she's in her 40s or, I mean, if she's in her 50s, she looks good. But she restarted her whole life, was a successful lawyer, retired that, said, I don't want to do this with my life. Then started a business with her husband, opening up restaurants and they were almost $1 million in debt because of everything. And they had multiple kids. They were losing their home, losing their mortgage. And she turned her life around and created a successful business all while she had all those liabilities on her. And literally at the make it or break it point, she was losing like her entire kids' savings. Her mortgage was about to be repoed or whatever it may be. She was losing her entire life and she, built her new life from the ground up at such a, you know, she was at a later stage in life than us. And I feel very grateful that we don't have, in our heads we have a lot of liabilities and we're risking a lot with our new adventures. And that's why we are investing so much to grow smart and aggressively. But there's a lot of people out there that are doing the same thing as us with so many more liabilities. And who are we to say like, we are so taking a huge risk. Other people are taking bigger risks.

Yeah. Anybody who thinks that their risk is too risqué, someone took a well bigger risk. I mean, I love watching School of Hard Knocks because the stories that every person has is always the same story. They didn't come from money. Some did. They've been broke multiple times. They filed bankruptcy. They've lost a lot of things. But then at the end of it, they all had the same common ground of keep going. They had God in their life, perseverance, don't give up, do it while you're thinking about it today. It's all the same story. Everybody has the same exact story to be successful.

You'll never be successful if you didn't massively fail. And you need to—

and it's— and I will say that I was so afraid of the failures because I was so comfortable with the money that we were making. But I was so unhappy with the money I was making.

Yeah, you had a little bit of happiness, like, oh wow, we're bringing in so much money. But you weren't unhappy. You were very unhappy with what you were doing.

I was very unhappy with what I was doing. And I think of the person— like enslaved. Oh yeah, I felt captive. And I think of the person who makes great money, who is so unhappy. And I— my heart yearns for that person because I know what that feels like. And you feel so alone that you don't know what to do, but you have to keep going to your job because you have to keep paying your bills and you're too afraid to take the risk on yourself. Yeah, because you, one, may not believe in your abilities. You feel like whatever you want to do is oversaturated. You don't know who to learn from because there's so many voices and we're in such a huge trust recession that you have no idea what to believe. There's so many factors that go against you. But it takes the first step with having that self-awareness on owning who you are and what you believe in, what you want to do. And then from there, you don't think about all the other stuff. Like, I don't— there's been times when I'm like, I looked at the account, I don't even know what the account was looking like. One, am I afraid to possibly? Two, do I, do I just believe in what I'm doing? That's probably majority of it now. And I've taught myself how to overcome the belief of not failing. A safety net. I'm going to succeed. I will succeed. I'm not, I'm not going to fail. Yeah, because it's not that it's like failure is not an option. There's no plan B. Like, I just heard this great thing on Arnold Schwarzenegger. He was talking about he never had a plan B because plan B splits your motive, your motivation into two things. You have plan A, but then it's like, ah, but plan B is there so I can reserve a little bit of that. No, plan A, that's it. I'm putting my heart, my soul into this. And that's what he did with bodybuilding. He put his heart and his soul into the one thing. Didn't care about what would happen if he failed because he knew he was going to succeed. But when you had that plan B, that, that what if in the back of your head, that what if is going to continue to keep holding you back. Yeah. And I think that that was so powerful and I resonated with that because—

because it's almost like, okay, if this doesn't happen, I'm going to do that. Yeah. And then it almost keeps you held back.

It does. It keeps you captive back there because you know that that safety net is there. And it's like, well, if it fails, at least I have that. Oh, hello Cleo, welcome to the party. So it was extremely powerful to have that. And again, to be in any kind of that environment. Oh, Cleo, let's just take it easy here.

She probably wants to scratch her head on everything.

I'm sure she does want to rub everything.

There we go, she's settling. Okay, good.

All right, this is Cleo.

I want you to be honest with me. Is there a moment where you felt like we were playing too small?

A part of me feels like there's times where I think that we're too small, meaning like we don't have a team of certain people, or I'm overleveraging myself doing multiple things. We're running multiple businesses at the same time, but then I try to give the grace that we're doing stuff. We're doing— we're bringing in money. We're bringing in interest, people, and we're making content.

Yeah, you're literally doing every— something every second of every day. Yeah.

So I don't devalue what's like playing too small. I know that we all have different seasons and we're all— we have what we have and we're making do with what we have. And that right there is the first step. Yeah, you don't have to have the best equipment, the fancy lights, the fancy mics. You can start with something small and do it. But the fact that I went ahead and took the jump and got the stuff and I'm doing it, I think that was— that helped me even more to give myself more credibility because I'm a firm believer that when you want to be somebody, you need to act like that person today. But I did have one takeaway from Derek in the group, and Derek said this. He's My biggest issue I have is not acknowledging the things that I've done and I've already accomplished. And I know there's so many people out there who have done amazing things, but because they're so driven to want to do more, they don't acknowledge the little steps that they've already— the little outcomes that they've already got because they're so focused on the main objective, the main outcome, that they're not focused on the outputs that they're getting. And I think that that was probably one of the biggest takeaways I had for me because somebody broke that down for me. And we had that relationship, that conversation that bridged our relationship saying, bro, you're just like me. I was just like you. He said that to me and I'm like, what do you mean? Like, you can't, you have no gratitude to the things that you've already done because you're already thinking about the next step.

It's almost like one, you don't congratulate yourself, you don't give yourself credit for doing it. And two, you're almost devaluing what you've already done because you never acknowledged it as something worth celebration.

Yeah. And I didn't celebrate my victories. I continued to keep moving, which you never do. Never do. But it goes against you because that also helps with— it works against your— how you posture yourself, how you believe in your abilities. Because when you know that you want to be this great person and all you focus on is being that great person, you're never going to give yourself the the permission to not disqualify you to already becoming the person. Yeah. And I think that was my hardest, hardest thing I've ever accepted for myself because I'm always quick to shut off any compliments someone gives me. Oh, bro, your body looks good. Nah, bro, look at your arms, man. That's your arms. It's screaming right now. Like, get me out of the sleeves. I always push back. I always re-compliment the other person because I don't know how to take in. And I don't want to sound like I'm arrogant or self-centered because one, I always feel like people who are light-skinned always have that, oh, you're light-skinned, so you're just, you're always squinting and thinking you're like perfect. And I don't know why that always plagued the back of my mind.

I used to be that person all the time where I would put myself down after someone complimented me a long time ago. But I forgot where I heard it, and this was years ago, but it said every time you do that, you make yourself look insecure. If you want to present someone a value, you accept it. You say thank you because you acknowledge like, yes, I did. And it's not necessarily maybe you're born with, but like you did put in that effort. You did that. Thank you. Thank you for acknowledging that. And if you want, return a compliment, but accept that and say thank you.

And that's powerful because that is giving yourself the permission that you've done it. That people recognize what you're doing, acknowledge you. Yeah. And I think that be— by me not doing that and so many people doing the same thing, they're not allowing themselves to be able to move forward with what it is that they want to be because they're so focused again on the outcome versus the outputs. And him having that conversation with me shifted my mindset because I had to stop back and say, man, I actually am doing the things. I've done this. People are asking me these questions. People want to work with me. People want to pay me to coach them, people want me to build, help them build their bodies. I am the person. And then once you start having that self-belief, now I can continue to build. It's like a checkpoint in your mind. Yeah.

And when people compliment you, and when they really mean it, they're actually like saying that's something of value because they complimented you of that. Like you accomplished like, man, those posts you've been putting online, your YouTube videos, like your production, how you've been helping these other people, I could see them making changes in their life. I love how beautiful the quality of your videos look, or whatever it may be, that they are valuing that. And I think it's powerful to say thank you and be like, let me show you how to do it sometime. If you, you ever see yourself doing that, let me show you how to do it, or let me send you my, my list of all the things I did to make it look this specific quality and give value back in that way. Because it made me think of Maybe someone says, oh my gosh, I love your makeup. Or even today when I went to the med spa, they're like, I love your aesthetic. And I said, thank you. And the value I give back was like, oh yeah, I got this shirt from so-and-so and so, like, let me let you in on it. And that's how I give value. So I think when someone does compliment you, they secretly want to get in with whatever you're doing. And that's it. That opens the door for you.

Yeah, that's like, that's a pretty big gem right there is how do I get into the rooms? If someone compliments you, that's the door open, and you receive the compliment and then you give them the game for the compliment. Always. And I think that's like, that right there is a huge way to leverage a compliment, and a lot of people don't do that. And I was guilty for that. I would just take it as is and say, oh, nice.

Yeah, you almost just want to give, put yourself down and give a compliment back to value up the other person. But secretly, like, you can both be on the podium. You can both be there.

That's— I don't know why I thought about like, like that's a form— if you want to look at this as a business way, that's a form of a lead because you give them the game for your makeup or your clothes. Oh, this is— I got this from this group here. I actually have a whole catalog on the things that I buy and stuff. If you want it, I can give it to you. They opt in, they give you their name, information, whatever. Next thing you know, they're in your ecosystem that you can pump out content to.

Exactly. Oh, let me text it to you right now.

Yeah, I think that's, that's super huge. That, that, that's valuable. Like Yeah, especially if you want to look at it as a business standpoint. Super. Wow, good. Yeah, that's good.

What do you think someone is losing every day when they stay in the wrong room?

Money. Bleeding money. Bleeding money.

Bleeding money everywhere. Wounds open everywhere.

Yeah, I would say that people who are stuck in the wrong rooms are stuck in life, and they are trying to figure out, how do I get out of the situation I'm in, but they want to stay in the same room. Familiar dysfunction feels safer than unfamiliar freedom. Pastor Darrell. Pastor Darrell. When you are comfortable with where you're at, you're never going to want to leave. Yeah. And I think that people have this standard that is so set, and it's not that they lack discipline sometimes. Sometimes it's because they're overexposed to low standards and they stay in that realm, which is why you have to get into the rooms that people are at a higher level. And when you're at a room where you are the person, you're not learning anything else. That's when you need to go into a new room. When everyone's coming to you for advice, coming to you for information, coming to hang out with you because you're the guy. Cool.

You don't want to be the guy.

I don't want to be the guy. I want to now be the student. Yeah, I want to level up myself by getting into the different rooms. And I think— and I used to be— I used to look against this back in the day. People pay for friends. I thought that was so— I thought it was stupid. And because I thought it was stupid because other people said it was stupid. So because they said I don't pay for friends, I'm not gonna do that. So when you start thinking about paying for followers, which is stupid because now I'm having false advertisement about what it is I do—

that one's stupid, that one's stupid.

But paying for intentional exchange of greetings.

Yeah, because it's almost like paying for followers is completely different from paying for leads. Yeah, because you're paying for intention— intentionality.

Yeah. And I think that's what is huge, because I'm paying to be in this room to receive information that's going to get me paid. And that's why I think that the framework of paid itself is key to be able to grow yourself, where paid is a framework. That's true.

We always pay to level up our life. We paid extra money for a better house, to be in a better community, for better neighbors and better schools for our kids to be better quality students. You pay for a good gym membership to be with people that want to work out and be on a different level, whether it's MI40, $100, $200 a month, or go to Crunch. And then Crunch is great too. Shout out to Crunch. We still go there. It's more convenient. Yeah. But, um, or even I think our first taste of truly paying for things is like our paid networking group because intentionality, you're paying there, everyone paid to be there. So you are all actively trying to bring value to each other in that room. Exactly. And I think that was our first taste of being paid to be in a room and it just opened us up to everything that's worth it, you pay to get into, whether you intentionally do it or not. 1000%. Like our neighborhood. Yeah. I think the faster you accept that, the faster you'll get into bigger and better rooms.

Mm-hmm. And paid proximity, action, involvement, dollars. Paid proximity. Proximity is the rooms that you're in. Whether that's in person, online, virtual proximity, proximity in workshops, proximity in your environments, proximity on people you bring into your business. Yeah, anything you let into here, anything you let into your mind, your music that you listen to, your, your movies that you watch, whatever you do, your books you read, that proximity is in your mind, and that's what you're going to become because you're learning about it. And people have, you know, interests that makes them set apart. I'm not saying that anything that's not dealing with what it is that you want to do is bad because absolutely not. You watch Love Island and you got to have your vice.

Got to have your vice.

I watch anime. You know, everyone has their thing.

What's the majority of your time? What's the bulk of your time? Because at any point in time when we're 100% focused on business, like, I am willing to cut it off. But you can't just be go, go, go 24/7 every single day. Exactly. Like today you had your first rest day, quote unquote. It's not even rest day because look at us working now. Well, if this is qualified as work.

This ain't even work. I'm just talking.

But this was your first true rest day in— I can't even remember. You slept in, you let yourself just be. You actually had a nap. Yeah. You don't nap. I don't nap. You needed it. Your body needed it.

This was the first time I didn't do anything but stay in the bed, didn't go to the gym, and did something that was not building, working on something.

Yes. You just sometimes you need to take a beat.

I did need a break. And I learned this a long time ago too, because you're working 5 days straight, working, and you might be putting in subpar actions into it, or you work 3 days where you take a couple of days off and re-energize yourself and you're able to put in 10 times the amount of effort because you're not as exhausted. I mean, what's more valuable? And in my mind, I feel like if I'm not doing something, then I'm not doing something. Yeah. And that's not good because I feel like I always should be up to something, doing something, money-making activities.

There are corporate companies that are testing out that theory and they find the people that have only 3 or 4 working days as opposed to 5 are way more efficient. They get more work done in those days and then they get extra day off for the weekend.

Look at Chick-fil-A, they take off Sundays. Yeah. And they're always— lines are always long. Yeah, they're too busy. Even working out, you work out every single day. Your body needs time to recover. And those days that you're recovering, you're growing. So that way you can apply more energy into the gym the next day.

Yeah, your workouts are better, you're more efficient, you grow more muscle. It's crazy. You grow more muscle by not working out as much.

Yeah, you're not working out your brain because there's times where I'm working and my brain is fatigued. Like I could feel brain pain. Yeah. And I'm like, it's either I'm learning something that's really overwhelming And I'm like, oh, but I'm stuck and sticking in it because I have to do this because I want to. And then those are the times I really need to realize, bro, pause it, close laptop, sit down, do nothing, take a walk, you know, relax. It's okay. Yeah. And I think there's an on and off switch. There's a balance that people don't have, and I know myself included, which I'm learning, that when you're not doing something, you can make it happen. But again, the proximity is what helps you be accountable to those kind of actions. Agreed. And if I don't have that, and if you don't have that, you're never going to get anywhere. Agreed. And then putting into action. Action takers are money makers. When you are applying what you're learning in proximity into actual actionable plans, actual actionable plans. That's pretty good.

It's a tongue twister.

That was a tongue twister, and I actually said it right. Proud of myself. Yeah, me too. Okay, good. When you're putting those into motion, it's not about, oh, I'm going to do this later, I'm going to get to this, or tomorrow I'm going to start the podcast, or it's— I'm doing it now. Like, you have to— whatever is in your mind, you got to put into your mind. And there's this, um, what is it called? The law of diminishing interest, or the law of diminishing actions.

I forget what it is. Law of diminishing return.

No, that's something different, but I'm changing into something else. Okay. Basically, when you have the thought of doing something, when you're at the highest of it, you have to put it into motion. If there's a video that you want to make, a thought that came to your mind, a book you want to write, or some type of note, do it immediately. Because as you don't do it, there's a time limit that slowly dwindles down when you're not wanting to do it, or it doesn't become matterful anymore. You don't care until you just say, all right, whatever, the time's passed, I don't care. And then you see somebody else do it and you're like, I was going to do that same thing. But because you didn't put the action into motion, it never took place.

And I think we've all experienced that.

All of us. Everyone experienced like you right now, you making your bread. Yeah. But now you're starting to put it into motion because you're slowly starting to do— everyone has their pace that they have to go in. Yeah. And everyone has their seasons on what they believe. Not everybody can just start and go, go, go. Yeah. Sometimes you need a little handholding, and I get that. And everyone has their own pace on their comfortability on showing up. But you have to realize that you have to put in the action or else nothing's going to take place.

Agreed. And if I didn't start posting so much of my bread or my sourdough that I'm doing right now, finding passion in it, I wouldn't have found out that so many people— like, yes, I do see a lot of people online interested in sourdough, getting into it, but from people in my community, people that follow me, people that I see in real life, I want to make sourdough, or I tried and I failed, and ooh, teach me, or oh my gosh, like, I want to try, or I want to purchase, or whatever it may be. So many people are interested in it, and I wouldn't have known if I just didn't post.

Yeah, and it was as simple as that, or I didn't talk about it, because people don't know what you know. Yeah, until you give them what you know. Agreed. You have to show them. Agreed. And that's that activity, that action. The activity is, it's, it's like, even if it's once a month. I think about when we go to church once a week and you feel so renewed. It's not enough. Not enough, which is why we do more than once a week. But again, like the coaching calls, I do coaching calls once a week and you feel so much better by getting into a room of other people in that environment that it kind of replenishes that I'm not alone. There are other people. Yeah. And you feel even better by having conversations and sharing wins, sharing troubles that you're having to help each other grow. Your turn. Hey, babe. That it's, it's necessary. It's necessary to be able to grow in winning environments. Yeah. Which leads into investments. And The investment is investing into yourself, investing into the environment that you're in, paying to play, having skin in the game, which holds you accountable to your endeavors that you want. We talked about this before. People consume all this information on, on YouTube or whatever, but they do nothing with it. They sit on it. When we went to the workshop The reason why we were able to do things that people would take most of the time to be able to do, and we did it in one afternoon, is because there was a deadline.

Everyone paid a lot to be there, and so you wanted to come prepared. You wanted to film the content you wanted to film, take full advantage of that, take advantage of the people there that were going to edit your videos, chop it all up for you, coach you on your script that it's good. Give you direction, you aren't just gonna have that moment. I guess the other word for like, you know, the moment is fleeting. Fluttering? Fluttering? No, I don't know. Yeah, anyways, they didn't want that moment just to drift away from them. They wanted to take advantage of it because they did a lot to be there. They worked hard for their money and they're investing in themselves. They weren't gonna just go there and watch other people do what they need to do and think like, okay, I'm gonna absorb here and there and be very like nonchalant about it. They really went there to absorb and take full advantage of everything. Yeah, they weren't benchwarmers.

They were there with— they wanted to be a part of the game. Yeah. And the reason why they were able to do that is because they valued what they put into it. And again, we went there with, we're recording behind the scenes, we're gonna shake hands with a bunch of people, We're going to make the most out of this time. Why can't we do that? Why can't someone do that on a regular basis? Take every single day and make the most out of the time. Because they probably don't feel like it. Yeah, I think that's one thing that makes you in a group setting is you feel like doing what other people are doing. Because again, the standard is set. Yeah, the table is set for everyone to be winners.

I would say devil's advocate, if you don't feel like doing what you want to do to pursue it, you're— you don't love enough, you don't have enough passion in it. But it only gets you so far, and you got to see other people, like you said, make it a standard, other people holding that standard for themselves, and be around them. Because just because you love something and you see extreme value in it doesn't mean that you're actually going to hold yourself accountable. You need other people to hold yourself accountable. Heck, even Mr. Olympia has a coach, has a trainer to hold him accountable. You would think he would be the most qualified person for workouts, for nutrition, but he needs outside eyes, even him, of someone that maybe didn't even win Mr. Olympia, but they're excellent at that third-party coaching training. Even that person has a coach.

It's excellent point of view. Yeah, and it's true. And again, every person who's at the top still needs somebody even at the top.

Yeah, you would think they're the best, but even them, they need a third eye perspective.

There's always somebody greater no matter where at. I mean, Omar's coach is Myron Golden, and Myron's coach is— I don't know his coach's name, but he has a coach. And Myron charges $300-something thousand to hang out with him for a day. What? What do you mean you need a coach? Yeah, but yeah. He needs a coach because it keeps him accountable for showing up for what he does. And it helps him to continue to learn more, to pour in more to people, to be able to charge more because he's already giving more game.

Yeah. And I think that's what being in all this opens up where you say like, get out of the box, is that you learn how the world works. You learn how human nature works because human nature is also stay in the discomfort. Discomfort, unfamiliar, unfamiliar, familiar dysfunction. Familiar dysfunction. It's easy to go to work, be unhappy, get guaranteed money, and just continue life, your life like that. But when you make it a standard to step out of the box, kind of take risks, be with people that take risks, it's, it's easy. It becomes easy. It— that becomes the comfortable thing. Yeah. And then you learn how to play the game. And that's where I was going with that. Yeah, I was like, where am I going with this? It's late at night right now, guys. We had the technical difficulties. But being exposed to more people, being in these rooms, I think in addition to accountability, all those things, learning how to scale faster by people that learn is actually knowing how the game is played and knowing how human nature is. Like you said, even the person at the top has a coach because, you know, human nature is that you can't hold yourself accountable. You need a second person in there. Yeah. No matter what. And your spouse, as much as I know you love me, I am not that person. I am not the third party person to hold you accountable. You need someone else. And they already know that. They learn that far beyond our years. And that's why they are successful. As successful as they are. And so we need to learn how to play the game. We need to learn human nature. We need to learn psychology because all of that, you wouldn't think it's business, but it is business. It's all business. So I think that was probably the biggest takeaway I took because I knew we see things here and there, but to see it in real time and see that it works and continuously be exposed of how the game is actually played and that you can play it as a good person. Yeah. You can be a good person and play it was also additionally something I learned. Yeah. Because there are a lot of bad people out there playing the game that are making way more money than a damn good person that doesn't know how to play the game.

1000%.

Yeah.

And that's because of their involvement over their community that they're having. Agreed.

That they're part of. All about proximity. Proximity. That's it. Simple as that.

And being involved in the proximity is one thing because if you're just around the people and you're taking away all the information and maybe you are applying it in your unique way, that's great. But if you're not involving what it is that you're learning and bringing your perspective back into the group, to the circle, that's what you're missing out on. Because by you pouring in, you're making the group grow better. And also people are seeing you in a better life, a better light, that you're servicing them. The byproduct, the byproduct of service that you're giving to them is that maybe they're going to give you more business, maybe they're going to give you referrals depending on what kind of group it is.

Yeah, maybe they're going to be investor in your business one day or vice versa, and you're both going to make great money together. You never know what life is going to lead you to, which will ultimately lead you to the money.

And that's the dollars and paid proximity. I said action, but I think it was activity. Involvement or investments, however you want to look at it, and then dollars. Yeah, dollars. What were you gonna say?

No, it made me think of even Omar and Annabelle being in proximity and kind of being in the same industry and being, I guess, essentially in each other's circles, how that relationship fostered it to her eventually becoming his COO and then them being in business together. And I'm sure when they met, they never thought that would be what would have come, and it's such a beautiful thing now.

Yeah, I think they were just— he was just coaching her and helping her with her business and her coaching. Yeah. And then she was such a good fit for what it is that he was doing there. They aligned with their values and the mission of who they wanted to serve, that it made sense. And then she's crushing it as the COO for his business.

You never know where life is going to take you.

You know, and he didn't know. And her perspective was, how are you running your business? And he tells her, and she's like, you need to do this, you need to do that, and you need to do this, you need to stop doing that, and all this is going to make you more money. And he's like, run it.

She brought so much value back to him that he said, please work for me and help me run my company.

And that was because she had a brand, she had visibility, which would beat someone else's ability because someone might be able to do it better than her, who knows, but because she was visible about what she does and she came with the conviction and she came with the experience. That's what sold. Yeah. And that was what happens when you have your personal brand being out there that people can say when you're not in the room, what do people say about you? And they have great things to say. That's what all this is about. That's what having the proximity keeps your accountability to continue to keep showing up. That's what a lot of people miss out on.

Yeah, you miss out on the opportunity. Yeah.

And you, you say, oh, I wish that could have been me. I wish I could— every— any— Possibility that's out there can be somebody's.

Yeah, and it really is just proximity and action. Just continue to take action because the only thing that's going to keep you from the future that you want is not taking action. That's the only thing that's costing you.

Yeah, it's being complacent. Complacent and unhappy and unfulfilled. Yeah. And you might be making great money being unfulfilled and unhappy, but it's costing you, you. Is costing probably your family is like looking at you saying you're never home because you're always working. Or maybe you distance yourself because you're not happy. So you bring that unhappiness home. Yeah, it's costing so much that you don't realize because you're so focused on the dollars. But at what price are you truly paying? Losing so many other people because you want to retire at 65 and say, now I can enjoy the time. Yeah, but you've already spent all of the relationship value that they're all gone. No one wants to be around you because you never bridged or built any community together. You're so focused in the box that you were locked in.

I think we all know so many people that are beautiful people, but all they did their whole life was give, give, give. And yes, giving is important, but they never first gave themselves. They never first invested in themselves. They just said, okay, I need a serve my parents, so I'm gonna follow exactly what they want me to do. Maybe become a teacher. I become a teacher. They want me to be a good wife. I'm gonna get married to my high school sweetheart and, you know, grow a family. My kid has severe disabilities. Now I'm, you know, I gotta take care of my kids. My, my job is to be a good mom, be a good teacher, be a good wife. Give, give, give. But they never first said, like, do I really want to become a teacher? Do I really want to you know, marry this early? Should we first explore and grow together and then get married? Are we really meant to be with each other? Do we want to have kids this early? You never question the system. You never question yourself. You never question your why. Like you said, your why should make you cry. If that person back then, if I, if I listen to my parents say become a doctor, and I did get pretty deep in my education and I kept— was brainwashed. That's what I should be. My why will make me cry, not for the right reason. My why would make me cry because I was so anxious that I knew I didn't want to do this. Yeah. It wouldn't make me cry that I had this calling to come back and be a doctor for Guam because we're underserved. That should make me cry, but that wasn't what was making me cry. And that would make so many other doctors that come back and get back to Guam that That would make them cry because that's truly what they wanted to do. But they were enslaved to the systems and never gave themselves. So where— if you're at somewhere in your life, please take the risk because it's riskier not to take the risk. It is. Invest in yourself. You deserve to be selfish. You need to be. You got to be. To be selfless and be happy because you can't— you got to be selfish before you be selfless and happy, or otherwise you're just going to be selfless and unhappy. I've seen it all. We've all seen so many people and it's almost really, because you can't really help that person at that point because they're, they're in so deep and you want to help them dig themselves out and they can, but it will take a hell of a lot to get them out of their situation and be happy.

That's the hard part that I have with my frustration with people that are in my proximity. Yeah. Is that I know their pain, but they're so involved in their unhappiness that they don't know how to think to be happy.

Yeah, that almost makes me want to cry.

It does. It's— and I do yearn for people like that because I want them to see the light of you can get out of this. It's going to take some work, but it first starts with realizing you need to get out of this. And they don't. They— all they see is, I got to make more money, and only way I can make more money is I got to keep showing up. And that's, that's the issue that I have, is that We value money so importantly in our lives. It dictates anything that we do because we look at finances as the end-all be-all. I can't do this because I'm, I'm, I need money. I can't not do this because I need money. I can't go here because I, because of money. Everything that we move around with is money, and money is a tool. Money did not start on the earth when we came here. Adam and Eve didn't have money, dollar bills and rent that they had to pay. We created this currency. And now it dictates our life. And I think that is so— it became such a part of human nature that it's consumed us and it's made us afraid to do anything outside of the norm. Because the norm is go to school, go to college and all that fun stuff.

And that's it. To add on to your point, once you experience making money, you almost upgrade your life to that money that you're making. So it's so hard to get out of it and take a step back, to take the risk and live under your means, because you're so used to that money already that you're like, why would I give away the certainty for something else? And then even though you know you're unhappy, I mean Even us, we were guilty. I was in a corporate job for so long, you were in a corporate job for so long, but I would say we were blessed enough to contemplate hard enough that we had to make a change in our life. And gosh, I don't even know where I'm going with this. I'm tired. Okay, cut. Okay, let's wrap it up. Let's wrap it up.

Okay, let's see. So I don't want you guys to listen to this episode and not apply something of value that came from what it is that we shared. So I want to give you guys a little homework, and I want to just give you 3 things to do. One, audit your circle. The people that are in your proximity, the people who you call your friends, the people you surround yourself with daily, the people you text, message online, DM in the Gram. Audit those people and see, are they actually providing true value for you? And if they're helping you elevate to the next level, or are they holding you back? Two, I want you to limit your exposure to lowered standards. What's your algorithm look like? What are you consuming? What are you watching on a regular basis? What are you listening to? I want you to limit the exposure that's keeping you where you are and why you're not building, why you're not scaling, why you're not investing more into yourself, your mindset, your actions. Why you haven't done the thing that you said that you were going to do probably a year ago. Why haven't you done it yet? And then 3, I want you to invest in yourself. Invest into getting into the rooms that's going to help you excel and get to the next level because you want to surround yourself with winners. Surround yourself with the person you want to be. Whoever that person is, get in the room where they're at. Learn from them. And don't just learn, apply what their teachings are. Those 3 things will help you become the person you want to become and make you millions and millions. The money is a byproduct. Happiness is first. Fulfillment is first. The service of serving is first. The money is going to come in, you won't even have to look at your account. Thank you guys for tuning in. Hopefully we can all get on the same page. Peace.