When You Pay, You Pay Attention! (This Changed Everything)

Are you happy with what you do? Like, do you wake up every single morning, grab your phone, scroll social media, looking at everyone live such luxurious lives, and you're sitting there thinking, oh, it must be nice. What if that could be you? What if the one thing holding you back is yourself? When you look at something that you're attempting to invest yourself in, your first thoughts are immediate doubt.

Or those were your thoughts. The value wasn't there yet for you, because if you actually saw the true value, it would have been Let's go, let's go.

There's millions of dollars worth of information on YouTube who've invested so much money into the knowledge that they've accumulated that they put out on social media for free. We take it all for granted because we didn't pay for it. So if I paid to watch those videos, I'm gonna be paying attention to watch those videos.

What was the identity that you took on to get you to that next step?

I think that became the belief after Welcome back to the podcast On The Same Page. I'm your host Justin Page, and I'm with my beautiful co-host who happens to be my wife, Cassandra Page. And today we're going to be talking about how to bridge the gap between who you're watching and how you want to be watched. Cassandra's going to ask me a few questions because in the last episode we talked about how I invested a hefty sum into myself and learning a lot So what has transpired in those last 90 days to— from the decision of investing to now implementing and what has been taken from?

This is great because in real time we're sharing how we're learning, we're growing, and we see a lot of people else around you doing the same thing and sharing what works, what doesn't work, and how you can help fast-track other people in this process. So I wanted to start off with you and your experience in the first 30 days after you made that decision that you wanted to shift and you invested into yourself. What was the biggest moment of doubt that you've had that you had to get over, and how did you do that?

That's a very good question because I think that that question alone is the first step that hinders anybody's momentum. When you look at something that you're attempting to invest yourself in, your first thoughts are immediate doubt. How will this work? This won't work. What if this doesn't work? Everything negative about whatever it is that you're looking into, you look more into the negative of it instead if we're thinking negative, we're going to yield negative results because that's where our mind is going towards.

Yeah, that's what you're filtering out your environment as.

Exactly. But if I flip that and say, I want this to work, this can work, I've seen it work, I'm watching it work, it will work for me. When you become a believer, you believe, and that's what makes you execute and yield the results of reaping those benefits and that reward.

So you're saying that the biggest moment of doubt was actually just thinking negatively about your investment, what couldn't work, why this wouldn't work, and that was what— that was the biggest hurdle to get over of why it wouldn't work, but you need to focus on why it would work.

I think that became the belief after trying to take on all of this by myself. And trying to figure it out by myself. Naturally, we have resistance in us. If someone pushes something or if we see something that sounds too good or is too good, or it can't be me, you're going to have resistance against it and I'm going to push away. And in sales, especially if you're being sold to and you are in sales, you're naturally thinking about what that process is like that they're pushing on you. I'm immediately thinking about objections where I'm like, I'm going to think about— I'm like, I'm the worst person to sell to because I want to do my research. I want to try to figure out as much as I can. I need to talk to my wife, you know, especially if it's a big purchase. There's a lot that I need to do to make that decision. But when you take time to try to make a decision that will ultimately become a decision, either I'm going to do it or I'm not, what's costing you in that timeframe between give me a couple of days, give me a week, maybe when I get my money right, maybe in a month, maybe after I think about having a kid, like there's always going to be a waiting period.

[Speaker:JESSICA] Yeah, and it's almost like if those were your thoughts, the value wasn't there yet for you. You didn't see the value yet. Because if you actually saw the true value, it would have been, let's go, let's go.

100%. 100%. Because if you don't have the value, then that's why your heart's not in it. That's why you can't make a decision yet. But when it's so valuable that it's invaluable, I don't know what it is, but sign me up. Give me your hand, let me shake it. Yes, I need this. And because of that, I've got to the point where I can't do this by myself no more. I have exhausted resources. And we want to talk about resources. There's too many resources. And confused buyers don't buy.

Yep.

I think about going to a restaurant that has way too many items on the menu. Cheesecake Factory.

I was gonna say.

Cheesecake Factory. There's so many items on the menu between your appetizers, your entrees, your Skinny Girl, your, your burgers.

Well, you know what's funny is that your mom and I were just there.

Yeah.

And our decision became very easy and clear because they had the calories on the whole entire menu. So Cheesecake almost built the value in the skinny menu.

Yeah.

Skinnylicious menu, which narrowed our options to one page. And we're like, boom, she wants a salad. I wanted some fish and we got our choices and that's it. We didn't even look at the rest of the menu because they built the value in the Skinnylicious. We came there because we had all these options in our head. Yeah, we went in and we got one-page menu.

I like that they built the value off of guilt.

Yes.

And had they not put the calories there, you would have been scrolling on there not thinking about it. Ooh, that sounds healthy. Oh, grilled chicken. That sounds healthy, but it's probably lathered in oil and it comes with a side of fries.

And the table next to us all ordered chicken and waffles and all we did was smell chicken and waffles the whole time saying we regret our salad. Well, we don't because it was the right choice, but—

Exactly. So when there's too many items on a list, you don't make a decision and you feel overwhelmed. With resources, there's so much knowledge out there that you'll sit and go back and forth to try to hear every point of view. But to— how do I persuade myself to think that one side's better than the other? And it could be by a percent. It could be by a landslide of like, oh, it's 100%. That's— I should not do this. That becomes— that's my biggest issue. I want to know so much details that I'm overwhelmed that a year from now I'm finally going to make a decision. But what have I lost in between that decision from the first time I could have made? Than I'll be making the same decision again a year later. Probably lots of money, exhausted resources, probably stressed you out, stressed myself out, gone crazy trying to figure this out by myself, spent a lot of money I probably didn't need to.

Yeah, probably lost more money trying things that didn't work.

Yeah.

If you just would have invested that money from the front end.

And people don't think about how the hidden cost, the hidden fees that you're accumulating over delaying time. Had you just made one decision and you're prolonging the time from reaping the benefits that you could have already been receiving had you have placed your start date at a sooner date. Now it's starting later and now it's like, well, now I felt like I wasted a year. Well, yeah, you did. If you just made that decision, then you would've been so much better.

That's great you pointed that out because it's all about your mindset, the framework you have on what you're doing, because is it the cost of what that investment is versus the cost of what it would be if you didn't invest in that. And no one evaluates that second one.

No, they don't. And you say framework, and I love that because the framework for that kind of decision, FMA, Fast Movers Advantage, without making those movements fast, you're never going to be able to get those benefits. If you delay that time, there's no advantages you're going to be able to get because you're prolonging the benefits.

Yeah, you're almost paying more than what you would have paid.

Yeah, and you're paying ignorant. Ignorant tax. You know, that's a thing. People don't really think that that's a thing, but what is ignorance? And it's being oblivious to the things that are there, but you're too prideful or whatever it is to be able to look at it and say, that's valuable. I need to understand that better so I can save myself the time, effort, pain, and anything else I'm going to go through to be able to do that.

And you talk about doubt in the beginning. How did you actually overcome that doubt that you could actually make that plunge and move fast and have that advantage?

I think the doubt came— well, the overcome of the doubt was because I've doubted myself for such a long time. Because my pain was frustration and tired of not having the outcome I was looking for. But in order for me to be able to feel comfortable with making a decision, I had to be comfortable with the person I was working with. And that came down to the principles that he teaches that I am a firm believer of, I didn't know how to implement that for myself. And that is being consistent with what you do, showing up, having the integrity that you have, being a God-fearing man, but having true value for yourself in how you deliver your content and what it is that you believe. I'm not trying to talk to the world. I'm just trying to talk to you. And I think that that was a huge thing because I felt heard because of my pain, which made my decision a lot easier. That, plus I've already spent— I mean, we could talk about investing into ourselves and someone else, a lumpy sum where I was like really hesitant about that, where I had to really dive back in. Let me talk to my wife. Let me think about this. So once you've already invested once, the second one becomes even easier because you have clarity. You already given— you've given yourself the permission to say, I've invested this much money into whatever opportunity that you're looking for, because I know that I'm going to get 2, 5, 10 times the amount back, not just money-wise, but mental clarity. If you're listening to this and you're a high-income W-2 professional and you feel like you're working hard but creating nothing that's actually yours, let me talk to you for a second. You probably make 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 working more shifts or taking more responsibility. I mean creating something that belongs to you. Maybe you thought about building something special online using your knowledge, your experience, maybe even your perspective, but you either overthink it or you stay stuck because you don't have a clear plan. That's exactly why I created the Post to Profit Masterclass. This is a live 90-minute experience on Zoom with me where I'm gonna walk you through how to turn what you already know into a personal brand that creates income outside your job. In just 90 minutes, you'll have real clarity on how to position yourself the right way, how to turn your expertise into a simple offer, and how to create content that leads to real momentum, real income, and real ownership while building towards multiple 5-figure months. If you're serious about creating something that's yours instead of just collecting a paycheck to help build someone else's dream, click the link below and join the next Post a Profit Masterclass. All right, now let's get back to the video.

So you're saying by following and consuming someone's content that you actually resonate with, actually absorbing the mindset of that person and translating it to you is really what shifted that?

Yes, 100%. Because if I— if we weren't like-minded in how I value life and value my things, my family, I would have never— I mean, there's so many people out there that are pushing content that live certain lives Andrew Tate. How many people follow Andrew Tate in such a unique way that, you know, it's all about being masculine and, and getting money and doing your thing. And it's like there's a cult following specifically for him for that. Would I pay him money? No, because that doesn't resonate with me. I'm sure he would give me the outcome. But what am I— not saying sacrificing, but what am I giving up for myself to be able to live the life that he could be able to give me? I think that's a huge thing. When you find somebody who's living the life, the values, everything that you share, being married, having, you know, God in your life, if that's all there and you happen to do what I enjoy doing, which is making content and being intentional on uplifting other individuals, well, sure, that sounds like a community I want to be a part of. That's a no-brainer because I'm over here doing it by myself, getting nowhere, pulling my hair out, trying everything that doesn't work, trying everything that doesn't work. I mean, it probably is working, but I don't know how to overcome my limiting beliefs on if this is even working because we live in a time where we need instant gratification, we need instant results. And if I'm not getting that fast feedback, then I don't feel like I'm doing anything. So I'm going to continue to keep switching, and I'm going to do this new thing, or I'm seeing that that's working for the algorithm, so I'm going to do this, or—

Yeah, you need someone with proven systems that has experience and has the wisdom and has the same values as you. So you do trust him, you know that, hey, if it's working for this person, it's going to work for me.

Yes, 100%. It's a proven system because people pay You don't pay— this is a perfect example. I just came to my mind. It costs $10 to go to the gym, EOS, right? I can spend $120 a year to get my dream body with discipline, consistency, and, you know, whatever, all the equipment's there. Or I could spend probably 100 times that price and go get liposuction, liposuction, go get surgery. I can go get BBL abs. I can get some, uh, some etching, you know, get some etching, get the chest a little bit bigger, get a little bit of juice in your arms, you know. And I would pay more money for the outcome instead of doing it on my own. I'm bridging the gap there between, you know, something that's there, the system, the framework, whatever, and get the instant result. Or I can go and just do it on my own and take longer to be able to get there. I don't know why that came to my mind, but I just thought about paying more upfront and getting quicker results versus paying the small price but costing more in my life over time.

But you didn't get the body with surgery. Let's just make that clear. You work very hard for your body. You did not have surgery.

So I thought about like a higher ticket type of thing.

Oh, yes. Maybe that was a bad analogy, but I got what you meant. I got what you meant. Maybe for a woman it'll resonate more. Maybe not so much for men. Maybe.

I don't know why that came to my mind. That literally just came to my mind.

Yeah. But like, I guess there are women that work so hard to lose weight, but they'll never lose their double chin. But if they tried everything, they tried all the procedures with the lasers and things like that, but nothing's working. But if they just paid the $10,000 to suck it out of their chin, it would have probably cost the same from all the procedures you tried over time that were more superficial. If you would've just got the lipo from the start.

I think where I was going with this is that when you pay, you pay attention because when you're paying higher, you're paying more attention to what those results can give you versus just handing out pennies or something's free and you're kind of taking your time with it, willy-nilly.

Or they even have jobs that give you free gym membership. Most of those people don't use it.

Most, yeah.

But if you actually did pay for it, like you said, if you had an Equinox membership or whatever it may be, You're paying hundreds, if not thousands of dollars, you'll show up.

Yeah, exactly.

Your Pilates membership, that's not cheap. You're paying hundreds, maybe thousands a month and you don't, you want to show up to the class and once you reserve your spot, you don't want to get the fee for missing the class either. So you, they know dang sure you're going to show up if you reserve that spot.

And that locks you in too. And that's good because that holds you accountable. And a lot of people look at any investment just strictly financially. If I'm going to lose money, but I've already signed this contract, I'm going to have to make this work.

Yep.

And I think that's what's huge about making an investment for yourself is that it locks you in that I have to make this work, especially when you are— your back's against the wall and you feel like you want so much more in life and you're tired of where you're at. You're tired of the ceiling that's above you. You want to break through it. You know that you're getting older and you're tired of saying, I wish I did this back then. Once you hold yourself accountable and you pay to you pay to play, you will evolve in such a unique way because you have so much more perceived value on what it is your intentions are going to be. And I think that, that I think of it like church and tithing. I mean, people go to church and they may not be taking the sermon as strong because it was a free lesson. They walked in and they heard what was going on, but did they really apply it to themselves?

And that is true because I saw you, you know, we've been together for what, 6, 7 years now?

6, 7.

Okay, you're chronically online.

Sorry.

And you watched a lot of podcasts, you've gone out and tried to go to different classes in person, hang out with certain people, but nothing really pushed you forward, propelled you forward until you aggressively sought bigger rooms to be in. And that, I feel like that was the biggest change because you've always had that sense of more. You've tried to grab it for wherever you could in your environment, but the thing that truly changed was getting into a bigger room. You outgrew your surroundings and putting yourself in a bigger room to help push you forward.

Yeah, and that, that's a hard thing to even start because you don't know how to get into the rooms. You don't know which door to knock on to then get into the right room. You don't know the right people to even get into the right room. And we're in such a trust recession that I don't know what to believe. Everybody's got the quick pitch on how to do this, how to do that. Oh, your pain point is, oh, you want to make millions of dollars. Everyone's on a yacht. People are posting the abs and all the big biceps. This is my free workout. There's so much out there that it's so overwhelming. You don't know how to even act. Yeah. So it makes perfect sense why somebody would be reserved and say, Let me think about it.

And so much facade that people post online trying to sell you something.

Just a quick fix so they can make a quick buck. But, and to be honest, I could do the same thing. I literally, I could talk about the gym and monetize that. I can push products and stuff and make people, you know, this is why I got muscles, this is how I got my workout, this is how I got my BMW M4 right here. And I could do that. I could lead people like that. But I want something that's going to last a whole lot longer. I really want to build a community of people who were like me struggling on how to get out of the situation you were in. And I feel like when you have stuff like this podcast, people can consume in such a long form and build that trust. And I can resonate with you just like I resonated with Omar and Myron and so many others that it made it even easier. It felt like a safe place, like this is where I want to be, this is where I belong, because our values are so similar that it makes the investment invaluable, you know. 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.

Yeah, so you talk about values. Can you dig a little deeper on what values you hold and how you want your community— what community you want to attract, um, and what audience would resonate with that?

Yeah, I think that's huge. The value I have is having integrity. And for me, integrity means being the same person on and off the camera. In every room, any setting you go to, you're the same person. You know your audience, you know the room that you are, and you don't have to be somebody different. Maybe you can resonate with somebody a little different, but you are who you are. I don't need to be blasting rap music, cursing, dropping n-bobs every other word, but then I have to go over here and be proper and sit up high and no elbows on the table. I don't wanna be that. I should be the same person no matter where I go. Yeah.

And spit out Bible verses or whatever it may be.

Yeah. You know, as we get older, we start maturing a little bit more and not everybody does the same. I mean, I've had my battles where I wanted to be a comedian and go on stage and say things. I can be kind of vulgar, you know, I'm not gonna lie. I am human and I resonate with people in that demographic. But what does that do for them? I'm entertainment for them. They're not looking at a way to invest in me. They're looking at a way to consume me for their pleasure. And I think that that's a big thing that I don't want to be a part of. And I had to step back and say, okay, what am I really doing for those— my audience? I'm not doing anything but giving them a laugh. That's good. Laugh fills the soul and I like being there, but there's so much more deep. There's, there's so much more of a root in how they are that I want to resonate and awaken in them. Just how I felt working as a nurse in a very unhappy environment.

What are some instances that you've had with people where you realize you have shared values and the gift you have created to give to other people and help them propel forward just how someone gave to you. What are some stories you've had with some people that you've met?

Someone that comes to mind now, and this was a nurse at a facility I went to, she was talking about the healthcare system and she had asked, how long have I been doing this? And I said, oh, too long, I'm getting out of this. And she was like, What are you gonna do? And like, she immediately perked up. And I get that question a lot, and I say that just to see what they would say. And then, oh, there's some people that'd be like, oh yeah, don't we all? You know, they're kind of like a blanket statement. But she was actually a little intrigued. I said, oh, let's see what we got. I said, yeah, I started a couple of businesses. I run a life and health insurance agency with my wife, and I do, um, and I said, this is kind of loaded. Bear with me here, but I do brand building for people who are experts at what they do, but they don't know how to start their own brand and monetize themselves. And she was like, well, what does that mean? I said, oh, well, you're a nurse, right? And she said, yeah, I'm sure you've been doing this for a long time. Not saying that you're old. And then she was like, well, yeah. And I'm actually— I'm about to be 50. And I said, girl, all right. I thought you were like 32. I was messing with you, but okay. You know, got to flirt a little bit, make them feel happy. You know what I mean? Okay. But she, um, I was telling her, I was like, yeah, I mean, we, you've been doing this so much. I'm sure that what you know is more than what your salary gives you. And then like that made, that was such a weird perspective for her because she was like, I mean, yeah, like I'm sure that you go above and beyond or you want to go above and beyond to help people. But then in the back of your mind, you're like, I'm only worth this much money here. Why am I even doing this? And then she said, actually, yeah, that's it. I was literally thinking about why I should go help this person when literally why they're not going to help me. I, you know, and I said, exactly. And that keeps you in this frame, this box, and it starts demonetizing your value yourself. And it's huge. And you don't realize this, but subconsciously that's weighing on you every single day. And you don't think about it until later on. You're looking back saying, What have I been doing my life? And now you want to do something different, but now you feel like you're too old, or now you feel like time's running out, and what do I do now? And she's like— it was like I was in her mind because she was feeling that exact situation playing out. And I told her, that's what I do, is I help people if they're at that point to get out of that point. And for people who don't want to get there, I'd have stopped that today, not yesterday, you know, or not tomorrow, I should say. And then we just had a conversation and it was really good and it was eye-opening because she was nice to see that a younger man was having that perception in the same field. And it gave her the permission to say, I can do it too. And that's the problem because her boss told her when she wanted to go and do a business, most businesses fail, you'll be back. Businesses fell in 2 years and put that seed of doubt in her mind.

And they want to keep her where she is.

Yeah. And she did try. She didn't succeed. And I said, and when she told me that, I said, did you— didn't you— didn't succeed because that what-if played in your mind and that safety net was still there. So you kind of felt like, well, if this doesn't work, it's still there.

It's so easy to track back.

It is.

Go back into your, like you said, your safety net, your comfortable zone. If you did, you truly didn't go all in.

Exactly. Because you we're already still looking back.

Yeah.

I forgot there was a basketball player, Anthony Davis. When he got into the NBA, he got a car and he took off his rearview mirror and he took it off because he said, I don't want to ever look back. So he just kept looking forward. I mean, that was, that was crazy, but that was his, that was his mindset. I never want to look back. I'm going to keep going forward. I don't know where I'm going, but we're going forward.

Yeah.

And of course you want to never forget where you came from because you don't want to be that person. You always want to give back to those who are in those same situations when you were first starting, which is why I'm here doing what I'm doing today. But you also have to be mindful that in order for me to lead, I have to continue to lead and push forward. I can't be taking steps back and then saying, man, I hope this works. It's like, no, this is going to work because I'm telling it's going to work because those people don't believe in me and I need to make sure that they prove them wrong. And God's got me because I know this is going to work.

100%. And Anthony Davis, I don't know anything about basketball, but I'm just repeating the name from you. That resonated with me because in order to not have your present or the past keep you where you are, you have to move forward. You have to seek different environments than the environment you've been in to make a change or else you're just, what is the word for it? Insane, insanity.

Yeah.

You're doing the same thing expecting to propel forward. And with that being said, the limiting mindset that people have. That nurse that you met, her boss, that planted the seed of doubt. How it is so important, even in the people that you think aren't affecting your life, are truly affecting your life on a mass level.

Yeah.

And why it's so important to protect your peace, protect your mind, protect your environment physically, because everything down trickles towards you. And you may not know it, but even ChatGPT, social media, what you consume. You need to train your algorithms to be a positive place for you. You need to move yourself physically out of certain rooms, away from certain people.

Yeah.

You need to train yourself to move out of those environments and put yourself with people that are actually going to plant the good seeds to make you grow rather than be a weed that kills you.

Yeah, that's true. And I love that you said that. And you talk about algorithms, the algorithms You can't say the wrong things. You can't accidentally click the wrong things.

You can't even say things around your phone.

You can't type the wrong things because everything is always getting captured. It's like 53,000 points that social media, Facebook, all that is looking at that finds something to target you. And when you say that, I remember Twitter back in the day, now X. I had watched, and I don't know why I watched this, but I had watched, um, I started going on a dark path— random killings and things that were going on.

On X? That's what they post?

Yeah. And like live footage of certain things that were pretty graphic.

Really? I thought X was just words.

New doo-doo! It's not words.

Because I haven't been on X. I was on Twitter when it was Twitter long time ago. Yeah.

It used to be but now it's videos.

Oh, it's like a Dark Reddit?

Yes, like the dark web.

Okay.

And then it was my algorithm was always that every time I would open it up, I would get a new tweet from somebody. I would open it up and my whole feed was just beheadings and bad stuff.

And it was real quick, a full 180.

Yeah, it was terrible. I was like, I got to get off this because weird dopamine hits and saying, this is all— this is what— this is crazy. Yeah, like this is happening. And then you start watching it, consuming it in your mind subconsciously. Then it's pushing away all the good stuff and other things you're doing because now you're thinking about that all of a sudden. Not that I'm thinking about killing people, But it was like a weird dark area that I— it was like, I can't believe— I was more fascinated the fact that this is actually happening, that no one knows about it. But then I had to stop. I had to be like, whoa, okay, let's delete this app.

Yeah, someone that I was, um, watching earlier today actually was talking about how she trained her algorithm for social media on Instagram so well that it's such a positive place for her. Yet on X, it is a very dark place. Like, there's a lot of good informative information. It could be very interesting or intriguing sometimes, but it can put you on a downward spiral and negatively affect you emotionally, which translates to how you perform in life.

Yeah. And it plays so well and you don't realize it because you get so sucked in and so interested in the content.

Yeah, I didn't know it goes that dark in there.

Oh girl, it gets dark, girl. It gets dark. You have to click through the— you need to be 18 or above to be able to watch this.

Oh gosh, okay. So, I'm not making an X.

That and Reddit. Reddit's even worse from what I heard.

I don't even have an Instagram. What is it called?

Threads.

Threads.

Oh, Threads is good. I don't have a problem with Threads. Threads is pretty positive.

Okay.

Mine's all about entrepreneurs and business and all this stuff. So I vibe with that, but that's probably my algorithm from what I do.

Yes.

But yeah, training your algorithms because you want to keep yourself in a healthy relationship with your phone since that's— you're on your phone all the time and social media is your business card nowadays. That you want to consume the right things to keep you in the right mindset to then meet the right people. And if you don't have a trained algorithm, just like you don't have a trained mind or a trained circle of people, you're going to spiral into the wrong things. Drug addicts become drug addicts because they hang out with drug addicts, you know, something like that. If I want to be a millionaire, I got to hang out with millionaires because they're millionaires and they know how to make millions. Yeah, that just makes a difference there.

And even if you have, you know, a child and you can get them into a very influential school, a good school, and you sacrifice a lot to get them in there, you want to do that for their future because they're going to be surrounded by a lot of people who are, you know, have families that are doing a lot more with their life because they're able to afford that type of school. And it's not because, oh, we want to go and have the nice things. It's like we want— it's the mindset that they're buying into.

Yeah. And if you really want to be responsible and be a steward, say having kids, it is your obligation to be able to get yourself in those right circles and right mindset for yourself because you're going to instill that into your child. Because you have the right morals, you have the right obligations, the right business plans, opportunities that you can then give your child because everybody wants their kid to have a better life than they do. Well, in order to do that, instead of just working more hours and trying to make more money to cover that up because I'm giving my child monetary things, how about you give them something that they can really take with them that's truly wealthy and that's a mindset and values that you instilled on them.

Yep.

That's a huge thing. And we don't have kids, but that's something that I'm taking in now so I can then not have to worry about, oh man, I wish I was there for my kid. I wish I spent more time and instilled more of me into my child versus him or her living from the world and everyone else.

It truly is all about the circle you're in and your environment as a whole. Because like you said, you have that momentum going, you're on a positive track, but all it takes is seed of doubt, whether it's coming from social media or a parent, you know. I think a lot of us have had parents that they want us to have a good, safe, secure job for our future, and they put those limiting beliefs on us. They want us to be in a very, um, safe industry like being a lawyer, doctor, teacher, whatever it may be that's going to be a constant W-2, but they're scared for you, that they don't want you to take that jump and you may fall.

Yeah, especially if they didn't do it themselves or they tried and they failed.

Exactly.

And they know that it can't work, quote unquote, they know.

And that can come from anyone, come from your parent, your friends, your neighbors.

And those are usually the worst ones, the people who are in your circle, the family, their friends, they're, they're the ones who are probably going to hold you back.

Yeah, and it's because you, you want to be around them because they are close to you, hold them near and dear to your heart, but you have to be very careful about the conversations you have with them. You can love them from afar. You can also remove yourself from a conversation if it's not serving you and still be there for them.

Yeah.

And those are the things that I think you don't think about until you really realize how much it is affecting you, because when I mean, you know, there's a lot of stuff going on in our lives, and even previously being around a lot of people that are going through some really dark times. And if you're trying to propel forward, it's really hard to help people propel forward while they're not having the same mindset as you. Like, they really do just need someone to lean on and vent to, but they're not doing a lot to be— to get out of their situation. Kind of a victim mentality, and you can only do so much for them. They almost just want someone to vent to and be stuck in that situation, and that really keep you in your spot too.

Yeah, I feel like that came from a place of heart right now. You're saying that.

Should we cut this scene?

No, we won't name drop, but I know exactly what you're feeling right now. And I agree because there's conversations that I want to have with my friends and I get excited about it. But then when I talk about it, they're kind of like, oh, that's cool. Like they don't really respond well to it because it's so out of the box for their normal situation. It's out of their 9 to 5, out of there being with the kids, watching their shows, watching the game, that it's like, dude, what? Like, it doesn't make sense. So then I'm kind of like, oh, I want to be friends with them because we've been friends for a long time. We are quote-unquote, we can be brothers, you know, however we look at it. But we're not having the conversations that really help us grow. And we're growing spiritually, we're growing in other ways, but not at a higher elite level. Like, I want to think like a millionaire, not a scummy walk-over-dead-bodies-to-make-my-money type of millionaire, but like somebody who's wealthy in the mindset that has made them money as a byproduct. That's the kind of conversations I want to have. And when you try to have those conversations with your friends and they don't really see— like, you sound like you're crazy talking about this, and it's like, well, there's nothing for us to talk about.

Yeah.

And it's almost like you feel bad because you feel like I'm obligated to be there for you, be your friend, to listen to you, and I want to, but then I selfishly don't want to because you're—

it's a delicate balance.

Yeah, and you're hindering me, and I feel like we have to have this fine dance. But am I sacrificing more than giving more? I don't know.

Yeah, that is fair. And I have had, you know, a lot of friends and family members in the past that, you know, they would call me up all the time, just talk about drama, just to vent. It was just drama, drama, drama, and it wasn't serving me. And I think That's where me almost isolating myself a lot came from because it was hard for me just invest in myself while always consuming that drama from other people and it was truly doing nothing for me and I could give my two cents but no one ever takes advice and so I was like, okay, yeah.

They just want to hear you talk because they, they don't want to hear the answer.

Yeah.

They just want to hear them complain.

Yes. It's almost like you just want someone to validate your feelings so that you can feel good about your situation.

Yeah, you can feel good about—

feel good about your stance.

Yeah, to feel better about, oh, I know that person's a jerk. Yeah, he's a jerk, girl. I know, right? Like, you want that Aegon situation to happen. Not the, yes, we know he's a jerk, so let's get out of the situation. Wait, no, let's talk about him being a jerk more, because I get— they get more fulfillment out of that than having the closure and move on. And I'm the kind of person where it's like, This happened. Let's move on from it. What are we going to do? What did we learn? Okay, we're not going to do that. Okay, let's move on to the next step. But some people want to dwell in it and they can't dwell.

They want to be in that victim mentality.

They thrive off of that and they thrive off of that misery, though they hate it. And then they play the victim because why is this happening to me? They don't know how to get out of it. And when you try to help them, oh no, what are you doing? No, keep me in my little box here. I want to continue to complain.

Yeah. And something I learned is that it is actually scientifically proven science-based that venting about your problems consistently isn't doing anything for you emotionally, physically, mentally. It's doing nothing for you unless at the end of that vent session you have a call to action, a solution, or a reflection. So you end it on a note that you're reflecting back, okay, this is actually— we're going to reset our framework on it, our mindset on it, or okay, what is the solution? So if you're just venting open-endedly, just to vent, it's almost feeding negative thoughts, and it's training your brain to continuously have negative thoughts. So you venting is wanting to vent more. You know how like sometimes— and I've, I've done this before too— where something happens in my life and I want to vent to every person I know so they can validate me. And because each time I'm venting, it trains my brain to want to do more of that. And have that negative mindset and I only see the negatives. But if I have that vent session, I get it out and I have a reframe on it and a solution, it's actually doing something for me. So yes, it's good to let it out, but you need to do it in a positive way.

It's funny you say that because I had the opposite. I, when I would want to vent, I wouldn't vent because I didn't want people to know about my problems. But one, I didn't feel like they cared. Two, I didn't feel like me pushing my problems on them made anything any better. Instead, I kept it to myself, but I made scenarios in my mind about conversations, and I would make myself more upset by making more random interactions in my head about conversations that never took place, but they could. And it made me even more upset, which kept me more validating on my problems.

You were validating yourself.

I was validating myself. I was my own— was this machine just driving through different conversations, venting, and then validating myself on why I was upset.

And, and you can vent to other people, and it's good to have outside perspective to help give you a solution, but you have to be open to receiving that. So if you're just consistently venting and you're not open to receiving anything, or even self-reflecting, being truly, um, like critical of yourself, like, okay, is it me? Am I the problem? Did I add to this? Or even, am I, um, am I helping solidify my current environment, or am I actually doing something that's gonna put me in a different environment. Because if not, you're just further creating your current situation and exacerbating it.

Yep.

And that's truly doing nothing for you or anyone around you. And you are secondarily affecting each person that's around you, whether you're talking to them, whether they're just next to you. Your chemicals are going to them, affecting them on that level, and they will be affected. You don't know, but you're negatively affecting the people around you. So if you really care about these people around you, you wouldn't want to do that to them.

Yeah, 100%. Why you have to get out of the environment.

Yes.

Hey, listen, I love you. I know you're going through some stuff, told me 12 times. I've told you the same answer one time, multiple times. Listen, I'm sorry, but I can't do it no more. Get out of this situation because that's going to keep you from getting to where you need to be, which is why you need to get in a better circle, better mentorship, better progression of your own life, or else you're going to stay stagnant forever and then look back saying, why didn't I do this earlier?

Yeah, your life will change when you're in rooms where you are the smallest person in the room and you're just around people that you want to be like. And even with friends, I, I love my friends and I love hanging out with my friends that are doing so much with their lives, and we're just cheering each other on, celebrating each other, Talking all positive things. We're not yapping about drama besides maybe a little bit of Love Island. That's a girly thing. And it really is life-changing.

It is. And that's good because you're not worried about the wrong things, but maybe the conversations of, you know, Love Island and all that, it bridges the connection, which makes you feel more comfortable because that could be a quirk or something that you just like to do. I mean, you could be making multiple 5 figures in a year and then happen to love Love Island. That could be your thing that connects you guys, which is great. I mean, that's like guys and cars. Like, we like fast cars, we make a lot of money, we like watches, we like Rolex, we like, you know, APs. It doesn't matter. I got a Movado one right now. And that's like our connection that we do. Some guys like cigars or golfing, you know, that's that common ground that bridges you, which makes you relatable.

And girls like romance and reality TV.

Exactly. Or they like being Desperate Housewives. Who knows, you know? But I think that having that intentional group that you're wanting to surround yourself with is powerful, but you have to be able to get into those conversations to be able to— you got to get in front of those people to have those conversations to then make that decision on if I'm ready to make the steps to better myself.

So once you make that decision that, okay, I've consumed someone that I love, I actually relate to them, their values, all those things you trust. And you work up the courage to say like, hey, I need to invest in me. It's about me. I'm going to be selfish. It's about me now. And I need to put myself in a better situation. This is what I'm going to do. You make that investment. What change did you feel immediately after you did that?

I think the change that I felt was the fact that I already did it. That now I've done it. So now I have jumped the line. I have opened the door and walked through it. I'm in. It's game time.

So what can people expect that are doing the same thing? What feeling can they expect?

Relief. They're going to feel their ears get hot. They're going to feel their face get flushed. They're going to feel heart is racing because they feel overwhelmed with emotion because they feel like they're making the biggest decision of their life. And it should feel like that because it is. It's a huge decision.

It should feel scary.

It should. If it doesn't scare the crap out of you, then maybe this might not be it for you. You. But it should scare you to the point that you're so excited because you know that the fulfillment is going to be so filling and you're excited to receive it.

It's almost like those jitters.

Yeah, the butterflies and something like you're asking the girl out in first time or guy to girl, whichever. And you feel so overwhelmed, but you're so excited because I'm ready to do this. This is the moment I've been waiting for. I'm ready for the new chapter in my life, the next page to do something different. And it's the moment starts because I gave myself the permission to start. It's so much that comes with it. Overwhelming.

When that happened, do you feel like, damn, I should have made this decision earlier?

Always. 100%. I felt like I did. I should have did this. I felt like I shouldn't have went to college and I should have did this to begin with, you know?

Yes.

Because— and we can go on a college rant real quick. We're spending all this money going to places of unknown certainty because we don't know what we're doing. We just told we need to go to college.

Yeah, we're a cog in the wheel.

Cog in the wheel to spend all this money. And then learn from people who wanted to live the dream that they're teaching about that's probably now outdated.

That's true. We're learning all from teachers that were never doing what we went to school to do.

Yeah, most of them are. And then we're going to school not knowing what we want to do. I mean, I took biochemistry, organic chemistry, zoology, all the ologies and everything, and I do nothing with my biology degree. It sits there and I'm getting harassed every month to pay off my student loan. Yeah, it does nothing for me. And which is 5 times— no, not that much, 4 times more than what I've spent to invest in my personal being for developing myself precisely through frameworks and structure, organization, and implementing it in real time to do that. Not waiting after 4 years to then get a job to work for somebody else, to then work my way up the chain, to cost more time and effort, to probably go back to school to get another degree, to get my master's, to then do the same thing, to then reach the top and say, "Man, I'm bored," or, "Man, I wish I could make more money. What do I do? I can't. Let me quit my job. Let me start a business." You know, it's like, wow, I could have done, skipped all that trauma and started then. But I would have never known what I didn't know until I went through the problems.

It would be a lot faster to bypass all that and from the get-go, the fastest way to learn is to be in close proximity to someone who's already doing it and learn aggressively and learn from their mistakes on their dime.

Yeah, they spent it. They paid like so much to get to where they are. People paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to get to where they're at. They're charging a smaller price and everything that they've invested into for you to skip half the stuff that they went through to get you to your destination at a shorter time. So that way you can then have the next problem that needs to make even more money I'm going to invest more money. And secondly, talk about investing money, those are all tax write-offs because it's all going towards your business.

Yeah.

So you can write that off if you really value your finances. That's a golden nugget there, guys. If you want to invest in yourself and you started a business, that's a tax write-off.

And that's huge. That's— it's pretty much free. It is. It actually is. It's free when you think about it. Maybe you got to pay a little upfront, but it— once tax time comes around, it's free.

And you've already probably made that investment way back. I don't know why I said way back like that, but you probably made it well back because you've already implemented the steps, because the frameworks and system— because people pay for speed, they pay for the instant results. That's where I was going with, with the stupid— I was so far ahead of myself. That's where I was going with the whole BBL situation. And that's what it was, is paying for the speed. I'm paying to get to the result that I want to. The, the journey is great, the transformation is what I want, but I'm— what's the quickest way to get to the path that I want? I think that's where I was going with And that correlation with the BBL, it came full circle with that.

Yeah, you have to move quick because you're sacrificing time. And honestly, in business, when you're building for some— something for yourself, your most precious commodity is time.

It is. And you don't realize that because until you're older and realize time is limited, that's when you look at and say, man, I really wasted a lot of time. And I think about that now. I think about And this is weird how I correlate this, but it's been 6 years since COVID Yeah, wow, that's crazy. Back in my day, we had to shut down the whole world, you know. I had a meeting with, uh, with a guy, and we were talking about playing video games, and he's a gamer. And shout out to the gamers out there. And he, uh, he was asking me like, well, what changed that you don't play games anymore? And I said Well, one, when I was playing games and I would be fighting somebody in a game that took a long time to beat and I died, I immediately thought about the time that I spent wasted trying to fight this person, then die and have to do it again, which is another hour. And I kept thinking about time, time, time. And I was thinking about the time wasting that I'm doing this, which ultimately led to the hours I was playing in video games that was really doing nothing for me. Outside of giving me entertainment, frustration mostly, because I was frustrated I was wasting time. But what was I really doing? But I was stuck in that pattern because that's all I was surrounded with were people who play video games and it was cool.

I thought you were going somewhere else with this, uh, you looking up cheat codes to get faster to the end of the game.

And that, yeah, actually I was going to leave that. I'm glad you alluded to that. But yes, I would look up the quickest way to level up your character instead of going through the whole game. Well, what's the shortcut to be able to get through this? Oh, I need to go to this one stone that has the infinite whatever. Cool, let's go there. And I skipped 20 hours worth of playing to get to that point because I spent the time and did the research to then learn from the person who did it. That got me the quick results that I was able to reap the benefits.

Yep.

But again, had I not invested my time to then learn from that person, I would have never done that. And not saying that you need to take your time to do research and things to be able to figure out your results, because that's going to spend more time.

Yeah.

You find the person who's already did it if they offer you.

Hence you outsource. You got outta the game, you outsourced and implemented.

Yes. Literally.

I, yeah, literally.

Exactly. And then I applied what I was doing in my video games to real life and business, which is weird to even think that. But yeah, I guess I made business, my games my real life.

And I always thought you were weird for looking up cheat codes. I'm like, why even play the game if you're gonna go in?

And I, I had that problem too. It's like, well, why am I, I'm taking away the experience of the game. But then if you really look at the experience of life, life is so short. If I just enjoy life and go to school and then work for the boss and willy-nilly, like, life's— life will— life's not fair.

I've seen people in jobs and that they've been there for decades, you know, it— and it blows my mind because I know they're not happy in their job. And then I see them there and I'm helping, you know, businesses out with certain insurances and whatnot. And I just can't imagine being already at that stage in life where I've been decades in a job that I'm not happy at. Yeah. And it is eye-opening seeing other people in that situation. It's like, you know, it's never too late. It really isn't. But the best time was a long time ago.

The best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago. The next best time is when?

Is now.

It's now.

It's now. So act now.

Act now. Act Fast! Click the link below and act fast, ladies and gentlemen. You know, like those commercials, before it's over, you need to click now.

I've never seen that commercial.

I was like, always commercials, like on TV shows, they tell you, like, just click now. The phones are going off the hook.

The infomercials?

Yeah, the infomercials. I watched a video the other day. I don't know where this came from. Just sidetracked. This guy was on stage. He was giving a speech. I don't know who the guy was, but it was super powerful. He said he brought out a dollar bill and he said, I will trade somebody a dollar bill for 50 cents, and nobody was taking it. He's like, nobody wants dollar bill, make more money. Someone brought up 50 cents. Here you go, gave him a dollar. Like, oh, okay, cool. I will give somebody $10 for $5. More people started coming up and doing it, and he was like, all right, cool, we got people moving around now. All right, so I have a $50 bill. I don't know if anybody has $25, but I'll do $10 for this $50 bill. People started running like crazy. And then he was playing, he's gonna say, I have $100 bills. He's like, I'm not doing that. But it was funny. And he was talking about how people act when there's an opportunity, is that the first person that acted, they had an opportunity and they were able to get to it. Now my opportunity got more expensive as time went on because more people started learning about it. Now people now, it gets too expensive. People won't act out because now it's even more money. Had they started, they would have already implemented a lot of my principles then and could have grown with me to where we are now. But it all starts with that first act and then following the herd because you're going to see where everyone's going to follow that one person. So the biggest premise is the whole thing was acting instead of sitting there thinking about it. Huh, I wonder, hmm, you know, it's $0.50, you know, the dollar. Just if you act on it, like that's a calling for you to do something because an opportunity will be gone like that.

Yeah, someone is way ahead of you taking the opportunity.

Mm-hmm.

And if you see it, you better grab it.

Yeah. And think about making content because people— we were talking about in our inner circle, we were talking about launching, like I'm going to launch something, like not a rocket, but a podcast. Yeah.

Okay, making sure. Okay, I got it.

All right, good.

Yeah, I know no one's an engineer and they're building that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. So we're talking about launching something and how the word launch, like, we don't like the word launch because launch sounds like we got this grand opening, everything's ready, we're gonna just make the announcement, everyone's gonna come flood. No one cares. No one cares that you launch something. Well, one, because people didn't even know you did unless you're bringing up the suspense about it. But build now instead of trying to perfect it later. Start today, learn along the way, And then when you get to the results, you could say, hey, okay, I just want to drop a bar, sorry. But don't wait till it's perfect to start. It always goes back to just start because it's never going to be perfect, and you're going to continue to try to make it perfect, and it's never going to be perfect. I mean, how many iterations of books are there? They make— when you write a book, you learn from it, you change your wording, you change your sentence structure, you change the ideal, the perception, because you learned something. Maybe you got outdated.

The best way to learn is to do, to do, be, do, have.

You gotta just do it. And people don't want to do it because they're too afraid, because they want to think about the thoughts of the what-ifs or the hesitation, and that costs them a lot and they don't realize it. You can either learn, or you can start, learn from it, get your feedback, and then repeat and implement and be better. Or you can sit, think about it, never start, put it out because you think it's the best thing ever, Nobody buys, get discouraged, never do it again. What sounds better? Person who's trying at least is going to be way more successful than the person that has perfected whatever they thought they perfected.

100%. Mm-hmm. Because you could plan the best gym routine in the world, the most optimized exercises that you took a year to plan and make this, you know, whole apps that you can follow it in the gym, or you could just get into the gym and start moving your body. Yeah. The person that's going to achieve their goals fastest is the person that just went into the gym and started moving their body.

Because they're learning from it too. And then by the time the person that got into the gym that did the app and everything, there's going to be a new app, new training styles, new fad diet. And we're going to do keto now or carnivore. And they're going to be like, whoa, this is new. I didn't perfect— I didn't— I wasn't prepared for this. So they weren't able to adapt. So then they pull away, go back to their old habits, and then never grow.

It's paralysis by analysis.

Mm-hmm.

And I think that's something we can all relate to. Is that we've all overthought a situation, thought we're not ready. Yeah, we're not ready. We see everyone else doing it and they look phenomenal. But little do we know, all those people started somewhere and they just did.

They did because they felt the pain that they have to do. And that's the thing, you have to feel like you want to do it. Yeah, people go, and that's, that's a rich person's mindset. Rich people feel like doing things. They know they have to do it.

But when you're rich, I feel like doing that because they don't have that limiting mindset. And going back to the beginning when you just started, where you're like, oh, I need to invest in myself, and getting over that hurdle to invest in yourself and put yourself in that circle that's going to propel you to that next level. Going back to when you actually invested yourself, you know, getting over that hurdle of making that first step to truly putting yourself in a better environment, a better position, so that you can actually be who you want to be. Before you do that, a big thing that we haven't touched on here yet is actually shifting your identity from who you are to who you want to be. Because I think that's— that is actually a big step in making that shift to the next step is actually shifting your identity. You have to envision who you are and believe you can be that person. Otherwise, your body will physically never do it.

Mm-hmm.

And is there any way that you shifted your identity, or what was the identity that you took on to get you to that next step?

There's a lot that plays with that. One, when you know who you want to be, be that person today. Act in the integrity and the intelligence. Act like that person. The day. Because if you're stuck with who you are today trying to figure out how do I get there, it's tough. But if you reverse engineer the person you know you can see yourself being, it's a lot easier. That plus being around the people who are where you want to be and live like them, talk like them, work like them, think like them, speak like them. When you surround yourself in that environment, I go to a foreign country and I trying to learn a different language and I don't know anything. I don't know Spanish at all. If I'm there for a year, I'm coming out, I'm rolling all my R's. I'm like, hey, mami, corre, garamacho. I'm talking, I'm spitting Spanish because I've been stuck in the environment. And when you're in the environment and you force yourself to be in there, you're going to grow. Is it nurture versus nature? Who knows? But when you really want something and you want to be that person, you will do whatever you can to become that person. Yeah, you just started.

That's massive because, you know, I don't think any of us grew up in a huge wealthy household. And a lot of people out there can relate, you know, that you growing up in a household that has like scarce mentality, that you're holding on to money so hard and it trains you to have that limiting belief. And shifting your identity can take a lot. On your own, but actually being around the people that are doing more for themselves helps you shift that identity. Yeah, it, it makes you see things that you never saw growing up. It makes you train your brain in ways it's never seen before. And that is— I think that's what made the biggest shift in our lives, is, is making that shift. It's not even physical. It's mental.

It's all mental.

And it makes it sound so easy. It makes it sound like, oh, it's just a simple, simple shift.

It is.

It is. It truly is. And I think that's such an easy cheat code.

Because there's no such thing as— it's hard to be rich. It's hard to be rich and it's hard to be poor. Both levels are hard. But at the same time, it's easy to be rich As long as I know that I can be, and it's easy to be poor. If I have poor mentality, I'm going to be poor. So it's, it's however your mind perceives your outcome that you want. If I know that I'm going to get this way and I'm going to make it that way and I believe in it, I'm going to go like, you can't stop me. Like, that's it. But if I have these false narratives in my mind and these thoughts of, I don't know, or imposter syndrome and all these other issues playing me down, and I also have an environment that is weighing me down too, I'm not going to succeed. Because I'm always going to resort back to those old ways, those old habits, those old videos, those old whatever it is that you do that's keeping you where you're at. But when you take the plunge and really believe and trust in God and believe that you can get through this, that it's not just you moving through this, it's God's with you to hold your hand as long as you believe. Because if you do trust in him, you're not going to trust in the finances and the money because you don't worship money. When you worship money where you feel like you're gonna— I'm gonna lose everything— you're letting that money play you, and it's never letting you grow. We're always going to feel like we, we don't have enough money no matter what. But if I still have a house over— a roof over my head, my family's eating, I dropped X amount of money, and I'm still— I'm still breathing, I'm good, I didn't file bankruptcy, okay, cool, let's run it.

100%.

We're gonna make this work.

And if you truly want to do better for yourself, and you truly think that it is something good, it's something good for the world, and it's a gift that you have to give. That's not Satan putting those thoughts in your mind. That's God actually helping you realize what you're meant to be, that he wants you to have this fruitful life. And if you believe in God, you need to trust in him that he wouldn't give you something that isn't achievable. He wouldn't plant something in your head that wasn't achievable. Especially if it's something good for the world.

It's just the seed of doubt you got to get through. And that's what happens. People have the grand scheme. They know they want something, but there's so much doubt that overshadows anything from that seed planted that it's never going to grow and be fruitful. And that's a big problem.

It is.

So once I made the change, I broke that limiting belief and said I could do this. And one thing that's really interesting is that there's hundreds There's millions of dollars worth of information on YouTube. Alex Hormozi, you watch, um, Cody— what's her last name?

Sanchez.

Cody Sanchez, Omar El Takrori, Myron Golden, all these big cheese people who've invested so much money into the knowledge that they've accumulated, so much that they put out on social media for free. But we take it all for granted because we didn't pay for it. Only thing we're paying for it is time. We're watching it, but we're half watching it because we feel like we, we didn't really invest into it. We didn't invest money. And when people think of investments, they think of strict money. So if I paid to watch those videos, I'm going to be paying attention to watch those videos.

It's true because even those videos I watch, you know, they have a podcast or an episode or whatever it may be, an interview out sometimes twice a week, sometimes more than that depending on the situation. And I watch it. Do I watch it again? Probably not unless it was, you know, a really hard-hitting episode to me. And am I actually implementing in my life? I'm waiting for the next episode to drop. I'm like, okay, and then, you know, you forget 99% of the information you just watched. And then it's just, it truly is just a dopamine hit at that point. So if I was actually paying to watch that video and I said, hey Cody, I'm paying $20 to watch this YouTube video, you better be damn sure I'm implementing that stuff into my life.

Yeah, I'm learning all the frameworks. I'm plugging in ChatGPT, getting everything, the heavy hitters, the notes, and taking it. And I'm I'm not only going to apply it to myself and just take it in, I'm going to teach it. I'm going to jump on social media and be like, guys, I've learned something new today. This is a framework called the AAA Effect. I just learned— oh my God, it's mind-blowing. I didn't think about this. But awareness when it comes to who you are for your identity, I— you just to be aware of your situation that I know that I want to get better and I needed to align with my values and I want to align myself with so much of my values, like, to be able to apply those kind of frameworks and teach it, that lets you know that you are practicing what you're taking in.

You actually know it.

Yeah, but you don't mostly do that because, well, if I didn't pay for it, I'm not going to take it in the same way. Because when you pay— and college is one way, because I mean, you don't really pay attention in college, your student loans.

Most people just go straight into debt and they don't see the value in it because they think in life it is just naturally the next step in life. You graduate from high school, now it's time to go to college. There's no value in it. You didn't choose it. It was just a system forced upon you.

Exactly. But when you're doing— when you're already in a system that you're unhappy with, this investment mindset, it changes so much because it's unlocking so many new doors of how I can grow myself and not feel just confined in my mind. I've been bars today, confined in my mind.

It is extremely valuable because when we go to college, everyone's doing it, you know. You're there with hundreds of thousands of kids doing the same thing. There's no value because everyone's doing it. Everyone's going into that doing it.

Unless you go to a different school, like I go to, go to Harvard, and now you feel like, are you going to San Francisco School of Ballet or whatever it may be?

Yeah, that you worked damn hard to get into. Yeah, at that point you can't tell myself, you know, going to a state school or university or community college, you know, everyone's there. Everyone took that gradual next step. But if you're actually going into these smaller rooms and you intentionally chose that room.

Yeah.

Then that is a completely different situation.

And that's where the transformation happens in those small rooms. Big rooms, there's transformation, but it's more in an intimate setting. It feels more personal. And I would rather pay a higher ticket to be in a smaller room with other people who also paid a higher ticket to be in that same room, who have the same shared limiting beliefs, same shared beliefs as I have, that wants to be more than what they are today. And you grow together and you grow together. It's powerful. And actually have conversations that are actually moving, not superficial. How are you doing? How was your day? How's the weather? Oh, it's nice. Like, no, like we're really talking some really in-depth stuff like, what do you think is holding you back from last week? Because the week before you did $30,000. Like, what do you think happened? Like, what, what can, what can we do to make this change? I'm curious. You know, those kind of things that make you think, oh man, it's high-level conversations and you're all learning from each other's mistakes.

You're learning from each other's successes. Yeah.

And especially in different industries.

And you're learning so quickly.

Yeah.

Because everyone's putting into use.

And then it also becomes referrals too, because if I know that you do a business and I know I've watched you work and I believe in you, I'm going to send you people, clients. And I think that's a powerful thing that people don't look at as well.

You know and trust them, you know, they're, they're professional, they're actually, you know, not a front, they're not a facade, they're doing the dang thing.

Yeah.

And you're going to trust their professional services.

But it's hard just getting in those people's circle.

Yeah.

And it's, it's hard to find the conversations that people think like that. And I've noticed that other people who are in businesses, entrepreneurs who are already in it are well more intent with conversations than people who are thinking about dabbling in it.

It really is a pay-to-play because if you think about, you know, the secret men's groups or whatever it is where you're paying $50,000 a year to be in a cigar society or whatever it may be, you pay to play, you pay to be in those rooms no matter where you're at. And if you're thinking in life, oh, I'm just gonna go learn on a job, because I want someone to pay me, you're not learning aggressively in that job. You may learn a little bit to get to maybe a promotion, but you're not learning aggressively because they're paying you to be there to do it, do whatever it is they hired you for, for the skills you already— they already thought you were equipped with.

Yeah, and that warps your time, or it warps your perception with what you think is valuable.

Yes, and you grow at a much slower level. But if you can pay to grow aggressively, you're going to be much farther in life in a shorter amount of time.

1000%. Yeah, because when you're in a job that you're valuing the time that you're there, you think about the time to the money. That's all you're going to see it as. You're not going to think about what extra room of growth can I do to squeeze more money for myself or more value, more knowledge or anything to grow. But when you're confined, you're not going to think like that. You're going to think, well, I'm only worth $40, so that's all I'm going to do is $40 worth of work, even though I know I'm infinite. As far as what my value really holds, this is all this place deserves.

Yeah.

Do that for X amount of years and you're gonna never do anything better, unfortunately.

Well, let's end this podcast on a positive note because if you're watching this, I think you know the next step to take. I think that now it's just up to you to make those changes and make that shift in life. And watch yourself grow.

It is. So if you have something that's been bothering you, that nagging calling in your mind that you know that you're good at something, whatever your expertise is, you know that you're watching other people do the dang thing and they probably not even doing as good as you know you can do it, but you haven't started. It's not about who knows the best, it's about Who's known the best? How do people— do people know you? Do people know you exist? Have you put out any content? Have you done anything other than think about, "I'm gonna do it tomorrow"?

Have you put any action into what you want to be? Have you actually taken any physical action? Now is the time to act. Take that first step and act.

It is. That's all we can ask for because where you're sitting at, if you're watching this, we were you and we feel you on it's, it's a lot to consider. But that's our piece for today. We had a pretty good conversation. Beautiful wife as always, you know. Growing together is a beautiful thing because if you're married, couple thinking about it, whatever your situation is, if you're doing something together like this, it becomes so meaningful. It's— you're growing together instead of growing separately in different directions of different industries you're in. If you do something together, It makes the marriage and relationship much healthier.

Yeah, more meaningful. This is my favorite time with you.

It is. It's how we get on the same page. Heard it here, folks. Thank you guys for watching. Subscribe, all the fun YouTube stuff there. We'll catch you next episode. Peace.