EP 115: Birthday Special: The 3 Biggest Discoveries I Made Over The Last 44 Years (And 1 Thing I Warn Every Entrepreneur To Never Do)

Welcome to the making of a DM. The three biggest things I learned in 44 years around planet Earth. Not only that, one thing that I would recommend you never, ever do too. So with that said, let's get started.

There ain't no question. Mark Evans, when he stepped in the doubt, he's closing deals. Time to tell him what the DM stand for. I'm a deal maker. A deal maker. But I'm not just a deal maker. I'm a dream maker.

Hey there, it's your boy, Mark Evans, dm. Welcome to the Making of A dm. I appreciate you being here. Got a lot of stuff to talk about. Today's a very special show as I'm going to share some stuff with you. As I've been on this planet earth now for 44 years, I'm going to share with you the three biggest things I've learned in 44 years around the globe. Hope this show makes an impact in your life. As all shows on here on the Making of A dm. Many people have been sharing the show on social media. I just want to say thank you so much and talking to their audience. Some people's been sending it out to their email database, letting them know, hey, check out this crazy guy. Yes, he's nuts and wild, but he's sharing real content, has nothing to sell and just kind of delivering real value. So depending when you're listening to the show, we got a lot going on. But anyways, I appreciate you being here. I kind of want to talk to you guys today about real life stuff as we always do. It's, it's a very important, you know, just Memorial Day just passed by, you know, just got back speaking, you know, getting ready to speak of the Lions Not Sheep event. I got my event coming up June 29th and 30th. If you haven't got your tickets, make sure to do so@Markevans DM.com forward/live again. You can see this in the show notes as well, but I'm so excited and honored to be in this position. You know, I wrote my mom a letter last night. My mom is kind of not healthy. She's kind of sick, actually really sick. She's been on oxygen for 12 months now solid. She can barely move. She's on a lot of lot going on in her life. And my dad's a saint. He's over there taking care of her. And you know, I'm sharing this to be, you know, open with you guys, but, you know, I've been taking care, you Know, I. I pay my dad to stay home with my mom. I pay him a salary, you know, and, you know, yes, he'll help me if I need help, but he needs to help my mom. He's been doing this for a long time, so, you know, he is a saint. And I'm just thankful and very thankful that I did all the hard work, made all the sacrifices to be in a financial position, to be able to pay my father and my mother. I mean, I help them both, obviously, to do this stuff. You know, I've been very, very, very blessed to have the bug of entrepreneurship and to work hard. So I get it. I know who you are. I know you're working your ass off. I know sometimes it never feels like you're doing enough. I know, you know, you want to do more. I know you know, people are counting on you, you're counting on yourself. Things don't seem, you know, like there's a lot going on. I get it. But all I can say is keep your feet moving. And, you know, as I, as I wrote my mom that letter last night, it's really just to let her know, you know, I like writing letters. I don't know if you guys know that or not. I write letters often, weekly, multiple times a week to different people. I'm thinking about, I want to connect with. And, you know, it's very, very, very powerful tool for someone to get a letter. And this could be either handwritten or, you know, Google Doc, PDF, whatever, but just for them to, to sit down and read it on their own terms. You know, sometimes these conversations are hard to have one on one emotions. Sometimes people's guards go up. The truth is, my mom's sick right now. She might not even understand what I'm saying. She might not even hear it because she's, you know, her brain's kind of rattled right now, so she might just not hear. And she puts her guard up. And again, my mom's an amazing human being, and that's why it's so frustrating for me. And I'm not the type of guy to sit around and watch things happen and just wait. I want to address the situation, gain data and get a direction so we can get on to a plan of solutions. That's just who I am. And I tell my mom this in the letter. This is kind of funny, but I always tell her, I'm like, mom, listen, you know, I'm being hard on you because you taught me to stand up for what I believe in. So if you don't like What I'm saying it's your fault because you taught me to be this person and she really did. So life is short. And as I'm here, like I said, 44 years deep in the game of level 44, not age 44, I have some things I want to share with you. Three of the biggest things I've learned in these 44 years around Planet Earth. And I want to share with you not only that, I'm going to share one thing that you should never do, one thing you should never do. So let's get into that. I'm not trying to be a Debbie Downer today. This is meant to be positive, by the way. I'm very optimistic about my mom, by the way, so. And I know I've shared this about my mother in the past and shows and lots of people message me. So thank you guys for that. I'm not looking for sympathy and all that. It's just, I'm just sharing true real life stuff. We all dealing with shit. The question is, how are we dealing with it and what are we doing to solve it? Create solutions. So number one thing that you should, you know, the number one thing, one of the biggest things I've learned in 44 years, there's a lot, but I'm trying to give you the top three, if you will, in my life and business. The number one, this will always be true for me. I didn't understand this for a long time, but now I do at a whole nother level. The number one thing is you should be writing these down or at least taking mental note depending if you're on the treadmill or not. But you're the best investment you could ever make. I know everyone's trying to buy crypto and have the biggest pop, you know, thousand X, you know, buy a real estate deal and make 20X or you know, invest into a company in 100X, whatever. These are all great investments. But you are the greatest investment you invest in your brain. Read a book every day. You should be reading a book every single day. Not the entire book, but you should be reading 10, 20, 30 pages a day. This is coming from a guy that's read thousands of books. Keep in mind, I never read an. I never read a book, an entire book my entire life until I was 18 years old. And, and I read, think and grow rich. That's when it sparked. And then, you know, rich dad, poor dad, et cetera really started down a path. Millionaires in the making, stuff like that. So invest in yourself in the mornings that's why I get up early. I'm investing in myself, reading. I don't want to fucking wake up every morning like that. But it's ingrained in me. It's a habit. I got to do it. I feel amazing when I do it. I don't feel amazing doing it, but after I do, it feels amazing. It's like going to the gym, right? It's hard to get to the gym, but once you're at the gym, you never leave and say, damn it, I knew I shouldn't have came. You know, investing in yourself mentally, emotionally, physically, financially, you are the best investment I know. Like, when you go in and you look at the mirror and you're looking at that person looking back at you, sometimes you feel deflated, defeated, beat up, worn out. But know that this is you. You. That person looking right back at you are the best investment. See, the thing is, you know all your flaws. You know all your strengths, and if you don't, you need to start learning about them and understanding them, and you need to start working on them. You know, it's funny, a lot of times people are like, mark, what's your top 100 books? I can give you top thousand books. But my next question is, where are you at today and what are you trying to solve today? See, the thing is, you don't have to read an entire book to solve your problem. You have to identify your problem, identify a solution, and put the two together and go execute and get a result, depending what part you're in the journey. You know, like, right now, I might be trying to figure out, read a book about how to be a better husband. If I say, hey, number one book right now is how to be a better husband, you're like, dude, I'm not even married. The hell's this got to do with me? Exactly. It doesn't. So we got to reframe the question and start investing in ourself. I've invested millions of dollars. This is not a brag. This is a fact. Millions of dollars investing in mentorships, mastermind groups, coaches, consultants. I still do today. I still do today. Even if they're my friends, I will pay them. I pay because I know when I pay, I pay attention. I invest in myself. A lot of things people don't understand about investing in themselves. Like, for example, I have this event in Cleveland. It's a thousand dollars, for God's sakes. Right? The thousand dollars is just a token to yourself to say that you're worth at least a thousand dollars for people that don't come to an event and invest in themselves. They really just don't get the game of life. It's not like you're taking money away. It's just in your brain. You haven't programmed yourself and read and learned about yourself, about what your investment is worth to you. It's funny. People go invest a hundred grand, and I say invest very lightly in this context, into a college education and not think twice about it. They'll actually go in debt to do it. But when you can go somewhere in a room and invest $1,000 in yourself and possibly, you know, generate many millions of dollars in opportunity, how don't you see that as a good investment? Not only that. Which brings me into point number two of One of the biggest things I've Learned in my 44 years around this planet is your relationship capital. I have amazing relationships. I really do. I'm very humbled by it. I'm very, like, grateful of it. I believe, like, my best friends are people I never went to high school with. I have one buddy I still went to high school with that he's like my brother. He is my ultra best friend, right? He knows everything. But him, and I mean, him and I live way different lives. And that's not an awkward him or me or anything. It's just the. It's just the facts. My best friends today, my biggest best friends, the guys I talk to often are guys that are in the trenches in business and life, Guys that are always growing and pushing and prodding. Guys I've met at events, guys I've connected with via social through either cigars or golfing or golf carts or kids or whatever. Like all these different things or podcast show, for God's sakes. I'm an amazing guy through the podcast show here, right? They reach out, we connect, we start talking. Maybe a year, five years, 10 years. I'm not worried about the timeline. I'm just worried about making a connection. See, the thing is just connecting with people. So many people are worried if they connect, they try to get something from it. I just want to connect and help. So I do this show for free. I pay money to be here. I don't make any money doing this podcast show. I do it because I genuinely care about people and want to make this world a better place by sharing my knowledge, real life knowledge. I don't have my agenda as to help if you come to an event or you, you know, invest in something I've ever done over the years. That's awesome. That's Icing on the cake. That's not why I'm here. I'm here because I truly am all about relationship capital. There's people listening to my voice that literally in 10 years from now, we'll be doing many, many things together, maybe even family vacations together. It all starts like this. This. That's why I put so much energy and effort into connecting with people. You'll see this in Cleveland. If you come To Cleveland, Ohio, the 29th and 30th of June is every single person in that room will have a very similar story. And I don't care if they've been in my world for a year or 25 years. They connected with me, I connected back. We've connected, connected, connected, connected. And we always stay connected through emails, texts, phone calls, etc. See, when you're in the game, you're in the game. It's powerful. And I see so many people doing it or actually not doing it. If they're doing it, they're not doing it right. They're going to be takers. When I go into my connect with relationships one, I show up intently, I show up and I share all good and bad. I'm being genuine, like I'm not trying to be someone else. I'm not, I'm not trying to act, you know, prop. Oh man, I'm a big shot. I do lots of deals, I make lots of money. Has nothing to do with that. There's a humanization piece that I love. It also bites me in the ass sometimes. But the overall positive effect of it has changed my life. My greatest friends are through relationships. I've met at events that were. I meet people that want to grow. You never know where you're catching someone on the journey of life, right? You never know. I remember one guy I met, he actually came to my office back in the day in Columbus, this a long time ago, and really changed his life. He comes from a very depressed area in West Virginia. He's a hard, hard worker, just very tough worker. You know, that's the conditions he grew up in. So it's kind of what he did. And I showed him a better path. He started making a lot more money, had a lot more time, freedom. And unfortunately he ended up getting cancer and he died very quickly. I remember two weeks before he passed, he shot me a call. He was like, dude, listen, you had no clue who I was. Eighteen months ago, you picked up the phone, you had a meeting with me, you took me to coffee, had lunch, whatever we did. But you always were There, I couldn't even go to my parents. I couldn't go to my brothers, I couldn't go to my sisters, I couldn't go to my uncle's cousins, et cetera, because they just didn't know what I was up to. They always thought I was crazy. But when I made the connection with you and you just showed a genuine interest and wanting to help me, and I took that information, I hope I made you proud. Keep in mind, he knew he only had a handful of days left and he's calling me to tell me that. Relationship capital. See, I made it a long, long time ago. I've always wanted to be a great friend. Are you a great friend? Do you think about others consciously, subconsciously? If I'm out and about and I see something that draw, like, oh my gosh, my buddy would love this. I'll buy it and send it to him if I see an article online. Dude, I haven't talked to Mike forever. I hope he's doing well, man. I'm gonna send him. Dude, Mike, check out this article. Send. Thinking about you, man. Hope all is amazing. The guy's doing a lot of work. His name's Mike as well. He's doing a lot of work at my house right now. A buddy of mine, a great friend of mine, we go to his birthday parties. I go to, he comes to ours. We rent out skating rinks together, we have pizza together. Like, he's a good buddy and he's a hardworking dude. I sent him a video yesterday just recognizing him for that effort, letting him know I appreciate him, telling him, man, thank you so much for all the hard work, et cetera. Like, that's, that's what friends do. They encourage, they think they're thoughtful. If there's anything I can do, let me know. I'm here for you. I believe in your vision. I see where you're at. I've seen you grow so much. I hit up my boy Ryan. I don't want to say his last name because everyone would know him here, but him and I were talking back six years ago. He's telling me about how he's about to hit his million dollar month and he wants to get into some real estate stuff and he wants to connect at a deeper level. He had a baby. I sent him some birthday gifts for, you know, newborn she was born. Excuse me. He, now he has a she, but the babies are born. I send some cool birthday, some gifts in the mail. I don't need recognition. I, I, I'm doing this stuff Because I want, like, I'm a friend. There's a guy recently, Anthony, he just had a baby. True story. I found his address. I sent him a gift. I. I just know him online. I've never met this guy in person in my life. I know he's doing a lot of great work. He helps a lot of people become wealthy. He's a great dude. He's genuine. He's straight up. There's the kind of guys and gals I want to be a part of their life, even if it's a little bit. But this is how I know. I lead the relationship on the front end. I recognize it. I sent a gift and said, dude, just thinking about it, it's $300, maybe 200. I don't even know. My assistant helped me with it. Right? But you can do this. And it's funny, he messaged me. He's like, holy shit, dude. We've never met. And you sent me this amazing gift. I just want to say thank you. Him and I chatted online about 30 times. We've never met in person. What do you think happens when we end up in a room together or in the same area? You know what's crazy? There's family members that come into Florida or near me in Ohio. Sometimes they'll be within 30 minutes away, and they won't even fucking text me, call me, or email me or anything and let me know they're in town. But, you know, it's cool when my buddies online, people I've never met in person or people I have met in person as well, connect through these kind of channels, they're like, yo, man, you in town? I can say, no. I might not be, like, who knows? But, like, to be a great friend, like, connect. And who knows? Maybe I am. You know, I mean, impromptu meetings or connections I've had, like, I love that if I'm around and I got time, I will connect. Yes, let's connect. It's the best. Forging relationship capital is very powerful. The third one, this is a big one. And again, remember, I have one that you do not want to do. But here's the third biggest thing I Learned in my 44 years around the planet Earth. You don't have to do it alone. You don't have to do everything. And Dan Sullivan and them came up kind of with this term, but it's the who to do the how. I always think about this, like, when my car breaks down, I don't try to figure out how to fix it. I call aaa, take it To a specialized person that works on cars and they fix it. I don't sit in the car and go on YouTube. I don't buy a course and learn how to fix it. The who to do the how. If my plumbing breaks right now in my house, I'll shut off the water, call a plumber and go about my day. I don't need to know how to do it. Even by the way, I know how to do it. That piece I know how to, but I don't. It's not. My time is better spent somewhere else on something I enjoy doing. I don't enjoy fixing plumbing. You may not know this, but my dad had a little side business called King Rooter. A King Rooter give your drains the royal treatment. True story. This is very interesting. The office for that company. When I say office, it was a desk and a phone and a filing cabinet was in the bathroom. Our main bathroom downstairs. My mom and dad were hustlers, man. They would like hard working, amazing people. And I remember 2 o', clock, 3 o', clock, you'd get these calls where people's sewer just backed up me and my dad's. You know, I'm like 11, 12, 13 years old, 15 years old, helping my dad snake drains out. I got all over me. Literally all over me. And, you know, we got the stuff coming out, but we solved the problem. Get the drain cleared, they can flush the toilet. There's no overflowing. And I got rags. I'm cleaning up the floor. It's absolutely sucked. But it was amazing because I got to hang out with my dad. I got to learn what work ethic looked like. I got to learn how to solve problems and I got to learn how to have a customer experience with people. The who do not How. As I'm talking to you, I'm building up. I got this big event going on in Cleveland. I'm not sitting there coordinating hotels and parties and performers and all this crazy stuff. Food and Bev and all. Nope. Hired Malika. Amazing company I've used many times to plan events for me. The who, not the how. If you're brand new in business and you're starting out, you know, marketing. Marketing is very big, very challenging in the beginning because you're not sure where to spend the money and how much, what it should look like and what. Hire someone as a professional marketer. The who, not the how. If you want to speed up your life, you want to speed up your results. I'm not saying be dumb and naive, by the way. This is a Very high level skill that one needs to learn how to do. More of the who, not the how. Right. My pool starts leaking, I could go online and learn how to fix it, go to Home Depot, get the goods and fix it and do all this stuff. But no, I'm going to make a phone call to my pool guy. Hey, what's up, Dustin? Hey, can you get over here and get the pool fix? We got a leak. Sure thing. The who, not the how. I'm trying to beat this in you because maybe, you know, my boys John and Ryan, and the dm, you know, the DM world. In my world, you know, these guys are amazing human beings. They help me a lot on a lot of different things, projects and such. And I haven't, you know, I have this webinar coming up in this event coming up. And these guys are very good at structure, very good at creating manuals. Like, that's their skill set. Like when I say that's their skill, like, I literally. I'm getting anxiety talking about it because it stresses me the hell out. My brain doesn't think in those kind of levels that my brain doesn't think in. Like the way they think. And that's not right or wrong. This is understanding what our unique abilities are and doing what we're great at and excelling. He can help me, I can help them. They can make way more money with me and I can make way more money with them. It's a pretty cool dynamic. See, when I stopped being everything for everybody and I stopped saying yes to everything just because I could say yes and make a couple bucks. Truth is, I never made more money. I always made less because I had to work harder for the dollar. I was scattered, unfocused, unclear, never had a purpose, never had a direction. I just said whoever called me was going to give me money, I'm taking it. Let's go. It's not a good model. The who, not the how. I know some of you are building your businesses and you're still doing your own books. Recently, I was getting ready to buy a company for over $5 million and the guy still did his own books. Pay someone 60 grand a year to get that shit off your plate. Truth is, if you're a small business, it might cost three or four hundred dollars a month. It's worth it. It will save you the headache, the heartache. Because you know you're not doing your taxes right. You know you're not doing proper paperwork. Why? Because you're too fucking busy working, building a business, connecting Clients making money. One thing about me, I was always good at making money. Very not so good at managing it, collecting it. Right. It's easy to make, but how do you collect? I remember I used to go do jobs when I used to do construction at a big level, $10,000 job. We'd go there and bust it out, and it'd be awesome. Client loved you. And then we never sent an invoice. And then by the time you realize you didn't send an invoice, you sent an invoice and now they're fighting you. Well, you didn't send an invoice. Well, hey, dipshit, I still did the job. You fucking owe me 10 GS. And then you're fighting, you're stressed. Your bank account's less 10 grand less than it should be. This was a thing that happened in my life for a very long time. I genuinely thought it cost money for an accountant and a bookkeeper. The truth is, if you hire a good bookkeeper and a good accountant, they'll make you more money because they're giving you all that time back that you need to focus on building your business, going and getting money. Let them manage. I'm not saying to hand over the keys, but like, hand over the task. It's okay to manage it if you want. I don't, but it's okay if you want to. But I don't know any great entrepreneurs from my experience that are really good with paperwork. We rather walk through. We'd rather crawl on broken glass naked than to do paperwork. Right. At least me and everyone else I know in that space. So those are the three things you're the best. Investment, relationship capital. The who, not how. What's interesting, all three of those things tie in to how I've built many, many companies. Seven, eight, eight figures a year. I can't run all these things myself. I can't do all the deployment myself. I can't do all the software design myself. I can't do all the customer support myself. Like, there's a lot of who's accomplishing the hows, and you just got to start with one and you start letting go. Letting go at rapid paces and really seeing things starting to grow. It's very cool. And I'm not saying letting go and losing control. I'm saying letting go. It's going to feel like at the beginning, losing control because it's new to you, but just being aware of what you're letting go of. One thing I would have hired first and foremost, I'm telling you as an account, a bookkeeper, it really, really cost me millions of dollars in fuck ups. I promise you it's only 4 or 500. If you need help with that, by the way, you know, in Cleveland, if depending when you're listening to us or message me on IG at Mark Evans dm, I'll hook you up with a great company we used and still use, I refer them all the time because they're awesome, they're out of Milwaukee, they love small business companies. They're very crazy affordable and they do a great job. It just gives you so much more confidence. It gives you so much more just, you know, focus on going and getting the work done knowing that money is going to get collected and results are going to show up in your bank account and you don't have to do it all yourself. So one thing I realized, I didn't have to do it all myself. You know, and not only that, it's fun. It's fun doing it with other people. You know, everyone says it's lonely at the top. Well if it's lonely at the top, you didn't do it right. Because you bring people to the top with you. If you're even at the top. I know a lot of people are very delusional. Oh man, I'm at the top. It's like how are you at the top making 180,000 a year? I mean, let's be honest, right? There's levels, on levels, different levels, different devils they say, right? But in Cleveland, Ohio, the truth is all three of these things or any event you go to that is conducive to people wanting to grow and share and be open minded and open hearted is all these three things are there. You're investing in yourself to show up, you meet great people through relationship capital and you find the who's to do what you need help with, right? They might need your help, right? It's kind of interesting. It's a great way to generate massive amounts of opportunity and wealth. I'm telling you, show up to events that will change your life, it really will. And become a great friend. So here's the one thing not to do. Never do this. Never ever, ever, ever, ever, ever do this. You ready? Because a lot of people do it. Don't ever take advice from people, not where you want to be in life. Mom and Dad, I love you, but I will never take financial advice from them ever, ever. Grandma, grandpa, you're the most amazing human beings in my life. But I'll never take business Advice from you ever. It's funny, my grandma would always say, I think I've told you guys this story before, but I was doing real estate and I'd have two, three, four closings and a day I'd make 60, 80, 200 grand in a day. I go to my grandma's at 2:00 in the afternoon, all excited. These are old school days. These are checks. You had checks in like this is like 2000ish. But I'd go to her house and I'd be holding the checks, two o', clock. I'm like grandma, let's go celebrate. She loved drinking Stro's beers and smoking Paul Muls non filters. And I'm like, let's go, I'll take you to breakfast, lunch, brunch, whatever you want, I'm paying. Let's go grandma. And she'd look at me and say, mark, you think you're hot stuff? Don't count your chickens before your eggs hatch. You know how hard your grandfather worked. Don't get over, don't be over the top. Know that this doesn't last forever. By the way, when are you going to go get a real job? And I thank God I had the mental fortitude to laugh it off just like I did. Now that was almost subconscious. That was subconscious laugh. Because when I hear people say shit and they're not where I want to be, why the hell would it hold any clout? Zilch. If a 400 fucking pound guy told me how to get skinny and called me fat, it would mean nothing. And I'm not being fat, shaming or disrespectful, it's just the fucking truth. How can a thousand there tell me how to be a millionaire? Think about this. I want you to seriously think about this. Who are you taking advice from? Who are you listening to? One of the greatest gifts my parents gave me is they never told me I couldn't do something. They always said this though, Mark, whatever you're going to do, do it to the best of your capabilities and beyond. Own it. I was a crazy idea kid. I always was an entrepreneur. I always wanted to make money. I always wanted to do crazy stuff. I always wanted to be over the top. I always understood experiences matter. I would take my last dollar and fucking buy the person next to me a drink to brighten their day, knowing that I could go out tomorrow and make more money, connect with more people. Because that experimental moment was amazing for me. I got more out of that than making the money. Be careful who you Take advice from. How can the guy that's been divorced four times tell me how to be a great husband? He might be able to give me some insights, but I'm not listening to Dick because his. He clearly doesn't know how to do it. I'm in the game of life, of relationship with my wife forever, forever through thick and thin, right? It's not always easy. Who said it was My teacher. I'll never forget. You got to get a job. Ms. Mills, by the way, is her name. You have to get a job, Mark. Fill out the application. And I raised my hand. I'm like, who says I have to get a job? The person telling me to get a job has a job. The teacher. And I knew she hated her life. She hated her job. It was very crystal clear. Where is the fucking brain that says, well, so you hate your job, you hate your life, and you're telling me I got to get a job? Get down to the principal's office, Mark. I got in trouble because I didn't fill out a job application, because I never wanted a job. I never knew anybody that had a job that loved it, ever. They dealt with it because they had to. They thought, who are you taking advice from? You can't go to those events. If they're so rich, why aren't they doing it for free? So let me get this straight. You paid a hundred thousand. Keep in mind, it's usually a person that went to college, paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to a very rich organization to get a $55,000 job. And you're making an investment, for example, a thousand dollars to show up to a room of people to connect, learn and grow and expand your empire. And they're telling you you're probably listening to most people listening to this. Listen to those fuckers. If it's so good, why are they telling you about it? Well, hey, man, we're all in cells. It's so good because if you sell it and I sell, we all sell. We all make more money, and it helps more people connect. Like, give me a break. Hey, can you get out of the way and watch your tv, though, right? God, that's stupid. Why would you buy those DVDs or CDs and VHS tapes and. Or go to seminars or watch that webinar. That's a waste of your time. All they're going to do is sell you. Johnny, you already know what they're going to do. Huh? No, I don't. How do you know? You've never even been on one of these Fucking things. I remember I had my 1987 Chevy truck. This thing didn't have AC cranked down the windows. I'd have my hair back then blowing hot as Haiti, and I'd be smiling ear to ear, fucking smoking on little Philly sticks. Cigars, you know, probably $1.25 sticks, thinking I'm a big, big shot. And with my CD player plugged into my tape deck with a rubber band around the cd, listening to Tony Robbins, listen to audiobooks, getting my brain reprogrammed, I had to go seek advice from people. Being where I want to be. I know how to make millions of dollars a year. I do it every year. I've been doing it for many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many years. I fucked it up. I've made a lot more, and I've made. I've lost a lot. Like, I know how to do it. I've built companies, I've sold companies. I'm doing it every day still. I have multiple companies in many different verticals. I'm just getting started. Who are you taking advice from? Like, when you're saying, oh, I'm gonna fly first class to this event. Every fucking person come to my events should fly first class. Or private, for that matter. Well, let's baby steps. Take the training wheels off. Get first class. But, Mark, it's a waste of money. Is it? Have you ever sat in first class? Have you ever been stuck on the tarmac for three hours in the back of the bus? I have. They don't serve you drinks, they don't talk to you. They don't give you food. They. They don't do anything except how you get off your phone in a seat that's not comfortable. See, the thing is, it's a mindset in first class. It's the connections and conversations I get. In first class, people tend to be a little bit happier. Not all, but most. We got bigger seats. They're serving food while we're parked on the tarmac waiting. They're getting us drinks. We can get up, take a piss. You can't. It's the truth. My mother told me, mark, it's a waste of money to fly first class. I'm like, huh? Why? Why? And she said, well, I mean, you're all going to the same place. I said, yeah, but it's more comfortable. Yeah, but like, you know. And I was like, not Mom. Not only that. If the plane goes down, I want to be sitting in first class. She's like, mark, at the end of the day, you're going to die first. Then I'm like, well, mom, I think when this plane goes down, we all die. Why not go down in style? See, first class to me was a huge shift for me. Huge. True story. The truth is, my mentor, his name was Matt is Matt. He told me, he's like, dude, if you come to my event and you don't fly first class, you're not getting in my event. He knew where I was at. I had the money. I didn't have the mental capacity to understand how to make that an investment, how to turn it into something where I saw the value, I understood the cost. $1,200 or $300, I understood that. But I didn't understand the value of when I sit in first class. I don't know about you, but I used to walk by first class and like keep my head down and not make eye contact with anybody in first class because I felt below them. True story. When I started flying first class, it changed my life. Matt was way further ahead of me. He's been there, done that. He shared that with me. He wasn't other people. Dude, that's a waste of money. You're going to the same place. So I'm going to sit in the middle of a seat with broad shoulders, with an old man beside me and an old lady or another guy or a kid picking his nose, flicking it on me, the guy sneezing and coughing and hack as opposed to get a big ass seat and be relaxed, make some good connections, have great conversations. It's always served me very well to sit in first class. Once I've sit in first class. I've never not sit in first class. This was many, many, many, many moons ago. Truth is, today private. I've been investing in private aviation for a very long time now. Truth is, my son's only been on one commercial plane. My daughter's never been on a commercial plane. That's a whole nother conversation. Navigation, right? How to teach them this ain't normal. This is my normal. This is their normal right now. But they're going to get into the real big world and they're going to realize when they have to pay for their own stuff. I want them to experience the mind growth that I had to go through. I want them to experience sitting on the shitty back of the seat by the people stinking it up and walking, you know, walking out three hours later and you're there. I want them to go and learn how they have to, who they need to become to get in that first class, what do they need to create and become in their brain to get onto the private, etc. Who are you taking advice from? It's interesting to me. A lot of people are taking advice from people where they don't want to be. How could someone that's worth a thousand dollars tell you that becoming a millionaire is crazy? How does it hold any weight whatsoever? I don't care if it's your mom, your spouse, your father, your grandparents, your best mentor in the world in football or baseball, basketball, tennis, whatever. If they're not where you want to be, why the fudge would you hold any value to it? I'm not saying you have to be disrespectful here. I'm just saying why would I even talk about finances to my mom and dad? When I tell my mom, like my dad's been with me when I've, I've gotten seven figures wired to me in a day net. He sees it come in. I'm like, dad, check this out. It still shocks me. So I can only matter what it does to my dad. The truth is it doesn't even process in his brain. He doesn't even know what it means. $1.6 million, huh? What's that mean, Mark? No, dad, that's what I just made today. Oh, come on. Hey, anyways, it's your shot. You're up playing golf, right? Or whatever. This isn't a knock on people. This is. Just be aware of where this information's coming from and what they're saying and who you're listening to. Don't get caught in the trap of taking advice from someone that's not where you want to be. Just be careful. Be conscious of this. That's what's cool about rooms like this. People are not going to talk down to you. People are not going to say you're stupid or that's not possible or there's no way. These are rooms and environments that are conducive to growth, creativity, opportunity. But you got to get in the room. It's a thousand dollars. 100% of the net proceeds go to charity@markevansdm.com live. If you're listening to this before June 29th and 30th, I'm excited for the birthday bash too. On the 30th. It's going to be epic. From 6:30 to 10:30, we're going to do an over the top party and that's part of the ticket. But these are the three things. The three biggest things I learned in my 44 years around this world so far, and I'm still learning a lot. And then obviously, the one thing, the one thing that you should not do, I think it's very clear. I hope the message at home, I'm thinking about you guys. I'm so excited to be on this journey of life with you. As I sit here and look out, I'm getting ready to head out of Florida back to Ohio for five months. We live in a beautiful place. Don't let the world or media tell you any different. The world is an amazing place. Yes, there's bad people and they tend to get most of the media attention. And there's real bad people behind the scenes. Right. But I can control me. I can control what I consume. I can control my output. I can't control the result, like what you do. If I'm trying to, like, you know, get with someone or whatever and they don't want to, that's. But I can control my effort. I can control my vision. I'm growing companies. I'm pushing, you know, pushing and prodding and driving and, you know, getting punched in the face. Keep getting back up, keep going and never quitting. I want you to know I'm here with you when you're working real hard. No, I'm doing the same thing. And everyone else listening to this podcast show is doing the same. We're in the grind, we're in the trenches. We're in the depths. We're growing, we're expanding, we're pushing. Promise you never quit. It will be way worth it. The world needs more people like you. The world needs people that will stand up for what they believe in. They'll do the work. This is not for lazy people. This is not for people want to get rich quick. This is for people that want to get rich definitely. Change your financial legacy. Build a foundation for your future family. Your kids, grandkids, their grandkids, etc. It's our duty to change the family financial tree. I hope that's why you're here, because that's why I'm here. My son, my daughter, people that love me deeply or listening to the show. One day, maybe today, I'd love to walk in my son's room at six and a half years old and have him listen to Daddy's podcast show. But rest assured, one day, he's going to listen to this show. See, a lot of people think I'm creating content. I'm not creating content. I'm documenting my journey right along with you. You're evolving with me. You don't have to believe me. Go to my first podcast show I ever did called the Real Estate Power Hour. This is like 2013, 14, 15. And then now we have the making of a DM. Listen to me evolve. I used to sound like a clown. I still might. I still sound like a clown sometimes, but I'm not. I'm going to keep showing up. I'm going to keep getting better. I'm going to keep learning. I'm going to keep hiring coaches to make me better so I can deliver a better message to you, to help you. That's what this life's about to me. Relationships, connections and growing together. Hope to see you on the other side. And if you're in Cleveland, make sure to come up and say what's up. Thinking about you guys having an absolute amazing day. With that said, make the day count.

What I know and how I did it to discover freedom There ain't no question mark Kevin's when he stepping it down he's closing deals Time to tell him what the DM stand for. I'm a deal maker, a deal maker But I'm not just a deal maker I'm a dream maker. The journey's where it's at. It's all about the process. Time to get over to the DM project from a small town in Ohio so I know how it is Can I come from a lot of money I remember as a kid wanted to make a honey See no one making more than that Graduated high school with a 1.8 but it should have held me back. I hope my principals and teachers are alive just to witness this. I'm own boss I'm out here running two way figure businesses Walk away from it all and I'll be good But I've been called to help people just like y' all learn the game it's time to ball everybody chasing the money but I'm not chasing the money I'm out here chasing the purpose Yo I've been working my whole life gotta say where we at? Is it going to get us where we want to go? It's time to push Time to learn, time to grow I'm more Kevin I'm here to help and teach him what I, what I know and how I did it to discover freedom There ain't no question mark Kevin's when he stepping the doubt he's closing deals Time to tell him what the DM stand for I'm a deal maker a deal maker But I'm not just a deal maker I'm a dream maker. The journey's where it's at. It's all about the process.

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