EP 157: Cheat Code to Grow - "Now NOT How" and Happy Valentines Day!

Welcome to the making of a dm. Your problem is not the how your problem is starting it now. Today's show is going to be filled with a powerful information to help you get from point A to point Z much quicker and much easier. So with that said, let's get started.

I'm more Kevin Ste. 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.

Hey there. It's your boy, Mark Evans, dm. First off, I want to say happy Valentine's Day. That's right. Today's Valentine's Day. Hope you took care of the people you love and most importantly, took care of yourself. Love thyself. A lot of opportunities out there, and I'm excited to be here on this journey of life with you. I'm sitting here in beautiful Florida, about to do something pretty crazy. I'll share with you next week something I've never done, nor has my wife and kids. So I'm excited to share that with you guys. Before I get into today, I hope you guys have a pen and paper. This is definitely, possibly a show you might want to listen to twice or three times. And make sure to take notes here because I am going to share some real powerful stuff with you, as I hope I always do sometimes, you know, if you're listening while you're, you know, my boy Travis is doing, you know, possibly surgery or getting ready for something big in life over there in Cali. He's doing some really amazing things. I'm excited to have him on the show one day and. Or you're just sitting here grinding it out in the trenches. Just so you know, I'm right in the trenches with you. Don't ever think that whatever you're dealing with, I don't care if you're beginning in business, middle stream or at the end of the business cycle in your brain to know that we're all just getting started because there's so many levels and layers and complexity and opportunities and obstacles and the truth is people trying to take this stuff from us as we bust our towel every single day. So just know we'll talk a little bit about that today. But I am in the trenches with you. I'm not just sitting around hanging out, smoking stogies all day, playing in the pool, trying to get a suntan, even though that's fine once in a while, I genuinely enjoy the game. Not, not just for financial benefit, of course, but that's part of business. If you don't make money, you're not going to be in business long, but also for the, the growth, the mental fortitude, the grit that it takes to get to the level where we're going that often most people never see. And, you know, it's just that little glimmer of hope I'm looking for every day, just like you to keep me going. It reminds me of a runner. You know, I'm starting to do a little bit more running. I'm trying to, you know, get a little bit healthier with the breathing and all that. So just playing a little bit more attention to that running two, three miles a day and elevating that and just pushing, putting some strength on, adding some stress onto that running to make me better. And it's literally, I'm not trying to run a mile, I'm trying to run the next step. And that really helped me out in business and in life as I'm evolving, right? So it's like, stop trying to plant, you know, run the mile. I know where the mile is, but I can't make the mile unless I take each step. It's always like the guy trying to make a million or $10 million. Well, to make $10 million, you got to make a dollar first, a hundred thousand second, a millionth third, you know, et cetera. So these are steps, these are stepping stones, and it's inch by inch. Some days are really, really tough, and some days seem absolutely simple. Some days are flying by and some days are dragging ass, you know what I mean? Because you're in the trenches like I am as well. But that's awesome and cool and stuff. But let's talk about how amazing you guys are you as a listener that sharing the show, you know, just getting on YouTube or posting on your social media feed on Instagram or Facebook or wherever you're at, say, hey guys, great show, Take a listen. Hey guys, had my weekly dose of the dm. Take a listen. Make sure you tag me, as many of you do. But I will reshare, hopefully get you some followers, get you some recognition of the effort and the share. So I do appreciate you guys doing that. Always appreciate you guys leaving. Five star reviews. It's amazing. I read every single one of them. Me and my team, actually, we like to look them over and make sure. We're providing real value to you guys. I'm not here to waste your time. You know, it's like, everyone talks about money, money, money, but, like, the real gift that you and I have right now is we're spending time together. And time is time. It is literally, once you hear my voice right now, that time is gone. If you and I made money or lost money together, no big deal. We'll go make more or get more or maybe even lose a little bit more. You'll get more, and eventually, hopefully, we're in the positive as we evolve together. It's called life, and it's called money. It's called investing. But there's a lot of packaging and unpackaging around money and mentality and all that stuff. So time is so important to me. As I look at my son, he's eight and a half, I'm starting out to be as cool as I used to be. My daughter, she's going to be five in April. I'm still the cool dad. Even though she tries to be cute and say, daddy, like, she'll play this game with me, daddy, I love you. 200,000. That's her number. And I'm like, I love you. And she's like, no, Daddy, I. And I'll smile, right? And I'll get all excited. She'll like, no, Daddy, I love you, zero. And we'll play this game for, like, 20 minutes. And it's just so amazing because I do know these times are limited. And I see her growing up so fast, becoming a big little girl, a little, big girl. And, you know, it's a beautiful gift to be a parent. If you're not a parent yet, that's cool. You know, one thing I wish I would have done, and I'm not telling you guys to go out and have babies today, but have babies earlier. You know, I'll be 40, 46 this year. In June, my kids will be 9 and 5. It's cool. I'm healthy. I'm not saying, you know, I regret anything, but Dina and I were together eight years prior, so we. And we were ready to get married, you know, whenever. So we were just kind of hanging out, enjoying life. And it is what it is. Life is life. And everyone has a plan. We kind of planned it out that way, but looking back, you know, no one ever. You know, I grew up where everyone has babies in 18 to 20s, and it's like, man, I just don't want to do that. So I was a little scared. But it is cool having A little bit of resources being able to done a lot of cool things before having children. But having kids is one of the best gifts in the world and very appreciative of it. And they're healthy, I'm healthy, everyone's healthy. And Valentine's Day is cool. I did, you know, I go out and get them the teddy bears and the, the chocolate hearts and a couple little dod I got a heart shaped necklace maker, candy necklace maker and Mark loves these little, I don't know if you remember as a kid, but little bottles, pop bottle looking things that are all wax with liquid in them. So he loves those things. So got that. And then obviously the wife and the daughter got a couple, a little bit of flowers. But it's fun stuff and I'm very fortunate of time. I guess that's why I'm going with this. It's time. These are moments, guys, you know, no matter what you're dealing with, I'm dealing with real right now in my life, truthfully. And it's interesting to me how hard we work and why we're doing it, but yet how hard we work and why we're doing it. Oftentimes the people that we're doing it for are the ones that get the least amount of tension. You know, it's going to be the negative client that hates your guts for whatever reason. They get a lot of your emotional attention and time attention because you, you know, we're problem solvers, that's what we do. But sometimes with bad clients. By the way, this is a good tip. If you have shitty clients, eliminate them. Because they're, they're stealing from your joy, they're stealing from your time, they're stealing you from your family. They're stealing you from helping good clients. That's one thing I didn't understand in the beginning of business. Not all clients are created equal. Some people, let's be honest, are just pricks. They're jerks. They get off by being negative. They see the world in way different lenses than us. And I genuinely, genuinely believe I'm always very thankful. You know, I'm dealing with a couple people right now in my life where I'm genuinely thankful. I pray and I write down my thought audits every day about this. But I'm, I'm just glad I'm not them. I want that to sink in for a minute. Like when you get all this negative shitstorm, just be grateful that you're not those shitheads. Like their life sucks to be who they are and something really bad happened in their life. I think Gary Vee always calls it empathy and all that shit. I don't know what it is. I just think it sucks. Sucks to be them. And I happen to be the punching bag for the. For the moment. They'll find someone else. Think about that life. And they have children. I know these people, they have children. They act like they're big dogs online and they ain't got shit going on. And I know for a fact, and yet they simply get off. Like, they literally like it. And then they breed with each other, right? And they create this weird environment. They create these stories that justify their dumbness. It's very interesting, to say the least, and very sad for me because I, like, their children are watching this. It's insane to me. So, again, it's. It's an interesting time to be alive. You know, I think that. That what I just shared with you is only going to persist and get worse with human behavior because the generations that are around and the people that are raising the generations, by the way, they're not taking responsibility. They're not teaching or educating the kids on what's right and what's wrong. They're just letting the Internet and, you know, in the social environments, you know, teach their kids and then expect them well, wonder why their kids are shitheads. It's like, well, you got to be a parent. You got to say tough stuff. You got to step up. You got to lead by example. Like, this is all stuff that takes work, right? That's why you guys are here, listening to the show, I hope is to become a better human being a better person all around. Not just business. Business is cool, but I'm way more than a business guy. Number one, I'm a husband and dad first, right? I take care of me, take care of them, and then business is my thing. That's my hobby. It's my passion. It's what I enjoy doing. There's a lot of things I hate inside of it, but I love the outcome of the effort, right? So it's just like going to the gym. Some people, I hate going to the gym, but I love going to the gym. Of the results it creates from me, it gives me confidence. It's a win for the day under my belt. You know, it makes me healthier knowing if I'm healthier when I get older, I can play with my kids longer, hopefully play with my grandkids, and then hopefully live a healthy adult life as I depart planet Earth. So these are things I think about over here in my world and you know, again, time is the most precious commodity. It ends. One of my buddies, his niece recently gotten a. She got in a hit and run and it's not looking good. Young, pretty college girl has life's just starting for her and her family around. Her parents are like, it's a big deal and unfortunately it could happen to anybody at any time right now. So live while you're alive, right? There's going to be failures in it. That's another thing too. And again, I'm rambling a little bit here, but I got points to this. I promise there's going to be failures. It's part of the game. Me in my position, almost 20 something years, almost 28 years. June 2nd will be 28 years in business my entire adult life. I still have failures. The truth is, the difference with my failures, depending where you're at in the journey, is my failures are amplified with a magnifying glass because I have a lot more eyeballs, I have a lot more. People think everything I touch turns to gold because they created the story like, mark, you're the God almighty, everything you do turns like, dude, I talk openly about losses. I talk openly about failures. I have lots of failures. I talked about it recently about the, the solar company, massive failure, lost a lot of money, right? And in a very short time frame. But we talk about the world in entrepreneurship and I want you guys to have some couth, I want you to have some respect to the game. Because I see a lot of people when they fail, everyone's like, dude, yeah, failure is part of the journey. You know, it doesn't define you and blah, blah, blah. But when they fail with you and you pile shit on them, you actually could hurt them more than help anything. You're not helping you either, by the way. You're just shit talking, negative talking, you know, suing, whatever you do. And it doesn't really solve anything. It really doesn't. Because I can prove a point, okay? You know, like bashing people going on. I couldn't imagine someone taking the time to go online and talk bad about people. Truth is, I don't even talk. I'm bad at just talking good about people right online. Like I don't know how people have time to sit around and be a keyboard raiders and do all that. Now don't get me wrong, I like to, you know, give people props where props are deserved, usually vocally through the phone or in person. But we have to like stop for a minute, guys. If you take an L with someone that's where the opportunity really lies and to see what everyone's really made of. The L I took with my boy Mark in this solar company, by the way we call it lessons in our world is it was a big L, big lessons and we will win way bigger because of it. Together. We don't know when or how, but we know we both are growing ass men that made a growing ass decision and we were cool with the upside and we were cool with the downside. Now we don't want the downside to happen, but it could happen and it does happen with volume of things. What we want to understand though is like keep in mind inside of that you have lots of employees, you have lots of 1099s, maybe you have lots of vendors. There's a lot of people that are affected in these environments. It's not like you just take money and run. There's a lot of shit here. But I see the entrepreneurs say one thing on the left side of their mouth and on the right side of their mouth they're talking to other people. Where I come from, I'm a good old boy. And it's simple. If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all. Or the way mark DM 2.0 version, if you don't have anything nice to say, shut the up because it serves no one. There's already so much negativity. Why do they need your dumb ass to be negative? Right? So if you have clients that are doing this, eliminate them out of your life. If you have friends that do this, can them as quick as humanly possible. They are cancer to you, your soul and your future. They see the world through a different lens that you and I, progressive, opportunist, growth oriented. We understand there's going to be bumps in the road, but we're responsible adults and we're going to take care of shit as we evolve. They're cancer to us and they must be eliminated out of your life. Let them go hang out wherever they hang out. Let them go talk about whatever they talk about. But just know that you and I, we have to keep our feet moving. They get a kick off of us slowing down. I actually speed up because I know that's when like if you're looking from a distance and you know there's going to be a really wet spot in the car, you, you better keep the foot on the gas. Reminds me of my dad. My, my call him Uncle Bill, but he was like my, my second dad, if you will. I, I remember we got Stuck in the woods one time. And I remember. All I remember as a kid, I was very young and a little. Me and my buddy Bill and his dad. Bill and me and my dad. So we're in the truck, and all I remember is my dad's like, floor it, Bill, floor it. Cause we saw the puddle, and all of a sudden he didn't floor. He actually let off the gas. And guess what happens? Got stuck in the mud. So then we have to call the tow truck company. We have to wait. It's a problem, right? I don't want that to be your life. I don't know if that's a good explanation of it, but don't slow down. Use it as fuel to speed up. Just know that you're glad you're not them. I'm very grateful. In moments of darkness, I'm very grateful because I know it's only temporary. It's not fun, it's not easy, but it's necessary to get to the next level. I promise you that. I don't care what you're dealing with. There's nothing more important than your time, your. Your spiritual, like, your internal peace, and your loved ones. Like, spend time with people that matter. Like, don't let them suck your soul because they said this or that about you. That's just what they do. And be thankful you're not them. So I was thinking today about some stuff I wanted to talk to you even more about, because I see a lot of great people that are always trying to figure out how everything works before doing anything. And I want to paint the picture here. I have a motto called now not how. Let me say it again. Now not how, Right? Take action now. Right? For example, you're going to get in your car today or tomorrow, whenever. Might even be in your car right now. That's the. Now you're in it, you're driving down the road, all of a sudden, boom. You have to pull over to the side of the road. What do you do? Well, if you're like. If you're a mechanic, you're probably going to do mechanical stuff. You're going to take the mindset of the mechanic. You're going to get to work, you're going to say, I got a flat or it's the engine or this or that, whatever, right? There's a million things that could happen. Or if you're like me, I'm going to sit in the car, I'm going to call trip away, and I'm going to wait. Now, if it's something simple, like a flat or whatever. I can change tires easy. But the problem is if it's engine or repairs like that, that's not where I shine. That's not what I do. I don't know the how, but I know how to call away. But I'm not sitting at home planning on getting in the car and understanding how all these things could happen before I get in the car. I don't need to understand how the engine works. I don't even understand how I need to push a button on a car. It starts the engine, starts the radio, the lights shine and the roof's shooting stars and the windows go up and down, the heat kicks on and the car just rolls and it stops when I push the brake. I don't need to know how all that shit works to get the benefit of it. But it will never work if I don't do it now. I don't get in it now and take off. I see so many good people, amazing humans, researching learning, researching learning every component before they ever do the now. The how is cool. You'll learn more about the how by doing the now. Because you're thinking theory, and I'm not saying you should go blindly. But like, I'm get, like in the car example. I get in the car at point A, I'm going to point B. There's going to be stoplights, cars, animals, kids, zones, school zone, whatever, all this shit. But that doesn't stop me. I just acknowledge it when it happens. And I might take a different route and none of that happens. That's okay too. But yet I see the guy or gal sitting in the room at their house, researching learning. Researching learning, research. Okay, I can't go yet. I can't go now because I gotta learn one more thing. One more thing. What do you do? Your car breaks down, what do you do? Do you go on YouTube, pull up a video and say, you know, this light came on, tire pressures, this, you know, the heating and cooling says this. What? You know, what, what do you do? Or you just address it when it happens. That's what I do. I don't even think about it. But it's. What do you do when the how has to arrive? Let me give you another example. Reminds me of the first house I ever did on the west side of Columbus, Ohio. The now was I made a phone call to Mick. He was the guy selling the house. True story. Hey, Mick, my name is Mark. I'm an investor. I'm willing to buy some houses on the west side of Columbus. I see your properties for sale. Are you interested in owner financing? And I'm paraphrasing all this short, very short story. And we met, we connected. I did the deal. I put $1 down on that deal. One buck. I wrote a book about it called One Buck Deals. Right? $1. I controlled a $75,000 house. I don't remember the exact number, but somewhere around there for $1. I don't even know how the hell I did it, but I knew if I asked. And I asked, like, just was. I had no money. I was 18 years old, for God's sakes. I had no credit. No bank's gonna give me a dollar. I had a dollar. Mick, I want to buy the property. I want to give you a dollar to tie up the option, and I'm going to sell it to someone else. Are you cool with that? Yeah, man. That's what I want. Cool. Keep in mind, he owned lots of houses. He didn't want to do the work. So instead of hiring an agent or a broker or a property manager, in essence, I'm paying him to take his workload off his plate. I know that now. I didn't know that back then. I was too focused on the now. Now I can make a phone call. Now I can have a conversation. Now I can ask a question. Now I can get a contract. This is a true story. When he said, yes, Marco, do the deal. Can you draw up a contract? I said, absolutely. Now, keep in mind, I had no clue how to do a contract. I didn't even know. I didn't even know what he like, yes, I can. There's no way I'm going to say no. I can't. Can you do it for me? That wouldn't look too professional. I said, absolutely. Give me 24 hours. I have it over to you. Deal? Deal. So what did I do? Well, when the situation happens, I had to find the person that could implement it. The who to do the how. And who was that? A real estate lawyer. A real estate lawyer in Columbus, Ohio. I called him up. It's 1996. Hey, man. Mark. Nice to meet you. How much to pay you to write up a purchase contract with an option to buy, and I'm going to resell it? He's like, oh, it's like 300 bucks. Cool, I'll do it. Now, keep in mind, straight up, I didn't have $300, but I knew when I got this deal, my profit potential was anywhere from 10 to $20,000. So if I have an idea how I'M going to make money. 10 to 15 grand is real easy. It's worth 75. I'm getting it for 60, right? I have an opportunity to make money. So now I can find the who to do the how. Pay him to do it. Pay him 300 bucks. I get it back in 24 hours, take the contract to bic. We sign it, and by the time we sign it, I've already met two people to sell it to them on owner financing. And again, what did I do? I called the lawyer and said, hey, I actually am selling the property. Now I need to write another contract pretty similar to what you already did. He's like, okay, cool, a hundred bucks. Because I just got to change a couple things. Done. So now I'm 400 bucks deep into a contract that I never even knew how to do it or who would do it for me until I got to that point. And then what was amazing is I had a potential buyer and they had money in a 401k at their job. And I was telling my lawyer, I was like, dude, I need 15 grand down. They have the money, but it's in a 401k. They only have cash of seven grand. And this is exactly what he said to me. He said, mark, are they first time home buyers? I was like, I don't know. I'll call you right back. Ring, ring. Hey, are you guys first time home buyers? Well, we actually owned a house five years ago, so not really. Okay, give me five minutes. I called the lawyer and said, hey, man, they haven't owned a house in five years. So they're not first time home buyers because they've owned a house. He's like, well, actually they can take a one time distribution from their 401k as a first time home buyer if they haven't owned a house in the last three years. Really, give me five minutes. And then I called back and did the same thing. Talked to them. Guess what happened? Within seven days, I got a $15,000 check that I picked up, handed her the keys, and nowhere. And her husband owned a house that she didn't even think she could buy because I did the now there's no way in hell that none of this would have happened if I studied, studied, studied, studied, studied. Learn more, learn more, learn more. Study, study, study. No, I need one more podcast. No, I need one more seminar. No, I need one more this. I need one more. This I need to really know. I need to look. No. Too many of you trying to figure everything out before doing anything. All I remember is driving to the bank, smoking a Swisher Sweet cigar, smiling ear to ear with the biggest check I've ever seen in my entire life. And I had no fucking clue what I was doing. But I did the work. I showed up, I did the. Now there's so many moving parts where I'm going with this. You don't need to know how to do everything to do something. Like, for example, go today and put out signs now. Make a bunch of phone calls now. Ask for referrals today. Now hire that assistant you've been trying to hire fucking for 10 years. You know you need one. Go hire one. You're going to hire the wrong one. The first five, probably. But you'll learn through the structure, you'll learn through the process. You'll learn what to say, what not to say, how to say it, when to say it. Too many of you trying to figure everything out. It's like I always think about a lot of people when I'm talking to them. Like, I don't even know how they go to the bathroom truthfully. But like, if they went on a date, it'd be like they're going on their first date. But until they went on the first date, they're picking up, they know exactly where they're getting married, who's gonna, who's gonna marry them, how many people are on the guest list, what food they're gonna eat, what flowers are gonna be present, what the invitations look like. No one does that. That's stupid, right? So why the fuck are we doing it with our businesses? I'm not saying be stupid, not be ignorant. It depends where you're at in the journey. But stop trying. Everyone I know that's elevating and scaling and growing, they're seeking now we want implementers. Implementers always will get the job done. I'm not saying there shouldn't be some sort of balance as you evolve and some feedback loops. But too many of you are holding yourself back from growth because you're trying to figure every single thing out first. I know a guy that created a multi billion dollar company off of spreadsheets. No CRM, no software, nothing. Fucking hardcore CRM like spreadsheets, Google Docs, why Everyone else is like, dude, I got the best CRM. It's crazy. Crushing it. It's making me so much money. This guy secretly built a billion, multi billion dollar business in a very short time frame using spreadsheets. Now, I'm not going to say he was the most efficient. I'm not sure if he was the most effective, but he was way more effective than everyone else I know that was in that same industry doing the same type of work with the best CRM under the moon. He just knew, take massive action and it will sort itself out. And when things happen, we call the right person, they step in and the right things happen. The reason a lot of you don't hire salespeople is because you don't know how to structure their plan, how they get paid. Do I do a base plus this and plus that? Dude, ask them. It's your first hire in sales. Ask them what's important to them, because what's important to you might not be important to them. Steve, what are you looking for? Actually, as I'm talking to you, one of my partners is looking to hire a pretty high level sales guy in one of our companies. And we're talking about this. He's like, what should, what would it look like? I was like, I don't know. I genuinely don't know. I've hired lots of salespeople and I still don't know. But here's what I do know. Ask the salesperson. When you deal with winners, by the way, they already know what they want and see if it's aligned with what we can do. It might not even be what we want to do, but if it makes sense, and maybe we don't even know what he wants is important, maybe it's not even our scope of ideas. But you have quality conversations with human beings. They tell you what they like and don't like and you ideally find a happy median and know that. Hey, guys, listen. We're growing together on this journey. I don't have all the answers, but I'm open, I'm receptive, and I'm willing to grow with you if you're willing to go down this path with us. Same thing with an assistant. What should she do for you? I don't know. No one knows. Are you trying to get more time? Are you trying to use her as personal assistant? Are you trying to use her as business assistant? Are you trying to use it as a mix? Are you a good person? Are you a bad person? Right. That means a lot. Why? Because how you talk to someone, how you treat someone, you know, that's going to determine a lot about what, like what information you want them to have of you. Are they in your books? Are they not in your books? Do they have access to your bank accounts? Do they not have access to your bank accounts? Do they have access to your customer list? Do they not have access to like onboard them properly? How do you do that? Have a conversation with them? Nancy, the reason I'm hiring is because I need your help. And everyone says you're the genie of operations. Is that true? Awesome. Tell me, based off of everything I've shared with you today, what could you take off my plate to help me drive this business forward? You don't need to know the answers. They'll tell you like, what's the lowest hanging fruit? Because I need an extra 10 hours a week of free time to build this company, to hire a salesperson to do this, to do that. How can you help me get back 10 hours of my week as quickly as humanly possible? And then she'll tell you, and you listen and you see if it makes sense. And then if you hire, you manage that expectation and then you evolve it. And they're like, wow, now I got 20 hours a week extra. Now I got 30 hours a week extra. Shit. I have so much going on, I didn't realize I was doing all this work. I need to hire two assistants again now. Not how. And once you find out the how, you ask yourself the who to do the how. This is what I do all day. I'm really not that smart, truthfully. Actually, I'm probably the dumbest guy you know. But I'm very smart in understanding what I'm sharing with you. It works. Now, am I going to build a company that has 5,000 employees like this? I don't know. I, I'm not trying to do that. I don't, I don't enjoy any business over 15 employees, typically 15 stat. Like either 1099 or W2S or a mixture of both or. You know what, the truth is, I'm over here thinking how to create a billion dollar business without any employees. It's not that I don't want to work with people, it's just I like to ask different questions because the old mark was the guy that would ask, how do I have 5,000 employees? Well, you'll find the answer. And during the journey to find that answer, it was not necessarily fun for me because I'm not a day to day in the office giving them hoorah speech. That's not where I shine. Truthfully, I just don't enjoy it. And I've tried it many times and I've failed at it many times. I've done okay on some aspects, but on the overall, like once it gets past a certain level, I just, I'm just not good in it, guys. What I'm sharing with you is genuine openness to myself. I see a lot of you trying to be someone you're not. I'm not saying you shouldn't evolve. I'm not saying you shouldn't get better. I'm better than I used to be, but I'm still not good at it. I want to be a better leader of leaders, right? I want to lead the main five people and let them disseminate the information to 500 people on each side. I'm better at that, honestly. But again, everyone's different. That's what makes this world so amazing. But where I see a lot of people have challenges, they just don't come to realization with themselves. They're listening to too many people. I always recommend find one or two people you really connect with. If it's me or someone else, I don't care. Just if it's not them, stop listening to them. It's not serving you. It's only going to mix you up and hurt you in the long run. Like, you got to find someone you jive with. Like, yo, man, I want to. I want to roll with that guy. This is amazing. So please stop trying to figure out how to do everything before you do anything. I have people that's worked with me in the past, people I've worked with that literally they have the best business plans, they have the best projections. This is God's honest truth. I'm digressing now. There's a guy right now that owes me money from a loan I did with him in his company. This clown legit has the best spreadsheets I've ever seen in my entire life. Projections and blah, blah. He doesn't owe me a ton of money, but he owes me money. And I'm very conscious of this behavior when people owe me money. This guy's in fantasy land. He telling me his company is going to make $175 million in 2025, and he can't even pay a Mickey Mouse loan today. It's disgusting, it's embarrassing, and it's stealing from everybody. And if that's you, you're getting a hard on. You're getting mental masturbation looking at projections. Call your bank, call anybody you want and say, hey, can I pay in projections? They're going to put you in a loony bin. Projections are simply that. It's what I project. What did you do today to create revenue? What did you do today to make a sell? Who did you talk to? What's the conversation like? How many Orders did you take? How many meetings did you set? That's the, that really matters in real business. You better learn what I'm sharing with you guys because it's very important. And everything I'm sharing here today, like the real, as I do every day on these podcast shows and everywhere I'm at, for that matter, in my books and all that. This is why people invest a thousand a month to be in the DM alliance. I'm sharing real life. Every week is different, drastically different on many levels. Some days we're in huge ramp up phases in marketing, Some days we're in huge, you know, revenue growth mode. Some days we're in holy shit, like what just happened to revenue mode? Some days we're in marketing mode. Like guys, it's real life business. I don't know why people think it's just one way, one path. And once it starts going up, it never stops going up, going down. It never, it never goes down. That's not true. That's not how real life works. I mean, look at people's weight, for God's sakes. Goes up, goes down, goes up, goes down. Sometimes you're sloppy, sometimes you're solid. It's called life Seasons. So don't be so hard on yourself. Get around the who's to help you do the hows. That's why a group like the Diem alliance or even the DM family, that's a 50k a year group, These are real business owners doing real shit. We all have problems. The question is who are you talking to them about? Are they advising you and giving you insights of what they would do differently? A very big benefit too in the right environment is sharing your pre idea and having real feedback where someone's like, dude, that's a fucking dumb idea. Here's why. Not asking someone that's not been there, but typically if someone's like, dude, that's a dumb idea, but here's what I would do to make it better. These are people that's been there, done that. They're telling you because they care. They don't want you to waste your time, waste your energy, waste your efforts. They want to tell you the truth to make you better. And listen, you can take the information or advice how you see it, but that's what good groups are supposed to do as opposed to telling, you know, someone that doesn't see your vision. Anyways, that's a dumb idea that's coming from a way different place. If you're in the right room, that's qualified and then you got to be careful on who you're listening to at any level. Have they done what I'm talking about? Have they had any, have they had any experience in this level? Because if you're talking about, you know, $100 million company and they've only done like 200 grand in revenue, there's nothing they can say that I'd listen to, to be honest about growing a hundred million dollar organization because they don't have a fucking clue how to do it at all. That's okay. But like take that information with a grain of salt. But if someone's done a billion dollar business and they're crushing it, and all these verticals in the same vertical I'm trying to step into, I'm going to be very much more attentive to that information they're sharing with me, knowing that they're coming from the proper place. Potentially. This is our job as true entrepreneurs, is to be information gatherers. Once we're trying to evolve with the right people. This is why people really invest with me in themselves. I should say they don't invest with me because I don't do investments. But like they invest in themselves and they come in and pay me for consulting. This is why the DM alliance is $1,000 a month. It's the cheapest. I mean the return is stupid. Just the relationship capital in that room of 130 plus people is priceless. It's curated content in an environment with curated people that are paying for people that's not in that room. You think they're paying for who's in it. You're really paying for who's not in that room. Meaning, you know, the, the tire kickers, the lazy lose, all the people shit talking, the non doers. When people are investing $1,000 a month, they're in the room because they are doing something. That's the rooms you want to be in. It's always funny to me when I see people, Jesus, I would never pay a thousand a month. Cool. You'll never be in a room like that. Then that's cool. I'm not saying you can't be successful if you're not in rooms, but why make it harder on yourself if you don't have to? Man, if that was $300 a month, I'd be in it. Well, do you think $300 versus $1,000 is much difference? Because it's really not 700 bucks. And if you're crushing it like you told me you are, $700 ain't a drop in a bucket compared to what you said you were generating. So either you're lying to yourself or you're lying to me, or both. Which is it? Truthfully, if $1,000 a month is a lot of money, it's not the end of the world. You got to get to fucking work. You got to find a path to get to 100,000 a year, then get to a million a year, etc. You have to find a path. The money is out there. The opportunities are out there. I don't care what vertical, what industry or what business you're in, the opportunities are. Now everyone's talking. Survive. To 25. I want me and the DM tribe. You, yes, you. To thrive. To 25 and beyond thrive. Live the life you've dreamt of. Be the person you want to become. Stop talking about the old. You stop being the old, you start being the new. You start acting like it. Start doing what it takes to be the new you. Get up earlier, go to bed later, do the fucking work. Hang out with your family. Be responsible, be professional, be positive. Most importantly, execute relentlessly. Make the hunter calls. Talk to the 10 people, close the two deals every single fucking day. See, that's the reason why I and guys around me and gals are doing shit. Because what I just shared with you is our cadence. It's not like, hey, man, you got time to talk? I have an idea. But before I share the idea, I gotta have you sign an NDA, motherfucker. I don't need ideas. I got plenty. And your idea is dumb anyways. I already saw you talking about online. It's not an idea, it's a thought. Because your ideas, you don't do shit with them anyway. Show me what you've done with any idea up to this point that's generated massive amounts of revenue, that's helped a lot of people through the process. Show it to me. They don't have shit. By the way, if I'm talking to you right now, this is a wake up call. Stop playing business. Stop acting like you're in business. Get in business and stay in it and drive the revenue forward. Get deep in the trenches. Understand the game that you're really in work. And I'm not saying disseminate your family. I'm the opposite. Family first, business second. If you can't get everything, I'm talking. Done in eight hours, you are inefficient. You are not working properly. I'm not saying there's certain days that you don't work long Hours. And I'm not saying certain days you don't work at all. I'm just saying as a collective, keep a scorecard of what your efforts are looking like and more importantly, what your outcomes of your efforts look like. Do the work. Stay in it long enough to see the result. Stop bouncing around so much. I almost feel like most people are addicted to learning, not doing. You see it around. Everyone's got all these fucking degrees and, you know, accolades and all this shit, but they ain't got a pot to piss in. But they're smart as hell. And then they're going back to get another degree because that's what. That's what I want to do. It's like, why? They clearly don't fucking work. If you're trying to build a life of revenue, like, live a life, all you're doing is going in the hole more, getting into more debt, getting more fraud. Like, what are you doing? Truth is, we've been lied to. The question is, did you believe the lie? Get another degree. That's going to really help you. Another degree really help you. Oh, once you get this degree, you're definitely guaranteed. There's no guarantees in any of this stuff. I can guarantee you this. If you make 100 calls a day for the next 365 days and have conversations with 10% of these people with a very direct offer, you will make more money than any other bullshit. You're probably doing guaranteed. But you're not willing to do the work. You got to do the work. Are there better ways? Are there more efficient ways? Are there ways you can hand off? Absolutely. But that's a timing thing. The work still got to get done before you hand off. The work still got to get done before you hire. The work still got to get done. Like, how can you genuinely hire a salesperson and not understand anything about the process? The sell. You got to do the sell. No business exists until cells are made. They're just ideas and thoughts. So all I want you to do, guys and gals, is take this show and run hard with it. Share this show with your friends, your partners. Stop it, pause it, share it. Whatever you got to do, Put in, like, literally break your framework. If what you're doing is working, keep doing it. If it's not. And you're doing work, you're clearly not doing the right work. You're not focused. You need to reset what metrics matter to get the result you're seeking. And I see a lot of people, oh, I need to go CRM. Like, I Shared last week. I need to do this. No, you need to go do the work. Too many of you bought into this idea that no work has to happen. I'll just set up a website. I'll make millions. No, you won't. There's a lot of work, a lot of moving parts. But I trust that you take this information and you start with the now. Not how now. I'm gonna hire someone great. Post an ad now. But I don't know what to say. It doesn't matter. Say it now. Say what you want to say. That's the ad I want. Like my ad would always say, if you're at home watching Laverne and Shirley, do not apply to this ad. I did that. It's my personality. And that's funny, but it's also true. If you're fucking at home dicking around, I don't want you on my team. If you're hard working, if you're passionate about helping people, if you love the process, if you're willing to grow, if you're willing to learn, if you're willing to do the work, then maybe, then maybe, just maybe, you have a chance with me. And then what you're doing is scaring all the weak people from that. Just that statement. I want someone that's like, dude, I got the fuck. I can do this. I'm gonna prove to you I can do it. Cool. That's what I want. See, most of you are excited. I got a hundred applications today. It's working. Well, if you got a hundred applications, it's not working. You're going too wide, too broad. I want one or two or four, maybe. I want to only look at the cream of the crop, top tier people. Not to say all of them that come over are top tier. But I have a better chance of seeing that if you disqualify through your message, not qualify through your message. Disqualify. What are your core values? What do you stand for? Obviously, I'm not HR here. I'm not telling you what to say or what not to say. Go hire the hat, the who to do that how if you want. But my personality is very direct and bold in your face. It's who I am. I this up for many years. I used to meet people in a suit at a Regis place, like the offices you rent. And then when they come to work for me, they're. I'm wearing boots, pants, a T shirt, and I'm working and I'm cussing. I'm acting crazy. And they're like, Holy. I did not sign up for this. And they were right. They didn't. But I thought that's how it was supposed to be. Dumb on me. But that's how I learned. That's why I'm here today. Because if I didn't do that now back then, I wouldn't be here today doing another now because I'd have gave up. I'd have quit. Too many people are quitting. Quitters. There's some things to quit. Quit drinking, quit procrastinating, quit talking, you know, quit bouncing around, stay focused. But don't be a quitter on your dreams. Don't be a quitter on the end result. You got this. It's muddy, it's sloppy, it's ugly sometimes. I'm in the trenches with you. I just want to reassure you. I'm in the game with you. I will be in business my entire life. I will be taking punches with you. I will be taking hits with you. I'll be taking wins with you. I'll be taking L's with you. I'm in the trenches. I'm not some fucking dick sitting online acting like I made millions of dollars in. In three years of the game when it was easier. Like Stevie Wonder could see deals. I've been in the game since 1996. I promise you this. I will win a lot, I will lose some, but I'll always be learning on the process. And that will never change. It will never change. I'm always trying to improve. I'm always looking for the better opportunities to grow myself. I'm always investing in myself. Six figures a year still today. And I will never stop, get around great people, do great work, be proud of it. Stop trying to take a shortcut. Just do the work. That the true shortcut to success is doing the work. That's the secret. You don't even have to pay a thousand a month to hear that. I just told it to you. But the thousand a month in the DM alliance, by the way, if the DM alliance ever makes sense to you, shoot me on instagram @Markevans DM. Let me know, say, podcast DMA Alliance. I'll hook you up with something. I got something back there, but it's a thousand a month. It's for real people in business looking to grow. If you're making over 100k a year. Plus, it's a great place for you to, you know, create great relationships. We have people in so many different verticals in there, and whatever you need help learning, you ask. And we will deliver. We will find the who to help you do that. How? I promise you that it's a. It's an amazing, amazing group of people. I use it all the time. I'm in there every Wednesday we do a one hour training. Every Wednesday we have a private Facebook group. We meet twice a year in person. By the way, June, be ready for the June Birthday Bash. It's coming in Nashville, Tennessee in towards the end of June, I think. June 25th and 26th. That's what it is. June 25th and June 26th. So if that interests you and you're still here, I appreciate you. I'm getting long winded today, but I want to let you guys know I love you. I appreciate you being here. I hope you have an amazing Valentine's Day, but shoot me a message on Instagram. Arkevans DM. Say podcast/ birthday bash. I'll know what's coming from you from the podcast show. I appreciate you guys being here. Let's kick some ass and remember, make the day count.

I'm here to help and teach him what I know and how I did it to discover freedom. There ain't no question mark Kevin's when he stepped into 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. It's time to get over to the DM project from a small town down 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 bread Ain't seen no one making more than that. Graduated high school with a 1.8 they should have held me back. I hope my principals and teachers are alive just to witness this. I'm a own boss. I'm out here running two way figure businesses. I can 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, 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 Guess where we at? Is it gonna get us where we wanna go? It's time to push Time to learn, time to grow. I'm more Kevin's DM 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 Evans when he stepping to doubt, he's closing deals. Time to tell him what the DM stand for. I'm a deal, my 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. Come to get over to the DM project. Deal maker, deal maker, maker. Deal maker. Deal maker. Deal maker, dm project.

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