EP 211: The Brutal Truth About Why Your Business Is Stuck

Welcome to the Making of a DM. Not where you want to be? Let's talk about it. Signal versus noise. Which one's consuming your day? We're going to break it down and dispel the myths. So with that said, let's get started. Hey there, it's your boy Mark Evans DM. That's right, you are the dealmaker, dreammaker of your life. As I'm sitting here in beautiful Parkland, Florida, about to share some stuff with you, and I'm excited to be here. We got tons of momentum A lot of traveling going on, a lot of results happening, a lot of frustration going on, but yet we're still standing, keeping our feet moving. I appreciate you being here. Again, thank you guys so much for sharing the show, tagging me on Instagram @markevansdm, letting people know what's up. And again, anytime on this show as I'm talking, if something pops or connects with you All I ask you to do is text one of your buddies or someone on your team or someone that you know that could help with this and say, hey man, thinking about you, listen to minute 24 to 38 or whatever it comes out to and just let them know. I do this all the time to my buddies on a daily basis. It's kind of one of my things. If I'm listening to the show, I make it a point to send it to 1 to 3 people every single morning or anytime I'm listening to the show for that matter. And just let them know. Because then it get— it's not just about me, it's about all of us. I talk about relationship capital all the time. You guys hear me talk about that all the time. But that's a good way to plant a seed, like, hey man, I was thinking about you, check this out. Like, maybe I talked to him yesterday, maybe I haven't talked to him in 8 months, it doesn't matter. Just letting them know you're still here, you're still around. I'm not asking them for anything, I'm making a deposit. Boom, deposit. Boom, deposit. Cost no money to do that, and you can do it. Just like I can and do. So as I'm sitting here at the office here in Parkland, Florida, at the house, I have a lot of anxiety going on. Um, it's not a bad thing, it's a good thing. I know a lot of people stress out about anxiety, but anytime you get anxiety, it means momentum's happening, a lot of stuff spinning out of control, um, and/or in control, and your breathing changes and you're overwhelmed and you're excited and you're scared and you're frustrated, but you're keep pushing forward. And I always think of back, back to this concept called signal versus noise. See, as you're evolving, you ever stop and ask yourself, how is this person worth $100 million and it looks like they're never doing anything? And maybe they are, maybe they aren't, I don't know, but it might look like they're not. And yet I feel like I'm beating my head against the wall barely to make a couple hundred grand net a year in my business. And the biggest difference is what I do know is a lot of people that are progressing and growing, they just are focused on the signal, not the noise. The noise means doom scrolling, checking emails just to check emails, creating the next best CRM because the CRM you have now isn't going to get you to where you want to go, and yet you keep changing it. And you didn't— and yes, you are working hard, whatever that means. Yes, you are in front of the computer a lot, whatever that means. Is it self-inflicted, meaning are you creating noise because you're too afraid to take the actions you know you need to take, i.e., to get the results, to get out there and do the work? There's so much noise— the drama, the problems, you know, you jumping in and jumping out and causing issues. Noise, noise, noise, noise. We all have it. Like in Elon Musk, to give you an example, like in Elon Musk, he's probably about 100% signal-driven. If it doesn't solve a problem, he's moving, he just kicks it out of his life, right? We all have huge dreams, sometimes kind of like a deer-in-the-headlight syndrome, right? You need to break it down to daily actionable steps. And I'll just give you some examples. Like, if I was in real estate, I'm talking to real estate guys, and they're like, I want to flip 4 houses a month. One, I'd say, why? But second, cool, how do we do it? Well, we flip houses. No, how do you get to that point, right? Well, I need to find leads. Okay, how do we get leads? Because we need to market. So, okay, cool. So we need marketing to get leads, right? Okay, like what kind of marketing, right? Because there's umpteen different ways to market: social media, paid advertising, CPC, direct mail, guerrilla marketing, bandit signs, billboards, TV, radio, etc., etc., etc. But let's say, okay, cool, I'm going to do direct mail. Awesome. I need addresses though. What kind of individuals am I going to direct mail? Because I'm not just going to blanket market a location. I need to get specific. I need to understand what kind of leads I need to go attack. Meaning maybe I only want to buy houses from 1952 and up. Okay, well that starts dwindling the list down. I want to buy houses that, um, are owned free and clear. Okay, Okay. Now that really drives the number down. And then all, by the way, I want to buy houses that are not only free and clear, not only built in 1952 and above, but I also want them to have a different address on the tax. It's a non-owner occupied. Cool. Now there's only a percentage that tells me that's an investment type of property for the individual I'm trying to direct mail. Now I'm going to know, okay, now I have the list. And if you don't have the list, you need to start getting the list. So what do you do to do that? Well, I need to, Contact a company that can get me the list. DirectSkip.com, by the way, could do that, right? DirectSkip.com. Go there, put in your parameters, and now you have the list. Okay, step 1. That's, that's a signal. That's how you get started. Everyone's focused on the outcome. They're dreaming, thinking about the outcome. I want a 6-pack of abs, but I'm not willing to go to the gym. I want a six-pack of abs, but I'm not willing to eat right today. All these decisions are noises if you don't take the proper steps. So directskip.com, now I have the list. Awesome. Today I need to contact 3 direct mail companies. Which direct mail company could serve my needs of what I'm trying to accomplish, right? What's the message say? Is it a postcard? Is it a big postcard? Is it a little postcard? Am I trying to get the phone to ring? Am I trying to get them to the website? These are things you need to identify. These are things you need to work on to start executing. The coolest thing about those pieces we're talking about here right now is these are duplicatable pieces once you establish them. I know where to get the list. Cool. I work hard once. And now I have the access to it, and I can buy more and more and more as I scale. Now I have the direct mail partner, the company that can deploy the mail for me. I don't have to touch it, they'll do it. Now I got that established. Great, that's a scaling partner. See, it's not just going and getting these things, you're creating partnerships. If you know it or not, they're not just vendors, they're partners. Now that you've got the list, you're sending the mail out. Now the signal starts getting clear because the phone's going to ring, the emails are going to start popping from the website. Are you ready for success? Are you willing to take the calls? Do you have an SOP on the call process? When the call comes in, what happens? Do you answer it? Does it go to voicemail? Do you use third party? What do you do? What do you say? What do you capture? Right? I see a lot of people work really hard on all this stuff and they drop the ball on these pieces. Why? Because they're fatigued. They're not paying attention to it. Oh man, no one wants to sell their houses. Cool. How many people you talk to? How many people have called? This is the problem. A lot of you guys are focused on the noise, noise, noise, noise. Right, you guys use terms like, oh, I work hard, huh? Oh yeah, no one wants to sell their houses. How many? Because there's lots of people want to sell their houses. They just don't know you exist because you're too busy doom scrolling, you're too busy just hanging out, you're too busy going to events to talk to people to do nothing with it. They're out there. You just— they don't know you exist because you're not doing the actions to get in front of them on a daily consistent basis. How many people are you talking to daily? That's all I care about. If you're talking to zero, saying no one wants to sell their house, well, that's it. You're lying to yourself. But Mark, I got to get a new CRM. Bullshit. But Mark, I got it. I don't know what to say. Bullshit. Say hello. That's what you say. How can I help you? What do you got going on? Tell me about your house. What are you trying to accomplish? How quickly are you trying to sell? I mean, it's so easy. This is why I know you're not doing the work needed when you use terms like that. Successful people talk data. Unsuccessful people talk drama. Those are drama words. I work hard. Okay, I don't care what that means. Like, you work hard? But I work easy and I make a lot of money. You work hard and make no money. What does that mean? It doesn't mean anything. Hard? If you worked and did the— first of all, it's not about working, it's about accomplishing. I don't need to work hard to go online to get a list. I don't need to work hard to go online and find a partner to send out the mail. I don't need to work hard to answer a phone and say hello. Most of you are working hard on things that don't matter. You're working, you're wasting time. You've changed your CRMs multiple times. You don't have a good follow-up system. You don't even know what SOP means. Well, I don't have SOP, I can't do the business. Then you're only trying to do 4 deals a month. I was using pen and paper to do many deals a month. Most of you are avoiding the work through noise. Are you afraid of success? Are you afraid of making massive amounts of money and not being able to know what to do with it? Or are you just plain lazy? Or are you just ignorant to the fact that you don't know the difference because you're hanging out with people that talk about hard work. You're talking to people, oh man, it just ain't working. The buyers just aren't there anymore. The sellers just aren't there anymore. The clients just aren't there anymore. Oh, there's a lot of competition. Do you understand competition is good? That means there's a marketplace. Competition is good. You can make a lot of money off of competition, but most of you use it as an excuse of why you can't succeed, why there's no deals. What's your formula for acquiring capital? What's your formula for staying consistent? And keeping your community updated with what you got going on? Where are you spending your time and energy? Is it on you and your business? Is it on talking to clients? Is it on converting opportunity? What— where's your time spent? I talk about this all the time, but most of you actually have more time then you act like. The only thing that matters in business is converting deals. That's it. That's all that matters at the end of the day if you're in business. How much revenue did you generate today? You don't just wake up and generate revenue. You have to have a formula and a process of how you build your company to generate leads to revenue for you. What does that look like? And I'm not saying sit there and create the document. I'm saying document your process. When you wake up, what time do you get up? When you get up, what do you do? What's your day look like? What's your— what are your habits? What are your standards? Listen, get up early, go get the workout in, get that out of the way. Boom, done. Next. Okay, now hang out with the fam. Cool. Now they're off. 8 AM, boom, time to get on the phone, time to start sending emails, time to start closing deals. Most of you wake up, lollygag around, drink a coffee, go take a leak, come back. I need another coffee before I make a call. Next time I make the call, oh, they didn't answer it. Okay, my phone's not working, I got to reset up my computer. I got to clean my trash. I got to, I got to go to the restroom now again. I'm going to call this person. By the time it's already noon, you haven't talked to anybody for opportunity. You've talked to people about a lot of obstacles and a lot of problems and a lot of things. But how many people have you text about money? How many people have you text about opportunity? How many people have you text about, hey, I can help you. What do you got? What do you need help with? What do you do all day? The cool thing about all these things, as you get this started, once you get started, you can start duplicating and replicating these processes. So now systems can do it for you, but don't try to systematize if you don't even have a system. It's pointless, and you're better than that. I see all these guys online talking about how they're crushing it. Most of these guys owe me money or people I know money. The only thing they're crushing is a lot of people following them. They're lying. They're not doing what they say they're doing. I'm not judging, I'm calling reality reality. Start doing the work. Shut up online and get to work. Be urgent in the effort. Communicate in a timely manner. I'm still amazed by this every single day. I can text or call a billionaire and they will answer or text back in minutes or seconds for that matter. And yes, that includes Monday through Sunday. I was talking yesterday to a multi-billionaire via text at 7 AM. Guess where he was at? He's sitting at his computer because he's building another business to sell for many, many billions. That's not just about the money, it's about the team he's building and the— what he's creating. And by the way, he's a great family guy. He'll be done by 9 AM on Sunday, then they go to church and they do their thing. How can this guy be so urgent and so on top of it with the right people? Because he doesn't waste time with the noise. He doesn't— he's not talking, he's not online doom scrolling and talking shit and saying negative stuff online. He's working. He's connecting with the right people. And in the beginning, you don't know the right from the wrong, but you got to start understanding it's a game. It's a process. Learn it. What signals are you putting out there? If you're putting out negativity, guess what kind of— just got— what kind of results you going to get back? Negative. Be positive. Share wins. Share the opportunity. Share what you can solve. Share what your magic is. Everyone's great at certain things. Does anybody know what you're great at? Do you? I get so frustrated watching all these amazing people struggle financially. Thinking there's some secret sauce, secret formula, or they're going to hire this person or go to this event and it's going to solve all their problems. Well, if you think a person or an event's going to solve all your problems, you're screwed. It doesn't exist. If you go and hire a person or go to an event to solve one problem, you will succeed. Because you have realistic expectations. You've identified the challenge you have that's holding you back, and you're going there to solve that one problem. If you try to solve them all, you solve none. You have to dial in, shut off the noise. And I'm talking the noise in your head too. You have so much noise. Oh, I'm fat, I'm ugly, I'm a loser, I'm a quitter, I stop at everything, this ain't working, no one work. It's hard. I ain't got money. I got to figure out how to do— we all do. But how, how, how loud is it in your brain? The ones that are— it's very loud. It's because they're not staying accountable to themselves. They don't have good standards. They're hanging out with the wrong people. People are saying, good job, you worked so hard, Fred. Good job, Freddy, you're doing it, man. Doing what? Freddy's charged all his credit cards up. He ain't doing shit. He looks like he's successful, but he ain't doing anything. I don't care what you look like. I want you to be financially successful. I want you to have more money than you could ever spend in an entire lifetime, multiple times over. That doesn't happen with a lot of noise. It can't. And as you know, with what's going on in the world, there's a ton of noise. Shut it off. Mute it. Look away. Focus on you. Where are you at? Where do you want to go? I've been in business— June 2nd will be 20, uh, 30 years. 30 years. I'm sharing with you, if you've been in business from year 0 to 5, it's a different game. 5 to 10, different. 10 to 15, different. 15, 25, different. 30 and beyond, way different. The truth is I don't have to work to make money. Money comes to me, and it should. I've been doing this shit for 30 years. I've been laying the groundwork. I've missed many, many, many, many, many things to get to this point in my life. I've messed up a lot of stuff. I've won a lot of stuff and everything in between. If you're hanging out with people that's 20, 30 years in the game and they have the same problems as you, get away from them because they don't know what they're doing. They should be talking about acquisition. They should be talking about problems you don't even know exist. We don't have the same problems if you're in business 0 to 5. Truthfully, I don't have your problem, nor do you have my problems. And that's okay. It's called life. Just like in football, right? Pee-wee football kids at 7 years old don't have the same problems as the NFL player. That's obvious. So why isn't it obvious in business? This is when I knew, when I was 19, 20 years old, going to real estate events, And I'm listening to a guy on the stage thinking he's got it all figured out, and he's talking. He's been in the game 25, 35, 40 years. He's bragging about it. But yet when I get off the stage and I'm talking to him, the guy has the same problems as me. Again, I'm a hillbilly from small town Ohio. I don't know any better. Except the question— the simple fact is, dude, you're in it for 30 years, I'm in it for 2. Why do we have the same problem? Maybe it's not the business, maybe it's the person. I started questioning people, not in a negative way. I just, I don't understand. How am I doing more deals than you? I don't have a fancy CRM. I don't have A-players. I have pure vision, grit, and results. Why do we have the same problem? And what I realized, they just had a lot of noise going on. I was very focused. Like, literally, you could have called me and said, Mark, there's a million dollars sitting over here, blah, blah. Sometimes overly focused. I just wanted to get to work, create results. I didn't care about what it would take to get there. I just wanted the result of the effort. I can control when I get up. I can control how many people I call. How many people are you calling a day? You could easily call 50 people a day. Easily connect, connect, connect. I'm shooting this call right— I'm shooting this podcast show right now, 10:50 AM. It is actually right now. I've talked to 27 people already. Literally 27 people. Via phone, via email, and via text. Via phone, I've talked to 9. The rest are via text with things that we're working on, setting up, pushing forward, setting up. I'm on it. Setting up, encouraging. One of the guys I sent a message to, like, yo, turn on the money faucet ASAP, it's time. Giving them encouragement, pushing them hard. That one text will be worth 6 figures today alone. If not way more. And I'm talking in today results, not tomorrow, not next week, not maybe in the future. Today. Talk to my assistant. We got projects going on. She give me a quick 5-minute update. Here's where we're at, here's what's going on, this broke, that broke, blah blah blah blah blah. Cool, you got it. Yep, I'm here if you need anything. Next. Boom, next call. Hooked 2 huge multi-multi-millionaires up today. They're in the same industry. One guy's having to struggle, the other guy's not. The other guy's absolutely murdering it. Multiple 8-figure earner per year with a 1-person company and a very unique niche. My guy at the gym, I meet at 6:30 in the morning, he's telling me his situation. I was like, I got the solution, let's connect you to— he asked, we connect, they're connected now, it's in motion. What are you doing all day? I'm not online. I'm not dealing with problems. I'm not like— by the way, it's other people's problems. Most of you are absorbing other people's problems. You're talking about the news. You're talking about this war. You're talking about this. You're talking about that. Why not talk about what you're going to accomplish? More importantly, do the work to accomplish it. Be a light in someone's life. Be a solution to the situation. That's what signals do. Are you— every day you should be asking, is this signal or noise? Signal or noise? Signal or noise? Signal or noise? Every fucking nanosecond of your day until you have so much money you can do whatever the hell you want. And until then, signal, signal, signal, signal. Push! I get excited about this stuff because I know if you take this stuff serious, it will change your life. It'll change everything you care about around you forever. You'll be able to take care of people that you wish you can take care of right now. Money starts flowing to you effortlessly. It's not because I'm better than you. Simply, I'm just doing the work that matters. Show up, conversate, and close deals. Execute. Signal, signal, signal. Your one-to-minis, it's what I'm doing right now. I'm shooting a one podcast show, 30 minutes or so, goes out to millions of people, have access to it. A certain percentage will download it and listen to it. Some will take massive action. Some will sit there, shut it off. It doesn't matter to me. I want you to listen. I want you to absorb. More importantly, I want you to get results. I don't do this show for me. I do it for you. Do you want it bad enough to shut off the noise? This may go against what you've been told. Stop listening to too many people. Listening to me, listen to Andy, listen to Sean, listen to all these other podcasts Joe wrote, whatever. That's all noise. Find one, one person that you believe can give you the insights and drive you to the next level. One. Not two, one. Buy all their books, go to all their courses, get in all their events, listen to all their podcast shows for free, YouTube for free, whatever your situation is, and just consume it and execute. Consume and execute. Consume and execute. Because most of you are listening to all these different people say, that's not what Andy said, that's not what Mark Evans DM DM said, that's not what Sean Evans DM DM said, and then you get stuck because you create a lot of noise because you don't have the wherewithal of how to execute the decision. You get stuck in the mud, if you will, and you do nothing. And you know, 2 years later down the road, and you're like in a very, very bad spot. True story, Friday I talked to a guy, he's listening to way too many people, he's $600,000 in debt, he's literally on the, on the brink of bankruptcy. And he's in multiple groups, multiple listen to podcast. Like, he's a great human being. He's not dumb. But where he messed up is he's went to too many people. He's got too many, too many scenarios in his head, and all that brain space is stuff he could be talking to a consumer, talking to a client, talking to a sales team, talking to his marketing team, talking to his— like, it's wasted energy. Now listen, if you're generating tens of millions of dollars, one, you already know what I'm talking about, and two, I would still probably say the same thing. Find one or two at that level and really just dive deep, deep relationship capital. Learn, understand their philosophies, where they're coming from. Make sure they're aligned as being a great husband, a great dad, a great father, great whatever you're into. Make sure they're the whole picture. You got this. You have this. Yes, I should frustrate you. Yes, you should get pissed off. Prove me wrong. Prove me wrong. If you go and talk to more clients, prove me wrong. You go and talk to more prospects that you can't get more business, create more money, get less anxiety, accomplish more in life. Prove me wrong. This game is simple. The execution is where people are failing. You have this. Get in a room like the Deal Maker Alliance room or something like that, that you can connect with. There's 150 amazing human beings in that room paying $1,000 a month, multiple different business models, multiple different levels. Some people's been in business for 0 to 5 years. Some people's been in there 30+ years. It's an amazing group to be a part of. You can see it at dealmakeralliance.com. See the testimonials, see what people are saying, see what they're up to, see what they're accomplishing. Get in the right room with the right people. Fill out the form, talk to Sonia, see if you're a fit for what we're trying to do. See if it, if it's even aligned. We'll tell you, hey, we're a good fit or not. If we say not, it's not we're being a dick, we're just not where you're at and where you want to go. We're just not a fit. It's called qualifying. That's what you should want someone to do, not fake qualifying and just take your money. We genuinely— our job is to protect the community, build a badass community that could literally move mountains as a collective. Those are the types of rooms you need to be in. Get in the right room, have the right conversations with the right people. You will literally— whatever problem you're dealing with could go away very quickly. But you got to show up. You got to do the work. Check it out. dealmakeralliance.com. I got to go because I'm getting ready to jump on a call with 22 people in a company I have that's absolutely taken off like rocket ship. I've never seen anything like this. I'll share more later, but it's absolutely epic. And I hope you join us when I share it. It's life-changing, literally. Appreciate you guys being here. Stay focused and remember, make today count. Peace. A deal maker, but I'm not just a deal maker, I'm a dream maker.