066 Keys to Profits & Wealth Online ft. James Wedmore

Hey there, real quick before we jump into the episode, listen, if your earnings treadmill hasn't set you free yet, running faster won't either. Listen, hustle without principles just going to burn you out. So here's what I want for you. I want you to join me for my money machine experience live. It is three free trainings. Deep dive into how to escape the treadmill and build a money machine that actually works for you. All right, grab your spot here by going to moneymachinelive.com and I'll see you in the free training. Hey there. Welcome to this special episode of the Affluent Entrepreneur Show. In this one, we did a live, the very first live episode, talking about the keys to profits and wealth online with my dear friend James Wedmore. Listen, if you are a speaker, author, trainer, coach, or you're looking for another way to scale your income to build profits, to get more cash in to start building your wealth, we talk about the pathway to do that through online programs, digital products, and the keys to living a richer life. So enjoy this live one. It's a little long, but it's well worth it. I'll see you on the other side. Cheers.

This is the Affluent Entrepreneur show for entrepreneurs that want to operate and at a high level and achieve financial liberation. I'm your host, Mel Abraham, and I'll be sharing with you what it takes to create success beyond wealth so you can have a richer, more fulfilling lifestyle. In this show, you'll learn how business and money intersect so you can scale your business, scale your money and scale your life while creating a deeper impact and living with complete freedom because that's what it really means to be an athlete. Entrepreneur.

This is a special episode of the Affluent Entrepreneur show. This happens to be the very first live broadcast of the Affluent Entrepreneur show. And we are live on all the socials, LinkedIn, YouTube, Facebook, all over the place. MySpace, MySpace. Yes. Snapchat stock went down.

So. Oh, my God. So here's why I thought this was going to be a cool conversation other than the fact that it's my good buddy James Wedmore. We'll talk about how we met and everything, but I think that we're in a very particular, special time.

In society in the world today from an economic standpoint. And I think that there's some things that we need to start looking at doing differently to move through whatever financial uncertainty might exist, the economic uncertainty. And you do some things that are unique to that. And one of the things that we talk about is, is during a time of uncertainty, there's all this conversation about recession, Recession, whether it's going to come or not, I don't know. But when we learn how to scale our income, when we learn how to scale our profits, when we learn how to get our time back, everyone wins. And some of the things that you do, James.

Is about that. It's all around that. I mean, business by design is behind you. And you and I have known each other for, I don't know, six years, something like that. It's, it's going for, for a while and, and you've helped me navigate this. And so I wanted to have a conversation with you because I know where you started. And it wasn't, it wasn't, you know, six, seven, eight figure entrepreneur. It was.

In a guest house in and at, at, at mom and Dad's and doing stuff for bartenders and trying to make. Figure this game out. But before we get to that backstory, tell me why in your, in your thoughts, why you think it's important.

For us to create.

Digital income streams. Because that's really what you're doing. You know, you're, you're sitting back and, and teaching people like myself how to take their knowledge, their skills, their expertise, their information out into the world, make a difference, make some money and have an impact.

And so, and I think that we can bridge this and talk about how this has impacted your life and wealth and that type of thing, but I think that there's a unique importance right now to, in today's world that we need to get on that train.

So I think there's a couple answers, a couple reasons. Number one, I've always been an advocate for being 100% in control of your financial destiny. The amount of money that you can bring in, how, when and where, that you can be in control of, that you can cause it, that you can create it, that you are not at the whim of how much someone can pay you or if you have a job tomorrow. And it's funny because I think I was like kind of that first generation that grew out of that. Now the younger kiddos, they totally question it. Where we started to go, like, is that really job security to work for someone else? And we were kind of that, like, first generation of, like, looking to the Internet. Now all the young kiddos, like, already are. They're all like YouTube millionaires and NFT billionaires and all that type of stuff. But I think at the core, one of the things that I teach and I love is the ability to create money on demand. And that puts you in the driver's seat, financially speaking, in every other sense. You know, I have a. Doing a remodel in my handyman, like to tell stories of what's going on in my life. And Mel knows I'm going through this remodel. One of the handymans I found who's kind of going through his own, like, midlife crisis in a way, walked away from a lot of things. And that's a very common thing that we're seeing too. So I'm going to get. That's going to be my second reason in a moment is.

He, he's helping out with the house and doing all kinds of stuff. And then one day I get a guitar. I pull a guitar out of storage because I'm starting to move back in. He's like, you play guitar? I'm like, no, but I have one. I think there's a big difference there. And it turns out that he's been in bands and, and had. He's like, oh, I've been playing like for 20, 30 years. And I'm like, well, would you teach me? And. And overnight, boom, you know, he's getting, he's getting, he's getting paid on top of that to teach me. And that's what I've always loved is that model of getting paid to teach, getting paid to help. And so that brings it to the other answer. So number one is like, anytime you're any business owner, you get to be in control of your financial destiny. Now the other side of it too is what we've experienced as you because you kind of opened it this way, like this interesting time that we're in. Yeah, there's a lot of shakiness, there's a lot of uncertainty that gets a lot of people into fear. But as an entrepreneur, you should be like salivating. You should be like rubbing your hands together. This is the moment that has been talked about in every one of those personal development self help books and entrepreneurial books like Napoleon Hill, like Millionaires and Opportunities and fortunes that are made in times when most people get scared. And it's not wrong, bad or greedy. It's like there's always opportunity, but only the true entrepreneurs are the ones that can see it. And, and so we're in this time where a lot of people over the past two years, if you ask people, did you grow a lot during 2020, did you. Have you changed a lot? Have you questioned a lot? Nine times out of 10 people say, oh, you betcha. And so what's happening too is people are kind of waking up to, or rather questioning what they've been doing and how they've been spending their time. And so when you combine these two together, what you're left with is an opportunity to be in control of your financial destiny. Like you're in the driver's seat of it, but then you're also doing it something that's more fulfilling and rewarding and more impactful. And yes, Mel's known me a long time. I think it's actually more than six years. I think we met in the fall of 2015, if I'm correct.

That's a good amount of time, you know.

Yeah, it is. Even at my ripe old age.

For a second, you there?

I am, I am.

Okay, yeah. What'd you say?

I said even at my ripe old age. I made an age comment and therefore it slowed down just like my mind.

Oh my gosh.

So when you combine that all together, what my experience has been is that it's obviously very financially lucrative opportunity. You're in the driver's seat. Really, Sky's the limit today. It's an eight figure a year company. But most importantly, the reason I can do this for 15, 16 years now is because I love it. And what I love the most is there's that sense of meaning and purpose. Like, you know that what you're doing makes a difference. It's helping others and that's the juice, you know, Like, I understand there might be people that are get more into like a survival, like, but I need money. It's like, yeah, that's short term and that can take you. So far they've actually proven that that money is one of the lowest forms of motivation for humans. And once you have your basic needs met, most people aren't driven by much more than that. It's like, how much is enough? Like, that's what people sort of say. It's like, when is enough enough? It's like it's not about enough. It's when it's who else can I help? That never ends until you've served everyone and that, you know, people are always going to go through stuff. So you combine those two together and that's really, really, really powerful. And especially in an uncertain time, to be in control of your own financial destiny, I think is especially important.

So this is, this is perfect because I, I totally, totally agree with you because I think that, that we're, we're. Now is a time where we need to start thinking in terms of controlling our financial destiny.

Amen. Yep.

And. And the reality is, is that multiple streams of income, that's. That's no longer a luxury. It's a requirement.

It's for us, for us to be. Go. Come through whatever we came through, the pandemic and all of that stuff. And to realize now.

It'S important for us to make sure that we have the incomes that sustain us for the long term. And if one gets shut off it, you know, then we still have others. And that's the thing that I want to kind of look at where you have come from.

Yeah.

Because I think that this is an important thing to.

But I. Before you go there, I want to talk about a second because, like, you know, when people are, you know, investors and stuff, they talk about diversification of your portfolio and stuff.

But.

But what we're also talking about here is like, diversification of income. And I do that on a macro level and a micro level. So there is a brand, James Wedmore, that has a diversification of different income streams within that brand. So that's on the micro level. So, for example, I have different products, different offerings, different ways to offer different things, all the way down to, like, you know, software and tools that we recommend. So there's one income stream. Hey, here's Kajabi. I recommend Kajabi. Boom. Affiliate link income, you know, pays like a couple thousand every single month to a product, to our events, and all the diversification of income within that business. But then I step back a step further and I start to have multiple businesses and multiple different types of businesses in different niche, not niches, industries, more than niche industry. We have the. We're in the travel industry now. I have my, my Airbnbs, and I've been looking at other businesses, like local businesses. I'm looking at a car wash right now in town. I'm also. I always. My thing is, I love. And it's a. It's a gift. You have that gift as an entrepreneur. We all need to have that gift. And there's a gift to take, like anything that you like, love your passion, and say, how can this generate income and revenue? And one of my passions is camper vans. I built a camper van last year. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life. So fulfilling, rewarding, so challenging and humbling at the same time. And currently I'm looking at that model and there's. I'm looking at two different models for that, and I kind of want to do both. One is create a fleet of rental vans. Because I'm. I'm watching people do that right now. And they're crushing it. And then the other one. And this would take more capital, but I'm, like, so excited about this, and I'm kind of waiting to see if there is a bit of a crash in real estate would be such an opportunity is to create a. They're starting to pop up. So this is like a whole new industry, and it's like campervan campgrounds, where you can bring the camper van in, you get all the hookups, you have the communal area, you can have the bathrooms and all that stuff, but you still use your camper van and that type of living. And so the point is, there's diversification within a business, and then there's a diversification of different businesses that you can start to have. And that's a huge thing I learned from you, Mel, is like, once you start making money, and I learned that, too. It doesn't need to be much. How smart can you be with the money you're making to start getting it to make money for you? I went down the route, even though I heard it, where once you start making money, you start doing the stupid stuff. Like, you buy the nice cars and the. The nicer clothes. And, like, I bought a. Oh, my gosh. Like, it's like a fancy. When I was, like, living in New York, I bought, like, a $5,000 custom suit. Like, what the heck was I thinking? Then I bought an $8,000 watch. And then, of course, I see you buy a Tesla. So I'm buying $120,000 Tesla. And, you know, a lot of that I've. I've, like, traded in.

I went, do as I say, not as I do.

Well, you know, and you were already, like, had a lot of those wealth machines in place. Yeah. So it's like, that was smarter. And, you know, I kept going with the business, and I actually hit that moment, and this. This, like, changed everything. I was like, do I just keep doing this forever? I was like, that's fine, because I love it. But, like, even 20 years from now, and that's when I was like, well, if I'm doing the smart things that you teach.

Then it's a choice if I want to do it in 10, 20 years.

Yeah.

Not an obligation. And that's freedom now. That's. That's huge. So, yeah.

So here's an interesting thing. You know, you mentioned. It's the doing the stuff that I teach. Part of the reason I get to do what I do is because I'm doing the stuff that you teach. And.

Yeah.

Yeah, we Got a chance to. To help each other in this process. And. And you know, there's a lot of people, like you said, that are reexamining their life. Reexamining. What do I want to do? How can I do. I know I have this yearning. I want to do something more. I want to have a message. I want to get it out there. And that's really where you just shine. I mean, you have a way of looking at being an online entrepreneur, a digital CEO, to creating something that is an income stream. And what I think is one of the highest margin businesses that can exist, 100%. It has got the. The biggest. One of the biggest reaches that you can have because it's all. All via, you know, Internet and that type of thing. So as we kind of. If I try to, like, dig down into.

One of the things that. What are the things that they need to consider in making the case to say, look, because some people are struggling. I got a voice. I have a question. Voice line. They record questions for me. And a question came in today, and we can talk about this. About. I've got a corporate job. I realize it's not really what I want to do. I want to do my coaching business. I want to do my online business. I started it. I'm not making a lot of money.

But when is the right time.

To start to move out, to start to really dig in? And what's the first step? And I'd love to hear your answer. I'll give my perspective too then.

Yeah. Because I have a very different answer and I want to share that. I work with a lot of people that are doing that. They're jumping ship. And you know what? I say good for you. Because I was unemployable from day one. So I don't know how you did it. I really don't. I really. No, because a lot of people that we're talking to probably are sitting there going like, I don't even respect my boss or my manager. Like, I could do there. You know what I mean? It's like, I feel like I'm meant for more and like, why the heck am I doing this? For a fraction of what I could be doing and making and all that stuff. So I get it. But I'm gonna have a very different opinion for you because I have a. You've heard me talk about this quote. People don't believe me. I say, I have this quote on my desk. It's right here, and it says, leap and the net will appear. Now, I think as Old Zen saying, it's beautiful. And then I had someone interview me once and they said, james, you talk about this quote, so tell us about your biggest leap.

And I said, oh.

I don't really have a big leap.

I just keep taking one step in front of the other. And I think to be successful in business, we also have to be very smart and strategic. And part of that is being mitigating risk. And so there is this like, bold and brazened, like, unapologetic effort. Throw it to the wind. I quit my job today and I don't care what I'm doing tomorrow. And blah, blah, blah, blah. And it's like, you know what? Like you do, you boo. But here's the thing for most people, and I'm just going to be a little blunt and bold for a moment. When reality sinks in for you. Most people don't have the mental emotional maturity or resilience to weather that storm.

Oh, yeah.

So you have allowed your external circumstances of a diminishing income to affect your entire internal state. And it doesn't matter what you do, you will take yourself there. I'm freaking out. Oh, my God. And I don't. And it's like, unless you can do that, unless you can, like, be one and at peace, no matter what money is coming in, you're going to make your things worse. Because any decision or action out of fear, freaking out is not going to get you where you want to go. And so you could do that if that's what you want to do, is like, we could just say, do it, jump ship, just quit today and go all in. Don't you believe in yourself? And it's like, of course you believe in yourself. But, but you know what I mean, if, if I'm with you, right?

And then. And I don't disagree with you. I mean, I think, you know, I agree. I mean, just burning the boats just flippantly and emotionally is not the right thing to do.

It's, it's, it's not. If. And I'm just warning you, that's what's ahead of you. Yeah. Is you have those days. We're going, it's been 30 days. I haven't made a single dollar. If I was still in my job, I would have had this much more money in my bank account. Now I don't. And I got a bill tomorrow, I got to pay. And if you can't weather that mentally, emotionally, you, you're not. Let's just say from energetically, you're not going to attract what you want. So here, here's the first thing. We have tons of students, clients, customers, friends, peers that have actually built a very successful business on the side while still keeping their corporate job. Jason Brown, a mutual friend of ours, built his online business to half a million dollars a year before he finally decided to quit his six figure corporate job. Now of course, the moment he did, there was a little bit of like, I should have done this sooner. But then he skyrocketed even further. And here is the difference. Here's what he did. He sat with his current circumstances and instead allowing it to become an obstacle, hurdle or objection. He made it a game. And he said, he made a decision. He said, I only want a business if it will replace what I'm doing here. So I'm going to get it to replace this before I ever quit. So everything begins with a question. Live into the questions of your life and it will change everything. And he said, how can I build the business to multiple six figures or past my salary while still having a full time job? When you create it as a game, you're so much more free. It's just a challenge for you instead of an obligation or a constriction. So how can I take this business to.

100,000 a year, 200,000 a year before I quit? And from that question is where the ideas, opportunities, the new ways of thinking, living and being will begin to emerge. Then when that happens, you quit because you choose to and not for any other reason. You're free. You know, Mel and I both talk about freedom. You know, Mel talks about financial freedom, I talk a lot about location, free work from where you want and when you want. But what both of us should be really talking about is emotional freedom. Mental.

Yeah.

And unfortunately a lot of people chase money thinking it'll give them freedom. But a lot of people who have a lot of money are like change their business, chained to their obligations, chained to work, and they're nothing but free. You know, the furthest thing from free.

I think that you can have $100 million in the bank, but if you don't control your time, you have a poor life. I mean granted, granted you're, you're imprisoned by the money, you're imprisoned by the chase, you're imprisoned by the run. Now granted you have a, a well decorated prison cell, but it's a prison cell nonetheless.

It's like Martha Stewart. And what is it that with the, the home, you know the little thing they put on your, your leg? The ankle.

Yeah, yeah, the ankle bracelet. The.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah. You're still in prison. It really is home arrest or home arrest or whatever they call it. I don't know. I haven't been to jail recently, so.

So. But it's so good. But that's. I agree. I mean, I think. But I think that the reality is, is what if we talk about, you know, Jason, for a second.

Actually going into this type of business.

Into a digital business, and I want to. I want to get your take on. On why digital products, but going into that type of business, you can straddle the line. And in fact, I think it's a smarter way to go if that's the case. Because if you've got a family to support, if you have got children, you know, you don't just throw caution to the wind. There's a difference between committed and reckless. And. And so, so.

And that's exactly. That's it. I committed. Such a difference.

Yeah. And. And so you can be committed, but committed might be that you're. You're walking two paths for a little while because it is possible.

And all it means is it might take a little longer for that business, but you'll do it in a more responsible, safer, sustainable. Sustainable.

Yep.

Yep.

Because when you decide to make that choice, to step away, to leave, you're fully empowered, the confidence level is far greater than it ever was because you already proved concept.

Yeah. Yeah. You're not, you're not trying to get money now that you left.

Yes.

You're just getting more time.

Yeah. Yeah. So true.

And, you know, it's really weird. You might think that, like, people like us are going to sit there and be like, just do it. You know, just quit your job. And it's like you hear really bad, irresponsible advice all the time. And I'm here today with where I am with no special skills, talents, nothing special about me, except for one thing.

I know him really well. I'll tell you, he's not very special.

I mean, you know what they say, don't ever meet your mentors.

And it really is. We had someone who was like a huge follower and like, had followed my work for a long time. And then we hired her.

And she started, like working and seeing behind the curtain, if you will. And she said, oh, you just like, say you're gonna do something and you do it. Yeah. And then I do it again and again. And the only thing is, like, that commitment and consistency.

I am.

This is 11 plus million dollars a year. That is the result of the tenacious, stubborn commitment of putting One foot in front of another and continuing to go forward in that direction for 15 years. And I'm slow. I have students today that I kind of tease them. Like, I'm envious of you because you rose to stardom. Quote air quote stardom. Like, you got to success and six figures and seven, way faster than I did. Way faster. And good for you. I think I took the long, slow route because I was so stubborn. Unfortunately, I was unwilling to get help. And that's a whole nother topic. But this whole ego, pride, and, you know, especially guys, we have it the most. You know, I don't need anyone's help. I can figure this out myself and I know how to do this. And I need to prove it to somebody, maybe my. My father or something. And then we just stumble around in the dark looking for the light switch. And all you had to do is like, call Mel or James and say, here, I'll just turn the lights on for you so you can see. It's like, wow, was that easy. But yeah, anyways, I. That I go on tangents. So.

No, but I think that. Yeah.

But I think that that's really, really true. And the other thing that you didn't mention there, you mentioned it a little bit before, but I think that every step of the way, at least for the seven years or plus that I've known you, you have approached it all with the aspect. And I know what your values are. So all with the aspect of fun and gamification. And you do it with your team, you do it with everything. You say, what if? What if? And you approach it with that kind of energy. And I think that's the other thing that lightens it up.

And people. People don't see that. So I'm really glad you say that if you want, because we were talking about internal freedom. Like Mel and I will give you time, location, and financial freedom. But the internal stuff that can come and go and in an instant. And the way to access, in one word, the internal freedom that we all need first, because everything comes from within. First is fun. When everything is fun. And fun is a choice. See, that's the funny thing. Happiness is the way it's not a destination. The same with fun when you choose to do everything for the fun of it. What a beautiful thing. Like, we get old and cranky and, you know, so attached and hung up and we make mountains out of molehills. And you guys, like, you're making such a big deal out of so much stuff. Like just, you know, I love that Quote is this. Don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff. And so when you come back to the fun of things, like, let's do it for the fun of it. This is fun. You're. You're free. You're free to act. You're free to just try and experiment, and let's put it out there. But people are like, what will they say? And it's not perfect. Oh, my goodness. And, like, that's what's hanging you. That's definitely, again, not. Not free right there. No. So much of what we do, even what we're doing right now, is like, let's have fun. Let's get on a call. Let's help people. Let's have a good time and have fun with us. And you want to keep that. That's. You know, this is so simple. People like, oh, okay, he's just getting on here saying, have fun. But it's. It's so much more important because you will wake up one day, whether this business or another business or something successful or not, and you will have found yourself imprisoned by it. That you're like, I have to do these things, and you don't understand. And this is so serious above. And it's like, that's what's taking you down, and that. That will destroy you.

And the realization is that there's nothing you're going to do. That's terminal. I mean, for those of you that have not heard, yeah. Back in the day, I was asked to do a webinar. He knows where I'm going.

And.

And so I'm doing a webinar for a very conservative organization. 200 plus people are on. I'm doing the tech. I am the talent. It's the first time I've ever done that. Pushing buttons, doing all the things. It's early morning. I roll out of bed. I got my Superman pajama bottoms on, no shirt. It's a webinar that is supposed to just be slides and no camera. And two minutes into it, I see the chat, and they're saying, mel's naked. He's not wearing a shirt. And like, all of a sudden, I realized that somehow I turned on the webcam, and they're all looking at me, and I'm, like, going, oh, my God. This is an organization. Everyone knew me because I'd been given the lifetime achievement award, which they probably wanted to take away at that moment.

The International Nuns Association.

Exactly. Oh, my God. You know, but here's the thing. One.

I sold $30,000 of stuff.

Oh, come on.

So here's the deal. Forget the marketing tactics. Do it topless. No, seriously. They asked me to come back. I'm doing the keynote for their conference. This was a number of years ago, but I've done the keynote for their conference multiple years in a row. And my point being is if I can survive that, there's nothing you're gonna do that's gonna completely trash your career.

I know. That's about as bad as it gets.

Trust me. Because you don't want to see Mel with his shirt off. No.

No.

So. So, dude, tell me a little bit. Why digital products? Because really, that's. That's a good place. Yeah, well, I use it. Someone asked if I put a shirt on. I. You know what? Post it note was the savior. I put a post it note on the webcam and finished the webinar.

Yeah, what are you gonna do? Like, run back into your bedroom and find a shirt? Give me five minutes while I decide to get dressed. Now, like, that's. That's all you can do is turn the webcam?

Yeah, I just slapped a post it note on there.

I mean, how do you recover?

Oh, man, I don't know.

Here, I got one. This happened last year. We did a virtual event. I don't know if you were there in that moment, but you were definitely there at the event. This isn't as bad. And then I'll answer your question. But this was hard internally because we did a virtual event, and we're doing on Zoom. We're doing it with all of our customers. And one of the things that we wanted to make the event as really unique and special as possible by doing breakout rooms. So I spent like 20 minutes saying, Guys, this is an amazing event we're going to do together. I'm live on the virtual stage. We're going to do these whole exercises. We put you into breakout rooms. This is how you can connect. This is a very different type of event. The entire event was designed around breakout rooms. You're going to do all these exercises in these small little groups. We're going to bring coaches in, and we had designed all that way, and everyone's like, this is amazing. This is going to be great. Okay, let's do it. And then I say, okay, let's go into that first breakout room. And. And then I just stand there. And then I get all the chat is saying, like, I didn't get in a room. I didn't get in a room. I was like, oh, okay, we'll help you. And Then. No, me neither. Me neither. All of a sudden, everyone's just. And I'm like, is anyone getting into a breakout room? Everyone's like, no, no, no. And then Jilly is in my ear saying, the breakout room feature is broken on Zoom right now.

The whole event designed around it, and you're like a thousand people there and you're like, okay, so we got to change something up right now.

And that's just the way life goes now.

You just roll with it, you know? Yeah. So why. Why digital products? Okay. Yeah, we have to look at it from. I like to break things into the, like, left brain, right brain, masculine, feminine, logically. Left brain. The math is there. As you said, it's like the highest margins, most profitable business model. Because when you do it right, you're creating something once that is kind of like your time. You're not like going and buying.

Fixed hard goods, expenses and stuff like that. Okay. I want to build water bottles, so I got to source the, you know, go to China and get the metal and all that stuff and insulate it. And that takes time and da, da, da, da, da. And I, you know, if I want to sell this for 20, it takes. It makes $7 to make each one or something. And then of course, I got to spend money on the marketing and all that stuff. You make it once and it just takes your time. And then whether you sell 1 or 1 million, there's no additional expense. And that model is just beautiful. So it's highly scalable and highly profitable. So from that standpoint, huge, right? Massive low barrier, like the lowest barrier of entry possible. Because. And that's what's really funny too. It's like, people still want to be like, it's hard and no one's following me. It's like, well, yeah, you know, you gotta pay like 100, 150 bucks a month to get like, kajabi, but it's too expensive. Okay, go get a brick and mortar. Go, go raise $200,000 capital so you can do your first, like, prototype. Yeah, because I've gone down. I've gone down that route of physical products, and I stopped after a while. I was like, people have no idea what goes into. I mean, we worked with a 3D company, like 3D printing, we back and forth for months, and we got it to the first iteration. Now we're looking at manufacturers, and I start to see how much it's going to cost and what it's going to take. And now the risk, the game of the risk goes up.

Risk goes way up.

And I was like, we have to stop. Like, because it kind of sucks you in. It's like, do we really want to spend $100,000 to see if this is something that we could even make the money back? And, you know, having all that inventory, too, and it's like, what if we never sell it and we're just out as money? So barrier of entry is, like, super low as the left brain logically ticks all the boxes. I'm very intentional with the type of businesses I go in. So you can't just say, like, I'll do what you're passionate about. That's the worst advice, because, you know, and it is. It's just thrown around. It's like. It's untrained intuition. It's just like, I just do what I feel like today. Tell me how that's working out for you. Right. And I'm strategic. So when I went into the Airbnb thing, I'm not really that passionate about Airbnbs. I'd only stayed in, like, six in my whole life. I know you have a horror story with staying in an Airbnb, and it's like, that doesn't mean you're passionate about it, so you shouldn't. I'm not passionate about it, so I'm not going to do it. But the model made sense. Yeah, and the model makes sense. The model with Airbnbs, it made a lot of sense to me. I ran the numbers. You got to do the numbers, you got to do the math. So I'm always saying, look at the model before you go into any business. So right now, as we're looking at renting the camper vans, I'm looking at the model, and I have one little red flag. But the model works in terms of the numbers, like, how much I can get a van for and then how much I can rent it out for. And then what I'm hoping to do is actually be more of like a. This is. I share these stories to get people to think differently about business, because that's what this is really about. You just got.

Yeah, exactly.

There's a company in town that already rents Jeeps. You can, like, rent your own Jeep for the day. So the smartest thing would not be for me to go and start my own, like, get a brick and mortar store and a garage. Now I need a mechanic, and then we need a front of office and an assistant. You know, hello, nice to meet you. Come on in. I mean, da, da. Because then we got to do all that stuff. Then we got to worry about insurance, then, you know, the liability and all that type of stuff. The smarter way would be to go to an existing company that's already set up and wholesale lease the Vance to them.

So I'm just the financier who gets a van and I get a small cut by just saying, I'll rent my vans at wholesale to you. You don't have to pay the capital that I did, but I still get the asset because I'm watching these camper vans and they keep going up in price right now because supply and demand, people want to hit the road. People want to get out of Dodge, and they want a camper van, and they can't get them. There's even. When I went to the Mercedes dealership down in Scottsdale, after I bought mine, I went back six months later for like, my oil change. Lot was empty. They're like, we don't have any, and I don't know when we will. So I'm seeing an appreciating, appreciating asset. And then I'm seeing people. The demand is high for it, but then I don't want to get into all the nitty gritty of it. I'm like, what if I just hold it? So I look at it from the model. So the model. Digital products. Boom. Great, Right? So I'm not here selling camper vans to you. I'm showing you as an example. Now let's go to the other side of it. The right brain, the emotional side. Yes, you should love what you do. I'm not saying don't do it just because you love it without having the strategy attached to it. And the reality is that I love teaching. I don't like talking a lot. People think that I do because I go on, we could talk for hours here. I don't like talking. And when Mel and I hang out, I'm actually really quiet and just kind of sit there like a real aloof and awkward in a lot of ways. And that's me. But when I want to help somebody and they want to ask me a question about something that I really geek out about that could help them, you can't shut me up because I love teaching. And so I do want to say that if that isn't within you, like some kind of nudge or push.

Yeah.

To like, I could teach this. Mel's that way. Mel's written books. Mel's done courses. He's. You watch him on stage, you know, he's so amazing. You give him that microphone and he's like, he's going to just pour into his people and it. You might be, you know, I don't have the experience, I lack the confidence. That's fine. We'll work all that out. But if the nudge is there, if the desire is there, like, yeah, I just gotta say, like, you shouldn't even be thinking of anything else. And that's really important for me to say. And it's really weird because in a way, like, I kind of anti sell what I do. But I don't want people doing this for the wrong reasons because they think they're gonna get, like, rich quick. But if you love coaching, if you love helping, if you love teaching, if you know you have something of value that will help someone. Oh, my goodness. Like, well, yeah.

And there's another reason. If you don't have that nudge, like you said, because it's all about giving of yourself.

Exactly.

And.

Exactly.

And if you don't have that yearning to do that.

Yeah. And you're going up against people, you're going up against people that do. They're going to win. And that's, you know, and so if you were to ask me personally, so why do you do this business? I'll say because. Because if you did put me behind bars or if I had all the money in the world, I'd still be teaching. I'd still want to coach people. It's really funny. If you were hanging around with this remodel, the handyman and the people that come and go, you don't think I'm giving them business advice and coaching them through their stuff and put off, Come on, you got to be doing more of this. How come you're not. They're not even asking for it. You know, I can't help it. And then when they do start asking it, like, look out because I can't shut up about it. That's me. And it doesn't matter if that's you or not yet. But if you already, like, like, no, like, I really, I wanna, like, one of the guys who's here today was like, oh, yeah? Yeah, I started a podcast. We never really put it out there, but it was just us talking about, you know, a bunch of stuff. And. And I was like, see if that desire is already there.

Do it.

But here might find a way to make some freaking money around it. Start that podcast, start pouring into it. And then at the end of every episode, you can give a quick invitation for people to start working with you. Pick up, pick up some clients I'm telling the handyman, you could start getting one on one virtual zoom guitar lessons from people next week. You're in business, build that up, make some money, build that audience and then you can do, build, launch the membership and start getting people in that way and we're off to the races, you know.

So, yeah, it's interesting that you look at it that way because I think you're, you're right on point is this whole idea is that.

We start somewhere and the reason you do it and the reason I do it is not for the masses. It's for the one soul.

That we shifted and we see that there's a difference in their life and.

We may have been a catalyst, we may have planted a seed. They took the actions, they made the difference, but it's the one person that gives us that fire. It's not the, it's not the masses. I mean we, we want, we want to reach the masses, we want to make a difference, but it's really to serve that one soul.

Yeah, I mean, otherwise I'd be on the good day LA or something like that, you know, I've never really felt that. I just, I got my little corner of the Internet, I share my stuff, got my little podcast and.

I share what I want to share every week. And people like it, don't, I really don't care. It's for the person that's ready to hear it, receive it, listen to it, and if they want to keep working with me, that's wonderful. And you know, to help expand on the fun aspect. What helps is that you always got to keep it simple. And I'm not just thinking simple, I'm not just talking simple like I'm. Strategy. Yeah, simple strategy. Of course you want it simple. Don't get all complicated. And it was a great quote. It says, if you want to impress people, make it complicated. But if you actually want to help people, keep it simple. So you have to keep it simple within you first. And to me, it is always simple. I have something that can help someone. So as long as I put my stuff out there in order to help someone, I've done my job and I do that. This is not a job every day. There is not a day in a very long time on a single daily basis that I haven't put something out that helps someone in a Facebook group, on an Instagram post, or a story or a podcast, one of my coaching programs, a voice chat to Mel when he's crying saying, help me, help me save my, Save me. No I'm just kidding.

Help me, James.

You know what? There's another aspect that it just kind of hit me, and I wasn't going to go there, but. Because I have another question I want to ask, but. But do it all.

Do it all. I got. I'm here for you.

All right, cool. So here's. Here's the thing. There was a realization you had just a little while back when you thought you were going to lose everything.

Yeah.

And. And the thing that got you through it was the realization is that one of the things that was most important could never be taken away.

Yeah. So that's the freedom I'm talking about. And guess what? When I figured that out, that's when we went from 2 to 10 million in one year. If there's things I want to say, but I hesitate to say them because people don't value it. And I get it because I've heard people say the same things. How many times have you told people, as soon as you start making money, don't go, buy the frivolous things. Be smart with your money. Invest it. I heard those things, and I still didn't listen to it. It took me years to go, oh, okay, maybe I don't need an $8,000 Hublot watch that I've worn four times in my life because I'm just not into that stuff. It just sits there on my desk like. I mean, it's a. It's an $8,000 paperweight, and not even an exaggeration. I'm hoping that it will go up in value and I can sell it, make some money, and that will justify the purchase for me. But I. What I want to say, that will not be heard or valued by most people, and that's fine. Maybe it plants a seed that will sprout one day because we do learn through experience. You're not learning from Mel. You're not learning from me. We're guides, and we can, like, be the bumper lanes on a. You know, in the. On the bowling alley here. I was like, let's stay within this parameter. But life and experiences of life are the. Are the true teachers. And I went through some experiences that taught me this and what it taught me, which I don't want you to go through what I went through to learn it. But you may have to, because you heard that quote, you know, first God throws a pebble, you're still not paying attention. You get the rock. If you're still not paying attention, God throws the big ass boulder, right? And I've gotten a Couple boulders in my life, and one of them was I'd always had this fear that.

My.

Business was going to come crashing down. First it was this fear of, is this working? I just got a DM in the text. Am I wasting my time? Am I going in the wrong direction? I used to have that all the time. What am I doing with my life? And then it started working. Well, that fear was gone, but it was immediately replaced with, what if I lose it? What if this was all fluke? What if it ends tomorrow? And then I'd have these nightmares. I would wake up in a cold sweat. Nightmares of a plane taking off in front of me and then crashing and burning right in front of me. A little bit of a metaphor, I think so. And then someone tried to extort me. They tried to sue me. It was this, like, whole nasty, like, loophole thing. And I. I flipped the coin. I freaked the F out. Bottom line, at the end of the day. And the lesson I learned from that was one of the great. If they ever knew what, like, I gained from that, they would have never done it, because it was like someone trying to hurt you and trying to take from you. I learned a lot. And what it showed me, because life is so beautiful in this way, what it showed me was still what was holding you back. So I have something that my teacher, my spiritual teacher shared with me. And this is so simple. And if we get this, because entrepreneurship is a path and it's accelerated life path, you want an easier life, don't become an entrepreneur. That's why I love that quote, entrepreneurs do the things that most people are unwilling to do, then they therefore get to have, do, be, and experience the things that most people never will. And that is such a true story. But it's a harder path for us. You know, someone told me, I have a belief that business is hard. I'm like, that's not a belief. Business is hard. It's tough. You're tougher. But it's gonna be. It's not gonna be as easy as sitting on your couch eating Cheetos, working at Starbucks. Totally fine, no judgment, but it's harder. Now, what he told me was this. He said, our job always in our life is to do our best, is to do our best. And he goes, but to do our best. And this is going to circle back to what we were saying before. To do your best means to be free within ourselves is what we're talking about. And so he said, so therefore, the problems, especially in your business that arise that you face are merely there to show you where you're still not free in your life. And when you look at life's circumstances and problems from that lens, it changes everything. Because instead of going, why is this happening to me? You go, thank goodness. This is showing me now what I need to learn so I can let it go for where I'm going. And what this experience of that I went through showed me is it showed me how much fear I was still being driven by in my life and in my business, that it was only a matter of time before the other shoe was going to drop.

Yeah.

And when it got so amplified in my face, I had a choice in that moment, let it take me down or just say, eff it and do it anyways. And that's where I got to was, well, the only thing that really matters is, like, I'm living on purpose and I'm making a difference. And you can't take that away from me. So what am I afraid of? And I went all in on that. That's when we took the business to 10 million. And so the lesson, but again, people won't hear this is we have no Idea how even a 1% of fear in our DNA is affecting our performance, affecting our future, affecting our lives. You have no idea until it's gone. Until it's like it just hit me.

Can you imagine what it would be like? And I'm not speaking to you necessarily. I'm speaking to everyone that's watching and listening. If you took every aspect of your life and said, do I have a little bit of fear? Versus going all in? And that, whether it's a relationship, whether it's your health, whether it's your business, whatever it is. And then almost you said, I'm going to throw fear out. I'm not going to let fear get in the way. And I'm going to fully invest myself into that moment, into that aspect of my life, how much more growth and how much more life would you have?

I mean, it's huge. Yeah.

So good. But here's the thing with fear. Now, fear is a tricky thing. This is the thing we're going to always battle with. We have to conquer this enemy that is fear. And the way to conquer it is actually really counterintuitive. It's kind of like the Chinese finger traps. Do you remember those as a kid? Fingers in them, Your friend gives you go, here, put your fingers in. And then you pull them out and it's tightened on. You can't get it out. Oh, yeah, it's counterintuitive very powerful metaphor that the way out is in can't. And fear is the same way, the way to conquer fear. And again, I have new, new level, new devil. So this is nothing I've mastered. I am a student for life. Please do not ever think I know anything. I'm just one step ahead of some people and I'm just looking behind me going, watch out for that pothole. That's all I'm doing. But what I've experienced is that.

The fear. Fear. This is my definition of fear. Fear is an internal response you feel in the present. It's how you feel in the moment about a future that you think's gonna happen. So fear in the present, it actually has to do with the future. Like, I'm so afraid. What are you afraid of? I'm afraid that ba ba ba is going to happen. Oh, so it hasn't happened. So what has always helped me is that when we list out what are all the futures that I'm afraid of.

The most powerful way to conquer fear is you have to actually be okay that all those things happen. I'm afraid I'm going to lose everything.

When you're okay with. Because that's what I went through. When you're okay with it, you could lose everything. You're free.

You remove attachment.

Exactly. Can you be okay that you lose everything? Can you be okay that this launch doesn't go the way you want it to? Can you be okay that this fails? Can you be okay that you made a mistake? Can you be okay that they refund, cancel, don't buy. Can you be okay that you didn't grow, that it didn't work, that this didn't happen? When you are at peace with that, when you're okay with it, you're free. So the fear is just there to show you. Look at what you care about. Look at what you putting all this importance on. Look at where all this attachment is coming. Look at all this meaning and stories and nonsense is coming and it hasn't even happened. And then you let it drive and dictate your decisions now, which means it's gonna lead you there. It's like it drives your life when the thing you fear is the thing you actually end up setting in motion.

It's so, so true. And with a lot of the money stuff and stuff that I do, it wells up so big, you know, so digital products, we talked about that. The importance of it, the logical side, the emotional side, why it's important, important. Why does it. What? Because I know that what I want to do is I want to invite people because you're. We're going to go really deep on digital products and being online. Whether you're a speaker coach, author, trainer, you've got knowledge, you've got wisdom, you want to put it out in the world. There are things that, that.

People need to do to make it that high profitable business and make it something that gives them the life.

And they're making. And many people are making mistakes, whether they. The first mistake is not doing it. So we'll get that out of the way. Okay. Because we kind of hit on that. But maybe you started and you did a launch, it didn't go so well, or you feel like you're on that, what I call that treadmill entrepreneur. You're just running. And the only way to make more is going to run more, run harder, run longer. What are the common mistakes that you see with transitioning from, you know, a five figure, a four figure, a five figure, a six figure entrepreneur that we need to think about? Because I know.

That you're going to be doing some deeper training on this that I'm going to invite the whole audience to for free.

So.

Yeah, there's obviously there's a lot of mistakes that we make. You know, the first one is if it's not like it depends on the symptom, right? What's the symptom? So I go symptom and cause. The symptom is what you experience, but the cause usually eludes you. If you knew what the cause was, you wouldn't repeat it. For example, if you have a headache, that's a symptom. But if what was causing that was dehydration, you'd already be drinking more water. Right. So we're aware of the symptoms, but are we aware of the causes? And if the symptom is little to no sales, then what's causing that is a combination of two things. Either we have no sales process or we have a bad offer. So the sales process is like a lot of people think that like a digital product just sells itself. They're like, this is amazing. And they spend. This is what I did, by the way. I don't know if you ever did this, but this is what I did. Spent six months creating the perfect program and I'm like, it's done. And it's like on the website.

Waiting for somebody. Crickets. Crickets. Crickets, Right.

I believe those pictures of sitting with a laptop on the beach, some exotic beach somewhere, going, I'm making money because.

I Created a product and an add to cart button. You're not selling iPhone cases on Amazon. So courses, digital products, they don't sell themselves. That's why you can go to Amazon right now and you can search for a group coaching program. You won't find it. Why? Because you wouldn't buy it even if you did find it. It doesn't work that way. And so you need a sales process. Now I can teach the sales process. We go into great detail inside the free training. But you need a process. And the process, I can boil it down into three most simple steps. But unpacking this is a whole world in to of itself and I've spent years mastering this. It's a skill, but it's three steps, three ingredients, if you will. It's content, free content, the offer and the deadline. And a lot of people just have a product. Okay. Now a product or a course or your group coaching or your one on one isn't an offer. People don't. And this kind of overlaps into the second cause which is. And I'm going fast over this. So if you want me to go deeper, I totally can. But your product, you say, I'm going to build, I'm going to create a course. I'm going to do what Mel's telling me to do. I'm going to create a course and then I go, what's your offer? You go, it's my course. No, course and offer are not the same thing. Your offer is made up of seven ingredients, every irresistible. And look at the word irresistible. I can't resist it. Every irresistible offer is made up of seven ingredients. It has to have all seven. You can't make a cake with five out of the seven ingredients and think it's going to taste good. You miss one, it's going to be no bueno. Same with your offer. A lot of people have a really great course and an awful offer around it, like no one wants it. I can give many examples of this with seven ingredients. The product itself is one of those seven ingredients. It's a course that's one of the seven ingredients. And so what a lot of people have is they have no sales process and then they have little to no effective offer. So people don't want it, they don't buy it, they don't say yes to it. And if we get that down, we start making money. Yeah, that's the first thing. Now let me go to the next thing. Then what we have is we have people that are making some money. I'm making it I'm bringing it in, but I feel like this business is running me and I'm not running it. I'm overworked. I am. I'm underpaid and I'm making money. But if I stop, the money stops. But if I keep going at this rate, it's gonna stop me. I've been there. I think we've all been there. This is a very dangerous place to stay because it isn't sustainable. And the illusion of a little bit more money kind of keeps you going. And what's happening here is we're in this kind of in between phase of like, we're kind of still the employee in our own business and we're just kind of like this, what I call the modern day marketer, where they're just like kind of always trying to sell whatever's in front of them to anybody. Is like, you've kind of learned how to sell something, but you actually haven't learned how to run a business. And until you actually run your business like a business, it's going to run you. And so the thing I teach has a lot to do with creating the structure and the foundation of the business because it's very counterintuitive. Everything I teach is very counterintuitive to most people. The more structure that you put in your business, you'll notice the more freedom you get back in your life. So when there's no structure, it's just, you wake up today and you're like, what do I feel like doing? I'm going to sell something. And you create a whole job for yourself and a whole to do list and all this stuff and you do it like tomorrow and you fly by the seat of your pants and because you rushed it, because you did it so quick and you're so inspired and lit up, you half assed it because you missed some things, you made some mistakes, you didn't work through things. Things take time. And it didn't get the results that you wanted. And you're like, I don't get it. I was so inspired and I was so excited and so passionate and I did it right off the right of the way. You know, they said strike while the iron's hot, so I struck James, but it wasn't hot and it didn't work. So now you exerted all this effort in this energy and this time and you didn't get the result that you wanted. So now you're strapped in that hamster wheel just like you were saying, and now you got to go do it again. Because you didn't get the result that you wanted. So now you. We. We do what I call reactive launching, reactive, selling. And you're constantly trying to dig yourself out of a hole, not realizing that every effort to dig yourself out of the hole is digging you deeper and deeper and deeper. And so there is a completely different way in which we have to structure the business and structure you within that business so that that doesn't happen. And what we, you know, really demonstrate as soon as you're making money is, believe it or not, less is more. The less I do, the more I make. I've never seen something more true. The less you do, the more you make. As soon as you're making money, your job is then to work yourself out of all the jobs you've given yourself in the business. And because look, this. This silly notion that's gotta go, and people wear it like a badge of honor. And it's really interesting, that phrase, that metaphor, badge of honor. A badge of honor is something you wear on your sleeve to show other people. But what you're really showing people is, I really care what you think about me, and I'm gonna live my life for your opinion of me. So rip the stupid badges of honor off of you. Stop caring what other people think of you, because that. I work the hardest and look how much I'm a martyr and I struggle and I sacrifice so that you'll think I'm cool or something like, when you drop that, that. That's freedom too, right? We have a lot to talk about with freedom here. So the less you do, the more you make means you've let go of all the activities, the roles, the functions in the business that don't actually bring in the money. You see, the moment you're in business, there's all these other roles and functions. Who's doing your customer support, who's doing your content, your branding, your imaging, your copywriting, your podcast, the editing, the show notes, the links, the website, the admin, the tech, the emails. Who's doing all that? Probably you. And when you're spending all day doing that, my question is, how do you make money when 90% of your day is spent doing tasks that don't make you money? Math don't add up there. So the quicker we can get out of those roles, the quicker you get your time back. You get your time back. And you're smart about your time, just like you're smart about your money. You get to spend more of that time you now have back on the things that do make you money, and that's how you grow. And of course, people hearing this go, yeah, that sounds great, James, but how the heck am I supposed to hire someone or let go of anything or delegate anything when I don't have any money? And I say, well, you're in a really interesting predicament because the only reason you don't have the money to afford people is because you haven't been hiring people. And that's why you are where you are. Which is what I said is, careful. Don't let the effect become the reason why not. The effect needs to be the reason why you do, because the effect is the cause that you've been avoiding fixing. And if that made sense, that changes everything. And the reality is, today you can go to onlinejobs physical, pay the 50 bucks or whatever it is to log onto that site, and you can have a virtual assistant within 60 minutes today who can take another hour, two, three off your plate for five bucks an hour. And if you can't, I'm just gonna be a jerky jerk for a moment. I'm a really nice guy. Mel's a really nice guy. But when it comes to your business, your future, your financial success, your fa, your family, your livelihood, your lifestyle, I don't joke around. Yeah, we can have a lot of fun, but I'm really frickin serious here. If you can't afford to pay $5 an hour to get something off of your plate, then you aren't taking this seriously. And. And you don't mean business. I don't want to spend that money. So you're going to just give your time away? Where are you going to get that time back? This is your life, and it's short. And it's an hourglass of sand leaving. You don't get this hour back. You don't get whatever nonsense you fooled around with for three hours back. It is gone. And life is short. And here I am, I'm going to sound all crabby like Mel, but I'm approaching 40. I'm approaching 40. And you start to go like, man, where did the years go? Where does the time go? And I have spent the years addicted to Adderall, which is a legalized form of speed, working 14, 16 hours a day. That was my 20s. I went 20, 24 to 30. Gone. I don't know where those eight years of my life went because I spent no relationships, no vacation, no fun, no experience. It was addicted to Adderall, working in front of a computer for 14 hours. And that was at Least a gift. I will honor that time and say, will not ever do that again. And I won't ever let anyone else who wants my help to do that again. So. Yeah, go ahead.

No, dude, this. If they get nothing out of this, this is the most important lesson.

It. Absolutely.

Because I look at it and I go, we've all been told that we have. Our days are limited. Yeah, I remember I was told that, you know, but I didn't take it seriously until someone looked me in the eye and said, you have cancer.

Yeah.

Now, I knew it was true that. That we have a certain number of days now, hopefully there are a lot of them. But when you all of a sudden realize, oh, they were right. Yeah, then you got to ask yourself the question, how am I spending my days? How am I spending my time? Because we tend to be willing to freely waste our time but hoard our money.

And it's backwards.

So backwards. It is backwards. You know, and look, society and culture and everything has. Has pulled the wool over your eyes to trick you into thinking that money is more valuable than time. And we. We do. We give away our time like it's replenishable, like it doesn't matter. And you don't get that back. And money is infinite and replenishable and easy.

I tell people, you've heard me speak, and I've said. I've said it many times since then. I said our wealth should be measured in time, not dollars.

Yeah.

It really should. How much of my time do I control to have choice with. To be able to decide, to decide it? Hey, I'm going to come out to Sedona and just hang with James. We got no plans. Who cares? He's got. His house is. Is being demolished. The second story's fallen down. Let's have some fun.

And if I, you know, if I didn't have the money to fix that, I'd be doing. I'd be wasting all my time trying to do it myself. And I don't want to do that. But going back to what you're saying, you're absolutely right. You say these things that you're saying, and people won't hear it, just like you didn't hear it. And what did I say earlier? First God throws a pebble, then a rock, and cancer is a pretty big boulder. I think about these things. I ask myself when I'm not. When I'm being in my own stubbornness, in my own ego. Do I want to wait for God to throw me a boulder before I learn this lesson? Do I want the pain to get that bad before I figure this out? Because that's what will happen.

We're all on a path. Entrepreneurship, you know, it's a vector. You're moving, you're growing. You're not the same person today that you were a year ago, a day ago, an hour ago. And so much of it is our own growth and our own learning and expansion. You jump on the entrepreneur path and it's totally accelerated. So resistance is futile. Which means that path is like.

Like one of those.

Oh yeah, the people movers.

What are those, like conveyor belts at the airport? You get on whatever that is, a people mover thing. So you're going, and you can try to go the, you know, it's moving this way and you're trying to go the other way. Yeah, you know, resistance is futile. And so you can fight it all you want. You can, you can ignore the things that people that have gone down that and learned those lessons themselves the hard way or are trying to share with you, or you can get on board with it now. And either way, you're going to learn it.

You're either going to learn it through somebody else or you're going to learn it through your own life experience. But sometimes it's got to get really bad. And I don't want that to be anyone. I don't want to work myself to a point where I get really sick before I realize that there are other things more important in life than just 14 hour days of work. And that's why today it's always a game of how can I do less, do better? How can I do less, but do it better? How can I let go? Is this the best use of my time? How much do you value your time? And it really is true. Like, yes, we can do all the things. That's another thing too, is like, I can do anything. It's like, of course you can, but the goal is not to do everything, because if you do everything.

You know.

I was talking about this. Of course, when you do a Facebook ad, you get people that aren't in your world and they're little negrobots and stuff like that. When someone said, well, say that, you know, and I'm talking about how important it is to work less and have the lifestyle and the balance. And he's like, we'll say that to Elon Musk. And he sent like a link to like Elon Musk's like crazy schedule and everything. And what people don't know about Elon Musk is Like, he doesn't sleep. He only sleeps a couple hours a night. People can't keep up with him. People like quit or are fired because doctors and scientists like the. That people like Spacer, they can't keep up with him. He's like in another country by the end of the day and he's not sleeping and he's here and he's doing this and blah, blah, blah. Like even watching him and what he's doing and all the things, like, just watching him is like exhausting, right? And so you have to ask yourself, is that what you want? That's no judgment to anybody.

Yes.

You just have to ask yourself, is that what I want? Do I want to be doing all the things all the time? And, you know, if your goal is, well, I want to be the richest and most powerful person on the planet. Okay, well, what's driving that? You know, like, is that just because you want other people to think you are and know that you are. Because the moment you do that versus getting and that is. You know, I was thinking about this recently, Mel. The most powerful question we can ever ask ourself and one of the hardest to answer is, what do I want? What do I want? Really? Because we lie to ourselves all the time. When I ask people, when I ask them to ask themselves, what do you want? How much of your answers are either one of two things I don't know or what you're supposed to want?

A lot of it is, I don't know. I don't know. Oh my gosh, I don't know.

This is your life, man. This is your life. This is your life and you're living it. When you just have those moments in the day when you're present. We're not getting ready to get ready. We're not on the sidelines. This is your life. It's happening.

There's no dress rehearsal.

Real is. This is real. And you're. When just find yourself getting present to that you will change everything. And then, and then when you start to answer it and you, and you answer the questions, you answer, you want to ask yourself, is that my answer or someone else's? Is that my parents answer? Is that society's answers? Is that the Joneses down the street answer, like, what do you want? And man, that's so powerful because I'm a weird guy. Like, you're weird too. And you know, like, Mel and I like buy scooters and like toys and electric vehicles and stuff. And it's like, why are you buying like an electric segway or an electric skateboard. Because I want to. Because I want to have fun. I want to cruise around a neighborhood. I want to. I want to play. That's what I want, you know, and you know that's what I want. And when you get really good at getting clear of what you want, your life is going to get so much better because you're going to line up with it. And that's just. I mean, it really is. It's like the most important question that we can ask ourselves. And it might be one of the hardest to get really honest. And money is not the thing to want.

Nope.

Okay. When money is what you want, two things are going to happen. Number one, wanting and staying in. The wanting of something is a subconscious acknowledgement that you don't have it, so you actually push it away further. But number two, when you make money your master.

You end up worshiping it and it has power over you and your whole life becomes for it. So when you prioritize money over everything else, it actually erodes and destroys the quality of your life. You have to see it as the way that I know, Mel. You see it this way. It is a tool. It's the tool.

It's the tool to give you what you want. And you have to see it that way. When I change, I change everything. And.

The first. This is actually the first example of it. I used to just have all these money goals growing up. And then I had this girlfriend and her birthday was coming up and I wanted to get her Tony Robbins tickets because she loved Tony Robbins. And I was like, all right, I can get into this big guy here. He's going rah, rah on stage, and I'll go with her, but I'll make that her birthday gift. I'll get my girlfriend two tickets to Tony Robbins. So I call up the Anthony Robbins hotline and I said, how much are two tickets? And he said, it's a thousand dollars for two. Oh, that's good for two. But a thousand bucks? What kind of payment plans do you have? She laughed at me on the phone. I got laughed at for asking for a payment plan, like, oh, I'm sorry. So I had about $500 in my bank account. I was living with mom and dad at the time. This is when I was living at home. I was broke and I was trying to start this business. And this is when I was working 14 hour days. I needed some Tony Robbins back then. And I said, okay, let me, let me check my bank account. Now. I knew I had $500 in my account. So that's what I was hoping. Like, can you split this up into two payments? I get a month, make 500 bucks. I could do that. I had to go check my bank account, and I had 36 cents to my name. I had forgotten to turn off my AdWords account for an ad I was running. And Google AdWords just deposited withdrawed $500 from my account. I didn't even have enough money to buy my girlfriend a birthday card. What a pathetic POS I felt in that moment just like, what a loser. I can't even get her a birthday card, let alone two tickets to Tony Robbins. And I'm getting laughed at because I'm asking for a payment plan. And I sat in that shit shame sandwich for a little bit. I was really discouraged. And.

Then in an instant, I had this thought. And it was one thought that, like, really changed everything for me. I said, well, wait a second. I'm focusing here. Because I was sitting there like, maybe I can make more money. I gotta make more money. More money, Money, money, money, money. And I was like, well, you know what? For a moment, just like, f. The money.

Because I really wanted to get her these tickets. I said, why do I. Am I focusing on the money or am I focusing on the ticket? I said, I'm just gonna focus on the ticket. I said, I'm. I don't know what it is, but I'm gonna find a way. I'm gonna make it happen. I'm gonna get these tickets. We're gonna be there. I don't care about the money. Stop focusing on the money. Focus on what the money's gonna give you. James. This is a true story. And when people hear this, like, they just. It. It sends chills. Cause they're like, I. I don't believe it. Two days later, I'm working. I'm trying to. I'm still trying to. Like, I'm gonna sell something. I don't know. And an old friend calls me up and she says, you wanna play tennis? And I'm, like, really resistant because now I'm definitely like, I gotta figure something out. I ain't got time to play tennis. Are you k. But it'd been a while since I saw her, so I said, okay. And we start playing tennis. And within 30 seconds, she's like, tell me what's new? And I told her about one of the businesses I'd been starting. I was like, well, you know, I'm a video guy, so I'm working on making videos for small businesses. And I'm gonna make these promo videos and stuff. And this is exactly. She goes. She goes, you are. I need one for our software company. Will you make one for me? I'll pay you in Tony Robbins tickets. I.

I dropped my racket and, like, just. I. I didn't believe what I heard, and I was like, what did you say? She goes, tony Robbins is going to be in Long beach in two weeks. I used to work in the company, and I know a rep, and he gave me a bunch of tickets. Would you want to barter for Tony Robbins tickets? Have you ever been.

Let me think about it.

I'm just. I'm just saying that, like, staring at her like, who put you up to this? Like, this is a joke, right? And from that moment forward, I realized, like, I'd been focusing on the wrong thing always. And it's so important that we don't lose sight of what money offers us as a tool and an access point. It's not the end result. It's the tool to the things that, you know, after this, today I can go take my. My mountain bike, my really nice mountain bike, and I can go ride until the sun sets in this, my favorite town, Sedona. Well, next to Sedona, then Laguna. Okay? And.

The things that money can give you access to that are really invaluable, but never lose sight of those are the important things, or the time you can spend with family, friends, loved ones, or going on the experiences. And you got to find the way that it drives you. Because what I hear all the time, too, which I love, especially my students, is when I can, like, pay for dinner for my friends or buy them something or do something for them, and I don't have to worry about money. That's what lights me up. I'm like, exactly. That's what it's about. That's what this is for. Not to who has the biggest Scrooge McDuck pile, but what does it give you access to to enrich your quality of life? And if you don't hear this, you'll experience it one way or another.

Yeah.

Through life, you'll make more money and you'll be like, it just makes you feel kind of empty and doesn't give you anything. But if you use it as a tool to give you a higher quality of life, it's everything.

So good. So listen, I can. We can. You. You and I can chat for a long time.

I know we're the worst, but.

But here's the deal. For those of you that are Looking at, trying to figure out how do I do this, how do I scale it, how do I do it right? How do I get the time that, that you know, James and Mel are talking about, what do we do? Well, I know James is going to do a training that starts next week called the Rise of the digital CEO. Okay. It starts on June 2nd.

Next Thursday. And I'm going to be there. I'm going to be there live with James.

That's right.

Here's, here's the thing, James, why don't you tell them a little bit about the training. I'm going to put a link up on the screen. It's totally free for you to jump in.

But join us. Take the journey. Learn from someone who's done it, who's helped other people do it, but has the right frame around it. And that is about living a richer life, having a bigger impact.

Yeah. So because I've been doing this a long time and having a long term vision and strategy I think is really important for everything that you're doing. We have developed a bit of a reputation that this free training.

Rivals a lot of like paid products and programs that you see out there. It's a very common thing. People say I got more value out of this time with you than like the $2,000 plus program I got that pisses a lot of people off, you know. Yeah, I get, I create a lot of enemies with competitors out there and I, I really don't care. I'm, I'm here to bring it. And so I know when you hear about free trainings it's like really easy to be like, oh, someone's just going to like give fluff and like sell pina coladas on the beach dream for, for an hour too and then like try to pitch some program and hell yeah, I've got something for sale. If you want to work closer together and work with my coaches and I, Yeah. And this isn't a charity. I do have paid programs and offers and ways I work with people. But I also want everyone who comes join me for free in this three part training to walk away with something that's going to make them more money, that's going to change the way they completely look at their business. And you will, if you're listening and you're paying close attention, it will. Because.

The common theme is that people start to say this is, I've never heard this before. And it starts to kind of connect some dots as to why things haven't been really been working for them. Because the way that the marketing industry works. And it's just no disrespect to people, but you have marketers teaching business. That's the problem. There's a big difference between marketing and business. You have to have both. So if you have marketers teaching business, it's kind of like building a house of cards or building a sandcastle in low tide. And it's only a matter of time before the tide comes in and it crumbles apart. So there's a lot of what appears to be very counterintuitive or the opposite of what a lot of people approach. And it's just a very different approach to business. And because we've been doing this sustainably for a very long time now, I'm not an overnight thing. I'm an old timer like Mel in Internet years. I've been doing this a long time. We've been at eight figures now for four or five years. And that should speak for something that we do things a little differently. And you guys are going to get a dose of that when you go through it. And what I aim to do is get you guys profitable, making money, getting clients as fast as possible. There's so much wasted, so much wasted stuff that people get distracted by. And we can get to profitability fast. So fast. And we can go from there because that is the goal. That's the goal. I don't, I don't care what anyone tells you. Stop trying to get popular on TikTok and stop trying to just get people to like you. Stop trying to have the best branding. You have to get to profitability fast. Otherwise you're. You're gone. You know, people say proof is in the pudding. I don't know what that means. Proof is in the profit. And when we can get people to pay you. You're not in business until people pay you, so we need to do that fast. And I wasted too much time just trying to play business on the sidelines without getting in the game and making an offer and getting paid and then being smart with how I use that money coming in to build the business the right way. And you can do that. And a lot of people are just dancing around it, just trying to get people to like them and trying to get pretty branding and all that type of stuff. And then six, seven, eight months, years go by and they still haven't made a sale because they didn't do the things that actually made the money. And I want to do that. I want to help you guys do that. And it's going to take a radically different approach at looking at business. But it's also really fun. We have a lot of fun. We're going to have a live, in person audience. So we have real entrepreneurs and all these different niches that are joining us. I have the list, like right in front of me.

And it is a live training. It's not recorded. It's three different sessions over a week's time that we're going to be doing this.

We have someone who teaches fertility.

Someone who's teaching moms and parenting. We have a marriage and family therapist. We have.

I see a theme here.

Yeah, I know. We have a visibility coach for artists and we have someone who's teaching how to get your pilot's license. Oh, wow. Total different. You know, it's very funny because people hear things like, the only people that make money are people teaching money how to make money online. It's like, no, that you're just their audience, silly. That's why you see it all the time, because they know how to target you because you're interested in it. But if you're interested in guitar or getting your pilot's license or art, then you're gonna find those people. And whether you're just getting started, like, I'm still trying to figure out my niche or I have that first product but I don't know how to launch it, I don't know how to sell it. Or maybe you have a few launches under your belt, but it's like something seems off.

We're gonna completely transform the way you look at this and it's gonna blow your mind. So I'm really, really excited about this. We do it once a year, like Mel said, and it's just designed to help you make more money with your digital products. So let's do it.

And it's so for everyone. It's called Rise of the Digital CEO. I'm gonna put, put a link up on the screen if you want to go there. It's melabraham.com digital CEO.

It's live. He's going to dig in and listen. Believe it or not, I've known him for a long time and one thing that I know, yeah, he's got a heart and a soul for teaching. He's going to pour everything he has into those trainings. He's going to give you tools, he's going to give you tactics, and he's going to give you strategies and it's stuff that is proven and works. And he's going to do it for free. He's Going to give of himself in the most generous way over that time. And so listen, get in there, join James, join me. Let's make this happen. Let's turn around and let's find the freedom back in your life. Let's give you the tools to create something. It's not about creating something for a day. It's about creating something for a lifetime. It's about creating something for legacy. It's a generational shift because you'll learn how to ask the right questions, do the right things to make the right money, and how to deal with the money in the right way.

100%. That's it. And there's just so much opportunity.

Yeah.

And I just want people to see that. There's just so much breaking opportunity. Like my little sister. I have this whole story. I won't get into it for time's sake. And she joined last year. No list, no website. She's a mom of two and they're like, at the time they were like one and five. Okay. So like, you know, the easy years. Right. The stress free years. Not only is she mom to two, but she homeschools both of them on top of that, she was the primary caregiver for my father before he passed. And then obviously managing a whole household on top of that. And she launched her business now, I just got a text from her today. So much opportunity. She did this. She's launched her program twice. Her goal originally was just to get her first three people in. She got nine. Then she launched again, doubled sales. She still isn't doing all this stuff like branding. She still doesn't have a website. No website. She's barely doing anything on it. She just posts some things on Instagram every couple of days. That's her whole business model. She makes the offer, she doubled sales. But then at the end she just made an offer to the people that went through her six weeks joining. And like half the people in the room said yes to join her for this, for the second offer. I'm like. She's like, holy cow. I told you, Joe, your brother knows what he's doing. Come on. And there's just so much opportunity. And I just see it, I see it with our clients and our students. I just got one of our students. We actually just. He's one of our mastermind clients. You know, Brad, he just, his business was paid for. His dream home where, you know, we.

Him and I were on the phone today.

Yeah. And we're. Don't tell him we're sending him a little, little, you Know, home, whatever you call it, home welcoming gift or whatever. But that, like, that's a huge deal. I mean, like, especially the height of the market, you know, it's probably, you're paying twice as much now as you would have in 2019, but you can still afford it because your business is rocking. And, and he just had like, the biggest launch ever in his business, you know, is great. So I just. We see the, the opportunity, we see the results our students are getting because we're working with them. And I think, like, I know we go on and on, but, you know, when 2020 hit, this really bums me out because when 2020 hit, we had a lot of people that were kind of, like, interested, they were curious.

And sadly, there's just. These people have been sitting on the sidelines and I really hate this attitude because it's just not the way of the entrepreneur of, well, let me, let me see. If you do it and it works for you, then I'll do it. Wow, that's so inspiring. You should do a TED Talk on that.

That's just not how it works. Like, this whole thing of like, well, let me see what you do. And here's the thing. When I got my first, my sister, brother in law are gonna hate me for this, but that's what my brother in law did with the Airbnbs. I said, hey, listen, this one's a good deal. I've done the numbers. Boom, go get it. And he admitted to my sister, he's like, I'm gonna wait and see what James does with this. And if it works for him, then we'll get in. It's too late now.

He missed the opportunity and he learned his lesson. He's like, I'm never going to wait again. I showed him the numbers. It wasn't, I'm not talking about, like, you know, put a blindfold on and throw darts at an inflatable dartboard here. I'm saying I showed the numbers just like we were talking about today, like the writings on the wall. And he still said, well, you know, I'm going to wait and let someone else do it. And like, that's not what entrepreneurs do. The entrepreneur can see the opportunity and they strike, they take action. And sadly, I've watched a lot of people, because they've said it to me, they've told me, like, I've watched these students grow over the past two years, and I'm still watching, not doing a thing. And, you know, time in the game, time in the market is everything.

Yeah.

And it's like the longer you wait to get in, the longer you delay what you want and just get in. Yeah, let's do it.

Yeah. Join us, Join us next week. Just go to, go to this page. You'll get all the information. You'll get to James's page and join us. Let's get this thing going. Especially in a time where there may be uncertainty, but with uncertainty, there's a tremendous amount of opportunity and it's your time to make that happen, especially because.

Most people in times like this will just be shrink down. Absolutely.

Yeah. And so I know that James is going to pour his heart into it like he always does in everything he does. And I will be there to support you and James in, in the process. So let's, let's do this thing together, man. James, dude, always, always fun to chat. Fun to, fun to chat with you, man. Did I lose him at the end here? Well, James is gone. Let me switch, switch that. He, we, we may have lost him at the very tail end, but do me a favor, go to melabraham.com digital CEO. Join James and I. Let's have some fun. Let's make this happen. I look forward to seeing you. I hope that you got something out of this, training out of this live. And if you have anything, reach out to me, any questions and let's, let's make, make sure that we get you moving forward. All right? You guys have an incredible, incredible evening day wherever you're at, and I look forward to seeing you. June 2nd. Rise of the digital CEO. I'll see you there. Cheers.

Thank you for listening to the affluent entrepreneur show with me, your host, Mel Abraham. If you want to achieve financially liberation to create an affluent lifestyle, join me in the affluent entrepreneur Facebook group now by going to melabraham.com group and I'll see you there.

And that's it for this episode of building your money machine where we help you learn how to master your money, eliminate financial stress, and live a life of choice. If you found this valuable or helpful to you, here's what I'd love for you to do. If you do me a favor, go to Apple, Apple podcasts or wherever you're listening to this podcast and rate and review the show. It helps us tremendously to keep us at the top of the list so we can continue to get this information and this message out to people because I truly believe that financial freedom is.

Your birthright and I want to help.

Each and every one of you claim it. Thanks so much.