Title: From Scarcity to Possibility: Coaching, Masterminds & Growth

I found out they were only one to two years ahead of us, and they just kept that pace. So they always appeared to be far enough ahead of us to be able to wow us with what they were able to teach us.

I bring a lot of emotion to how I show up and how I serve and how I create marketing material. But any decision I make for the business is rooted in data.

That is what allows us to take the accountability and really just catapult even faster.

You have to look yourself in the mirror, invite people to help you along, knowing that you can't do it on your own, and the ability to say, hey, I need some help in this.

You got to play that long game and show up and serve, and serve, and serve, and serve and serve until they trust you. All right, Melissa, Matt, Andrea, my dear friends. And I mean that when I say that, by the way. How random is that? We all started as business acquaintances, like you guys were clients at one point, and you are all dear friends now. Let's see. Let me think. Andrea, I think you go back the furthest. Matt, your second furthest. Melissa, your third furthest back. Or should we call you the newest one of them?

I'm the newbie.

You're the newbie, the new friend. Anyhow, you guys are super dope for doing this, because what I always want for my listeners is for them to be able to find themselves in the journey of whoever we're interviewing. And a lot of times that can be tough, right? We want people to say, hey, they're just two years ahead of me. I know where I can go. Hey, they're just three years ahead of me. I know where I can go. Matter of fact, I'll start with a really quick example. When Lori and I took dance lessons for three years, trust me, her idea, not mine. I thought the instructors were the greatest things I'd ever seen. They would demonstrate. Oh, my God, they looked like Dancing with the Stars. Pros. I've never seen anything like it. And they would teach us all these things, and they had so much to share with us. I was like, these people are dancing geniuses. They must be famous. And then about a year into the lessons, I found out they were only one to two years ahead of us, and they just kept that pace. So they always appeared to be far enough ahead of us to be able to wow us with what they were able to teach us. And that excited me because I was like, wait, if they're only a year or two ahead of us, maybe a couple of them or three years ahead of us, then I could get to their level. And it suddenly seemed real. And that's the entire purpose of today's podcast. So listen, I did separate intros that everybody heard coming into this thing. They know what you guys do for a living. I'm just gonna give one more quick recap. We've got Andrea Sager, who is our personal business attorney and she specializes in trademarks. She is a absolute badass running a big seven figure. We call it an online firm at this point.

Yeah, online law firm.

Well, put it this way, you've saved us a lot of money by keeping us out of trouble. And I think it all started by getting sued for a picture of some potato salad.

Potato salad, yeah.

So thank God we got you in our life. And we're going to talk a lot about how you built your practice in a way that, that you wanted it to fit your lifestyle so you could be sitting there at the poker tables and not necessarily sitting there at the boardroom tables, which is so cool. Mr. Mat Aruda, you own one of the most beautiful, gorgeous, upscale, sexy gyms in the entire Toronto area. It is like you walk in and it's just awe inspiring. From the environment to the people to everything else. You didn't take the route that most people do at the gym. You said, how do we make this thing just ooze with sex appeal and then everybody's going to want to show up. And you and your wife Allie absolutely crushed it. And you guys have more than doubled. Maybe you're approaching tripled your revenue since you bought that thing. Right?

No question. Absolutely. In addition to other things that have happened these last three years. But baseline, yeah, revenue is definitely damn near tripled. You're absolutely right.

Wild. And then, Melissa, last but not least, you came into our life, into our Mastermind. I instantly recognized a superstar when we did our strategy session together. And you had called the shot years ago. Right. I'm going to be in the Mastermind and you know, one of those things that turned out to be true, but we really started working together when you came into the Mastermind. It's like, oh, you are so talented that we ended up hiring you as our fractional cmo. And it has been nothing but a blessing because you're a marketing genius. But more than that, I think you work harder than anyone I have ever met in my entire life. It is wild.

Yes.

Right.

So anyhow, I like to call it art creation. It's like, you know, this is my sport. I can't be Tom Brady out on the football field. But, you know, he worked too much.

You know, let's use that as a segue, because the first question is this. When you guys are working hard, when you've got the pedal to the metal and things still aren't going your way, what are the one or two things you look to adjust right away? And, Melissa, we're just going to start with you because you were the last to chat.

Okay, thank you so much. I would say that one of the quickest things I learned that has served me is looking at data. So I always say make decisions with data and serve with emotion. So I bring a lot of emotion to how I show up and I serve and how I create marketing material. But any decision I make for the business is rooted in data. And honestly, Chris, that was. I think even when you know that intellectually, it can be challenging to implement that, because we're humans and the emotion comes in and we care about our businesses and, you know, personal, brand, or all of these things, it's like us. It's all together. And our one whiteboarding session that you referenced, we just broke down data. And from making decisions about, do I close 90 day, what level packages do I have, how do I position this that we generated or I generated from that session and that data over six figures of revenue, in addition to what I had been generating in just the course of four months. Because I looked at data and coming in there like I kind of was going back to emotion, and you would pull me out of that and you would kind of ask the questions and look at the numbers that rooted me back in the reality of what needed to happen for my business, not my emotions. And so regardless of what aspect of my business, I just always go back to the numbers.

Yeah, I'm so glad that you shared that, because, you know, for the readers, I just want to dig a tiny bit deeper here and share. In your case, all that additional revenue you talked about was addition by subtraction. We got rid of offerings, we got rid of programs that you had, and you were emotionally attached to them. But I love it. Or I feel like I need to serve people here or people need this. And I'm like, yes, but look at the data. It's not selling, or look at the data it's selling, but it's completely cannibalizing all the money you could be making over here. And so your case was addition by subtraction, which is one of the best outcomes in business.

A lot of times a hundred percent. It's like, simplify the scale.

Yeah, totally, totally. Mr. Aruta, let's do you next. When you are working hard, you're doing all the right things, but it's not going your way. What are the one or two things you look to adjust?

You know, one of the advantages I think that we might have specifically Ali and I, with what we do is we physically meet with our clients in a brick and mortar location and can see in real time exactly what is working, what's not working as well as we thought it might and be able to adjust accordingly. But I think when we do come across a problem and we're feeling as if, you know, things are a little bit more difficult than it has in the past, it really, really helps to tune into who it is that we are creating this for more than just, you know, trying to, trying to scratch our entrepreneurial itch. It's who is it that we're trying to make this impact for, right. And so the things that kind of kick you back in the game quicker so as to come from a place of positivity and coming from a place that doesn't seem like you are in lack. So even as something as simple and it sounds crazy, but something as simple as reading a few of your five star Google reviews and really seeing who it is that has impacted you so that you can quickly move into a space mentally, if nothing else, that allows you to make decisions from a different place to allow you to come into your own zone of genius again, of sorts, to keep you accountable to these people and know that what you're doing is much more than just creating a business or a income stream for you and your partner. You're intentionally trying to create a place that makes it to be a better place to be in for hundreds of other people along the way.

Dude, that's such a good answer. You're going right to the source. I, I love to say, like, guys, remember when you're like in, in school, you're like, I wish I had the answers to the test. You literally have the answers to the test if you just go to your customers, the ones that are still with you and the ones that left you, right? And I think people are so afraid to go to the ones that left them or they're so afraid to go to the Google reviews. Like you said, they don't want to see the bad stuff. But some of that constitutes as answers to the test. And so you can either keep guessing in the dark like, maybe they want this, maybe they want that, or you can just freaking ask them and save yourself that Time and money and hassle.

Absolutely. I mean, people pay a lot of money to get feedback that they can then adjust and pivot into. Whereas if you just go to the people that have already come on the ride along with you, that's half your battle, man. You don't have to look for them, they're already there with you.

So good. I love that. And real same question. When you are working your tail off, you're doing all the right things, quote unquote, and it's still not working out, where do you look to adjust? What do you look at?

I look at me. I've learned this is a hundred percent nothing more than a self development journey. And honestly, I learned that in your mastermind. When I joined, I remember the first time I walked into the room, I saw like all these coaches and mental health professionals and I was like, what is this? Like, what is this world? And my whole entrepreneurial journey has been nothing more than a self development journey. So when it's. When I feel like I'm doing everything I should be doing and it's not working, it's like, oh, it's me.

There's.

There's something in my energy, there's something that I haven't, there's something limiting in me. It's something inward. And so I just go really deep within to figure out, okay, where's this block? And I. One of my biggest blocks is that I like to push things away when they get really good. And it's like, oh, life isn't meant to be this good. It can't be this good. It's like, actually it can, it actually can be this good. We can have it all. And it's really been learning how to fold more and increase my own capacity. And even when issues do arise, like, that's okay, it's life, it's business, they're going to happen. But it's really been me learning how to hold more, have the capacity to hold more clients, to hold more issues. I'm a lawyer. All I do is solve people's problems for a living. And it's honestly been a journey to just learn how to hold the space for the clients. Because half the time I don't have to do anything. I just have to give clients the space to actually vent, to get it out, get it off their chest. And so when things aren't working, I realize, like, oh, it's something in me that's, that's blocked something in me that's not working. So it's just going back to my own development journey and working through any kinks within myself.

I love that. That's such a good answer. I want to stick with you for a minute, but I want to switch the question. People look at you now and they say, oh my God, these three are so successful. Right? They've got the businesses that I wish I had. I'm trying so hard. Why isn't my business like theirs? When you look back at where you were at two to three to four years ago, compared to the success that you guys have right now, was it more environment or was it more self accountability that got you where you are and why? Andrea, you're first.

Yeah, I mean, 100% accountability. I mean, we can blame all day long, oh, it's Covid. Oh, it's the economy, it's politics, it's this, it's that. But at the end of the day, it's us. It all falls on us. And there's so many times, so many things that happened throughout my journey that I could have been like, oh, we're in this position because this happened or because of this happened. I hired this person and they ruined my company. No, I hired that person. Why did I hire that person? Why did I allow them to stay in my company this long? Why did I do that? It all falls back on us. And so being able to actually just take the accountability, be self aware and allow what's happening to be the me and not blame it on the external factors, that is what allows us to take the accountability and really just catapult even faster.

It's very empowering in a way, because if you look at that and truly do accept 100 accountability, then you can say, okay, if I had the power to put me here, and that must mean I have the power to put me where I really actually want to be. Right?

Exactly.

And so people are afraid of accountability when in fact it's actually very empowering. Matt, I'm curious. Same answer, different answer. Is it? We look back at your journey, has it been mostly self accountability or has it been environment?

Man, I love this question. I think, I think Andrew is bang on. First of all, I think first and foremost, anybody that's going to have any level of success has to ensure that you have to take the reins on knowing that good or bad, you have the ability to control either one, the outcome of either one. Remember what we do. What I own in a brick and mortar business was, has only been for the last six years. And in saying that the first two and a half years of that was caught in the Absolute midst of four different closures through the pandemic. And so that is all to say that everything that we've been able to grow into has truly only been in the course of the last three and a half years, let's say, or thereabouts. So we don't have decades and decades of experience per se on that. However, what I do know is that accountability is absolutely the one difference maker in those years, never mind the last three and a half, but even the first two and a half, when you know, shit was hitting the fan all over the place, you have to look yourself in the mirror and just as importantly, I think, also invite people to help you along, knowing that you can't do it on your own. And the ability to say, hey, I need some help in this isn't even so much saying that, hey, you need help as much as it is more of a decoration, I find, of saying, hey, I'm looking to win and I need somebody else's help to bring me along there. I see it all the time with our clients, the personal training clients as well. Sure, they can come in and do this on their own if they chose to. They might not get as far as quickly, but putting their hand up and saying, I, I'm gonna need a personal trainer to push me further and to keep me accountable is them saying to us and to themselves, maybe more importantly, that I wanna win and I'm gonna need some help to do it. And because of that, putting themselves in the right environment, I think compounds the ability to have proper accountability. But you have to put your hand up first to say, I want to be there.

That's interesting because I just said to my physical therapist and trainer, who, you know, I think you met Matt.

Yeah.

This morning at halfway through our session, I said, you know what I love so much is I have plenty of self accountability. Like I will never miss a gym day when it's supposed to be a gym day. And I know everything I'm supposed to do in the gym, I have the knowledge. But my workouts, when I'm with a professional, that tells me what to do differently and holds me accountable to doing it the right way and speeds up my pace is night and day. So I like that whole, like, listen, even if you're accountable, ask for help because there's much better results on the.

Other end every single time. I mean, I own the gym and I pay for a personal trainer three times a week because that's what keeps me accountable to my best results.

Oh, that's interesting. Well, this Is the same question to you when you look back on your journey, Everyone wishes they could be where you are right now. Has it been mostly accountability or has it been mostly environment for you?

I'm 100 environment, actually. It was interesting to have these perspectives. You know, it's funny, I was laughing that you said something and I heard your Canadian accent and I was like, I just love him. And then I was thinking, like, what.

Are you talking about?

Right?

And. But that's. That made me honestly think, like in that moment, well, wow. I've forged these friendships with you, Matt, who I didn't know, and you, Andre, who I didn't know, through being in an environment. And so for me, like Chris, to your point, I do. I work. I work really hard. I've always had a work ethic. My dad has always said, no one will outwork you. But it's the environment that actually lights me up. To work differently, more effectively, more efficiently, and think multidirectional and not just see one lane. And I thrive in team. I've always been an athlete. I've always been into sports. So for me, that feeling of team, like, oh, it lights me up. So I don't need, you know, accountability to get things done. And in a way, I almost needed accountability from you, Chris, to look at what really needed to be done, what didn't need to be done, where are the boundaries? When are you going on your dates?

Right.

Like all the different things. But environment for me has been huge. I mean, even just where I'm recording this podcast right now is in Mike Michalitz's office. And for anyone listening, Mike Michalowicz is an eight time New York Times bestselling author, brilliant entrepreneur, and has become a friend and a business partner of mine. Just for me, being in an environment that he was in and we met five years ago, and I think it's really important. I want to add to that, though, I never joined an environment looking for anything like that. I think when you just show up in yourself, you authentically create and you create opportunities that you can't even imagine. It's like, it's like the magic that you can't predict or see that comes from being in the right environment has actually been the biggest catalyst for everything in my business. My book contract, to my business partnerships, to my collaborations, to who I serve.

Yeah, collaborations are the shortcut. Listen, the four of us, and probably most people listening, they'll eventually figure it out. But do you want to figure it out a year and a half from now when you've wasted 18 months and maybe hundreds of thousands of dollars. Or do you want to figure it out right now when someone says, oh no, here, do it this way, take a left turn around in a circle three times. And that's the proper way of doing it. Right. So it collaboration is absolutely the shortcut. Matt, I'm going to bounce the next question to you but we're staying on a similar theme. I want to stay with this idea of environment, right. So we already established, yes, we're self accountable. You know the old adage, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. Here's the question for each of you. Is it bullshit? Is it real? And if it's real, who are a few of those people that you turn to and how do you utilize them?

Yeah, it is absolutely not. I can see the very real dichotomy my, my self development journey really and my personal development journal, it really hasn't happened for anything more than the course of the last three years. So I have a lot longer of a standard where I did not dip into that versus what the last three years have been. And the five people. Ish. And I think it's more than that because you know, nobody is nobody's self made first and foremost. But I think my journey get to this point has been even more than five people. But the people that I have found myself be as reliant on and who has absolutely pushed me into areas that I never thought I could more than just professionally, I mean personally speaking and having these great goals and dreams. I found them all in masterminds and people who have come through in these rooms who think so big but more than that they want you to think as big. So they're not on this journey by themselves either. They're looking for people to bring them up but just as much so wanting to bring people up along with them as well, if that makes sense. I think that majority of my mentors, you being at the top of that list, Chris, I mean this all happened when I met you three years ago. And then you create these incredible rooms, these incredible environments that yes, I signed up to be at. And then I think we are all lucky enough to know that along the way we are going to have these amazing collisions with these other people like Melissa and Andrea and I can go on and on with, with these incredible frigging human beings just baseline first and foremost, incredible human beings who also do incredible professional things that I can learn from. And they are absolutely the shortcut to say I see where you're going. I tried this once. It didn't work. Here's what you need to do. Here's the answer to the test. Stop wasting your time.

That's so good. You know, it's funny you said and thanks for the nice words by the way. It means the world. But you know, the, the credit goes to you. You're the one doing the work. But that point of like meeting other people in the Mastermind just by sheer coincidence. So Lori and I tonight are going to dinner over at Glenn and Mindy Stern. I don't know if you know who that is, but they he was on the first season of Undercover Billionaire where the season follows one guy and he secretly has to, you know, he's a billionaire, but he secretly has to get like 300 bucks in a used pickup truck and see what he can do in 30 days kind of a thing. And the only reason why we're going over to their house for dinner tonight, just the four of us, is because we met them in like a one day mastermind that we went to run by a guy named Randy Garn and they had hosted it at their home there. And we just happened to hit it off and found out that we're neighbors. And then Lori ran into them again the other day and like, oh, come to the house for dinner, those type of things. To be able to go and accelerate relationships with people like that, it doesn't happen just out in the wild. You have to go to the places where there's concentrations of those people just like you had mentioned, where the relationships are sped up. And so it's, it's just a testament to exactly what you're saying. Well, listen, let's bounce it up to you. Five people making the biggest difference in your life. Is it bullshit? Is it real? And who are the couple people that you turn to and how do you utilize them?

Oh, is 100% real. 100%. In fact, when I'm in conversations or environments where I can just feel a different energy of vibration or scarcity, like my body now contract like I can't even be there. And I think the more even five. I'm like five feels like a lot right now. But no, I do, I mean obvious. I mean I use them all the time. I mean you 100%, Chris, Nick, you know, 100%. Like two of my first phone calls, texts, you know, there's anything there other people that I'm in business with, you know, a couple of my girlfriends are in business. But honestly I met through Masterminds and that's just where I go when there's something coming up. Because I know that they're going to be able to hold the energy and the vibration to be able to see things in the way that maybe I can't see in that moment, and they're going to be able to speak the language that I speak and understand. But, you know, even just looking at Andrea and that, I'm thinking, well, there's also kind of niche, specific things too. Right. When I had an issue where I wasn't sure legally what to do around a business partnership, I called Andrea right away and I didn't even really know her. And she showed up for me. And we only met through a mastermind. Like, I think that was our first conversation. But I think the environment that you and Lori create fosters that. We're like, we just take care of each other. You know, When I set my wager and I got to make a dating profile, who held me accountable to that? Nat and his wife Allie literally were there, had me open my phone and make the profile. And so I think it's just, you know, I've got my people that I go to who are like my board of directors, my sounding board, who create all the difference and how I show up and decisions I make and how I move forward. But then also just having the network and the relationships where there's like kind of almost niche specific things you can call upon people for, I love that.

That's amazing, the fact that you turn to Matt now, like, okay, I need a dating profile. I just met. You guys hold me accountable to building this thing. That is the best thing.

What could possibly go wrong?

I just have to say in all. In all honesty, I didn't do that. Ali said, how's your dating profile? And I said, non existent. She goes, open your phone. And she and Matt were there and we're picking the questions and we're doing the whole thing. And I would not have ever actually made it had they not done that.

Even better. And I just want to point out, you know, you live in Tulum and kind of rural Tulum. There's not a lot of people around necessarily that, you know, maybe entrepreneurs and support that you want to mix it up with. So you've had to go outside of the area where you live and find groups to plug into to get what you need.

Yeah. I really say to myself and Tulum, because energetically, I just feel that there's just. It's not the expansive. And I love Tulum and it was Actually, where I went to kind of do a lot of healing work, right. My grief journey. And so it was very important. But I know how important it is to the point where I'm looking to move out of Tulum or at least have two homes, one in the US and one in Tulum, because I know the level of energy that I want to continue to immerse myself in to get to the next level needs to be that much more in proximity.

I love that. Andrea, same question to you. Five people you surround yourself. You know, rumor is it bullshit, is it real, and who do you turn to? How do you use them?

100% real. I mean, going back from the beginning, even joining your mastermind, that is what helped me really experience in real life like, that you're the average of five people that you surround yourself with. And joining your mastermind helped me catapult my business like no other. And a mastermind is nothing compared to going to, like, local events. Because he. I'm in Houston, which is a big city, and they have local business events, small business events, all the time. They're free, maybe cheap, but they're not serious business owners. And it's just open to the public. There's no. There's no filter. There's no filter to who can come in. And that's the difference between your local business events versus a mastermind. Because, Chris, you. You're one of the greatest filters, and you can. You can sniff a mile away. And that's what we're all looking for, is somebody who sniffs through the. For us. And that's what you do. That's what you do. You curate the rooms and being able to, I mean, pay your way in. I always say I pay for friends. I do pay for friends, because it's just like dating. Like, I don't have time to go out on a million dates. Like, I'm just gonna pay for somebody to do it for me. And that's what masterminds do. They literally just filter through the.

It's the shortcut, right?

It is.

It really is. And you're automatically in the room with the same people on your level. And it's not just on your level as far as, like, where you are in business, but it's your mindset too. Like, that's the number one differentiator is what mindset are you at? Because if you go to a local business event, they're like, oh, I just started.

I'm hoping to, you know, make a.

Hundred dollars next month and blah, blah, blah. But in the Mastermind. It's like, yeah, we're gonna make a million dollars. We're gonna hit 5 million next year. The plan is to hit 10 million the next year. Like, yes, these are the, this is the mindset. These are the people that I need to be around. And I even proved it again to myself in poker because I it locally, there's people that grind it out. They play poker every day trying to pay their bills. And I'm like, I don't want to pay my bills. Like, I don't give a shit about paying my bills. My whatever. Most people are not paying for poker coaching or business coaching. The actual, like, what's going to catapult you to the next level. And what I did was actually pay for coaching again in poker. And what did I do? Like, I immediately just catapult to you. So you have to learn, like, what is the shortcut for where you want to go. And that's what masterminds are. And being able to surround yourself with the people that are going to help you elevate, like the five people that are around. Me, I've met 100% in masterminds and even my real life best friend that met in the mastermind. Everybody that helps me on a day to day basis, everybody that I go to on a day to day basis, met them in a mastermind.

That's wild. That's wild. This almost sounds like a mastermind advertisement. But it's funny because it's been the same thing for all four of us, right? It's the shortcut to buy your way into the rooms that have the people who are thinking the way that you wish you were thinking. And that's what it is. Because Andrew, you pointed out before, yeah, you can leave it up to chance, but there's not enough big thinkers that are going to challenge you out there in the world, right? It's just so diluted.

And honestly, that's how I always said I separated myself from other lawyers because I came to my owning my law firm. I always say, like, I'm a business owner first. I'm not a lawyer first. I'm just a business owner that happens to be a lawyer. And most attorneys, most small business attorneys, they're not masterminds the way that I am. They're not out connecting with business owners the way that I am because they're thinking, oh, I have to be the greatest lawyer. It doesn't matter how great of a lawyer lawyer you are, if you don't have a business, if you don't have clients if you aren't making those connections. And so I always said, like, I'm going to be a business owner first and let me put up like what the business owners do. And that's what I did.

Andrea, you just brought up clients and I'm going to switch modes a little bit. But sticking with this theme of clients, it feels like, and I'm hearing a lot that potential clients are at an all time low in terms of trusting people that they're about to make a purchase from. I don't care if they're buying a mastermind. I don't care if they're buying a gym membership. I don't care if they're searching for an attorney. Right. It kind of feels like trust is at an all time low out there and you have to work harder to earn a client. I'm going to ask each of you this question, but Melissa, I'm going to start with you. What are you doing to combat this lack of trust in order to continue to earn clients at the pace that you used to?

On one hand, I think it's really important that we. For me, I'm very honest. I take people on the journey and I let them know if I can serve them or if I can't. If I can't serve somebody, I don't try and serve them. It's not going to be good for me. It's not going to be good for them. On the flip side, I don't let them take a back door. Right. If they are in fear or in scarcity and that's stopping them. I'm willing to be honest and not be popular and just very rooted in love. Say, you know, here's what I'm actually seeing might be coming up for you, you know, a worthiness issue, a self trust issue. Like this is what I'm seeing coming up in the process of you choosing to invest or not. Take it or leave it. But oftentimes when we're in a sales process, I really believe we had this conversation this morning. It flushes up the things that are happening elsewhere in our life. And so I'm willing to do that and trigger someone and be unpopular because I know I'm rooted in love and truth and I'm unattached to if they work with me. And I think that people can feel my detachment and that really garners trust because I'm just committed to truth and alignment more than I'm committed to a result. And when we commit to truth and alignment, we can create results that we couldn't even try and see predictions or control. So I always say I'll be somebody's champion, but I won't be their cheerleader, you know. And I think that's very important. And I just want to say on the flip side of that Chris, is that as somebody who had a difficult time trusting, I had a coach steal money from me and I had a mastermind that I joined and then made a big investment in and one day an attorney got on and was like this is closing. I have to figure out what's well refunded and the person running it had just disappeared. So I had a lack of trust. But what I realized was that if I could trust myself, nothing else mattered because I could turn anything to a win. And so I would just offer to anybody who is maybe feeling what can I trust, what can I not trust? One, do your research and homework and what I would recommend looking at are testimonials, referrals and longevity. Longevity I think is one of the biggest indicators of where you can put your trust because there's so many one and dones in this space and I've worked with hundreds of them. Right. So many shiny new objects. So do your homework. Yes, of course. But if you there's a place that like as the testimonials, the referrals, the longevity, the proven track record, then I think it comes down to a conversation of self trust. And I think that's an important one.

To discern that is, I mean two awesome things in your answer there. I loved when you said it's not about trusting the person that you're about to invest in. It's about trusting yourself to make the best out of the investment. And that is like eye opening and as true as it gets. There's going to be gold in everything. Trust yourself to find it. Right. That was super awesome. Matt, same question to you. There's a lot of places people can get a workout. Online workouts, my God, they're a dime a dozen fitness apps. They're a dime a dozen brick and mortar. There's tons of them in the Toronto area and you happen to be the most expensive show in town if I'm not mistaken. Also true. How do you get them to trust that it's worth paying more for your gym than any other workout option in the Toronto area?

You know a couple things I think consistency with, with we, we do a very good job I feel at putting a lot of things out on social and following our journey. Not so much in the brick and mortar as much as is the journey of our clients per se within our brick and mortar. So people are able to connect on a very direct level with what it's like to be a part of that space. And so in that end the, the transparency comes not even just with only the wins. I think you also have to recognize that there are going to be losses along the way and not hiding from what that looks like. So we will post when Ali and I are creating various reels for upcoming programs and such through the course of, of the next few months. Lord knows we make a ton of mistakes with our videographer and all the rest. And some of our most viral stuff are our blooper reels showing people that we are real people, we're normal people. We will f up often and we are happy to share with you with what that looks like. That's, that's number one. So the transparency game is really important, especially in an industry that has got a bit of a knock with how consistently difficult it might be to, to, to get what you're paying for from a value perspective. And in that breath. The other part of that when you're talking about how we can get people to trust us for the long game is really based off of now more than ever. This has always kind of been the formula but now more than ever we are looking to have to deposit, deposit, deposit, deposit more and more into our, into our community before we even think about potentially asking for a withdrawal. I think we have now more than ever needing to really lean into our zone and geniuses and providing way more value than we ever have before to let people know that that is where we're coming from. Truly we're heart centric with wanting to serve our community. We truly are so proving that in giving, giving, giving, giving before asking for anything back has, has helped us and helped us to kind of find our community and have them be real ride or dies with us.

Wait, that is so good. You're. Here's where people get it wrong. You just made me realize they think that what they're doing today is creating a customer today. It's not. What they're doing today is creating a customer next year or maybe two years from that absolute play that long game and show up and serve and serve and serve and serve and serve until they trust you. Exactly. If people aren't showing up for you right now as customers, it's probably because you weren't building trust a year ago or two years ago.

Absolutely. Trickle down effect, right?

Damn, that is a good eye opening point, Andrea. Same thing for you people like, to brag on attorneys. I don't know why, but, my God, you guys get the short end of the stick. How do you build trust? How do you make people say, yes, this is my girl to, to represent me?

Well, I have so much to say here. And honestly, I. I love both of your answers. And, Melissa, what I've had to come into, what you said was detachment. I used to get so torn up if a client. If I had a call with a client, a potential client, and they were like, oh, I went another direction, whatever. But then I learned, oh, my data actually speaks for me. I AM ranked number 22 in the United States out of 40,000 trademark attorneys. Our approval rate with the trademark office is 98%. So you have a 98 chance of getting approved when you file with us. And speaking specifically to online marketing, I've stopped spending money on advertising this year, and only for the reason that it just wasn't working as well as I wanted it to. And I started to notice the trust factor a lot maybe a year ago. And for me personally, I don't want to show up every day like I used to on social media. Back in the day, I was hustling. I was on social media every single day, pumping out content, pumping it out here and there. And now I'm present, but I'm actually just having fun with it, just being present for me, talking about mom life and just really just showing my personality. And what's so funny is that ends up bringing more clients. I haven't talked much business online in months, most of this year. And showing that authenticity is what builds the trust. And not trying to even build more trust, it ended up building more trust. So for me, it's been just relying on my data that speaks for me and also just reaping the ROI of years and years of hustling. Like, years and years of hustling. I think I did actually talk about this a few days ago where I was working all day long all, like, I was at Melissa level hustle. And. And now I. I'm at the point where I don't have to do that. And actually, I just don't want to right now. Like, I'm in a different season of life where I am fully embracing loving my mom life and shuffling them around to baseball and softball and everything. But also, like, I show up for my clients. My clients. You still have a 98% chance of getting approved when we follow your trademark, and it's going to stay that way. It's only going to increase. And so Building that trust is really having the detachment showing up authentically as you because I think most people these days, they can see through. They can see through the, oh, I made a million dollars in 24 hours. And they see through all that these days. And so now it's just me being me. And I'm like, oh, she's fun, She's a badass, and she can help me.

With all my legal stuff.

Hell yeah, sign me up for that.

That is awesome. It's so true. By the way, fun fact, you used to be Tick Tock famous.

Yes, I, I still do have a.

Lot of followers on Tick Tock. I just don't even show up there anymore.

And if I feel like it, I will. And if not, that's a flex.

That's.

That's a flex.

Last, last question for you guys and I really want to highlight each one of you because you guys are so talented. What separates your clients with success versus the clients that may not be successful? What do you do that is unique to anybody else in your field in order to deliver that success? So, Matt, let's start with you. What do you do differently or better than other people in your field?

You know, I think for me, the biggest part is that I'm not afraid to ask for help. So that the accountability component of this is a really big deal for how I'm able to not just be able to lean into what I do well, but to consistently be able to do what I do well. And as long as I keep doing that, I know I can create an excellent impact for our clients, for our, for our training clients, for our coaching clients. All of that goes a long way when I know that I can show up consistently. Because we've all, we've all heard, we all know that, you know, motivation comes and goes and all the rest, but the discipline to stay consistent is huge. But I also know that the ability to do that isn't a one man show. So I, I need the accountability. I need the help of my mentors, my coaches. It's going to sound like a advertisement, but the getting in these rooms to find these mentors, to find these coaches to keep me consistent is what allows me to keep, keep pushing that needle forward a little bit every day and with consistency every day. And when I do that, that's where the success comes from. Right? It's, it's from treating the process as more of a, of a non negotiable versus something that is just optional, if that makes sense.

Yeah, I love that. I love that. Andrea. Same Question you what do you do that is better than anyone else in your field that delivers your client success?

I tried to stay steer away from this from a long time, for a long time. But I started leaning into it and that's really being a sounding board As a business mentor. I'm not just the attorney, I'm not just here to take care of your legal stuff because I've had 10 plus years in entrepreneurship. I work with businesses in every single industry you can think of. I've been through recessions, I've been through so much, I've seen so much. I actually have a lot to say as an actual business mentor. And clients just come to me for hey, what, what do you see? What's working? What's not working? I had a call yesterday with somebody, hey, what's like how are people selling online these days? And that has, I really leaned into that instead of no, you don't want to come to me. Because I thought it was imposter syndrome. It was really imposter syndrome, not feeling like I had advice to give. And finally I was like, actually I know my shit. Like I'm a successful business owner. I, I actually do have stuff to say. So for me personally, it's having that business mindset first, not being a lawyer first, and also being able to reflect back to clients to actually being able to give that business advice, not just the legal advice. And most of the time when clients come to me like, hey, I have this legal issue, I'll tell them like, hey, here's what the law is. Practically speaking, this is how it needs to be handled. So there's always a million different answers and a million different ways to handle situations. But you always want to look at what is the, in my, in my situation, what is the law? But practically speaking, how are we going to handle this? And being able to bring so many different views to the issue. That's what clients love.

Damn, that's good. That is such an extra value add. Melissa, same thing to you. Why is it that your clients are successful? What are you doing better than other people and how you doing it?

I think from a skill set perspective, my background in education. So I spent a decade as a teacher and a coach and I studied differentiated learning, I studied social emotional learning, I studied how people learn. And the truth is, is that we're in a huge booming industry of teaching and coaching online, but without necessarily the background in it or understanding. And so when people can learn and actually understand what they're being taught, they're going to get Results. So I think like from a very practical standpoint, that would be it. And then I think more from like who I be. I. I've shared this before and it's like the worst analogy. Like I wish these were more beautiful humans that I've been compared to, but I've been compared to and they're beautiful souls. But Bill Belichick and elf Will Ferrell that I'm like a blend of them. And I think that's really true because I'm honestly detached and I'm genuinely willing to be unliked, but I'm rooted in love in that. You know what I mean? I'm not like looking to trigger, but I think people can feel like I'll just be their champion, like I'll see their greatness. But then elf, like I just see a wonder. And I think it's probably from. I mean I've kind of always been like that, but I think it's probably from losing my daughter and understanding how precious life is and how much joy and, and fun and wonder is available to us, but we have to choose into it. And so I've learned from that loss not to take anything for granted. I work hard because I don't like, I just, I love it but like I don't take anything for granted. And I think people really feel that. And it's like my maternal energy gets the pour into my clients, my community, my people because I have a very maternal energy, you know, and that they'll Belichick weird way. I don't know if anyone doesn't know about Belichick. Go, go, go.

I'm doing the Belichick has a paternal energy with his girlfriend. They're 50 years apart from.

Yeah, I know.

I'm like, I don't really want to.

Compare myself to these people. But yeah, I think people feel that.

And I think, you know, I'll just end with they see the possibility, you know, if I'm a bereaved mom who was a teacher, who was $100,000 in debt, you know, built multiple seven figure businesses with no paid ads and I hit my first seven figures with 4,000 followers. I think people are like, okay, she didn't do the shortcuts. And they trust that and they relate to that and so they're more open to receiving what I have to say.

That that is beautiful. That is beautiful. You know, let's put a bow on it with this. A lot of people don't realize that you're not just friends and you didn't just start as clients but you guys are also active coaches in our MCM mentor collective, Mastermind. Right, for the wine. For anyone that has a business up to $500,000 a year in revenue. And people get to ask you questions in your expertise in our answers on Demand program. So, like, they can go to Melissa and say, hey, marketing problem. What should I do here? Hey, Matt. Ali really struggling with getting into shape and have low energy. What should I do here? You know, Andrea, should I get a contract for this or not? And if so, what should the contract look like? They can literally just come to you as part of the program, which is unfreaking. Heard of. And I just want to say I'm so grateful to you guys for being willing to do that. You don't have to do that. Sure, we'd give you a couple of bucks for it, but it means nothing compared to your revenue. You do this because you give a shit about people. And you wanted to be like, let's create the best forum that we possibly can that we all wish existed back in the day. So I just wanted to take a minute to recognize you guys for taking the time and doing that, because I know it's way more work than it is reward. I'm sure it's mental reward, but way more work than it is financial reward. And yet you still show up and you do that for all those awesome souls in there every single day.

I would. I would do it for free. My man. It is an incredible ROI as far as I'm concerned. Oh, you guys, it's a lot of fun.

It really is a lot of fun.

That's incredible. But I just wanted the best.

I just had to add. Chris, Sorry, real quick. I would add, like, it's not just a great mastermind. I genuinely believe it is the best one I've seen. And as someone who's coached people in masterminds, it is why I want people to hear this. I care so much. I ran a pro, a business coaching program for six and a half years straight, 52 weeks a year, and I closed it down because I said to my people, this is the best one I've ever seen. And I want to support you in being in that because I want you to have the best services you can possibly have. So that's how strongly I feel about it.

That's wild. That is absolutely wild. I mean, I don't even know how to respond to that. That is just. That is incredible.

With love, buddy. Because it's a fact.

I appreciate that. Well, listen, if everyone's listening, you're curious. You know, we only allow very small batches of individuals to join at a time because we want to make sure that we always have the right number of coaches to members. Right? So you get that hands on, feel that hands on touch. So if you want to go check it out and grab a seat real quick, go to chrisharder me mentor. That is chrisharder me mentor. If it shows that there's a spot open, grab it. Right. Freaking out so that you can not only learn from Lori and I, that's probably the least important part. But you get to ask these awesome individuals along with many other coaches as many questions as you want about your business and that's what I think makes it so special. Well, listen, Andrea, Matt, Melissa, it means the world that you guys took an hour to come jump on, share what works, offer inspiration and most importantly, like we started with show people how far they can come in just a year, two years, three years because your businesses have absolutely exploded. And thank you for being the example.

Our pleasure, Chris.

Thank you.

Love and appreciate you.