EVERYTHING You've Been Told About Success IS WRONG! - Do This For Success! | Rock Thomas

What I did was nothing spectacular. Getting in some cold water for two minutes was not that difficult, really.

Right.

Walking through some mud was not that difficult. But in life, there will always be some things that are uncomfortable and other people aren't willing to do. So if you consistently do the dishes before you go to bed and you do your 10 push ups 10 times a day in between your meetings, and you make your lunch the night before so you have a healthy meal when you're on the run, when you start doing these little things that other people don't do, you start to get the edge on people. You start to be more available. You start to be able to say yes to opportunities that other people aren't prepared for.

Welcome to Stuck to Unstoppable, where we interview the world's foremost thought leaders to break things down in order to help you get past your hurts, habits and hangups and finally level up and move forward. I'm your host, Stephen Scoggins. Now let's go ahead and get into today's guest and our featured conversation. You're not going to want to miss it. Our special guest today has studied alongside some of the most amazing thought leaders on the planet, such as Tony Robbins, Deepak chopra, John Gray, Dr. Wayne Dyer, and Stephen Covey. And that's just to name a few. As seen on Goldcast, Rock Thomas has impacted well over 100, yes, 100 million lives. He's also the host of the top rated Rock youk Money, Rock youk Life podcast, as well as a best selling author and a highly inspirational motivational speaker. With over 30 years of personal experience in the personal development space, the coaching space, and the overall achievement space. He has the passion and the experience to guide mentality. Guys, please help me welcome my good friend, Rock Thomas. Rock, man. What's going on, dude?

How are you doing, man? Yeah, I'm doing fantastic. I mean, it's been a really, really interesting year, I think for a lot of people, myself included, but a lot of pivoting and maybe we'll talk a little bit about some of the things that people need to think about in order to pivot during tough times.

Absolutely. One of the things I've always appreciated about you specifically is your origin story as you were growing up in Canada and some of the things you faced. I think it's always important to help set the expectation with folks of where we've been rather than where we are now because a lot of folks are obviously in their own stuff, especially in this Covid environment like you just mentioned. Maybe it's important to like, maybe just share a little bit about your origin story and kind of like maybe your starting point. And then we'll jump into all the things that you've learned along the way that can benefit a lot of people.

Yeah, for sure. I mean, today I drive a very nice Tesla, but I used to drive a Toyota Tercel, beaten up, rusted. And I like to think that my life was a little bit like that, too. I came from a tough childhood, one where I grew up on a farm where I was the youngest of seven kids, where I fought and scrapped to get attention, to get food, to get clothes. And I would say, you know, 95% of the time, we had what we needed, a roof over our head. But there were times when I went to school without a meal.

And you start to develop certain beliefs and certain programming, like, is there enough? Am I worthy? You know, I'm going to be taken care of? Do my parents care? And they're doing the best they could. So I developed a lot of things, I think, you know, gracefully that have served me. But there's two sides to every coin. And I've learned over time that as a warrior, you know, you want me on your team, you want me on your sports team, you want me as an employee, because I can weather about anything. But I also became impervious to feeling things and to being empathetic to other people's situations because I had to put on so many layers to protect myself. So I've learned to shed those, Steven, over time and become more empathetic and sympathetic and understanding of other people's environments. But it's been a process, candidly. So if you want to learn how to, you know, make things happen, you want to learn how to reframe things, you want to learn how to build businesses. I have 42 different businesses and streams of income. I've created a lot in my life. I'm resourceful, I'm industrious, so I can teach in those areas, but I'm still a student in areas where it comes to the softer parts of life.

Yeah, for sure. And you know what? I'm glad you actually mentioned that, because I think people need to understand the journey's never done right. You master one area that kind of lets you get out there where you can start teaching in the area. I like to say serving the person you used to be kind of thing is typically your greatest strength, your superpower, so to speak. And, you know, as you're digging into that, you know, there's. There's higher Levels of performance over and over and over again. You know, I know you've worked with a lot of elite performers, a lot of people who are top performers in all kinds of industries. Is there one common denominator that you see that they all share that tends to limit them or hold them back until you get a hold of?

Yeah.

I mean, again, I would say that the chains of habit are too weak to feel until they're so hard to break. And that goes for the good and the bad habits. So very gently, you can eat a muffin every day and a year and a half later you're six pounds overweight, where the person that ate an apple is not six pounds overweight. But more importantly, his trajectory is that of action, movement, where the other person has got to deal with sugar addictions, etc. And I think the successful people have gotten past boredom, routine, repetition, and they look for the things that serve a long term result. Michael Jordan on the off season would shoot a thousand baskets a day. Boring as heck, shouldn't have to do it in the off season, did it because he knew that it would condition and prepare him long term. And I think that most people would rather be entertained than train themselves. And the separation happens in the preparation. So successful people prepare, they do things in private that other people, you know, think they can get away with. Not making your bed, not doing the dishes, leaving your house, sloppy thinking, it doesn't matter. But if you pay the price of practice in private, you perform in public like a pro. So how you do anything's how you do everything. Be disciplined, pay attention to the small things and eventually it stacks up. At least that's been my experience.

Oh, for sure. I would second that. All day long. I can tell you that a lot of the things that we have done obviously have been directly tied to what people don't see. You know, we've both been building businesses for a number of years and working really hard to do so and building teams and building ourselves and all that kind of stuff. And 98% of it is what the public doesn't see. So I totally second that for sure. You know, we got 2% of us being on camera or on a podcast, on stage and doing stuff that's fun and energetic and driving, you know, driving the atmosphere. But the very same things that we share with other people are the very things, very same things we've been preaching and teaching to ourselves in our quiet time, in our mirror, in our prayer time, in our mindful time, in our journal, in our reflection moments. So I Would second that all day long. Let me ask you this. I know that some of the people, like you and myself specifically, we've had to actually overcome quite a bit of some. What some would say is traumatic experiences to kind of get to where we are. I also know in the people that you and I have worked with in times past have also had to do that as well. Is there one driving thing, you know, to that. To that person, the person who used to be where we currently are, who currently is where we used to be, meaning they are trying to face that traumatic thing right now and overcome it? What would you teach them or say to them? Is there one or two little tips you could give them on that?

You know, one of the things I think is that people don't realize that the universe, your job, your partner, whatever, is a form of mental gymnastics. And so people, they kind of want what they want, and if it doesn't come easily, they look for an easier path. I say get clear on what you want. I'll give you an example. I was 25, about. And I wanted to act in the movies. And Patrick Dempsey and a crew came into Montreal, Canada, where I was to film a movie. And I thought, this is my chance. It's in my backyard. So I went down to this set and I knocked on the set and I said, can I get a job? I'll do anything. And they kicked me off the set. But I went back the next day because I had this burning desire, right? And I knocked on the fence again. They kicked me out this day after day after day. And my inner narrative was like, I'm wasting my time. I should be at my job. I have to drive 45 minutes. I don't have money for the cat, the gas. But I. This burning desire, yeah. So on the seventh day, I show up. And that was working. There goes Rock. Get in here. John didn't show up. You're hired. And I got the job. And so that persistence of having the burning desire and unwavering not giving up is a character trait that some people go, well, maybe you were born with that. I think you're born maybe with it. Yes. But you can also nurture it by constantly thinking about what you want and saying yes to things that are bigger than you. So I'm on the set and Patrick Dempsey is going to lose his virginity in a boat in a night scene with some Playboy model. And the story is about this young boy who's a nerd who gets harassed by the cool people. And she's going to make him really cool and give him confidence.

The director says, action. And the boat's supposed to go up and down in a lovemaking scene. Of course, there's nobody in the boat. It's late at night. It's September, it's cold. And the boat doesn't move. And the director's like. And action. And the boat doesn't move. He goes, who is rocking the boat? Who's responsible for rocking the boat? And everybody's, like, in their jackets, and it's cold out and nobody wants to move. And I'm this little nerdy kid in the background. So I run, jump in the water, grab the boat, and start rocking the boat. And he's like, hide your head, kid. And action.

So I said something that was uncomfortable, and I solved a problem. And I think this is what people can do in life. It doesn't have to be a big problem. But it doesn't end there, Steven, because two days later, they had this problem with getting some stuff through mud. Nobody wanted to do it again. These city slickers didn't want to get dirty. But this farm boy was used to that. So the director, he's like, where's that kid that rocked the boat? Get him. He'll do anything. So I come over, I schlep through the mud. And then in the final scenes, we're filming a scene where we're all in this restaurant celebrating. And by now, I get a job as an extra. And the director's walking around and goes, okay, Patrick's going to come by here. I want people celebrating, etc. And I need two people that are going to be making out. He chooses this really hot chick. He goes, you come sit over here. And he's looking around. He goes, hey, rock the boat. I know you got some passion. I want to see some tongue.

Come here. Right?

So I sit down, like on my YouTube channel that I've redone. I tell this story, and we take a clip. And you see me with hair making out with this girl, right? It's so super cool. Because if I didn't keep on showing up those first seven days and going for what I wanted and feeding that and believing it was possible.

Right?

Confidence is believing that you'll figure out a way. And I've lived my life by this. Say yes, figure it out later. Jump off the cliff. Grow your wings on the way down. But staying on the sidelines ain't gonna make an epic life.

Yeah, for sure. I am so glad you mentioned that. You know, as I'm reflecting back to some of my own journey and some of the people that we've helped along the way. There is a consistent theme, and that consistent, consistent theme is to do the hard work first. And so many times when we're trying to overcome different areas of our life and we're trying to get the breakthrough. You're right. We've got to remind ourselves about what's in the future, what's in the. You know, I kind of say that this way a lot of times is if you're so focused on the rearview mirror, you're going to run your car into the ditch, right? So if you're going to be doing that with your life, if you're going to focus on all the crap that you went through and stuff like that, I'm not saying you don't need to heal and learn and grow, but I think you're right. I think the why in front of you has to be stronger than the why behind you, you know, so you're definitely spot on, like normal.

Well, let me ask you this. You know, we talked a little bit about. Go ahead.

Go ahead.

No, I just wanted to add to that. I like that the why in front has to be bigger than the why behind. I really like that. Never heard that before. I just really wanted to underline for people that are listening that, you know the old saying, you don't have to be great to start, you have to be. You have to start to be great. What I did was nothing spectacular. Getting in some cold water for two minutes was not that difficult, really. Right. Walking through some mud was not that difficult. But in life, there will always be some things that are uncomfortable and other people aren't willing to do. So if you consistently, right. Do the dishes before you go to bed and you do your 10 push ups 10 times a day in between your meetings, and you make your lunch the night before so you have a healthy meal. When you're on the run, when you start doing these little things that other people don't do, you start to get the edge on people. You start to be more available. You start to be able to say yes to opportunities that other people aren't prepared for. And then your life starts to change. People are waiting for good things to happen for them or to them. But it's when you keep on showing up and solving problems as small as they are. Grab a broom, sweep up, you know, grab the cup and bring it to the kitchen. Little things. If that's who you become. Stephen.

Yeah.

Then opportunities will come your way. And so I'm just wanting to I'm a little farm boy from Montreal, but I generally add value wherever I go, and that's led to a lot of opportunities.

Absolutely. I've been following your career for years. You've been an important, what we refer to on the show from time to time as a digital mentor. Right. You're one of the guys that we can watch on your YouTube channel, which is awesome, by the way. You know, you can watch YouTube clips. I can read your awesome books that you've done. I've watched your keynotes. Like, I've been studying your career for a while. And there's one thing that's absolutely true that you bring every single day and every single time, and it is that you add value in every single moment you possibly can anytime you are around somebody else. And I know that one of the ways that you have been able to do that is not only being a guide to so many people, but also early on is also being mentored and coached by other people to help get the best out of you as well. You know, you have obviously hung out with Tony. You have hung out with Wayne Dyer. You've hung out with a lot of folks that have mentored you and shaped you to a degree. Talk a little bit about the importance of having a quality mentor and then maybe even help us understand how to select what a quality mentor looks like so we don't follow the wrong person off a cliff.

Yeah, I mean, I love that, you know, that whole part of life is, you know, what voices are you listening to? And it's a choice, right. You can listen to your broke neighbor. You're going to listen to the person who never really made it. Or are you going to go out there and change your environment and seeking people out? One of the things that I did do is I realized at some point in time I had a lot to learn. So I started to go to events. But after the event, I would go up front and do my best to meet the speaker, to form a relationship with them, to add some value, to ask them if I could drive them to the airport or if I could take them back to the hotel. And you'd be surprised. A lot of times these people, you know, they're on their own after they leave the state. If you're willing to do something, you get this private time with a person that would cost you tens of thousands of dollars normally. And then because of that, you can form a personal relationship or maybe you take an additional course. Or like with Tony Robbins, I gave him $100,000. I asked him to mentor me for free. He kind of busy, so I opted for the hundred grand and I got some time with it.

Yeah.

But I did whatever had to be done and formed relationships. Now I'm a trainer for him. I've done 74 events. I've met a lot of great people through that environment. So there may be nothing more important than being intentional about the environment that you choose, which is the people around you. That's why I started a bunch of masterminds eight years ago, because I wanted people with the same values. So I want to be around people that are adventurous, that are creative, that are open minded. I say there's no winning and losing. There's winning and learning. So I'm either going to dominate, be the best that I can be, or I'm going to surround myself with people like you or other people that I can learn from and I can become a dominant student and then I get to participate. How great is it when you mentor somebody, Steven, to have somebody that's juicy and excited about learning. Right. You pour into them, they take action. Like, I gave this book to this young man and he goes, oh, my God, thank you so much. He goes, not only am I going to read it, but if you give me your email, I'm going to write the 10 most.

Biggest AHAs I'm going to get from your book and send it to you as appreciation of you giving me this book. Now, how different experience was that? Then you give away a free book and somebody goes, oh, thanks. And you think, well, maybe they'll never read it. And this person has come on into my tribe. I welcome my tribe. I've mentored him. I've turned him into millionaire. I met him when he's 23. He became a millionaire at 29.

So that's what you can do is again, take initiative, look for the people you admire and respect, and then offer to add value. You'd be amazed at the relationships you can form with people around you.

Absolutely. You know, every single Jedi was once a Padawan learner, you know, and I'm learning more and more. The older I get, the more I spend time with you and other people that we share in common, the more and more time we were in these circles. You're right. The value of the relationship directly correlates to the value of your life and what you can achieve, what you think is possible. And if you're listening to the wrong people, you're definitely going to hit the, you know, you're definitely going to hit the wrong button at the wrong time, it's going to give you a wrong result, so to speak. You know, as you look at this whole scenario, have you ever. I know I've made this mistake myself several times, but have you ever come across someone who you thought might be a solid mentor only to find out that they really shouldn't be followed? I guess is the best way to say it. Have you ever come across that yourself?

Yeah, of course. You know, false prophets is what I call them, is they give you the illusion that they figured things out. And I'm a connection person. So if they're a lot of fun, which often. These ones are a lot of fun. They're outgoing, they're very playful. I'm attracted to that. I like to have a good time and make money and be successful. And then you find out that it's a lot of. It's a lot of fluff. I call it the curse of the high. I. If you don't disc model the high I's, hey, they're very extroverted. They usually exaggerate. This is a global thing. They exaggerate things. Like, you know, I made 100,000 last year. They made 50. You know, I shot 74 at golf, but they gave themselves four mulligans. So, you know, it's just this need to look good and to be with other people. And so being sucked into that a few times. I had a guy who I made the best man at my wedding, and he never threw me a bachelor party. He just made excuse after.

Excuse me.

Like, that's like, that's your job, right?

Yeah.

You know, I've learned to slow down. I've learned to slow down in my relationship development, Stephen. And I now outright say, like I'll say to you, hey, Steven, you know what? Seems like you're a really great guy and I like your service of helping people buy multifamily. But until I've known you for a year, I'm not going to recommend you to anybody. I'll tell you straight out, that's good. It hasn't served me in the past. I think you're really cool and looks like we could do something together. And if you want to come into my world and in my ecosystem, one of my groups, we could get to know each other better. Let's go hiking together, let's go camping together, let's go skiing together. Let's find out who we are, what our character is made of. Let me see you interact with other people. Not that I'm like, out, but it's Life. I want to know who you are as a person before I'm going to do business with you. And that's something I've had to learn the hard way.

I really, really like that. I really like that. You know, we have a terminology called the hedge of protection, which is nothing more than deciding who's in and who's out. And then I always say that people can, can go in and or out based on the quality of their character. I love the one year rule. I love it. I'm going to steal it if you're okay with it because every single time that I've got burned, it's because just like you, I got a little. I'm a 99D because we can talk this language now that I know you know it and like a 70 something I. Right. Oh, in that case, we are, we. We share a lot in common. The bald head and the disc. Right. But one of the things that I've learned is I'm a reverse. Yeah, me too. That's awesome. You know, one of the things I've learned in about my personality style as a whole is, you know, especially with the D specifically, is their greatest fear is being betrayed. You know, so for me, when somebody betrays me or, you know, takes advantage of something that I have to bring to the table or offer, it really hurts me. It hurts my heart. You know, where certain other people, it may not be quite as quite a big of a rubber. And I really like your one year rule because you're right. I think it does give you the chance to really watch their character. I kind of equate it to like hiring people. For example, like when I go to hire somebody at my team, I've had to tell my executive team, look, you can't hire them on a 30 minute interview. They can fool you in that 30 minutes. I've been fooled in that 30 minutes. Let's get them back five, six, seven times. Let's see if we can't break them down. Let's challenge them a little bit. Let's put them in a stressful situation to see how they respond. Let's do it that way. Dude, I love the one year rule. That's phenomenal. Love that rule. Let me ask you this.

Yeah.

Go ahead.

I was gonna say.

One of the things that I see that you do so well is building teams. Right. You've obviously been very successful in business, have a lot of different companies that you've had your hands in and you either own equity in or own 100% equity in. But all the same, right.

What have you learned about yourself or about others that has allowed you to build so many amazing teams throughout your organizations?

What a great juicy question. So I'm very passionate about this because I teach people how to move through the cash flow quadrants from your W2 to self employed to small business to big business and then to investor and Steven. What I did was I was really good at working hard because I grew.

Up on a farm.

So I worked very easily 70, 80 hours a week was in a light week for me. It was, you know, I'm very resourceful, human, so I could make a ton of money. But then I poured it into investments where I had no experience and no network and I did really crappy. I listened to my broke uncle and I put in the stock market and lost a lot of money. So I got better at that through my network and now I consider myself a really good and or a great investor. This year, by the way, 2020 has been my best year ever financially with all my companies. Now some went sideways because of COVID and others. I pivoted well and did well and I did well some investments and because of the connections I have, it really helps a lot. Yeah, but there are some principles. Number one is slow to hire, quick to fire. We've all heard that before. When you interview somebody, put them in different environments, like take them golfing, go to dinner with them, meet their spouse, what have you. And I put them into action. Now if they're a copywriter, I want to see their work and I want to see them do something for me. If they're a graphic artist, we give them three different things to do. We want to see their work, we want to see how they react to feedback. So we put them in when we hire them, there's a 90 day anybody out clause for any reason, they want to quit, they don't like my bald head, whatever the case may be, I or we find that they're not culture fit, then we can pull the plug for the first 90 days. So it's really like developing this long term relationship and then we're really clear on culture.

Right.

We're a growth based environment. All my companies, I don't micromanage anybody, I don't measure their work hours, I don't ask them when to come in or when to not come in unless it's something like a 9 to 5 where you need somebody sitting at the the front desk. All I care about is we measure results and we do something called report in, not report out.

Okay?

I don't chase people. They have to fill out a Google Doc with their KPIs that are either weekly, daily, monthly, quarterly, or all of the above. And if they don't fill it in three times, they lose their job. No questions asked. Yeah, because what I used to do is I used to, I used to manage to story. So I'd say, so how was your week, Stephen? Oh, well, you know what? Covid and Zoom wasn't working, but I did do this, that. So that's just all the story. We just look at. The numbers. Story is a conversation around optimization, right?

Yeah.

I think that if I have.

App.

Or a different product or I could interface with somebody, or if I spent less time on meetings, I could optimize. But it's not about not performing. You still have to hit your numbers. Everything else is an optimization conversation. And therefore people are responsible. They can take time off, they can walk their dog at 2 o' clock in the afternoon, they can go to gym in the middle of the day, but maybe they're working at 2 o' clock in the morning doing emails. I don't mind. So it's a different relationship. And I usually show up in my companies to the people that work for me in a meeting or what have you, and I go, hey guys, what do you want me to do? How can I help?

Yeah, right. How can I be of service today? Well, I'm glad, you know, you brought up Covid. Let's park there for just a minute, if it's all right with you. I was having a conversation with Forbes yesterday and they were looking for more insight into how, how to help especially budding entrepreneurs. Obviously the budding entrepreneurs, the less seasoned entrepreneurs that haven't seen markets come and go and rises and falls and bulls and bull markets and bear markets appear to be the ones struggling most right now in a Covid environment because they didn't have a lot of preparation kind of under their belt ahead of COVID They were kind of riding the bull market and being super excited and all that kind of stuff. What do you think that maybe the top three things are that you would share with somebody who is actually a struggling entrepreneur in this particular environment? Maybe things that you've actually learned as part of your own pivoting.

Yeah, well, I think that we are living now and I thought for a while it was going to be temporary to change, but obviously now we have to accept that there's going to be permanent change. So I have, I've had to wrestle with it honestly myself, you know, Going in a place. I'll put your mask on. Go in a place. And they're like, well, we don't take cash. Like, well, that's all I have. Well, I'm sorry, we can't help you. You can't sit there, move. Like, I'm anti institutional. So it's been actually quite difficult for me because I don't believe in half of the stuff we're doing anyway. Like, do you remember back in March, it was like, oh, if we only had masks, we would all be okay. Yeah, there's a shortage of masks. That's the problem today you can get masks and you can put them all over your body and your face and your head and we have a bigger wave coming this way, apparently. So that wasn't the solution that they suggested. So it creates doubt for me that half the things we're doing don't work anyway. But that's another story. Here's what I think you need to do is you need to look at. So I've done really well in the stock market with Common Sense. I bought Zoom stock. It's gone up 500%. I bought anything that I bought, anything that could do with homes like patio furniture, pool companies, renovations because of COVID So I've done very, very well. So you've got to look at, in my opinion, what's happening in the future. What are going to be things that people want and need. And like we talked before, off, offline. That's why I've gone heavily into changing my, my, my platform from events to YouTube.

Yeah.

I'm basically taking my content, the events that I teach people on how to become, you know, financially free and start businesses and invest in real estate and just dropping them into YouTube.

Yeah.

So he who is most flexible wins.

Yep.

Look at how you can take what you love to do in this modern technology based world and then if you doubt that you could do it, I always, you know, say to myself, well, if Elon Musk can launch rockets in his on his weekends and yeah. And has, you know, he's $100 billion this year from Tesla stock and he's got a solar company and he's got five kids.

I think there's probably a little bit more that I could do. So you really be committed, be creative. We've got to all go back to being voracious students and learning quickly and then pivoting and moving forward. So it's a long answer to your question, but I guess the bottom line is be curious, be coachable, be committed and be Creative.

Yeah. I mean, dude, you gave me four. Yeah. The answer, I think, is what entrepreneurs need to hear, right? Because most of them are locked up in their rooms, are isolated there alone. They're not admit, they're not in masterminds, they're not in mentorship groups, they're not in any place where they can be around folks who are similar to you and I and that we're trying to create a legacy that outlives us. Right? So we, you know, we're constantly teaching and mentoring as best we can from people who taught and mentored us. Right. We're trying to give back in that area. And I'm seeing far too many entrepreneurs, rather than being resourceful, they're letting fear be their main emotional driver. And as a result, they're making foolish decisions with their cash position. They're making foolish decisions with over leveraging themselves. You know, they're watching, they're not pivoting, they're watching their energy and whatnot kind of fall away because what they're doing is not working. But it's because they haven't done some of the things that you've mentioned, which is especially with the be curious stuff happen, you know, how can you re pivot? You know, you and I both have, are, you know, have been in the live event space, and that is an area that got nailed this year. Right? Because how can you have a live event if you can't have more than five people in front of you? Right. You know, and then, you know, but then to your point, you know, the digital media is creating a methodology to allow us to serve people at scale because of the pivoting. You know, but if we were isolated and we were alone and we weren't asking questions, we weren't being curious, we weren't doing the things that you just mentioned with being committed and supported on, then we would miss all those opportunities. You know, I've learned a long time ago that the best time to actually buy is when the was when the rest of the world feels like everything's falling apart. You know, that's when they'd be in the. That's when you're in the position to, you know, talk about making headway in real estate or in, you know, in equity markets and stuff like that. I mean, when people are fearful, people are selling off things they need to hold on to. And that opens the door for those who are resourceful, who are patient, who are waiting, who are curious enough to do the investigation, to kind of bring that to the forefront. I love it. Ma'. Am. Well, look, let me do this. We've kind of touched on this little bit of YouTube channel that you've been launching. Right. So I'm excited about it. How is that shaping up so far? How can people find you on the YouTube channel?

Yeah, just YouTube rock, Thomas. And they'll find a lot of fun little things that, that we teach. Because it dawned on me the other day when I was looking up some numbers, Stephen, that the average American makes 44,000 a year.

Yeah.

Let's round it up to 50,000 times. 40 years makes $2 million.

Yeah.

If you're going to live to 85, you need to save half of that 2 million to live at the same rate and pay no taxes. What are the chances people can save half of what they earn and pay zero taxes?

A big goose egg, buddy.

So we've been taught to get single digit returns, right? Get your 401k, get your IRA, make 6, 7, 8%, be careful, don't lose it, etc. And we've been hypnosed by a culture because the financial markets make a percentage off of the total asset, not on the return so much. So they just want money in the bank and they make a small amount off of a big amount, which means that the average hard working American loses. So my fight, and that's why my podcast is rock your money, rock your life. That's why my YouTube channel circles around this is for the simple reason is that if you don't find a place to get double digit returns with the 10 or 20% that we're going to teach you to save, you're going to work hard for the rest of your life.

Yeah.

So real estate is an obvious place that you can get 25 to 30% easily. Most people don't know how to do it because they don't understand it. And there's three reasons they don't get into it. They're consumers, so they never save the down payment. Their credit rating is not something they pay attention to, so some of them struggle to borrow money. And finally, emotionally, when we talk about mindset is people have heard the horror stories or had the experience where the tenant left in the middle of the night, we're a leaky toilet and they're busy running their kids to soccer and doing things. They're like, honey, I can't handle this duplex we have and all the problems. Can we get rid of it in the first three years? You've got to be strong mentally. You got to understand that that's where you're going to separate from the pack. And that's where the money starts to come in. On the YouTube channel, I teach people how to be resourceful, how to win the money game, how to get out of the rat race, how to live an epic life and take the last five years of you working your ass off, bring it to the current five years, double up. Because if you're spending everything you're earning, but you're willing to, to work twice as hard for a short period of time, you can save all that money, invest it, and you won't work 40 years, you'll now work 20.

Yeah, absolutely. Let me, let me. I wasn't going to ask this question originally, but.

I think your perspective is spot on.

Let's talk delayed gratification for a little while, because I've found that most people, if they'll put in three years of hard work, they can get basically the down payment of things that they need in place to then start what I refer to as the monetization, monetization snowball. How important is delayed gratification in getting where you ultimately want to go?

Well, it's a separator from successful people and average struggling people. Yeah.

It'S it factor. Right. It's your ability to delay the things that are going to stop you from getting what you want. Most people, let's face it, they don't want to brush their teeth, they don't want to make their bed, they don't want to do their budget. They want to have a pleasureful life. So when you can stack up all those things, I call it increase your earn, decrease your burn, and take the difference and invest it.

Yeah.

By the way, if I gave somebody a million dollars and they don't know how to invest, won't be long before they've lost or made bad decisions. Trust me, I've done it myself.

So your new job.

Your new job, if you're listening to this, will, will be and will always be learning how to manage your money.

That's good.

So you might as well start. You might start, have less than you want so that when you have more, right, then you manage it better. Don't wait. Most people go, well, I'll wait till I have money to manage. No, start managing the small amount you have and then God will give you the response. And they see the responsibility, say, okay, we'll send more resources to that person. They're taking responsibility. They're not delaying the things that need to be done.

Those that are faithful with the little will be made masters. Over much. It doesn't get any clearer than that as far as I'm concerned. No, dude, I had to hit that because I think people need to hear more of that because of essentially the marketplace we're in. We're always being sold something. I mean, you open the refrigerator door and you see brand after brand after brand after brand after brand in the way in which our, at least the American culture is. And I don't know about the Canadian culture as a whole, but my understanding is the world kind of perceives it this way, where we're constantly being told, if we get this or if we do this, then we'll be happy, rather than actually learning the types of things that you've been sharing and then simply applying them consistently over time. That way you actually get the promise that's actually hidden in the principle.

Yeah, yeah. Well, I say more than ever, people want your eyeballs because when they have your eyeballs, they make money. You know, you have an Instagram model, Instagram model that, you know, lies on a mattress and gets the bed for free from Simmons because they have 100,000 eyeballs on that and they know that that's free advertising. So we live in an eyeball consuming society. And everywhere you go now, the doctor's office, the airport, the shopping mall, there's screens everywhere trying to get your eyeballs. Buy this, do that, here's a pill, here's a pain, here's a solution, etc. So we need to really be conscious of what we allow to come in, because whether you like it or not, environment will win over you.

That's right. That's right. Well, dude, I've loved our time as always. I love hanging out with you every time. I always pick up some new insights and always pick up some new stuff. I can't wait to even do it again. But how can people find you now in the future? So YouTube for sure. But how else can we find you? Stay connected with you?

Yeah, they can go to rockthomas.com, free book. I have a gift for your listeners. They want to go check out the book. It's the top 10 habits that helped me become a millionaire. And I think are crucial I put them into rules. Because when you follow the rules, you get a result. When you break the rules, you get pain. So the top 10 rules of success, that's the best way. And thanks for having me on your show as always. It's a delight.

Dude, it's always good to see you again. All right, man. Well, you take care. I'LL talk to you soon. What can you say? Rock. Thomas is a rock star. If you love that interview, do me a favor. Check out this one right here, because I know it'll keep you moving. Everybody has a superpower. The problem is, people are so focused on wanting to have somebody else's superpower, they never take the time to discover their own.