029: Maxing Out with Ed Mylett

Hi, I'm Natalie. Jill, fat loss expert turned high performance coach. When odds are stacked against us, how do we shift and create everything from nothing? How do we level up when we aren't feeling it yet or we've had a big setback? On this podcast, I'll be talking to some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on this planet who at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than they ever dreamed possible. Leveling up and creating everything from nothing. Nearly two and a half decades ago, Ed Mylett and his newlywed were showering at the apartment complex they were renting's outside shower because their own apartment's water had been turned off, their car had been repossessed, their electricity bill had been shut off, and now they didn't even have running water. Now, growing up as a child in what Ed describes as a typical dysfunctional household, Ed was shy, humble, and he enjoyed silence. He didn't expect anything great to happen to his life, but he did have dreams and a strong vision for a life of possibility. He believed in investing in himself and in finding others who would believe in him. Now you can become an entirely different person by changing your thoughts and actions and outworking anybody. And that's exactly what Ed did. And he practiced gratitude, he prayed, he had strong intentions and took massive action. And that's what changed him into an entirely different person and propelled him into a high level of success. Today, Ed is one of the premier business leaders, peak performance experts, and motivational speakers in the world. He has a passion for mentoring and coaching others on what it takes to become a champion in all areas of life. He has shared the stage and has very close personal relationships with other business legends such as Tony Robbins, John Maxwell, Phil Knight, and many others. Join us today and learn exactly how Ed Mylett continually levels up and creates everything from nothing. Today I've got Ed Mylett. Ed, I am so excited to have you here because I was telling you right before I started pressing record that you were literally the first person I wanted to have on this show leveling up. And I've. I'm full. I've been stalking you for months. I've watched all of your content. I've watched every interview you've done. I just love everything that you stand for. Thank you so much for being here today.

Thank you. It took too long to do it, but I'm grateful we are now.

Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. So the reason I wanted to have you on this show is you literally are the epitome of success. When someone looks you up. They see what you've done online, they see what you've done, your book, your show, everything. It looks like you've just always been this huge success story. And I know some people might just roll their eyes and say, well, he just born that way. He had that. And. But the more I started digging into who you are and how you became who you are, I realized that's really. That was not what you were born into. You really were not that at all. So I would love to know who you were before all of this. Who you were before.

It's funny, I gotta be honest with you. Even when I hear sometimes I get introduced, I was. Thank you for saying all those nice things. I don't know that I still really find myself or feel like I'm successful. I'm not naive enough to think that there aren't some amazing blessings, you know, in my life. So I see that as we're talking, I'm literally looking over my laptop at the waves crashing. So certainly, I know, I know I'm blessed. That's for sure. Before, though, sort of some of the financial success and some of the turnaround, I grew up, you know, the Reader's Digest version, I guess the short version is I grew up in. I guess what, I guess nowadays more and more is like a normal family, meaning it was pretty dysfunctional. My dad was an alcoholic my entire upbringing. Now my dad's sober, now he's my best friend. But I grew up in an alcoholic home. So anybody listening to this that sort of grew up in some sort of dysfunction, whether there was divorce or financial issues or drug or alcohol addiction, or you just. Parents just didn't get along, you know, I related to that. And I think that what that did, that environment contributed to my overall shyness and insecurity. So I grew up really shy, introverted, insecure person. And I still to this day have to sort of ward off my shyness and introversion. I don't. I probably still have insecurity too, now that I say it, but I didn't grow up like this, let's put it that way.

Why do you think you were shy and insecure as a kid? Was it because was your dad overshadowing you or was he telling you were shy? What was making it about you that was shy and introverted as a kid?

Great question. My dad the best. But I'm named after my dad. I'm the third. And so I was literally. My dad's a big guy, and I'm not naturally. I mean, I'm muscular, but I'm not 6 5. And so my, I was always called my. They didn't do it on purpose, but my parents would introduce me as. This is little Eddie. He's shy. And you know, you hear that a thousand times as a kid and people say, well, don't ever say you have a proclivity for shyness. Well, I did. I'm a quiet. I'm still a quiet person. I still enjoy silence, frankly, you know, I don't need lots of people around me. So, yeah, I was introduced that my dad has my voice. So take my voice with a guy who maybe got intense from time to time, to put it mildly, and was drinking. You know, I grew up kind of a scared now. It's funny because if you met my dad now, I mean, I adore him and he'll listen to this. So I need to make sure that everyone understands. My dad's amazing. But at that time of my life, yeah, I grew up in a pretty, you know, intense, dysfunctional environment and I was the oldest boy of three little girls. So I was sort of put in charge of being the man, you know, when I was 7, 8 years old and so just grew up that way. I got bullied in school because I was undersized. And so it's, you know, it's not a sob story, it's just, it was, it just I grew up that way and I. And still to this day, you know, I was just at a social thing this weekend or a lot of very well known people at a club I belong to. And I found myself more and more even this weekend, like kind of hiding in the corner, still introverted. And it's harder now that I'm a public person because people notice I'm hiding now. So it's something that I still work on to this day.

Now, even before you got to be known as this public figure and I want to. I'm gonna get into that in a little while because you sort of came out of nowhere as far as that's concerned on social media and everything in this last year. But before that though, you've been successful for years and really hugely successful. Did you know you would be that as a kid and how did you get to that point? Because I know at one point you were even. You wanted to be a baseball player, correct?

I never thought I was gonna do anything except play professional baseball. I had some injuries and frankly, it probably gave a premature end to a career that would have ended anyway. I don't think I was quite good enough to play in the big league. But I was a really good Division 1 college baseball player, I would say. I think that's documented, but, no, in fact, I grew up in a family to this day. Like, being successful, like, financially is not a priority in my family. So material things, financial success. My dad and I, at Thanksgiving, I said, hey, dad, let's jump on my jet. And me and you, Max, my son, let's go up to play at pebble beach and play a couple days of golf up at pebble beach, right? That's kind of a dream thing if you're a golfer and pebble beach is beautiful. Jet. My dad literally looked back at me, he goes, you know, why don't you and Max just go do that, and when you want, drive out to Chino and we'll play at El Prado. And that El Prado is, no offense anybody lives out there, but it's kind of a muni golf course. $30 to play there. Like, my dad just doesn't care. My dad's never been on my jet. It's hangered about five minutes from my dad's house. My mother and father have been there once to ever see it, because I pretty much begged them. There's just no material drive in my family at all. I go to Hawaii every year with my family on a company trip. My parents have never agreed to go. They don't want to see Hawaii. They don't want to go there. It's just they're happy with very simple things in their life, which is wonderful because it probably keeps me grounded. But, no, there was no one in my ear as a kid going, you're going to be successful, you're going to be wealthy, you're going to help millions of people. You're going to be somebody. So it didn't occur to me. But I will tell you that as a kid, like any kid, I would walk on these beaches as a kid and look at those houses. And my wife, who was my girlfriend in high school, I would say, hey, babe, I'm going to get you one of those places someday. So I was always a dreamer, but I think it was literally a dream. Not something that was expected of me, nor do I think I probably really expected it all to happen.

So that's interesting. A lot of people say they had a vision and they had. And you're saying that right now you dreamt of it and you had a dream for it, but if you didn't have a family or anyone telling you that that was sort of in reach. What made you Think it was even possible to go for it?

It's great question. And this is something I recommend to people. You're. You're good at this. I, I started through my company, started to win some like incentive trips to nice places.

Okay.

And I find myself, you know, I'm in my early 20s, I'm at the Ritz Carlton in Hawaii, and I'm walking around the lobby there and I'm like, hey, I like this. This is pretty cool. Sorry, someone just ran my doorbell. This is pretty cool. Lily, that's just the door. Baby, that's the door. Stop. And so I end up, I'll start again. I end up winning this incentive trip with my company to go to the Ritz Carlton in Maui. And I remember walking around there and going, wow, I really like this. This is cool. And the more I started to touch dreams, like just little one night stays at different places kind of over time, I'm like, you know what? I like this. And I belong in an environment like this and I'm comfortable here. I think the more you touch your dream, the more you see something, the more you experience. If it's one night at a nice place, a nice meal, a decent bottle of wine, whatever it is. I started to become accustomed to it. And the way your brain works is it gravitates towards what it's most familiar with. And I started to become familiar with some pretty nice stuff and some pretty. And you know, it's like anything you walk around the lobby, you're like, wow, I like that marble there. I like how they. If I had a house, I'd put that there, you know, and you just start dreaming. And slowly but surely my experience is like, transform me. There's one thing to learn things, there's another thing to just experience something. It's a thousand times more powerful. And so these experiences over time started to transform. Like what I, what my expectations and my standards were for my life changed based on some of the experiences I started to have.

So I know that I see that and I know a lot of people see that connection with. They have to experience it, to have the feel and have the vision for it. But I know also a lot of people stop themselves with, they, they think that they're going to get to six figures or they're going to get to a million dollars. Like, I'm guilty of that. Like, I've never in my life said I will get to $100 million in revenue. It's never even brain. So how did you get. Because you didn't just Go to kind of successful. I mean, you went to uber successful. So how did you experience that Ritz Carlton go from, you know, where did that come from? That grandiose level?

Yeah, that's a great question. So I believe, you know, that I'm a person of faith. I think God prepares you for the next level when you get there. And so not every level that I get to, you know, could I see 10 levels past there clearly. When I bought my first house for, you know, I don't was $400,000, did I think someday I'd have a couple, you know, $100 million in houses? Right. But so, but I will tell you, I'm in love with like, the process. So here's a big thing for me and this is, I don't know, maybe it's because I was raised this way. I decided here's what most people struggle with. I just going to be real with you. You know what kill most people, they're negotiating the price of their success all the time. In their mind, they're always negotiating the price. Is it worth it? I've come so far, it's so difficult. It's costing me so much. My family' and they're in their mind, they're negotiating all the time. Should I keep going? Is it worth it? Like, this is a major conversation. Everybody listening to this is nodding, going, how's he know I do that?

It's so true. I'm nodding right now.

I do it with your podcast or whatever. Like, you're like, is it worth it? Like, my. It's not growing the way I want, or it's costing me this or. So people are always negotiating the price right here. Interesting for me, I decided pretty early on that as long as it was legal, ethical and moral, I was willing to pay any freaking price to win. So once you've done that, it alleviates all the negotiation. And my will to win can't be bought. You can't buy me. In other words, what happens to most people is they get bought with their house. They're like, okay, I don't have as much drive anymore. I stole your will. Or they get bought with an income. They get bought with a car. They get bought with a relationship. And what I mean by bought is getting these things steals their will to pay the price. I just don't. You can't buy me. I just decided young, in my early 20s, you cannot buy my will to win. It's not for sale. I have everything through this decision. I know you know this, but it's Might as well just say this, like, here's the platform of my life, and it serves me well. I'm a Christian, but I don't care what your faith is. I'm not pushing my faith on you, But I believe at the end of your life, I'm going to meet God. He's going to go, hey, well done, good and faithful servant, by the way, here's the man you could have been, the person could have been, the experiences you could have had, the moments, the memories, the contribution, the people, the places, the things you could have helped, you could have done. Meet him. Here's the dude I made you to be. And to me, heaven is, when I die, I meet that dude and we're identical twins. And I say, man, I'm. Yeah, I'm chasing you all my life. And he goes, man, you caught me. We're the same. Hell is dying, and you meet that person, and you're complete strangers. And so every decision I make almost to every decision goes through the prism of does this choice, this action, this decision get me closer to that person to be identical twins, or does it move me further away to be total strangers? Never been about the jet or the house, although they're wonderful. I'll just be honest with you. People say, well, material things can't make you happy. That's a lie.

Oh, they definitely can't.

Ask anybody out there. A lady. You bought your pair of shoes. You were damn happy when you bought those shoes, right? My jet, when I got out, damn happy. Now, here's what I will tell you. It doesn't fulfill you, though. There's a huge difference between happiness and fulfillment. Happiness is a temporary emotion that's fleeting. It comes and goes. Fulfillment can be permanent. It fulfills you. And so material things won't fulfill you. And so I never confused happiness and fulfillment. Material things make me happy, but I'll be honest with you, they don't fulfill me at all. What fulfills me is being the man I'm capable of. I'm in love with the person I'm becoming all the time. And so as long as you're chasing the person you're becoming, these stages of life just sort of happen as you go. And I got to be honest with you, I didn't know that was rare until I got to my mid-30s. I'm like, oh, that guy checked out at 31. That one slowed down at 32. She sold out once she got to 100 grand. That person got a nice house. They checked out. I just didn't check Out. So what I'm an example of is what your life could look like if you were just consistently on your game. If I could say one thing about me, I'm consistently on my game and I work on days I don't feel like it. I work on days I'm not motivated. The separator is always, I need more motivation. Yeah, you do. I have tons of it. But let me tell you what separates me and the elite achievers that you're going to meet. We work on the days we don't feel it.

You know what? Something else I've noticed about you that I feel that makes you stand out is I don't think you're a people pleaser. And I say that because even I think a lot of people will be stopped by their parents even saying, I want to live more humble. I want more modest, making people feel bad about achieving big things. And it seems like you don't. Maybe you care, but you don't seem like you care about that and that's maybe helping you stay out of that gap.

I think it's so great question with me. I love people and I don't like criticism. By the way, I'm not one of these people. You say, I just don't care. It's not that. Let me be candid with you. It's because I know I do that I sort of worked that out with myself in the beginning. In other words, that was part of the price I negotiated in advance. So here's the deal, everybody. If you're going to try to do something great with your life, transform your body, transform your business, transform your relationship, okay, part of the package, okay, just get this. Part of the package is the vast majority of people are going to hate on you about it. And the most difficult part of that is that the very people you may be trying to do it for are the ones who pull you down the most. And that happened to me. But it's just that that's the most. You're like, well, wait a minute, I'm trying to do this for you. Why are you. And they love you. There's giving you bad advice. And so I got a lot of bad advice from people who loved me. And I just decided in the very beginning that it was not going to. Here's the deal. You're going to let something derail you, whether it's a setback, money haters, or then just don't do it. I just being real with you, like, look, I just told you my will to win is not for Sale. That means if my daddy doesn't like what I'm doing, too bad. I'm gonna win. It's my life. I have to face me at the end of my life, not my dad. Yeah, I have to face me and God, not my friends. I face me and God at the end of my life. I'm not answering to them, and you're not answering to them. And guess what? I'll give you a secret. Once you win, they're gonna tell you they knew you were gonna do it all along. I promise you. On the other side of it, they're going to ask you to use your beach house. They're going to want to know if they can fly in your plane. My parents won't do it, but believe me, everybody else does. So trust me when I tell you, you just have to let that go. Because it's an addiction. You have an addiction to what other people think about you. It's the same addiction of how many likes your post get is. The reverse is worrying what people think about you. Here's the truth. Other people aren't thinking about you. They're thinking about what you're thinking about them. Leave it. They're going to make comments, they're going to say some things, but they spend the vast majority of their life insecure about themselves, not obsessing about you.

That's a really good point.

That thing they whisper when you walk away about how your business is failing and you've lost your mind and you're all about money or whatever. The thing is, it's part of the price you pay to be great.

Yeah. Wow. Now. And I want people listening to know. So somebody listening might say, well, that's great. But he's, you know, always had this success because we skipped over from kind of being a child to, you had dreams and then you did this. But I want people to hear that you, as an adult getting married, you were so poor that you even. I heard that you even had to take showers at the gym. You didn't have a. You didn't have a place with running water. With warm water.

Yeah. So here's the thing. Probably one of the reasons I'm so conservative with money is I'm more afraid of being poor again than I'm excited about being rich, if I'm being really honest. Because being super broke as an entrepreneur, see, there's two types of broke. There's employee broke, which is like, hey, I'm behind on my bills.

Sure.

Entrepreneur broke is a whole different type of broke. And now all the heads are nodding of the entrepreneurs. Entrepreneur broke is scary because entrepreneur broke is. I don't know if there's more money coming in. Yeah, when your employee broke, you're like, all right, we're behind, but I know I get 2000 next month. When you're an entrepreneur, you don't know. And so I went through some very scary times as an entrepreneur, and one of them was I just got married. I had converges of horrible circumstances. Like, three weeks after we got married, I got married to my high school sweetheart. We're already really hurting financially. She comes back to go up to work, and she goes, someone stole my car. I said, you got to be kidding. She goes, there's. It's gone. I'm like, oh, my gosh. Like, the last thing we need is the car stolen right now. And I'm thinking, did I pay the insurance? You know, and of course, I had not. But what was worse about it was it wasn't stolen. It was repossessed.

Oh, wow.

And so then we were down to one car. And then about two weeks after that, we had the power turned off. You can get away with the power being turned off in your life. You know, I've had that happen. Let me tell you what you don't want turned off. Water. If you get water turned off, boy, you can't cook. You can't shower. And so here I was just a few months after being married, and we lived in this apartment, and I'd have to get up with my new bride, and we would walk down the stairs and go to the pool area of our apartment complex. They had one outdoor shower with no door on it, Freezing cold in the mornings. And we would take our showers there. I'd stand and block, hold a towel up while she took a shower. We'd brush our teeth there, clean up, and then walk back up to our house to change. And as a man, it was. I was so ashamed and embarrassed. And I remember just walking. She'd always walk in front of me, and I would just. My head would be down. I just was ashamed.

Ed, how do you create from a space of that? Because I know so many people would be in that space just feeling like a failure, feeling like a loser, going, gosh, I give up. I give up. Let me just. I'm getting a job. I'm just gonna figure this out. They would give up on those dreams. How do you keep going and create when you're there?

It was difficult. I'm not going to tell you that. I have the perfect formula. It was Very difficult. I had even some hard conversations with her where she's like, hey, maybe it's time, you know, maybe, maybe, maybe we can get back to this someday. That's the other thing people will do with you just quit for now. But I knew if I quit for now, that's who I am, right? I'm a quitter. And so what I did do from that space was, thank God I had the ability to still take action on days I wasn't motivated. And I found some people who believed in me. I purposely sought them out. I found some mentors. I found some people who truly believed in me, who kept me going, kept pumping belief into me just enough to get me through on what was really life support at the time. Literally, my being was on life support. And the truth is, I had enough mentors in my life that just said, you can do it, man. Hang in there. You got this. You got it, you got it, you got it. And I finally had a couple breakthroughs where I could get back to even again. And even telling you this right now, I'm being honest with you, my whole chemistry in my body changes. It's that real to me still. I never want to forget that. It's why I'm nothing special. I know what it's like to be completely broke. And I mean broken as a person, too, right?

Yeah. And I feel like so many people, though, when they're in that spot, instead of doing what you just said, finding people that believe in them, they almost do the opposite. They find people to validate the horrible place that they're in. Like, this sucks right now. Yes, this sucks. And then they stay in that this sucks place.

Well, you're. You're brilliant because that's exactly what I teach. When you're in that down spot, what you're trying to do is get anybody to give you an out. Someone to tell you, you're right, you should quit, you should give in. And I was fortunate enough to know. I think I just really knew who I didn't want to be. I just don't want to be average. I don't want to be average and ordinary. I wasn't made to be average and ordinary. I can't stomach average. I don't want it. And so you can't convince me I'm going to be average. You can't convince me it's okay. It's not freaking okay. I wasn't born to be average. I wasn't born to be ordinary. I wasn't born to just exist and get through in my life. And so I've made those changes. There's my front door again. I've made those changes in my life to where I just don't accept that standard in my life. And I didn't even then, even though I was below average, I wasn't going to settle for that. So.

So how did you find people to believe in you? Because I'm thinking of somebody listening right now that maybe they're in that massive failure right now, or they're in that spot where they've, you know, they've. They think they should give up and they're finding people to validate that. Like, how did they. How did you even go about finding those that are going to believe in you if you didn't believe in yourself at that moment?

I'm going to tell you what I did. I'll just give you my version of it. And so I. The first of them were. First of my mentors were just people's books I read and stuff I followed on social media. I really believe in the social media age, you ought to grab on to five or six people that they are that person, even though it's from a distance and I'm serious about it. Like, I think you say, well, I don't know them personally. Listen to their stuff. If it's me, if it's you, if it's someone else, like, let them fill your cup for you as you're emptying it all day. There's some incredibly powerful people. If 25 years ago, Tony Robbins was putting out videos every day like Ed Mylett does, my life would have been a whole lot better back in those days. And I take we're in a time where there's enough of it out there, but you could get. There was nothing like that for me. So what I did was I had to go. I think you're a product of your environment. So unbelievably. And I'm not telling people to risk capital on this. I think you need to find one of these mentors that are out there whom you like. Like, for example, in my case, I did no coaching. Nothing I've ever done is monetized. Ever. Okay, was. Is. I just don't want to be that guy. And I found out after about a year of doing this, I'm like, look, I need to find a way to be able to help some people. So I'm not suggesting that I'm that person at all. But I'll tell you what I did, and then I'll tell you what I created.

Okay?

I bought a ticket to a Tony Robbins event 24 years ago called Unleash the Power Within. In that time and that day, he was that guy. It was a ticket I had no money for. I put it on a credit card that I cannot even believe to this day there was still a balance on.

But you basically invested in yourself. That's what you were doing right then.

I mean, it sounds so nuts, like you're telling me your car's repoed, you have no water, and you're going to an event. I did tell you because the price was. The price I'm willing to pay is not negotiable. And so I went to that event. And at that event, I was now in an environment of other achievers. And so it wasn't Tony Robbins that did it for me. It was the other people in my group that did it for me, that I met, that became friends of mine that believed in me. And we built a little mini Mastermind where we supported each other. But I had to go there to find them because there weren't any in my company. And so having said all that, what I've created is I created a thing called the Arete Syndicate with Andy Frisella, where it's a very expensive coaching program. A lot where we meet live and it's. It's significant investment and it's full. Then we created something called the Accelerator, which is just a few hundred dollars a month. And I mentor people once a week through videos Live. Video Live. Video Live Once a week on Facebook and on Zoom. They're in a Facebook group with me. I messaged them. Andy one week, me the other. We do Q and A. We do teaching lessons. It's just a few hundred dollars a month. And I did that so that people like me, when my water was turned off, could have a mentor at some number that was relatively affordable.

That's amazing. Yeah. And I would love for you to touch about the investing in yourself too, because that's something people miss. They say, well, I can't even afford it. But there is something about that act of investing in yourself, in that commitment that comes with that.

It's funny, it's the one thing, not the one thing, that sounds terrible. It's one of the things that my father always gave me great advice on. My dad gives me such great advice. He's the number one person I take advice from. Now, having said that, back then, my dad said, I think there's something to this investing in yourself thing. I don't know that you can put enough Money in yourself because you're going to be with you all your life. And I really, I took that to heart and I have always invested in myself. I'm going to tell you right Now, I spent $80,000 three weeks ago to go to Dubai with Tony Robbins.

Yeah.

Now, I went there as one of the mentors, but I went there also to be around the group and to be around him. And that's in a massive amount of money, right?

Yeah. Look what you got to do. Yeah.

I'm not suggesting that, that I'm that person or that you're that person, but I can tell you this, you're probably not going to go very far if you're currently not investing in yourself. It's just like what rate of return are you expecting to get on? 0 investment in you.

So when you mentioned earlier that you found people to believe in yourself, did it come from this? Did it come from being in that mastermind, like going to that Tony Robbins event?

100%.

So it wasn't people in your personal life at the moment, it was people you were going to meet by investing yourself.

If they were in my life, I'd have found them, but they weren't, so I had to go get them. It perplexes me where people say there aren't any. That's a lie. People have groups you can join, there's all kinds of associations you can have, there's all kinds of places you could go. But it might require you making a sacrifice to do it. But I would recommend you do that. I can tell you, I still do it. And by the way, most of the people that are on my show, you know what they ask me, will you mentor me? You and I were talking about a few of them off camera. They're not stupid. If they're going to go take an hour, they're like, well, now will you mentor me? Everybody I know that's a high achiever wants better and better associations.

Yes.

That's our formula.

Yes, it's true. Yeah, that's. Now, I'm curious how you view failures now, knowing what you know.

Yeah, I get, I have two philosophies about that. I think everybody you meet, you learn something from. And I Windsor, look, I get winning, believe me, I want to win. But I'm a big progress guy, so I don't really have that many losses, honestly, as long as I've made progress. And so there's been a lot of sales calls I've had I didn't get, but they were progress because I tweaked my presentation. I made an adjustment. So I've invested in businesses that have failed. That's progress, because I now know what I wouldn't invest in. And so I just asked myself whether I've made progress. I'm a huge believer in gratitude and progress. So I try to find what I'm most grateful for in any moment. And I try to see the progress in the moment, even today. To be honest with you, if we could go back and do this call again, I would do it better already. So there's already been. I'm not kidding you. I'm a. I'm a progress addict. So already this call. I'm not kidding you either. I grabbed my phone a minute ago and I typed a little note to myself as you were asking a question. I would go do this better. So the fact is that I'm a progress person. I think more of you need to be about progress than just definitively black or white. Did you win or lose in something?

Because that's how people get stuck in that loss.

Yeah, Like I've just had three losses in a row. Really? Did you make any progress? Right. And if you didn't, it's because you're so focused on only winning or losing that you're really not about getting better. But if what you were really about is the woman you were becoming, the man you were becoming, then you'd be seeing the progress in everything you do, not just the close or the win or the loss.

Yeah. Now, tell me about the gratitude that you just mentioned, because I know that you live that. And how did you live that when you were not doing as well? Like when you had the no water and you were having to go down and shower? How did you stay in gratitude during those times? And how do you do it now?

Yeah, I did it during those times. I had some. You know, everything's a blessing. I remember my nephew was really broke. And my nephew was added like a tumor on his spine. So we had to go to children's hospital. And I went to see him after he had the tumor removed. He was. He ended up being okay. But in the room next to him, there was a little boy with cystic fibrosis who was three years old. This was a couple decades ago. And this little boy was struggling to get air. He couldn't breathe. And I could hear him calling out to his mom and dad, who were sitting right next to him. This little boy was so scared because he couldn't breathe. And I later found that he ended up passing away. But I was hearing this little boy struggle for breath. And then I was picturing his just on the other side of the curtain. You know how hotel is. It's on the other side of the curtain. The anguish his parents were going through watching their little boy die. And I thought, man, I have a. I'm an idiot. I'm an idiot. I can't find gratitude right now in my life. I'm alive, my family's healthy. There's all kinds of things to be grateful for. Gratitude gives you perspective. And I remember just walking out of there that day going, I'm a fool. Like, what a selfish, arrogant fool I am. So I'm 25 years old, and the water's not on. I can breathe. I'm walking. I'm alive. My child's not dying, right? And so it just started, this journey. It was right at my bottom. And they were on the other side of that curtain. And I said, for the grace of God, I'd be on the other side of that curtain, and it would be me there. And so it just always stayed with me. It's like there's always something to be grateful for. Your health, your mind, your future, the possibilities where you live, your friend, your spouse, something, right? And so I'm a gratitude addict. Because it's a muscle people don't understand. This building, that part of your brain that's called your reticular activating system, building that the more you look for something, the more that part of your brain finds it for you. It's a filter, right? And so I'm constantly seeing things that I'm grateful for and hearing things I'm grateful for, because I'm a gratitude addict. Gratitude is the antidote to every single other negative emotion in your life. You can't be simultaneously grateful and sad, grateful and angry, grateful and depressed. It's impossible. And so I'm like, wow, if I could have that one thing, I'd be a pretty happy dude. And so what do I lack? I lack gratitude. And here's what's funny. When you have gratitude for little things that happen, your brain wants to find bigger things. And it's actually the recipe out of failure, the failure you think you're in right now. Here's the crazy thing. If you can begin to find how your sheets feel on your face at the morning when you wake up, you start finding little things to be grateful for. The way your mind works, it wants to go find bigger things. Prospects, clients, money, situations, circumstances and people. It wants to find more of them for you. But if you can't find the little ones. Your brain has no muscle with which to go find the bigger ones. And then there's another side of it. If you can't be grateful when you're poor and down, I promise you, if you don't build that muscle now, it's impossible to build once you're rich. Because if you haven't done it when you're poor, that's why you know so many unhappy rich people, they never learn to be grateful. The other. You're certainly not going to learn gratitude when you're rich if you didn't learn it when you were poor.

That's really. Gosh, that's such great wisdom right now.

I know all kinds of people. I'm like, God bless them, man. They have no gratitude. They have everything to be grateful for. You all know somebody like that and they have none. Because you don't build it. Once you have everything, it's impossible. Now you just want more. So the opportunity life is in your down cycle because in your down cycle is where you could build these muscles of gratitude that will serve you once you are successful.

Yeah, I don't know if this has happened to you. I definitely, as you're speaking, I'm realizing this has definitely happened to me. I feel that in times in my life when things went bad where I viewed it as a failure or bad when looking back, I wasn't grateful for where I was. And it was almost like you're getting regulated.

No, it's exactly right. By the way. I fail. So I fail when I'm not grateful and I'm not looking for progress. And kicker for Ed Mylett every time is if he lets his ego get the better of him.

Oh, yeah. Ego is what I really mean by all that. When ego gets in the way, it self corrects. Yeah.

I want to just stop and tell you one thing because I just want to encourage. Yeah, you're going to be incredible at this. Just so you know, doing this because you have incredible intuition and your intent to serve people and make a difference. Like. And by the way, a lot of people get into this. I just want to tell you something. They get into this so they get better known. They get into this so they. And I can tell you, I honestly think the success I've had in the space is because I got into this to serve people. I got. My intentions were good. It's rare. And by the way, all of you listening in on that compliment I just gave you, this is also a formula for you. You know, what will separate you and it's something you don't give yourself any credit for. Just your intention. There's a massive power of intention. If you want to hear a really quick story.

Yeah, no, I'd love to.

Years later, at that Ritz Carlton Maui I was telling you at, I went there on a family trip, right? So I get there on an incentive trip for my company. Like, hey, I kind of like this. So many years later, I was like 31. I went there on a family trip, I took my family there. And so up one morning, you know, doing what I'm supposed to do. I got up, did my gratitude exercise, and I went for a run on the beach in Maui. True story. As I was running, it was still dark out, and an older man was running towards me, and we crossed paths, and that man was Wayne Dyer. And I don't know if everybody listening this would know who he is because he's passed away, but Wayne Dyer was one of the all time great thought leaders and personal development in the world. Very unique, kind, gentle man. Anyway, so he ran by me and he turned to me, or I turned back. I said, Are you Dr. Dyer? He said, I am. And he was running. I said, oh. And he goes, it's okay. And he stopped running, turned around and walked to me in the middle of his room. And we ended up sitting on the beach for about an hour and a half in the dark. And I literally. It's like out of a movie, I watched. I watched the sun come up with Wayne Dyer. Right. And when we were done, we spent almost that entire time him telling me how incredibly successful I was going to be.

Wow.

And he said, the reason you're going to be so successful is he goes, you have something rare. And he goes, you have really good intentions. And just a few years after that, he wrote a book called the Power of Intention. And so he told me that in that moment. And I held onto that because that was just another person in my life who believed in me, even if it was just for an hour and a half.

Yeah. I'm wondering how, as a child, did your parents believe in you? Because there is a theme, I feel with people that have a lot of success in that, being able to recognize and find people to believe in them.

Yes, my parents did. You know what? My parents did believe in me. And I always, as a boy, I think because I played sports, I wanted to please coaches, coaches liked me. And I think just because of baseball, I figured out there's this formula where I want to be coached hard. And I'm Good at following instructions. I had a coach tell me a business coach early on. He goes, you're coachable at the speed of instruction. In other words, there's no delay between me telling you to do it, you processing it, you questioning it, you doubting it, and then you execute. You just go execute. And so I am really. That's the other thing. Like if you get a mentor, you better take action on what they're telling you or it's relationship deteriorates. So, yeah, I'm always seeking that. And it's a really weird, I'll give you a, it's a name drop thing. But it's just how I'm like this. I have a home and the Kardashians bought a house across the street from my home. Okay, My former home. I went back to visit it this weekend, but it's my former home. And they, I, I happen to think that Kris Jenner would be a good person for me to know. Sounds random, but like she's on this weird list I keep of. It's very short because I know most of them now, right. People that I, Well, I don't know. Is it by mistake that she bought the house across the street for me? Maybe. But I know that I'm going to take advantage of. So this weekend I decided I'll go take a walk. And before I took the walk, I'm like, I'm going to meet her on this walk.

Okay.

I'm out of the driveway maybe 50ft, and she walks right by me.

It doesn't sound random. It doesn't even sound weird to me because you're looking for it, that you did set the intention. You're saying it and then you're. Because if you had not set that intention, she might have been there. You wouldn't even notice her.

I wouldn't have. That's the reticular activator in your brain, right? It's finding it. So anyway, I said, hey, Kris. And she says, hi, good morning. I said, do you knew her? She goes, yeah. I said, she goes, you own that house? I said, no, I used to own it. I'm actually visiting my friend. And I said, it's funny, you and I have so many mutual friends. And we started to talk and we just lit up. So it ends up being sitting on the curb with Kris Jenner for about an hour and a half. Me and her are talking about different things now. What was good about it was she's now, I don't know what's going to happen, but she'll be in my life a little bit now. I know what she told me. I know that. So I'm always still at this stage. And why, you might ask, well, why Kris Jenner? Because I think one of the areas I'm deficient in is marketing. I need a great marketing person. I think she's the greatest marketer in the world. I literally do what she's done with her daughters. She's marketed the show, marketed their brands. And so in that area, which is a small area, but in the area of marketing, I'm like, who would be the best? You know what? There's like four or five. Kris Jenner is one of them. And now we've made contact, at least. So that's an example of how I still.

Yeah, I love that. And I guess I'll say that my power of intention was to have you on my show, and I stalked you, so that happened. So there you go. There you go. So, okay, I have a bunch of more questions, and we're running out of time, so I want to. I'm going to try to get them in. So my. The big one I wanted to know is, why come out so hard into the public now? So you were successful. You said you were introverted, you like to be yourself. But now, in the last year, it's like you're everywhere. So where. How did that transition happen? What made you want to come out more publicly?

I was sitting on my balcony with Tony Robbins in Coeur d', Alene, Idaho, and he said to me, hey, I think you could really make a difference in the world. And, you know, not exactly that way, but I'll clean it up. And I said, hey, man, like, that'd be great, you know, but I like my privacy. And to which he said to me, because we talk this way and you want friends to be candid. He goes, that's why you're such an effing loser. I went, what the hell did you just say? You know I'm a man, right? And I said, what did you say? You heard me. I said, my son was there. I said, max, get your phone out. I said, how's this Instagram thing work? Max goes, the video has to be a minute, Dad. I go, a minute. It's up in a minute. And I go, give me the phone. And I'm sitting right there. I go, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Post that on there. Put some hash browns with it. He's like, hashtags, dad. I'm like, whatever. Post it. A year ago, May, my son set up that instagram account. That was the first video. Tony was my first guest on my show, and it just started. The reason is this. It's really simple.

Wait, did the show and Instagram happen at the same time?

Right about, like, within a month or two of each other? Yeah. And I had been speaking for years on stage, so that was an unfair advantage. Like, there's all these audiences that had seen me speak, but the reason I did it was. Was this. And I'm like, so falling in love. I found my life's purpose, you know, and I was not completely fulfilled. So I had had all the material things you'd want. I had great friendships, great everything. But I did have this sort of hole in my heart. Like, I know there's more for me in my life. Maybe people can relate to that. I just knew there was more. And I also knew that the pathway to it was going to be through serving people. I just didn't know what it was. And as soon as I started to do this, I'm like, you know what? I spent the first 45 years of my life having these incredible experiences. Mentors, some successes, some failures. I have some insights into how to be more successful and also how to articulate it. That's pretty unique. And so I'm going to spend the next 45 years of my life paying that forward, helping other people make their dreams come true. And as I've started to do it, God's been so incredible because it's uncovered parts of me I didn't know I had talents and gifts. I didn't know I had messages, thoughts. And so it's like this muscle that's growing, and I absolutely am obsessed with it. I love it. I'm addicted to it. It's the difference. It's just like, to make a difference in another person's life is so fulfilling. It's so rewarding. It's. It's my calling. I kind of feel like, as corny as that sounds, and so I did it, though, initially just to serve people, and now I've kind of got an idea that maybe it's working, so I'm gonna keep doing it.

So I love that you're saying that, and I hope people are hearing that. It's like, you didn't even. You didn't even go into it. Like, I'm gonna make more money. It wasn't even about that. Just, I'm gonna serve more people. And this was a way to get it out to more people.

And then you out about that today. I said, listen, you have to find Your passion. Every morning I watch these surfers out in front of my house, right? There's. They're mostly young men and women, they're in their 20s or teens. Right. You know, people say teenagers aren't motivated or the Gen Xers or millennials aren't motivated. Let me tell you something. These guys are out there at 4:30 in the morning and freezing cold water. Why do they go out there? They're not being paid because they love it. Because it's. They don't need an alarm clock. No one's motivating them. No one's screaming to get out of bed. No one's put a compensation plan or an Instagram video in front of them. They go out there because they love it. They're called to the ocean to do it. Right. If you can find something like that in your life, you'll never work another day again. And so I found this thing where I don't need to get woken up, no one needs to motivate me. It's not something I'm grinding through. It's a passion of mine. And through your passion you'll usually find your purpose. That's a truth. More you go, what am I passionate about? I'm passionate about animals, I'm passionate about children, I'm passionate about curing disease, I'm passionate about inspiration, I'm passionate about fitness, I'm passionate about money, I'm passionate about relationships. I'm passionate about my faith. Whatever it is, through that passion, if you start to do something with it, you'll find the purpose. And then once you find the purpose, you'll probably be able to monetize it if you choose to. And now I'm just where I have to monetize it because I want to go deeper. Right? To go deeper with people requires time. And the one thing I can't part with is just time that's going to have to be compensated for.

Totally.

Separator.

Totally. So, okay, I've got a question. If somebody is listening to you right now and they're in that rock bottom spot, so maybe, maybe it's as bad as it was for you when you lost your water, or maybe it's not. Maybe it's more recent and it's, it's like they lost their business or it's a perceived failure, their marriage fell apart, but they're in that beating themselves up mode. What are some things that you would tell them that they can start doing right now? To start shifting themselves, start leveling up and start create something new?

Okay, so One of them, only 20% of them will take advantage. But I need to say this. I would. I would tell you to pray about it. So I'm probably one of the people would say this, but I would tell you to pray if you believe in God, if that's part of what you believe, if it is, I'm amazed by how many people that say they believe in God and then check God at the door in their business. So that's like kryptonite. So if you believe in God, if that's a belief of yours, why in the world is he not your business partner? That would be the first thing I would tell you if you have that belief. So then. And then after that, whether you do that or not, I want to make sure that you understand something. Your current conditions are not who you are. Too many people can confuse their conditions with their identity. Your current conditions are not who you are. Let's be very clear about this. You're far better than where you are right now, and you're going to change that. Your past does not equal your future and your present does not equal your future. So those are established truths, what I just told you. You have to accept that. And now let me say this to you now, you have to take some actions. And there's a power to just taking action, just moving. I promise you. The separator between people that win and lose is their activity level. It's making the phone calls, it's meeting the people, it's reading the book, it's growing, it's changing your diet. It's a fitness thing. It's an action. Can you take massive action when you don't feel like it? And the answer is, of course you can. So my thing for you would be, I would pray. Okay. If you do that, I would be absolutely understanding that my conditions do not define who I am. I take massive action. But here's the biggest thing. Almost everybody that I meet that tells me they want to be successful, when I ask them what they want, they don't know. I'm just being honest with you. They just don't know. They're completely unclear. They don't know. I want to be happier. I want to be successful. I want to be financially independent. I want to be in shape. That means your brain has no idea what any of that crap means.

Why is that, by the way? So many people don't know. Yeah. Why are people so confused with what they want?

They're not. They don't want to put a specific thing on it because then they could be accountable for it. Oh, it's an avoidance tech. It's an avoidance technique. I want to be successful because if I asked you the exact amount, then you'd be under the gun to do it. Clarity is one of the biggest, best things to create. Lack of clarity is one of the best things to create confusion. Complexity is the enemy of executing. So if you can keep things really complex and unclear, you never have to execute. And so that's the separator. I talk about this in my book. The separator is if you can get crystal clear on what you want, your brain goes to work on magnetizing that for you. The people, places, things and resources. Your brain can't process a vanilla file of happy or successful, but it can process 10% body fat. It can process a million dollars in the bank. It can process $300,000 in income. It can process 40 new employees or 30 new recruits in your business. It can process specificity. So specificity is the key to achievement.

And I want it. I want everyone to hear that you said the number three that you said, too, because you did say take massive action, too. And I think people lack that, too. So somebody might pray and they might get clear on what it is is that they want, but then they don't take the action towards it.

There's a great scripture in the Bible that says faith without works is dead. So you can sit around all day long and pray your little butt off. And the fact of the matter is, that's a hope, not a prayer. A prayer is backed up with work. A prayer is backed up with action because a person of real faith expects the results to come, and so they act in accordance with that. So you're really not even praying if you don't take action. You're hoping and wishing, which is completely different than praying. And so any of you that have faith, I would challenge you. Is that a real prayer or is that a wish? You know God's going to deliver it to you. You should be acting in accordance with it right now. There's a great. I didn't even know we're going to talk about faith today, but it just applies in life. There's this great scripture in the Bible called the Parable of the Sower, where. And by the way, I'm not a Bible expert. I'm starting to sound way more biblical than I am. But this great parable about if you plant these seeds, sometimes the wind gets some of the seeds, the rain, the birds, but eventually there's a harvest. Okay? The fact of the Matter is, though, the key part of that is the seeds were planted, the action was taken, calls were made, people were contacted. Stuff happened. That's the point. It's not just that there was a harvest and a blessing. Someone planted the seeds. So whether you have faith or not, the fact of the matter is you got to take massive monster, crazy, killer action. One of my best friends is Jesse Itzler, good friend of mine. Not one of my best friends, but he's become becoming a good friend. He started Marquis Jets. He sold it to Warren Buffett. That was a pretty good little chunk of change. His wife is Sarah Blakely. She started Spanx. That's pretty good, too. And he has this amazing story about how when he started Marquis jets with no jets, and he didn't know how he was going to get everybody to go on one of his jets. And so he couldn't get anybody to rent a jet from him. So he goes to the TED conference and he figures out where all these people mentioned he's got. He's trying to rent jets out. Jets.

Without jets.

Yeah, without jets. And he finally figures out all these people. This TED conference, go early in the morning to Starbucks. They're all going to this one Starbucks before the conference. So he goes in. I'm probably butchering the story, but he goes in, he buys up all of the pastries, all of the sandwiches in the entire Starbucks, and he stands outside and says, hey, would you like a free pastry? Would you like a free whatever, a scone or whatever. And he goes. And a few of them sat down and talked to me, and I got my free first client at that Starbucks that morning to rent a jet I didn't even have at the time.

Wow.

Took massive action.

Yeah.

Like, if you're gonna want to be. Look, let's be real, everybody. I'm being your friend here. You want to be a millionaire, you got to get to work. Massive action. This shit's not easy. You need to go massive action. Throw it out there, make a mess. Here's the other thing. I'm a neat freak. I'm in my bedroom right now. Everything's sort of really in place, right? Entrepreneurship is a mess. You embrace the mess. Stop trying to keep everything ordered, orderly. Is you're going to lose. You need to create messes. You need to embrace the mess of being an entrepreneur, if that's what you are. It's going to be a zoo. It's going to be a mess. There's going to be things everywhere. You're going to have false start after false start, you're going to get it going and then it's going to go back. You're going to get it going, it's going to go back. It's going to keep happening until you break through. You got to embrace the mess and just go. It's so worth it. Life is so amazing. Successes. If you knew how good it would be to be wealthy and successful and take care of your family and go and do and be anything you want. It's a million times better than you think it is. As good as you think it is. Multiply it times a million. I'm telling you, it's that incredible to win. It's that incredible to be on the side of life where, bottom line, you are proud of you. You are proud of you.

Yeah.

Not your friends, not your family, but you actually look, you catch a glimpse when you're brushing your teeth and you go, I'm proud of you. You're driving in your car and you catch your own eyes in the rear view and you love you and you're proud of you. And you did it, man. You did it. It's the greatest feeling in the world knowing what you went through. Give yourself the gift of getting on the other side of that. It's so much better than you think. I promise.

I love this. Okay, now there's something that you said that I had written down that I had to ask you about because this goes with this. Although I don't know that we can top what you just talked about, but you had shared before about this whole idea of one more rep. How you take that in the gym, but you take that everywhere. How you're always doing one more, one more. Can you speak into that a little bit? Because I know that's why. That's another reason that you've overachieved and had so much success with things.

You're so amazing. You know everything. So I do have this thing where I do one more rep in the gym, so. And I do it not to build the extra muscle fiber. I do it because I'm an insecure guy. And I think out of life, you get what you believe you're worth. I think you get what you believe you're worth. See, in business, an unethical. You all know somebody who's sort of unethical, kind of shady, and they're winning right now. Eventually, unethical people can win short term, long term, they always flame out. Ethical people, which you are. That's listening to this. You will only take from the table of life what you think you deserve and what you're worth, you'll never take more because you have too many ethics and morals. That's a good thing and it's a bad thing. It's like if there were a pizza here. The good people, what do they do? They're kind of like, okay, everyone should get their piece. They would never take more from that table than they're worth. So the key then is, if that's true, you have to increase what you think you're worth. And so I'm a psycho about this. I always make one more rep in the gym. I go, one more. So I've never, ever run on the treadmill for 45 minutes. I've run on the treadmill a lot of times for 46.

And you've never done three sets of 12.

I've never done it. I do 13. I never. I always do one more or I fail attempting to do one more.

What a great way to go around life. Like saying, I've always got. I've got one more.

I got one more. And what it does is so even at the end of the day, I'll be honest with you, it's the end of the day, I go, okay, I got to return these three phone calls, right? It's 7:30 or 8:30 or 9:30. Here's how Psycho. I'm giving everybody some insight here. I always make the three. And then I go, all right, I'm gonna do one more.

I love it.

I do it all the time. So here's what's happened. Listen, everyone. It's all the extra benefit that came from doing thousands of one mores in every area of my life. By the way, stack up a week of one more rep in the gym on every exercise. Add that all up after 7 days, add it up after 30 days, add it up after 6 months. Add it up after a year. Add it up after 25 freaking years. Add. Add an extra phone call at the end of every single day in business for one day, seven days, one month, eight months, six years. Can you see the separation?

Oh, yeah.

And here's the other thing. What happens is something transformed in me, everyone. And I'll transform in you. I'm doing shit nobody else is willing to do. So guess what? I deserve stuff nobody else is willing is gonna get. And so it's ship, it shaped, it re. Changed what I think I deserve because of always doing something extra. And it's, it's, it's, it's just now it's who I am.

Wow.

I mean, like psycho. Like my. It drives my family crazy. Dad, you said that was it. I just got to do one more. One more, one more, one more.

But this is a big thing that sets you apart because so many people do just enough. And this is the actual opposite that you're not doing just enough. You're doing one more. You're going extra.

My standard is one more period.

I love this. Oh my gosh. This was so good. This was so good. Okay. For people to get more one your book Max out easy read you guys. And a must have. It's like a Cliff Note version to all of this. So love that your podcast another one also max out. Incredible. It's my absolute favorite one. Other than mine, of course. My favorite one. And then tell them about how they can be part of this group that you have that you one that you said. That's.

Yeah. Thank you. And everyone. I was not selling that because it's. It's right now it's closed.

No, but. Oh, okay.

But you can go to. You can go to edmylet.com and if you submit your email there, I think there's. There's also a site called aretesyndicate.com a r e t e syndicate.com and it says it's closed but if you submit an email there, you'll be on the list for when we re release. I think we're going to rerelease like January 1st and what a great way.

Especially somebody on a budget or to be able to get into on something that's not crazy expensive.

Well, you're going to be that thing is you're on a weekly call with me. I mean this live and then you get to submit questions. It's pretty amazing. We do a lot. We do an in person meeting every year. It's wonderful and it's helped thousands of people. But I want to say something to you. First off, you asked some stuff that other people don't ask today. But this everyone that's listening to this program, you need to spread the word for her because this. You're a great interviewer. I get interviewed. I'm leaving here downstairs as a film crew waiting for me. That's why you heard my dog bark a couple times. There's another. You're excellent at this. You're outstanding at this. So I want to be able to help and support you any way that I can because you.

Thank you.

I appreciate that so much because you have that thing great interviewers have. You're an incredible listener. Thank you.

That made my day. Made my week with that compliment.

Thank you Truth.

Thank you Ed thank you. Thanks for leveling up with us today. Please share this episode if you found it helpful so others can join in. And don't forget to hit that subscribe so you don't miss out on future shows. And if you would leave me a five star review. I appreciate those stars so much. I read all of them and it's how I know that I'm giving you information that you find valuable. And come interact with me over on Instagram at Natalie Jill Fit I read all the direct messages and comments over there. Make it a great day. Creating everything from nothing.