Welcome And The Identity Lens

SPEAKER_00 0:55

Hello and welcome to this episode of Evolve Mastery. I'm your host, Princeton Clark, and I'm excited for today's episode, guys. I'm bringing back a return guest and a close friend of mine who I've gotten to watch grow and evolve, and we've become close, you know, two people who have taken full on the journey of self-mastery, personal evolution, and who show up as leaders who are disruptive in our industries, who truly live to have an impact. But we want to talk about identity today. This is the vein that we're going to be flowing in. You're going to get to hear his story. But before we dive into the podcast, I want to take a moment to introduce him. His name is Tony Watley. Tony became known as the Side Hustle Millionaire after his book with the same title became a number one bestseller on Amazon. But this book isn't just fiction, it's based on his actual story because Tony once led a successful corporate career for over 25 years. But that is less interesting than the side of the business that he created, which generated millions in profit. And as an entrepreneur, actively leading others and leading himself, he still owns a few businesses, but his real passion is teaching entrepreneurs how to start, scale, and sell their business within his podcast and consulting brand 365 driven. Guys, I'm really excited about this conversation because as we dove into identity and we really hit some things and shared some concepts and ideas that I feel like in this episode, they're really going to call you to pay more attention about your choices and how you're showing up in the world. And without further ado, because I could talk about this, this is such an amazing episode, but I could talk about it forever. I'm just going to go ahead and let you guys listen to it and you can judge for yourself. So let's go ahead and dive in to this episode of Evolve Mastery. All right, guys, welcome to this episode of Evolve Mastery. Today, as I said before, we have a special guest, a return guest, actually, a good friend of mine, Mr. Tony Watley, a man of moral compass, a man of leadership, a man of impact, but a man who has also traversed a journey, as you guys know, I bring different people on this podcast who have traveled their own journey of self-mastery. And though, you know, you guys can go back and listen to the other episode that we have, you know, we're both evolving. We're always growing. As leaders, we show up in a way to be the example for those that we lead. And though there are many things that we discuss and we talk about, our goal is to give you value today. And so, Tony, I'm so excited to have you back on the podcast again. So good to have you in this space to dive deeper on this conversation of identity, because you are a man who has evolved so many in so many different ways in your own identity. And as we look at the world, there's so many people lost, losing identity. But welcome, brother. Good to have you.

SPEAKER_03 3:37

Hey man, glad to be back on the show. And I'll I'll challenge, don't go listen to the old episode because you'll hear a different host and a different guest. Because it's probably been a year or two or something like that. A few years, actually.

SPEAKER_00 3:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

So we're not the same people here anymore, but we've evolved, right?

Tony’s Path From Corporate To Owner

SPEAKER_00 3:52

Our identities have shifted. Right, right. Well, Tony, for those who are new to the podcast, I'm going to open the floor for you and just kind of share a little bit of your journey, you know, where it began, and you know, some big identity lessons that you may have learned, not just in business, but in relationships and as an individual. Man, I'll keep it simple.

SPEAKER_03 4:11

I grew up lower middle class, kind of worked my way up through things and always got good grades, played sports, was very athletic. Checked all the boxes of, hey, if you do this, you'll be successful. And if you go to college and get a degree, you'll get you'll be successful. And so I followed the path. My mom's a Japanese immigrant, so I kind of was on that path of the American dream. And you know, I put myself through engineering school and I worked in oil and gas for about 20 years. My passion has always been performance cars and muscle cars. And so while I was working oil, I basically started side businesses because I wanted to be in that industry. And those did exceptionally well. They basically basically overshadowed my income based on my career. And then eventually in 2015, I got tired of the oil industry and how they mistreat people during downturns. And I'd been at the top of the levels where I could see the hypocrite stuff going on and seeing things that were reality versus being uh hidden. And so I decided in 2015 I was going to leave and start be more focused on helping small business owners with their businesses becoming successful, whether that's scaling or exiting. And that's what I've been doing for a little bit over the last 10 years now.

Why Entrepreneurship Is Not For All

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Now tell me a little bit about that, because I know there's a lot of people, there's a huge pivot towards entrepreneurship now. And a lot of people think, oh, I can just stop working my job and I can just go into being an entrepreneur and creating this life where I'm going to make a bunch of money, you know, or get that freedom and that fulfillment. I'd love for you to talk a little bit about that shift, you know, that happened because although you were talking about the side hustles, you wrote a number one best-selling book. It was all about becoming a millionaire, utilizing side hustles, you know. But at that time, it was a lot different than it is now, you know. So you wrote that book, you come out on the other side, and now you've left the oil and gas industry and you're stepping fully into entrepreneurship. What was that shift like for you? And what are some things that you think people don't acknowledge or realize before making a shift like that?

SPEAKER_03 6:17

Yeah, first of all, I don't think entrepreneurship is for everybody. I know that there's a couple of influencers that are big names and they try to throw the whole kumbaya message out there. We should all get along and everything's perfect, and everybody can do this. This is easy. It's not easy because everybody has different risk tolerance. You and I, we have exceptionally high risk tolerance. We don't do things without calculating that risk, but we have a very high risk tolerance. The main reason that successful entrepreneurs can become successful is because they have the ability to see the vision of what are the odds of success versus the odds of losing, right? Or most people want the air quote steady paycheck and they want the steady this and the predictable this, and they don't like surprises because they're very risk averse. Entrepreneurs tend to look at the potential upside minus the potential downside. And let's be real, most of you guys that are still working full time that want to start a business, you're like, you've been talking about it, you're at the water cooler, you've been telling your friends and family for years, I'm gonna do this, I'm gonna start this, I'm gonna go do that, and you haven't done it yet. The reason is because you're so focused on what you could lose. And when people lose their careers, if you've ever been experienced from a layoff or got fired, or maybe just the company you work for closed down, you lost your job, your income. Men especially, they they take that a little bit hard. It's almost like a personal punch to the face, and they feel like their status and in society kind of drops down a little bit because they're kind of unemployed right now, and kind of feeling like a loser because they got to call their friends and ask for referrals, and like we've all been through that. And so to them, losing job, losing income is like horrifying. Oh my god, it's horrifying. I I don't want to go through all that again. I don't have to brush up my resume, I don't want to have to spend an extra minute on LinkedIn, like all these things, right?

SPEAKER_02 8:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

But the reality is that your dream is being held up because you're afraid of getting another job. If the worst thing that can happen is that you go start a company and it fails, and you have to go get another job, that that's what's holding your dream back is getting another job. That's something we have to do anyways. Right. And we've done it many times in our lives. And so I think once people start to r realize that the steady job is not really that steady, because realize that your current employment as an employee is really boils down to one person's decision. That's right. It's always down to one person's decision. If your supervisor has a bad day, or maybe they get the PLs and they look and they go, hey man, quarter's down, we gotta lay off some people. It's always one person's decision from your employment being existing. And so I hate that people put their their dreams on the sidelines and then don't go start the side business. I'm not a big fan of burning the boats and quitting and doing something like use that income. Build build your dream with that income, build the side business. Start focusing on getting new skills and and uh learn from people who have done it, and then hopefully that thing can take off if you build the right business where you don't have to you know solely supply or rely on the the income that you have from your job. And that's what I did probably about 15 years of an overlap.

SPEAKER_00 9:38

That's such good advice, man. I love that you said that, and also the importance of number one, do you want to give someone else that decision over your life completely? No, none of us do, but we've been taught this lie through the education system. We were programmed to become workers, to rely on systems. But I love how you said I don't believe in burning all boats, you know, and doing that. That may work for some people who have, like you said, that high risk tolerance, or they've strategically thought ahead, or they're just like, you know what, I got nothing else to lose. So I'm gonna go ahead and jump into it anyway. But to incorporate the idea that look, use a job instead of allowing that job to leverage you, leverage that job, leverage the income and then create a vision, create a plan, get around people, educate yourself so that you can know how to strategically move. And even if it's putting aside$25 a paycheck,$30,$50,$100 per paycheck, start looking into ways, especially with AI and what's happening in the economy right now and the easier ways to make money. There's so many different things that we can do, but leverage the company. Don't let the company leverage you. And so I think that's where a lot of people get lost. They think they just need to drop everything, jump over here, dive into all these courses and coaching. But there's a difference between having an employee mindset and an entrepreneur mindset. And there's a process, there's a shift that has to happen for most people because it's work. It's gonna expose all of your strengths, all of your weaknesses, everything. And I love how Russell Brunson says entrepreneurship is personal and professional development in disguise. You're gonna figure out what manner of man or woman you are the moment you take this journey. And so there are things you need to consider, but don't just burn all boats if you know that there are people relying on you or your livelihood is literally relying on you because you're gonna create stress and burnout faster than nobody's business. Like it's gonna happen so fast that it's gonna make your head spin and it's not worth it. And you're gonna end up losing your vision, you're gonna end up losing your dream, you're gonna feel like, oh, well, maybe this isn't for me. No, you just you jumped ahead too fast. Don't listen to people who are 10, 20, 30, 40, 50 steps ahead of you. Find people who are just taking that one to five step and start studying, start engaging that. But I love that you brought that up because that's so important.

The Parachute Perspective For Confidence

SPEAKER_03 11:58

I want to share one more perspective that I would say very, very few people have this perspective. That's why I want to share it. It's very important as well. I'm gonna label it so you guys will remember. I'll call it the parachute perspective. I just made that up. Alliteration. P and P. Right. Build your parachute. Okay. I did exceptionally well in my corporate career. I was a multiple six-figure earner working for the major oil companies. I was right under vice president. Had I crossed into the vice president executive roles, I probably would have been making a half a million a year, just to kind of give you an idea. And I did this in a much shorter time frame than my peers, people that I went to college with, people that I worked in the same career with. And it wasn't because I was smarter or I worked harder. I definitely didn't want to be the overtime guy because that was me in the blue-collar world when I was in college. And so I valued my time, always have. But what was it that allowed me to climb that corporate ladder faster? People probably wonder that. It's because the confidence that I've built through entrepreneurship on the side. Now, think about this. Early career, I was probably making a hundred thousand a year, engineering project manager, and my side business at the time was probably making eighty thousand dollars a year. And so don't you think that's going to give you a little bit more confidence that you don't have to worry about, you know, being bossed around, so to speak, because of a paycheck threat or a lack of paycheck threat? And so I saw a lot of my peers being abused by different supervisors along their careers because they couldn't, they didn't have an option. They didn't have the same confidence to be able to stand up for themselves that I had. And so I've always been a hard worker, a high performer, and and always wanted to be fair and always willing to give the company what they asked for in exchange for the money they're willing to compensate me for. But I was not letting them bully me ever. And that's because I had a parachute that I built called my side business. And eventually, even when I was making$200,000 salary, my side business was making$400,000 income. And so my side business that was part-time was making more than my career was, and it gave me such a boost in confidence and knowing that I didn't have to rely on that one source of income that nobody could bully me. I kept people in their lanes and I kept people in their place and I made them respect. And although I did everything respectfully, I just didn't take people's bullying. But I got to see a lot of my coworkers, a lot of the people I worked with get bullied by the same people that could not bully me. And they they know that it's like you and I know we have this presence that somebody's gonna always try to push their boundaries and test you. And if you call them on it or you hold firm, they're gonna realize they can't do it anymore. Because that's what bullies do. They try to pick on you, and if you just tolerate it and you cave because, hey man, you really need this job. Like you need you need to go, you need to show up, you need to go do this and do it again. And and it got to be where even some of the employees started noticing that I was getting what I would say is preferential treatment because they thought maybe I was a favorite, but they clearly knew that the boss and I didn't really get along. So why was I getting favored favorable treatment? It's like, because I don't put up with people's bullshit. I'm fair and I I'm very communicative on what my expectations are and the level of quality that I want to deliver and what time I'm willing to work. And by doing so, I was able to perform without that fear of, like you said, losing paychecks, losing income. And that allowed me to climb the corporate ladder a lot faster because I wasn't worried about what the next person had either. You know, I wasn't looking at my supervisor and going, wow, they have the dream life that I want to have someday. I want to have their office someday. I I was so far ahead of that that I didn't worry about what they had. And it wasn't a transaction relationship of what they could give me. So I was there to perform, I had my own agendas within corporate to be successful, and I didn't let people bully me. And so that's the parachute perspective. If you can build that parachute of income, maybe if it's if if it's enough to pay your bills, imagine that. Imagine how confident you would be if you just built something that could pay your bills on the very minimum. Yeah. And everything above and beyond that would be like spending money or savings money or investing money. But if you could just build that one little parachute, you're gonna walk it, walk around a lot differently.

SPEAKER_00 16:15

Yeah. Oh man, so much there, you know, that guys, if you're listening to this right now and you're not taking notes and you're not considering the power, because number one, you talk about confidence, and confidence happens when we are willing to show up and reclaim the fact that we are creating this life, whatever experience we're going into, we should always be the one dictating to ourselves who we are, what we are, what we want to create, and what our life is going to look like for us. And, you know, a lot of people work these jobs, and you're right, most people, because they just depend so heavily on that check, they've become slaves to their jobs, they've become slaves to the position, they've become slaves to being misused, abused, overworked because they don't have a voice. They won't speak up. But again, it's that fear that if I show up as this version of me who doesn't want to settle, I'm gonna get fired. But it's like, no, the the I love how you introduced the parachute because it's like if I'm creating something on the side, I don't need to be going out here saying, okay, I need to quit my job and I need to build something that's gonna make me a million dollars in the next year. I love just the simplification of what if you just replaced your bills? What if you replaced an electric bill during the summer? What if you replaced a mortgage payment? You know, what what could you do with that extra money to open up doors? Because the problem isn't, and I love how Tony Robbins says this, it the problem isn't that we lack resources. The problem is that we lack resourcefulness.

SPEAKER_02 17:43

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 17:44

And if we could be more resourceful, instead of being so consumer driven, where we're buying all the stuff that we don't need, like you said, we weren't focused on keeping up with the Joneses and what my boss had and what these people have, but so many people in social media land now, because we've become so voyeuristic, they're paying attention to what everybody else is doing and how much everybody else's else has at highlight reels of everybody else's life, which isn't even real most of the time. Most of the time.

SPEAKER_03 18:12

Mine's real. Mine is real.

SPEAKER_00 18:13

Yeah, yours is real. I can vary. My life is a highlight reel and it's real. Yeah. I love it. I enjoy it. But you've worked for it, you know, and it shows. It's why you show up because confidence, we are experiential creatures. Confidence shows up through experience. The more you are willing to step into, embody, gain wisdom, operate in that wisdom to create the life that you want, the more confident you become. But even if you haven't done any of that, one thing that does, and I'd love for you to dive into the power of vision, because if I have a vision, now a dream is different from a vision. A dream is is what you hope to have. A vision is what you can see the steps to achieving. Once you can see the steps, it's easier to step into that parachute method and say, okay, if I just do A, B, C, and D, if I create these resources, put these things over here, then little by little I can get here. Now your confidence goes up. Now, when you show up around friends, family at work, you're gonna you're gonna show up as a different person. And so, how what role did vision play in your navigation as you're transitioning from the parachute phase into full on entrepreneurship?

Vision Boards And Training Your Mind

SPEAKER_03 19:19

The funny thing about vision and you know, manifesting and all these different things, right? I didn't realize the benefit of having that or operating that way until I was probably in my 30s. I'd already achieved some level of success, and I was going back and I was looking for clues on what could have created that outcome. And it really goes back to my mother. Having a Japanese immigrant mother, I was raised with a different, slightly different culture. I mean, she was from Japan and she became a US citizen. And so the Japanese culture is big on visualization. They're big on that. And so when my sister and I were both little, my mom bought us cork boards, you know, with thumbtacks. She hung it up in each of our rooms. And every once in a while she'd gather us at the kitchen table and she would, you know, go go get your magazines and books that you like. And I like cars. So I'd show up with all my little car magazines, and she handed me and my sister pairs of scissors, and we would cut out things that we liked. And so my vision board, which she called it a dream board back then. I was a kid, I was probably five years old. Like, think about how young I was. And I just had these things, and I would cut out cars and stuff, and and stuff that I enjoyed or places I wanted to visit, and I was thumbtacking on there, and that that board kind of just grew over time. And as things, you know, maybe like you you thought were cool when you're younger, didn't weren't cool anymore, you'd pull that stuff off and replace it with something new. But it was like this organic living board. And I grew up that way, and so I didn't understand the value of that. I just thought it was uh something that everybody did. Like, you know, everybody does this, right? I mean, this is this is cool, it's fun. I enjoyed cutting stuff out and putting things up there. And so anytime you win an award or something that makes you feel good, you would thumb tack it on there or hang your little little league baseball medal on the on the ribbon up there with a thumbtack. And so you just became this thing was right above my desk where I would study and build my model cars, and I always was able to look at this thing. And so I really do believe that that was one of the biggest drivers for me learning visualization as a kid. And I just realized like that's how I was raised, and didn't understand the value of that until I started, you know, interacting with more people, probably in my mid-20s and going to people's apartments and seeing how they live and friends and things like that. And nobody had that kind of stuff. And when I would start talking about it, they'd look at me like I was kind of wacky, but I would explain it and I go, okay, that makes sense. But it it breaks my heart that so many people don't have that. And I get it, it's cultural, Japanese are really into that. But here's another thing is that my mom really valued being in the United States because as a baby boomer generation woman in Japan. Women are basically second-class citizens in Japan at that age. And so they weren't able to go to high school. They basically got a junior high education and they were plucked out of the school system to go work in the farms and pick produce. And so boys got the honor to go to high school. And so there was always always that segregation between men and women in Japan. So when she came here from marrying my dad, she realized the opportunity that this country had was so far ahead of Japan that she she embraced all of the cultural things and she wanted to learn about that. And she used to say things to me like, you could be an astronaut and you could be uh the president of the United States. And she was like she had really big dreams, right? Yeah. And I was like, oh mom, come on. I'm not going to be president. I don't want to be a spaceman. I want to be a race car driver, stunt man, or I like doing these things, right? But she was always the one that would fill my brain with these big ideas, like big, big like hey, you could be the president. And she's right, you could go become the president of the United States if that's really what you wanted to do. There's paths to get there. And so I I really put a lot of the visualization that I adopted in my own belief system and my own life carrying forward, but it all became of her. So if you guys are parents out there, this is powerful. You should be implementing this kind of stuff with your children right now, and you should not be discouraging them from pursuing the dreams that they're telling you, even at an early age.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

That's so good. I love how you brought that full circle, especially for parents, because it's such a blessing. And you're right, you don't realize it when you have it. Like I look at my kids, they've been learning this stuff since they were kids. I didn't get that. I didn't get that at all. And most people out there don't get that. I mean, especially when we look at the fact that less than 18% of people actually raise in nuclear families anymore. And the majority of them are in survival mode. All they can barely see is how to get by day by day, week by week, month by month. But my dad worked a great job, but he was an employee and he was the best employee. And he did really great at what he did. But being in entrepreneurship wasn't something that ever crossed his mind. It was go to school, get a good job, the typical trajectory back then. And so when my life changed, I had most of my family coming against me, thinking I was crazy, you need to get a job, get a job. And I'm like, no, like I they wanted you to be safe. Right. They're trying to bring you back to their version of safety. Mm-hmm. 100%. And I I talked to a lot of entrepreneurs who they get that from their family or they get it from their spouses, you know, because they were raised in that same idea of safety. And it doesn't make sense to them. It seems too risky. But I love that you you brought that up because even though you may not be able to visualize, it's not because it's impossible for you to have a vision. It's because you've been programmed and you've developed an identity that can only see what's going to keep you safe. And the brain loves this. The brain loves safety. The ego loves safety. And this is why it will war against every idea, every dream that you have. This is where the imposter syndrome comes from. This is where the self-criticism comes from. This is where the overanalyzation comes from, where you get stuck in analysis, paralysis, because that identity is trying to keep you safe. It's not a bad thing. And I want to make sure, people, as you're listening to this, it's not a bad thing. It's just what your brain does to protect you. But get this fear is simply the absence of information. Your brain is trying to protect you from something it doesn't have the information to see beyond. And the only way you're going to begin to see beyond it is to take new steps to train your brain. Your brain is your tool. It shouldn't be using you. You should be using it. And so we get that a lot of you are not like Tony, which is a blessed experience to have, to have a mom who could dream big for you to inspire you to the point where that becomes so normal that you don't realize you're doing something completely different. Then let's be honest, the majority of people, especially in that time.

SPEAKER_03 25:57

You know, the entrepreneurship though was not in her in her safety zone. Like they they always say, hey, go to go to school, get a job, go earn six figures. That's that's the American way, right? You know, you know, find a woman, marry a wife, have a baby, and white picket fence. Like it, you know, because we didn't have any money. So they didn't realize nobody in my family was a business owner. I was the first entrepreneur. And even when I started my first company, I didn't know shit about entrepreneurship or business. I just realized, like, hey, I want to be in the car space. One, because self-interest, I was gonna buy car parts anyways. I modify cars. I say, wow, how can I get a discount on these car parts? Well, I could just start a business and then maybe I can become a dealer and sell those parts, and they probably give me some kind of discount. They probably give me 25% off, 40% off, and I'm gonna buy that stuff anyway, so I'll just go create this little business. And that's what I did. And so I didn't formalize that business. This is this cracks people up because they think that you have to have all your shit together and you know everything to go start a business. I I disagree with that. I didn't transform that off of my social security and make an LLC until I was already making about$10,000 a month, and that was a lot of money back in 2001. And so I was like, oh crap, this is kind of like a real business. I need I need to go figure out what a LLC is and see what I need to do to get this off my social and put it on a business. And so I didn't have all the answers, I was just executing, but I was good at sales, I was good at understanding what people wanted and the products that they they enjoyed, and I was able to go find those from the dealers and you know, negotiate some contracts to be able to sell their stuff for them. And you know, so I I did a lot through action, but I I learned as I went. And, you know, I wasn't a great entrepreneur in the early days. I was making money, but I didn't really know all the details that I do now. And so that's hopefully a word of encouragement for someone that's listening because they don't want you to think like, well, it was easy for you, you figured this out, you studied all this stuff, you learned all this stuff and you became successful. Like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like I learned as I went and I got punched in the face a lot of times, and I lost a lot of times, and I got back up again, and I just did things a little bit better. And to be honest, you and I I think we'll agree on this. It's a lot easier now than it used to be. Because information was safeguarded back then, and you had to go through the gatekeepers to find the information. Now you got YouTube university, you got these podcasts, you've got books that are really inexpensive. You have everybody like you and I are sharing free content all the time to teach people this stuff. This shit didn't exist in 1996, 1999. It's been a while, and so it's very easy now to go find the information. But surprisingly, it seems like there's a lot less finding of the action.

SPEAKER_00 28:45

You know, but that's that goes to say, you know, we've gotten so lazy, you know, because now it is so readily available. Like if we wanted to do something, we had to seek, search, and apply. We couldn't focus on, you know, trying to get it right the first time because we were just learning as we went. Whatever we found, we felt like it would work, we would try it.

SPEAKER_03 29:05

We would go to the bookstore. We had to go to the bookstore because we couldn't afford to buy the book, and we had to sit there at the table and read books for free, like a library.

Sell Expensive Problems With Skill

SPEAKER_00 29:18

It's so crazy, man. But it's like this this passage I've been meditating on for months now. Hard times create strong men, strong men create easy times, easy times create weak men, weak men create hard times. It's like we went through hard times, though we're grateful. Like we went through challenging times, which forced us or gave us the privilege of being able to grow and evolve. We valued information so much more because it wasn't readily available. And this is something for you guys to think about out there. How much you are devaluing the information that you're now before I say that, there's a lot of information out there that shouldn't be out there. That's the problem with having access to so much information because everybody's an expert, everybody's a coach, everybody's a leader, a business owner, you name it, everybody's a politician with no experience whatsoever. And so you do have to be mindful of the information you consume. And this is why I bring people like Tony on the podcast because Tony he has his own events, he's spoken to large communities across the world, but he's hosting his own retreats, foreign and domestic. And you have to be mindful, but start really looking at and getting clear on what path do you want. And I love how you incorporated, you just found something you loved. You know, that quote, if you do the thing that you love, you'll never work a day in your life. Yeah, it's like you found something you loved, and then you found a way to do it and monetize it in a way that it would also benefit you. And then you realize, wait a minute, if I do this to help other people, I can make money doing this. But it wasn't because you wanted to be to start a business and be this great, successful entrepreneur. It was because you found something you loved that you wanted to genuinely share with other people to solve a problem that you had figured out how to solve for yourself, and that's so powerful.

SPEAKER_03 31:06

And one simple, one simple thought I had, I mean, it's common sense looking back, but it's entrepreneurship common sense. I think still people miss it. Because I knew that I could have unlimited earning potential if I was selling something. If I could sell other people's things, I was I didn't have money, I couldn't produce things, I didn't have my own parts and stuff like that. So if I learned to be good at sales, which I did from working in restaurants as a waiter, as a bartender, and stuff like that, I just knew that if I was going to sell something, it takes the same amount of effort to sell cheap things as it does expensive things. And when you're earning the same percentage of commission or margin, wouldn't it make sense to be focused on selling expensive things instead of trying to sell a bunch of cheap things? And I think a lot of people miss this. Like you and I have seen these people will go join a uh multi-level marketing or something like that, and they're selling these little widgets for$20 a pop, and they're making post every day and they're selling little makeup things for$10 here,$15 there. And guys, you're gonna kill yourself like with all the amount of energy you're gonna burn selling these little$10,$20,$30,$50 widgets. When if you could go learn an expertise in something that sells for thousands of dollars, you're gonna spend the same amount of energy selling. But if you sell one of those, let's say a set of wheels, they're very expensive now, right? Set of wheels, six thousand dollars is kind of like the average range for the wheels I sell. If I earn 25% of that, I earn fifteen hundred dollars on one sale, profit. How many little widgets would I have to sell at twenty, thirty, forty, fifty dollars a piece to be able to achieve fifteen hundred dollars? That's a lot, right? So if you're gonna sell something, which I recommend everybody sell something, sell expensive things.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

Yeah. And it sounds, it sounds a lot of people may say, oh, that's that's easy for you to say. And it's like, it's fact. It's fact. If I want to make more money, I just need to either number one, find a problem, an expensive problem that needs to be solved, and and and find a solution for that problem. Yes. If or find a market that maybe it's not as as expensive, but there's a lot of people who need it. Be smart, be intelligent. But again, do your research, do some market research, reach out to people who have developed businesses, go grab Side Hustle Millionaire by Tony. It's it's a reason why it's a bestseller. It's it's gonna give you guidance, it's gonna give you information to really move to start making the right decisions because you don't have to put on a mask and try to show up like you're ready for something you're not ready for. Just be honest about where you are, do the work.

SPEAKER_03 33:50

Yeah, let's dwell on that one thing you just mentioned the find an expensive problem to solve. When people hear that, you and I take that for granted because we understand what that means. But I think a lot of people hear that and are like, what are you what are you talking about? Yeah, very true. So I'm gonna shoot some examples to you of problems and you ballpark what the value of that problem is, right? So we'll start low. Shoes. Needing shoes, like what how much is that value of that problem? As far as cost? Yeah, like you're like if you're trying to like just range it out. Like I'm if I'm selling shoes, what what level of problem am I solving?

SPEAKER_00 34:31

Not very much of a problem because it's very easy to go out and get shoes, even if you get cheaper.

SPEAKER_03 34:36

$50,$100 problem, maybe a$200 problem. That's the problem you're solving. So that's the value that you're going to put out in the world and you're gonna get compensated on a low dollar thing. Okay. Selling a car, like a brand new car, they're not cheap. Like, what kind of a problem is that solving now?

SPEAKER_00 34:54

Between, I'd say anywhere between we're talking used cars and new car.

SPEAKER_03 34:59

Just new cars, new cars.

SPEAKER_00 35:01

I'd say between 25k to 75.

SPEAKER_03 35:03

Yeah, see, so you can see the the problems jump, but also the compensation on the back end of that also jumps. Putting a new roof on a house,$20,000,$30,000 problem. Building a company or teaching someone to build a company that potentially could be a hundred thousand dollar problem or a multi-million dollar problem, right? Right. A lot of times people don't realize like a big problem is divorce. Divorce could be a very expensive problem, right? Depending on what your net worth is. Yeah. And so attorneys go, hey, we're gonna charge these crazy rates. We'll charge two, three thousand dollars a an hour to work with us, but they're solving a multi-million dollar problem in a lot of circumstances. And so me helping people exit companies, that's a multi-million dollar problem that I've attributed to you know the skill and experience I have. And I'm compensated six figures for closing one deal. And so if you can think of that terms of like how expensive is the problem solving, like you brought up, understand that the reward for that, and it's gonna be harder to get that skill, that experience, but the reward for that is much greater than just selling widgets and small little problem things.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

Right. That's so good. And again, it seems so big to most people. So to us, it's like you say we take for granted because we understand it, it makes sense to us. But the life change that this could create for people, I say again, this is why the vision is so important because the vision gives you steps to seeing how this is possible as to where now it just seems like a dream. Well, how could I ever find a problem that big? Everybody's solving problems. There's already people solving this problem or that problem. But I always say there's there's only one you though. And how do how can you solve that problem in a way that's different? What personality do you bring to solving that problem? You know, what insight? Because everybody doesn't see from the same perspective. Everybody doesn't operate the same way or communicate the same way. You might go to a car dealership and really love a car that's there, but because the salesman doesn't know how to connect, they don't know how to communicate, they don't understand the different aspects of the car, all of the different features and benefits and all the different things that this car adds value or does to bring value into your life if you're gonna spend that money and invest that money. But this person over here who may be brand new, they bring personality. They've studied because they're nervous and they're like, I know all these features and this, that, and the other, you know, and that you know, you'll love this thing. And they're just so excited about the car that ultimately their excitement about the car is what sells you the car, not transfer that transfer of energy, right?

SPEAKER_03 37:32

Yes. But you're you're touching back on identity again, right? You have to become the right person to get the result that you want. And that's that's you can't refute that. You know, uh you and I both know a lot of single people, and you see them bellyaching on Facebook and social media about not finding the right man, not finding the right woman, and they have this criteria that they perceive as the ideal person. I'll I'll joke, you know, it's the six-foot tall, six-pack, six-figure guy, right? But then you look at the woman and she's not taking care of herself, and she's not someone that would be attractive to the person that ideally in her mind is what she would only settle for, right? So people have this really weird thing that I'm not gonna settle for less, but then they're not investing in themselves to become the right person to attract the person that they have as an ideal mate. And so the hard conversation, and I know you and I have had these hard conversations with people, it's like, what makes you think you can solve that hundred thousand dollar problem? Like, have you studied that? Have you got some experience with that? Have you apprenticed at that? Have you gone down the rabbit hole and done some research and put in a lot of reps? Like you have to step up and become the right person to carry the story that you want to have, the products that you want to sell. And if it was easy, let's be real, everybody would do it. Right. But I see that as an advantage because if if I know it's difficult or more challenging to go do that, I have less competition because everybody's not doing it. So I have less competition. That gives me an advantage to realize like I'm just gonna go in and go in it real hard and study this thing and do the reps and do the work and do what it takes. And the result will be the benefit at the end. And so, you know, identity is a big powerful thing, man. You gotta you gotta be able to step up and improve to to go get what you want.

Build A Diversified Identity Portfolio

SPEAKER_00 39:20

100%. That's so good. Man, that just man, that just hit me in my soul when you said, because if it was that easy, everybody would be doing it. If it's that hard, then that's that's even more of a benefit to me. I just have to be willing to shift into the identity that's willing to become a student to this process and to learn the things that the majority are not willing to learn so that I can position myself because I become the option. In the middle of a space where there's very few people, if I become the most reliable, the one who's developed the highest level of communication, the one who's most excited about this thing, who has developed the ability to connect with people or develop a product that serves in a way that people don't have to fight through the noise to find. Like I become the number one guy or the number one woman for the women that are listening. And so that's powerful. Look at the thing that you've been saying is hard. Why are you saying it's hard? And is it hard because you don't want to do the work or is it genuinely hard because of the work that it's going to require you to do or the version of you that you must become in order to do it? Because if the identity doesn't shift, it doesn't matter what your dream is. If the identity doesn't shift, it doesn't matter if you see all the steps to manifesting the vision. Imagine identity is the foundation of everything you build. You can stack all these tools, all these principles, all this information, all the personal or personified ideas of self that you think you need to be, aka the masks on top of a broken identity. And it does not matter how much you learn, how much you do, the foundation is too weak. It's too fragile. It's gonna break the first win, the first challenge, the first struggle that comes, you're gonna cave in. And so your identity and that confidence that comes with developing that identity is very important. And this is a lot of what I talk about in my real framework.

SPEAKER_03 41:06

We also have to be very careful not to hitch our identity to a wagon that we're not in charge of. Right. Right. You and I have seen this a lot where, for example, sports athletes get a career-ending injury, they're out of that sport, they lose their entire energy, they their identity fails because they've only known themselves as a basketball player or a football player, and then that's taken away from them. It feels like a death because they don't have that identity that they've built around that entire sport. And so they have to go reinvent themselves. And unfortunately, you see a lot of them go downward spiral and suicide and drugs and just all these different negative things. And so we have to be careful not to latch our identity to something that we have no control over, like that. But what I what I enjoy is building an identity and understanding that it's going to be an ever-changing thing, and that I'm not latching to certain things. Like I could have said, Well, I'm a Texas oil man, and I'm that's that's my identity, or I'm a I'm a car guy, and that's my uh identity. And so you have all these one-dimensional identities that you see people go all in on is one dimension, and then when that thing gets yanked out from under their legs, it's it's gone and they're they're just disheveled. Like, I don't know what to do, everything's falling apart, blah, blah, blah. So you have to be comfortable building a holistic identity of all these different attributes and things that you're interested in. And you know, give you an example. I'm I'm 53, but people recognize me as a businessman, podcaster, author, power lifter, a skateboarder, and a car guy. I got like seven different things going on, right? And I can guarantee them to you that I You forgot comedian. Comedian, another one, right? Speaker, right? We can add all these different identities. How many of those do you realize like people have built around just one of those, right? They're just one dimension. They like if you go, hey, who's a skater? You're like, oh, Tony Hawk. Like, that's all I know him for is being a skater. He's the best ever was, but he's just that, you know, Michael Jordan, basketball, NASCAR thing more NASCAR now, but but you know, the one that always goes to the top, you're right. So if you have a more diverse portfolio that you're building your identity with, if one of those gets yanked out, it doesn't affect you nearly as much. It's almost like investing, it's like diversifying your stock, right? Ooh, that's good. If you had 80% of your identity in one stock and it goes away, then you're 80% empty, and you're like, oh shit. But if you had 10% here and there and you lose 10% of one, you're like, okay, I'll just fill it with something else, or I'll double up on something else I already enjoy. And so yeah, I guarantee them to you that I've never had a client hire me because of my skateboarding. But what it does do is it shows that holy crap, this guy's 53 and he's he's riding bowls and vertical and taking risks that most people are not. I'm not an it's not an age appropriate sport. But it shows that I'm aggressive and I like to take risks and I have that daredevil personality, which I do, which when I tell people I can help them become more confident, guarantee it I can because I'll show it to them.

SPEAKER_00 44:13

I got chills over here, man. That was so damn good. That's so good. When you look at it like every version of you that you get to become, because a lot, you're right, so many people are one-dimensional. And that was something going back to 2004 that I said I was like, I don't want to be a one-dimensional leader. No matter what space you put me in, I want to be able to impact it, whether it's podcasting, speaking, coaching, photography, videography, graphic design, website, the whole, like there's so many things that I've gotten to do, and so many versions of me that I've gotten to meet. And that's the beautiful thing about life. You don't have to be one freaking version of yourself. You get to evolve. Like, stop listening to people saying you gotta be one thing because that was something that was, I know in my life, just find that thing and stick to it. It's like, no, because most of you who did that are boring. Like you became these boring ass adults who aren't happy in your own life. And even as a kid, I would look at that and say, I don't want to be anything like that. Like I want to do what I want to do when I want to do it. And I get excited when new ideas come. I get excited about learning how to embody the version of me that's capable of manifesting that new idea because I want to show people that it's not impossible to change. I might be one version of me one day and the next day I'm a better version of me doing something else. And I've had people ask me, why did you choose coaching and speaking as your profession? And I say, I didn't choose coaching and speaking as my profession. I chose loving people as my profession. Coaching is one way that I do that. They're all doorways: coaching, speaking, writing books, podcasting, photography, or any other skill that I develop, any other business I develop is simply a doorway that allows me into people's lives to be this formless version of myself that I get to be. And I say I've died to more versions of Princeton than most people have ever become one in their self. But it's because this is the life we get to live, man. And that's why I love you because the way that you show up, it's like I remember again going back to racing cars and doing the improv. I remember watching when you started posting all your improv stuff. And I know I bring this up almost every time I talk to you, but it was so freaking awesome because I had just known you to be this serious, professional driven, like I'm gonna help entrepreneurs because I was getting to know you. Who's this alpha guy always deadlifting and doing crazy man stuff?

SPEAKER_03 46:27

Wait, he's acting like a woman, he's acting like a grandma on a stage. What the hell's going on here?

Health Scares And Living Without Regret

SPEAKER_00 46:32

Yeah, it's like it's it's like I watched you evolve in such a powerful way through that process, and to see how you've evolved even more since then, and how you're always like when you started doing the skateboarding thing, I was like, oh my God, like the that's crazy. I loved it, I loved it, but it made me look at myself as like as a leader, it made me look in the mirror like he's out here skateboarding. Like I used to love skateboarding when I was a kid, but had I thought about doing those quote unquote childlike things since I became a man, like the things I loved. I used to love building ramps and flipping bikes and doing all of that, had a BMX bike, everything, man. And I was like, man, so many of us get older and we think we have to get old, we have to stop doing things that we love, we have to stop learning new things. We get to live this life, and that's what you're a beautiful example of, man. And that's why I admire you so much.

SPEAKER_03 47:25

Dude, the skateboarding, for those who aren't familiar with them, is probably everybody listening to this, let's be real. I didn't start until I was 50. And it was a result of me having a health scare where I had very strong abdominal pains, and I was kind of feeling like I couldn't move for two days. And so we had to go to the hospital and they ran a series of tests on me, and they couldn't figure out what it was, and I was just in excruciating pain, didn't know what was going on. They couldn't give any test results, so that was even more annoying. But as I'm laying in the hospital bed, I said, you know what? What if I never get out of this bed? What if this is it? What if this is the rest of my life? Like they can't figure this out, it's kind of scary, right? And I started thinking about what would I regret not doing given another chance? Like, if if I were to suddenly heal and and be able to do things that I used to enjoy, what would I regret not doing again? And two things came to mind from my childhood was martial arts and skateboarding. And I said, Okay, out of those two, I really love skateboarding. I was really good at it in junior high, eighth grade. And I said, if I get out of this bed, I'm gonna commit to trying at least to skateboard again. And that's what it was. And so when I made a recovery and they could never did find out what it was, it just went out and went away after a couple days. And I said, Okay, I'm gonna I I made that promise to myself, and you know, if God is listening and I put that out there and I don't hold my word, I that's kind of a waste. Maybe I get punished again, maybe I get the stomach pains a week later, right? Yeah, and so I ordered a skateboard and ordered the parts for it, and I built it and I practiced in the driveway and I fell down a lot. And that was a commitment to Lisa because she thought I was crazy too. And I was like, I was like, it is dangerous, but I'm gonna be safe about it. So I bought the pads and the helmet and the gear, and I was like, I'll be safe about it because I didn't want to get injured too. I'm too old to recover from that crap, I don't want to deal with it. So I and I did, I practiced in the driveway, and then I went to a local skate park, and it's a little little bitty skate park, and I got a little bit more confident and I push around the neighborhood, and and now I'm like on 12-foot vertical bowls and doing crazy stuff now. And so, all because I made a promise to myself, like if I given one more chance, this is what I would try.

SPEAKER_00 49:48

Oh my gosh, man. I need everybody listening to this podcast to really sit with that for a moment. Because I know you had that health scare, but I also know you had a near-death experience too when you crashed earlier. And it's the reason why we're both passionate, I know it's because we've had experiences like that, that for most people, it's like they might just go down and just settle with it. But for us, it woke something up in us.

SPEAKER_02 50:11

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 50:12

And it was the realization that tomorrow is not promised. And so when these things happened, we look at it and it's like I say, I fear nothing in this life, but what I fear in the afterlife is the idea that if I passed away now and I met the version of me that I had the potential to be in my life now that I didn't become, like that would be hell to me. That would be hell is to look and see the life I could have created and I didn't, the things I could have done and I didn't. And I don't want to live with regrets. And many of you that are listening to this podcast right now, I want you to really sit with this right now. And I want you to write this down if you're able, if you're driving, committed to memory, maybe pause for a moment and come back to it. But ask yourself, what are some things in your life that you've given up on or some things that you've wanted to do? And maybe you've told yourself because of society, because of family, because of programming, I can't do that. I'm too old. I can't leave my job. I can't travel around the world, I can't do these things. And I want you to really ask yourself if you were to leave this world right now and meet the version of you that you have the potential to be right now, how would that feel? Because we complain about all these little first world things as reasons for why we don't live, why we don't grow, why we don't evolve, why we don't give ourselves the chance and really create the life that we want. Every day you wake up with two C's, a chance and a choice. And what you do with it is manifesting your life. It's creating the lifestyle that you're now being presented. But you can change that lifestyle at any given moment. There's an infinite number of possibilities in front of you in any given moment. Every thought, every action, every decision is sending you down one of those infinite number of paths. And if you look at it through that lens and you really start developing a higher level of metacognition where you're actually thinking about and processing what you're thinking, and you start asking yourself, okay, what could I potentially be if I made this decision? What could I get the opportunity to experience if I did this thing? If I live today like tomorrow wasn't promised? What is one thing today that I would do differently if I knew that tomorrow wasn't promised? And just pick something, something that speaks to you, something you desire. But you don't, you also don't have to pick anything. But what I want you to do is sit and think about that today. How valuable is your life to you? How valuable are your moments? And what can you do differently in these moments just to show yourself that this life means something to you? Stop settling, going through the motions and doing what the world says, doing what society says, focusing on all the noise of religion and politics and all the crap. Come back to you and ask yourself is the version of me that I am currently living and operating through the version of me that I would want to die as? If not, really think about that.

Purpose Above Fear And Being Judged

SPEAKER_03 53:00

Very powerful. And yeah, we're on bonus time. Everybody's on bonus time. Every breath you take is a bonus, right? Because there's no guaranteed. You know, going back to the near-death experience, too. That was 2015, late 2015. And I checked all the boxes, like in societies and status and all these different things. I was had the money, family, happy, good career, healthy. So I checked all the boxes. And you know, I won't go through that whole that whole like event of that, but what was really the glaring thing that was missing, and then everybody's got an idea of what's missing in their lives. It could be any of those things I just mentioned, but the one that was missing for me was impact. And it's not because it was a lack of impact, it was a lack of broader impact. And so those who were around me, like my employees, my family, my friends, people that I worked with, they got to experience the benefits of what I could impact them with, whether it was advice or financial or things like that around them. So I had a very focused, smaller impact of the things that was in my proximity. And what I realized going through a near-death experience is that it could have been greater. I could have impacted thousands, I used to say thousands, but now it's closer to millions of people. I had to go through that progression myself, self-confidence, right? And so what kept me from impacting thousands of people versus dozens is insecurities, putting yourself out there, knowing damn well that I'm gonna be judged if I write a book or put myself out there or start creating content, you will be judged. It's impossible not to be judged. We say, hey, thou shalt not judge and shouldn't judge others, but that's bullshit because everybody judges everybody. Everybody judges. So be realistic and understand that if you have a powerful message and you want to greatly expand your impact to reach thousands or millions, realize that you will be judged and that you're gonna have to do the work to get in your own head and figure this out. Hopefully, work with people that can help you through that, navigate that. Princeton's an amazing you know, mentor for that that specific purpose. It's that once you realize like what's missing in your life, and then he's talking about who you could become, that's the potential. I had everything else, but I didn't have the greater impact. And I knew that I could do it. I knew that was within my potential, but I was being scared, I was hiding from that because one, it is a lot of work, and two, it it required for me to change and become a different version of myself to have the confidence to be able to fire up a microphone or get on a stage. I I didn't want to do any of this stuff. I never had ideas about standing on stages. I admired people that could do it, but I never wanted to do that because that's scary. Never wanted to put myself on cameras. I was good at taking photos, I never wanted to be in front of the camera. And so I had to get out of my own way and start realizing that I have a greater purpose than my fear. And most people unfortunately put their fear above the purpose. That's normal. But as soon as you start to realize your purpose is greater than your fear, you do have to do the work to switch it where your purpose is above your fear.

SPEAKER_00 56:10

Yeah. So good, man. We could go, we could go on and on. If you guys are enjoying this, I want you guys to go over and I want you to follow Tony's podcast, 365 Driven, because you know, this guy, there's a lot of conversations that we have, but there's so many different layers to this. And we can it we be talking all day just to go deeper into this. But this is somebody that I vouch for, a leader that I stand behind, and he also is connected just in his own network with other amazing leaders, and you'll get to hear from them on his podcast and at his events, at his retreats, and other things that he has going on. But get connected to people who can share this type of information with you because this brings you back to you. Everybody else is trying to sell you on something or give you information on something external, fix something outside of yourself, fix this thing, make more money, get the nice house, get the nice car, get the nice, the beautiful woman, you know, or the beautiful man or the handsome man or whatever. Instead of who are you becoming? Who are you at the end of the day? Can you look in the mirror and say, I'm proud of me? I'm proud of the life that I am creating. I'm proud of the wisdom I get to learn, grow into, and share. I'm proud of the fact that I get to develop more confidence through more experiences because I love how vulnerable you were in the aspect of we didn't want to do any of these things when we got started. Like speaking, getting on stage. The first time I ever had to speak, I only had to speak for 15 minutes and I cried before I went out on stage. But I knew that if I didn't do it, like the path to getting here would have never developed. Do it scared because your brain, that fear, again, it's just the absence of experience and information. Like I've never done it before. My brain is firing the remember wins, what ifs, you know. What if you get out there and you make a fool of yourself? But what if you win? Exactly. What if you win? Switch it, switch it. Take those stories that you're creating. What if this happens? What if that happens, and all the negative things, switch it to something positive. And that's what I had to do. Now, in the beginning, it was very hard, especially coming from the path that I came from, not being inspired or having people around me speaking over me or telling me what I could do or how to see the vision for my life. And so a lot of it I was doing alone. I had nothing to lean on. So every step was establishing the foundation that I now step on. And that's why I say I became the excuse eradicator. This is why I'm such a disruptive person because I cannot hear excuses. Like I literally had to climb out of the mud to get to where I am. And I couldn't go anywhere but up. And so when I hear people making excuses and it's like, oh, I'm tired. Oh, I don't have time. But it's like, I challenge you if you get on your phone right now, if you have it set up and you look at your time spent on your mobile device, how much time? I mean, you don't even have to do that. How much time are you spending on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok? Right? You could take 30 minutes. If you you could take five minutes and sit down and meditate and write a journal, you could take 10 minutes, sit down, really ask yourself, what is something that would make me happy and make a list of those things? Start simple. You don't have to try to go big and try to be a millionaire overnight. Start simple. What are little things you can start doing that are that's different from what you're doing? What are little things that you can start shifting in your thinking that's different from how you've been thinking? Again, people spend an average of 30 minutes, in some cases, up to five hours on social media a day. If you're not doing that, that's awesome. You're an anomaly in today's society. But most people, social media has become a job for them that they don't get paid for, and it's insane.

SPEAKER_03 59:57

Yeah. They're looking at the world through a screen instead of with their own two eyes.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:01

Yeah.

Audit Your Circle And Your Attention

SPEAKER_03 1:00:01

Yeah. Powerful conversations, man. You and I both cannot see excuses or accept excuses. And to be frank, that makes some people very uncomfortable to be around us for good reasons. And so as I've grown older, I I probably have a lot less close friends because of that. But I start to surround myself with more people like you and people who hold each other accountable because that's what we ultimately want. Big tip there is audit your audience, audit who's around you. And when you start to feel like the negative self-talk and the self-deprecating crap and talking yourself out of things, realize that it was probably programmed into you by somebody that's around you. Could be your peers, your friends, maybe being even validating excuses back and forth. Because I'll tell you, like my mid-30s, I let myself go a little bit. I was out of shape. I was kind of getting the the dad bod and the gut and I wasn't working out, and I was leaning on all my old football injuries. Oh, I got a bad shoulder, my bad back, and my my left knee is sore. And so I was using those as convenient excuses not to do the fitness thing and eating the wrong foods and inflammation and created real pains and stuff like that. And it's my mid-30s. Like everybody in their mid-30s feels like they're old, but they're not. They're still babies, right? Yeah. And so, but when I look back, the friend, the circle of friends I was hanging around with at that time period, all were the same way. They were all frumpy, out of shape, dad bods, used to be athletes, peaked in high school type personalities. And everybody kind of validated the excuses back. It's like playing tennis with excuses. Like, I'm gonna serve, I don't have time, and you serve it over the net and they go, Yeah, I don't have time either. And they knock it over. And you know, that uh it takes money to make money, and they serve that over, yeah, it takes minute to make money. And so you're playing like this tennis game with excuses back and forth, and you both feel good because you're like volleying excuses back and forth and validating each other. And so what happens is that you never break that cycle and you end up stuck in it, and you're never getting out of that game. And so, yeah, audit who you're around. And and when you see people say that they don't have time, you know what I like to do? I say, pull out your phone, show me your calendar. Man, you know how many times someone has actually shown me a calendar? Zero. I've probably used that response dozens and dozens of times, and to this day, I've not seen one person be able to produce a calendar and show me that they're busy. Right.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:25

But we've had to do that work. I mean, I remember sometimes getting four hours, three hours of sleep a night because I was so excited, my vision was so big, and I knew like I was working during the day, I had stuff going during the day, I was a dad, I was a husband, you know, in my first marriage, and I could never think that I don't have the time. Like I have 24 hours in a day. The work that you can get done in an hour, if you were just disciplined, if you had the identity and the awareness of what was possible for you in a day, 30 minutes to an hour, there's so much that you could get done, especially now in the in the world that we live in. Back in the day, it was a it took a little bit more time, but now we can continue now into the world. Everything is easier now.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:05

Everything is easier now, every single thing is easier now.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:09

But don't get lost in the easy, and that's what's what's happening with a lot of people. They've gotten so lost in the easy that things that you know to us, you know, back in the day that we thought were easy, to them, it's hard now. But it's so crazy to think about that. Like this is like going to the library and reading books, like for me 15 to 5 to 15 hours a day, that was hard to me back in the day. Or that was easy. I'm sorry, I said that wrong. That was easy to me back in the day. Like, you mean to tell me I can come here? I don't have to pay for the books, I can read for free, take all the notes I want and leave and go apply it without paying a dime. But nowadays, it's like you ask people, when's the last time you read a book? And they most people look at you like you're crazy. They listen to audibles and which I don't mind that, like, but I still love having a book in my hand, you know. And I'm like, half the time, let's be honest. If you're listening to an Audible, usually you're driving or you're busy doing something, it's playing in the background, you're not really pulling that information in. You're not, yeah, it's 100% different because if I'm sitting and I'm reading a book and I'm thinking about it as I'm reading and I'm processing through it and I'm taking notes and I'm processing from the perspective of what can I apply now? Because I'm reading this with the intention to get something that I need to make a better decision moving forward in this area. Doing that and just listening to it, especially when we're bombarded with so much information in today's society, listening to audios, even now compared to back in the day, is completely different. Cause even back then, if we listen to audio cartets or CDs of you know, speakers or coaches or whatever it was, that's all we were focused on. We weren't focused on anything else. And so, you know, again, it's it's what we called easy, people now look at as hard. And this is something we really need to look at.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:57

Single focus. There's actually been studies that show that if you can read the book and listen to the audio at the same time, that that is the most effective way of retaining the information. And so I was like, that's interesting. So you know it costs you more because you got to have the audio version and the paper version. But if you really wanted to learn something, if you bought a book and you knew that the answers to what you needed was in that book, maybe go buy both and follow along because you do have the visual learning and you have the audio learning, and if you combine them, it's it yeah, it makes sense. The data makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:28

Yeah. And if you're if you're someone who's really looking to get results in today's society where everybody's a coach and everybody's a leader and you don't know who to trust, your best bet is to buy a book and buy the audio because most of them are just regurgitating something that they've heard or something that they've read. And so this is a guaranteed way, but also vet the books, the authors of the books. Because some people like AI now, people are have whole books with AI, and we know the mistakes that AI can make, but there's no expertise behind it, there's no blood, sweat, and tears. behind it, but go back. I studied philosophers, great speakers. My mentors were the pioneers of what we now call the coaching industry. And so go back, reach out to Tony, reach out to myself. If you're looking for books, we've both written books. If you're looking for resources, we're connected to people and we know what would be a great place to start depending on where you are. You don't have to do it alone. As a matter of fact, we were not created to function alone. We're actually tribal creatures. Like we are wired to work together. And when we can find the right tribe, not the tribe that's going to be lazy that doesn't want to hunt, doesn't want to gather, doesn't want to do any of the work, but they want to enjoy the benefits of it at the same time, then they become gluttonous and lazy and all these other things. Find people in your tribe who are hungry, who are so hungry that they're willing to do the work, they're willing to learn, they're willing to evolve, they're willing to address their own BS, their blind spots, willing to be called on that BS. Get around people like that and I promise you, you will grow faster than you ever imagined. It's like that saying if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together. And Tony, we'll close on this I know that because I have people like you in my life that I can lean on and have conversations like this with my vision it only expands more. And so I only see how much farther I can go. And so I'm grateful for you, man. And I know the listeners who are listening to this podcast right now, either from your side or my side have gotten a lot of value today. So thank you so much. I appreciate you. But uh as we close, do you have any closing remarks?

SPEAKER_03 1:07:30

Man, I just I think that the the word always comes back to me is action. You just got to take the action and I know that's clinical cliche but it's true. And I usually give a keynote and it's called A B C action, belief consistency. And they're in that specific order for a reason because action coming first belief coming second consistency is a third. Most people get it backwards. They think belief comes before action. They think they got to believe in themselves by learning new information and studying and preparing and then doing these reps and they they prepare themselves and they they finally feel like they believe in themselves then they take the action that's backwards. You don't get the belief until you take the action. Take the imperfect action make mistakes learn lessons improve do things that way and then you start to believe in yourself based on results not the fake belief. Yeah. And then consistency is something that once you you start to get the pattern down and you start to have the repetition you start to realize like I need to set consistency standards. I need to do this daily or weekly or monthly whatever that task is and then once you gain that consistency of the things you have you start to get the real results. Consistency is for me like there's a reason my show is called 365 driven to me if you're not willing to give it a go for a solid year then don't even start. I'm just being honest like if you're if you're feeling like you're overweight and you go hey I want to lose weight I'm going to go start and then you give up in two months like look New Year's Eve just passed. We see most New Year's resolutions tap out of the gym like mid-January. They didn't make it two weeks right it's just Sora it hurts I don't know if I want to do this I don't want to eat healthy. Guys if you want to do anything to be successful at it it takes a minimum of one year of consistency in showing up even especially when you don't feel like it especially when you don't feel like it you and I we do these podcasts we we speak at events we create content. I guarantee them to you that half the time we don't feel like it but we still execute because we are results driven we're not emotional driven we're not worrying about what my feelings are today. I want to go get the work because I see the results coming in the future and so take the action gain that belief then become consistent you will have success in whatever you choose to do.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:44

Good stuff good stuff and with that guys I want to thank you guys for joining the podcast we're going to end there because I so much came up that I wanted to say after you just said that but I'm going to cap it off with that guys if you want to get the results get consistent because the belief doesn't develop the confidence doesn't develop until you start taking the action and you start creating new experiences so that you can develop and evolve. You know it's so many nuggets right there.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:10

Tony thank you again um if it how how can the audience reach out to you what would be the best way for the audience to reach out to you yeah my website is 365driven.com so 365driven.com and you'll find my podcast my books the live events that we put on all that stuff just keep it on one website and you have a lot you have an event that's coming up soon. Yeah July 25 through 29 we're going to Washington state we're actually going to a lodge that's off of the Oregon Trail and so our events are very immersive. We like to get people out in the nature and hiking and exploring and challenging themselves with some fitness things and you know we only do speaking for one day it's like a three or four day event usually and we have one day of speaking so we're not trying to give people the fire hose of information we're just trying to build some good connections with people.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:59

100% get out get connected get active be human let's have some fun. If you're looking for an experience and not just another information heavy event definitely go check out the event check out the website I'll be dropping everything in the show notes. But thank you guys for tuning in to today's episode of Evolve Mastery I look forward to hearing your feedback. Reach out to myself reach out to Tony again all the information in the show notes let us know what you thought. Let us know if you're ready to shift your identity if you're ready to grow into something new if you're ready to evolve and we're here to support you. But until next time we hope you guys have a great night evening morning whatever time it is you're listening to this podcast but remember you get one life make it the best one talk to you guys soon