Mind Your Business - Max Fortune
Health is Wealth: The Key to Unlocking Business Success
(upbeat music) - All right, you know what I want to say, I definitely want to think, punctuality is super, super important when it comes to, you know, obviously business meetings and kind of, when it comes to kind of taking your craft seriously or having other people take your craft seriously, you know, or what you're doing seriously. So I always, always, always like someone who's on time for a meeting, you know, super, super important. And so especially for a mentor session. So we're just kind of kind of free flow as we generally do. I smiled when I saw your login name. (laughing) So I thought that was super interesting. So, but we did get a chance to briefly talk about some kind of business ideas or some of the business ideas you're thinking about kind of implementing. And so let's just recap or kind of go over some of the, I guess part of the conversation that we were having before as far as where you are on your journey. - So I guess on my journey overall, I'm kind of in the space of it just not feeling okay to give up the confidence of my financial security to someone else, whether any other company, you know, I feel like I'm doing the eight hours for other people is putting in work to increase their success, to help their children and their children's future. But it's not so much securing my own. While it might have an immediate assist with helping pay certain bills that I currently have, et cetera. But as far as like actual, I just feel like my life has been very much out of my own control. And because I have my two kids, I really want to make sure that I get a grasp on that and watching you and my mom, my whole life, have your own businesses and deal with them from the ground up and go through all the trials and tribulations of it. I feel confident that I'd be able to follow and continue that entrepreneurial legacy that you guys both have. - Okay, well, you know what? I think that that's, the honesty is, you know, I think, you know, I think when you watch business from the outside and it looks easy, it looks like, you know, I think everybody, especially today, wants to be an entrepreneur, influencer of business or owner of business, but I think I wish there was more, I wish there was more opportunity where we saw, where people get the chance to see or peer behind what it takes to make a brand or to be successful. You know, I think people, it would be great if people kind of took some more time to, or I wish there was a way more people showed their journey more so than their destination or how they got, or wouldn't they give it, huh? - The ability, wishing vulnerability was more acceptable. Like, actually, including people along the process, because no one wants to share their failures. No one wants to be vulnerable to share their failures and their shortcomings and the things they got wrong, but everybody has a lot of pride in showing what they did right, and so there's that misconception that nothing is really, you know, wrong about it. - Yeah, so I think that there is, I mean, there in lies, kind of, you know, wherever there is a shortfall or somewhere where we're kind of seeing an opportunity that other people have missed, is an opportunity for us to fill in again, you know what I mean? So, honestly, you just kind of probably gave yourself something that you could kind of do is just showing your journey as you're kind of starting this ma-noor-ma-ma-entrepreneur business. - Yeah, we're still trying to figure out all of that stuff, too, but yeah, yeah. - But if you don't stick with it, it's always good to stick with manure, you know, just to stick stick. (laughing) Okay, I'm sorry, I didn't need to say that. Anyway, you just never know what's gonna stick at the wall. You just, anyway, I'm stopping, I'm stopping myself right now. Okay. (laughing) Okay, but yeah, anyway, so here's the other thing, you know, when it comes to, you know, even a name for a business, even something shocking or just different or just unique is what gets attention. So, I think so many of us, I hate, you know, it's a name that you may grow into if you're gonna continue to use it, but it's intriguing enough to get people's attention, you know? - Yes, but yes. - So, and honestly, that's what any business owner striving for is how do I set myself apart from everyone else? How do I get attention, you know, get people's attention? How do I pull people away from the abundance of other information that's out there? How do I do that? So that's one of the ways to do that, you know? So don't be afraid to have something unique and I kind of think about, I think about Google and I think about what did that, what is that word? What is it? - Yeah, because that sounds like a, if you really think, I've never thought about that. It sounds like Google Gaga. - Yeah, it's-- - It sounds like gibberish. - Right, it sounds like gibberish. - But it's one of the most world known words today, Google, Google it, Google me, baby. - I mean, yeah, so, and that's the funny thing, I guess that's the point that I'm making with all of this is that, you don't know what's going to be successful and that was nothing, that was a name that didn't mean anything, you know? What does Roku mean, you know? So you think of all these things, so sometimes you can have something and give it meaning. And that's a unique type of thing or it's like if you, I mean, if you think about it, Google did not have to compete with that name for anything because it wasn't a thing. Yeah, it just wasn't a thing. And so I think that's the coolest thing about being a business owner is really kind of, I've always been, why it doesn't work for me and probably why it doesn't work for you, I don't like structure, I don't like other people's structure. You know, I don't like being, I don't like parameters, I like to be able to set my own parameters, I like to be able to not bridle my creativity. And I think that's important on the journey is to just be able to have creative freedom. And I just, you know, I'm just weird like that where even if it's, I don't know, I don't like somebody tell me what I can and cannot do or what I shouldn't and shouldn't do and how I should do something and when I should do something. And so I'm just like, I just don't like that, you know what I mean? So I just, it's why I didn't go into the military or whatever. I'm not, I guess I'm not good with following orders or other people's orders, you know what I mean, right? And if you tell me to do something, I'm gonna honestly just not do it because you're telling me to do it. You know what I mean? I'm just weirdly wired that way if that makes sense. - And you know, now that you're saying that it kind of made me think back on like, you know, my career has historically been within the customer service field. So I've done a lot of call centers and things of that nature. I do love talking to people. I do love helping people, but hearing you like break it down like that, it makes sense because the parameters of you can't be on the phone longer than three minutes. You have to, you can only take one 30 seconds to document the account correctly. And then you have to go onto them like all of those parameters, make it feel suffocating, make it feel like a trap. They make it feel that you hit the nail on the head. - Basically, yeah. They would resonate with that for sure. - There's no room for creativity, you know? - Yeah. - One thing I started doing, Jabria, when I even start traveling and, you know, Nikki, I love her to death, but she likes to regiment, you have a lot of things planned. And I don't, when I travel, I don't like to plan a bunch of things because you just don't, to me, I'm feeling like you don't even leave room for God to do anything if everything is structured. If you've got your whole plan kind of mapped out, he's got no room to do, to move, you know what I mean? So I try to work in a way where I kind of give, you know, I try not to be, I mean, when I go to the airport, I don't try to plan anything else on travel day. If I could avoid it because you just don't know, I mean, just coming back from Baltimore, our flight, the flight was delayed, you know, for an hour. And, but ironically, I met a gentleman on that flight who happened to own a franchise, or I, he owned 50 sport clips franchises. And so we got a chance to talk, so that kind of delay got us a chance to communicate and talk. And so it's real, I'm in line, and I'm at the back of the line, you know, I have Southwest, you kind of get a little order of where you're supposed to sit or whatever. And I kind of was at, I was A-31. And anyway, I moved to the front where I was supposed to be 'cause I didn't want to get embarrassed because they would tell me if I went in too early, you know? And so I just went to where I was supposed to be. But it ended up putting me in a position to meet this guy and we just started talking. And, you know, what life you just don't know where your opportunities are going to come from or where an opportunity is going to come from. And so I guess what I'm ultimately saying is it's always good to be present and to be and to leave room for just your creative genius. Your you are a sense of feeler and to be able to sense of feel, you almost need to be relaxed, you know what I mean? To do that. And structure may not give you the... Or it creates too many parameters for you to be able to move. And I think that that's what you're finding consistently uncomfortable about trying to find a job and to work in a job. And you know what? There's nothing wrong with a job. So job folks out there, there's nothing wrong with people who work a job, we need those, we need people. - And almost we need some partner who is on the opposite side because it's a very well balanced. I mean, it's beneficial. Of course, both people could have jobs, both people could be entrepreneurs. But that entrepreneur in the job, like that situation is very powerful. - You know what it is. And I kind of call it like the, you know, it's kind of being the cock eye type of thing. One person's got the eyes on the future. Well, somebody else had the eye on the present. The person's got the job there, so, you know. - There's that lizard in this movie thing. You ever see that cartoon movie thing? - I did not. - Okay, well, I'm gonna send you a photo of that lizard. And literally I think one person fell out. - Right, one of them fell out, but yeah, it's like completely just rolling over you. - You know what I think I've seen, I've seen, I've seen that. I think, but that's kind of how, you know, it's a good way to look at life or a partnership sometimes, you know, because both of you looking at the same thing than this whole area that nobody's looking at, you know. So balance is super important. I don't think we spend enough time learning the importance of balance. And I think that works in everything we do, you know. But especially when it comes to business. And one of the things I will say, that I feel like most people get business wrong, because I think by the time we see someone in business, or when we think about somebody being their own boss, we think of them kicking their heels up and laying back and doing nothing, you know, while everybody's doing all the work for them. And, you know, that's just not how it works. I think that that false, it's a false thing. Now again, it is a false perception. And it's a place that we all endeavor to get to. And you can get there, but it doesn't start off that way. So I think people get disenfranchised with the fact that, you know, being a boss comes with a lot. You know, there's a lot of work to being a boss. And honestly, I think the biggest first step is think about if you had a job. If you have a job, you can't just show up when you want. You've got to show up at nine o'clock. There's maybe tasks that you do to open your day. There's stuff that you have to do to get prepared for that day. So it's very regimented in what you're supposed to do. And I think that that's when people get in the business for themselves, they don't think about creating that similar structure for themselves. You know what I mean? Hey, from nine to 10, I'm going to do this. These type of them would get my morning stuff set up. I'm going to make my calls between 10 and 12, but just creating your own structure. And because you're creating that structure, it's a little bit easier to accept structure that you're creating yourself, you know? Yeah. So, but without structure, you know, you don't have a business without consistency because then what you really have is a hobby. And I think that that's the big thing that most people don't know the difference between a hobby and a business. You know, if you work your business like a hobby, then you'll make the same money or make similar money that people do in the hobbies. The hobbies aren't things you generally make money from. But if you do want your business to grow and thrive, it has to be something that's very regimented in a sense that you're saying, hey, even if it's just, hey, I'm going to just go hard, nine to one. I'm going to start this nine at one o'clock. I'm going to stop. That's a five hour day. Or what's the, that's actually what, the four hours day, nine to one. I mean, I do 12 to 14 hours, but I don't suggest other people doing that. And I'm trying to get out of that, but I just know what I want. It's about knowing what you want. And by being a business owner, you get to decide what those hours look like. You know what I mean? - Yeah. - But one of the most important things I'd like you to kind of make sure you write down or you take away is I have to create structure for myself. You know what I mean? I've got to create a structure and stick to it. Even if it's not every day, if it's Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, I'm going to, you know, make calls from nine to 10, or nine to, you know, whatever it is, whatever schedule you make for yourself, make sure you just stick to it. - Yeah. - And, you know, I always say it takes 30 days to create a good habit and one to create a bad one. So you just want to make sure you just stay on top of it for 30 days straight. You know, whatever schedule you set for yourself. - I just saw, read a quote just to piggyback on the habit thing. I just saw this two days ago. Hold on, let me get it. Because it was very like, mmm, exactly what you're saying. So, it says you have to, oh, it says, everything is all habit, really. Good habits are hard to develop, but they are easy to live with. Bad habits are easy to develop, but they are hard to live with. - Wow, yeah. - How would that be? - Super impactful, super impactful. - Right. Up, yeah. Yeah, so I saved back, so I'm like, wow. - So, yeah. So I think that, yeah. Habits are super important. And here's another mug that I want you to take away or remember. A lot of people have different definitions of what success is. But I think the most, you know, simplest concept of what success is, is the little things that you do over and over again. That's what success is. You know what I mean? You think about all these athletes, we just watched the Olympics. You think about all these athletes that were just in the Olympics. I mean, these people work, they train, and they're doing these routines consistently over and over and over again. You're practicing the same routine thousands of times. You know what I mean? That's the only way to perfect it and to get better. And so those things work in business. If you do something one time, it's hard to perfect something you only do one time, or you do it intermittingly. But once you start making something a practice, a habit or something you do, that's what creates success. So, understand how key that is. If you don't have any routines or habits, it's almost impossible to be successful because even when something does happen for you, you don't know, you can't repeat inconsistency. You know what I mean? You can't bottle that, you can't teach that. You know what I mean? So, that's the thing that is super, super important when it comes to being intentional with time, with things that you do, is really understanding that you have to give yourself structure. And in starting a business without structure, like I said, it's not a business, it's really just a hobby. And it's about being real and understanding, you know, even having grace for yourself or with yourself when it comes to things is just kind of knowing and it doesn't. It's hard to kind of do a paradigm shift all at once. And sometimes these things do take time and sometimes you have to give yourself grace to develop some of these habits. But if you don't have a plan, at the very least, and I'm a big proponent, even for here, like every day I have a to-do list that I write down every day even though we're in the digital age and I could, you know, put it on a thing, it doesn't feel the same for me. And everybody's got their own process. But I like to write down what I'm gonna do every day because no matter what, in the middle of maybe this call, I may get another call, my staff might call, somebody might call, I get, you know, distracted. And then I don't have a place to come back to you. Okay, what was I working on? You know what I mean? I don't remember, now my day is hijacked and I don't have a way to kind of come back and refocus on, okay, now let's do it. Because inevitably you are gonna get, you know, distracted. You know, you have kids, so it could be the kids coming or whatever, but just understand that that's a part of structure and is setting up a to-do list of things that you're gonna accomplish for the day. But more importantly, if you don't have any goals that you're setting for the day, each day, you really don't know if you had a successful day or not because you really didn't set a parameter for what success was gonna look like for that day. So how can you become successful, you know? So that's another super, super important part. It's kind of like running a race with no finish line. You know, you just keep running. That's a surefire way to get tired. You know what I mean? - Yeah, yeah. You're just gonna get exhausted yourself, yeah. - Exactly, so again, that's another simple tool is to kind of document your journey every day or what you expect to do. And honestly, I always, I don't put five things on and I'm trying to get better with, I feel a whole legal path. And I keep telling myself, I'm gonna go every other line and I start off doing every other line, but by the middle of the day, those in-between lines. - Yeah, other stuff starts getting in there. But I recommend people, honestly, you know, when you're beginning and when you're starting off, 'cause it could be overwhelming looking at a big sheet of paper with 24 things on it. But if you set yourself 10 tasks every day, 10, you know, that 11th task you put on the first thing for tomorrow, you know, but you just say, "Hey, if these are the 10 things I'm gonna do, I'm gonna stick to getting these 10 things done." And for me, what I always do with, I always do the things that I can accomplish like in two minutes. If I can do a task in five or 10 minutes, that's what I'm gonna do first. So some people attack the hardest things. - Manageable attack. Manageable attack. - The things that I can accomplish faster. And why is that? Why would I do the fastest or the quickest things I can do first? What would be the reason for that? - So per the atomic habits, shut up to do things clear. - Per the atomic habits. Look, I'm actually so this whole conversation and this whole intro to mentor to buy Macs. (laughing) So this whole intro to it is really like everything is coinciding with one another. What did you say? - I said stealing that. (laughing) Of course, not to cry. - Okay, okay. Continue, continue. (laughing) So it's all coinciding with one another and like aligning. So I'd say like what the reason to do that is to literally build evidence for your case of success. So when you, it's evidence, it's more evidence. If you have a task that you know is gonna take you four hours that day, you might only have four hours. And so you only have that one piece of evidence where you could have had two to five, two minute tasks, then a 10 minute task and then you walk away from your day feeling like I did 12, 20 things today. - Right. - So for that evidence, it's more proof that you are going to bat for your dream. It's more proof that you are accomplishing something. It's more proof and evidence that you're getting somewhere. - So even more so than that, I think is a great point and a great thing to pick up. The reason why I do it is it's for momentum. You know what I mean? If you do one things then you could probably do two things. If you do two things, you could probably do three things. But so the more things you accomplish, and I'm addicted to my, to checking this stuff off, so it's writing it down, but I gotta check it off. And the more things I can check off, it just makes it more realistic for me to check more things off. You know what I mean? - More. - So if you do the hardest thing first of the things are gonna take the longest, you kind of worn out by that time or something happens and you only got one thing done like you were saying, as opposed to leaving the day with four or five things done, even if you didn't get to that big thing yet, you got five other things, but it's easier. Like I said, there's a psychological part about momentum and how momentum kind of works and what success breeds is more success. You know what I mean? And so the reverse is also true. The less you feel successful, or you know, the less success you go out there and accomplish because it's about momentum and it's about psychology and it's about kind of feeling like you're getting things done. And the more things you get done, the more likelihood you are to get more things done. So-- - The more assets you have, yeah. - Yeah. - Just like that. - Yeah, whatever. They call it an evidence, same thing, but yes. Yes, it works the same way, you know? We're just using different words. - Yeah, no, that would be it. - Right. - And I will be saying it that way because I guess hearing it was very profound for me. Like the whole, the concept of it being evidence, you know? Like that, like just proving to yourself that you are this. It's identity change versus outcome, you know? The result driving you, it's not the end result driving you. It's the today, it's what did I accomplish today? What did I do today? And if you do that every day, success ends up coming. - And it does. It's like, you know, forget that the philosopher, I think his son's out or whatever some, whatever it's like. I'm gonna screw up the name Lao Zou or whatever. But anyway, the journey of a thousand miles starts with one step, you know? So it's about taking a step. And I think also, you know, when it comes to trying to accomplish anything, you want, like as a momentum is super important. Momentum is super important to keep going. And it's actually really one of the laws of motion, you know? And physics is that it's easier to keep something that's in motion going than it is to get it started the first, you know, in the beginning. So trying to move a boulder, you know, trying to, from its stable state where it's just sitting, it's so much harder than to keep it rolling once it's starting to roll, you know what I mean? So that's the thing that's kind of how success works. That's how momentum works. That's how we are brain and how we operate and work. And that's really the whole thing with that. And so the other part of that is giving yourself some grace when you don't get your, you don't beat yourself up for not getting your whole list done. You just actually now have, take those things. And what I do is just take the things that I didn't get done today and move them to tomorrow. And so now they're my priority for the next day. But writing it down definitely is it keeps, gives you a record of what your, what your goal is, what your focus is, what your record towards, but not writing things down and trying to keep everything in your head is, to me as they go recipe for disaster when it comes to trying to be successful. Because it's just, it's just too much. The other thing that I'll say is the more of the things that we have in our mind that we write down, the freer our mind is to create or to accomplish those things. Because now we're not trying to think about what we have to do, we just have to focus on getting it done as opposed to trying to hope both of those things in our mind at the same time. So it's super important for that reason as well. You know what I mean? Writing things down clears your mind. And now you do not have to hold on to, it's kind of think about a computer. The more things that store on the computer, the slower it runs, you know, the more things it has to have. And as in it's memory, you know, it just runs slower, you know? But once you get something out of your brain because you wrote it down, then it's, like I said, your mind just moves faster. It just moves quicker because it's not being bogged down with the thought of what you have to do. It's just seeing it. And another thing that I will say is, and I don't have this exact statistical number, but there's a statistical number of how many decisions we have in a day to make. You know, so a lot of times you'll find really wealthy people wear the same outfit all the time. We're the same, they'll buy 10 of the same shirt and the 10 of the same pants. And it looked like they're wearing the same clothes all the time, you literally got 10 of them in their thing, but it's one less decision to make in the morning with what you're gonna put on. You know what I mean? And so it's keeping your mind simple, keeping it simple, keeping it open to the creative process. So the less decisions you have to make, the easier it is to make the decisions that you have to make. You know what I mean? So there's something we said about planning, getting things done, getting your mind clear, and just writing things down and following through. And then just basically from there, just kind of creating a pattern, you know? A pattern of successful, but at the end of the day, it's all about doing something every day. Every day. You know, you can give yourself weekends off, but every day you've gotta do something. And even if it's three things for that day, maybe it won't always be 10, but if you're doing three things one day, seven things the other day, six things the other day, you know, five things the other day, by the end of the week you've accomplished 20, 30 things, as opposed to constantly thinking about one thing that you wanna do and never doing it, and you just never get anywhere. And the week is gonna go by regardless. Time is one of those things it's marching on, we can't stop it, it's gonna go by. And I always think about at the end of today, what I wanna be able to say that I've done by the time of the day is over, or by the time this week is over. We're kind of at the end of a month. So the end of a month is a super big time for me for thinking about what do I wanna get done before this month is over, you know? I don't wanna take an unfinished thing into a whole new month. So the end of every month, kind of like the end of every week for me, my mind starts thinking about what can I close, what can I finish, so I'm not taking it to another week, we're into another month, you know? And that also can revert back to the smallest thing about even another day, or this day, you know? What can you get done today so you don't have to take it into the next day? And again, sometimes you will have things that go in the next day and that's okay. But having that roadmap is super, super important. It's very hard to be successful without it, you know? It just is. - Reflecting on the wrap-up? - Reflecting on the wrap-up, okay. Yes, that's a good thing. - Good chapter title. - Huh? - It's a good chapter title. We'll be writing about that. - Work that day, I'll steal that too. - I won't, but it's, it's a good, it's a good word. It's a good word, I might write it down, I don't know. - I did, so it's okay. - So tell me, tell me what first steps are, what first steps look like for you on your journey? - Okay. I think honestly, you know me very well, which is why I think the conversation even started where it did, where it was about habits and consistency and where you are mentally and how to build motivation for yourself to keep the ball rolling. Sure, it may be difficult in the beginning to get you pushed, but push through that because it becomes a lot easier to keep it rolling once you've got it rolling. I have a lot of gyms, so also after this, I'm going to separately record a reflection or a review of my session with you. And because I have, I got a lot of gyms already from it and just things that stuck out to me. I really think that whole, the creating the nine to five structure for my business, that's what I think is the best place for me to start because I wanna do so many different things and I don't really know exactly what it's going to be just yet, but that structure should be the same regardless and should be filled with whatever the specifics are when they come, you know? So like, I should still be able to say, okay, between nine and 10, I'm gonna research these businesses. I'm gonna look for influencers. I'm gonna, like, I should still be able to build a roadmap of structure for myself to even get more inspiration and direction on where, what direction I do wanna go with. So like, there's a way, I think this is cool because we're starting without even having a full place to start and I think that's why a lot of people don't because they feel like I don't have full direction. So what, we're doing it. We're making it happen and we're figuring it out. So I think that's what's gonna be really dope about going through this process and dope that I get to do it with my dad and dope that. Like, there's a lot of really cool things about doing this. I'm very, very excited about it. But yes, I think the structure portion, the discipline portion and like, yeah, just the discipline portion, I think that's a really good place for me to start the discipline of the business needed for the business and what that looks like and breaking that down. - I think that definitely is a great place to start because I kind of, once you kind of have that and, again, it will change, you know, what you do in those timeframes will change. But setting them up and setting them aside. I remember kind of like my very first, really the job I think that I kind of learned how to really super structure myself was when, you know, I'm 22, 23 years old, selling vacuum cleaners door to door. And even though that's, I had a point me during the day but I came home every night from seven to nine, no matter what happened, I got on the phone from seven p.m. to nine p.m. every night and made appointments for the next day, you know what I mean? And honestly, what happened is I started off in that business as most people do, it was a door to door sales business so you're knocking doors door to door. And this is tough, it's tough to get up and not have anywhere to go and you just got to go knocking. It's hard to get motivated to go out to nowhere and just start knocking on doors and hoping to generate sale. And somebody walked in on one of those sales meetings one time, one of the successful sales people that've been around for a while and they talked about, "Hey man, they don't do, "they don't, does not, doors, they make appointments." You know? And so I kind of, from that moment on hearing that and so sometimes we can hear one nugget and it can change everything for us. You know, one thing if we take it in can change everything. And that one piece of advice taught me what I did is I started asking for referrals from everybody I sat down with and I would give them a sheet of paper and I'd walk away and put my equipment away. You know what I mean? While they were, I'm cleaning up my equipment to give them, no, I say, "Hey, didn't you get your phone book out?" And I'd give them my piece of my referral sheet and I'd walk away and put my equipment up, you know? And guess what? - Because I used to do that. - Yeah, people used to have a phone book. - Yeah, people used to, I would update myself. - Why God, I would like to make a phone book. - Yeah, you know, I can't believe I said that. - Yes, yes, people back then had phone books. There was a phone book. They had a black book or whatever. - Well, I used to have them and when I first got a phone, they still were a thing. Like they were making them all cutesy and stuff, but I just, it's just insane to rethink about like, that was really a thing before. - You know, it was even, well, you know, I used this recently with a, a staff person that was younger than that. I was talking about a black book, you know? And they did not know what that was at all. Yeah, so that was kind of funny, but yeah. But yeah, so I would get people to send out and put their, give me the information, give me referrals. And, you know, honestly, just, I would get between two to five names. So if I had five appointments for that day, I end up with, you know, 10 to 15, 20 leads for people to call the next day. And, you know, so I'm saying that as a way of just kind of thinking about how to regiment the lead process. And that was me at a room at every level, kind of figuring out how to do that. But it was the structure I created for myself with getting on that phone every night, no matter how tired I was, no matter how much I didn't want to do it. And the business, there's things, there's nobody, the beauty is, there's nobody telling you what to do. But that's also the curse. There's nobody telling you what to do. You know what I mean? So that's the challenge, you know? And so discipline is super, super important. And if you don't have it already, it's okay, but you could develop it. And the way to develop discipline is by routines, establishing routines and just repeating. We could train ourselves that way. And I train myself. - I don't have evidence. - Yeah, that's, yeah. (laughing) Some evidence, yes, whatever. - Thanks for the company, it's just me. (laughing) - Yeah, but the point is that level of consistency, even when I didn't want to, even when I was tired, it paid dividends. And I always thought about, I always thought about the, if I didn't make those calls, I'd know me being who I was. I didn't like knocking on strangers' doors. I didn't like doing that. And so that was my motivation. Okay, do I sit here in the comfort of my home and make these 20 or 30 calls? And even with that, I would have, like I said, all these sheets. And I said, okay, I'm just gonna make 20 calls. You know what I mean? I think sometimes it's creating predictable parameters. I think sometimes we try to focus or make success about the outcome of a thing that we can't control because we really can't control that. I could control me scheduling 20 appointments that day or closing 10 sales. All I could control was how many calls I made. You know what I mean? No matter what, I could make 20 phone calls today. You know what I mean? And so this is the thing to do is say, hey, I'm gonna make 20 phone calls. I'm gonna reach out to 20 influencers. I'm gonna reach out to make that number, a number that you can actually control and accomplish because then you're in control of that goal. You know, you can't control, hey, I'm gonna close 10 of these deals or I'm gonna get 10 people to talk to me or whatever, but you can say how many people you're gonna reach out to and know that everything is a numbers game. So that's the one thing, and every one of our businesses is understanding what the numbers are in your business, you know? So I knew that if I talk to five people, if I did five demonstrations back, then I'm kind of using that old example from 20 years ago or whatever. But it's just I don't know why that one came up, but it's the first thing. It's kind of like how my structure began. And I guess that's why it's coming up now because it's how I built business structure. And honestly, it's that whole business changed my life. And I don't know if I ever talk to you about this or maybe I have, but I haven't mentioned to you. And a while was, you know, even the way I came across that business opportunity was just strange. I had actually, again, here I find myself a 22 year old guy taking care of a family of five. And I'm working at a job, working at Toyota, of all places, yeah. A wife and three kids. - Oh, okay, one of them, okay. - Yeah, so. - I'm nice. - Yeah. - You're way tough with my brother and my sister. - I got an extra little thing. - A couple extra, I didn't tell you about, but. (laughs) So anyway, the point was is that, you know, of all places I was working for Toyota, which is ironic, you know? And, you know, I'm selling cars and I'm at that job. And I get, I get fired after three months on that job. And then I go get this other job. - Is that good? That was the thing with the guy who looked like an a-hole. - No, that was not that guy. So the first, the first job was, and because it's crazy because these happened back to back. And so the, that job, you know, the way it worked in, I don't know if Toyota works this way now, but that particular dealership, I should say, they hired five new trainees. They paid us all, ironically, they paid us $1,000 a month, was my salary. But this was in the, this was like in the early 90s, you know? So $1,000 a month was not, it wasn't horrible, you know? - Yeah. - But I was, it was like the equivalent of trying to survive today off at like 36 or $40,000, you know? You could do it, but it's tough. So here I make it $1,000 a month. That was the training pay. They hired five of us, but they were only keeping one of us. They didn't tell us that, where they were, you know, they were bringing on five to train. They were only keep one. So that, that thing was 5,000 a month, you know, was what they were paying to get that one person or whatever. So now I had really good product knowledge, but I was, at that time, I really did not know, I wasn't great at sales. In a sense that I wasn't great at approaching people or talking to people or being outgoing. I didn't have that at that time. I didn't know how to, now, somebody came and talked to me. I had all the product knowledge. I knew exactly what to say, but that's not how sales works. People don't just come up to you and say, "sell me something." You know what I mean? So I did not develop that skill yet, but anyway, long story short, I wasn't the person that got, you know, and that's devastating that to, you know, be the sole provider and you got to ride home and, you know, tell your wife that you just lost your job, the only income, you know, that was coming into the house, that's tough. So I get another job, maybe about, maybe it took me, maybe another four weeks to find another job, and that's the crazy job where I was selling furniture, I've said not to do it, I'm selling furniture. And now I'm getting 1500 hours a month, you know what I mean? And it's a little bit of a different environment, but I didn't feel good about what I was selling, but the thing that I remember the most about that job was they had four letters over the door, the door, the front door, to leave, and those letters were OTFD. And our job is a furniture sale people, sales persons, was to get the furniture out the effing door. That was what, they had those letters, so they had that was their pump, war cry. Hey, OTFD, OTFD. So it's crazy, and they were, they were sick, 'cause once it got on the other side of this warehouse, the customer was responsible, they didn't take it back, there were no refunds, it was bad, but they sold the people who were, you know, not wealthy people, obviously it was a particle board. It's a product, you just, if you saw somebody that you sold something to, you kind of hid your face. So you didn't feel good about what you were selling, you know what I mean? So I didn't feel good about what I was selling, which is not a good thing, when you don't feel good about, you know. But the interesting thing about taking that job was here, now again, so I'm, at the first job, three months, thousand dollars, I get this job, now I'm making $1,500 a month, and I'm thinking, man, this is great, I'll make it $1,500 a month, 500 more than I did from that last job, and honestly, I'm on this job for three months, and I get fired again. So it's six months to get fired twice, and I've never been fired before that ever in my life, and was never fired after that. But to have that happen, that's something to you inside, it does something to you, how you feel about who you are. But in my first book, well, I'll get to that in a second, but what happened after that was what changed my life. Those two situations happened. The second one was more my fault, because, you know, I kind of, you know, did the manager, it's funny to me now what the manager was, this guy who was like a Martin Lawrence kind of guy, he was a comedic guy, and if it was your day, man, you was not having a good day. If he was on you that day, you just didn't feel good, you know? So on his day off, I called the radio station, the number one radio station in the area, and I did a mama joke, I pretended to be, did a crank call, said I was his mama, and it was the funniest bit, it was hilarious, everybody was cracking up, he heard it, well, on his day off, it was the funniest thing ever, he, well, but he heard it on his day off, and he came back so mad, pissed off, and, you know, a week later, I was fired, you know, a long story, a long story, a week later. So, I'm about to get to, after those two things happen, within six months, there's something in you that doesn't feel good about yourself after getting fired twice, there's nothing more demoralizing than getting fired, I don't think. If it is, I don't know what it is, but it's pretty, it's pretty demoralizing. But what ended up happening, I ended up taking this job at Electrolux, a job I would have never taken, because those other two jobs were salaries, you know what I mean? They were guaranteed money, you know? But this here, I'm now, you know, devastated, I've lost two jobs, I'm desperate, you know, your family to take care of, and so I take the first job that would take me at this point, and it was selling vacuum cleaners door to door, 100% commission, 100% commission. The first time ever in my life, I ever worked on 100% commission, and that changed my life. In my first book, "Success," I wrote about how, about getting fired up, and that's kind of what happened. I got fired up from that Toyota, I went from 1,000 to 1,500, when I went from that, the furniture place getting 1,500, guess how much I made my first year selling vacuum cleaners door to door? Now, I've made $50,000 as a 23 or 24-year-old person in the early 90s. - Yeah. - Now, just to put that in perspective, $1,000 a month is $12,000 a year, that's what I was making at Toyota. 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