Digital Social Hour - Dan Martell On Buying Back Your Time, Growing Up in Foster System & Best Hires To Make | DSH #158

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

On today's episode on the Digital Social Hour, we sit down with Dan Martell to talk about the common time wasting habits people have, growing up in the foster system & how to buy back your time. BUSINESS INQUIRIES/SPONSORS: [e-mail] APPLY TO BE ON THE POD: https://forms.gle/qXvENTeurx7Xn8Ci9 SPONSORS: Opus Pro: https://www.opus.pro/?via=DSH HelloFresh: https://www.hellofresh.com/50dsh Deposyt Payment Processing: https://www.deposyt.com/seankelly LISTEN ON: Apple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/digital-social-hour/id1676846015 Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Jn7LXarRlI8Hc0GtTn759 Sean Kelly Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/seanmikekelly/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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to buy back your time is to get a jet. I'll flex then. Like, I mean, people. There you go. And I walk into my house we had just bought seven weeks before the wedding and I found my fiancee in tears in the kitchen. And eventually she just like looks at me and takes the ring off and drops it on the counter and says, I can't do this anymore. That was the moment where I was like, all right. I'm going to the strip club.

I'm going straight to the strip club. You mentioned anxiety attacks earlier. Do you still get those or did you overcome them? No, I don't anymore. Now you just get on a jet. My anxiety's bad. Take me somewhere else. Welcome back to the Digital Social Hour, guys. I'm your host, Sean Kelly.

Here with my co-host, Wayne Lewis. What up, what up? And our guest today, Dan Martell. What up, everybody? Man, how's it going? Dude, I am super pumped to be here. The production, the space, you guys run a top notch, man. Crazy impressed.

Not bad, right? It's awesome. And it's inspiring, man. Crazy impressed. Not bad, right? It's awesome. And it's inspiring, man. I love it. What you been working on lately? Latest is, I've got a book out, Wall Street Journal bestselling book, "'Buy Back Your Time," launched that a few months ago.

Dude, it's honestly, I think if anybody's written a book, you don't, you would hope people read it. I don't know, I had a handful of people that I love that I hope could read it, because I'm a lighthouse, not a tugboat. Like I try to be the example without correcting folks. And it sold almost 50,000 copies in a few months and like continues to sell a thousand copies and grow.

That's the part that's blowing my mind. It's like every week it keeps growing. We're selling more copies, which I can only assume people like it and they tell people about it so as an author it's kind of cool so how do you buy back your time dude it's uh my favorite topic in the world as you can imagine here's what i believe i believe most entrepreneurs build companies they grow to hate right and usually it happens i call it factor of three

three hundred thousand right nine hundred thousand two point seven million there's like these different like natural levels of kind of, I call it new levels, new devils. Like you have to change the way you lead at different stages. And if you don't, you'll decide to either shut it down, want to sell it or worse, decide I don't want to grow. Right. Problem is if you decide you don't want to grow, then your team's going to go find somebody else that's got a bigger vision. So I teach people how to do what's called the buyback loop, which is first off, time and energy

audit. Let's just look at the stuff you're doing that you hate doing. And then quantify that from a dollar amount. What is something you're doing you hate doing that you could pay somebody very little to do for you? That's the time and energy audit.

Then it's like, grab that bucket of red things that are low cost, and that's your only next hire. Then hire somebody and transfer. That's the second part of the loop. And then the next one is fill it. Like what do you do with your new time? I had a buddy recently. He's like, dude, this call, we were talking,

we had a scheduled meeting. He said, this call is the only call I have on the calendar. Bought back all my time. And I said, buddy, you didn't understand what I was saying. You have to fill it with things that make you more money that light you up. So if you're a podcaster, as you know, I just want you to podcast, right? When you're done, you're not editing videos

and writing the copy for social or doing anything else. You should just do your magic, your genius, your thing that's unique. And that is at a high level what I help people do at the highest level. Nice, you've gotten your life to a point where you do things you only enjoy. Dude, it's bananas.

I mean, I can dig in and I don't, sometimes I'm like scared to share because I think people think it's a bit of a flex. Why? Why, because I have a house manager that manages 100% of all my personal things. I have an executive assistant that manages all my corporate stuff.

What's wrong with flexing? I don't know, I think sometimes people, they hear somebody's further along and it's too easy to dismiss them. Right, like, oh, that, Dan can do it because he's a rich white guy. I'm not an idiot, I get it. So I kinda like to meet people where they're at.

Like when they first start a company and say, okay, what did I do when I had nothing? I'll tell you the first thing I did at home in regards to buying back my time was I stopped doing my own laundry, stopped doing cleaning. Having somebody that you spend a few hundred bucks a month to come in and to support you, that's huge. If you're a business owner, I want you to do business stuff.

And on the business side, when you start off, don't do administrative stuff, right? You should be talking to customers. You should be delivering the service you just sold. You should be figuring out the next strategy to grow. But you shouldn't be doing bookkeeping and cleaning up the office and all this stuff. And I think a lot of folks, and I know I was this.

I grew up, obviously, I ended up in a lot of trouble as a kid. But I just grew up around people at a different mentality where it was almost like you had to, you got to work hard. But dude, there's a difference in working hard. Are you someone that doesn't have life insurance? Why leave anything up to chance in a worst case scenario?

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where I just kept thinking if I could outwork and out hustle, I'll be successful. But truth is million dollar companies were not built off $10 tasks. Right. That was my problem the first three years too. But isn't the goal is to be the result so you you know not technically bragging but just kind of giving your story on how you

got to this level some people might call it a flex but i think that it needs to be seen by the people that's coming up because that's a place where some people desire to be so i think it's good that you kind of explain i love that you say that way yeah no you know maybe it's a canadian in me man i just i i don't i'm a little too humble i think you should own it because i mean you know we don't got that much time here so being that result you know it shows that okay this is possible but who wants to meet the rich guy who acts like he's not rich that's acts poor like what's what what what are we doing there's no inspiration yeah because I I love the people that show me right how they're living like and then not probably I love him like dude he's one of the funniest guys on the internet man you know

he's he's the ultimate Flex but he's the result yeah he's telling you I'm the result of what what happens when you put work in so I think you should give us the results. Dude, then let me flex, man. I wanna hear it, right? Yeah. I love getting inspired. Yeah. So I mean, then I'll tell you,

the ultimate way to buy back your time is get a jet. I'll flex then. Like, I mean, people. There you go. Because people don't get it. It's like, if time is money, then where am I, where can I buy back days or half days? But obviously, we got to start when we don't have that.

And you just got to show up and do the work. And that's what I wrote about in the book. What caused this shift in mindset for you? What age were you when you were like, wow, I'm wasting time, man. I need to step it up. I wish it was one thing. But if I had to point to one.

So I started at 17, got in a lot of trouble, almost took my life in a high speed chase. Yeah, I stole a car, you know, addiction, all that stuff. And luckily, you know, when I went to pull the gun to let the cops do their job, it got stuck. And they grabbed me and I ended up in prison for like six months and then to rehab center. And I ended up doing 11 months in this place that like taught me about who I was and rebuilt my beliefs. And at the end of that program, I helped this guy, Rick, he was a maintenance guy, clean out one of the cabins, was building an old church camp. And that's where I learned, I found this old computer.

And that's like at 17, I learned to write code. And so, But I struggled. Failed company number one. Failed company number two. And it wasn't until I was like 24 that, again, it's like keep doing the same thing over and over is the definition of insanity. And I got a mentor, this guy named Bob.

I read the book The E-Myth, The Entrepreneurial Myth, Michael Gerber, Sarah's Pies. And Bob showed me the beginnings of, Oh, you got to stop doing that. You got to do this. You got to think of it this way. Now I'd love to say that that was like the big aha, but it wasn't three years into that company, you know, 3 million in revenue. Like it grew really fast. Um, I came home one day and I was engaged at the time and I walk into my house we had just bought seven weeks before the wedding and i found my fiancee in tears in the kitchen and she couldn't even talk and eventually she

just like looks at me and takes the ring off and drops it on the counter and says i can't do this anymore and um that's that was the moment where i was like all right i'm going to the strip club i'm going straight to the strip club oh that's so good um see ya no man it was it you know what it was it was um like you know what's funny is Entrepreneurs work their ass off. And oftentimes, they'll say it's for my fiance, my girlfriend, my future. But here's the deal. Your family never asks you for any of that stuff.

I have two young kids. They never ask me for any of the other stuff. They want my time and attention. And that low of having my whole identity of being in a relationship about to get married and in crushing in business wait but did she end up leaving she left dude oh so you didn't have time to correct it or nothing that let's just say when women decide i don't know if you've learned this yet wayne no i mean they're right and that was not the first time but that was like i'm done dude it like shattered me like we just bought this house I you

want to hear something crazy six months later I exit the company become a multi-millionaire she called you back nope oh cuz she just was like hey man like the person that I see and I've seen is not the person that I want to build a life with Wow so that where did i like say enough's enough and like okay well so i'm i'm a driven dude like you were doing wrong though i just wanted dude i was just working i was no i was working 100 hour weeks man dude i would show up let's say it was your birthday party and i'm your best friend i show up my laptop so it was just work that it was 100 work it was it was i was we're at dinner i paying attention. We go to her family, like the reason she was pissed

is because I was supposed to be home an hour before, this is a Sunday afternoon, because we were supposed to go to her parents' house. And yet again, Dan's late. She's always making up excuses for me. And I just didn't understand how do I create, I'm a creator, and then also show up as a good brother, as a son, as a partner in a relationship.

Because I was like, I was just so scared that if I stopped, I would lose the momentum. You know, a lot of people, they think the thing that makes them successful is their edge. What I've learned is sometimes you're successful in spite of your edge. And how do you take that out and reflect and see? So that actually change? Did that take away from you or did it add more fuel to you? Like what was that empty space like? Like what was that empty home like?

What were those nights like? It was I started having anxiety attacks. Yep. I had to go see a therapist. I'd walk around with a rock. He made me squeeze a rock in my pocket every time I'd have an anxiety attack. And like I was like the positive mental attitude guy, right? Like mindset. And here I was my body. I feel like I'm having heart attacks just out of the blue. So I had to, it was a lot of therapy

for a while. And then I decided eventually to move to Silicon Valley, to San Francisco from the East coast of Canada. And that's where I got introduced to a completely different way of building and scaling companies where, okay, they, you know, there's got introduced to a completely different way of building and scaling companies. Where, OK, there's four ways to get leverage. Most people don't know this. It's content, code, capital, or collaboration. There's only four C's. And once I understood that, then I

learned what I needed to get better at. Those are the four things to get leverage. So time is a constant. Multiply times leverage equals output. So if you want more output, you want more revenue, you want more growth, it's not time. It's leverage. So how do you get more leverage?

I learned how to use capital. I learned how to raise capital. I've raised over $650 million for myself and companies I'm involved in. Code, right? Think about automation, AI today, GPT. That's all code. Most people don't know how to use technology to get leverage.

Third one is content, which is a perfect example. Fixed costs to produce. 10 million people watch this. Does it cost you more? Nope. Huge. But where does that show up in a business? Playbooks, systems.

We were just talking, Nathan, about checklists. So that's the content side. And then collaboration is the people side. How do you work through other people to get work done so that you're never the bottleneck? And those are the four master skills. And that's what I had to learn so that I can be a great dad, be a great husband, be a great person in my community,

and still go crush it in business. That, unfortunately, I had to go through that pain to figure it out. So there is technically a balance if you buy your time back. Dude, it is not only a balance, dude, full-on integration. It's better than I thought it could ever be. Wow.

Way better. Because it's essentially allowing you to express yourself to the fullest potential without never feeling like there's something to go fix because you did that. I can be here with you guys. I think I've got a ton of podcasts, right? I've got an executive assistant.

She's managing. I've got my team here. They're monitoring. I can be 100% present with you guys because I don't have to worry about what's happening next. I'm just gonna show up and I'm gonna love on the people I meet. And I mean, that's the thing I think everybody wants to do.

Is just being present. Dude, I just want, when I'm with my kin, man, I don't wanna worry about inbox. I don't have to worry about text messages. There's nothing that's important that, like when I'm hanging out with my son, or Max or Noah, I'm like, I'm just with you. Wow.

And I think that's the biggest gift. Well, I mean, I think- So I wrote the book. I think he reached a level of seeing that just because you felt like not having a balance was going to be detrimental. But I hear there's two different aspects to it, right? There's not having a balance and people are like, oh, you just won't have a balance at certain points in your life. But then you get to a point where you want that balance. So do you believe in just establishing that balance for all entrepreneurs,

whether they're 21, 19? When is the balance not appropriate? Dude, I've taken 15-year-olds and taught them the buyback principle. whether at 21, 19, like when do you, when is the balance not appropriate? I've taken 15 year olds and taught them the buyback principle. And in the first year, guess what the first hire they're making? An assistant.

Wow, do you know how crazy that is? It doesn't matter. If you start a business as fast as you possibly can, make revenue, go get an executive assistant. Nobody's ever told anybody that. Cause they think, well, I'm not that fancy. Why can't I do my own inbox? Why can't I manage my calendar?

Most people aren't profitable to hire people. Perfect, go and you can. So what else can you do? Intern, right? Most people, their biggest time assassins is actually not even not enough time. It's themselves. Dude, I haven't drank in 11 years.

Why? Because I knew I shouldn't be drinking. The amount of time I've gotten back by not drinking, I don't need a team. Like I just got back like a full Sunday, a Saturday afternoon, you know what I mean? So a lot of it is just like wasted time. But if you're at capacity, then go get an intern, man.

Like go call the local college and say, who's your top student? He needs experience, I need a person to help out. And then in that three, six month period, you got them, just get your business figured out so you've got a little bit of profit so you can maybe keep them around or hire somebody else. But dude, you can hire an executive assistant

in the Philippines for $4 an hour and they're really good. So these are just beliefs or ignorance they just don't know about. Once you know, then you just, how fast can I buy? Literally the unlock, when you talk about balance, I do believe there are sprints within a marathon. I do believe that. I think there's seasons where it's like,

I'm going hard in the paint. We're doing it. You're working weekends. I'm just, I'm going to make it happen. But if you're in that mode, let's just be efficient about it. Let's not be wasteful. Let's not just think I got to work harder to get through this. Let's be a little bit more thoughtful about the value of our time.

I think young people have it hardest because they think they have all the time in the world. And that's true. But wouldn't you want to get to the place that you want to enjoy your life faster? Like, I don't want my dreams to be this thing I build eventually. I want them now. Right? So, of course. I don't want to be to be this thing I build eventually, I want them now. Right, so of course- I don't wanna be the six year old guy in a Lamborghini.

I wanna now, dude, when you're older and you're going on vacation, you don't even wanna take your shirt off because you feel flat and fab, you know what I mean? Like you wanna be young and doing that. So I hope that's motivation for young people to say buy back their time. You cannot build a million dollar company off $10 tasks.

It's impossible. But most people, I think their thing is fear of missing out, which I was explaining to Sean what it's a saying that goes, choose your regrets. So you can choose to either work now, party later, or party now, and worry about work later. But either way, you're gonna at some point, you're gonna have to choose.

Choose your regret. Yeah, I mean, Jeff Bezos calls it regret minimization. At the end of the day, make a list of all the things. And there's been books written about this, right? The top five regrets of the people that have died, right? And just like front load those. But here's the thing, Wayne, I actually think people can have it all.

I think you can have a very ridiculous-sized business and have time for your family and go and party. Wow. If you're willing to follow the process. But if you want to let your trauma, emotions, create issues, most people, the challenges in their businesses, it's them creating what I call emotional shrapnel right it's somebody messed up and instead of being like hey where did the process drop the ball they go the person's an idiot and

they'll say something like that well the person's not an idiot you didn't train them properly when when I go to work nobody works for me I work for them do you think that this that subtle frame of mind? So most people just haven't become the person who can deal with more. They wish that the problems stop happening. It never stops. The problems get bigger.

You should just wish that you became more so you can deal with bigger things. I call them factor of 10. $10 problems, $100 problems. When you start off, your cell phone bill is an extra $100. You freak out. You call the company, what is in the States, like AT&T or whatever.

It's like, you guys, blah, blah, blah. Dude, you should hope you should have $10,000 problems. Frigging Richard Branson just had a billion-dollar problem. He had to shut down his Galactica company that went public. Like, Oprah gets sued for a billion dollars. She's grateful she's the person who has the means to be sued for a billion dollars.

People wish that the problems went away and they never go away. You just become more. So run to that, create the space in your calendar to develop the skills, to develop the beliefs, develop the character traits to do more. So you can have it all if you're willing to just do the work. He said, forget having a hundred dollar problems,

you could have 10,000 dollar problems. Hell yeah, hell yeah man go find them run to the problems right wow you mentioned anxiety attacks earlier do you still get those or did you overcome that no i don't anymore um now you just get on a jet and be like my mind's bad take me somewhere well you know what it is now is i uh and i teach this i think it's like chapter eight, it's perfect week, is I design my weeks to have the, there's no anxiety to build up, right? Anxiety comes from- Worry. Yeah, worry.

I don't have worry because I'm on path. I know what I'm here to do. I know that nothing needs to be done, nothing has to be done, but it can be done. And if it doesn't get done great, that's totally fine. And if it doesn't, oh, well. Dude, I if it doesn't oh well dude i have like zero like i'm yeah it's i'm breathing right now i'm here with you guys like life is great and i think people are more jealous of that they should be it's an awesome place they should be i feel like more people are jealous of the fact that you don't

worry about things and the things that you actually possess because the worrying is what most people like have trouble with right do you know 90 of the pain somebody fears or feels is the fear of an outcome that never happens whoa all the time that's crazy the chick will say you're gonna break my heart like we just met yesterday you're you're creating internal pain about something that hasn't happened. So my rule is I control the controllables. I can't control whatever happens externally, the economy, whatever. But when it happens, I can respond.

So I don't think about the things. And that is something. It's a skill. And it becomes a character trait because it's based on beliefs. So I think people should lean into that. But you don't even have time to think about that stuff if you're busy doing, doing, doing. That's why I teach people the buyback loop.

I want them to free up their time so that they can fill it with things that are going to develop them to become more, to have more. And people think it's like when I, it's the be, do, have. They think once I have, then I'll be the person, then I can do the cool stuff. But the truth is, it's not the have first, it's the you know the b do have they think once i have then i'll be the person then i can do the cool stuff but the truth is is it's not to have first it's the b it sounds so crazy but you got to be the person first to then have to go do the stuff you want and that that is a hard thing for people to understand is they're like what do you you mean? It's like, here's a great way to think about it.

If I took all the money in the world right now, okay, there's 3.2 trillion exchange today. And I evenly distribute it to everybody's pockets. We kind of tested this recently with the pandemic, or sorry, pandemic. And what do you think would happen within the next 16, 18 months? It'd be back in the hands of the people

that had it originally. Why? of the people that had it originally. Why? Because the people that had it think, well, if I have it, then I'll be that person. People think, I wanna be a millionaire. Having a million dollars in your bank account doesn't make you a millionaire. Being the person that knows how to manage a million dollars

makes you a millionaire. Dude, that idea is a big idea that I think is lost on people. You should be happy you didn't get the million yet because you're not the person who can receive it yet. And the stuff you're going through right now is getting you ready to become the person who can receive the things you've been asking for. Mm-hm.

Wow. Dude, this is like the game that I wish somebody would have sat me down at 17 and said, you think it's about working, you think it's about the task, like I gotta go task like i gotta go sell i gotta go market i got no no you gotta go work on yourself well we're being taught all of us are being taught by inexperienced people which is our parents so that concept it's just trickle down effect so we could talk about the what's the card generational curse but i think every family suffers with that just because of the knowledge that's being passed along and we're it's all the same knowledge. Work hard, go to school. It's the same thing. It's nine to five. Don't be afraid to pick up garbage if that's

what you're asked for. You're not above it, all these things. Here's the thing though, is my philosophy, because I think, I love my parents. And obviously we had a lot of challenges growing up that today it's, you'd see us, my dad travels with me to my events. My mom, we had a lot of challenges growing up that today, you'd see us. My dad travels with me to my events. My mom's like, I talk to her. It's kind of bananas where I grew up to the relationship I have today. I have two brothers and a sister,

and we have a beautiful relationship. But I learned a long time ago that I can't ask my parents for advice for my life. Because if I want to achieve something they've never achieved, then if I ask them for advice for my life. Because if I wanna achieve something they've never achieved, then if I ask them for advice, what am I gonna get? I'm gonna get advice on getting the same thing they receive because that's all they could ever get.

It doesn't mean they don't love me. It doesn't mean I don't ask them for advice. My dad- They can't teach you what they don't know. Yeah, so it's just even, so the idea is like big life decisions. Where do I go to school? Should I be in this relationship?

Should I start a business? All that stuff. If you ask your parents, you're actually working against yourself unless your parents, you know, is Bill Gates. You know what I mean? Like unless they're super successful, that's why mentorship is required. Yeah. Finding somebody who's been there before to be able to ask the big decisions, not how do I manage my assistant? Don't waste somebody's time. So you ended up getting married again. Dude have a beautiful wife yeah okay so how did that happen a lot of work i had to go yep 100 had to go to san francisco understand there's a different way to build companies that created the space for me to do the work you know men are from mars women are from venus like dude i did the work i went to the

events the way of the superior man like i i did it you worked on you had to yeah i want because i was i was scared i want after that happened i literally had thoughts maybe i'm always just gonna have to you know reside to being the rich uncle maybe i'm not supposed to be in a relationship maybe i should just move to miami and be that guy the perpetual bachelor but but in my heart, man, I want to have kids. I just didn't want to not have that. But I knew I just wasn't. It wouldn't have been fair to another person

to be in a relationship with that version of Dan. So I had to become the person who could attract. Same principle. I knew what I wanted. The biggest gift I got from that failed relationship was being very intentional for who I wanted to attract and then asking myself, well, who would that person wanna be with, because I wasn't.

That person who's an entrepreneur and driven and beautiful and athletic and positive and all these things, they wouldn't put up with me. See what I'm saying? Some people wanna attract a partner that like, dude, you ain't that cool. Like, let's be honest. You want all these things from a partner. It's like, what are you bringing to the table? So I had to go like build that to eventually be ready to receive. Wow. And then you received it. It was all good. Yeah, man. She hit me up on Twitter.

Again, I was ready. I was ready. She did. She said, she says she doesn't, but it's public. So I found it. I love you, Renee. But she messaged me she was like i saw you're speaking i'd love to pick your brain i like creeped out her profile i was like yeah we're for sure done come pick it and i remember that the first meeting i was like what are you doing tonight she's like oh i got you know whatever and i was like we're going for dinner i I was ready for that. I became the person who could show up with the confidence. So you guys met on Twitter? We met on Twitter in person in Toronto at an event I was speaking at.

And maybe within, I think it's four months, I convinced her to move to San Francisco and start to build a life together. That's cool. You've had massive success in the business world. How do you choose your business partners? Because that's something a lot of people struggle with. Beautiful question.

One of them sitting right over there. That's my partner Sam here's the thing man I think first and foremost is like you should partner with people that inspire you right even though I'm successful right like I'm inspired I'm inspired by you guys in this space man this is beautiful like you you meet people that do things you know that that it's inspiration is where were they and where are they today? It's not about like how much money you have, it's how much adversity did you overcome? That inspires me.

It could be the person that's a paraplegic that climbs Kilimanjaro, like game on. I remember I did an Ironman last year and like it's a, I think it's a 16 hour cutoff. The people that are coming in at hour 15, 50 minutes are way more inspiring than me. Like I'm sitting there at the finish line. I stayed up till midnight cheering these people on. Wow. Right? Yeah.

So for me, a business partner is somebody I admire that inspires me. That's first and foremost, somebody I'd want to spend time with. Then it's somebody that I can collaborate with. I think life's like, if I think about what makes a great business is co-creation. And again, some people are really good solopreneurs and they don't realize that that's the biggest thing holding them back.

They don't know how to partner. They don't know how to share. They don't know how to co-create. They don't know how to have conflict in a healthy way. Cool. Then you will always be, you know, the person that has a business. But when you can start partnering with people that are on their own incredibly talented driven can build their own organization and you plus them equals more enterprise dude i've done this like i've probably partnered with 60 people on a meaningful

level wow yeah that's a lot i just i well it's not hard dude i was talking to your nathan guys like dude let's go do this up in Canada. I don't know. I'm seeing opportunity all around me. And if you have resources because you bought back your time, you have the space to have these conversations, then I think that's a big thing. So yeah, business partners for me are people that inspire, that are willing to do the work.

We share the same values. I remember one time I started my very first company that succeeded. I had two failures and then finally kind of figured it out. When I started, I hired these three guys that were essentially supposed to be my partners. Gave them each 10%. We're going to start this off.

The first Saturday rolls around, and I say, guys, we've got to meet up. We've got to talk about strategy, because on Monday we've got to do the work. And one of the guys, Martin, says, I'm not going to come. And I was like, why? He goes, dude, I don't want to be. Whatever you guys are about to go do, that sounds like a lot of work.

And I'm good now. I just don't want to do that. No problem, bro. He wasn't there when we exited. And again, dude, I don't mean to flex. But sometimes you've got to go let people know, right? To wake them up. Like the amount of people, I just think about it when I like, so first company was Spheric,

exited that at 28, then I went and did another company, Flowtown, exited that at 30. I essentially did three companies in 10 years. Every time I've exited, I just think of all the people that came that couldn't hang. Think about it, you guys, like how many people have come, interns, employees, that they just couldn't hang think about it you guys like how many people have come interns employees that they just couldn't hang a lot i know there's a lot of names dude i think when i sold flowtown there

was like a hundred and some people's names on that list yeah because look we're we're showing up to do the work and there's gonna be challenges and we gotta overcome it and you gotta be willing to part every day so i just i just think of that it's like i want people that are willing to go to war with me yeah yeah not like physically like anger but just like i trust you got my back dude you got that in a partner it's game on yeah man dan i love your mindset man especially knowing how you grew up through the foster system going to prison and all that and to see you now it's truly inspiring for real. Thanks, man. Yeah. Is there anything you want to close off with? Yeah. I think every person, because I think this will really serve the listeners. I think everybody's here to do two things. Okay. I'm a person of faith. I believe in my creator.

And I believe one, we're here to become the best version of ourselves. You know, I call the 10.0 version of ourselves. And the 10.0 is like, you know, think of like all the best version of ourselves. I call it the 10.0 version of ourselves. And the 10.0 is like, think of all the best moments, powerfully you showed up with confidence and they might be sprinkled out, right? Where you're super creative. If you brought all that together, like all those moments into one day

and you showed up the day you were on your fitness game, your work stuff, you're hitting everything. If you could just show up as that 10 were on your fitness game, your work stuff, you're hitting everything. If you could just show up as that 10.0 version of yourself, or at least strive to be that person 100% of the time, that's one, like, am I on that journey, that 1% better? Like when I meet my maker, I believe he created me in his image

and I'm gonna meet the person that he created me in. Dude, I want that person to be a stranger. I think that would be hell. I think that is actually the definition of hell. I read something that said that yesterday, real hell is the person you are today meeting the person that you were supposed to be. That.

Whoa, that's trippy. That. They said that is real hell. When I read that, I was like, I actually posted it. I was like, that's powerful. That. I'm going to be stealing that. Wayne, I love that. And so that's one.

And then the beautiful part about that is if you're on that journey, the second part is share that person with the world. Give yourself to the world. I don't care if it's to your kids to your wife to your community to whoever dude holding that the things you've learned who you've become not sharing that publicly like you you push me man i appreciate it hey dude like you need to flex because how can i be inspired if i don't know these things about you i appreciate you saying that because that's that's what i'm saying i need to get better being okay letting people know this is what i but quickly tell them but this is where I came from.

Yeah, be the result. Yeah, and I think that if every person, think about that, if every person in the world woke up and said, how do I become the best version of myself? And then share that process with the world, I think everybody would just find a different purpose, a different vision for their life. They would have a bigger why.

And that's what I hope to encourage people and invite them to consider. Love it, man. Yeah, hit me up on Instagram, guys. I'm on Instagram. I love Instagram. Double L to Martel, Dan Martel. Follow me, send me a message.

Let people know that I was on this. He found me. I'd love to serve people. Gotcha, man. I'll put the link in the bio. Thank you. Thanks for watching, guys. That was a great episode.

See you next time. Peace.