Right About Now - Legendary Business Advice - Living in a Van to a Millionaire: How Mindset Impacts Financial Future

Starting point is 00:00:00 Our premise here is if you don't have the right mindset, you're never going to have the money. You say money can buy happiness. That's a hot take. And we actually agree. We say that. This is Right About Now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. We are the number one business show on the planet with over one million downloads a month. Taking the BS out of business for over six years and over 400 episodes.

Starting point is 00:00:27 You ready to start snapping next and cash and check? Well, it starts right about now. What's up, guys? Welcome to Right About Now. Hey, we're always right. At least we think so. But we're definitely right now. We're always bringing you what you need and sometimes what you want.

Starting point is 00:00:46 You know, that's why we put it in that order. Because look, you got to do the things that will get you where you want to go. And that's where I'm pumped today. We got Dr. Brad, Clantz and Adrian Brambella. What's up, guys? Hey, thanks so much for having us. I'm glad you guys are here. They say health is wealth. Well, wealth is wealth. We want to talk about how to build it. I know that's what you guys are talking about. We've got an upcoming book. Start Thinking Rich. If you aren't already thinking about, hey, you know, they say you become what you think about, right? Literally. And so we need people think about money the right way. Gentlemen, really appreciate you guys coming on the show. Let's sit at the top. table for the audience. And I think some of you guys, they might recognize you from TikTok or something.

Starting point is 00:01:35 I don't know. But let's set the table. Who are we, Brad? Who are we, Adrian? Yeah, I think most people that I've heard in me is when I was actually living full time in a van during the pandemic. And the year before that, I've been creating content a long time since 2010. I actually used to be a pro dancer for T. Payne. So my first YouTube channel back in the day was teaching people that had dance the robot. But it's when someone knows me from there, I'm like, wow, like you're a long time follower and I love you for that. But I got like almost two million followers that felt like overnight when I was documenting van life. And van life wasn't just an S&L skid anymore. It actually became a cool, trendy thing. And I just happened to be doing it at the time. But what happened

Starting point is 00:02:20 in that process was I've been doing online business for a while and I would share, hey, I'm actually a multimillionaire. I live in this van. And I've been documenting every I've made since 2012, my first 45 cents, and the numbers are just higher. And at the van, I'd be like, hey, I just made $100,000 this month. And I live in this van. And so naturally, the response of that was, this guy is full of shit. This guy has to be a scam artist. There's no way a millionaire would choose to live in a van.

Starting point is 00:02:49 And then that's when my content started to change because I realized that people have this really wrong perception of what wealth is. They think wealth is Lamborghini. They think it's flash. They think it's private jets and cars. And here I'm the opposite. I'm a minimalist. I'm part of this thing called the fire movement, financial independence retire early.

Starting point is 00:03:08 That year I lived in the van and made $1.7 million at that time. It was the most I ever made. And I saved and invested 95% of that, which is crazy to me. And now I don't live in a van. I have a nice home. I have a cyber truck. I have nice things. But I still am like an intentionalist.

Starting point is 00:03:26 I'm not this blind consumer. but I started to change my content. I realized that people have this really terrible perception of what becoming rich is, and it's actually not about objects. And in that minimalist perspective, I think the more stuff you own, the more it owns you. And I think if you're wealthy, it's okay to have nice things, but wealthy people, they don't trade their time for it. They're buying investments and they're living off that investment income.

Starting point is 00:03:51 And that's, I think, a message that I started connecting with Dr. Brad Clunz, because even though our backgrounds on paper are totally different, we were talking about the same message that wealth is about owning your time having financial freedom and having the choice to do what you'd like to do whenever you'd like to do it. I love that. And doctor, I'm going to pause for a little bit. Because I've got to say a couple things with Adrian. There's two things.

Starting point is 00:04:11 Number one, I need to be taught how to dance. My wife would be really appreciative if somehow, some way. I don't know if it's like universal. I could use it. I'm a big dude, 65, 270. You know, like I'm nimble, baby. I can jump. I'm athletic. But man, the dancing just never quite got there. Can we make that happen? I think so.

Starting point is 00:04:34 You know, I taught over 15 million people how to dance on my stuff. And actually, I would have a couple bodybuilders. You know, you look like a bodybuilder on this part because you look really stocking and fit. These bodybuilders, when they would go up on stage and they would flex, they would start to do these little robot dancers and flex their muscles. And I think if you feel like you're a bad dancer, the robot's great because you can be stiff. I feel like I can be taught to have better rhythm. I don't know. Like, you know, I can play guitar.

Starting point is 00:05:02 Like my dad's got a lot of rhythm. Like a lot of musical stuff. So I feel like I could get there. But yeah, I guess it might just have to, you know, get tighter with the muscles. And last thing is when I hear Van, all I think is Chris Farleyed a van down by the river. It's true. Like living in a van down by the river. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:05:25 Am I remembering that right? Okay. Yeah. I love that. Yeah. I love that. I would get a lot of trolls. I would comment that. And I love that. I knew it was the joke. And I would say, yeah, it's down by the river. River of gold.

Starting point is 00:05:39 Yeah. That's what's doing. Hey, the point is, you got the last laugh. They might have been laughing, but nobody's laughing anymore. All right, Doc. What's up, Brad? Tell me, what's your store, brother? All right. Well, first of all, I'm Dr. Brad Clontz. I'm a TikTok superstar. And my side hustle is that I'm a doctor and a professor and I do all that kind of stuff. But really, for the last 22 years, I have been obsessed with researching the psychology of wealth. That has been my entire career. Looking at what separates the middle class from the ultra wealthy, what separates the ultra wealthy from billionaires, what separates the poor from the middle class. So that has been my pursuit, my professional pursuit. And it really, really comes down to the fact that I grew up poor, just to be blunt with you. That's why I got really curious because being poor sucks, which is actually the intro chapter to our book. And, you know, I actually wrote this book and I was super excited to partner with Adrian around it. We've been friends ever since I was watching his content, living in a van, and he's watching mine, and we're sort of saying the same sort of mindset stuff. Because our audience has a lot of myths about what it takes to become wealthy, the mindset it takes, even the strategies, and

Starting point is 00:06:51 then how wealthy people actually live their lives and what they truly value and social media lies to people about exactly that. And so our entire mission here is to try to give the harsh truth. And we put this together in a way that really resonated on social media with our posts around trying to break through the noise and wake people up around how their thinking really sets the stage for their failures and successes. And then we try to die real deep into rooting out what are these mindsets that chronically trip people up and how can we shift them in the direction of success. So I'm super excited to be chatting with you about it here. I love that. And you know what? The power of the internet, man, like, I mean, coming together, social media,

Starting point is 00:07:37 the internet, like the stories, the ways that people come together, you know, we, you know, we all know, just like we, I guess on both sides of this coin, you just gave a really example of how social media, you know, and does things, and it's a terrible thing in a lot of ways, but at the same time, like, it can be used for the good so that then you guys can inform, there's a weird dichotomy there. You met on something that's sort of lying to you, but at the same time, then you can bring the truth.

Starting point is 00:08:06 Right? That's great. I love that. It's true. Like, you know, you're a marketer at heart, so am I. These are platforms that give you so much scale in the message. And once you realize the power of that, Now it's the person behind it.

Starting point is 00:08:21 Is that a good person using that loud, you know, platform? And the truth is not everyone's good. Or if you want to get the benefit of the doubt, everyone has good intentions, but not everyone has a good message. And, you know, one of the things about finance, back in back, I think when Brad and I really started owning on the finance community on TikTok was really early. And he had all these teenagers that were telling you how to get rich quick from these NFTs and bitcoins. And then there was actually a story that went mainstream where,

Starting point is 00:08:49 a kid who started leveraging on margin on Robin Hood, he had racked up like over half a million dollars and like overnight. And then when he woke up that next day, he wrote a suicide note and he killed himself. And so to me, that kid was a product of all the bad messages of how you get rich quick. And so like it's that tragedy and it's that sorrow. It's also that pain of,

Starting point is 00:09:13 man, we had to be a good force. Where are the good people? We have, if you have a good message, you've got a good business, good product, you got to get loud because that's what's happening to all the other people who have maybe good intentions, but they're listening to the wrong people.

Starting point is 00:09:26 Yeah. And it brings to mind a concept for me in marketing as well that I have always preached, but it's, it's been popular or unpopular depending on the time I've been doing this for 20 plus years. So it's like comes and goes. Performance marketing kind of killed this whole thing. Branding takes time. And short-termism is a disease. And what happens is we've become, we have so many things, social media, Amazon,

Starting point is 00:09:54 we have instant gratification on so many levels that we think it applies to everything. And good things sometimes take time. And it's not, well, being the old man, like, you just got to wait. You know, I'm not saying that. It's way faster than it was. But we have this disease of short-termism that we think everything's going to come. or we can race the race to the bottom to create a transaction, you know, when I think from the marketing side.

Starting point is 00:10:27 And then the same thing with earning. You know, like it's great that, okay, your stock doubled off. And it's kind of like what I've talked about like housing around here at Greenville. House I sold for 500,000 like eight years ago, went for 1.8. No updates, no changes. Like it's 200, it was like 278% increase with no upgrades. and a nine year, eight year period. And I'm like, is that is, I was like, I'm, look, I'm a progress innovator, you know,

Starting point is 00:10:54 but I'm like, is that a good thing? I don't know. Anyway, the point is short termism is really a problem and it feels like you guys are kind of getting at that on some level. Yeah, absolutely. It's a huge problem. And there's a concept in psychology called relative deprivation. And it plays out in social media all the time.

Starting point is 00:11:13 And so essentially, we don't know whether we're rich or poor or financially happy or not. so we look around at what other people have around us. Like you're in a real poor village. You got five goats. All your neighbors got one. You're going to feel rich. You're going to have the experience of feeling rich. And one of the tricks with social media, like during the pandemic, this was really profound.

Starting point is 00:11:32 I know you got kids. I got kids. And I'd be sitting back in the pandemic looking at Facebook or looking at Instagram and seeing some dude, you know, sitting on a couch, sipping coffee, reading a book, you know. And I'm like, damn, I wish I could have some of that experience during the pandemic. Meanwhile, people who were separated from family who weren't in relationships are looking at, you know, a couple, you know, sharing the pandemic together in apartment. And they're feeling like, damn, I wish I had somebody. And that is the psychological experience that you've got to be aware of on social media is the sense of relative deprivation.

Starting point is 00:12:04 And really defining what wealth and success is for you is going to be super important because if we were talking about it before the show too, if you're like, look, if there was an object you could buy right now, that would give you sustained happiness. I would be promoting it right now. And I guarantee you, Adrian would be an affiliate for it. And he'd be making millions of dollars. But it's just not the case, right? And so if you have this attachment that certainly material items can make your life better. I mean, we all have, we all have them.

Starting point is 00:12:34 But it's not going to solve those big issues for you around like purpose and life. And why are we here? And the need to be loved and to love and to throw your time into some sort of passion and pursuit. And so that's, you know, social media is great in some ways. In other ways, it feeds us with this sense that we're missing out, the FOMO, the deprivation. And so that's a mindset you've got to get straight or any money coming into your life is going to go right out to a liability and not building up assets and that wealth you really want to build for yourself. Yeah. Spot on right there.

Starting point is 00:13:08 Talk it with Adrian Bramilla and Dr. Brad Clontz, their authors of the upcoming book, Start Thinking Rich. guys, before we get into like maybe some of the building blocks of the book, I'd love to know, and it might be interesting for the listeners, like, what was the process, you know, being remote, like writing a book together? Like maybe talk a little bit about that journey. That's interesting. A lot of people that probably think about writing books or doing things, but doing it together, being remote and the way you guys came together.

Starting point is 00:13:35 Anything interesting there, I'm sure? Yeah, I think Brad, he's seasoned. And I'll leave them more experienced because this is a ninth book. And he'll tell you it's his favorite and best. one. For me, it was my first time creating a book. And I was very intimidated. I'm not, I'm not a writer, but now I am. I feel like I can, I feel, I feel good. These are skills that didn't come easy, but I'm, I love talking. Maybe I talk too much. So one thing we did was to help me, because I always felt like if I was going to collaborate with Brad, I'm going to slow down the

Starting point is 00:14:07 process. And this is, I think, a great tactical tip. Because I think everyone should make a book. We all should make a book. Is if you, if writing is intimidating, so you're not staring at a laptop with a dashing cursor on a word doc, talk about the chapter. Create at like basically like Ryan, I don't know if you've already done this, but I know it's coming. Like you could turn every single interview and turn all the podcasts into a book. All the knowledge that's in here that we're talking right now. Like it's, it's like that's, that's one of the easiest ways. And you could, you could then digest. Now we have AI that can auto scripted and then you can turn the AI into make a summary. This is not to essentially have

Starting point is 00:14:42 AI write the book, but it's helped to condense the idea so you don't have, you. at writers block. So if you're better at talking, you can do that. And that's one way that we kind of leaned into it. But I think now a marketing approach that you're going to let you really dig. And Ryan is every single chapter title, we tested through social media. This is advantage of creating content you build an audience versus kind of Brad and I thinking, hmm, what should what should this chapter be? Nothing was ever like finalized through an instinct. The instinct was like, what do you think about this idea, let's test it. So we would test, we tested hundreds of different chapter titles and the ones we selected had the most controversy, the most engagement, and the most kind

Starting point is 00:15:21 of comments and stuff. I remember one in particular was, I think one of the worst ones was, if you want to be rich, you have to get rid of your poor friends. So this was like, ouch, tough. And when I posted it, what happened like within almost an hour, a thousand comments to reach like 300,000 people. And people are saying, I'm evil, what an ass. And then we break down, you know, what we really mean. Most people, if you don't agree with that, but you agree with you're the average of the five people you're trying to buy.

Starting point is 00:15:53 It's the same concept, right? So if you're, and poor, we also define is not, is a mindset. Broke is a temporary state of having no money. And we're also never talk about, you know, poor is not, you know, the quality of life is priceless. We're talking about economic value when we talk about like poor and rich. but every single one was tested. So we test a lot of ideas that flopped.

Starting point is 00:16:12 And the ones we kept ended up being chapters had else. So every single chapter is almost this like really great headline that's going to elicit an emotional reaction and response. And then the chapter itself is in the love part. So it's almost like, you know, we call it harsher truce. Like one of the other ones was like, you're not allowed to use a credit card if you can't pay off the statement balance full every single month. So again, people like that, the comments are like, you're, what? Who are you to tell me what to do? No one likes being told what to do.

Starting point is 00:16:41 So again, it's the phrasing of the language because you look at every other money book. We could have just wrote how to use a credit card. Boring. Like how to save and invest. Boring. But with marketing and data and social media, we created, I think, 21 really great kind of chapters from it. Let me ask a question about that. That's really interesting.

Starting point is 00:17:01 Now you have my marketing head thinking. But I'm thinking of two things. Now, are you using what were the most popular or the ones that got the most engagement. It was a combination and one of them had to do with the most delusional comments too because that's sort of like, oh, whoa, people, like we were shocked and we actually have it in the book with the whole credit card balance thing. The number of comments on there that were claiming that, oh, you have to keep a balance because of your credits. I mean, we were so flabbergasted by the misinformation and the lack of understanding around how it worked. That was a big driver for many

Starting point is 00:17:36 of our chapters too. And so we sketched ideas. Like we have these like fundamental truths that we run into all the time that people are struggling with. And then it's like how do we frame it in a way? You know, I'm always worried that like the dean of my university, which I'm not going to name, is going to find one of my TikToks and be like,

Starting point is 00:17:53 Klon's, what the hell are you doing? You know, because we're trying to reach a message and to an audience. And so you got to frame it in a way that people, that wake people up. And so like each one of these chapters like a big old slap in the head. And Adrian and I both have fathers. who raised us that way. You know, it's like they're just going to give it to us straight. And for me as a psychologist, right?

Starting point is 00:18:12 Like, I'm good with your feelings, Ryan. You know, I'll give you a hug. You know, we can cry it out, brother. You know, and then when after you're done crying, I'm going to shut the door and I'm going to say, okay, Ryan, here's the real deal, you know. Yeah, exactly. And so for me anyway, it's right on brand for me around like, hey, we love, we love the readers so much.

Starting point is 00:18:33 We're not going to beat around the bush. We're going to give it to them straight. We know they can take it. And then the chapters themselves are really about why it matters. And frankly, all the research behind it, too. Like, we're not making any of this stuff up. This is all research-based. And that's sort of my nerd background around that.

Starting point is 00:18:49 I love the psychology of that. That's why it's a good team here. We got the – because, I mean, marketing is psychology, too. You know, I tell people all the time, it's 90% you know, instead of human behavior, people think with their head and they bow with their heart. That's right. Yeah. And I'll say to the book writing, like, hey, look, life is short, you know, and I want to spend the time with the people I love and admire and I learn from.

Starting point is 00:19:14 And so for me, Adrian, we were friends before this. And I thought, you know, you know what would be great is me spending a year hanging out with Adrian, talking through these ideas. And then we just hit the record button and we sent it to an editor who came back with like a rough draft of the chapter. I mean, don't let writers block stop you from doing something like this. So we didn't let that stop us. And we spent our time really fleshing out the ideas, not hammering out the exact sentence structure to begin with. Because that'll just keep you stuck and never writing a book. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:19:44 There's, I mean, there's a resource now. I got to do it. I have a notes app, you know, the notes on the all iPhone. And I have literally a full page of book titles. And some chapters already done. Like, I just, I got to do it. There's a many resources now. You have to.

Starting point is 00:20:00 And I'm a pretty good writer. So I'm kind of, that's kind of my thing. So, but I mean, they're getting help. Like, I can't probably write. I get, I have the concepts already there, you know, like the big ideas. A couple of different. Some of them are completely off the, some of them are marketing related. Some of them aren't.

Starting point is 00:20:18 I'll throw one title at you, just really quick. Raising a brand in the world of NIL what you should do to maximize your child's potential. Ooh, I like it. Nice. That's awesome. Raising a brand. Oh, my goodness. You've got a trademarked that before you post this stuff.

Starting point is 00:20:36 I own the website. Because Andrews doing it right now. That's awesome. Yeah. Okay. You guys are really smart. So this is your show about your book, but I just wanted, I got a doctor or psychologist, a super smart marketer, van bound by the river guy that's made more money than anybody ever thought they could in a van. So, yeah, I appreciate the feedback.

Starting point is 00:20:59 That's the response I've gotten for most, but, you know, they weren't. A lot of them are not as smart of you guys. Start thinking rich. Okay. We've talked about the how and the where a little bit and the why. Let's talk about the what. What are we getting here? Obviously, it's, you know, start thinking rich is, you know, somewhat self-explanatory.

Starting point is 00:21:21 But I love it. And I think it was you, Doctor, talking about the poor mindset or my, I don't know who it was. Adrian or Doc, probably both. You are both saying a lot of smart shit. But like it's that poor mindset, you know, start thinking rich. It's not just the money, right? That's my brain. The first thing I started to start thinking, because thinking rich, I'm not thinking necessarily the money.

Starting point is 00:21:41 I'm thinking the tactics, the strategies, the psychology of rich is where I went. Yeah. So it's it's the whole package here. But essentially our premise here is if you don't have the right mindset, you're never going to have the money. And we talk about poor as being a mindset, you know. We're not here to insult poor. people. I was poor. I still have aspects of a poor mindset that I'm still trying to eradicate from my brain. But broke is that not having any money. And a lot of people have had it and we don't

Starting point is 00:22:11 want you to be broke anymore. And we know people who make a lot of money who have a poor mindset. Like there are stories all over the place. You know, I've worked with many athletes and stars over the overtime musicians are actually terrible with this too. They're artists. They don't want to think about money. And they always think that this hit is the first of many. And for most of them, it's the first and last. I mean, that's what happens statistically. And so if you don't have a rich mindset, that money's going to come into your life and it's going to go right out the door. And so we know people making lots of money who have a poor mindset. And so for me, you've got to have the mindset. And part of that is the specific beliefs that are associated with growing a

Starting point is 00:22:53 business, you know, becoming successful. Psychology's done a lot of research on that. And I'll I'll give you one that's probably, I think, the most profound. And we have chapters that relate to this. But it's called in psychology, Locus of Control. And this is such an important critical aspect. By the way, it's the number one thing I'm trying to give my sons. It's like if I could give them any psychological mindset, it's this one right here. Locus of control means the location in which you attribute the reason why you're getting what you're getting out of life.

Starting point is 00:23:22 So you have, there's an internal type and there's an external type. The internal type says that, like for me, oh, I lost money in the stock market. It's like, okay, it's because I didn't know what I was doing. It's because I was approaching it wrong. It's because I didn't have the right education. I have to blame myself. If I blame greedy bankers, if I blame the economy, if I blame politicians, I am, I am sentencing myself to a life of misery and suck.

Starting point is 00:23:48 And so that's what you really want to avoid. And so we lovingly say, try to blame yourself for everything. And by the way, every time I say this, my wife is like, yes, Brad, blame yourself for everything. Because I agree. It's your fault. So consciously, that's what I was thinking, you know. In my earlier, I said, we're always working on me. It's a never-ending project.

Starting point is 00:24:11 Yeah. But I'll tell you this, like, there's nothing more miserable than hanging around with one of your buddies and they're, like, bitching about their wife, you know, and what she's doing, what she's not doing, and this or that. And if you're a really good friend to that person, you say, dude, shut. Oh, like, what about you? What are you doing? It is so empowering to blame yourself. So, like, if I look at, for example, my wife, Joni, if I look at she's in a real bad mood and she's complaining about something I did or whatever, I could pin that on her.

Starting point is 00:24:38 I could actually look at myself and say, well, am I doing what I need to do to connect with her, you know? Am I doing some of that stuff I know that I used to do when we dated to show her that I love her and I'm giving her attention and I'm making her feel special? or am I just sort of expecting that I deserve it because I'm married to her? That's just an example. And it's so empowering to blame yourself. It's so easy to blame other people. And so when it comes to business, when it comes to finance, when it comes to all of it, success in every area of your life.

Starting point is 00:25:07 So by the way, this concept has been studied by psychology for decades. And if you want to have a better life, blame yourself for as much as possible. Bottom line. Oh, man. That's a big one. And you really resonate me talking about with your sons, you know, like that is because, God, we're so prone to go, you know, but this or that or if I wasn't here, I wasn't there, you know, like it's a, I don't know.

Starting point is 00:25:38 That is a disease in of itself, unfortunately. And I think it is, I don't know if it's nature, nurture, but there's a lot of nurture in it, I think, like it's, you see it, the, you know, everything around you. is sort of because how many people, you know, leaders included around us are really taking it on the chin themselves, right? It's all out, it's, you know, all outward, outward, not inward. And that's, that's the key lesson there. Well, that's how you get elected. It's like, I got, if I wanted to run for office, I would tell you how none of the problems can you solve.

Starting point is 00:26:13 It's me. I can solve them. You need me. And so there are peddlers of this disempowerment. There's peddlers of this helplessness. feeling and you got to watch out for those people because they will keep you stuck. And we all, and all this to say, the world is entirely unfair. And there are so many people out there who are doing the wrong thing and will take advantage of you and whatever. And so that's, that's the challenge

Starting point is 00:26:37 because you can always find someone to blame and there they are and they deserve it. And you got to ask yourself, okay, why did I trust them? You know, you got to look, you got to turn it around to yourself. Why did I go into business with this person? Was I, was I attracted to the flash and the false promises? Did I believe things I shouldn't have believed? Because I was, I had a scarcity mindset. Now it's worried about being poor. I mean, you've got to dig in there, especially when other people are doing bad things. Yeah. Yeah, for sure. And I, uh, I'm a sayings and a, uh, yeah, I guess back to the marketing thing, but like a sayings guy, my, my favorite that I'm on right now is either find an excuse or you find a way.

Starting point is 00:27:16 I love it. That's like, I'm using that one a lot. That's a lot of my content. But I love that. What else we got? So we've got the, we got to take all the blame ourselves. And I mean, with blame, though, but is empowerment, right? I mean, there's nothing more powerful.

Starting point is 00:27:38 Then, yeah, you can go, I got to take all the blame. Well, guess what? You get all the control too. That's a powerful thing. Absolutely. And I think once you have that. then I think an oversimplification of how to become wealthy is to think of these two skill sets. You have a rich skill set and then you have a wealth skill set.

Starting point is 00:27:58 Rits skill set is your ability to earn income. And we have a lot of top income earners. Data will say that 50% of people that make six figures actually live paycheck to paycheck. So a lot of people in I think business podcasts and content, they always focus on this first part of this wealth formula, which is risk skills, make more money, make more money. But it's clear from data that there is no, it doesn't matter how much money you make, you still have to know about wealth. And that wealth is made up of two parts.

Starting point is 00:28:29 From the money that you make, how much do you save? And then this is really the world we live in today is a consumer-based world where we have to get the bigger, the better, the faster are always upgrading. But having a control of your desire is such an underrated thing. say it's not sexy at all, but like live under your means. That is how you save. If you right now, you got it, maybe you're driving a car that's too nice, even if you have high income.

Starting point is 00:28:55 Because, like, you could just, I mean, I think the best thing is if you are making a high income and you're in an income earning year and all of a sudden you're spending your time on Zillow and you're like, hey, I can finally afford a million dollar house. That's great. So what if, what if you start doubling, tripling or quadrupling your income? You know, instead of looking at the million dollar house, you know what people do? They're like, ooh, you know what looks better than a million dollar house? a $5 million house, right?

Starting point is 00:29:18 So there's always, there's, there's, the, the world is a vacuum. We'll always, no matter how much your income, people can lose it. Another data point to that is that people that, uh, win the lottery, hundreds of millions of dollars, five years after, 70% of them go back to zero. So, so is it a money thing? No, it's a mindset thing. And it's that wealth skill set. And then the last part is investing.

Starting point is 00:29:39 Uh, in Austin, Texas, um, I've actually met someone that was a perfect example of someone who had a super high income. He actually was a famous blogger in the tech space. And then he saved his income. So he's super great. So he's got two out of the three. So you think he's set? Financial freedom? No. Because he told me when I said, well, you just exited your company. And I think he exit for like $13 million. So what are you going to do now? He's like, well, actually I invested it all in Bitcoin. It's not doing so good. This was like right, right like after the crash, whatever. I was talking to him, the last big crash. And so that's someone to me, and he didn't say a little bit. He said all of it. So now you have someone that's a

Starting point is 00:30:20 high-income earner. Yes, they're saving, but then when it comes to investing, they have no idea what, like, what diversification is. They have no idea on, like, hedging their bait. What's, what's speculative investing that's extra high-risky versus, like, conservative? And so, like, now, even though he was so successful with those other two, he's basically, like, unless he changes his mindset, never going to be on a tract of financial freedom. So it really is, acknowledging that there's three different things you have to get good at. And you can't just earn your way to financial freedom. You can't just save your way to financial freedom. And you can't just invest your way. You have to do all three. I love the other side of the coin because you nailed it. I'll start where you started. And that's like there's a million things out there for how to make, you know, money like that side of that coin. But if you're not keeping it, you know, if it's not compounding or you're not keeping it, then you're going to be in trouble at some point. because you can all come in. And I always like to say, you got to fall in love with making things.

Starting point is 00:31:20 And one of them is money. Doc, what else we got in the book? So we've got the psychology. I heard at the beginning. We've got the making and keeping money, which is the big part. What else will we get from the book? Yeah. So we're trying to blow myths, too.

Starting point is 00:31:39 So we see all these lies about it. And so, you know, we're trying to tell people. that only broken and insecure people are the ones flexing luxury brands. So one of the most viral TikToks I ever had, I was following my son. We're in a Vegas casino and I got the camera behind him, you know, and then he's walking through the casino. And then I do a little voiceover and I say, hey, my son's only 10 years old. And he already knows that the only people flexing luxury brands on social media are broken and secure.

Starting point is 00:32:08 And oh my God, the hate I got from that one. But literally, that's what I'm teaching him. And so one of the fascinating things. Now look, we already talked about this. We all got nice stuff. We like nice stuff. But you got to ask yourself, like, who are these people that really, really are doing, you know, the labels? Like, I live in Boulder, Colorado right now.

Starting point is 00:32:27 You walk around. These people are the wealthiest people. And nobody's flashing all that stuff, you know, they're just not doing it. And meanwhile, when you go back to my blue collar upbringing low income, everybody was doing it. You know, that's where all the gold chains were in my. high school. They're not over here in the high school with all the rich people in Boulder, Colorado. It's a fascinating concept. And so just understanding the psychology of all that, understanding that that goes back to prehistoric days of people trying to establish status. So you've got

Starting point is 00:32:57 to understand the status game. And the big mindbender here is how ultra wealthy people actually tend to spend their money. And this is fascinating because we've researched this. We've done research on over 100,000 people related to this. And in general, the people who have the most money are the ones who downplay how much they have, you know, they do for many reasons. You know, they don't want to get hit up. I got, I mistakenly answered my phone yesterday and somebody's asking me to like fund their business. And I was like, oh, damn, that's why I don't answer my phone. But, you know, yeah, that's why people don't do it from Uganda or wherever, you know. Right, exactly. This was a poor kid in Wyoming. I'm like, how'd you get my number, man? I'm going to

Starting point is 00:33:36 change my number again. But it's like, you know, you got to understand that, that, that the wealth mindset really is about holding it, keeping on to it. And studies show that, you know, most millionaires are self-made. So that's a first buy and bender for some people. And by the way, it's great, great news, isn't it? If you didn't grow up a millionaire, that should be empowering and exciting. That shouldn't make you mad. You know, so most people got it that way. But they also had this mindset, like they had a rich mindset. And so one of our chapters is, you don't want to become a millionaire. You just want to spend a million dollars. And this is our intervention on you, man, because it's like a poor mindset looks at that million dollars.

Starting point is 00:34:14 You can ask people, we've asked hundreds of people of this. What are you going to do with it? You know, well, I'm going to buy a house for my mom. You know, everything she did, I'm going to buy a car. I'm going to blah, blah, blah. By the time they're done talking, you're like, you got no, you have zero dollars. Like, it's all gone. Meanwhile, that rich mindset and the one we're trying to get people to wrap their head around

Starting point is 00:34:34 is that rich mindset takes that million dollars. It's like, oh my gosh, wasn't counting on this. They invest it. They take out. using a 4% rule, for example, they take out 40,000 a year. That's what they use to invest in that business. We're all business owners. I have some successful ones, but I probably got two failing right now. You know, statistics show that your business is going to fail. And so the poor mindset is, I'm going to take this $1 million. It's all I got. I'm going to put it all into this

Starting point is 00:34:59 business. That's not how it's done. You know, you hedge your bet. You take out that $40,000 a year, build up a house payment over a couple years. So we're really trying to wake people up to this concept. Yeah. I love this. Start thinking rich. Keyword thinking. It's not start being rich, you know. You can be rich. You got to think rich. And the more I hear you guys talk, the more I feel like this is not just a, you know, a wealth book. This is a, and I should have known, we've got a psychologist here. But like this is, this is like how to get ahead in life book. That's what I'm, because I'm hearing application in all walks of life, relationships, money, internal, external, like, there's a lot of applications to this. Yeah, thank you for saying.

Starting point is 00:35:52 I feel like we, we talk through the lens of money because we, you need money. You have to know and understand money. And I know one of the reasons we wanted to collaborate with you on your website, you say money can buy happiness. That's a hot take, right? And we actually agree. We say that because people that, the only people that would disagree are people that have actually never been broke or poor.

Starting point is 00:36:23 And I just think of people like my dad. So true. Yeah. My dad who immigrated when he was 13 and I feel like I adopted an immigrant mindset from him. And he came from Mexico, even though I didn't immigrate here. And what I mean by that is he. his shared his struggles and pains where he actually went to bed hungry, where he actually had to steal food. And these are things that when you think about, can money buy your happiness,

Starting point is 00:36:49 like if you're struggling to put food on the table, and that's a problem I don't think I'll ever face, like, he would have loved to have that money. And just to not go hungry, it's really hard to operate when you're hungry. Like, I get hungry if I miss a meal. Like my dad went, you know, a day or two, like in multiple periods of the time. So, this idea that money can buy happiness is really interesting because when I was 21, I'm 35 now. And a lot of that, that's when I started reading about finance books.

Starting point is 00:37:20 And a lot of the finance books would quote this very popular study. I'm not sure if you've heard it, Ryan, but it talked about how your level of income kind of goes with happiness and fulfillment until $75,000 a year. And then after that, basically the income that it would, what you'd have to do to acquire a higher interest. income than that actually is a decline in happiness. And this is one of the most quoted numbers about

Starting point is 00:37:46 income and happiness because it's hard to quantify. But now that was over a decade ago. Inflation, things are more expensive. Let's say we doubled that number to 150,000. We actually take the standpoint that there actually isn't a limit. Like actually, depending on your lifestyle design and how good you are at living your life, which actually is another skill set. I believe the more money I can say personally that I've made, I am, I am happier than I was. And now I have to go back to when I was working at a call center, making minimum wage, trying to do this YouTube thing, not making any money. I still enjoyed the game. I enjoyed the journey.

Starting point is 00:38:25 I enjoyed the process. I wasn't like a bitter person. But now that I had more money, I've enjoyed the process. I don't think there's actually a ceiling. And I think the 75,000 a year, Brad can talk more about the data behind it. it was this false illusion that of based off like middle class. And so, you know, it's crazy. But I think the more money you make, you can actually be happier.

Starting point is 00:38:50 Amen. Because I mean, it's it's leverage. It's not. I think of my life in a lot of ways, like leverage now, like almost everything like I do. I mean, not negatively, but not transactionally. It's just like literally. that it allows by certain activities. Like, you know, I mean, being a good human being, you know, affords you a lot, you know, like.

Starting point is 00:39:18 And not just because to be a good, but because you have moral compass and all those things. And then, you know, like, I think for me, time is money, you know, like having the freedom. I have four boys going to every game and practice and no one could tell me otherwise, you know. that could change one day. I'm not so arrogant that, you know, something couldn't go wrong. But I worked pretty damn hard to have that freedom, you know, to do those things. And I think it's all mindset in a lot of ways. I mean, this is as much mindset as anything.

Starting point is 00:39:54 But, Doc, I'd love to hear your perspective about that study. Oh, my gosh. You know, I really relate having boys myself and the sports. And I coach every possible team that I can because I learned early on, you know, that one of our chapter titles, poor people buy stuff, rich people own time. And essentially, that is our definition of wealth, you know. And Ryan, I saw it on your website just as we were hopping on here.

Starting point is 00:40:20 That's yours. You know, like, it's owning your time. And it's okay to buy nice things. And but you don't want to sacrifice your time for it because those things aren't going to make you happy. They're not going to make you happy. And so if you can wrap your head around that, then as you start to, to build up, you can start owning more and more of your time because that's really where the happiness comes down.

Starting point is 00:40:41 You know, we all know, we've all heard these studies of people on their deathbed, you know, they're not, they're not talking about the more stuff they wish they had. You know, they're talking about the time they wish they had to do what they want with who they want, how they want. So for me, that has been my focus and that's really what we're trying to teach people because it is that, if you have the attitude like, I'm going to buy my time, you are going to become a multimillionaire. Just plain and simple because in order to buy your time, you're going to have to develop assets and in investments and draw income from that. Just that mind shift in and of itself.

Starting point is 00:41:16 Then go ahead and buy stuff. Nobody cares. Like the stuff isn't going to make you that happy. I mean, we've all had that experience. We've had a birthday. Man, think back to your most exciting birthday as a kid. You got that thing. You're wanted it.

Starting point is 00:41:27 You coveted it. You saved for it for a year, whatever. We just become accustomed to it. That's just the way we're wired. You know what I mean? So. 100%. Yeah. I thought there, you know, like not to be more bitter, but like to that end, how much money would Steve Jobs had paid for two more years of living?

Starting point is 00:41:51 Like how much would any one of like if you were told today, like we all knew when we were going to die. And, you know, we all like to think times forever, but it's fleeting. It's the most valuable asset we have. but what would you pay if they said you're going to die today? Whoa, whoa, whoa. But you can buy another year. How much would you pay? Would you empty your bank account today? I would.

Starting point is 00:42:17 Absolutely. That's a great question. I'll add another one too. What would you do with those two years? That's part two of it. That's part of it. Yeah. What would you do?

Starting point is 00:42:28 And then what would you do? And, you know, if we all lived that way a little differently, Yeah, you know, like we all start. It was a song, country song by my man Tim McGraw, live like you were dying. So true. Great song. I'm from the South, baby. I'm a country boy.

Starting point is 00:42:47 That's awesome. Live like you were dying. I think there is something to talk about now. Let's imagine the listener has now finally, they've done all these things. Maybe they're there right now or they're on track and they feel that momentum and maybe we're just a couple years away. And finally you did it. You have financial freedom. Or some people call it FU money.

Starting point is 00:43:06 You have the freedom to choose what you'd like to do. My friend Post Malone calls it that. Yeah. So now life actually isn't all solved. So financial freedom means you don't have money problems, but there's still a lot of other problems. For example, you ever seen a really rich fat guy? Right?

Starting point is 00:43:27 It's true. Right? If you are financially free, but now we talked about early in the podcast health as well, like you have to take care of your body like and I actually think when so uh I lived in Ireland I was 29 years old and that's when I finally be hit a million dollars in my net worth and um I was like I did it I'm finally a millionaire and uh my body was soft I mean I was drinking Guinness every day croissants like I wasn't taking care of myself and I actually thought like what man I actually have no excuses anymore like when I worked at a 9 to 5 job man

Starting point is 00:44:02 I had a ton of excuse. I don't have enough time. I'm stressed from work. But now that I'm financially free, it's like, man, I got no excuses to take care of my body and health. I need to sweat every day. Like, if I own my time and I look really soft and obese, like it doesn't make sense for me. And I also think the art of living, and I'm just going to take my parents, they're Mexican hard workers. And I hired them many years ago, and now they just started taking Social Security, their Social Security and they're not work part-time for me. And by the way, when I mean work for them, I, I hire them. I hired them, pay them full time. They've always worked.

Starting point is 00:44:34 Not that. But now they struggle to spend money. They're still operating out of a mindset from 30 years ago when they had to do the hustle. And now they have an incredible story. I talk about them in the book where now they have almost like if they're working full time coming in from their income. And my dad, it's almost become a bad personality trade. If I take him to a nice restaurant, it doesn't matter if it's the best take of his

Starting point is 00:45:01 life, his answer is too expensive. It's not that he doesn't have the money. He actually does have the money now. So it's this really hard shift of now financial freedom. You have to learn how to spend your money too. You have to learn. And we talk about the best ways to spend money. It's usually gifting, making an impact. And then it's experience. And objects, I think, is very low on that list because they provide such a fleeting moment of fulfillment. But the art of living is also a challenge you'll have to understand. How do you want to live your life? Now, that you don't have money problems because most people in this world have money problems. So now you're in this 1% category and there's a lot less of us trying to operate on,

Starting point is 00:45:38 on what, how do we live our life now? What's the best way to spend our time? I don't have the answer to that for you because everyone's different. But I just want to make clear like you have to actually work on this part too. Yeah, it's all part of the equation. Gentlemen, told me some details. We've got, when's the book release, where's your release, all that? Maybe I think about this will actually be out before it releases because we've got you all on a tight little turnaround.

Starting point is 00:46:05 I think no one we wanted to hit before the book came out. So what's all the details? So first of all, I want to say thank you for having us. And we, you know, in researching to collaborate partners, I know you have the right, rich mindset. So we want to give to every. I assume your listeners probably already have this. But maybe you guys don't need our book. Maybe you know someone that does or maybe you just want to love level.

Starting point is 00:46:28 up your game and dive deeper into this into this world of how to start thinking you're rich. So if you go to start thing you're rich.com slash Ryan where actually we have a ton of extra bonuses that you won't get anywhere else. So that's for you to get the book plus community masterclass. And it's really important you go there versus go on Amazon so we can we can give respect to Ryan. And I imagine if we do really well, a lot of people come from from here. Like maybe we'll be catching Ryan and, you know, we have our podcast that we're launching this next year. We want Ryan to be a guest too. So, but yeah, start thingyrily rich.com. slash Ryan. I love that. We'll put that on all the social media, all the content, and make sure it's in the show notes and everything

Starting point is 00:47:08 else. We'll have all that linked. General, how about keeping up? I mean, you guys got some big presences on social media. Some of our listeners may already have known you, but how about some of those details? Where to find you guys? Yeah, so I'm at Dr. Brad Clontz, making a fool of myself every day, because I love you. And I want to shift your mindset. I'm going to get your attention. on all the platforms. And that really is my passion here. Like I own an asset management company. I work with all too wealthy people.

Starting point is 00:47:36 We manage hundreds of millions. My passion, though, is to try to reach people who want to level up, you know, whether you want to go low income, middle, middle, upper income. I mean, to me, it's all about mindset. As you said, I want to make your marriage better. I want to make your business better. I want to make your finances better. I want everything better in your life.

Starting point is 00:47:53 And it really does start with mindset. So you'll find me there doing that. Love it. How about you, Adrian? Oh, yeah, at Agent Brambula on typically all social media as you'll be able to connect and get nerdy and talk money with us. Perfect. We'll have all those links in the show notes as well. Gentlemen, I feel like I got to know you.

Starting point is 00:48:12 And I appreciate your wisdom and your insights and the value you're bringing to the world. Thank you so much for having us. I appreciate you, Ryan. Hey, guys, Ryan isright.com. You'll find all the highlight clips, the links from today. All of the information from this episode, it was a really, really good one. I'm going to be out there. I'm thinking I'm getting copies for all my boys. Start thinking, rich, starts in the head and ends in the world.

Starting point is 00:48:36 You make an impact in every day. We appreciate you. We'll see you next time. We'll write about now. This has been right about now with Ryan Alford, a Radcast Network production. Visit Ryanisright.com for full audio and video versions of the show or to inquire about sponsorship opportunities. Thanks for listening.

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