the bossbabe podcast - 330. How to FINALLY Master The Art of Delegating In Your Life + Business with Dan Martell

Episode Date: October 10, 2023

What would happen in your life and business if you delegated everything you don’t like doing? Dan Martell is here sharing his powerful story of going from suicidal teen to successful entrepreneur, angel investor, and sought after coach in the SaaS industry. Most importantly he shows how you can build the businesses of your dreams without sacrificing your relationships and things you enjoy in life. Dan shares how he’s paid “stupid tax” making all the mistakes in business so he can now turn around and show you a better way. If you are wondering what to delegate in your business and are looking to scale, this episode is for you. Dan shares why you need an executive assistant, a personal assistant, and is here to share his playbook for what to delegate to them. HIGHLIGHTS The time Dan found himself in a high speed chase and almost took his life. How Dan has bought back his time to create massive success WITHOUT doing things he hates The playbook to hiring the right people + how to delegate How Dan delegates everything from anniversary gifts to buying his new McLaren and even buying companies. LINKS Order Dan’s Book - Buy Back Your Time: Get Unstuck, Reclaim Your Freedom and Build Your Empire FOLLOW bossbabe: @bossbabe.inc Natalie Ellis: @iamnatalie Dan Martell: @danmartell

I remember going to my friend's house and his mom, as he walked through the front door, she slammed it behind him and screamed at him. That MF is not allowed in our house. He's a drug dealer, blah, blah. I'm like 26. This is after almost a decade of being sober and being covered in the newspaper and winning awards as an entrepreneur. I was like, that's crazy. But that drove me. version of success. Welcome back to the Boss Babe podcast. We are coming at you this week from beautiful Tulum. I am currently hosting the Life Reset Retreat in Tulum and it is already so magical. I can't wait to tell you more about it next week. It's incredible. I'm so, so glad we decided to do this. Anyway, speaking of Life Reset and getting your life in order and getting some rhythms created. I am so excited for today's episode because if you are a longtime listener of this podcast,

you will know I have mentioned Dan Martell and his work and his books in my solo episodes quite a few times. I am such a big fan of his work. His book, Buy Back Your Time is incredible. I recommend it to every single entrepreneur. I'm even going to include the link in the show notes. I really recommend you go spend that $10 to buy it. It is going to really support you in being able to actually buy back your time to start delegating so many things across your life and your business. One thing that Dan and I talk about towards the end of this episode is playbooking. So actually hitting record on your screen when you're executing tasks to then be able to delegate it out to other people.

Now, one thing that I'm really, really excited to share with you is this is going to be a really big part of the brand new society. So one of the common things I kept hearing from really overwhelmed entrepreneurs was, I understand the need for playbooking and I'm exhausted. I'm so busy. I don't even know where to start. And I thought to myself, well, I've been playbooking my entire business for a really, really long time. That's just the way my brain works. Why don't I just give you guys my playbooks and my recordings, and you can literally delegate to your team using my playbooks and my work. so you don't have to double up and do it yourself. So a big part of the society is going to be done for you playbooks and templates and

systems and things like that. So if you are not yet a member, I really want to strongly encourage you to join because monthly membership has now closed. I told you guys that was going to happen and I know so many of you are gonna be like, no, I thought we had more time. This is gonna happen the same thing when we close annual. So monthly membership is no longer available. I really, really recommend that you still go on there and join annually,

because we're gonna be closing that soon. And then when we do reopen, you will be charged double the price. So if you get in now at this price, you will get full access to the brand new next level get in now at this price, you will get full access to the brand new next level of society and your price will never go up. You'll always be grandfathered in at that price. But when we do release it, firstly, you're only going to be able to get access initially if you are an existing member. Everyone else is going to get access

early next year, but the price is going to be more than double, literally more than double. So please do not end up regretting not signing up and getting your membership. I really just want to emphasize that. The link is also in the show notes. It's bosswave.com forward slash membership. So make sure you grab that. Anyway, diving into this episode, Dan is absolutely incredible. He is an entrepreneur, angel investor, thought leader, and highly sought after coach in the SaaS industry. He founded, scaled, and successfully exited three technology companies within a 10-year period. In 2012, he was named Canada's top angel investor, having invested in more than 50 startups such as Intercom, Udemy, and Unbounce. In 2016, he founded the SaaS Academy and grew it to be one of the

largest coaching companies in the entire world. He is also an Ironman athlete, philanthropist, husband, and father of two boys. I am so incredibly excited to introduce you to Dan. I actually got an introduction because I was chatting with Rory Vaden, who I've also had on this podcast, who has been helping me with personal branding stuff. And I was chatting with Rory Vaden, who I've also had on this podcast, who has been helping me with personal branding stuff. And I was saying, one person who I just absolutely respect so much and love his work, I have his book on my desk at all times, is Dan Martell. And Rory offered to introduce us. And I was like, Dan, please can you come on the podcast and share some of your knowledge with our audience because I know it could change some of their lives. Really, truly mean that. So with that, I hope you really enjoyed

this episode as much as I enjoyed recording it. Dad, welcome to the podcast. I'm so glad that we are doing this. Natalie, you know, this is an honor for me. I was just raving about you. My wife's a huge fan. I've been a fan of your work for a long time. I spent the mornings going deep on all the stuff on YouTube. So I was really looking forward to this conversation. That makes me so happy. I get to meet your wife. She already sounds amazing. Okay, so I want to start with you because I first found you through your book. And after I read it, I feel like I found it at the most perfect time. It was such divine timing, which I'm such a big believer in. And I know through reading your book, you have such an interesting story.

So I want to start in childhood and understand what about you then do you feel has led to you being the person you are right now today sitting in front of me? It's a great question. You know, at 16, 17 years old, I found myself in a high speed chase, drunken high, trying to get away from the police. Because at that point in my life, I'd gotten in trouble and addicted to drugs and just grew up in a really challenging environment. And in this high speed chase, I had a gun in a backpack sitting next to me that I made a commitment to myself. I stole the car that if anything happens, I was going to pull the gun and let the police take my life. And, you know, in the middle of this

high speed chase through this neighborhood, I ended up coming around the corner and seeing an open garage door. And I tried to kind of make my way into the driveway and I ended up going way too fast and ended up smashing into the side of the house. And in that moment, I went for the gun. And I started pulling on it and got stuck between the seat and the backpack it was in. And I just kept pulling on it and pulling on it and could hear the cops getting really close. And before I knew it, the doors opened and the police grabbed me. And I woke up sober the next morning in a jail cell in this small town in the middle of nowhere, essentially wondering what my life was going to look like and surprised that I was alive.

Like I felt like I was worthless, that I didn't deserve to be alive, that I was a bad person, a bad kid, you know, and for whatever reason I was. And I think in that moment, you know, I kind of turned to, to God, you know, I wasn't a person of faith at all. I grew up Catholic, but didn't go to church. And I don't know, since then, I've just looked back at that moment as essentially him looking out for me and reminding me that I had some important work to do. I didn't know it at the time. I just made a commitment that if he just helped me get through it, that I would just show up differently and be better. But I didn't realize to the degree that if I leaned into that, that it could just absolutely transform my life. And that's what

it's done. I mean, I ended up in prison for a bit and then released to a rehab center. And that was the place that literally started the foundation of my journey where, you know, they taught me how to think about my emotions and tell my story. And I ended up through that process of 11 months of just hardcore, this therapeutic community rehab, rebuilt the relationship with my family and healed the wounds of the mistrust with my brothers and my sister. And it was at the end of that program that I finally graduated from. Most people do six months. I did almost a year. So it shows you how much crap I had to work through.

But at the end of that program, I was helping Rick, the maintenance guy, clean out one of the cabins because it was built on an old church camp. And in one of the rooms, there was this old yellow book on Java programming. Now, I never touched a computer my whole life. Obviously, I knew what they were. It was 1997, 98. I don't know. There's just something about the book that spoke to me. And I just started reading it. And I thought it was going know, weird hieroglyphics and crazy, you know, formulas and code. And it read like English. And I just started the computer up and followed chapter one of this book. And within 20 minutes, I got it to say, hello world. And it was kind of funny because I was like, people that are older might remember Doogie Howser. I thought maybe I was a Doogie Howser

of computer programming, which is a TV show of this genius doctor at 17. But I just, and it's ridiculous now when I look back, because that wasn't the case. I've never actually been a great programmer, but it didn't matter. It was, it became my new addiction. It became the thing that I enjoyed doing that the world appreciated. And I just pulled on that thread and I got out and two things happened. Entrepreneurship became the ultimate personal development and writing code and creating software was my new addiction. And I discovered this little thing at that point called the

internet. And it turned out to be kind of a big deal. And that's been my journey building multiple software companies, becoming a multimillionaire at 28. I now buy software companies. So I have $100 million hold co of my capital and some partners. And I run the largest software CEO organization in the world. And I invest in multi-billion dollar companies. And it's just crazy to think 26, 27 years ago that I almost took my life. And the thing I'm most proud of Natalie, like absolutely. Like I love helping rich people get richer, you know, like that's fun. I get it. But what I'm most excited about and I love doing the most is working with these at-risk youth. And it's a big part of my life. And I didn't share the story I just shared with you for 15 years. I went out there and built

companies and I never told a soul. And every year I'd work, I'd go back to this place, share my story. If I'm traveling, I'd go find like foster homes, group homes. Tomorrow I've got this organization I'm going to go speak and share. That's the thing I enjoy doing the most is having the resources to really affect people's lives. Because what I say to them when I go back to this place, Portage, that saved my life, is that if they get out and they stay sober for a year and they reach out to me, I will pour everything I have into making their dreams come true. Everything. And I got a lot of stuff to, I got a lot of resources and help and support. So that's, that's why I do what I do every day. And that's, that's the foundation of what drives my

thoughts and ideas is just, I'm incredibly grateful for the life I live. And I don't take for granted for one day that that could have went a completely different way. And such a good reminder that great things happen when good people make money. When good people make money, they can do things with it. Money can open a lot of doors. Money can save a lot of lives. Money can support in so many ways. So I love that you're even talking about that.

I want to go back just a little bit to when you were talking about you had that gun in your backpack and you had really come to terms with the idea the police were going to take your life. And I'm just, I'm so curious to be that young and to have suicidal ideation like that. Were you just in a place where you felt like life wasn't worth living

or you weren't going to amount to anything? Like what was going through your head at that point to even allow yourself to go to that place? I mean, the truth was, is for years, I felt that way. Like I got diagnosed with ADHD when I was 11. And in that moment, I thought I'm broken. There's something wrong with me. Like, why do I have to take this pill every morning? You know, why am I always getting in trouble at school? Why are the other kids, you know, the neighborhood kids weren't allowed to play with me. I mean, I just literally had this story.

I was telling myself that I was, I was not a good kid and I was broken some way. And now looking back therapy, et cetera, I can connect the dots. But at the time, you know, having a severe anger issue, being removed from my home when I was 12, put into foster care. It just was this constant kind of like hole I was digging myself in. And, you know, suicidal thoughts started probably when I was 13, 14, right. Attempts, you know, trying to drug overdose. You know, remember one time I was on the runs for the police because I got in trouble with the law when I was younger, 14, 15. And I'm at this cabin and I have a shotgun with me that my friend, you know, it was his dad's cabin and it was at the, at this place. And I went for a walk and I remember sitting in a field just,

and the only reason I didn't do it is I just couldn't do that to my two brothers and my sister I remember sitting in a field just, and the only reason I didn't do it is I just couldn't do that to my two brothers and my sister. And I just remember walking back to the cabin and putting the gun away and essentially locking the cabinet. So I didn't have a key to it. I was just like, okay, I got to stop. I can't be by myself. And I just laughed. So like, it didn't just all of a sudden I got to stop. I can't be by myself. And I just laughed. So like, it didn't just all of a sudden come out of nowhere. It was like a dark cloud that I walked around with and I carried for me for years. And the drugs just made it worse. And I think in that state of feeling

numb, that I would even entertain that idea, right? And that's why it's kind of crazy when I look at my life today where I don't do vices. I don't drink. I don't do drugs. I don't do sugar. I don't do anything that state that will change my emotional state because I just want to feel whether I like it or not. I'd rather feel the emotions and be there and be present and just understand they are what they are and they're not meant to stay. They can move through me. And I just think like, I learned that as a kid. And that's why for me, I'm just so passionate about making sure that other kids that might feel that way, feel seen and feel heard. And if I can just breathe into them, the belief that I would love to see them, you know, shine their light because every person that's alive has a reason they're here in their own little way. It doesn't have to even be big.

I think people overcomplicate it. And yeah, I just feel super blessed. But it wasn't like it was the first time. There was many times over the years I just got lucky that I never did it. Yeah, I ask because I think we have different but parallel stories. I moved out of my home when I was 13. And it's interesting when we go through therapy and we grow up as adults and we put in the work and we can look back, especially having kids. You look back at that kid you were, whether you were 6, 10, 13. And I think you can have this lens of compassion that you were never able to have

back then because you didn't understand patterns, trauma. You didn't understand where things were coming from. It was just, there's a problem with me. They say, what do they say? All kids are narcissists. They think everything is about them. Everything is their fault. And I think it's really important to bring up because there might even be someone listening to this now who finds themselves in a really tough situation and isn't able to have that lens of self-compassion because they're not able to see or maybe trace back the pattern of where this is coming from or why they're feeling a certain way and they might just be so stuck in it. So I think it's such a great reminder when you can pull out, when you can look back and you can trace back those threads to actually realize it's not me. There's not a problem with me.

But as a result of certain experiences that I went through in childhood, whether big or small, I'm telling myself certain stories now when I'm feeling a certain kind of way about myself. I love that. Yeah. I mean, there's this great ideas that everything we went through was perfect, right? When I look back at my life, some people are like, whoa, that's crazy. And I'm like, and I wouldn't change a thing. Not one. My mom was exactly who I needed. My dad was exactly who I needed. My brothers and sisters,

like I am a byproduct of that. And if I'm happy about the frustration, no pressure, no diamonds, like that challenge shaped me to become resourceful, to become somebody can deal with an ungodly amount of uncertainty. And it turns out that that character trait is a perfect and most beautiful one for entrepreneurship. And that's why when I go speak to these kids, I always tell them, I said, you guys are so ready for creation. So ready, like more than MBAs. Like you hear Harvard MBAs and you're like, Oh my gosh. And I'm like, no, no, no, no, no. You don't understand. Like you, this room more than any other room, you guys are ready for this. So yeah, it's pretty, it's pretty cool to reflect, but that's obviously on the backend of a lot of therapy and a lot of personal development. Do you think any part of your childhood or growing up, even in your early 20s, has shaped your desire to have freedom in your life now?

And I ask that because I don't think every single entrepreneur desires freedom. I know a lot of entrepreneurs who are incredibly happy and they hustle like crazy and they don't have a lot of balance in their life. And that's okay for them. And I think there's a certain subset of entrepreneurs who do really want balance.

They do want to live a certain lifestyle, to be able to spend their time in a certain way, to have a family, not saying there's a right or wrong way, but do you think any of your childhood or background has made you prioritize that or think that that's really important? The answer is absolutely. And I can say that confidently because again, like I'm a very well studied person. People think that my business growth strategies are impressive. I would say my mindset personal development is like 10, a hundred times more impressive because like when I look at the internal family systems concepts and like what I experienced and how that created my worldviews, my beliefs and my and my perspectives. They absolutely shaped me.

And I think, unfortunately, in the early stages of being an entrepreneur, I was driven by a lot of dark energy, right? I was driven by a deep desire to prove people wrong. Like you understand, everybody thought I was a criminal. Even when I started finally succeeding in business, I remember going to my friend's house and his mom, as he walked through the front door, she slammed it behind him and screamed at him. That MF is not allowed in our house. He's a drug dealer, blah, blah. I'm like 26. Like this is after almost a decade of being sober and, you know, being covered in the newspaper and winning awards as an entrepreneur. And I was like, that's crazy. But that drove me and it allowed me to be successful.

Unfortunately, it also drove me to a place where, you know, at one point I was in a relationship engaged to a woman and I come home after working all day on a Sunday and I'm late and I walk into the kitchen and she's beside herself in tears and she pulls the ring off and she drops it on the counter and says, I can't do this anymore. Because I was a workaholic. I was driven. So freedom for sure. But it's kind of like an evolution. Like when I look at that moment to then the next phase of my life, I'm just lucky that I'm a quick learner. Like that, the one thing I could say is I don't have a knowing doing gap. When something speaks to my soul, I have strong opinions. They're just loosely held. So as soon

as somebody, as soon as I feel pain and I look at it and go, wow, that's don't want that anymore. I'm pretty quick at searching for a solution. And, you know, that one was a tough one. But my life as an entrepreneur has really shifted from like trying to prove people wrong to then going through that experience of being a workaholic, becoming a multimillionaire at 28, realizing that, OK, money's cool, but it actually doesn't buy me crap. Zero just made me more of who I was turned out didn't like myself and then going through a journey you know after that to kind of figure

out like what is this all about and how do I play the game because I'm very driven like I don't have a desire to not work I just don't want to do things I don't enjoy doing and I like doing things that obviously create value for other people it turns turns out that makes you money, but I needed to find a way of doing it in a way that wouldn't sacrifice my relationship, my relationship with my partner. I'm in a romantic relationship with, or more importantly, like my family, I was a horrible brother, my friends. I mean, I'd show up at my friend's birthday party with my laptop and I would sit there in the living room like it was normal doing emails and checking contracts. And, you know, and I'm thinking to myself, I'm the best friend in the world. Look at me here.

And I'm so busy, but I'm still here. And if you ask him today, he'd laugh. He goes, Dan, there was a period you were the stupidest person. We could not understand you. And, you know, you hear all these things like you got to go a long time being misunderstood to be successful. And I get it. My 20s was trying to figure it out.

But yeah, a lot of the stuff I went through as a kid definitely shaped me, sometimes not for the better. And then I had to kind of retool it so that it wasn't creating chaos or pain for other people in my life. When did that click for you? When did it click for you that you could still be really successful while not doing things that you don't like and you can spend your time on the things that you actually enjoy and still really achieve your goals?

Yeah, I mean, I can almost remember it. It was in my early 30s, kind of late 20s, like 29, 30 years old. I just, I can almost remember it. It was in my early thirties, kind of late twenties, like 29, 30 years old. I'd just moved to San Francisco. I'd sold my first company, made a lot of money, moved there thinking I'm going to eventually end up somewhere. I was considering going to China or other parts of the world. I'm from Canada and I ended up in San Francisco and I just fall in love with the city. It's so creative and it's like the epicenter of technology, right? Most people, if they're in finance, they go to New York or in acting, they go to LA. If you're in tech, you go to Silicon Valley. And what happened was because I wasn't trying to start another company is I had all these crazy ideas and I just started hiring

people to work on them. And then some of them would take off and I would just like support that person, take it off. So I ended up indirectly starting a company with my business partner and he was a CEO and I wasn't. And it was kind of cool. I was like, Hey, you do all the stuff that I hate doing. And I get to just show up and do the fun, creative stuff. And you manage the team and the financials. And that was the beginning. And at the same time, I got introduced to a guy named Naval Ravikant, who today is pretty well known, Naval on Twitter. And he's, you know, people have written books about him. And he showed me, he kind of went through the same journey where he had been uber successful in technology and then became a really successful investor. And when I watched the way he lived and his philosophies on leverage, right? That was where things shifted because he taught me what I call the four master skills, right? These four areas of leverage. And number one is capital,

right? So in Silicon Valley, you raise money to scale. So it takes money to make money, but capital is a huge opportunity of leverage. The other one is code. So software, right? Automation. And then today I would say AI, just huge opportunity to get leveraged with AI. So that's a code. And then the third is content, right? And he would often talk about like, you know, Joe Rogan and all these other people that, you know, they produce these pieces of content that take, you know, an hour to produce a blog post, but it could be seen by 10 million people and there's no extra cost. So you think of the idea of like standard operating procedures, SOPs, that's content, right? Shooting training videos, you know, for your community, that's all content that has huge leverage to stop you from having to

repeat yourself. And then the fourth one was collaboration, which is people, right? And, you know, that's the big initial thing that I think about when I talk about buying back your time. It's how do I hire somebody else to take pieces of things out of my life in a way that they don't come back, right? And that the trade of the hour is hugely ROI positive. So between starting that second company with my business partner and him being the CEO, meeting Naval, and then the deep desire. This is so crazy now.

What I've learned about relationship is you don't find the person. You become the person who attracts the person. So there was no person I had to go find in the world. I, Dan, had to look in the mirror and go, if I want this person, right? And I wrote down all the attributes. I just had to ask myself, who would I need to become to be desirable to that person? Because how do I write down on their deep family values and then look myself in the mirror, honestly, and go like, you can't even tell the truth. You can't even show up for Christmas.

You can't, you know what I mean? Like there was all this disconnect. So for about a two year period, three year period, actually, I think about four year period, I went on the journey of just trying to improve myself, improve my relationship with the trauma. That's where I did a lot of therapy. I read all the crazy books, you know, men are from Mars, we were from Venus to, you know, the love languages. And, you know, one day through Twitter, I ended up meeting the love of my life. It was crazy, but I wouldn't have been ready any period sooner. She would have met me even a year before. I'm pretty sure she would have ran because I wasn't the person who could attract somebody that was such driven entrepreneur, wholesome, beautiful, athletic. And today we,

it's just crazy. I mean, to see the beautiful family we've created and just know that like the big thing I wanted to do that I don't think a lot of people hear me share is I just wanted to be the family that stops the bad stuff. I wanted to be the generation that stopped. My parents grew up around alcoholism. My parents grew up around a lot of, you know, fighting and screaming on stuff. And I just, I wanted to just start a new family tree and just say like, I'm going to be like my kids, kids, kids, kids, kids are going to have a completely different experience because I decided to do the deep, deep, deep work that was going to be required. Even after finding Renee, my wife, like even after finding her, I, it was still work to say, how do I work through all this

stuff so that I can be present on it. So I, when you say the freedom and the time stuff, like a big part of it came when she told me she was pregnant with our first son. Like, because then I was like, oh, I, again, I'm driven. I'm not slowing down, but I got to do it in a way that's not going to sacrifice that desire I have to create an example for my kids that's completely different than the one I got exposed. Let's take a quick pause to talk about my new favorite all-in-one platform, Kajabi. You know I've been singing their praises lately because they have helped our business run so much smoother and with way less complexity, which I love. Not to mention our team couldn't be happier because now everything is in one place. So it makes collecting data,

creating pages, collecting payment, all the things so much simpler. One of our mottos at Boss Babe is simplify to amplify and Kajabi has really helped us do that this year. So of course I needed to share it here with you. It's the perfect time of year to do a bit of spring cleaning in your business you know. Get rid of the complexity and instead really focus on getting organized and making things as smooth as possible. I definitely recommend kajabi to all of my clients and students so if you're listening and haven't checked out kajabi yet now is the perfect time to do so because they are offering boss babe listeners a 30-day free trial go to kajabi.com slash boss babe to claim your 30-day free trial that's kajabi.com slash boss babe i love that you're talking about this too because i feel like i don't hear a lot of men talk about

that i talk about it with my husband and i know that's something for both of us has been such a big topic we met at the perfect time and we were totally on our own paths but when we had our baby things shifted for the two of us i think it's really refreshing to hear about men talk about the change that comes stepping into parenthood as well, because it does, it changes everything. I want to go back to something, and part of me is wondering, well, it sounds like you did have the realization after already being successful, do you feel like you would have been successful

without doing all the shit that you hate, without being in the rules that you didn't want to be in? Do you think it was a rite of passage to get you where you got to? Or do you think for an entrepreneur that's listening that is perhaps starting and is still in those early stages, there is still a way to do it differently? No, I think there's a completely different way. I mean, my life is pretty much an example of like, do it the dumb way, pay the stupid tax, go through the trenches. And then on the other side, go, how about we never do it that way again? Cause it like, when you look back on it, it just doesn't make sense. And that's why like for me, and I talk about this in my book,

the F word, the feedback, like I'm a big kind of like situational awareness, like this me, and I talk about this in my book, the F word, the feedback, like I'm a big kind of like situational awareness, like this work, this didn't work. Let's make sure we fix the inputs. And like today, every company since, you know, my early thirties that I've, I've started incubated, invested in the protocol that I share in the book. And the reason I wrote that book, funny enough, Natalie is to buy back my time because I was explaining these concepts disjointed to all these different entrepreneurs. And, um, it just got time consuming, you know, I loved it, you know, cause it's one of my favorite topics to, to share, but yeah, no, I think, um, people starting off today and I wish like my kids, if they decide they want to be

entrepreneurs or not, it's up to them. Absolutely should not do it the way I did it. And I don't think that I had to go through that way. I think I could tell myself that to make it feel okay, but that's just not honest. And you know, the reason why I have coaches in my life is to avoid paying the stupid tax. And they're essentially allowing me to not do what I did to myself in my twenties. So a hundred percent, the way I show up today is how people should consider even when starting. And this is why I wrote the book. And I like literally wrote down 25 people's names. Like now that was like all these people I love, like it was a lot of my family members, a lot of my best friends, a lot of clients I work with. And I wrote the book essentially saying, okay, what did they

argue with me about? Oh yeah. That, uh, you could never trust somebody else with their, your inbox. Okay. I'm going to write about that. Or, you know, uh, nobody ever does it as good as me. Okay. I'm going to write about that. And like, I literally systematically unpacked every objection, every concern, every, you know, challenge that people gave me around the idea of buy back your time. And I put it in the book and that is how I build companies. And the cool part is that now I've just had so many thousands of people that use this methodology that have just said, like, you know, you've helped me build a business I didn't grow to hate.

People don't stop companies because the market isn't there. They stop because it starts to suck. They stop because their calendar explodes. They stop because they haven't made any money and it's been two years and they've gone sideways and they go, I don't understand. I'm doing everything people say. I'm hustling, I'm showing up, I'm doing the work

and yet my bank account doesn't show it and my life doesn't show it. And I heard a drop shifting school, or I heard crypto school. I heard, you know, selling solar school, like literally they just go from opportunity to opportunity. And it's not the vehicle. That's the problem is their relationship to time. And if we want to double click even further is the relationship to time. And if you want to double click even further is the relationship to self work. Okay. I want to get into all of this. So context of when I found your book and listeners will know a lot of this because I was very public about my feelings with it, but I went back to work. I think a little bit too early after having my daughter, I was experiencing a lot of postpartum anxiety and depression. I feel like for a lot of really ambitious women that have their first baby, the identity shifts. I mean, even if you're not ambitious and it's not your first baby,

the identity shifts are humongous. And there was a lot of questioning, who am I? What do I care about? And a sense of wanting to find my old self even though she was gone and deep down I knew she was gone and I was really coming home to the most authentic version of myself I still wanted to go and find that old part of me and I went back to work way too soon and I ended up stepping into a business I realized didn't fit me anymore and I really hated it I loved my community I loved the impact we were making. I hated my role. I hated what I was actually working on on a daily basis. And I was ready to walk away. And ultimately, me and my co-founder ended up going separate ways because

we both had such different visions about the business. Neither one of us was right or wrong. And we just had those really candid conversations about, okay, one of us is probably going to have to go down a different path because we're not fully aligned. And we spent a lot of months figuring that out. So I found your book in the midst of all of that. And I'm so incredibly grateful. Like God placed that in my lap somehow. I don't know how, but I got it. And just reading it. And for anyone that's listening, it doesn't have the book, please go buy it. Just reading the first few pages. I kept just feeling seen and more seen and more seen. And I'm taking pictures and I'm sending it to my husband. I'm like, wait, I think I found a solution. I feel like I don't

need to hate my business anymore. And so I love that I'm getting to have this conversation with you because it truly made such a big impact on my life and showed me, you know, there is another way. And I felt a renewed spirit of, I can build a business that I actually feel excited about because I love what I've built. I just hate the role I've put myself in. And I had this story that I'm sure so many others have is, well, if I don't do it, who will? No one can do it like I do it. I've tried delegating it and they just do it wrong. So let's say that's a starting off point for some people listening. They're like, Dan, Natalie, I hear you and you've not met my team or I hear you, but listen, I have skills that you can't even like

they're having every excuse. And I know this because I was them. Let's start with that. What do you say to the person that's sitting there with all of those thoughts racing through their mind? So a few things. One, and I'll start with a story. I used to be the guy that would go to my office every Sunday and process all the physical mail that would come into my PO box every week. And it would take me hours. It would take me like six hours because you got to like open the mail. You got to say, Oh, this is the check. It's got to go to the bank. This is a contract. I got to sign it and then mail it back. And this is, you know, just like all this stuff. And I did it for years. I probably did it for like two years and I'm sitting there one day and I, I asked myself,

do all CEOs do this? Like, this doesn't feel like a normal thing. And I was lucky enough to email, there was this guy that came to mind. He was the CEO of the insurance company in our hometown, like this small town, but it was like the number one insurance company. And I'd met him at a banquet and I had his email and I just emailed him. His name was, uh, John Guy. And I said, how do you manage your mail? Like pretty much that was the email. How do you manage your mail? You know, I'm 26 at the time. And he, uh, he replies, this is like, matter of fact, he's like, I don't, my assistant does. And my head exploded. Cause I was like, I don't have an assistant. What does an assistant do? Like, this is how primitive I was thinking.

Like people see me today and they're like, Oh, you're so smart. No, not, I will I will point to you the moment. I will introduce you to people. They can validate my dad, call my dad. He'll tell you. He's always impressed. He doesn't even understand how I do what I do, but he says assistant. And in that moment I said, okay, I'm going to hire somebody. And I'm just, just the male. That was now that's all I did. So I'm going to start with the male. And I met this woman, her name was Lisa. And I said,. So I'm going to start with the mail. And I met this woman, her name was Lisa. And I said, Lisa, I want you to meet me next Sunday. Cause she was a part-time virtual assistant kind of thing. And I said, I need you to meet me at my office and we're going to do this together. And that was literally the first thing I ever kind of bought back my time. And at first I was like, you, you take a first stab at it. I'll see what you do. I'll give

you some feedback. And we just kept going back and forth until eventually like she got it 99% of the time. Right. And then I never had to go to the office on a Sunday ever again to process mail. And to this day for certain companies that still have a PO box in that part of the world, Lisa processes my mail. And this has been 16 years. Okay. And I love it. I love paying her invoice. It's like 180 bucks a month or something silly. And I always send her big presents at Christmas. And I just, I just absolutely love her. But here all of a sudden with a little bit of effort, I realized to myself that somebody else can do it now is Lisa going to get a hundred percent of it right now, but guess what? 80% done by somebody else can do it. Now, is Lisa going to get 100% of it right? No.

But guess what? 80% done by somebody else is 100% freaking awesome. And I think the perfectionist listening to this, which I call procrastinators, let's be honest, you got to lower your standard. And to assume anybody else without the context and experience and life you've lived is going to be able to do it just like you. That's just silly. That's like a weird place to start. It doesn't make any sense whatsoever. Nobody can do it like you and that's okay. And accept that and just say, instead, any hour of a task that I didn't have to do that somebody else did for me, even if it was only 80%, is an hour I get back to grow my business, to be with my family, to invest in my health, to go spend time with people I care about, my family, and I'll take that trade every day, especially if you follow my process for the replacement ladder. So I get all

the nobody can do as good as me. Oh, my client hired me. They would never want to talk to anybody else. Sometimes it's just easier to do it myself than take the time to teach somebody else. All those objections, I've heard them all. And I try, that's what I said, I try to do a really good job systematically overcoming all the objections I've ever heard to just convince people. I mean, at the end of the day, if you are an entrepreneur and you have a business and you don't have an executive assistant, you are one and you're overpaid and you probably suck. So do what you want with that. But I'm just saying it. You probably aren't good at it at all because you're busy with other stuff and you're paying yourself way too much per

hour to do that kind of work. And it could absolutely transform your life if you give yourself permission to ask for help in that low level operating, reporting, task-based stuff that has to get done, but it does not move the needle forward in your business. And do you think the reason people are procrastinating on doing that is a lack of patience? What do you think's holding them back? It's a lot. I was talking to an entrepreneur last night. And I mean, this person is a multi-million CEO

and they have an assistant. And it made me laugh because they called me up. I'm the guy who read the book and I'll take the calls. It's my favorite thing. And they're like, okay, they're doing the stuff, but I still haven't given up my inbox. And I go, I know. I go, is it scary? They go, yeah, it's so scary. What are you talking about? Like, what if they make a mistake? What if they don't reply to somebody? Like,

and I'm like, just breathe. I said, here's what we're going to do. I'm going to walk you through exactly how the process works. It's chapter six of my book, the folder structure, the rhythm, it's all there. But I get sometimes people need to see it. They need to touch it. They need somebody to support them through it. So I sat there and I said, one sec. And I looped in my assistant, you know, I add them to the call and I said, we have a crisis, you know, we're in the operating room, need your help. And she's gotten this call before. She loves it.

She's such a helpful person. And I walked this entrepreneurial woman through the process of what, how it works and, and clap corroborated corroborator, whatever it's called. And then she got it. She like saw it in her head. I was like, Hey, the emails come in, they process the review folder, the to respond. So it's not that you don't do email, you just don't get bombarded. And there's a process for managing it.

And then you can see any response and all the messages happen in your inbox. So you never have to worry about, did they reply? Because you could always search person's name and say, okay, it makes sense. And then I said, and? And I asked, and my assistant, I said, is it cool if you connect with her assistant and walk her through the process to set it up? And she was just like, she got teary eyed and I go, I get it. So it's like, why did they not do it? Maybe because they just don't trust they're going to do it right. And the risk of doing it wrong is too high. Maybe it's the fear of what that means.

Cause you got to understand that's like for people that are control freaks, that sounds crazy. They're like, what are you talking about? They'll have access to everything. And I go, yeah, that's the whole point so that you don't have to do anything. But, but what if they do this? And I'm like, yeah, they should do that. And you, and you should work with people you trust and you should know these people. Just like when you have your friends over at your house, like, do you trust them in your home? Well, yeah.

Do you trust them to go upstairs, use the bathroom and maybe stay out of your bedroom? Yeah. Same thing. Like, literally, it's no different. Like, at some point for people to grow, they have to let go. Period. Full stop. You will not grow any faster than your ability to let go.

It doesn't mean be irresponsible about it. It doesn't mean, you know, delegate without actually inspecting what you expect. It doesn't mean giving something with no direction, no process, no checklist. But it does mean you have to emotionally let go. And I get it because it's an emotional, it's in the body. You feel it. The thought of it for a lot of people. They're like, that's why I said, breathe. I could tell she was anxious about it. And then I just like walked her through it. And I said, and you're going to work with her assistant. It's all going to be great. And I could just feel her shoulders like through the phone. I don't even need to see her just, but I've done this so many times. I just like, she was just like, and then she smiled. I could feel her smile through the

phone because she started thinking about the possibility. She started thinking about like, she was just like, and then she smiled. I could feel her smile through the phone because she started thinking about the possibility. She started thinking about like, if I wasn't doing that, how much more could I do for my clients? How much more present could I be for my kids? How much more time would I have for myself? That is why I do what I do. That I want to teach people all over the world. The movement I'm after to create is to teach entrepreneurs how to build companies they don't grow to hate. Because I think that people really struggle to receive and allow support in their lives too. Even the idea of it makes them uncomfortable because they have this story that they should be doing all the things. And I know I've definitely been there. What in your experience has been the best ways to find someone that you can trust to start? Let's say it's an EA, you can really trust to start taking big things off your plate,

like managing your inbox, you know, having those conversations with people that you really care about the conversations going well. Have you got any tips for finding those people? I have all the tips, you know, but it always requires context, right? So I'll tell you like the normal scenario, some people can't afford a full-time person. So they want to go part-time. Now, I do have executive or assistance administrative people in third world countries. You know what I mean? In like Eastern Europe, in the Philippines, like I've built my whole companies distributed. So like I have that infrastructure, but that scares people because they're like, how do you do password management?

How do you manage, you know, that these people are not going to be nefarious or take advantage of you, et cetera. So let's just assume you can't afford somebody full-time. You got to go part-time. But if you do the process in the book, I teach the buyback rate, like you've got a few dollars to spend, maybe 10, 12, $15 an hour, right? There's enough people locally. And the ones that I love to find is you can go and do a job posting, but they're literally people that do this part-time, right? They're moms. You know, my favorite is to find somebody who's got a background in wedding planning. Sounds crazy, but people that have done events are so organized, right?

Because it's crazy, Bridezilla and all the vendors, and there's this date and it's all got to come together. So they know how to think they build a work back strategy and all this stuff. So like some of the best executive assistants I've helped my friends find have a background in events and they're looking for part time work. And what I love and this is a big idea, you know, because I was working with a client once and his his wife wasn't on board with having somebody clean the house. Okay. And he tried everything.

He convinced her like, you know, this, this, and this. And I said, all right, let's try this. Let's ask her how important the community is to her. And if she, she believes in like, we should support the community. And when she says, yes, I want you to inform her that when she doesn't allow somebody else to support her in her day, she's essentially saying no to creating employment. And there's somebody that needs that opportunity. It's probably a mom, maybe in a spot that's not nearly as comfy as when she's in. And she has an opportunity to create an opportunity for that person to support her family. And she's

denying like, I'm, I'm not, I'll use whatever I got to do to make it happen. And next day he's like, she's in. I'm like, cool. But that to me is, is the big thing is just try to find people locally, part-time $15 an hour, whatever, and then bring them into your world and just have them sit next to you. Right. And I teach this process called the camcorder method in the book, you know, that you just record yourself doing the work and give somebody else recording. But like I did with Lisa, my first male processing assistant, like I just sat her next to me and she watched me do the work. And it turns out people are smart. Like I just, it's fascinating. I think people, things come down to a people problem or a process problem. And most entrepreneurs think they have a people problem and they don't, they have a process problem. They're not clear in their

communication. They don't train people. They don't hold people to a standard. And then they get upset. Right. I had a friend of mine with his assistant, you know, he's like, she's not working out too well. And I go, well, do you give her feedback on your one-on-ones? What is a one-on-one? You don't have a one-on-one ever. He's like, no, what are you doing a one-on-one? I was like, you get feedback on how you suck. Cause you probably do for, and you should give the opportunity to give her some feedback on where her opportunities to improve. And guess what? If you do that every week, every two weeks, turns out people will step up to the occasion. So the local people, I think I like because, and if you have the budget,

right. And I get, it's like people like, I don't have money. It's like, cool. Part-time cool. But another really great combo is hire a personal assistant and an executive assistant, meaning hire somebody to help you out in your house, in your, in your office and, you know, run personal assistant or personal errands for you and manage your inbox. Right. So one of my friends, Keith, he's done that recently and he was so proud. I went to visit him the other day and he's walking me around his office and he goes, look at this. And he opens up his little mini fridge and he goes, ta-da. And it's like full of all the things he loves. And he goes, guess who did that? And I was like, you're so he's like,

yes. And then he's like, then we go to his house and he's like, he's like, Jesse, Jesse, tell Dan about, and I'm like listening. And he's, and she's all like, it's crazy. My, the groceries are done and the kids stuff. And I'm just like, and here are two incredible humans that were like literally drowning in commitments and overworking. And they didn't have time to go on date night and struggling in their business. And this incredible woman comes into their life and transforms every aspect of it because they literally said, I'm going to trust you to do this. And we're going to build a rhythm. And they followed the steps in my book. I love that. And it's not something people think I got to wait till I make it. No, you don't.

You can start today. It's the first hire I would make if I had zero. Like literally, Natalie, if you started from zero today, I'd go borrow some money from my brother because he owes me a few favors. And I would hire an assistant, my partner in crime, the person that's going to be my ride. They're going to sit next to me and we're going to work together because I want to be doing only what I can do. And as soon as I do that, I don't want to be involved in the details because that's not where I need to be. And I'll just spend 10 hours. If I'm starting from scratch and I'm rebuilding, I'm just going to show up every day with that person. So this is not a theoretical thing. This is literally what I do every day

with clients or companies I invest in, et cetera, because it just makes financial sense. It's actually mathematically proven to be the best investment in a dollar. I could not agree more. I have an EA and a PA and they help me function. They help me just literally function so I can run my business and be present. And I completely agree. I feel like if I had zero team, that's the team that I would want to keep because they free me up to be able to stay in my zone of genius and have a rhythm around my life. I love the word rhythm. I think that is such a great word to sum up how to run your life in a way that feels really good. I'm curious, what's something you've delegated that people might be surprised at or people might think, I didn't even know that was possible. Do you have something?

Okay. So I mean, the truth is, is everything. Tell me everything. Yeah. Everything is fascinating. So, you know, I, I own real estate and car stuff. And you know, the other day I wanted to get a new McLaren. So I have a fancy supercar and I literally went on vacation with my family to Croatia. And I sent a message to my house manager who reports to my executive assistant. And I said, I want the new McLaren. I gave her the specs. And then I came back and it was sitting in my garage. And I share that because I want people to understand like it is everything. And it's also as small as in every, I'll show you, cause I write about in the book in every place that I sit or spend time.

I, cause I have this gap in my tooth. I need tooth floss and I like this flavor of gum. I love it. And it sounds so weird, but it's like, I just want to make a decision once and never have to make it again. Right. So because of that, it's part of a checklist once a week, Betty, my house manager runs around the house or goes into our cars, checks the consoles, and she just makes sure that the supplies are always replenished. And it may sound so like you sound lazy and I get it. And guess what? Proud of it. Somebody said once, if you want to be rich, be lazy. If you want to be wealthy, be incompetent. So you can call me what you want. I just know what my bank account says now what i do is i try to and i talk about this in the book is i want to capture preferences so that anybody can

help me make decisions in the future based on my existing preferences right so like i never i i eat for the most part i mean we have date night and stuff we have one tonight but like my meals at my home it works with my nutritionist and it's, it's the same. There's like variety, but it's not, I don't think about stuff that I actually don't care about. Cause while I'm not doing that stuff, while I'm not spending 15, 50 hours trying to figure out what car I want to get in the specs and all this stuff, I'm on vacation with my kids. I'm hanging out with my friends. I'm going heli mountain biking, which is a crazy thing I just did in the weekend or wake surfing or, you know, snow biking, which is another crazy activity I do.

But like I'm doing things that light me up and or meeting with my business partners, you know, but even at that, like when you say what is something I outsource, it's what do you give me an example of something you would be like, ooh, that would be like, I don't know if I could outsource that. I mean, I would find a hog I think we're very, very similar. I outsource almost every single thing that I possibly can. Yeah, like even like gifts for anniversaries. Now, but I have a process. So for example, I just did a big photo shoot with my wife. That was my anniversary gift to her. Like full makeup artist and blah, blah, blah.

And it was like six hours of photo shoots. And, and like, and I hate, I don't wear a button shirt and I hate sitting around taking photos. Like I just don't, like I do a lot of stuff on social, but just posing gets to me. But I got that because Betty went into chat GPT and searched it and her and I looked at the options and she presented the one she thought was great. And I just said, yeah, let's do that. So like even the things that are incredibly personal and creative, I still have other people support me because I'd rather be an editor, not an author. Yeah. So what does that mean? It means I'd rather look at a first draft of something or a decision, right? It's like, if we're going, we're going to Japan with the family,

I'll have my assistant or my house manager put together an itinerary and then present it to Renee and I. And then we look at it and we go like, that looks cool. That looks cool. Let's not do that. Let's do this. And then they finish it up and they keep moving it forward. Now at the same token, I say that there are things that I enjoy doing that aren't a like return on investment, right? Like putting my kids to bed, like driving them to school in the morning, like being there for their soccer games. Just literally there's certain things that I enjoy doing that doesn't make any sense. Like I do enjoy cleaning my car, right? Because I read a long time ago, happiness can be as simple as buying something really expensive and taking care of it. And I really enjoy taking care of the car.

But that would be an easy one to outsource. But I personally find joy in it. I don't have to do it, though. That's the difference is I do things because I want to do them. I don't do them because I have to do them. And I think when people can get and create their life from that place, then it gets really, really, really fun. I agree.

I feel similarly like one thing that I love doing is cooking. And that's one thing I haven't outsourced, but I outsource parts of the process. So I'll outsource meal prep or grocery shop restocking things, but then I'll keep the part of the process that I really like doing. And that brings me joy. Similar thing of when you were asking that question, I would say for me as content creation, but I've really come to terms with actually, I really like the process of content creation. But there's elements of it that I don't like, like the research and putting together plans and those things. I try and outsource parts of the process, but then still have a hand in the finished product. I will say for me, having a lot of help around the house, just super transparently, I had to really work

with myself on that. I grew up believing in a lot of stereotypical gender roles, which is so interesting because although I have an incredibly successful business, I still for a long time had this belief that so much of my worth was tied up in how much I was doing around the house and holding my family together and all those things. And so the idea of outsourcing so much of my worth was tied up in how much I was doing around the house and holding my family together and all those things. And so the idea of outsourcing so much around my house had me question, well, what am I bringing to this family? And all those things that, you know, for anyone listening, they might think is crazy. Some people might relate, but a lot of delegating, I think, is also that mindset work. It's doing that work to realize I am worthy, whether or not I'm doing my own laundry. Like I'm spending time doing the things that I love, but I will say it was a process for

me and there have been some really uncomfortable moments in it. And I've gotten more comfortable with it knowing that I'm doing it for the bigger picture. I'm doing it because when i'm spending time my baby i want to be fully present and doing that and it's a gift that my business is allowing that my my wife ran into that natalie just to echo that and it took us a while like i'm i'm full you know outsource we got together and i was like we need a house cleaner and she's like i don't feel comfortable and it didn't make sense she had a business side of business and she kept being adamant like she says i want to know that it was done right.

And I'm like, this makes no sense. Like you're saying you don't have time to go to the gym. And when we dug through and deeper and she shared this publicly, you know, is her concern that her mom would make her feel like she wasn't a good mom. And she had to have that conversation and say, mom, I need you to understand. I get that you don't get this, but I'm not cleaning my house anymore. And I'm not going and do groceries and I'm not running errands. And none of those things mean I care about my family less. Doesn't actually mean that I'm too busy at work. It's I'm deciding I don't want to do those things anymore because I'd rather have time

to take your phone call. And I'd rather have time to go watch the kids do the thing. I'd rather have time to go have a bath and just relax and pour into me and your approval. I understand it because you grew up differently, but it's just not what I'm going to go through. And I just thought that was like really interesting because like half my people I coach are women. And that is a, what you just shared is huge. Two things I want to add on to that. I think people would find really tough having somebody else do for them. One, I don't pack my bags for trips. That one's crazy. A lot of people are like, how do you get away with that? High level of systems. Two, I don't book any of my own travel.

And that another one for a lot of people. And I have the privilege of flying private. Most of the time, if I'm going international, we don't, but, um, you know, a lot of people. And I have the privilege of flying private most of the time. If I'm going international, we don't. But, you know, a lot of people, they're like, how do you let somebody choose about the, what if you have a discount here and points here and you want to sit here because you're drinking too much water. And I'm just like, there's a way to do it. I'm not the first person in the world to ever decide I'm not going to book my travel and I'll figure it out until I figure it out.

And I know it's not going to always work out, but if it works out 95% of the time, I'm so cool with that. Yeah, I agree. There's times when I like get maybe the window seat and I wanted the aisle seat and I'm like, you know what? It's okay because I've saved time. I got to focus on other things. I've saved the time and I I'm willing to sacrifice some of those things in order to buy back my time in other places. I absolutely love that. For someone listening, who was like, okay, you guys are convincing me, maybe I do need a bit of support. But the idea of recording themselves doing like processes and playbooking feels so overwhelming. Where would you say begin with

that from like absolute beginner stages? Yeah. I mean, I always tell people, look at the thing that you do every week that just has to get done. That doesn't require any creative thought. Right. And it could be processing your, your credit card receipts and sending that, you know, scanning those in, or it could be like your social media posting, right? It's not necessarily the whole thing, but it could just be like a grouping of activities. And it's the gateway drug for me. It was processing my physical mail for other people. It could be the social media side. It could be pulling reports. It could be putting together some research stuff for a client. You know, I have a lot of clients in professional services and coaching, and I just, I just make them draw out a big line from like start to finish. What do you do for a client in

a monthly basis? And I say, you know, what are the parts that somebody else could do that really doesn't require your work? Then you record yourself doing it. Okay. And the easiest way is literally you just jump on zoom by yourself, share your screen and hit record to the cloud. Okay. Now there is 1400 different other tools you can use. Like literally it's funny that the, you get on a Mac, you can just go to quick time and record your screen using and just save it on Dropbox. So like recording yourself and then just talking out loud, even that slows people down. I'm just like, the tools are out there. Right. And then what you do is you just have those saved and you put them in a Google doc. And then when you hire the person to take over the social media posting or pulling

reports for you or doing research, you just, you just tell them, say like, I need you to research this industry doing this and follow the checklist and watch these six videos. And the videos are you talking for an hour or two hours. Essentially, you just record yourself doing the work you'd have to do anyway. And then using that as the training. It's just some people want to make them all professional and perfect. And, and I laugh. Literally most of my stuff I do on a daily basis is recorded because I know that within three or four months, everything I do today, other than being here with you, every other thing will have somebody else that owns it. Right. Everything from like in my world today, buying a company, I've bought three companies in the last four months. I wasn't involved in the process. That sounds crazy to people. They're like, how did you buy

a company? I built the process. I've been buying companies for a long time. I just documented the steps, had different people assigned to those outcomes. And then at the final end, I get this one report that's got green squares next to it. If it's green, I say, yeah, that looks good. Or if it's yellow or I ask questions and it's, it doesn't matter if it's millions of dollars or tens of dollars, like it's just zeros in a bank account, but if you create the process. So like, I just think people just, they have these beliefs that these things take them to do it and just take the littlest amount of, you know, the lowest stakes. That's why I love starting with administrative work because it's going to teach you so much

about you with a low cost, low stakes, low risk, and you'll learn how to work with other people at that stage. So that's why I think people should start their business with somebody part-time because that skillset, that mindset, those beliefs, the feelings you start working through will pay off dividends in the future. But just start something simple. You do every week on clockwork that don't require creative tasks and then just watch somebody else do it. And you never have to do it ever again. It's like, whoa, that's fun. How do I do more of that? I wish I had known that when I started my business and hired from the very beginning, I really wish like anyone I know that's starting company, I'm like, please start documenting your processes, create a playbook because you never know when you're

going to need it. It's so funny too. I feel like we're so similar inside my membership. I literally, I playbooked so many things, especially over the last, I would say year. And I've put it inside my membership because I'm like, just take mine, go and give mine to your assistant and let them watch my screen share. Let them watch how I explain the process because I know the pain of having to sit and redo all that stuff or be so exhausted that you're like, I wish I could delegate this out, but I'm so exhausted. So I absolutely love that you said that, I wish I could delegate this out, but I'm so exhausted. So I absolutely love that you said that. Dan, this has been such a great interview.

I have learned so much and had so many aha moments. Where can people grab your book and then find out more about you and what you do? Yeah, I offer this thing to communities like yours that I really resonate with. The young entrepreneurs starting off trying to grow. And if people follow me on Instagram, Stan Martell,

Tuelza Martell on Instagram and just message me EA executive assistant, I'll actually send you a direct link to the Google doc, which is my internal playbook that I have with my assistant cleaned out, sanitized. Cause I can't give you all my logins and stuff, but I'll give that to anybody that wants that. So just message me, let me know you came from this podcast from Natalie, and I'll share that with you. I'm on all socials, Twitter, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, et cetera, as Dan Martell, YouTube, big investment there. But what I would love to share with everybody, Natalie, as we kind of land the plane is

kind of my hope for everybody. Because again, we start off with kind of my journey and where I'm at today. And I obviously spent a lot of time reflecting and thinking about it. And this is what I've come to. This is kind of like my big idea in the world. And it's for every person. I believe everybody's here to do something great with their lives. Every person. Doesn't matter where you're at, where you find yourself today. If you're listening to this, I'm telling you, you're here to do something with your life. And it doesn't have to be massive, but it is important.

The way to think about that is to strive to become the 10.0 version of yourself, right? Or another way to think about that is to become the person you needed most in your darkest days. Because that's what drives me. Every day I wake up to say, how do I become the person that needed most in your darkest days because that's what drives me every day I wake up to say how do I become the person that kid would listen to well I'm doing that so that's step one step two is in doing that share

that process with the world and everything we talked about is that document teach train give and your world could be your kids and that's totally fine and beautiful it could be your world could be your kids. And that's totally fine and beautiful. It could be your family. It could be your church. It could be your CrossFit gym. It could be the internet. It could be the world. It doesn't really matter. I just think that if everybody woke up every day, striving to become the best version of themselves, and at the same time, sharing that process with other people, they would find a sense of fulfillment inside their soul that would just be so intoxicating that they would laugh at not doing it that way. Because once you feel it, it is the funnest thing in the world. And it's why I know you do the work you do. It's why I do what

I do. And I would just invite everybody to consider that. So it's been an honor. Thank you so much. I think this has been one of my favorite interviews in a really long time. So thank you. My pleasure.