The Dr. Josh Axe Show - Former Drug Addict Explains How to Completely Turn Your Life Around | Dan Martell

Episode Date: August 1, 2024

Dr. Josh Axe sits down with Wall Street Journal bestselling author and serial entrepreneur Dan Martell to discuss how to overcome personal struggles and achieve extraordinary success. Dan Martell is a renowned investor, coach, and advocate for mental health and addiction recovery who has helped thousands of entrepreneurs build thriving businesses. Despite facing addiction and legal troubles in his youth, Dan turned his life around and became a sought-after speaker, sharing his insights at events like TEDx and the Fortune Leadership Summit. In this powerful conversation, Dr. Axe and Dan explore the keys to personal transformation, maximizing your time, and living with intentionality.  You’ll discover: One thing that can radically change your life trajectory 4 powerful ways to create leverage and boost your productivity Strategies for overcoming the fears holding you back from greatness Secrets for effective time management and energy optimization A transformative exercise to help you prioritize what truly matters Tune in to gain actionable insights that will help you break through mental roadblocks, maximize your potential, and create a life of purpose and impact. Whether you're an entrepreneur, professional, or simply someone looking to level up, this episode will equip you with the tools to buy back your time and achieve extraordinary results. Want more of The Dr. Josh Axe Show? Subscribe to the YouTube channel. Follow Dr. Josh Axe Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok Follow Dan Martell Instagram Twitter Facebook Tik-Tok ------  Links:  Check out Dan’s latest book, Buy Back Your Time Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, everyone, Dr. Josh Axe here. Welcome the show. Hey, this week we have a great guest on Dan Martel. He is a Wall Street Journal, bestselling author. He's a serial entrepreneur, an investor, and a coach. And he's helped thousands of people reach their highest level of success in business. And we're going to talk about a lot of things today. We're going to talk about how to build great relationships. We're going to talk about how to overcome limiting beliefs. We're also going to get into how to get through mental roadblocks. And also, if you're in a place where you just feel stuck in life. We're going to really get into how you can break free on today's podcast. And one of the things that's so unique about Dan is that he had some really, really trying personal struggles in his youth, including addictions and a criminal record. And Dan was able to turn his life around and become an advocate for mental health and addiction recovery. And then he took that and has helped thousands of people grow in life and a lot of entrepreneurs as well. He's had some some really successful TEDx events and it was part of the Fortune Leadership Summit there as well. And we've got a lot of mutual friends we were talking about here from Michael Hyatt to Vanessa

Evan Edwards and many others here. So we're going to dive into all things personal growth and health related on the show. Dan, welcome. Oh, Dr. Josh, this is an honor. I appreciate you having me. As, you know, I've seen the caliber of guests you've had in the past. And I'm honored. And I'm also going to, I'm going to call my shot.

I'm going to try to. make this one of the best episodes you've ever done. I know it's a big part to try to hurdle, but let's see what we can do. Let's go. Yeah, we'll see if we can do it. Well, one of the things I wanted to start off with is hear a little bit about your story. And I think that there are so many people in life. And I think we've all been through this. I've been through it. Obviously, you have. And that's why I'm going to ask you this question. But, you know, you got yourself, you know, early in life. I'd love to hear a little bit about sort of the situation you were in and how you were to break three and go from this sort of, you know, in a really, really, really, you know,

trying place in your life to somewhere now where before we were talking, you were telling me, you know, you've had been blessed to have the opportunity to, you know, take a private jet somewhere. And also, I know at the same time, you're doing something really altruistic and raising money for a charity. So tell me a little bit about how you went from where you were to where you are now. Yeah, it's kind of funny because I was, I was just talking to my dad on the drive back. I just got back from an executive offsite for one of my companies. And, you know, he was asking me because I have my own jet. being in Canada where I live, it's really allowed me to, you know, travel around, speak,

you know, do in-person podcasts. And he just, he was laughing. He goes, like, did you ever believe that, you know, where you came from that this would be your life? And the, and, and, and the truth is, I didn't. I mean, you know, we had, I grew up a second oldest of four. My dad was in sales. So he was, he was gone quite a bit, you know, trying to provide for the family. And my, mom struggled with alcoholism. And, you know, she'd grown up in a home with two alcoholic parents. She was adopted. So there was just a lot of emotional trauma for her that kind of propagated into our family. And as a kid, I got diagnosed with 80s when I was 11. And, you know, for a long time, as a young, young person into my teens, I just thought that I was broken, that there was something

wrong with the way my mind worked, that I had an anger issue. that I was not somebody who did well in school. And I just, I built all these negative beliefs of who I was. And what happened is I ended up, you know, getting introduced to drugs at a fairly young age at 13. And, you know, I have a very addictive personality.

It's why I don't gamble today. I don't do drugs. I'm, you know, I've been sober for a long time. But that period really brought me down into a very dark place, um, into my late teens to a place where,

you know, I found myself drunk and high in a stolen car with a handgun sitting next to me because I had already been to juvenile detention prior and when I was, when I got in trouble with the police and I went on the run and I stole the car. I essentially said if they stopped me again, I'm going to pull the gun and let them take my life. And I ended up, you know, driving on the highway, take a routine exit to get some gas and there's a roadblock there checking driver's license and insurance and I ended up running right through it and trying to get away, trying to make my way to the woods, you know, I don't know what I was thinking. And honestly, I don't remember a whole lot of the situation because it was quite

intoxicated, but I ended up coming around a corner and saw an open garage door. And as I pulled into the driveway to get into the garage, I was carrying way too much to me and ended up smashing into the side of the house. And in that moment, I went for the gun. And I could hear the cops coming up and the, gun got stuck between the armrest and the bag it was in and I kept pulling on it and pulling on it and before I knew it the door opened and the cops grabbed me and essentially my feet didn't even touch the ground they just they kind of frisked me and threw me in the back of the cop car

and I woke up sober the next morning wondering what my life was going to look like and I was 716 17 at the time and through a series of honestly miracles like that I just can't even explain it. I had some really caring adults show up in my life. And my friend Josh says this today. He goes, he says that I think every troubled youth is one caring adult away from being a success story. And that's,

that was true for my journey. I had a guard named Brian pulled me aside and tell me I didn't belong in prison and tell me that, you know, he'd been working there for a decade and he's seen a bunch of kids come and go. And he goes, I can't understand what you're doing here. and he he poured into me a belief that I definitely didn't have about myself you know so when we talk about mental mental challenges and and addiction it's like I needed some people to to to be some

guides and that's what happened I ended up getting out doing 11 months in a rehab center and working on the relationships I had burnt at that up at that point with my family and the trust that I had lost and and just my own personal story the meaning that I'd give it. for who I was and what I was about. I mean, I had zero self-esteem. Like, I didn't even feel worthy of breathing the air as breathing. And it was at the end of that program where I'd kind of built that confidence and built that self-belief that I found,

I was helping Rick one of the maintenance guys clean out this old camp because it was, or this old cabin, it was built on an old church camp. And in one of the rooms, there was this old 486 computer with a yellow book sitting next to it on Java programming as a programming language. And I just, something spoke to me and I opened up the book and booted up the computer and 20 minutes later, I got the computer to say, hello world.

And I thought, this is interesting. And it just, there was something that spoke to me about writing code. And that's how I got into becoming a technology entrepreneur and get out of, this is 1997. And since then, I've built and exited three software companies that have invested in over 150. I became a multimillionaire at 28. I have a $100 million hold co where we buy software companies. I run the largest software CEO coaching group in the world, over a thousand clients. And I just believe that somebody was looking out for me.

Wow. So one of the things you said, and I think this is so important for, for, I think everybody is in this situation where we have this negative self-talk and, and people don't have a good perception of who they are. How did you, you know, you mentioned the guard. right that he's one of those the first people that pulled you aside and said hey you're not supposed to be here right and you said that you know your confidence was rock bottom how did you go from that place of you know not just the guard i'm i'm assuming there were other people but you went from this place of not having knowing your true identity thinking that you were maybe worthless you weren't worthy to to to to where you are now so is a great question um you know it was it's been 26 years right i'm 43 years now and you know there's it's hard to even remember kind of you know really how I felt about it I mean there was a part that just that definitely clicked right when Brian in the guard shared that with me the the the micro belief that I gave myself permission to accept was well he knows best he's been here for a decade yeah he had no reason to tell me like he actually where he

brought me in the guard unit to tell me this he could have got in trouble because no inmates were allowed there and i think what happened with that seed of possibility was just this journey that i was at least open to go on and then when i went to portage this this therapeutic community um i got just blessed with this incredible essentially personal development program you got understand like every cleanup we share we shared our personal story. Either we listened or we shared with another resident. We did feeling management groups, like literally talked about our feelings.

We understood all the different types of feelings, right? Most people asked them, how do you feel? Angry, sad. Like, there's actually a wide range of feelings. So learn to identify where those feelings showed up in our body, right? We understood the meaning we associated to circumstances. We learned to deal with when we became. emotionally flooded, right?

What people would call angry and our basic values and what what creates our confidence. So there was a lot of things. I think what was unique about this place is they had a philosophy of, you know, we have to raise our standard above what is the norm. And the reason why is their belief is if we raise the standard of all the residents above the norm, then when they get out and the norm drops, then they'll they'll kind of meet everybody where they're at. So for example, we had to do hospital corners.

on our bed. We have to clean up our toiletry bags and make sure that they were like, like army level, next level clean. We had to, you know, uh, we did all the cleanups after all the meals. We, you know, everything was checked rigorously. Um, if any of the resident, and this is what was a beautiful thing is the way they designed the program is there's different levels of peer groups, right? New member, um, you know, team leaders and then older members and then chiefs. And like, as you progressed through that process, you were learning leadership skills. So for me, I think it was like being in this environment of 24-7 personal development, not knowing that's what it was called at all. Like I didn't even really get introduced personal development for a few years after I got out of

there. But in hindsight, I always laughed when I got into the business world because in circumstances where I would see people overreact, right? And I would just sit back and just kind of like inside, I'd just look at them in wonder because I understood why they were doing it because I had almost thousands of hours of therapy and and challenge. And I also believe that the further down you've gone, the higher you can go, right? Because I had gone from such a tough place of being, you know, not even like rock bottom, like in a pit. I had been to prison twice by the time of 17. Like the chances of me being alive, let alone staying sober is it's microscopic. topic. I mean, unfortunately, a lot of the kids that I grew up with, they didn't make it.

So I think I just learned to have faith, you know, and when I say faith, it's have people in your life that have accomplished things that you admire and listen to them and, and follow their counsel. And, and even if you have no proof, like that, I remember there's one, one of the, the staff at the portage, Mark Pence, he would, he does always say it's like you have to have blind faith because there's no proof like I can't prove to you right now that if you follow this process it'll work for you you just have to have faith to do that and I think too often in business in life like people don't give the strategy the time right they expect it to work the first time they do they go to the gym they're like I expect to be fit right now

it's like no that's not how it works you have to have faith that if you show up every day and you're consistent that good things will happen and I don't know where that came from I I I just, I feel honestly really blessed and lucky that that was how my mind responded to that information, but that's definitely what it was. It's just at the, in the beginning was finding a positive pattern to deal with my emotions and have faith in the process. And over the years, just continue to do the work. Like, I'm a work in progress.

I wake up every day to try to be better than the version of me yesterday. But as a kid, it was these, these key elements around, you know, just personal self-work. I needed that to feel worthy of receiving any support. And then once I got the support, it's like create an environment of peers and people around me. So when I got out into the real world, I had to change my friend group and really remove toxic conversation, toxic energy, toxic environments out of my life.

And then it was continuing to find something I was passionate about for me, writing code and software, and allowing myself to become obsessed. Like that was actually a big, realization looking back was I gave myself permission to become obsessed around a positive activity. And I think, you know, that's, that's been proven to be true over the years. Just once I find something I love to do, like, you know, running or triathlons, Iron Man's, you know, go all in.

You know, there could be worse things I do with my time. Yeah. I mean, there's, there's a lot to take away from the story you told. And I have about four or five questions on top of all of this. One of those things that really struck me, though, is, well, I want to call this out and make a point. And then I want to ask you the next question. One is there's this quote by J.R. Tolkien, the author of Lord of the Rings. And he says, the praise of the praiseworthy is above all rewards.

And it's one of the greatest things you can do to build your identity. And to me, when you had that prison guard tell you, you're not supposed to be in there. And you said something, you said, well, he knows. Like, if anybody's going to know who shouldn't, shouldn't be in prison, he's seen all these people, he knows. And I think, you know, when we're able to get around, the right people, people of high character, people that are virtuous, people that have maybe done or had some level of success in life. And they say something to us like, you're not supposed to be here or you're more than that or you're capable of this. It can just create such a shift in their life.

And so I think for anyone that is listening to this, I think being able to find those right mentors and coaches and those people in your life who are willing to speak that into you, that's worth as much as anything I can imagine. I know one of the greatest things that has helped me grow is, is proactively going and finding the right mentors, allowing them to speak in my life and receiving what they say and taking action on it. So that was a big thing. And another thing that really struck me about your story was this idea around standards. And one of the questions I have,

and by there's some great Harvard studies on, it's literally maybe one of the single, if not the single most important thing to help somebody achieve a higher level in their life is to help them raise their own standards. So you know, you think about college football. That's what college football coaches are doing all day. It's like, no, the standard is actually here.

You've got to keep getting higher. As you've been able to coach and lead a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of people in their businesses and in their life, how much of those life lessons like raising standards has a play to role in you actually coaching people? Is that something you continually do as a coach is help people raise their own standards? Yeah, it's a beautiful question because I really think we don't get the goals. we desire, we get the standards that we show up as. Because when I look back at, and this is something I coach my clients in regards to like my achievement roadmap system, you know, people have these big aspirations for the life. And it could be, you know, you know, just, it could be simple. It could be like, I want to get a better job, right? But what I've discovered is the,

you know, if it's a financial goal or a health goal, for example, like if I, you know, last, last year I was, I was training for a 50K Ultra. I knew the standard for my performance was the daily and weekly volume that I put in running, right? And just following the protocol that my coach put together. And I knew that if I followed the standard of running X amount of, you know, miles every day, that over a certain period of time that would build the kind of the VO2 required the health, the fitness to be able to run that all. Ultra marathon. And like, I think that's an interesting question. It's one that I work with my

clients because my goal setting process is, is yes, you know, be specific, right? I believe that if we have 100% clarity, 100% belief and 100% of the time have that belief, then that's how we pull outcomes or achievements into our lives today. But it's also asking ourselves, okay, whatever that goal is, if it's to be in a rich relationship with a partner or, you know, the fitness or the wealth side, what level of daily standard am I willing to hold myself to, right? What is that activity that if I follow the standard, that that will make the outcome inevitable? And those are some of my favorite conversations to have with coaching clients because it makes it almost gamified. It makes it very clear. They can see that if I, you know, if I prospect,

five new clients a day. Like if I send five messages to all my followers on Instagram, for example, that out of those five, 35 a week minimum, that it'll produce pipeline. It'll produce marketing. It'll produce an outcome. And we hold that standard. And I think that's, that's such a big idea of just trying to break down our goals into the standards that we will hold.

I mean, it's kind of like finding a partner. It's like, what's the standard? Well, I'm, I'm going to introduce myself to three new people every day. That's the standard. So you have a standard of say, I'm going to go way outside my comfort zone. I'm going to introduce myself to three people in any lineup I might find myself in that day at the coffee shop at the bank at the grocery store. And through that process, I trust that the rest of it will come to fruition.

I think it's a beautiful concept, especially if it's targeted towards a clear outcome. Yeah. Yeah, I think there is a lot of emphasis on goal setting today and maybe not enough on the strategic planning and the systems and the standards as you're saying and I think this is so so important you know I think we're living in a society today that I think has and you've seen this too where it's like it's part part of the mentality is everybody gets a trophy right it's just hey it's this sort of well if somebody doesn't win or if somebody loses we don't want them to feel bad so everybody done I think that's sort of this sort of uh softening of society that has um you know it's

making me think, you know, whenever I'm on, I'm on Instagram. And so I'm about your age. I'm 40, 42. And, you know, growing up in the 90s, you know, it was a little bit. And listen, I'm not picking on Gen Z. Well, I am. I am picking a little bit on Gen Z. But we can. I mean, said, I watched this, yeah, I watched this video recently that was basically like, you know, if you were a baby boomer and somebody bumped into you, it was like, nothing happened. Gen X was a little bit like, hey, what do you, you know, what are you doing? And then, you know, millennial Gen Z was sort of like falling down, like this victim mentality, right? Yeah, like those soccer players.

Yes, there's a great example, which is some now translated in the NBA and they're flopping there too now. But all that being said, I think that maybe that's one of the reasons why I think we don't talk. I think actually when I look back at some of the leadership literature and some of the things around the ideas about what leadership is and growth,

I think that people used to actually talk about standards more, and I don't think they talk about it enough today. Now, you might see guys like Joko or, David Goggins. I see them maybe talking about it a little bit, but it's just, it's less than they used to. All that being said, I think it's just such an important point that if you really want somebody to be their best, you have to call them higher. I think even with kids today, some people will tell them, you're perfect just the way you are. You're not. You're not perfect the way you are. You can be so much more than you are now, right? And so I love that idea behind these

standards and calling people to hired standards. Did you have somebody in your life who did that where they said to you not only you know the prison guard saying hey then you're not supposed to be here but other people say to you along your path hey you're you're more than this and you're yeah i mean i like ray now i work with ed my let who's one of the top podcasts i mean he's an incredible human being i mean like i i always hire people that have accomplished certain things that i admire and when i was kind of getting into this new phase of producing content media i mean ed's you know millions, tens of millions of followers on social media, one of the top podcasts. And if you want to talk about somebody that, you know, he wrote the book, The Power One More, and really holding

a higher standard. And the cool part is, I think when we hold the standard for ourselves, it almost removes the veil of what we accept in our own lives from other people, right? So if you set a standard of, hey, I feed my body, lean, mean, protein, greens, that kind of stuff. And you're out at dinner and you've been consistent in your meal plan and your nutrition and all these things. And then somebody orders, you know, nachos or, you know, pizza or whatever, like, you start to see that around you. It's almost like you start to see, you know, where people are accepting themselves to live a lower standard. And I just, I love being around people that increase my internal identity. People like Ed, you know, I'm speaking on Tony Robbins stage in January,

at Business Mastery. I've got just this incredible, I just got. back from, you know, a mastermind with, you mentioned Michael Hyde and, you know, uh, Jenna Coucher and just these incredible, you know, authors and, and just being around them and asking myself, like, how do I raise, you know, I've sold hundreds of thousands of copies of my book. I'm in a room with Jay Papazon who sold millions of copies of his book, Dr. Ben Hardy, same thing. It's like, I think it's interesting because oftentimes we're a product of our environment and our environment, we can artificially sometimes think, like, we're doing well. And I always say, like, when you think you're doing well, you should just, you know, find another street, find another

city, find another room. Like, I, I, every year, my wife and I, we always pick like a seminar we're going to go do for our couples as a couple. We always decide on like, how do we stretch ourselves, right? The way I learn is, is yes, I read every day, I go to seminars, etc. But I work through us and proximity of people. And that's why, and again, I learned this growing up. When I was hanging around with the crowd of people that were into drugs and getting in trouble with the law and fighting all the time, why was I surprised to find out that I was doing those things?

And as soon as I got sober and I deliberately designed, I mean, that was one of the most powerful exercises when I was in rehab was, you know, building what's called the transition plan and being deliberate. Like, where are you going to go find these positive examples and peers and having to share that with people and have them test your logic. So now to me, it's just part of who I, who I am and who I've been. And 100% that's the reason for like the success I've had. So I think, I think that is, is a big part of it. And I think to your point on, you know, the, the, the, the nerfing of the, the world that we live in. And, you know, that whole, you know, hard times produce strong men and

strong men produce easy times and easy times produce weak men and weak men produce you know hard times and it continues the cycle and i just choose to continue to elevate my game and surround myself with other people that hold me like ed to a higher standard he doesn't even have to say anything that's a beautiful part he just has to continue shining his light and i want to um you know honor him spending that time with me, mentoring me and coaching me so that when I show up for those calls, like his standard without him having to say a word, pulls me forward, pushes me to become more. And I think that's a great place. We can all live there. All of us can shine our light and not, you know, have to criticize anybody, but just through our example, we're pulling everybody's standard that's

in our proximity forward. Yeah, it's so good. You know, there's a, it reminds me of this quote by St. Francis of Assisi, and he said, you know, preach the gospel, use words only when necessary, you know, and it's this thing of, yeah, and, you know, it reminds me of, and someone who I think of like this is a guy, you know, like Tim Tebow, it's like he's a person who really high character, we talked about Ed Miletz, but when you're around those people, they don't, you know, high character people, they don't, they don't need to preach to you, right? They just, by their actions, by their just mentality about certain things, it's just starts, start, start. rub off on you. And I think that's something that maybe a lot of people don't understand. I see a lot of

people today on social media could be, you know, in relation to a war or what's going on in politics or a number of things. And everybody's online pointing fingers and judging everybody versus realizing that doesn't, that won't create change. It won't create change is changing yourself, right? Everybody wants the world to change. They don't want to change themselves. And so I think that's the thing. And one of the lessons there that I just, it just picked up from you there. And I think Ed's so good at this is like, man, if you're growing, if you're changing. You know, I remember at a time in my life where I really was experiencing a lot of growth.

And I kind of did something you did earlier where you said, I moved on to different friend groups. I left that group behind. And I had somebody come up to me. They said, you're different. And I said, yeah, I am. And to me, it was the greatest compliment I never received. I had a couple of people tell me that different phases of my life when I was growing a lot like you're different. And by the way, it actually wasn't a compliment from one of them was a compliment.

The other was like it was like supposed to be a dig. But I took it as a great compliment because, it's something that I think that you and I both desire to have people say, hey, you changed. And, you know, one of the thing in shifting gears a little bit, when we were about to start interviewing, one of the things that you had shared with me about you went to, you know, you're in the middle of, it seems to me like the middle of nowhere, Canada, but you're in the middle of, we'll say, the middle of somewhere, Canada. And, you know, you were in, you know, I think, you know, Denver and North Carolina.

And then you're telling me about all these places you'd gone in such a short period of time and a little about your schedule. And I thought, wow, if somebody's going to be doing what you're doing, they've got to be good with their time. And so talk to me a little bit about everybody who's watching and listening here. How do we become samurai and really maximize our time? Well, I love the question because that's why I wrote this book. Buy back your time is, people ask me, why did you write the book?

I wrote the book to buy back my time because when people hear the, the way, way I, you know, run companies and speak on stages and, you know, build my media company, they all want to know, like, how do you do it all? So the book is actually the playbook, but let me share a few things. One, I'm always looking for leverage. Okay. So time is a constant. It's multiplied times leverage and that equals output. And output is different for different people based on how well they can understand leverage. And there's only four ways to create leverage. I call them the four Cs.

There's content, which is creating a playbook of systems, a process. This podcast is content, right? Whether 10 million people see it or 10,000 people see it, there's no extra cost. So huge leverage. Second one is code, which is software automation and I would say today, AI. Third is capital, right? The ability to leverage money to produce more. You know, mortgages would be an example in real estate, et cetera.

and then I would say the fourth is collaboration. How do we play with other people? Are you somebody that can partner properly? Can you hire great people? Can you show up as a leader and lead a team, right? And that's collaboration. So when I think of my calendar, I'm always looking through two lenses. One, is this activity high leverage?

And two, is it something that lights me up or does it suck my energy? Right? Does it give me energy or does it take my energy? Because what I've learned over the years, is the more I can honor my preferences. I can give myself permission, okay? Only if I've earned it, though. I can't, if I'm starting off in business

and I don't have any income, I can't say, well, I'm only going to do stuff that I love to do. No, that's not how it works. You got to earn it. But I know a lot of entrepreneurs that have gotten to this place where they inadvertently build businesses

they grow to hate. And that's what I'm trying to help people overcome. So my calendar is very much, you know, and probably three times a year, I go through the process I teach in my book, to audit my calendar, transfer the things off my plate that are no longer green, things that are yellow. I mean, I just hired a CEO to run one of my companies. And for seven years, it was an awesome experience being the CEO of the company.

I now no longer have to be CEO because running the rhythms of that business is not what lights me up. Producing content right now is a huge part of my life. I just built at a whole media company three months ago. We've got a dozen people working in that already. and I just look at my calendar through that lens of like, is this high leverage? Is it using Dan's unique ability, a zone of genius?

And does it light me up? And I think that's what's unique about my calendar. But I also, I have everything in there. So when I plan my week, I have this framework called the perfect week, I put all the ingredients that, you know,

that would light me up. So things like working out every day. So I call it sweat every day. I work out every day. There's no, days off. I don't need to take a day off. If yoga's my rest day, that's what it is. If it's a, if it's a hike with my kids, that's my, you know, that could be a recovery day. Um, I put, you know, date nights, my, like tonight's, uh, my wife's night off tomorrow nights, my night off.

So I have time to go and schedule time with my friends. We do date night every Thursday. So my process is very much, if today was my last day, I would have zero regrets. If I had to take my last breath at five o'clock today, I know that I've lived with intentionality. I didn't waste any second. And I got that gift as a 17 year old. And that's, and I know that for a fact. Like a lot of people meet me today and they go, what drives you? For me, it's very simple. Every day I wake up to become the person that God created me in his image and I share that person with the world. And if that world is my family, my kids, my community, my church, my CrossFit gym, my social media, my teams, that's my world. But every day, I wake up to be incredibly intentional about the work I do,

the conversations I have, who I collaborate with, all in the purpose of becoming the person that I believe I was here to become. And while I do that, as much as I can, I give all of that to the world. And I want to die empty. That's my whole philosophy is that like when it when it is my time to go, I feel that I've shown up. I was a good steward of the resources I've been given and and I left it all out on the field. Hey, what do you think is the biggest, reason why, because I think there's probably a good amount of people who feel this way, that they're not living it out all in the field. Why do you think that there are a lot of people who who are, you know, holding so much back? Yeah, this is what I coach most of my clients on.

Because I coach, I mean, in my private stuff, I coach, you know, nine figure entrepreneurs and in my, my entrepreneurial program on the back end of my book, I work with a lot of like, you know, 200,000 a year type entrepreneur freelancers. And it, it, it, there's always the same. thing just at different scale, right? And it's one of the three fears. So there's only three fears in the world. There's a fear of judgment, the fear of failure and the fear of success. And sometimes it can be all of them at once. So people that know they have more to give, right? Many of them will start with the fear of judgment. It's like, well, I want to post more on social media. I want to share my journey. I know I have something to give because when friends ask me for advice and I give it to them,

they always say, wow, that's so good. But there's a fear that if I post something online, what are my team members going to say about that? What are my clients going to say about that? What are my high school friends going to say about that? And I just don't want to deal with that venom, right? So there's this fear of judgment. Or if they make a, they call their shot, right?

They say, I'm going, you know, a lot of people and they're like, I want to get fit. You know, they don't tell anybody because they don't want anybody to call them out on it. if they don't work out. That's the fear of failure of like, you know, what if I publicly claim that I'm going to get in the best shape of my life and then I don't and then I got to walk around in that shame? That scares people from doing the things that they know would hold them accountable

and put them in the best position to win. The fear of success is actually the one that's fascinating to me because I think that for a lot of successful people, If folks are listening to this podcast, I can only assume a few things. But one of them is that they have a desire to become more. And they in their peer group are people that their friends look to, right? Like they're, they want to get better. They have a desire to grow.

And they're on the journey of personal development. Those folks, typically their biggest fear of success, right? They're scared of their power. They're scared of their light. They're scared of the transformation that they could go through. And typically it's because they're scared to have to then hold that new stance. standard, right? Like I remember one time, my brother, you know, we both started from nothing. And when I got sober and I finally had success in my mid-20s, he called me up and he's like, okay, I want to learn what

you've been doing. How did you do that? And I helped him start a real estate company. And he went from, you know, financially like struggling to, you know, over a six, seven-year period becoming a multi-millionaire. But his vision along that journey was way bigger than that. And as he was climbing that ladder, he just decided to set up camp, right? Because he went from not having anything to lose to actually having stuff to lose, like meaningful, right? And but he kept watching me continue the journey, continue the journey, continue the journey, and we would have these conversations.

And I knew that the biggest thing holding them back was the fear of success, the fear of what would that mean for me to start partnering with other people and raising capital? What would that mean to my calendar? What would that mean to my commitments? you know, like I like my life. I don't want to disrupt it, but he knew in his heart that he had more to give. And now I never ever coached him because he never asked me to coach him, right?

I just kept showing up every day and shining my light as bright as possible. And he saw me in the face of adversity, in the face of setbacks, continue just pushing. Like, nobody that's winning does that without ever having challenges. The only thing I've learned over the years is, guy I've gotten really good at dealing with with you know it's it's the world doesn't get easier you get better so I've gotten really good at getting better and eventually he I remember we had this conversation he's like enough's enough like I know I have more to give I know I can become more and

I have been drifting and I know that happened to me I had a two year period after I sold my first company before I started my next company I drifted for two years I had made it and and and all my you know, city's eyes, right? Dan, youngest, wealthiest, all this stuff. And it's like, but I knew I had more. And I accepted myself for a two-year period to not show up and play out. And it doesn't mean working 100 hours a week. That's the crazy part. Once you understand how to create leverage, then the only blocker of you creating anything is your ability to build those master skills. Understand how Capital Works, Collaboration, Code, and content. And once you understand those four master skills, then and really understand your calendar, which is what started this whole

conversation, then we can push forward. Then we can go and overcome our fear of judgment, fear of failure, and fear of success and really live in our power. And when people get a taste of it, and my gut tells me, if they're listening to this, they have, they've had these moments where they felt limitless, powerful, they felt their greatness. And maybe some of them and scared them because they knew if they showed up every day and they they acted from that place, man, their current life would look completely different. And I always say it's the best stuff amplified and the bad stuff removed. That's what when your friend said that, man, you've changed. You're proud because you're like good. You know, instead of saying you've changed or you're different,

just replace that way. You've grown, right? Because like that's all I hear. Somebody says, oh, you've changed, Dan. Yeah. So you're saying I've grown. Perfect. Because that's the game. I'm on a growth game. I am addicted to growing myself. That is what I signed up for. It's why I invest the money in the time. And if you're telling me I've grown, thank you for that beautiful compliment. I'm going to keep doing that.

And I'm going to share with everybody how I've done it. And if it resonates with you, feel free to jump on board. If not, I will be here when you are because I ain't going anywhere. Yeah. It's so good. I mean, it may surprise to people that you stated that one of the biggest reasons

why people ultimately don't leave it on the field. they don't go for their dreams. They don't write the book. They don't do the career change. They don't do whatever that thing is that's inside them is because they're afraid of success. It reminds me a little bit. I think these things are related. Growing up, we didn't have a lot of money.

And I had some relatives that didn't come from much either. And I remember them sometimes having conversations about people that were wealthy and thinking there was something evil about that. If somebody had success or like they had taken advantage of somebody or used their power. And I never really felt that way myself, and I remember hearing that a lot. And I think that there's a level there of, and by the way, I see this sometimes in certain, not all of them. And of course, sometimes it's the opposite. But, you know, there's this sort of thing of anywhere from, I see some churches,

which is more about this like prosperity gospel. And that's the only thing or the main thing that defines if you're blessed. And there's this other idea that, well, we need to be as poor as possible in order to show how holy we are or those people that have money are somehow evil. My point there is, I think there's a similar level of thinking where there is a, it's almost hard to remove to me that success and the judgment, those two of the three together because I think either going to, I see so often where those could really, you know, align with one another versus,

you know what, I'm going to use my money to bless others. And I think about that too. You know, I think about how, again, when we were. on this interview, you telling me, hey, you took a private plane. So if somebody heard that, they might think, again, probably not the people listening to this podcast. But I'm trying to think about some relatives from years ago and like, oh, Dan, he's this, you know, guys, you know, driving a private jet. He probably did something, you know, bad in order to get that money versus, well, you know, he actually just flew out to a, and gave his time for free for this fundraiser, but to help children. And so anyways,

obviously, it can be used for good. So I think so much of this is about perception. You know, that's one other question I would have for you is, is how do you help people change their perception of the world? You know, you'd mention this earlier, like with eating food. And when I see, again, the nachos coming out, like my perception of those nachos is might be radically different than someone else. Like I'm just sharing from my knowing what I know, it's like, okay, that's going right into my artery. That's caused an inflammation. My liver is sending cholesterol. This is going to happen.

I'm not going to feel as well tomorrow. It's going to hurt my work. So all that being said, talk to me about how you help people have a perception shift. Yeah, I think the, and you brought up so much good stuff. I learned a long time ago that we make, we have the ability, the power, you know, and it's one of the most beautiful concepts if people could really adopt it is that we decide the meaning that we give to circumstances, right? you talked about, you know, flying on my jet, some people hear that and it's either going to irritate them or it's going to inspire them. And the reason why is because the people that it inspires them, they're on their path. They're on their journey. They're in growth mode. The ones that

irritate them are the ones that gave up that have stopped, that have blamed the world, that continue to watch the news, that feel like they're victims, et cetera. And I, and I've learned that. So what I do with when I'm coaching clients is I always ask, themselves what beliefs do you have around that outcome right and some people be like well it's a judgment-based fear it's a success-based fear and then we then we reprogram it you know my buddy mark he's a professional speaker an incredible speaker and he had some money blockers he had some money mindset issues that were really stopping them from expanding his business and i remember we're sitting in my son room and and i'm listening to him share like you know like his his fear around money because he

grew up in an environment where his parents and his cousins and his uncle's used to say similar things that you just shared about wealthy people saying that they took advantage to somebody or they must have stole from somebody or their drug dealers or whatever it is. And I said, but you know your intentions. And he goes, yeah. And I said, you haven't connected your actions with a positive intention. He goes, what do you mean? I go, Mark, you're a person of faith.

He goes, yeah. I say, what if out of everything you made you gave 10% to your church? Would you now feel guilty charging an extra $1,000 to your coaching clients? And he's like, no, I'd be excited to. I say, because you just shifted your meaning, right? So you had a belief, your intention was, if I charge too much, I won't be able to serve people. I'm telling you charging more to the people that can afford it.

Not only are they actually going to get a better experience. Because I believe that the transformation happens at the transaction, that then you'll have more resources to support your church and your faith, which is at the end of the day, a big part of his life. And it was almost like as soon as he changed that. perception, that perspective, he went out and grew the business. See, most people don't realize that when they want to achieve an outcome, you know, they have beliefs around that outcome that are essentially like driving with the handbrake on. I'll give you a quick example. So I was, I was coaching a woman

once and, you know, I was asking, what are your goals for the next year? And she's like, triple the size of my business. Like, perfect. Where are you at? What do you want to do with that, etc? And I said, what about your health? And she goes, well, you know, it's not a really, it's not something I'm proud of, but I put on 30 pounds in the last two years. And like, I just don't see a future where I can also get healthier and 3X my business. And I said, well, what would need to be true for you to decide to put your health as a priority? And she said, well, I'd have to be in the hospital and not being able to work. And I'm like, wow, thinking to myself, like, you, not only being in the hospital, she literally said, and not be able to work. And I go, this is fascinating. Because

she didn't realize that she has a belief that her success required her health to take a sacrifice. So she built this outcome that was supposed to be aspirational, inspiring to people that followed her and triple her business and give her the resources to achieve stuff. But she also had the same belief that in doing so, she would become unhealthy. That is not a vision that will pull you forward. That is one actually that is plagued with self-sabotaging decisions. along the way because you inadvertently are, I don't want to achieve that outcome because you know it's going to require you to sacrifice your health. And it wasn't true. It was just a perspective or

belief that she had that was based on past history. And your past history is not a predictor of your future. And once I unpacked that for it shifted everything. And she's like, oh, because I believe in belt buckles and bank accounts. I believe your belt buckle shouldn't go up and your bank account shouldn't go down. My belief. And I said, let me sell you on that perspective, that point of view. And all of a sudden she got it. Well, now when she wakes up and she's got the energy, because you know, she's got more,

she's not eating the stuff that was causing her to be out of shape. She's now working, you know, what I call exhaust the body to tame the mind. So she has more mental capacity. She has more energy. It turned out that reprogramming that perspective is going to make her, and she's already on pace to triple her business this year and be in the best shape of her life. And that to me is always a fascinating conversation with people is what do you believe to be true about this success, right?

Or another question I like to ask people is, what scares you most about your greatness? And in that is the opportunity for us to work through the perspectives and points of view that have to be shifted and shaped to allow you to make it effortless. Like the only reason things are hard in people's lives is because of the meaning they've given to those activities. It can either feel effortless or it can feel really heavy.

And that is the decision that we get to control. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, there are so many people today who, and some of them not, not realizing it as your example with that woman to where they're not even, they've totally sabotaged themselves without even trying. I mean, it's, it's, it happens constantly that we have these narratives or these stories we tell ourselves. It tends to happen with a, like for you, like when you're a kid, you know, you're, you know, at some point, and same for me. You know, we were a kid and someone said something to us a parent or coach or there was a vet in life that happened and we're still living with that sort of childhood trauma today that we've never broken free from.

I want to jump back into the time management idea. I'd love to get really practical here. What are some things that you do when it comes to maximizing your time? So many. It's funny because it's just become like kind of who I am that I don't think it's abnormal. So let me let me just share you kind of what my day looks like. So A, I get up fairly early. I mean, I don't, I don't think everybody has to get up as early as I do. I get up at four o'clock most days, you know, and I go to bed at nine. So people are like, what time do you go to bed? I go to bed fairly early. Okay, I put the kids to bed. I then spend time with my wife and I pass out nine, nine 30, that kind of thing. Um, mornings are very deliberate. I like to create connected to my creator. So I'm always sitting down. I'm journaling. I'm creating frameworks. I'm thinking strategy. I'm writing. So my morning time, usually the first two hours is to create connected to my creator because it's a big part of my my process for for producing right um then you know the kids wake up i usually work out so i always you know exhaust the body to tame my mind that's daily habits and non-negotiable it's a standard it's it's just the everything else can get pushed back but

that doesn't not get done um and then i usually leave my mornings for my own project so i don't do my first meeting till about 11 o'clock in the morning and i've kind of looked at my life through the lens of anything that doesn't support my dreams or allows me to spend more time with the people I love. Like, I just don't do it. So in our home, we have a house manager, Betty. She is the CEO of family Martel. When I say she's the CEO of all things our family, I'm, it's the most, it's like down to the granular level. It's not just like, does she, you know, does she, is she a chef? It's like she manages the chef. Do, you know, is she a house cleaner? Sarah cleans the house. She manages that. She manages our vehicles, all my real estate.

they she allows Renee and I and the boys now this is a privilege place to get to but I share with people because I have a lot of clients that have the means to have support in their home and never give themselves permission so when we talk about productivity that is a huge way that I am able to move from meeting to meeting to meeting like as I was sitting here and I've done my meetings like she brought me my lunch she got me some coffee she you know like I'm I'm able to call on her to hey reach out to this person let them know that I'm going to be here at this time so when I show up, we can move right into the thing. Because I don't, when I'm working, I mean, there's a reason why I fly private is to buy back my time.

So I'm not going to like buy back my time to them be inefficient and other things. So I very much am always trying to have my calendar reflect my goals and my meetings are back to back to back. That's where I work with my executive assistant. And she's incredible. She literally proactively. I mean, she scheduled this meeting or podcast. She knows my priorities, my project. She checks in on me.

How you doing, Dan? How's the energy? Was that too much today? Do you want me to reschedule some stuff? And the big thing is, is like, I honor my calendar. I think a lot of people, you know,

they get inspired and say, okay, I'm going to put stuff in my calendar. Like when I wake up, I already know what I'm doing in that morning because I've already planned it. You know, Sunday, I plan the week.

Night before is planned for the morning and the rest of the day. Whenever I meet my assistant, like right after this meeting, I have my daily assistant. Again, all this stuff I share in my book, Bybacker time.

Like it's chapter five of, my book. And then we look on Mondays, like today, we do a six-week scan. Here's my calendar for next six weeks. The rest of the week, we do a two-week scan just to kind of reset anything that has to be done. I hydrate. So I'm always drinking three liters of water every day. I don't, I have all my nutrition macro base, based on my fitness goals. So that's a decision I don't make anymore because of my ADHD actually I have a timer on my desk and when I'm doing creative work I have to use a timer I listen to um uh EDM music with no vocals for when I'm creating so I had to create my environment to support the way I work right and I'll even I'll even schedule meetings

with other people to get work done that I don't want to do so if I have to do like a financial you know year end review of things I'm I'm scheduling the meeting with other people because if they don't show up I know myself I just won't want to do it. like the worst thing for me anyway. I could talk on podcasts all day long. I love to share. But yeah. So I would say it's, it's energy management over time management.

It's I use my schedule and I allocate it. I always stress test the calendar and make sure that it's got all the things, the personal, the family, the health, the, the mindset, the, you know, the wellness side. And I do it not only for the week, but I do it for the year. So this, we're going away in two weeks. My wife and I, we do quarterly retreats. and the last one of the year, the December one is the plan next year.

And we'll sit down and we'll grab everything that we have on our list of desires and trips and invitations and try to figure out how we fit it all together. And we look back at this year and evaluate it. So I'm a big fan on feedback and like asking myself that feels good. And then also what is what speaks to my heart?

You know, I check in with God and I say, hey, you know, like what do you want me to do? Like, talk to me. Let's figure this out. And I just, the one thing I don't do that I think a lot of people struggle with is I don't I don't really procrastinate anymore if something's important it has to get done it's in the calendar and I honor the calendar but I also have a lot of people I'm accountable too so it's hard for me to hide

whereas I think some people whether they work today or not they can hide they can they can clear their schedule and go watch you know the latest season of whatever their favorite show is on Disney Plus and nobody's going to call them on it and that's I think that's that's some people just need to get a little bit busier and I think they'll they'll be a little bit happier Yeah, yeah. I think there's something sort of this, it's a cycle, right? It's a, it feeds, you know, doing, doing things that are productive, feeds doing more things that are productive. And that's a good way to put it. It's good. You know, I, you mentioned Ed Milat earlier. I'm curious, what is, what is the biggest thing you've learned from him and spending some time with him? There's, there's been so much, but you know what? It's not always necessarily, well, I'll tell you a few things. Um, one. One, he's very intentional about the people. So like I am very much so, right?

Every year I look at my goals and I ask myself, who are the people that can help support it? But he is so even more at a deeper level. Two things that he's world class at. When he communicates, okay? And he shared this once to me because I watched him do it. I couldn't understand. I couldn't explain.

I was like, Ed, when you're teaching people, when you're speaking, you do this thing. And he called it the preframe, the reframe, in the post frame. And what that means is before he shares a concept, he really gets the person bought into wanting to learn about it. And he does it in a way that's just natural for him, but he taught me how he does it, where he makes it almost feel like, I've got a secret, and I'm about to tell you what it is. And you've not heard this before anywhere else. And it has shaped my life in the most powerful ways. And once you hear it, you won't be able to unhear it.

like if you listen to his podcast watch him do this it's just natural to him so that's the pre-frame and then the reframe is what about the thing i'm about to teach that i believe is is is misunderstood about that concept and then the post frame is is kind of like reselling them like that is this is this will change your life and you got to go do this thing so it sounds interesting because i'm very clinical When I coach, because I'm an operator, I'm a CEO. I like build companies and exit them. And like, so when it came to, you know, trying to communicate, you know, with a broader audience, not just, you know, nine figure CEOs that were tuned in, but with, you know,

at risk youth and everybody along that journey, I wanted to learn his communications, like his philosophies around communication that most people don't ever talk about. So that was a huge area. and then the other one which is may or may not be the topic of his next book, but it's the it's the expressing the genius or the Jesus or the giftedness in the other person, right? Essentially doing what Brian did to me when I was 17, sitting me down, looking at me and telling me what he saw.

And you'll see him do this. If you listen to his podcast, Ed, it is so beautiful to watch. because he does it to me. He literally like, I'm sitting there. And then when you say like, what's been the biggest impact for me as a coach is having him speak into me, my greatness. And I'm not a slouch. I'm operating at a very high level.

But when he tells me, Dan, you have the potential to be the top five person in this space. And he's very specific about how he shares that and what he says. And he's like, you know, and it's so supportive that it's just the most beautiful thing. but I see him do this with every one of his guests. You'll see it right out at the beginning. He'll say like, hey,

I just got to take a second to tell you this. I interviewed him on my podcast. Anybody can go on YouTube and search Ed Milit Dan Martel. And he started off by doing it right at the beginning. But again, it's not, it's not by, like he's not sitting there with a checklist.

It is just who he is. It's his personality. And I remember the last coaching call I did with him. I said, Ed, I love for you to kind of unpack how you think about it. And he shared this beautiful story of a person that he saw from across the way,

and he watched this man with his daughter. Okay, so he goes, the only way you can do this is to be aware. Most people are not aware of their environment, right? Because they're in their head, they're open loops, they're trying to close, or they're on their phone, they're not paying attention. He's so aware that he watched this man interact

with his daughter and just thought to himself, I think like the way he is, because he has his daughter Bella, and he was just sharing this story. So when the man eventually got introduced, to him, Ed just said, hey, I just need you to know. I saw you earlier with your daughter. I got to tell you, she is lucky to have you as a father. This guy was a billionaire. And most people would have, nobody says that to them. You know what I mean? Because most of them don't see that interaction.

They're always in a business context. And Ed said, like, when I shared that with him, I saw his heart open and lean in. And I'm like, man, I love what I do on the business side. I love the wealth I create for people and the results I get. But I think that's one of the coolest skills for me to explore to really amplify. So, I mean, if I did nothing other than get those two gifts from him on how to communicate and really get people enrolled in my ideas and show up and let people feel seen, heard and appreciated and truly their giftedness, their Jesus and I don't, man, I think that's like, that has and will shape my life.

That's so powerful. All right, quick, quick here, because then we're running out of time. What's your last piece of advice for everybody who wants to maximize their time and maximize their life? I think it's just, you know, I do this exercise with my private coaching clients where I kind of walk them through, like imagine you only had five years left to live. And that's kind of how I plan my life. I just think it's a long enough time to get stuff done, not too short of a time to do

anything irrational. And just this year, and then it just resets every year. So at the end of December, I plan in five years. I go, if it was only five years I had left to live in my life, what would I want to do? And it kind of creates a forcing function for you to give yourself permission to do stuff. But then, then you go, okay, what if I only had one year left to live? What would I want to do at that time? What if I only had two weeks left to live? What would I do at that time? Right? What if you only had two weeks left to live? You couldn't tell anybody, what would you do at that time? And for most people, and I know this is where I got to, it allowed me to, I was very clear. If I had two weeks left to live, I would grab everybody in my immediate family and all the cousins and my kids, obviously, and we'd get under one massive house or boutique hotel or small town in the middle of the mountains or something.

And I would spend the two weeks just pouring into them, right? I would talk to them. I would share with them. I'd want to create these core members. of Uncle Dan, my dad, Dan, my husband Dan, my brother, you know what I mean? Like really just be there and try to kind of have our souls kind of exchange just that energetic presence knowing that, and I couldn't tell anybody, that we'd move on. And what I invite people to consider, and this is what I would love everybody to consider

listening to this, is what if you took whatever you comes to mind for two weeks? You only had two weeks to live and you couldn't tell anybody, what would you do at that time. What if you took the next two years and try to recreate that scenario? Give yourself two years. Whatever it is, it may not be as grand as you envision, but if the vision was to get your family together, why don't you organize that? And that's what happened for me a decade ago is I had, I did this exercise. And what I came to realize is that I'd want to get everybody under one roof. So every second, every two years in March, we do the Martel side of the family. And every summer, every alternating summer, we do my wife's side of the family.

One big house, all the cousins, all the brothers and sisters. We, we, we, you know, and it's just that rhythm just feels so good that I know no matter what I'm doing, how heads down I get in work or whatever, that I've got this opportunity to reconnect every year. And it's something me and my brother support on our side of the family. And I support, you know, my wife and I on the other side. And it's just, I think, I think death is a beautiful tool to allow you. you to get rid of the fears, the judgment, the success, the rejection, the failure. Because at the end

of the day, we, we're not, it's so temporary and insignificant, a lot of the stuff that we make huge that it just has this beautiful effect to allow us to really reflect on what matters most and what we want to do with our time. So that would be my feedback. That's so good. It's so good. Well, I want to encourage everybody to check out Dan's new book. It's called Bob. back your time. And if you want to master your time like Dan has done, and if you're in that situation right now where you got some of these limiting beliefs, you need a breakthrough, I want to encourage you, check out Dan's new book. And also, hey, if you're watching here on YouTube, hey, let us know what your biggest takeaway was from the wisdom Dan shared with us today.

Just leave that in the comment section. And, you know, I always keep these comments in mind because we may do a future episode or have Dan back again to hear even more of his wisdom. And I want to say, Thanks, everybody for watching. Don't forget to subscribe. And, Dan, again, thanks so much for coming on today. It was an honor. Appreciate it. All right.

Thanks, everybody. Have a great week.