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Hey, my friend, thank you so much for being here.
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I wanted to ask you for a quick request before we get started with today s episode.
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Apple decided to shake things up a bit, and you may no longer be following the School of Greatness.
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But luckily, there s an easy fix.
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So really quick, if you can, double check for me that you re not missing out on greatness.
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Just go to your app on Apple podcast and hit follow on the top right hand corner of the School of Greatness show page on Apple podcasts.
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Once you click the follow button on the top right corner, you re all set to get updated with the latest and greatest here from the School of Greatness.
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greatness.
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And if you haven t already, make sure to leave a quick review while you re there.
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Your thoughts matter to me.
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I read all of the reviews and I m so grateful that you re here.
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Thanks so much.
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Now let s jump into this episode.
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I worked directly for Zuckerberg, invented like Facebook status, you know, the thing that now is Twitter and Facebook.
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That was something I came up with.
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And it was probably one of the best experiences I ve ever had in my life.
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I loved it.
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There s a lot I ve learned from him.
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We put in a lot in the book, but it s also a blessing that I got fired super early to realize, okay, I m not in control of my own destiny.
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Welcome to the School of Greatness.
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My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur.
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And each week we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness.
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Thanks for spending some time with me today.
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Now let the class begin.
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Welcome back everyone at School of Greenness.
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Very excited about our guest.
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We have the inspiring Noah Kagan.
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My man.
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Good to see you brother.
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Good to see you.
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Been a long time on the internet.
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Been a long time working together, friends together, traveling probably a lot of different online marketing events together and just we ve been supporters of one another for almost 15 years.
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It s been a long time.
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It s been amazing.
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We were just talking about this, how it s hard to sustain credibility, authority, and financial success consistently online.
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We ve seen a lot of people come and go who ve been big and make a ton of money, and then you don t hear about them for years, or they have some scandal, or they did some scam, or something, or they didn t treat people well.
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And you ve been consistent with what you ve been doing with Sumo.com and everything you ve been up to.
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You ve been building
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your YouTube channel, which has been blowing up for the last couple of years.
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And now you ve got this amazing book called Million Dollar Weekend, the surprisingly simple way to launch a seven figure business in 48 hours.
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And you talk about launching a $85 million business in a weekend.
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And I want to get to how people can launch, you know, an $85 million business in a weekend in a moment.
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But I m curious, first, what you think are the biggest myths around
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Money and abundance.
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From everything you ve learned, working with big companies and under big CEOs to then launching your own business, what are the biggest myths holding people back and blocking their abundance and wealth?
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Being rich is great.
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Let s just start there.
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And people realizing that it s accessible.
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Like, I grew up middle class.
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I don t know, how did you grow up?
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Yeah, lower middle.
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Lower middle.
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And I believe when you get born in these kind of areas, we think we re stuck in these areas.
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And we think there s some guru or something that we don t have access to.
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And realizing that we can all get on that level is just a first shift that we can recognize.
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Be like, I can actually leave middle class if I want, and I can be rich, and I can have whatever I want in life.
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So let s just start with that with money, a money myth.
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I think a lot of people just think we re stuck in these phases.
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The other thing that has been fascinating is a money myth that I think people that want to get rich is that the best way to get rich is entrepreneurship.
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It s the best way to get rich.
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Like if you actually want to make a lot of money, look at all the different ways.
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SPEAKER_01
Okay, I can do stocks.
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SPEAKER_01
Okay, I can get a day job.
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SPEAKER_01
Great.
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SPEAKER_01
I can maybe do real estate.
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Okay, but actually probably the best thing is to start your own business.
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The upside of starting your own business is unlimited.
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And I think when more people realize that everyone should be an entrepreneur, whether you have a day job, whether you just want grocery money, or whether you want weekend money, being an entrepreneur just provides you one unlimited upside of money, but also just creative freedom that you are fully in control of.
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I think those are some of the things that, it s been an interesting experience in starting my own businesses, working for Zuckerberg, running AppSuite.com, and now helping a lot of people with Million Dollar Weekend.
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The interesting thing is, I love your newsletter.
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SPEAKER_00
You ve got a great newsletter.
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SPEAKER_00
If you haven t subscribed, make sure to check it out.
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SPEAKER_00
But you talked about recently how you have become a real estate investor, but you ve lost a bunch of money investing and owning real estate.
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And there s a lot of different people talking about these different industries, how you can make a lot of money with stocks, how you can make a lot of money with real estate, how you can make a lot of money with launching a personal brand online, or creating a YouTube channel, or a podcast, or all these different things, right?
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They talk about the strategies on making millions doing these things.
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SPEAKER_00
But you ve also done some of these things and lost money.
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Like you ve invested in stocks, you ve invested in real estate, and it s more time, more hassle, more stress sometimes, right?
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And to counteract that, I think what is the 80% of businesses fail within the first five years.
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It s a lot of work being an entrepreneur.
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A lot of times people lose money on their business or launching something.
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It s usually not the first business that does really well.
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It takes a few tries sometimes.
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So what do you say to people that say, talk about those stats of like, well, I ve heard about my friend who invested in building their business and they just, they lost everything.
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And now I have this fear around that.
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What do you say to people that see the challenges that businesses have also?
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Yeah.
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Well, I think that s a myth that you need money to start a business.
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I started AppSumo with $48 in 48 hours, which is now doing about $80 million a year.
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And so there s a misconception that you need all this money to be able to actually create these things.
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And you could start any single business within a weekend, which everyone, you, me, everyone watching has 52 of them.
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And you can do something in a weekend to actually see like, is this business going to work?
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And if it doesn t, great.
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I have another weekend where I can use the Million Dollar Weekend process to create something else.
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And what s interesting though, is that most of the most successful people have the most failures.
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How many things have you started?
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Think about it.
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Remember the LinkedIn course back in the day?
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Yeah, the LinkedIn course.
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Webinars.
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Webinar marketing.
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Yeah, all that stuff.
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I had a sports networking site called sportsnetworker.com, Sports Executive Association.
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Now all those things actually did okay, but none of them was like some big hit.
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Exactly.
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And I also didn t love doing them after a certain period of time.
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They were great for a season, but not for a lifetime.
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Yeah.
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And so I transitioned out of a lot of things that weren t like big things or after a period of time, or that weren t my vision or the thing I wanted to spend my time doing.
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But you learn a lot through those failures.
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Exactly.
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You can learn by doing these businesses that don t work, and you swing, you experiment.
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And you re like, I want to try doing lawn care.
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I want to try being a content creator.
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I want to try an e-commerce business.
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I want to try a service business.
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I want to try creating a software business, whatever it is.
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And they keep adding up.
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And you keep swinging, you keep practicing, and that leads you to the school of greatness, to publishing in New York Times, et cetera.
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But that s all these little experiences that you are in the arena, doing this business, experimenting, and then getting to that point where you re going to have success.
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Now, what s been the most shocking thing, this is the most shocking, is that when people want businesses, and everyone should be an entrepreneur, whether you want to make a million or whether you want to make grocery money,
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There s a lot of fear.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Passive income on the side, weekend money, things like that.
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Yeah.
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Yeah.
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And even in the real estate, you were commenting on real estate, the best real estate business is not to own real estate.
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It s to be a property manager or a cleaner of real estate.
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My property manager makes more than I do.
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And you own all these properties.
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Yeah, I don t.
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And they re not appreciating, like people always appreciate.
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They re not appreciating.
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They re not cash flowing.
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And then I get problems, like I had a leak last week.
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I had to do an HOA, had a new roof.
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You got to spend an extra 10, 20 grand.
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Yeah, I guess it was actually making all the money.
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The property manager, the cleaner.
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And so there are other ways of starting your own business where you don t have to put up a lot of capital, take a lot of time, a lot of risk.
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You don t have any risk.
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Everyone should be an entrepreneur, which I do believe everyone should be.
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What s holding people back?
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There s so many YouTube videos.
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There s so many Udemy courses.
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There s so many books out there.
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So what is holding people back?
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What are those key things holding people back from making more money as an entrepreneur?
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The biggest thing holding them back from making more money is making $1.
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So this has been the shocking thing and the most surprising thing as I was putting together the book with Tal Roz.
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Most people just don t start.
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And so you started what?
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How many years ago did you start swinging?
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2008.
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Yeah, you were on a calendar.
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I got on 2007.
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I started like researching and trying stuff online.
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But 2008 is when I made my first $100.
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And I remember being blown away when a guy wrote me a check for $100.
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I was helping him kind of, for an hour, redo his LinkedIn profile and kind of give him some tips as a friend.
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He was actually kind of a mentor of mine, still is, his name s Frank Agin.
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And he, afterwards, he just wrote me a check and said, this is yours.
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And I was like, you ll pay me for this?
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And he goes, you have no idea how many leads and customers I ll get from what you just taught me.
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And I go, really?
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It s like, wow, I had a big odd moment.
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I was like, oh, maybe I ll help other people with their LinkedIn profile.
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Let me try to get more clients.
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Did that.
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Let me try to charge more.
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Let me try to make a book out of this.
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Let me try to make a course out of this.
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I keep going down the path, and I learn through fail, success, all that stuff.
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I got fired very early, and it was such a blessing.
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I lost a lot of money.
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SPEAKER_00
Now tell me this story, because you were one of the first, what, 20 employees at Facebook?
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30 at Facebook.
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Number 30 at Facebook.
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Yeah.
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How many employees do they have now?
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100,000?
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100,000!
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Something like that.
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You were number 30.
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How long did you work at Facebook for?
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About nine months.
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Nine months.
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And then I got fired.
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And the thing I was gonna say about starting in other people is that that was a huge realization that like, your job can be taken from you, and what do you do then?
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SPEAKER_00
And that doesn t mean you have to have a big entrepreneurship business, but get started.
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SPEAKER_00
So one day if you wanna do it, great.
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If not, at least you have that option.
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SPEAKER_00
And so that s a whole story where I worked directly for Zuckerberg, invented Facebook status, the thing that now is Twitter, and Facebook, that was something I came up with.
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SPEAKER_00
And it was probably one of the best experiences I ve ever had in my life.
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SPEAKER_00
I loved it.
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SPEAKER_00
There s a lot I ve learned from him.
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SPEAKER_00
We put a lot in the book.
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SPEAKER_00
But it s also a blessing that I got fired super early to realize, OK, I m not in control of my own destiny.
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SPEAKER_00
So I probably need to figure out what is it I really want to do, and how do I get to do it myself?
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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You see a lot of companies right now laying off
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thousands of employees at a time, right?
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SPEAKER_01
Big companies that are laying off people.
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And these employees could be doing great work, but they re just like, oh, we just need to cut down costs.
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SPEAKER_01
So you need to be thinking about that.
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Hopefully you re able to provide value to the company you re at, but also be thinking, what are the skills that I could keep developing on this side as well?
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah, one of the big breakthroughs in getting started, we talked about a myth, was that there s so many ordinary people getting rich.
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SPEAKER_00
We talked about the middle income,
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A lot of ordinary people get rich.
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A lot of times it s just showing up and just getting started.
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So one of the biggest takeaways a lot of people have had is like, how do I get going now?
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Just today.
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SPEAKER_00
So you want to be a YouTuber?
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Post a video.
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My first YouTube video, which is now at a million subs, is me shirtless.
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SPEAKER_00
I know, I m sure you ve watched a bunch of times, but it was basically me home, just a phone like everyone has, shirtless, just talking about business.
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SPEAKER_00
I think a few hundred views.
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SPEAKER_00
That was three years ago.
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SPEAKER_00
And now we have like each video costs $20,000 to $30,000 to make, but the point is I got started.
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SPEAKER_00
And an ordinary person or don t have extraordinary abilities just get started and start, you know, each week you kind of commit to a little bit more, a little bit more.
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SPEAKER_00
And then after 10 years,
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New York Times bestseller book, huge shows, things like that.
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SPEAKER_00
But it s about getting going and getting a dollar.
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Today, you can eventually get a larger business, grocery money, million dollar business, and beyond.
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SPEAKER_00
Wow.
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SPEAKER_01
I m curious.
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I ve heard you tell the story about working at Facebook a lot.
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I m just curious, what would be the three biggest lessons you learned from your time working there?
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SPEAKER_01
From learning, growing, earning, also a lesson from getting fired, a lesson from just observing Zuckerberg.
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SPEAKER_01
What would say are three overall lessons from your whole time there?
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SPEAKER_00
It s emotional because I was like fired.
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SPEAKER_00
It was so depressing.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was so sad.
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SPEAKER_00
You know, and everyone, it s not unique.
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SPEAKER_00
Everyone s going, you, everyone watching has their own moment to say what s their character, what s their hero s journey in their life.
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SPEAKER_00
And it was hard, man.
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SPEAKER_00
I was 10 years of depressed, just being like frustrated that they, they removed me.
1
SPEAKER_00
10 years depressed after being fired?
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SPEAKER_00
Oh yeah, big time.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was so much like of my drive that finally, you know, it just took so long to go to therapy and life coaches.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was a big part of your identity too.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it was everything.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was like Facebook, then myself, then my girlfriend, right?
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SPEAKER_00
It was like in that order.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
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SPEAKER_00
But things that I was able to learn, and I was very lucky, I feel very lucky that I could be a part of it.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s something special in our society from how much this guy has done.
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SPEAKER_00
I d say probably top three things.
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Number one, he had a coach.
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SPEAKER_00
And I just remember being shocked by that.
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SPEAKER_00
And we re 24-year-old arrogant kids, elite schools, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
I went to Cal, but they went to Harvard and MIT and Caltech.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I remember looking at Mark one day, and he had this old lady sitting with him.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, who is that?
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SPEAKER_00
What are you doing, Mark?
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SPEAKER_00
You re super smart.
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SPEAKER_00
We listen to you.
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SPEAKER_01
And you re building this next revolution.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
He didn t talk about her much, but it was an interesting observation of success.
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SPEAKER_00
So he had her around.
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SPEAKER_00
He had Peter Thiel, the founder of PayPal, around.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so it was interesting that Mark, at a very early age, was recognizing, how do I get elite coaches?
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SPEAKER_00
And this is something I ve copied at AppSignal.com.
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SPEAKER_00
So how do I get them around me in different facets of where I m weak?
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SPEAKER_01
And how old were you then?
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SPEAKER_01
24, 23.
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SPEAKER_01
He was 24 as well.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_00
So you re the same age.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
So I think that s a huge one.
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SPEAKER_00
Getting coaching, mentorship, leadership around you.
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SPEAKER_00
Mark was very focused.
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SPEAKER_00
And let me give you a counterexample to Mark.
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SPEAKER_00
I met someone recently and he s like, I m starting a business and I ve been helping with this business.
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SPEAKER_00
He actually has five customers.
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SPEAKER_00
And so I talked with him two days ago.
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SPEAKER_00
I text him like, how s it going?
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SPEAKER_00
He s like, great.
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SPEAKER_00
I ve got the customers that are doing this stuff, but I m going to start an app.
1
SPEAKER_00
I was like, what do you mean you re starting an app?
1
SPEAKER_00
We just got this going.
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SPEAKER_00
Let s go do this.
1
SPEAKER_00
And Mark, on the other side of that, I remember going to him one day and I said, Mark, I want to sell, we need to make money at Facebook.
1
SPEAKER_00
We can t be, we got to start making a lot of real money and let s start selling tickets on Facebook and events.
1
SPEAKER_00
And he brought me in the room and he said, he wrote one word, which is growth.
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SPEAKER_00
And then under, he wrote a billion.
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SPEAKER_00
And he s like, this is all I care about.
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SPEAKER_00
And think about, this guy s 24 by the way.
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SPEAKER_00
We re 24 year olds and he s like, I m gonna get to a billion people and I don t do anything else besides that.
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SPEAKER_00
No way.
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SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
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SPEAKER_00
And I remember at that time just being like, he is focused and he is very clear where he s going.
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SPEAKER_00
And so for all of us out there, do you know where you re going?
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SPEAKER_00
And so with AppSumo.com, with my YouTube channel, with this book, it s like, do you have one clear goal with somewhat of a timeline?
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SPEAKER_00
Most people are like, yeah, I wanna be healthy.
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SPEAKER_00
How healthy?
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SPEAKER_00
By what?
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SPEAKER_00
and the more that you have clarity, we re gonna go.
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SPEAKER_00
I d say lastly, what was really interesting, one of my new favorite phrases is like, put something on the calendar.
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SPEAKER_00
Put something on the calendar.
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SPEAKER_00
I love this phrase, and what it means is, do you have stuff you re looking forward to?
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SPEAKER_00
Put it on the calendar.
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SPEAKER_00
Do you not have something fun in your life?
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SPEAKER_00
Put it on the calendar today.
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SPEAKER_00
Go golfing, whatever it is.
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SPEAKER_00
Rollerblade.
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SPEAKER_00
Plan that trip, whatever it might be.
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SPEAKER_00
Put it in.
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SPEAKER_00
It could be small.
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SPEAKER_00
Go get ice cream.
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SPEAKER_00
And what was fascinating about Mark was how big his vision was and how he had this belief in something exciting on the calendar.
1
SPEAKER_00
He s like, we are going to connect the entire world.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
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SPEAKER_00
And, you know, coming back to all our lives, it s like, what s your exciting future?
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SPEAKER_00
What s on the calendar that you re like, I want to go and do that kind of thing.
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SPEAKER_00
And I remember, because he had, Yahoo came, and this is why my boss got fired the day I started.
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SPEAKER_01
You started, your boss got fired.
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SPEAKER_00
I literally walked in and my boss walked out, my first day on the job.
1
SPEAKER_00
And what was fascinating, though, was Mark was like, yeah, Yahoo just offered me a billion dollars.
1
SPEAKER_00
Imagine someone would be like, I m going to offer you a billion.
1
SPEAKER_00
He s like, no, I don t want a billion.
1
SPEAKER_00
He s like, I believe so much in where we re going and connecting the entire internet that I don t care about this money.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it was really inspiring.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I know with AppSumo.com now, it s like promoting SaaS tools for solo printers.
1
SPEAKER_00
I m like, there s some stuff I just really am excited to do.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it s finally realizing, recognizing, oh, there s something great about having something in the calendar, having something you re excited for your future.
1
SPEAKER_00
So yeah, I d say those are some of the things.
1
SPEAKER_00
That s incredible, man.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
We don t need to stay on Zuckerberg for that long, but I m curious, you know, it s been, when did you get fired then?
1
SPEAKER_01
In a while.
1
SPEAKER_01
2009, 2010, when was it?
1
SPEAKER_00
No, 2005.
1
SPEAKER_00
2005, right there.
1
SPEAKER_00
To 2006, so it s been 17 years.
1
SPEAKER_01
17 years ago?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
1
SPEAKER_01
I have no idea what your relationship, I don t know if you ve spoken to him ever again since then or what, but you probably observed him for the last 17 years.
1
SPEAKER_01
What would you say are the three biggest things you ve learned from Mark Zuckerberg in the last 17 years since leaving Facebook, just observing him?
1
SPEAKER_00
You commented earlier how we re still around.
1
SPEAKER_00
I d say number one is that it s easy to make one good decision.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s hard to make a good decision over many years.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I will say he s been able to stick around for now 20 years almost.
1
SPEAKER_00
He s made more good decisions than bad over a long period of time.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I find that really fascinating.
1
SPEAKER_00
I d say the negatives I would actually say are the other two, which is I think because there s a success bias, because he thinks he s successful, everything he does is success.
1
SPEAKER_00
And so I think you kind of miss out on the actual customer.
1
SPEAKER_00
So in all business, you re really having a customer that you talk to and you see if you can help them.
1
SPEAKER_00
I know there s more that people are trying to sell you, but really that s it at the end of the day.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I think with Oculus and some of the things he s building, there s a disconnect from what the actual customer wants.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, I ve used Oculus, it s fine.
1
SPEAKER_00
I used it for a few days and then I got rid of it.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s more trying to force something that people don t want.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_00
So I think there s that, that I would say I ve observed in him.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I d say the third thing that s kind of interesting is his best successes have been what other people have created.
1
SPEAKER_00
Instagram.
1
SPEAKER_00
Instagram and WhatsApp.
1
SPEAKER_00
Even Oculus, I was Palmer lucky.
1
SPEAKER_00
So, one of the things in business which is really fascinating is you only need one hit to succeed.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_00
You only need one hit, dude, which is crazy.
1
SPEAKER_00
I mean, like, I tried, I think it was like 20 to 25 businesses until AppSumo.com.
1
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that was a hit, and it worked right away, and there s things that you can do to increase those chances.
1
SPEAKER_00
But for him, he literally had one hit, it worked.
1
SPEAKER_00
It was a big hit, though.
1
SPEAKER_00
And it was a big hit, it worked.
1
SPEAKER_00
Facebook was a massive hit.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, it s a massive hit, but I think for an app.
1
SPEAKER_01
Then you have the attention, the leverage, the relationships where you can acquire or bring other people under your umbrella.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and so I think the thing is for anyone, get going, keep swinging, keep experimenting.
1
SPEAKER_00
Get going now, just one hit, and you could have either the business or the relationship or whatever it is you want in life, but you kind of have to be playing the game and you have to be in it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Who s the most inspiring entrepreneur today in your mind that inspires you?
1
SPEAKER_00
I would say Bezos, to me, is like the epitome of just entrepreneurship.
1
SPEAKER_00
And also, it might sound strange, I also really admire that he gave it up a little bit, that he stopped.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, there s this kind of drive in society, and I ve interviewed a lot of billionaires on my channel, and a lot of them seem unhappy.
1
SPEAKER_00
They seem unhappy, like I tried to get all this money and I sacrificed my family.
1
SPEAKER_00
We asked one of the questions like, was it worth it?
1
SPEAKER_00
Do you regret it?
1
SPEAKER_00
And almost, I can read between the lines.
1
SPEAKER_00
And there s only a few, John Paul DeGioia from Patron was the one I was like, okay, this guy, he s content.
1
SPEAKER_00
He seems to be a kind person.
1
SPEAKER_00
And not to knock any of the other people.
1
SPEAKER_00
And maybe they have their own definition, it s just my own observation of it.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I think with the fact that he was so unique
2
SPEAKER_00
how he approached business in a lot of different ways, like the customer first mentality that he had versus founder first, which is what Zuckerberg s doing.
2
SPEAKER_00
He was customer first.
2
SPEAKER_00
How he thought about the business models where he had one business model, which is e-commerce, but he s like, maybe I can take that with things we re creating internally, like AWS, create another product, create Kindle.
2
SPEAKER_00
He was willing to fail.
2
SPEAKER_00
So many of us are afraid of failure.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s why in the book, the whole first section is how do we get more comfortable failing and making it fun.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then as well, I respect, I mean, with him and his wife, don t know about that, that s private stuff.
2
SPEAKER_00
But I do respect, it does seem like, you look at him now, he s like, yeah, I ve worked really hard, I wanna go to space, and I wanna relax and enjoy life with my new partner.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I think there s just something admirable where I think most people are like, well, I gotta keep making more because that s the expectation of me.
2
SPEAKER_00
Even though he s one of the richest people in the world, he doesn t need to make more.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I think it s admirable that he s like, I m gonna pass this on because this is where I m done at this point, and maybe I ll come back or not.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I think people like him, there s a guy I interviewed recently, Larry Janeski,
2
SPEAKER_00
I just like these people that they work on something for a very long period of time, and they seem content, and they re like, I like what I m doing, I m doing it for a long period of time, and I get a balance.
2
SPEAKER_00
Making money, because I think there s this idea you have to only make money and not live.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that s why I left Silicon Valley.
2
SPEAKER_00
Because I was like, I don t want to care about how many employees or how much funding or how big a business is.
2
SPEAKER_00
I want to be able to live life.
2
SPEAKER_00
Studying Larry Janeski, he has a $600 million basement business out on the East Coast.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so he s like, I texted him a few weeks ago, he s like, did the Baja 1000?
2
SPEAKER_00
And then when I interviewed him for the show, he s not on his phone the whole time.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s hanging out, running a nine-figure company.
2
SPEAKER_00
So those are the kind of people, I think it s longevity, I think it s balance of life, I think they re approaching things and they re okay failing in these things.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s fascinating.
2
SPEAKER_01
I love the content when you put it out because it s always like you on a private jet of some stranger that you ask, can I come in your jet and interview you?
2
SPEAKER_01
Or you on the street fighting billionaires and billionaires.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m curious, what is the difference
2
SPEAKER_01
between millionaires and billionaires and everyone else.
2
SPEAKER_00
Every billionaire has a few different things, but I d say the two most common things between a millionaire and a billionaire, most billionaires picked one thing, just one thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Let s just go, I mean, Bob Metcalf at Ethernet created the Ethernet, pretty big deal.
2
SPEAKER_00
John Paul DeJory, he created $2 billion companies, Haircare and Patron Tequila.
2
SPEAKER_00
Michael Hudner did ships.
2
SPEAKER_00
And all of them just have one thing that they focused on.
2
SPEAKER_00
And most of us are like, well, I m going to do real estate, and I m going to do a little content, and I m going to try to e-commerce business.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m going to have seven passive income streams.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I don t.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so for me, as I ve gotten older, I m only doing AppSumo.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s like I have a book, I want my girlfriend and our baby, that s number one.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then it s like AppSumo, number two, my business.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then, yes, I get to do YouTube, which I love making content similar to you.
2
SPEAKER_00
I have a book where I m teaching other people how I did what I did.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
I love that they did one thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
I think the second thing that s probably not recognized is they re in billion dollar markets.
2
SPEAKER_00
They re in billion dollar opportunities.
2
SPEAKER_00
So what s a billion dollar opportunity?
2
SPEAKER_00
Honestly, this is gonna sound silly, but like lawn care.
2
SPEAKER_00
How many lawns are out there?
2
SPEAKER_00
You have a lawn?
2
SPEAKER_00
I have like a fake yard, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s a lot of water in California, so yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
True.
2
SPEAKER_00
Do you have a pool?
2
SPEAKER_00
I do, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Pool care.
2
SPEAKER_00
And how much do you pay your pool care person?
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh, a hundred bucks a... It s a week almost.
2
SPEAKER_00
A weekly, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, so 400 bucks a month.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
So that s $5,000 a year.
2
SPEAKER_00
You get 50 pools, it s like, hey.
2
SPEAKER_00
That s a million dollar opportunity.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then so you realize pools and certain things can be billion dollar markets.
2
SPEAKER_00
And most people, and this is something I had to recognize through- The boring businesses.
2
SPEAKER_00
Boring businesses, and it s not just boring, it s just billion dollar opportunities.
2
SPEAKER_00
And John Paul DeGioia was a great one that I found fascinating because he s like, find something that s in the reorder business too.
2
SPEAKER_00
So not just a billion dollar market, like shampoo, billion dollar market.
2
SPEAKER_00
But people need to buy your product over and over and over again.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so I think there s something fascinating is that a billion dollar market is a product that people need like pool care.
2
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t have to just be tech.
2
SPEAKER_00
I come from tech world, but there s a lot of different businesses out there creating.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like you can make money in a lot of different ways.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that s been also fascinating with talking to all these people.
2
SPEAKER_00
From ships to basements, like there s just so many different ways.
2
SPEAKER_00
Right, a lot of ways.
2
SPEAKER_01
I m curious, I think it was one of the interviews I saw from you where you re interviewing some guy, maybe you ll remember who this is,
2
SPEAKER_01
And you ask him, like, what s your definition of success?
2
SPEAKER_01
And he said something like, as an adult, my adult kids still want to hang out with me on their own.
2
SPEAKER_01
Not because I have money, but because they just like me.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I was like, man, that really hit me.
2
SPEAKER_01
And I don t know, was that from your, one of your?
2
SPEAKER_01
The founder of FedEx.
2
SPEAKER_01
The founder of FedEx.
2
SPEAKER_01
Of Kinko s, Kinko s.
2
SPEAKER_01
Kinko s.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
So do you remember what that was or what the question was?
2
SPEAKER_01
I don t know if that was the exact question or what he said, but do you remember that?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I remember him.
2
SPEAKER_00
The other person I think of when I think of success, I asked the founder of Strava.
2
SPEAKER_00
You know Strava?
2
SPEAKER_00
It s a cycling tracking app.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s like social network for cyclists.
2
SPEAKER_00
And this is the most unique one.
2
SPEAKER_00
I don t think he s a billionaire, which is totally great.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s still doing really well.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s an amazing app, big business.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I asked him, I was like, what s success?
2
SPEAKER_00
He s like, not waking up to an alarm.
2
SPEAKER_00
That one s I never forgot, because it s such a, it means you have freedom of your time.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re a time millionaire.
2
SPEAKER_00
And the fact that you re like, I can wake up whenever I want and do the things I really want in my day.
2
SPEAKER_00
That is, to me, I like, okay, I like that level of success.
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s interesting, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
And the other guy was the founder of Kinko s, or?
2
SPEAKER_00
He was founder of Kinko s, and yeah, I mean, what was shocking about his story, he sold his company 2.4 billion, became a billionaire.
2
SPEAKER_00
And the disappointing part, he was awesome.
2
SPEAKER_00
I really admire him.
2
SPEAKER_00
Mr. Ophelia.
2
SPEAKER_00
But he said he was stressed for 34 years.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s like, every day I m stressed.
2
SPEAKER_00
Building that business.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s like, is it going to work?
2
SPEAKER_00
Am I going to have a payroll?
2
SPEAKER_00
Do I have to do this thing?
2
SPEAKER_00
I have to fly that stuff?
2
SPEAKER_00
And I remember just being like, I don t want that.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that s the coolest part about life.
2
SPEAKER_00
I can look at Lewis.
2
SPEAKER_00
I can look at Noah.
2
SPEAKER_00
I can check him out.
2
SPEAKER_00
I can be like, whose haircut do I want to try?
2
SPEAKER_00
And guess what?
2
SPEAKER_00
You create your own.
2
SPEAKER_00
You take all these different ones and you get a piece together the haircut you want to actually wear.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
So I like seeing that.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like, I don t want to live that life.
2
SPEAKER_00
I m happy making less money, but doing it the way I want.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
But for 20 years, you lived a certain level of life, building your business, making money.
2
SPEAKER_01
And there was anxiety and stress around that for a long time.
2
SPEAKER_01
Right.
2
SPEAKER_01
When did you realize, okay, this level of stress and emotional overwhelm and just always needing to get bigger and bigger and bigger, when did you realize that no longer works for you and that you wanted to shift it?
2
SPEAKER_01
Maybe you knew from the beginning it doesn t work, but you were still doing it, but when did you realize, okay, this is not how I want to live the rest of my life?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, for me, I m 41, and I think you have to be stressed in your 20s.
2
SPEAKER_00
There s a part of stress that s good.
2
SPEAKER_00
It s not always a bad thing, I think.
2
SPEAKER_00
So you have the book out there, Upside of Stress.
2
SPEAKER_00
So in your 20s, you re figuring out your life, and you re just working your ass off.
2
SPEAKER_00
You don t know really what s happening.
2
SPEAKER_00
And in your 30s, you re kind of a little more clear.
2
SPEAKER_00
You re like, okay, I like maybe YouTube.
2
SPEAKER_00
I like promoting products.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then your 40s, for me, I find it calm.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that just takes time to find out who we really are and be patient with some process that eventually we will figure it out.
2
SPEAKER_00
And for me, COVID, I would say, is when I finally found more peace.
2
SPEAKER_01
Really?
2
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
When most people found more stress, you found peace.
2
SPEAKER_01
Why did COVID bring you peace?
2
SPEAKER_00
Because I recognized that how I was approaching business, I had a plan.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was like, here s what we re going to be doing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Here s our budget.
2
SPEAKER_00
Here s our business.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I have a plan that I can follow.
2
SPEAKER_00
So that was part one.
2
SPEAKER_00
And part two was I didn t really like how I was living.
2
SPEAKER_00
I was engaged.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it didn t work out.
2
SPEAKER_00
Really?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
My business partner had a line he was recommending.
2
SPEAKER_00
He said to me, he s like, are you getting what you re getting or are you getting what you want?
2
SPEAKER_00
From the relationship?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, not from his business partner.
2
SPEAKER_00
He s great, shout out Chad, he s amazing.
2
SPEAKER_01
So you were engaged, maybe there were some ups and downs and you weren t fully clear.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_01
And he asked you that question.
2
SPEAKER_01
Are you getting what you re getting?
2
SPEAKER_00
Or are you getting what you want?
2
SPEAKER_00
And what was the answer?
2
SPEAKER_00
I m not getting what I want.
2
SPEAKER_00
And that s hard, right?
2
SPEAKER_00
I think most of us, this is the thing I ve noticed about advice, especially watching interviews and interviewing people, most of us know the truth.
2
SPEAKER_00
We know our truth, it s just hard and we don t want to accept it.
2
SPEAKER_00
And everyone has courage.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like I did this ayahuasca thing, which I know is more common now, but I did it years ago and courage to me was I was afraid of it, but I did it anyways.
2
SPEAKER_00
And then I was still scared.
2
SPEAKER_00
And there was a whole crazy story about this, but coming out of it, I was like, Oh, I realized I can do hard things and all of us can do hard things, but we have to face the hard thing.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
2
SPEAKER_00
And we all have it in us.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so for me with breaking up with the fiance, which was tough and I do.
2
SPEAKER_00
What was that like?
2
SPEAKER_00
That was probably one of the more bigger regrets in my life, that I didn t do it sooner, because I wasted her time, wasted my time.
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, that s tricky.
2
SPEAKER_00
And it was two years of just like back, and everyone s gone through this, it s not unique for me, but it was two years of, okay, let s try and make it work, but I know I m not really good for you, and I don t feel good about myself.
2
SPEAKER_00
And so it was like, eventually, when COVID happened, that was kind of our, we had some issues that went down, and I was like, I can t do this.
2
SPEAKER_00
Like I can t spend, the specific thing I thought was like, do I want 40 more years of this?
2
SPEAKER_00
Oh man, yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
It was tough.
2
SPEAKER_01
It s interesting, I asked myself a question in a previous relationship before.
2
SPEAKER_01
I think Esther Perel said something like, can you see yourself having 10,000 meals with this person?
2
SPEAKER_01
Like, if you re going to have 10,000 meals with a person, do you see yourself enjoying those meals, having fun, or is it more stressful?
2
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
2
SPEAKER_00
And I mean, all that added up.
2
SPEAKER_00
I mean, even doing like this book, Million Dollar Weekend, or YouTube and stuff, nothing was wrong.
2
SPEAKER_00
But she is not, with our relationship, she did not get excited, like, I want to go to YouTube.
2
SPEAKER_00
I like attention.
2
SPEAKER_00
And my partner now with Mafé, she s like, go on YouTube, have fun with Louis.
2
SPEAKER_00
And for me to
3
SPEAKER_01
And my ex will find a partner that s better.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so with COVID, it was like having a plan of business, breaking up with the fiance.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I think the other part that was kind of interesting is experimenting with life.
3
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t seem like business.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s an experiment.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s all an experiment.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s a game.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I experimented just different ways of living.
3
SPEAKER_01
I experimented finally living kind of rich.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like I had money, but I never enjoyed it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Really?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I think we re all taught that money can t buy happiness and that you re like, you know, you shouldn t be buying these things and don t live this way.
3
SPEAKER_01
And most of the ones who are showing that stuff are actually probably not, don t have the money for it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m poor, but like they probably don t have the money.
3
SPEAKER_01
Most rich people don t need to be posting about it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Right.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so I started, I rented a Malibu beach house.
3
SPEAKER_01
I rented a lake house in Austin.
3
SPEAKER_01
I started doing these things.
3
SPEAKER_01
I got like an RV for a month and I just kind of like drove around and like hung out in the RV and I was like,
3
SPEAKER_01
Wow, having a nicer space to live makes me feel a lot better.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so those kind of things led me in a direction where I was single for a while, started doing dating coaches, had a business plan that I was executing for AppSumo, so I felt in control of the business.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I felt like, I m actually going to start taking care of myself.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then I also felt like I could take care of others then, too, as I was feeling better about myself.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I think the past three years, I ve felt much better.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just been much calmer.
3
SPEAKER_00
What has money and relationships taught you about when you ve been in a relationship that you weren t fully sure of was going to work out?
3
SPEAKER_00
What was your views around money during that time?
3
SPEAKER_00
Were you more anxious and stressed?
3
SPEAKER_00
Were you more abundant thinking?
3
SPEAKER_00
Like, where were you at with money?
3
SPEAKER_01
It s easy to be abundant when you have money.
3
SPEAKER_01
I ll tell you that it s hard when you, and that s what most people, they re struggling with money.
3
SPEAKER_01
That s why I m like, let s talk about entrepreneurship, because that s a way of you can changing your situation, which everyone can do.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I had a friend who said, no, you re here and you re here where you want to be.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it s actually closer than you think.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, really?
3
SPEAKER_01
He s like, yeah, it s much closer than you think.
3
SPEAKER_01
You thought it was a bigger gap.
3
SPEAKER_01
I thought it s a gap.
3
SPEAKER_01
I thought there s something I don t know.
3
SPEAKER_01
I thought there s something outside.
3
SPEAKER_01
And this is something I think we re both, as we ve gotten older, it s all inside.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_01
Just being kind of like, hey, it s OK.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, of course.
3
SPEAKER_00
It s OK.
3
SPEAKER_01
Now, with my ex, it was not that there was a good or bad thing about money.
3
SPEAKER_01
It was just how we treated each other with it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I didn t really spend a lot of money on myself.
3
SPEAKER_00
So what did you do with your money?
3
SPEAKER_00
Because you were making money every year.
3
SPEAKER_00
Was it just compounding in a bank account?
3
SPEAKER_01
Was it in stocks?
3
SPEAKER_01
What were you doing?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, my father built his own business and then lost it.
3
SPEAKER_01
to drugs and alcohol.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it was a sad, that s definitely for me, I think a lot of men, we want our fathers to recognize us.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I was fortunate I have a great mom and a great stepfather, but for me, that father attachment.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I think with growing up with Jewish parents, candidly, we re taught to be very frugal.
3
SPEAKER_01
We re taught to be very practical.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it s just like, go make money, and that s a thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
Versus like, all right, how do you enjoy life?
3
SPEAKER_01
And I think with my ex it wasn t, she kind of made me feel bad about it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, why don t you spend money?
3
SPEAKER_01
Or we go to the airport, it s like $5 for a bottle of water.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m like, I m going to go to the bathroom and drink from the faucet.
3
SPEAKER_01
Or like, I m just like five bucks, it s fine, I don t care.
3
SPEAKER_01
And there s still times, but over time you start spending in different things.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like I bought a fancy Jaguar.
3
SPEAKER_01
I had so much regret on it.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yes, you did?
3
SPEAKER_01
Oh yeah, I hated it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I hated it.
3
SPEAKER_01
I, dude, I, oh man, it was the worst.
3
SPEAKER_01
Cause I don t care about nice cars.
3
SPEAKER_01
I have a 2004 Miata.
3
SPEAKER_01
I just got a new Vespa.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, that s just like and I do I do have a I have a model why but it was not important to me and I think that was interesting where she wasn t in free both of us.
3
SPEAKER_01
She wasn t like hey She was like you re being cheap
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, okay.
3
SPEAKER_01
It kind of felt deflated versus, I was like, hey, why don t we, do you wanna try spending these things?
3
SPEAKER_01
Could we rent it for a day?
3
SPEAKER_01
So I think there was ways of actually being more positive to each other with money.
3
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
3
SPEAKER_00
Do you believe in practicing gratitude and manifesting and the law of attraction?
3
SPEAKER_00
And if so, has that helped you attract more in the life you want?
3
SPEAKER_01
I ll tell you the part that s counterintuitive for me.
3
SPEAKER_01
So every day I write down something I m grateful and almost everything I m grateful for is silly.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like to me, it s like, I m grateful for electricity.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m grateful for water, hot water.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think that s silly, man.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, those are the ones I really love because it s available and it s not realizing how great life really is for all of us.
3
SPEAKER_01
I mean, if you were able to watch this, life s probably pretty good.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
3
SPEAKER_01
It doesn t maybe feel good in this moment or you don t have the money, but that s also something you could change.
3
SPEAKER_01
In terms of having,
3
SPEAKER_01
Candidly, I don t think I always felt worthy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Of what?
3
SPEAKER_01
Of having certain things, like having a wife, or having a partner, or having a kid.
3
SPEAKER_01
And even with Facebook and stuff like that, I felt like, well, Zuck fired me, I m not worthy of having a business.
3
SPEAKER_01
Really?
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I felt like, oh, this guy knows something better than I do.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I think a lot of us feel that way, like, oh, these other people have these things, am I actually worthy of this stuff?
3
SPEAKER_01
And how do we, you talk about gratitude and vision, I think everyone can spend more time just being grateful for themselves.
3
SPEAKER_01
And how do we just actually give more kindness to ourselves?
3
SPEAKER_01
So one thing that I work on, anytime I m kind of criticizing myself, it s like, all right, let s say one nice thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
And it kind of, what s crazy is you do that enough times, like criticize, nice, criticize.
3
SPEAKER_01
And we are literally the meanest people in the world to ourselves.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, you know, your worst friend is yourself.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so how do you change that relationship over time?
3
SPEAKER_01
And now it s just kind of like throughout my day, I m like, dude, good job.
3
SPEAKER_01
Like, hey, you hung out with Lewis, great job.
3
SPEAKER_01
And the more that we start doing those things, I think that s a way that, yes, you can manifest other things, but it s just really how do we work on being nice to ourselves?
3
SPEAKER_01
And that s really helped over time.
3
SPEAKER_00
So it sounds like you were pretty self-critical and you didn t feel like you had self-worth or feel like you were worthy for a long time building AppSumo.
3
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
3
SPEAKER_00
But you still built an $85 million business, feeling unworthy, feeling underqualified, and not fully loving and accepting yourself.
3
SPEAKER_00
Is that right?
3
SPEAKER_00
On a scale of one to 10 of self-worth, where would you say you were for most of those years, the first 10 years of building AppSumo?
3
SPEAKER_00
One being you have very little self-worth and don t believe you re deserving of any of it, the money, the success, the love, and 10 being you re deserving of all of it.
3
SPEAKER_00
Where were you for most of those years?
3
SPEAKER_00
Literally until probably the past year, just very low.
3
SPEAKER_01
Let s talk about the book.
3
SPEAKER_01
No, no, this is good.
3
SPEAKER_01
But man, probably until literally like two years ago, maybe fours, threes, fours?
3
SPEAKER_01
Threes and fours.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, like I was getting partners that liked me, just because that s what I got.
3
SPEAKER_01
And then with AppSumo, I think I had this fear I m going to ruin this business.
3
SPEAKER_01
So I tried to pass it off and not do it.
3
SPEAKER_01
And even with this book, I had to go through my own journey of, okay, I m going to hire Tal Rawls, one of the best business writers in the world, and I don t have to face myself.
3
SPEAKER_01
And when all of us face these hard things in life, whether it s writing a book, whether it s a relationship, whether it s starting putting yourself out there a little bit, and you face some of the fears and you start just even small, the smallest thing.
3
SPEAKER_01
And you re like, maybe I am worthy.
3
SPEAKER_01
Maybe I can do these things.
3
SPEAKER_01
And with AppSumo, when the previous CEO quit and I came back to work, I definitely was like, I m ruining this business.
3
SPEAKER_01
I m messing.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I did make a lot of mistakes, but I just stayed with it.
3
SPEAKER_01
And I had great people around me.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so over time now, I m like, and I get feedback.
3
SPEAKER_01
One of the easiest things that anyone could do to improve right now, really literally right now is text someone, how can I get better?
3
SPEAKER_01
Whether it s in your relationship, just ask your partner, whether it s at work as an employee or as a founder.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so it s just through working with people, getting feedback over time now, I m like,
3
SPEAKER_01
Pretty good at this.
3
SPEAKER_01
I used to always, this is, I haven t really talked about this.
3
SPEAKER_01
It sounds small.
3
SPEAKER_01
I used to always call myself Chief Sumo because I never wanted to be a CEO.
3
SPEAKER_01
I never thought I was the right leader.
3
SPEAKER_01
And in the past 18 months, two years now, I m the CEO.
3
SPEAKER_01
And so maybe for others out there, how are we labeling ourselves?
3
SPEAKER_01
And what are maybe small steps, they don t have to be big, like I have to go some dramatic thing, that I can just do that makes me feel good about myself, that moves me in that direction.
3
SPEAKER_01
Same with the relationship, where I worked with Stephanie Rigg, she s a woman out of Australia, great on Instagram, really great content.
3
SPEAKER_01
And a lot of what we talked about was like, what are you doing that makes you feel good about yourself?
3
SPEAKER_01
Like you drank last night, how did that make you feel?
3
SPEAKER_01
Like you re doing this type of activity, like you re going on this date with a girl you don t want, how d that make you feel?
3
SPEAKER_01
Like you re showing now with my partner Mafé, it s like, how am I showing up for her?
3
SPEAKER_01
Am I actually aligning my priority to my behavior?
3
SPEAKER_01
And every time I do that, I m like, like I cooked her some food two weeks ago.
3
SPEAKER_01
I was like, I m proud of myself.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m glad I could take care of you.
3
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I m really proud of myself.
3
SPEAKER_01
All of us feel these different ways.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s not like some exclusive club where everyone s always feeling happy.
3
SPEAKER_01
But it s doing things that make us feel good about ourselves that, frankly, it s all within our control.
3
SPEAKER_01
I think over years, you realize it s not external validation.
3
SPEAKER_01
It s like, how do we get more of the internal validation, that internal person that s like, hey, I m doing pretty damn good myself, and that s okay.
3
SPEAKER_00
Man, this is beautiful.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m so glad you re talking about this.
3
SPEAKER_00
Have you seen the movie Creed III?
3
SPEAKER_01
I ve seen one or two.
3
SPEAKER_01
I don t know if I ve seen three.
3
SPEAKER_00
Creed III was the most recent one.
3
SPEAKER_00
Anyway, long story short about it, the Adonis Creed, he s now world champion and all these things, has all the money, he s on the Hollywood Hills, like living the dream, you know, most famous guy in sports, whatever it is, and he s kind of depressed.
3
SPEAKER_00
He s like, not boxing anymore, he s not like, just kind of sitting around, depressed, and
3
SPEAKER_00
someone from his past comes into his life out of prison, right?
3
SPEAKER_00
Someone from his past comes.
3
SPEAKER_00
And there was some darkness that they both went through which caused this person to go to prison that Adonis, the main character, never faced.
3
SPEAKER_00
And he was kind of always running from his pain, his past.
3
SPEAKER_00
You talked about facing yourself.
3
SPEAKER_00
I m curious, what was the thing that you had to face that was the hardest thing in the last couple years that allowed you to have more peace and more freedom in yourself?
4
SPEAKER_00
and around money, love, and relationships.
4
SPEAKER_00
Different things, man.
4
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t happen all at once.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like, even taking Million Dollar Weekend as an example, you know, I ve worked for Zuckerberg.
4
SPEAKER_00
I helped start Mint.com.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like, I ve started so many different businesses that have made millions of dollars, and I still felt afraid.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like, can I put a book out there that people actually want?
4
SPEAKER_00
And can I actually even help them?
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I thought by hiring someone who s, like, the best around the world, I cold emailed him.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like, can you work on me with this book?
4
SPEAKER_00
He s like, sure.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I paid him money.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, OK, good.
4
SPEAKER_00
At least I don t have to do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t have to face myself to see if I can actually write a book.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then as the book got closer to having to submit the manuscript, as you know how it goes, I was like, this is not... I have to face myself with this book.
4
SPEAKER_00
I have to see if I can really do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
What did you not face?
4
SPEAKER_00
Actually writing a lot.
4
SPEAKER_00
We wrote the book together, but it was like, is this the book that I want to put my name on?
4
SPEAKER_00
Is this a book that I can say, hey, if you re trying to start a business, there s some things about starting, building, and growing that I can help you with.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I had to face the book.
4
SPEAKER_00
I had to face myself in actually writing the book.
4
SPEAKER_00
And yes, I worked on it lightly, but at a distance.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I think a lot of us do that.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like, OK, well, let me avoid that thing.
4
SPEAKER_00
Let me avoid the relationship.
4
SPEAKER_00
Let me maybe avoid the work.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so then I basically like, I don t know if I d call it hermit mode, but basically like sat in my room and more or less for about a month, just like heads down, worked with beta readers.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then I was like working on the scripts and all these things.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I was like slowly.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then I was going with people.
4
SPEAKER_00
So every weekend we have five people going through the book at a guy living at my house about a month ago.
4
SPEAKER_00
And through doing it, I was like, Oh, I can do this.
4
SPEAKER_00
I can do this.
4
SPEAKER_00
This works.
4
SPEAKER_00
And we all feel that.
4
SPEAKER_00
We all feel that in a lot of different ways, maybe in a relationship, maybe it s with work, maybe it s with ourselves.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so, kind of this concept lately I ve been really embracing is like, what s the hard thing I m avoiding and how do I go into that?
4
SPEAKER_00
So I voted the book for a while of it and then I was like, now I m going to go full in.
4
SPEAKER_00
Same with AppStream with CEO, I didn t want to do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I didn t want to do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I wanted someone else to do it.
4
SPEAKER_00
And same thing, he quit when I was on a bike ride.
4
SPEAKER_00
I was biking across America.
4
SPEAKER_00
And he quit, and I didn t want to come back.
4
SPEAKER_00
One of my best friends was like, well, who s paying for the bike trip?
4
SPEAKER_00
I was like, absolutely.
4
SPEAKER_00
And the guy who s running it doesn t want to be there.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I came back and had to face that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And the same experience, it s surprising how much we re afraid of things.
4
SPEAKER_00
And when you finally do it, it wasn t as hard as I thought.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m much more capable than I realized.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that s true for everyone.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it s just thinking about what these things are.
4
SPEAKER_01
What s been scarier, recommitting to owning your CEO role in a business that you helped build, coming back to that and taking ownership, or getting out of a relationship that wasn t working to enter a new relationship and now have a baby on the way?
4
SPEAKER_00
They re both insanely hard, both insanely hard.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
AppSumo is definitely some of the hardest work I ve ever done.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I would say by being an entrepreneur though, I feel lucky.
4
SPEAKER_00
I feel like it s the hardest thing, but this is the part that I think I m assuming you can resonate with.
4
SPEAKER_00
The things that are the hardest for us are also on the other side of that, the things we re most proud of.
4
SPEAKER_00
We re never not proud of ourselves when we do something hard for ourself.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I m really proud of my work at AppSumo where I m like, damn, I m showing up.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so for everyone out there, whether you re doing YouTube, whether it s religion, whether it s sports, whether it s a business, like how are you showing up or in your partner?
4
SPEAKER_00
And the same thing with my partner where
4
SPEAKER_00
It s been a challenge.
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, I m flying to Spain.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m staying up till 10, 11 p.m.
4
SPEAKER_00
to work Spain hours so that I can be with her.
4
SPEAKER_00
And now that she s pregnant, it s like, okay, am I really showing up in the relationship for what she needs?
4
SPEAKER_00
And that s, lately it s been awesome.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s been, I m happy to show up for those things.
4
SPEAKER_00
But it s been a journey to get to that point.
4
SPEAKER_01
What s the biggest thing that s shifted inside of you since knowing you have a kid on the way?
4
SPEAKER_01
around your habits, around your business, around time allocation, around everything.
4
SPEAKER_00
Okay, this is the one that s gonna be the, it s not what you re expecting.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s how much respect I have for moms.
4
SPEAKER_00
Shout out to all the moms, dude.
4
SPEAKER_00
The moms, like, wow, dude.
4
SPEAKER_00
It is tough.
4
SPEAKER_00
It is tough.
4
SPEAKER_00
That s been one of the biggest, holy, because we have, now we have four or five moms at AppSumo that are moms already, and they re pregnant moms.
4
SPEAKER_00
And what they go through,
4
SPEAKER_00
That s been, I have a, you know, I think in life you have to understand or go through things to have more empathy for that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I have so, and you know, it s been so hard on Mafe.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I admire how strong she is.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t think I can handle what you re going through.
4
SPEAKER_00
So I definitely have a lot more admiration for working moms or even stay at home moms.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like staying at home mom is probably one of the most underappreciated jobs in the world.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that s been probably one of the bigger shifts.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think a lot of the things, I mean, probably the other side of that, maybe from a professional side is also like, okay, what s really my priority?
4
SPEAKER_00
Right.
4
SPEAKER_00
What s really my priority?
4
SPEAKER_00
Am I saying, is AppSumo my priority?
4
SPEAKER_00
Is my book my priority?
4
SPEAKER_00
Is YouTube?
4
SPEAKER_00
And it s like, no, my family.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that, honestly, I didn t know I was supposed, I was allowed to have a family.
4
SPEAKER_00
Wow, what do you mean you weren t allowed to have a family?
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t know, dude.
4
SPEAKER_00
Did you just think you re supposed to have kids?
4
SPEAKER_00
I just thought like, you know, kind of even business, like, am I allowed to be rich?
4
SPEAKER_00
Am I allowed to have a great family?
4
SPEAKER_00
And you talk about manifesting, envisioning.
4
SPEAKER_00
I just didn t know that I was allowed to have these things.
4
SPEAKER_01
Did you not have a good family growing up?
4
SPEAKER_01
What?
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, pretty good.
4
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but you didn t think you could create a family.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I thought I was supposed to have it by 30, and when it didn t happen at 30, I was like, I guess it s not supposed to happen.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that was tough.
4
SPEAKER_00
And it comes back to feeling worthy of ourselves.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so I worked with Stephanie Rigg.
4
SPEAKER_00
I go to therapy.
4
SPEAKER_00
And over time, I m like, oh, maybe I can actually be with a great partner.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I would say professionally now, it s just how do I really prioritize?
4
SPEAKER_00
Because I ve started a business, I have the opportunity now to say I can control my schedule to really be there for my family.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that s different.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s like, OK, I need to finish work at 6.
4
SPEAKER_00
And if she needs me to call or whatever it is she needs to take care of, I need to be prioritized to be available for that.
4
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I m assuming you are very similar to me, that we would, there was no off switch when running our businesses for a long time.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was all day, all night, all nighter sometimes.
4
SPEAKER_01
It was, you know, you re at dinner, but you re checking your email sometimes.
4
SPEAKER_01
It s, you know, your business is life.
4
SPEAKER_01
You know, it s like, I m assuming that was for many years.
4
SPEAKER_01
Until I started to create more healthy boundaries in the last few years and really like,
4
SPEAKER_01
Okay, I m still working at night sometimes.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m checking, but it s not this obsession.
4
SPEAKER_01
I m having more boundaries.
4
SPEAKER_01
Where do you see yourself now with a child in the way, allocating time and energy?
4
SPEAKER_01
if you have an 80 plus million dollar business that you re the CEO of, that you ve got 70 something employees or more, that you wanted to keep being at the same level, if not grow year after year, how do you see yourself creating a healthy lifestyle, being a great partner, being a great father, being a great CEO, and
4
SPEAKER_01
in 20, 30, 40 years saying the same response of, you know, I hope my kids respect and love me when they re adults and wanna spend time with me.
4
SPEAKER_01
What s your views on how you re going to map that out?
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t know how it s gonna play out.
4
SPEAKER_00
I think all I can do is show up.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Right, all I can do is show up.
4
SPEAKER_00
And right now, my priority is Mafé and the baby, and so just showing up for her and whatever she needs.
4
SPEAKER_00
The other part of that is, if that s my priority, then you have to deprioritize other things.
4
SPEAKER_00
Interesting.
4
SPEAKER_00
So how am I deprioritizing the book and YouTube?
4
SPEAKER_00
And not to say I want to give it up, because I think one of the comments I would say is, I love my work.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
4
SPEAKER_00
I love it.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m up late because I get to and not have to, and I think that s available for everyone.
4
SPEAKER_00
And right now though, it s do I have the right team in place?
4
SPEAKER_00
Do we have the right budgets?
4
SPEAKER_00
kind of boundaries in place?
4
SPEAKER_00
Do they have the right scorecards?
4
SPEAKER_00
Each person has a scorecard of three things, so they know what they need to be doing.
4
SPEAKER_00
And then I can back off, right?
4
SPEAKER_00
Like my YouTube channel, fly to Monaco, or we fly to Switzerland, or go into the streets of New York, or we go to houses in California and knock on doors.
4
SPEAKER_00
I don t want to do that, because I want to be there for my family.
4
SPEAKER_00
Okay, it doesn t mean I have to give up YouTube, it just means I have to change the kind of videos I do.
4
SPEAKER_00
So it s also just adjusting that I m available to prioritize what s my priority.
4
SPEAKER_00
The thing that, a simple thing that Mafé is like, we re going to bed at 9 p.m., you need to always be there.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I want to have dinner and I want to hang out with you before that.
4
SPEAKER_00
And so now it s basically six o clock, it s done, and I ve been in bed by 9 p.m.
4
SPEAKER_00
And that s been, yeah.
4
SPEAKER_00
Really?
4
SPEAKER_00
How s that like?
4
SPEAKER_00
You know, she says I m sometimes on American time.
4
SPEAKER_00
I m like, 15 minutes, I m just finishing up 15 minutes, you know?
4
SPEAKER_00
Two hours later.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, you know, when people are like, I wake up and I do all these morning routines, like,
4
SPEAKER_00
I ve been as just successful with those morning routines as successful without them, right?
4
SPEAKER_00
I think sometimes there s an over-optimization of how we re living.
4
SPEAKER_00
It s figuring out what works for you.
4
SPEAKER_00
And I will say, though, it s made me take more time, more intentionality about how I m actually spending my day.
4
SPEAKER_00
Like, do I really want to spend, like, if I can only do so many things today, like, what is the real few things that matter?
4
SPEAKER_00
And being okay that I have a painting I haven t put up, there s scratches all over the house, a pool of stuff is broken, and it s like, well, I have to get my work done, and I wanna spend time with my family.
4
SPEAKER_00
And being okay that there s other things that are gonna go by the wayside for the time being.
4
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, wow.
4
SPEAKER_01
Somebody on your team is here, your videographer, and he was saying that one of the questions he would really like to ask is, he s seen you mature emotionally over the last couple years in a big way.
4
SPEAKER_01
He was curious about you know how you ve emotionally matured around
5
SPEAKER_00
around money and how therapy has supported you in this growth.
5
SPEAKER_00
Curious what your thoughts are on that.
5
SPEAKER_00
Biggest lessons you ve learned that have made you more emotionally mature?
5
SPEAKER_00
I feel like both of us have had emotional maturity over the last few years.
5
SPEAKER_01
I still remember our times in New York that were 20-year-old times.
5
SPEAKER_01
And now we re 40-year-old times, and it s adjusted.
5
SPEAKER_01
I go to therapy every month, Dr. Resnick.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think one of the, I would say the biggest change for me is stop chasing externally and stop looking externally when all the things are internal.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s the only real difference where I have enough.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know, I was talking to an entrepreneur, oh Ali, and he said someone gave him advice.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, you need to get to $10 million in sales.
5
SPEAKER_01
You need to get to a million subs.
5
SPEAKER_01
You need to get, you need to be doing these things in life.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it s like, no, I don t.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t need more money.
5
SPEAKER_01
I don t need more subs.
5
SPEAKER_01
I actually, one of my counterintuitive things, I want less ambitious goals.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m not trying to race.
5
SPEAKER_01
I used to try to race.
5
SPEAKER_01
And when you race, guess what happens?
5
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You get tired and you burn out.
5
SPEAKER_01
So create less ambitious goals, but stick with them longer.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so I think that s just created a lot more peace in my life because I m not rushing to compete with other people.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m just competing with myself and I can be proud of what I actually get to do.
5
SPEAKER_01
So that s made me more calm overall.
5
SPEAKER_01
And just like, you know, kind of what you said, like taking a step back, zooming out, be like, if you look at most of our lives, like it s pretty fricking awesome.
5
SPEAKER_01
And just actually being, acknowledging that.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I think so many times we re looking at it and we re like, ah, I don t have this.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s like, well, what do you have?
5
SPEAKER_01
And it s like so many of these other things.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s awesome.
5
SPEAKER_01
Not comparing to other people.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s hard not to compare.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think jealousy is great.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think, I know, but I think jealousy envy is great, at least from a directional standpoint.
5
SPEAKER_01
Cause you re like, do I really want this?
5
SPEAKER_01
I haven t shared this.
5
SPEAKER_01
I used to be jealous of Ramit, one of our good friends.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, man, he s like doing that.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then jealousy is a great mirror for yourself to then recognize like, OK, what is it about that that maybe I want or don t want?
5
SPEAKER_01
And then just get to that conclusion for yourself and make the decision for what you want.
5
SPEAKER_01
Actually, do you want that life or not?
5
SPEAKER_01
And that s OK.
5
SPEAKER_01
Do you know Joe Hudson?
5
SPEAKER_01
Sounds familiar.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh, Joe Hudson s fire.
5
SPEAKER_01
He s fire.
5
SPEAKER_01
He has a thing called Connection Course.
5
SPEAKER_01
Highly recommend.
5
SPEAKER_01
I ve done it with my brother to connect better.
5
SPEAKER_01
I ve done it with Moffat to connect better.
5
SPEAKER_01
And one of the things he says about life and something that, as you re talking with other people, just say, and that s okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I love it.
5
SPEAKER_01
And that, hey, you want to be more famous?
5
SPEAKER_01
Fine.
5
SPEAKER_01
Is that what you really want?
5
SPEAKER_01
And that s okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
You re okay where you re at?
5
SPEAKER_01
Great.
5
SPEAKER_01
And that s okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it just kind of is like almost relieving, just relieving.
5
SPEAKER_01
And that s okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
We re not trying so hard for other people.
5
SPEAKER_01
We re just trying hard for ourselves.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
I love that, man.
5
SPEAKER_01
What has therapy taught you about money?
5
SPEAKER_01
Remember how much time, how long is the episode?
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I literally went to therapy for two years to buy my house.
5
SPEAKER_01
To buy your house, why?
5
SPEAKER_01
I didn t feel worthy of having my house.
5
SPEAKER_00
Really?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
So how much money did you have?
5
SPEAKER_00
How much net worth did you have?
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_00
And you still didn t feel worthy with that much money?
5
SPEAKER_01
Um, probably liquid 10 mil.
5
SPEAKER_01
Uh-huh.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then AppSumo s worth, I don t know, nine figures, like 100, 200 million.
5
SPEAKER_00
So you had 10 million liquid, you had $100 million, you know, in terms of equity in a business.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, 200 million.
5
SPEAKER_00
And you didn t feel, a few hundred million, and you didn t feel worthy of owning a home.
5
SPEAKER_01
We re buying nice things.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I mean, and I m trying to relate to the audience, because I don t want them, oh, boo-hoo, you poor rich.
5
SPEAKER_01
But we all feel insecure in different ways.
5
SPEAKER_00
And if you don t fix the insecurity when you don t have money, having the money is not going to fix the insecurity.
5
SPEAKER_00
It might have some added benefits.
5
SPEAKER_00
You can pay more bills.
5
SPEAKER_00
You can take care of health challenges easier.
5
SPEAKER_00
You can speed up conveniences, things like that.
5
SPEAKER_00
But it s not going to make you worthy until you fix the worthiness insecurity inside of us.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so therapy is like, I remember with Facebook, I got fired, and then I went to a therapist, and I was like, I m so sad I m not gonna get rich.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it s also kind of a crazy concept, because it s like, you can get rich in other ways.
5
SPEAKER_01
This is not the only way.
5
SPEAKER_01
And well, she said, okay, let s do an experiment.
5
SPEAKER_01
So write down all the things you really want if you got rich.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was like, okay, I want an M3.
5
SPEAKER_01
This is like years ago when M3s were cool, right?
5
SPEAKER_01
I was like, I want an M3.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay, write it down.
5
SPEAKER_01
How much is an M3?
5
SPEAKER_01
50k.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
I d love a house.
5
SPEAKER_01
This was in California and houses were like a million.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
A million.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
What else?
5
SPEAKER_01
First class.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
First class.
5
SPEAKER_01
Cool.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
Okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
Let s put that down.
5
SPEAKER_01
All right.
5
SPEAKER_01
So how much is that?
5
SPEAKER_01
One and a half million.
5
SPEAKER_01
Do you think you re gonna be able to make that kind of money in the next few years?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, 10 years, next year, a few years.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah?
5
SPEAKER_01
Maybe you re doing okay.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so it s just kind of actually having that list of things we actually want in life.
5
SPEAKER_01
Like one of the things that was important for me was my freedom number.
5
SPEAKER_01
What s your freedom number?
5
SPEAKER_01
My freedom number, and everyone has one, is what s the number you need to actually live the life you want?
5
SPEAKER_01
And it s always less than people think.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so after that experience, I realized I just wanna get to 3,000 bucks a month.
5
SPEAKER_01
If I can actually get 3,000 bucks a month, I don t need this house, I don t need an M3, but I don t have to work for anyone, ever again.
5
SPEAKER_01
I never have to have a boss, which I don t want to be anyone s boss, and I never want anyone to be my boss.
5
SPEAKER_01
And it was 3,000 bucks, so it s like, I m just gonna keep swinging, I m gonna keep experimenting year after year after year until finally 2010, I mean, six years after leaving college, that I was finally able to get a business.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was like, oh, I can do this.
5
SPEAKER_01
It finally can work.
5
SPEAKER_01
Then you were a boss.
5
SPEAKER_01
I wouldn t say I m anyone s boss.
5
SPEAKER_01
But you re an employer.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m an employer at a company, but most of the people don t listen to me.
5
SPEAKER_01
Most of the people at AppSumo, and even at Facebook, I would say the best teammates and people at Facebook and at AppSumo, the best people are the ones that don t listen.
5
SPEAKER_00
If they don t listen and they re getting results, I ll be like, great, that s awesome.
5
SPEAKER_00
If you re not listening, then you re screwing everything up.
5
SPEAKER_01
And when I say not listening, what I mean by that is with YouTube, with Jeremy, or with AppSumo, we have Sean, Ilona, and other people, as well as with Tal Roz, the best ideas are forged.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so Tal Roz fought me on everything in this book.
5
SPEAKER_01
I mean, we fought for the best.
5
SPEAKER_01
That s great.
5
SPEAKER_00
That s great, yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
And that s what I m encouraging people where it was like, these people just don t listen, and in a good way.
5
SPEAKER_00
It shouldn t be about your idea should be the best idea winning.
5
SPEAKER_00
But we all think we re smart.
5
SPEAKER_00
We all do.
5
SPEAKER_01
Everyone thinks they re smart.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then it s nice to be around people that are challenging your ideas.
5
SPEAKER_00
That s great.
5
SPEAKER_00
Challenge it and show me a game plan and take action and get results.
5
SPEAKER_00
The more it fails, then you try something else.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so coming back on therapy, I still go, you know, should everyone go to therapy?
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
I think it s great to have some outlet that s a non-biased person that doesn t give kind of a crap about you for a hundred bucks.
5
SPEAKER_01
For a hundred bucks, they re like to listen to you and then provide like some reflections.
5
SPEAKER_00
So when did you realize that you actually were worthy of love, of being rich, of having nice things or buying a house with the money you ve earned?
5
SPEAKER_00
When did you realize you were worthy?
5
SPEAKER_01
I was in Barcelona, and I was just recognizing my own life.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was working with this woman, Stephanie, and I was just kind of, I was outside, there s Arc de Triomphe in Barcelona, and I remember being outside, journaling on this iPad, feeling like, wow, like, what a cool life I created.
5
SPEAKER_01
Actually finally recognizing my own life.
5
SPEAKER_00
It s reflecting back on the last 20 years and all the different things, ups and downs.
5
SPEAKER_01
The sadness of what I ve done to the ex-fiance, how I ve created this company that I finally get to actually live my dream, and just kind of being able to reflect on all of that.
5
SPEAKER_01
It helped me accept it and just enjoy it.
5
SPEAKER_01
Like, hey, money is great.
5
SPEAKER_01
I know people say money can t buy happiness.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s definitely made me happier now finally being able to embrace it.
5
SPEAKER_00
Once you love and accept yourself and believe you re worthy, then money can buy you additional happiness.
5
SPEAKER_00
But it cannot buy you happiness if you feel unlovable.
5
SPEAKER_00
You don t accept yourself and you don t face the challenges and the pain and the sadness that s within you.
5
SPEAKER_00
Then it s just more sadness.
5
SPEAKER_00
Because I make this money, but I m still shameful about who I am.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, it s still chasing.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s still this external side.
5
SPEAKER_01
And so with Stephanie, it s the simplest thing.
5
SPEAKER_01
It s just day by day.
5
SPEAKER_01
Do something for yourself.
5
SPEAKER_01
Do something that you re proud of for yourself.
5
SPEAKER_01
Back in the day, we had this thing called Gebbie.
5
SPEAKER_01
It was me and my buddy Adam from My Body Tutor.
5
SPEAKER_01
Basically, gratitude, exercise, breakfast, you.
5
SPEAKER_01
And if anything, it s just like, how do you do one thing for yourself each day?
5
SPEAKER_01
Or you feel good about yourself.
5
SPEAKER_01
Maybe it s in a relationship.
5
SPEAKER_01
So for me, it was like, all right, I m dating these women.
5
SPEAKER_01
I did have a goal.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was like, I d like to have kids.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I d like to have a real partner that I m getting what I want.
5
SPEAKER_00
When did you realize you wanted to have kids and a partner where it was like a harmonious relationship?
5
SPEAKER_00
When did that come about?
5
SPEAKER_01
It took years, man, it took years.
5
SPEAKER_01
After breaking up with the fiance, it was like back and forth with her.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then working with Stephanie, it was like, I really did have to close the door in the past.
5
SPEAKER_01
And there was a visualization of I couldn t swing to my next branch holding on to my previous one.
5
SPEAKER_01
Oh my goodness.
5
SPEAKER_01
You know what I m saying?
5
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_01
I was holding on, because I was like, I like partying.
5
SPEAKER_00
Your previous identity, the lifestyle.
5
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
5
SPEAKER_01
Wow.
5
SPEAKER_01
It was feeling more harmonious just daily.
5
SPEAKER_01
It was honestly like a daily practice.
5
SPEAKER_01
I really enjoyed being in Barcelona.
5
SPEAKER_01
I felt like, wow, I get to work on this business.
5
SPEAKER_01
I get to meet interesting people.
5
SPEAKER_01
And then it was directionally.
5
SPEAKER_01
I didn t know, kind of faith, what you were talking about with your stuff.
5
SPEAKER_01
I m like, I had faith there s going to be someone out there that I d eventually now start meeting.
5
SPEAKER_01
But I was being intentional about it.
5
SPEAKER_01
And I told the ex, I sent her a message,
6
SPEAKER_02
She s like, I can t reply to you anymore.
6
SPEAKER_02
And that was hard.
6
SPEAKER_02
I was really... You closed the chapter.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I m sure she was mad and all these things, but I was like, you know, I want you to find someone that is good for you.
6
SPEAKER_01
So it was still kind of lingering energy.
6
SPEAKER_01
It was like, OK, we re not together, but...
6
SPEAKER_01
hey how are you and checking in and every once in a while waiting for a text intermittently yeah yeah so you made the decision like hey i cannot communicate with you anymore yeah you sent that message yeah did your coach or therapist come and guide you in that or was that something with it yeah so she was like you need to send this message and i was like i m not doing it
6
SPEAKER_02
So she was, and this is kind of a weird, I would say, hack for others.
6
SPEAKER_02
If you do have coaches or you meet with other people, I d record my conversations with their permission.
6
SPEAKER_02
It s not secret.
6
SPEAKER_02
I d listen to myself.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I noticed, I m like, huh, are you proud of what you did with these dates?
6
SPEAKER_02
Are you proud of how your work is?
6
SPEAKER_02
And then, just kind of an interesting moment of reflection.
6
SPEAKER_02
Like, when you do content, when you do anything, you get a chance to actually learn.
6
SPEAKER_02
And so, through that I was listening to it, and then when I was ready.
6
SPEAKER_02
You know, it takes time for all of us.
6
SPEAKER_02
How many times has someone given you advice, and then you read the book, or you listen to something, and finally, like the 18th time, you finally accept it.
6
SPEAKER_02
And I kid you not, it was probably about four weeks later when I finally sent it, and then four weeks later I met Mafe.
6
SPEAKER_02
Isn t that fascinating?
6
SPEAKER_02
I know, I know.
6
SPEAKER_02
I hate that story, but the key part... I don t hate the story.
6
SPEAKER_02
I love that story.
6
SPEAKER_02
But one thing that I ve changed my perspective on, based on what Isaac was asking, I believe I m more optimistic.
6
SPEAKER_02
And not optimistic because, yes, things are good, all this stuff, but how do you be optimistic when things aren t good?
6
SPEAKER_02
And there s a book, Learn to Optimism, phenomenal book, in that optimism is a choice.
6
SPEAKER_02
And so, okay, business isn t working out.
6
SPEAKER_02
Business, we still have problems.
6
SPEAKER_02
I told you, the YouTube team, most of them quit.
6
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
6
SPEAKER_02
AppSumo, we still have partners complaining or different things happening.
6
SPEAKER_02
How do you stay optimistic that, do you think the future s gonna be better than today or not?
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, I think it s gonna be bright.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, but that s hard.
6
SPEAKER_01
Even when things are going down and there s challenges and there s stress, I m like, this is all happening in my favor for a brighter future.
6
SPEAKER_01
That s tough though when it doesn t feel good, man.
6
SPEAKER_01
You know?
6
SPEAKER_01
It didn t feel good.
6
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
6
SPEAKER_01
For like many months this year, I was going through a lot of challenges just like, man, there s a challenge here in the business and this person and this is challenging and revenue is going down and you know, all these different things.
6
SPEAKER_01
And I was like,
6
SPEAKER_01
You know, after a period of being frustrated internally, I was like, okay, how can I look at this in a way, because being frustrated and stressed is not gonna cause me to feel better, and it s probably not gonna get me into flow and creativity, and I m probably stressing my girlfriend, now fiancee out, or whatever, people around me, with that tense energy.
6
SPEAKER_01
It s not like I was explosive or anything, but it was more like, I just wasn t my happy self all the time, right?
6
SPEAKER_01
And I started to shift that energy internally and say, this is all happening in my favor.
6
SPEAKER_01
And maybe this continues for six months or a year.
6
SPEAKER_01
and knowing that I m gonna make sure I put my attention on it, I m gonna align the right people towards it, we re gonna be figuring it out, and eventually you will figure it out.
6
SPEAKER_01
Hopefully it figures out today, but if not, it s gonna be figuring itself out, and just take care of my health, my mindset, my attitude.
6
SPEAKER_01
I think that s really the only thing we can control, is who we are and how we show up.
6
SPEAKER_01
I m curious about this.
6
SPEAKER_01
Where do you think you d be if you didn t emotionally and physically send that text of like, hey, I need to close this chapter with this relationship?
6
SPEAKER_01
Where do you think you d be right now if you kept that door open, whether it s with that or any type of door from a previous thing that was kind of holding onto you?
6
SPEAKER_01
Where do you think you d be?
6
SPEAKER_01
Do you think you d be in a peaceful, loving, beautiful relationship with a child on the way, or do you think something else would be happening?
6
SPEAKER_02
How many times has something bad happened that turned out to be great?
6
SPEAKER_02
For me, every time.
6
SPEAKER_02
When people say, do the work, I m always like, what s the work?
6
SPEAKER_02
You know, you hear it and you re like, do the work.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m like, can you tell me what it is so I can do it?
6
SPEAKER_02
And I think the work is just really trying to understand ourselves.
6
SPEAKER_02
understanding what s going on, like, do I want to live the way I ve been living?
6
SPEAKER_02
And it s like, no, this is not what I want.
6
SPEAKER_02
I m excited to have a family one day.
6
SPEAKER_01
And so, okay, what is necessary for me to feel worthy to then lead to that kind of... So what was that thing that was necessary for you to feel worthy of a different life?
6
SPEAKER_01
Financially, emotionally, spiritually, family, relationship, what was that thing?
6
SPEAKER_02
There s not one thing, there s not one day that I magically woke up because I meditated or something especially happened.
6
SPEAKER_02
I think it was literally like each day, can I just be a little kinder to myself?
6
SPEAKER_02
Just a little bit more generous to myself and then to others.
6
SPEAKER_02
Let s just take it piece by piece, right?
6
SPEAKER_02
I have noticed that when my relationship s going well, guess what else is going well?
6
SPEAKER_02
Everything else.
6
SPEAKER_02
And when one thing s going bad, it s like, maybe these other things are going bad, so let s start working on these different pieces of it.
6
SPEAKER_01
But I feel like you ve always been a very generous person to others.
6
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Since I ve known you, you ve always been generous, giving, willing to jump on a call and say, let me help with anything, strategy, or you need an introduction.
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You re like that with everyone.
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So you re very generous outwardly to other people, where you re not generous to yourself.
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Yeah, generous with the money.
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Really?
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Yeah, I didn t really enjoy the money, I told you.
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I lived in an 800 square foot house that s falling down, literally cracks in the floor, cracks in the walls, and that s what I thought of myself.
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This was actually kind of an interesting experience, and I do want to answer your question, but I m trying to think more through it.
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Go back to your old life.
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Go back to three years ago.
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I went to my old house about three months ago.
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I was like, huh, wow, this is what I thought of myself.
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Your environment.
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Yeah, it was a representation of what I thought I deserved.
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And it s interesting for all of us, like what we think we deserve.
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Do we deserve great families?
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Do we deserve great, great money?
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Do we deserve a great where we re living?
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And then you start realizing like, okay, what s really holding me back from that?
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And every time it s yourself.
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And so going through therapy, talking with therapists, talking with Stephanie, I wouldn t say it s like some, it wasn t some overnight thing.
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It usually isn t overnight, it s usually a series of events, a series of conversations, reflections, integrations, closing of chapters, practices, and then over time, it comes together.
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It s usually not like, oh, the first conversation I had, I learned to love and accept myself.
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It s like unwinding and unpacking things that caused us to believe we re unworthy.
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And learning to finally integrate that emotionally and physically with the present day, doing things over and over that show you that you believe you re worthy.
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It s not less like, oh, I m gonna think about it and now I m worthy.
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It s like you ve gotta act on it continuously.
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And usually when someone s like, okay, I m going to let go of this old apartment or whatever that is only serving my vision of what I want to be stepping into.
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So let me transition from this to the next thing.
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Let me leave a job that really isn t the vision I have.
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And I leave that and I don t know where I m going to go next, but then magically something unfolds.
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It s when we leave a relationship and we finally say,
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I love you, I appreciate you, but this is not good for either of us.
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It s time for me to close this chapter.
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100%.
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How hard that is emotionally, especially if you ve been with someone for years and you ve already talked about the future and unwinding that is extremely hard.
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But then, boom, something unfolds magically, it seems like.
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Isn t that funny how that happened?
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Isn t it crazy?
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I was thinking how it s also experimenting.
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Like, okay, what would a great relationship, can I go on a date and just see what a great relationship would be like maybe?
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Could I try, and I told you, try nice houses, see what that s like.
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Can I try first class?
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I d be like, this is pretty good.
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And then you start feeling like, okay, what do I need to do so that I can feel more comfortable doing these all the time?
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Besides just the money part.
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And I think with The Worthy, it was just day by day, just doing things that I felt proud for myself.
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Like, is my behavior making me proud?
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Like there s a lot of times where if I m out to have a drink, I m like, do you think you ll feel proud of yourself for making this decision?
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And that s what I think a lot.
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And sometimes it s like, yeah, have a drink.
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Great.
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And other times it s like, no, let s not.
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And I m like, good.
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Keep saying these kind things to yourself.
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That s something that I always think the word generous and generous.
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I think people think of money to others, but I think of generous as words to yourself.
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And you can also be generous with words to other people, too, with your partner or with people you admire.
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Be generous to yourself.
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Be like, hey, man, you re doing well.
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Even if it s not great or you didn t get the success immediately, you can just keep doing it.
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And there s no one stopping it.
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It s unlimited.
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I know.
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How do you think someone can...
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become more valuable in the marketplace, become more worthy of financial abundance, of making and earning more, what are some things they can do internally and externally to appreciate in value?
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Like to get a better salary or to start their own business?
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Either one.
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Yeah.
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I think the thing that I ve always found the most fascinating... Or to get a great relationship or all these things, you know, just appreciating in value.
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Yeah.
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The thing that I ve always come back to is how can you just go help one person?
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A lot of times on my YouTube channel or at AppSumo or with this book, I don t just go help one person.
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I think when people run a business, they think about a million and they don t get the dollar.
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And when you actually help another person, you really realize like, oh, I have a lot more ability and capabilities really than I even realized.
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Yes.
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In the workplace, I think one, everyone should be an entrepreneur so that you have some control
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your destiny.
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And you can keep your day job.
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We have a lot of entrepreneurs at AppSoon.
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We have like Amy, she has a flower shop.
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Nick has a teeth whitening business.
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Olman s wife has a facial business.
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And that s great.
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And so you can have that option.
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Within the company, I think it s really, this has been really fascinating.
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Who gets paid more and why?
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Like how come an engineer makes 200 and someone in customer support makes 35?
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And it s within everyone s ability to recognize like what things are getting paid more for.
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And there s no limit that they can go do those other things.
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Like we have a lot of people in our company, like Matt Bean went from a launch operations to now he s a product manager.
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Pretty cool.
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And there s all these people within our company and elsewhere.
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It s like, well, if you want more money, there s no limit to what you can create.
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And so figuring out what is more valuable in a business and then how do you move up that chain?
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What do you think are the three most important skills for people to earn more money that they can develop?
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Number one is follow up.
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No one follows up.
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Just being consistent with following up.
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Bro, no one follows up.
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It s unbelievable.
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I like deleting people s emails just to see what happens.
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See if they reply in a week.
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DMs, emails, texts, just see what happens.
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No one follows up.
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If you really want something, you follow up, you persist.
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So I d say that that s one of the best things.
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Number two, I mean, coming back on it, I would say it s how are they learning?
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What is their learning approach?
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I ve seen different people that are like, yeah, I m good.
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This is where I want to be.
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And it s like, well, you ll stay where you are.
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And I ve seen other people like, let s take Sean, for instance, he s the head of revenue at AppSumo.
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He was six years ago, our junior salesperson.
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Now he s responsible for 80 million.
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And that s because Sean kept learning.
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Wow.
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Right?
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He has different coaches.
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He s taking different courses.
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And I m like, ah, there s something there with that.
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So you re following up.
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You re learning.
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All these skills are available for everyone.
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There s nothing exclusive.
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I d say the last one is attitude.
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Oh, gosh, man.
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I know.
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It s not the obvious shit, but it s like, it s been interesting to see the attitude of people, especially we ve had hundreds of people work at AppSumo, YouTube team, all these people.
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I ve seen a lot of different friends of the company.
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It s like, who s attitude?
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And I like people that have a solution attitude.
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Like, oh, this didn t work, what else can we do?
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That s huge.
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And it s not exclusive.
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Everyone can work on their attitude, no matter what.
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If you re starting your business, if you re as an employee at a company or whatever it is, in a relationship, whatever that is.
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Half my team is virtual and half my team is here, and Alexandra and Sammy who are in the office here, every day I walk in and they just have good attitude.
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And for me, you have no idea how far that goes, especially as someone who s got challenges.
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If you re the business owner, you ve got challenges with fires you re putting out all day.
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just different people you re dealing with throughout the day, right?
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Decisions to make.
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So when someone is just consistently following up with a good attitude, even when they got challenges, they don t have to be perfect every day, but just like a consistency of a positive attitude, a solution oriented attitude, you have no idea how valuable that is.
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Yeah.
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How, how much people appreciate that.
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There has been so many times that I ve played sports on teams where
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there was some incredibly freakish athlete, just so talented, just way better than everyone else, but had the worst negative attitude, and it ruined the entire dynamics of the team.
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But you re like, oh, but they re so good.
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But they re just bringing everyone down with their attitude.
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And the moment you remove that person, or they remove themselves,
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It s like, wow, there s this flow, and there s this connection, and there s this collaboration, and there s just this progress that s more effortless when you remove one person with a negative attitude, or they remove themselves for whatever reason.
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It s incredible.
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I d rather have a team of people who would just have a solution-oriented attitude than the superstar, talented, technical engineer, or graphic designer, or video editor with a negative attitude.
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all day long, you can do so much more with positive attitude.
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I always talk about the three things we look for are attitude, energy, and effort.
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It s like if you can be consistent with those three things, you got a place here.
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And those are all things in your control. 100%.
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They re all in your control.
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And if you have a learning mindset as well, and you keep growing, then the earning potential just keeps going up more and more, so faster.
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Yeah.
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Man, I love this, man.
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This is powerful stuff.
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I don t know if this is what you were thinking about.
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No, this is the opposite of literally what I was thinking we were going to talk about, which is good.
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I like getting outside of our auto narrative.
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Yes, yes.
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But I don t think it s unique in the sense that we re all going through our own different challenge.
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Like everyone, you have your own personal life going on.
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Everyone watching has their own like, I ve got a family and I m struggling and maybe I d like to be an entrepreneur or I ve got a day job and it sucks or I want to get a job.
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And you know, we re all going through it.
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Exactly.
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The real answer is that we re all figuring it out.
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And so, it s been a journey that I m happy to share and I ve been fortunate to be able to figure it out at 40 where I m at, then figure it out at 60 or 70.
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Figuring it out, we re still figuring it out.
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Once you have your kid and the relationship dynamics, it s gonna be like, I don t know anything, what do I do now, right?
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Yeah, but I think one of the things that s cool is there s so many other people that have figured these things out or at least have gone through what we re going through.
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So it s been super cool having the baby that I call up friends, I m like,
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what outfit should I buy?
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Well, for my baby mama, I was like, what s cool clothing for her?
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So this week I was buying cool clothes for her, or I m talking to my business partner, and he has a baby, and I m like, what apps do you use?
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And he s like, oh, Wonder Weeks.
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You gotta check out Wonder Weeks and The Bump, and so I have these apps now.
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I gotta check these out in the future.
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Yeah, let s get you there, dude.
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Now I m like team baby, let s go, everyone.
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Once I m ready, I m gonna be hitting you up.
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Dude, please.
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You ll have like a year of experience by that time.
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Oh, I d love, if people have kids out there, they ve babysat kids and they have comments or feedback, I d love suggestions.
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Give your parenting tips below.
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Yeah, man, so that s been, but there s people out there that have gone through it and like, same as AppSumo, who s these coaches that have already gone through it?
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And so there s been a lot of people that we ve asked for help.
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I ve got a few more questions I wanna ask you, but I want people to get the book, Million Dollar Weekend.
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I don t know if anything we talked about here is related to the book, but get the book Million Dollar Weekend, The Surprisingly Simple Way to Launch a Seven-Figure Business in 48 Hours, packed with battle-tested entrepreneurial strategies.
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You know, I think it s interesting because probably when you wrote this book, you were thinking about, okay, what are all the tactical things
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that I did and other people have done that they can actually launch with strategy and game planning, goal setting and team and delegation and optimization and all these different strategies which are time tested and backed.
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But a lot of these entrepreneurs, they are successful in that but then they forget how to love themselves, love other people, have healthy relationship with self.
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feel worthy and deserving of the success they re having.
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Manage the success without overwhelming stress.
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Like there s all these other emotional things that we need to learn once we create that, if we don t learn them before.
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And I m glad you re talking a lot about those things right now.
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Speaking of having kids and billionaires, you ve interviewed a lot of mega millionaires, billionaires who do have kids.
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And I m assuming some of them have regrets around not being there for their kids as much as they would like to, or not being as emotionally available, focusing more on the business than them.
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And then there s others that maybe did it really great, and they showed up for their kids in a beautiful way, and they built their business in a big way.
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How do...
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Without being a parent yourself yet, but interviewing a lot of parents with a lot of money, what have you learned from rich people with kids on how to not ruin their kids with access to a private jet, with access to unlimited money, with access to the best private teachers and everything, just without spoiling their kids?
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How do you raise conscious, loving, generous, healthy, kind humans when you are mega rich?
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Yeah.
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I ll find out.
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I ll tell you.
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What did you learn from people you ve interviewed?
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Yeah.
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I mean, I d say the number one thing is how are you leading by example in all aspects?
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Yeah.
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So how are you showing up yourself?
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I heard a story where these rich people hired a nanny and then the kids never even saw the parents.
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Wow.
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Are you doing the dirty work?
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Are you doing the dishes?
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Are you showing up?
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Or are you just outsourcing everything?
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and not treating them for your responsibility?
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And how are the parents treating them?
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Because I think if you earn money, which I think everyone should have a chance to do it, which they do, and you have access to be able to have help, to get groceries, to buy whatever things you want, you shouldn t do that.
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You should definitely do it.
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It makes your life easier.
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But I think it s figuring out what are the parts you really want to impact on your kids, and how are you teaching them that by doing it yourself?
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And so that s something that with Mafei, it s talking about like, how do we wanna, do we wanna have a bunch of staff?
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And I m like, no, we should, both of us have agreed, like, let s do the hard work in the beginning.
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And then we figure out, okay, where is it, we don t need to always do these things and we can hire help around that stuff.
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So that to me is how we re looking at it.
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I think most of the people probably have been so focused on this money.
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And I remember with Mafei, I brought her to my house.
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It s a $2 million house.
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It s gone down because the market s going down.
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Maybe it s one and a half by the time you watched it.
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I remember I brought her to my house,
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And she goes in the door and I m like, when I ve brought over dates in the past, it was a very long time ago.
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I m like, look at this house.
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I m the man.
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Look at this house.
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Look at this.
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Look at me.
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I have a photo of me once you walk in, you know, right there.
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And she didn t give two sh**.
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And I was like, what the f**k?
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I did all this work.
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You re supposed to be impressed.
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She s like, and I remember, and I asked her about it a few months ago.
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I was like, you came over to my house, you didn t give two, you didn t care about it at all.
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She s like, I just care about who you are.
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Wow.
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And I was like, what?
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You know, I was like, I gotta do all this work.
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And it was a beautiful moment of just for all of us.
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That s beautiful.
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Like, who are we?
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without any of these extra things.
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Who are you as a parent?
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Who are you as an individual?
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How are you showing up as a partner in your business, in your relationship, at work, whatever that is?
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And that was a great moment.
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I m very lucky to be with someone like her, that in parenting, I have a great partner in that.
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And then how am I showing up just as a dad?
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And I asked a friend of mine, I was going to say, how do you be a good parent?
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I feel
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There s people who had great parents and they go to therapy.
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There s people who had bad parents go to therapy and all these things.
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The firm was like, it s hard to say how that s going to happen.
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You just have to give a, and that s it.
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And that s it.
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Just show up, lead by example, and give a on these kids.
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And you can t really control all the other outcomes of this stuff.
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But if you re doing that, you re doing your best around it.
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That s beautiful, man.
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What s the thing that you say you re most proud of yourself in the last few years that you ve done or overcome?
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I think not hating on myself so much, not being so critical around all these things has been a huge breakthrough.
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I m very proud of this book.
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I m insanely proud of it.
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That s why I have no problem going and talking about it, because I ve worked my ass off with Tal.
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At first, I was afraid, and this is everyone out there.
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What are you afraid of?
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Let s go into it.
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Do your thing.
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Realize you re capable of it, and be like, I can do some things out there.
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Being a partner and showing up for MAFE, which is like, what are you actually committed to?
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What do you actually commit it to?
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And when you commit, you show up.
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And so I m very proud, especially now that she s pregnant, like how am I showing up as a partner for what she needs?
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It s beautiful, man.
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Like, am I up when she s puking at night?
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Or whatever it is that she needs food or a thermometer or different stuff to take care of her.
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Wow, that s beautiful, man.
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So yeah, I m really proud of myself.
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And that s taken a long time.
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Maybe 20 years.
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Wow, man.
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Yeah.
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To be able to get to that point.
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That s beautiful, man.
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And that s not an overnight thing.
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That s like doing these little things each day for myself, showing up for her.
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And over time now, with all these things, they ve come together nicely.
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What s the thing you love about her the most?
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She s kind.
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The thing I generally think of, she s really hot on the inside.
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Yeah, she s so kind.
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And I think we all have to unlearn some of our older dating relationships.
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And I mentioned it to you earlier where I would do things and I d always feel in trouble.
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I don t know if it s some childhood thing or whatnot, but I always felt like, oh, I m in trouble here.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I remember there s one day recently, this is about two months ago before we found out we re having the kid.
8
SPEAKER_00
And she s like, you know, I m on your team.
8
SPEAKER_00
Wow.
8
SPEAKER_00
You probably never heard that.
8
SPEAKER_00
No, I never have.
8
SPEAKER_01
What s that feel like having a teammate?
8
SPEAKER_00
Um, it s funny.
8
SPEAKER_00
My first thought is unworthy.
8
SPEAKER_00
Like, I know, I know.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s still like something to work on.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s not, you can have two thoughts.
8
SPEAKER_00
We can all can.
8
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t mean you there s, Oh no, I m, I m feeling jealous.
8
SPEAKER_00
So that s bad.
8
SPEAKER_00
No, guess what?
8
SPEAKER_00
Go to the next one.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
It feels lucky.
8
SPEAKER_00
I feel very lucky.
8
SPEAKER_00
to be able to feel good about myself, to be able to be with someone who is just also like such a special person.
8
SPEAKER_00
I m like, holy, how did I find this other person that I feel like, yeah, I can be a great partner for her too.
8
SPEAKER_00
It feels amazing.
8
SPEAKER_01
You ve been doing the work, you know, consistently.
8
SPEAKER_01
And you ve had to close certain chapters of an old identity to allow you to step into a new identity and a new chapter.
8
SPEAKER_01
But if you were hanging on to another branches, because you re afraid to let go and jump into the next one, you know, it s still, you wouldn t have this.
8
SPEAKER_01
It wouldn t be available.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s like, how do you believe when it s scary?
8
SPEAKER_00
How do you believe and be optimistic there s a great job out there, or a great business out there, or a great partner out there, or a great self?
8
SPEAKER_00
And I think some of that is also that it s not really out there is the problem.
8
SPEAKER_00
And I think especially entrepreneurs, we re like, oh, well, I need to go outside and try to do this stuff.
8
SPEAKER_00
It s like, how do we just spend...
8
SPEAKER_00
It s like, how do you spend it inside and not chase the outside, the validation of these things?
8
SPEAKER_01
How do you spend it inside?
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_00
What do you mean by that?
8
SPEAKER_00
How do you spend it inside?
8
SPEAKER_00
How do you work on just being at peace with yourself?
8
SPEAKER_00
How do you work just accepting, like, hey, I don t know these things, and that s OK.
8
SPEAKER_00
Like, I m doing my best as a partner.
8
SPEAKER_00
Maybe I make a mistake, and that s OK.
8
SPEAKER_00
Right.
8
SPEAKER_00
And just kind of continually kind of going through that process now at this place.
8
SPEAKER_00
And Isaac was commenting, and I feel more calm.
8
SPEAKER_00
I don t feel like, OK, I don t have as many subs, or I don t make, I make, I m so happy with how much money I make.
8
SPEAKER_00
I m so happy where I get to live.
8
SPEAKER_00
I m like, this is great.
8
SPEAKER_00
And that takes time to be able to get to that place.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, a lot of times we see people spend money on the outside to try to make up for what they re lacking on the inside.
8
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
We see that a lot.
8
SPEAKER_01
And you were
8
SPEAKER_01
You weren t spending on the outside and you weren t spending on the inside.
8
SPEAKER_01
You were living in an environment that was crumbling and you weren t investing externally because you didn t feel like you were worthy and you weren t investing internally to feel worthy either.
8
SPEAKER_01
It seems like you ve been making steps to do both.
8
SPEAKER_01
I ve been in the same boat where I lived on my sister s couch for a year and a half and then
8
SPEAKER_01
I had just like, my first apartment was $400 a month, and I was like, I went a couple years without a car, and I was just like, okay, let me be as frugal as possible, because I don t want to be broke again.
8
SPEAKER_01
Let me save as much as I can, so that I never go back to feeling like I need to rely on anyone else to live.
8
SPEAKER_01
Because it s not a good feeling, not being able to take responsibility for your life, and needing someone else, especially as a 25-year-old, living off your sister, or your brother, right?
8
SPEAKER_01
It didn t feel good.
8
SPEAKER_01
And so I had to learn how to overcome that fear.
8
SPEAKER_01
I mean, where I was like, it wasn t until, I mean, for like 10 years probably, I was like, how can I get the cheapest flight, middle seat, back row, like multiple connections to save that extra $200, right?
8
SPEAKER_01
And like just a better seat on a flight or something.
8
SPEAKER_01
I had to really unlearn those things as well and be like, okay, but my back feels broken.
8
SPEAKER_01
I feel like my knees, I m sitting like this because my knees are against the front.
8
SPEAKER_01
Let me invest in a little bit more comfort so that I feel better and I can deliver when I get off this plane or whatever.
8
SPEAKER_01
I never would get a hotel room.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was always like, I m not paying for a hotel room.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m going to stay at a friend s couch for years because I was like, $250 a night for a room?
8
SPEAKER_01
What can I do with that money?
8
SPEAKER_01
And it took me a long time to be like, no, I deserve having like six inches of leg room.
8
SPEAKER_01
You know, on a plane.
8
SPEAKER_00
You re a tall guy, yeah.
8
SPEAKER_01
I deserve having like a comfortable bed and like having a hotel room when I travel and not just begging to crash on someone s couch.
8
SPEAKER_01
to save an extra $200 a night.
8
SPEAKER_00
It took me a while to learn that.
8
SPEAKER_00
What helped you feel that you started feeling worthy of deserving these things?
8
SPEAKER_00
I think that s such a powerful... You re right.
8
SPEAKER_00
To all this stuff, you have to feel like... To have a million dollar business, you have to feel like you also can deserve doing it and getting to that point.
8
SPEAKER_01
I think I felt guilty too.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s like I didn t buy my first home until this year.
8
SPEAKER_01
I ve lived in two bedroom apartments for the last 15 years, essentially, right?
8
SPEAKER_01
And, um, which is not a bad thing.
8
SPEAKER_01
Like I was comfortable.
8
SPEAKER_01
I liked it.
8
SPEAKER_01
It was like convenient as flexible, all these different things.
8
SPEAKER_01
But I think it was always, it was always like feeling guilty.
8
SPEAKER_01
Like, you know, I have this money.
8
SPEAKER_01
I should be giving more of it away.
8
SPEAKER_01
I should be helping more people, which I give a lot away already.
8
SPEAKER_01
But I was like,
8
SPEAKER_01
you know, do I need this?
8
SPEAKER_01
Just because I can afford it, do I need it?
8
SPEAKER_01
And I have a really nice two-bedroom apartment, which is a good environment.
8
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t like crumbling.
8
SPEAKER_01
So it was always like, okay, do I need this?
8
SPEAKER_01
Should I invest in this?
8
SPEAKER_01
And I even had a conversation last week with my therapist about investing in stuff that I don t need.
8
SPEAKER_01
I m like,
8
SPEAKER_01
Was having going back and forth on you know, I have this really nice home That has been like a dream home that I want to live in for the next 10 plus years It s everything I want for the next decade of my life with kids with family visiting.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s like a sanctuary And I was like, okay, but I Kind of want to have like a couple pieces of gym equipment, but they re expensive like having a treadmill in like a
8
SPEAKER_01
But I don t need that because I have a gym membership.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I go to the gym all the time.
8
SPEAKER_01
So I don t need to spend more money.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I was going back and forth for a couple months on this.
8
SPEAKER_01
I was like, ah, it s like a big investment.
8
SPEAKER_01
But she was like, OK, yes, you don t need it.
8
SPEAKER_01
But do you want to have the environment that saves you time, that optimizes your time so that you can help and serve more people?
8
SPEAKER_01
I m like, yeah, but I can take 20 minutes and go to the gym.
8
SPEAKER_01
But she s like, yes, and you can live in abundance.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s not that you don t have the money.
8
SPEAKER_01
So it was overcoming that fear of like, yes, I do deserve it if that s something I want.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I m not doing it to be flashy.
8
SPEAKER_01
It s doing it to optimize my health and have more time and invest in that value of habits around health.
8
SPEAKER_01
And I was kind of like, yeah, I just never want to miss an opportunity to take care of my health, and this will give me that.
8
SPEAKER_01
You know, if the gym s closed or I can t make it, I ll never have an excuse.
9
SPEAKER_01
I m constantly learning how to do that at different levels.
9
SPEAKER_01
Because I m still like, yeah, I don t need to do this.
9
SPEAKER_01
Life is good.
9
SPEAKER_00
I don t know, it s a constant jetpack.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s tough, I mean, I would say that what I ve observed in business is where, specifically in business, is where I ve learned about myself the most.
9
SPEAKER_00
And it s a lot of fear.
9
SPEAKER_00
We re just all, a lot of us, especially people starting business, they re afraid.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so you re being afraid of feeling like we deserve these things.
9
SPEAKER_00
And it sounds kind of crazy, doesn t it?
9
SPEAKER_00
As you say it out loud, like, oh, do I deserve gym equipment?
9
SPEAKER_00
Do I deserve having- It s crazy, yeah, it s crazy.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s a little crazy.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s crazy.
9
SPEAKER_01
And the reality is- We already have a gym membership, and like, that s enough.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, and I think for a lot of people out there that maybe it s a relationship, maybe it s a business, maybe it s something else.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s like, what can you do that you re a little afraid of?
9
SPEAKER_00
Maybe not a big afraid, but like a little afraid that you can practice.
9
SPEAKER_00
Like we ve done the coffee challenge.
9
SPEAKER_00
You heard this?
9
SPEAKER_00
Coffee challenge, no.
9
SPEAKER_00
Coffee challenge is something that if you re afraid of asking, which is one of the reasons people haven t had success, you ask for a discount when you buy coffee.
9
SPEAKER_01
I ask every day for a discount everywhere.
9
SPEAKER_01
Do you really?
9
SPEAKER_01
Everything I buy.
9
SPEAKER_01
Dude, my man.
9
SPEAKER_01
I ask discounts.
9
SPEAKER_01
I say, what s the chance you can give me 10% off?
9
SPEAKER_01
everywhere, on a piece of clothes, a coffee, whatever.
9
SPEAKER_01
I mean, not every day, I m exaggerating, but frequently.
9
SPEAKER_01
And my fiancee watches me do this all the time, and she s kind of like, ah, you know, what are they gonna say?
9
SPEAKER_01
But now she s in on it too.
9
SPEAKER_01
It s good.
9
SPEAKER_01
So I m like, hey, what are they gonna say?
9
SPEAKER_01
No?
9
SPEAKER_01
Okay, then you don t get it.
9
SPEAKER_00
Exactly.
9
SPEAKER_00
No ask, no get.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so with these things of feeling like we deserve stuff, how do we face some of the fears?
9
SPEAKER_00
So there ll probably be challenges like, can I ask for something, get rejected, and realize, oh, and I can ask for other things that I want in life.
9
SPEAKER_00
Right.
9
SPEAKER_00
Don t you have this thing in the book called the creator s courage?
9
SPEAKER_00
The courage in general, and the creator s courage is like, how do you keep facing fears?
9
SPEAKER_00
Yes, constantly.
9
SPEAKER_00
And in small ways.
9
SPEAKER_00
It doesn t have to be some, I have to go and do videos on the street, or I have to go like- Public speaking or something, yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, or change my job.
9
SPEAKER_00
Can you do something small?
9
SPEAKER_00
put yourself out maybe on social media.
9
SPEAKER_00
Ask one person to be your customer.
9
SPEAKER_00
Ask someone if you could do something to mow their lawn.
9
SPEAKER_00
And maybe like, hey, if you like it, you can pay me next time.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so it s doing these small activities, maybe it s the coffee challenge, seems like you re an expert in it, that you can do, that s available to anyone worldwide, that you can start feeling a little bit more courageous.
9
SPEAKER_00
You can start thinking, what else can I do?
9
SPEAKER_00
And that s the thing, a lot of times, for holding us back, I felt I wasn t afraid of starting, which is what most people are.
9
SPEAKER_00
I wasn t afraid of asking, but that s where the book actually focused on.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m afraid of feeling like I deserve this stuff.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so it s working on that, like, okay, let me try treating myself to something and be like, hmm, maybe you got a Rolex, that s kind of cool.
9
SPEAKER_00
I was like, kind of like it, getting a nice bike.
9
SPEAKER_00
I remember that I finally got a nice bike and I was like, felt kind of like, bah, like, oh, I got a new bike.
9
SPEAKER_01
Dude, I go back and forth.
9
SPEAKER_01
But it s this feeling like we are worthy of these things.
9
SPEAKER_01
I go back and forth on this.
9
SPEAKER_01
My friend got me a Rolex, one of my best friends.
9
SPEAKER_01
for my 40th birthday.
9
SPEAKER_01
It was like, I want to get you something nice, right?
9
SPEAKER_01
And so he got me a Rolex.
9
SPEAKER_01
It wasn t like a $50,000 Rolex, but it was a Rolex, right?
9
SPEAKER_01
I see you re wearing one.
9
SPEAKER_01
And I ve only worn it like three or four times.
9
SPEAKER_01
Now, part of it is that I kind of just wear the same outfit every day.
9
SPEAKER_01
You know, you re wearing a t-shirt.
9
SPEAKER_01
I wear the same, like, I don t know, $50 shirt every day.
9
SPEAKER_01
I mean, I have multiple of them, and it s like the same few different shirts and the same pair of jeans and the same pair of shoes pretty much every day.
9
SPEAKER_01
And so part of it is that I don t want to be flashy ever, also.
9
SPEAKER_01
I don t want people to think that I m better than them or that I m too flashy.
9
SPEAKER_01
I don t look at you that way with Rainy Roller.
9
SPEAKER_01
Something within me, it s like,
9
SPEAKER_01
You know, I m I m the most well-off in my family Like I ve I ve made the most money in my family and I m the youngest of four and so it s like, okay I don t want to like show off.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, so yeah, but how can you enjoy nice things and feel proud of them not like
9
SPEAKER_00
100% bad or guilty or something like that.
9
SPEAKER_00
Why do we take ourselves down?
9
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
9
SPEAKER_00
No, no, but it s interesting.
9
SPEAKER_00
We take ourselves down because we feel like we re not supposed to.
9
SPEAKER_00
Right.
9
SPEAKER_00
And it s interesting.
9
SPEAKER_00
This Rolex I got because when Moffat got pregnant.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so I bought three of them, and my two other friends have pregnant women.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so we each have matching Rolexes for our kids.
9
SPEAKER_00
And it s something that I used to feel kind of like, I m going to wear a cheap watch.
9
SPEAKER_00
I used to not even wear watches, but I m going to wear a cheap watch because I don t want to be flashy.
9
SPEAKER_00
But then I was like, why can t we be more proud of ourselves?
9
SPEAKER_00
There s an interesting arrogance, like I m the greatest, and clearly I m talking about how I m unworthy.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m doing, I think, things I m really proud of.
9
SPEAKER_00
And I m proud of finding an amazing partner, and then that she s wanting to be the mother of my child, and I get to be a great partner for her, and do my best for that.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so I wore it out because I m like, I m proud of her.
9
SPEAKER_00
I m proud of myself.
9
SPEAKER_00
That s cool, man.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so that is what this means to me.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so it does, it s not, again, you know, worthiness doesn t, it s not some magical thing you can hear and be like, well, today I m worthy.
9
SPEAKER_00
It s just like, let me do some small thing that makes me feel good about myself today, and maybe do it a few times today, and then do it tomorrow, and continually, and over time that adds up.
9
SPEAKER_00
To where it s like, okay, yeah, I m proud of what I ve done, and I can tell other people about it, and that s okay.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
Your child is 18, going off to college.
9
SPEAKER_01
You re 49, almost 50, let s say you re 50 at that time, right?
9
SPEAKER_01
Your child is going off to college.
9
SPEAKER_01
What is the thing that you want your child to be most proud of about you over these next 18 to 20 years that your child witnesses and experiences from you as a father, as a husband to their mother?
9
SPEAKER_01
What s the thing you want them to be most proud of when they go off to college if that s what they choose to do?
9
SPEAKER_00
And I was writing my girlfriend today, and I wrote, like, you re a good mommy.
9
SPEAKER_00
And I was like, oh, shit.
9
SPEAKER_00
Like, that was kind of wild just to realize this is all coming true.
9
SPEAKER_00
And like, these great lives are out there for everyone.
9
SPEAKER_00
And it takes time.
9
SPEAKER_00
It takes time to be patient and acknowledge that.
9
SPEAKER_00
For my daughter, I hope I have a daughter.
9
SPEAKER_00
It might be a boy, but I still love him probably a little bit less.
9
SPEAKER_00
What do I want for them?
9
SPEAKER_01
What do you want them to be most proud of about you and how you showed up for them, your wife, and everything you go through, your business, your life.
9
SPEAKER_01
What do you want them to be most proud of?
9
SPEAKER_00
I have my best friend Adam Gilbert from
9
SPEAKER_00
I really admire him as a father, and he said this to me, and I m copying it, because I think it s a great approach.
9
SPEAKER_00
He s like, I never want to say no.
9
SPEAKER_00
I was like, what do you mean?
9
SPEAKER_00
He s like, if they want to go play soccer, if they want to play basketball, if they want to go to the park, I always want to be available for them.
9
SPEAKER_00
And that s what I like.
9
SPEAKER_00
That when my kid knows when they re 18 as well as 10 or well as 28 that I was there.
9
SPEAKER_00
And my dad had his own experiences when I was younger where he didn t show up, and I just want to be there.
9
SPEAKER_00
They re like, there s never a no.
9
SPEAKER_00
Well, that s cool man.
9
SPEAKER_01
It s beautiful.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
Million Dollar Weekend, make sure you guys get a copy.
9
SPEAKER_01
Make sure you guys get a copy if you want to learn all the strategies about.
9
SPEAKER_01
I think it s cool though.
9
SPEAKER_01
You talk about how to make time to run a multiple seven figure business, a YouTube channel, how to have a healthy relationship, all these different things.
9
SPEAKER_01
How to find your freedom number.
9
SPEAKER_01
This is really interesting because I think a lot of people don t know what their number is.
9
SPEAKER_01
So how do you find that freedom number and just say, oh, I don t need to be some massive, you know,
9
SPEAKER_01
financially rich person, I can strive for this thing, which will give me everything else I want.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
I always thought it was risky to have a day job.
9
SPEAKER_00
I just thought it was so risky.
9
SPEAKER_00
And I met this guy, Jake, recently.
9
SPEAKER_00
He s got three kids.
9
SPEAKER_00
And he s like, I don t want to live a what-if life.
9
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
9
SPEAKER_00
I never wanted to live this what-if life where if I didn t try the thing, I d regret it.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_00
And people have had these ideas of, I d like to make a little bit more money, or I ve had this idea.
9
SPEAKER_00
Jake wanted to do golf trips.
9
SPEAKER_00
And it s like, I don t want to spend, he spent two years thinking about it.
9
SPEAKER_00
And in one weekend, he was able to get it going and change his life.
9
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, try it on the side.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so it s like, how do you get out of that what-if life?
9
SPEAKER_00
And my idea as a book is that people buy it and take action.
9
SPEAKER_00
Absolutely.
9
SPEAKER_00
For themselves.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, don t buy it and don t not take action.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, make sure you get it and take the actions on it.
9
SPEAKER_01
If you ve got some type of dream or goal or project you re working on or want to work on, make sure you get this and start taking action.
9
SPEAKER_01
This is a question I ask everyone towards the end of the interview, it s called The Three Truths.
9
SPEAKER_01
So imagine, hypothetical world, it s the last day on Earth for you, many years away.
9
SPEAKER_01
You get to live as long as you want.
9
SPEAKER_01
You extend your life to any age possible.
9
SPEAKER_01
I like that.
9
SPEAKER_01
And you get to experience all of your visions and dreams in real time, and they all happen.
9
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
9
SPEAKER_01
With every area of life.
9
SPEAKER_01
But for whatever reason on this last day, everything you ve ever created has to go with you.
9
SPEAKER_01
This interview, all your YouTube content, this book, like the messages you shared with the world, we don t have access to for whatever reason, hypothetical.
9
SPEAKER_01
But you get to leave one final message behind.
9
SPEAKER_01
That s all we would have to remember your information by.
9
SPEAKER_01
And I call that three truths.
9
SPEAKER_01
It s kind of your three biggest lessons.
9
SPEAKER_01
If you could fast forward in time to that final day,
9
SPEAKER_01
and think about all the lessons you ve already had and all the lessons you re going to have, what would be those final three truths for you?
9
SPEAKER_00
I have a belief that there s no such thing as legacy.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so if there s nothing that comes with you, then you should leave everything on the table here and not be so worried if people remember you.
9
SPEAKER_00
And so how are you behaving and how are you actually living the life you really want to live?
10
SPEAKER_02
So that would be one truth, which is just live the life you wanna live now, and no one s gonna remember you afterwards.
10
SPEAKER_02
Elon Musk, by the way, no one s gonna care about him 1,000 years, 100%.
10
SPEAKER_02
So what life do you wanna live?
10
SPEAKER_02
And leave it all out while you re doing it.
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Another truth, people have heard this, how do you treat others?
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That s a truth.
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I think I would say a truth I d love to have everyone live is just send someone something nice today.
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Just a text even, like a call, a DM,
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And have a little, I would say with that, just be generous.
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Go and tell someone something nice.
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Right now, everyone can do it.
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It s available.
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I would encourage everyone to be an entrepreneur.
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I would say with that, in terms of everyone, maybe not chase entrepreneurship, but just be who they are.
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I think it s, we think we re supposed to be these other people and then really just being like, well, who do I want to be?
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Yeah.
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Maybe I do think everyone should try entrepreneurship, but find out who you want to be.
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Don t chase the outside of it.
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Just chase internally.
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Yeah.
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Like, oh, cool.
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I like these things and really going after that.
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Sure.
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It s beautiful, man.
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Before I ask the final question, I want to acknowledge you, Noah, for the consistency over 20 years of creating, discovering, and overcoming yourself.
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Yes.
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I want to acknowledge you for being committed over the last three years to letting go of old things that don t serve and support a future vision that you want, taking the courage and taking the risk to overcome that and let go of things that are scary to let go of, that are hard to let go of.
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I ve been there, too.
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And really having the emotional awareness to love and accept yourself.
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I think that s what I m most proud of about you and acknowledge you for because a lot of people get praised for the business, the success, the accomplishments, and the money they make, the numbers they have.
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But most people will never, you know, it ll never be a headline in Time Magazine about how you learn to love and accept yourself and feel worthy.
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And I think that s the most valuable thing you can do for yourself and those around you.
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So I really acknowledge you for that, man.
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It takes the most courage of all to feel and love yourself.
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And I m sure it s probably some of the hardest challenges you ve had in the last few years going through that journey.
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It s lonely.
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Yeah.
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And it s alone, and it s yourself.
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And we all have to face ourselves in some way.
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And we can avoid it, or we can eventually face it.
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Like this book, or YouTube, or relationships.
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And you face it, and you re like, oh, I m probably better than I think.
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And I m more capable than I realize.
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Absolutely, man.
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Love it, man.
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Final question, what s your definition of greatness?
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I think definition of greatness is that you re doing what you want.
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Like you re doing what you actually want.
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Like, what do I really want?
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You work your ass off.
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You work hard and then you re proud of it.
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Whether you get the accolades or recognition of any of these things, you re proud of yourself.
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I think that s great.
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There you go.
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Noah, my man.
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I hope you enjoyed today s episode and it inspired you on your journey towards greatness.
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Make sure to check out the show notes in the description for a full rundown of today s episode with all the important links.
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And if you want weekly exclusive bonus episodes with me personally, as well as ad free listening, then make sure to subscribe to our greatness plus channel.
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exclusively on Apple podcasts.
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Share this with a friend on social media and leave us a review on Apple podcasts as well.
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Let me know what you enjoyed about this episode in that review.
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I really love hearing feedback from you.
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And it helps us figure out how we can support and serve you moving forward.
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And I want to remind you if no one has told you lately that you are loved, you are worthy, and you matter.
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And now it s time to go out there and do something great.