Why “Making It” Feels Impossible in the US Right Now

My new book Own Or Be Owned is out now! I wrote Own or Be Owned to answer one question: How do you make more money, less miserably? I broke it into the 12 Profit Levers… The 12 levers I've seen determine whether you print cash or hate your life. Check it out: → https://contrarianthinking.biz/oobo_bigdeal Is it still possible to ‘make it’ in America these days? Housing costs 12 years of salary instead of four. Credit card debt hit $1.28 trillion. Nearly half of Americans can't afford rent or a mortgage. And the old playbook — work hard, get a degree, climb the ladder — is quietly breaking down for millions of people who did everything right. This episode is different. No guest. No script. Just me, raw and unfiltered, talking about what's actually happening in the economy, why making it feels impossible right now, and what it's going to take to win anyway. Because the truth is, you're not crazy. It IS harder. But that doesn't mean you're stuck. You’ll learn: • Why avocado toast was never the problem • How $8 trillion spent on Middle East wars could’ve reshaped life for Americans struggling with rent and groceries • Why 54-year-old Wharton MBAs are getting ghosted in final interviews and what that says about hiring today • The three non-negotiables for making it: relentless focus, borderline delusional confidence, and refusing to quit • Why boundaries aren’t about work-life balance, they’re about protecting the two hours that actually move the needle • Why nobody is coming to pick you or save you and what to do instead • The story of a member who unlocked $975K in new revenue by pulling one lever in a struggling business • Why curiosity and better questions are becoming the real edge in the AI era If you've felt overlooked, exhausted, or like the rules changed halfway through the game — this episode will remind you that winning is still possible. But only if you're willing to do what most people won't. Use CODIE30 for 30% off your first 3 months and make your newsletter real at https://beehiiv.link/uth844 ___________ 00:00:00 Introduction 00:00:50 The Hard Truth: It's Not Just You 00:02:28 Where Your Tax Dollars Are Really Going 00:03:52 The Corporate Layoff Playbook: Why Nobody's Hiring 00:06:00 Nobody Is Coming to Save You 00:07:47 The Three Answers: Never Quit, Lock In, Kill Distractions 00:12:22 The Power of Questions Over Answers in the AI Era 00:12:59 Confident Execution: The Race Car Driver Mindset 00:16:07 The Sacrifice Question: Who Are You Really Working For? 00:17:26 Your Unlock Is Possible: The Path Forward ___________ MORE FROM BIGDEAL 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@podcastbigdeal 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bigdeal.podcast 📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@big.deal.pod MORE FROM CODIE SANCHEZ 🎥 YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@codiesanchezct 📸 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/codiesanchez 📽️ TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@realcodiesanchez OTHER THINGS WE DO 🌐 Our community: https://contrarianthinking.typeform.com/to/WBztXXID 📰 Free newsletter: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3XWLlZp 📚 Biz buying course: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3NhjGgN 🏠 Resibrands: https://resibrands.com/ 💰 CT Capital: https://contrarianthinking.biz/4eRyGOk 🏦 Main St Hold Co: https://contrarianthinking.biz/3YfGa8u Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Google Chrome. You think you know a browser, but Gemini and Chrome? That's new. It can help you with practically anything on the web, like restoring a vintage motorcycle from a 50-page restoration block, or finally break down that long article you've had open for weeks. Gemini and Chrome is here for it. Ready to make anything online make sense? There's no place like Chrome. Check responses set up required. Compatibility and availability varies 18 plus.

• 0:26Codie Sanchez?

  If it feels like it's hard to you right now, like everything's more expensive, everybody's buying houses, but you can't. It's not working like you thought it was gonna work. You feel behind compared to your peers, or you just don't understand what the future is gonna hold, because what you've built to date hasn't been enough. This episode is for you. I'm going to talk about why you're not crazy. It is really just hard out there. And I'm gonna tell you all the stats, so at least you can stand on solid ground, knowing that you're gonna have an uphill climb. And then I'm gonna talk about what it's gonna take for you to get to the next level of the game, because it's not gonna be anything like what people tell you today. This is me raw in this podcast. I'm going through a bunch of things right now, but I wanna have a conversation with you because I think it's really important today.

• 1:11Codie Sanchez?

  This is the Big Deal Podcast, and I'm Codie Sanchez.

• 1:16Codie Sanchez?

  It is not just in your mind. You are not crazy. It is more expensive for you than it is for any other generation. Right now, credit card debt has hit a record $1.28 trillion. 49% of people cannot afford their rent or to buy a house today. Most of us are sitting here trying to figure it out. When they told us, "Learn to code", that hasn't turned out well. Meanwhile, electricians are making like $100 an hour, and we went and got these grad degrees that have, on average, $76,000 in student debt. And oh, by the way, they're non-forgivable, meaning that debt will follow you around for the rest of your life. Not to mention, look at this video.

• 2:01Codie Sanchez?

  And if you can't see it right now, this is what it is. It's how all the boomers told us that we were lazy little shits that bought too much avocado toast and had lattes, and it turns out they were full of shit. Because look at how much more expensive it is to buy a house for us than them. Back when boomers were buying houses, it was four years of salary on average. You know what it is today? 12. 12 years. I don't know how much avocado toast you eat, but I don't think that's sufficient. You know, and I was thinking about that today because we're sitting here this week and I'm not a geopolitical expert. I have no idea if we should have gone to war with this country or that country. What I do know is that we said, hey, government,

• 2:44Codie Sanchez?

  we can't pay rent, we can't buy homes. Remember 49% of us can't. And government said, best we can do, bomb Iran. What the fuck? You know, it's actually crazy. If you were to go and look, I will pull this up for you because it's out of control. If you were to look, go to Grok on Twitter. That's Twitter's AI. And you were to ask it how much money we have spent in the Middle East on wars. The answer would be $8 trillion. That's 100x the annual federal spending on roads and bridges. So you're right. They, the collective they, pick whichever politician you want to, are using your tax dollars to do things

• 3:29Codie Sanchez?

  that will never touch you in the US. Like, imagine how affordable groceries would be for the average person if we had spent things on, I don't know, maybe making it easier for us to farm. I saw this beautiful thing wherein like, as only Europeans do, really. But in Europe, they bought every household six chickens. And they eviscerated the egg industry overnight. Like, nobody needed the egg industry overnight because you're allowed to have these chickens and these coops. And it turns out you gave extras, so you gave them to your neighbors. And of course, this wouldn't work in super urban centers. But like, really? We can drop $120 million on a bomb, but we can't buy Americans some chickens? So I just want you guys to know, it is actually really hard out there.

• 4:14Codie Sanchez?

  And then I saw this other thing today that I want to read to you. So I was like, tell me if this hits you in the gut like it did for me. Employee goes, it looks like we made $1.3 billion this year. Boss goes, that's terrible news. Employee goes, uh, that's a lot of money. Why is that terrible news? Boss goes, because last year, we also made $1.3 billion. And employee goes, oh, right, I forgot. It's not enough to make an insane amount of money. We also have to make more than we used to. Boss goes, that's right. And simply paying our executives seven-figure salaries won't cut it. We need more. Employee goes, alright, I guess we could try making our product better to sell more. Boss goes, hmm, sounds expensive. Employee goes, how about we create some new products to sell? Boss goes, hmm, that's gonna take forever.

• 4:57Codie Sanchez?

  I need an immediate solution I can implement right now. Something that makes me look really good, takes basically zero effort. Employee goes, oh, please no. And boss goes, layoffs! And I just kinda think that that's what's happening in this world. So, right now, if you feel like nobody's hiring you, it's probably not your CV's bad. It's that most people hire friends, and relatives, and people they know, and colleagues, and they get jobs based on handshakes, and look each other in the eye. And if you're not actually out there talking to somebody direct, you're probably not going to make it. I was looking at some stories about people. For instance, there's a guy yesterday, MBA from Wharton, nice house in the suburbs. He was a big company employee his whole life, you know, like a big, huge corporation. He was laid off six months ago, and he kept getting to the final round.

• 5:43Codie Sanchez?

  And he's 54 years old. Like, that is rough. It's rough right now. And I don't think, I'm not a pessimist, I don't think this is going to be this way forever, but I do think that we need to be honest about what's happening around us. That we have to normalize that if you want to win, you have to be almost a little bit delusional. That you have to do things most people won't. You have to believe you're the one. You have to go after it relentlessly. You have to focus so intently on the few things you want, as opposed to spray like the system taught you, to apply to a thousand places, to use Indeed everywhere, to go to college and hope that somehow somebody picks you. No! It's so hard, but it's so true.

• 6:27Codie Sanchez?

  Nobody will ever pick you. No one is coming to save you. No one is coming to pick you. You have to introduce yourself. And if you don't introduce yourself, you're just not going to get ahead. And I was looking at this, you know, today I did this post talking about how it's kinda not fair that we're spending all this money on other people in other countries, and right here, your tax dollars that you work so hard on, which, listen, it's not that like, I'm like, oh, fuck everybody who's not an American, that's, that's not true. I'm just saying, you didn't sign up to give away your life force, AKA, your time that you trade for a salary. To give it to everybody else when you're not doing so great. When you're doing good, when the average American, when 50% of Americans can afford rent and a house

• 7:11Codie Sanchez?

  and afford groceries, awesome, let's help a brother out. In the meantime, why do we say, take care of yourself? Why do we say you can't pour from an empty cup? Because you can't. If you guys aren't doing okay, then everything else in the world can't be getting more than you can. I think about this often. Like, how many once in a lifetime things do we gotta go through? You know? Now we have AI coming, which is something totally different. Now we have, you know, a 50-year mortgage is basically what they've given us as a solution. When we all know that AI is gonna disrupt a lot of jobs in the next five years. So it's kinda like, alright, 50 years, but I have no idea what's gonna happen in the next five. I don't know if you've noticed it, but I certainly have. I travel all over the country a lot right now.

• 7:55Codie Sanchez?

  And I've sort of seen it in like grocery stores and airports and people walking down the street and government buildings. Everybody looks a little drained, right? Everybody looks a little worn out. And I think that is a warning sign of how hard it has been in many ways for many people. And I just want you to know, I think there's three answers to this only. And the first answer is that you can never quit. That like, once you figure out what you want out of life, the secret is just to keep going until you figure it out, because usually the thing you want is right on the other side of the time that you quit, gave up, stopped too early. And I know this sounds like hustle porn, like, Cody, nobody can afford houses, just don't quit.

• 8:40Codie Sanchez?

  I'm sorry, there's like, there's not a better answer than that. The first and best answer is prove that you are a person that doesn't quit, because those are the type of people that get hired, that get money from investors, that get more opportunity, that things get attracted to them. That's just it, period, end of story. Like, if you go into an interview and you don't say to them, "I am the type of person that is so relentless that if you don't hire for me for this job, I'm gonna keep bothering you. Like, I am meant to come do this thing." Like, I need you to have an unreasonable amount of belief in yourself. Not that you can achieve anything, you don't even have to go that far, but that you just, you're a dog on a bone, you know? You're that pit bull that grabs and locks on and won't let go. And every single successful person I've ever met has that.

• 9:22Codie Sanchez?

  They are just a dog on a bone, unapologetic for the fact that they will not quit, they will not let up. And that has to be you. And the second thing... That I've realized is you have to, you have to lock in this year. You're going to have more distractions than you've ever had in your entire life. And you're going to have to figure out like one or two things you can focus on per day. Where at the end of that day, you feel like you made it. Every, almost every morning, I call my president, Mark. And I have a shit ton of activities and he has a shit ton of activities. And I go, hey, um, okay, here's what I'm working on. But if I get these two things done today, today was a win. How about you? And he goes, yeah, yeah, these are my two. We're, we're like people with really big jobs, but we know every day there are the crucial two.

• 10:06Codie Sanchez?

  And we kind of kill anything that isn't that. Because the world will try to take your attention. And it can seem rude, you know? People come up to me sometimes like, hey, can I talk to you about this? I'm like, not right now, no, actually, uh-uh. Or they'll say, hey, can I do this? Can I have your phone? Can I, and I go, no, not right now. I'm working on something else. It is that relentless. Cause maybe, maybe in the past, when everything wasn't so crazy, you could just get by by being a personality guy, you know? You could be like, that guy's nice. So it just like, he just nicers his way through stuff. That could be enough, but I don't think it's enough anymore. You're going to actually have to kill distractions. You're going to actually have to set boundaries and not like fake, with all due respect, I'm also millennial, not like fake millennial boundaries. Like I don't work or answer my email after five.

• 10:51Codie Sanchez?

  Good fucking luck. Good luck. I mean, I, I, I love disconnecting. I'm like a, I tell pretty much everybody on my team always, unless we have something going on. I go, I work all weekend. You can ignore me. If I really need something from you, I'll text you. But like, you can ignore me in Slack on the weekends. Like just ignore me. You can ignore me usually after work, but you should probably check it. And like, listen, like I'm going to get raised for this on the internet, but it's just true. You're going to have to lock in, work incredibly hard, set boundaries, but important ones that allow you to focus on the things that work. You know what's crazy? According to the Federal Reserve, nearly 40% of Americans wouldn't be able to cover a $400 emergency expense without borrowing or selling something.

• 11:35Codie Sanchez?

  So when you worry about why making it feels impossible in the US right now, you're not being dramatic. You're actually being honest. Wages haven't kept pace with costs, attention's fractured, and the old playbook, you know, work hard, get ahead, feel slower every year. So here's what's changed. Leverage now lives online, and the people building real momentum, they aren't chasing virality, they're building owned audiences. This is why this episode is sponsored by Beehive. Beehive is the all-in-one platform to publish, grow, and monetize your newsletter. It's built for operators, founders, people who already have ideas but are tired of renting their audience from platforms that can throttle reach overnight. With Beehive, you don't just send emails, you build an asset. You get built-in growth tools like referrals and recommendations.

• 12:18Codie Sanchez?

  You get monetization from day one through their ad network boosts or paid subscriptions. You get analytics that actually tell you what's working, all in one place. In a moment where stability feels fragile, ownership matters more than ever. If it feels harder to make it, stop trying to win somebody else's game. Build something you can control. Go to Beehive.com and use code CODIE30 for 30% off your first three months, because the new American dream isn't a job title, it is an audience. That's B-E-E-H-I-I-V. I think questions are increasingly more important than answers. Now we have the answer machine at our fingertips, right? AI in many ways. But it's like the right

• 12:56Codie Sanchez?

  way you ask questions over time. And most people have a, maybe a three-to-one talk-to-listen ratio. You know, my mom always said, "God gave you two ears so you could listen more than you talk." I never listened to her about that, but that's what she said. But most people actually don't ask enough questions, and I think that is going to be the key today. What should I really work on? What matters? Where is my curiosity driving? Because do you think you're going to be able to win if you're like a kind of curious person? I mean, but maybe this is the last one. Like, if I will take a confident executor with a sprinkle of delusion over almost anybody else. The entire game is almost all confidence.

• 13:37Codie Sanchez?

  I love that little clip from Marty Supreme where she's like, "What if you fail?" And he says, "I don't even allow that kind of thought to enter my reality."

• 13:47Speaker 02

  Let me ask you something. Do you make money with this little table tennis thing?

• 13:51Speaker 03

  Not yet.

• 13:52Speaker 02

  How do you live?

• 13:53Speaker 03

  Well, I live with the confidence of I believe in myself, the money will follow.

• 13:58Speaker 02

  And what do you plan to do if this whole dream of yours doesn't work out? That doesn't even enter my consciousness.

• 14:03Codie Sanchez?

  The idea of failing is not a part of my reality. I don't allow it to enter my consciousness. And I think that's kind of necessary. You know, there's this cool thing. If you ever watch race car drivers, before they go onto the track, they look crazy. We can show you a clip. If you watch YouTube, you can see it here.

• 14:17Speaker 04

  Fifth gear, sixth gear, seventh gear, into eighth, flat out through turn one, flat out through turn two, bringing the car to the left-hand side, braking hard at the curb on the left through turn three.

• 14:30Codie Sanchez?

  So basically, the race car drivers usually have headphones on, they have their eyes closed, and you kind of see them like, I don't know, twitching their shoulders and hands and like making like weird little hand movements, almost like tiny claws. And just go watch a bunch of them before they before they race. They all do it. Why? What are they doing? They're actually visualizing the track. So usually in their headphones, they have like the RPMs of the car going up and down, the sounds of the actual track, and then their hands are like moving the car and thinking about how the car is going to feel while they're hitting those turns and imagining where they're going. They are so confident in their ability to execute because they've visualized exactly where they're going to

• 15:11Codie Sanchez?

  hit it. And I think that's really cool. And in life, we might be able to do the exact same thing. And so even though it's really hard, even though it's not you, you're not crazy, it is harder for you, at least monetarily than it was for your parents, I want you to know that there are things we can do to push back on it. And the things we can do actually don't just require more hard work, they require a little bit more belief and a little bit more focus, and then a little bit more relentlessness on top. But I've been thinking about you guys because I've made my bag, you know, by now. I've I've made a lot of money and and maybe I could lose it all. Who fucking knows? And, you know, I spend a lot of it on our companies and I invest a ton and most of my assets are

• 15:55Codie Sanchez?

  all set up in everything that we're already doing and all these people you can't even see out here and all these other companies we invest in. But like, I've kind of made it. And I worry about you, who hasn't yet maybe made it, or hasn't maybe made enough of it yet. And so I hope you feel that like you're a really big deal to me. Everything that we do is for you. And I'll push back as often as possible on the big guys who say that it's fine.

• 16:27Codie Sanchez?

  For the many to sacrifice for the few. I mean, I saw a tweet that just about sent me apoplectic because my husband is a former Navy SEAL. We have lost friends in war. And I have seen what it is like to shake a hand and then not be able to shake a hand, hug that guy again when he comes back. You know, we lost one of our very good friends from high school. Charlie Keating was a Navy SEAL who lost his life. And I won't say the other two because they're not as public, but, but they died actually in service of the country. And so I saw some idiot, there, there's been three deaths thus far from this war. And somebody said, like, I just want you to know, like, your sacrifices are worth it.

• 17:10Codie Sanchez?

  And I just wanted to be like, who the fuck are you? Did you send your kids? Have you saddled up? You know, is your husband or wife on their way to go do that? Who are you in finance, talking about their sacrifice is worth it for you? And so I feel the same way, like, it's not worth all of human progression when we have so many who are struggling here. And so tell me in the comments what you're struggling with, what we can help you with. Don't let them turn you into a victim. Believe that you're more capable because you probably are than you think. And keep going, even though in many ways the odds are stacked against you.

• 17:52Codie Sanchez?

  The last thing I'll end with is like, I do believe, I truly believe you guys, that if you use this time, these next two years to buckle down and focus and build using the tools at hand, you can still unlock generational wealth for you and your families. It is here, it is possible. We see it happen every day in the boardroom. I saw it happen just the other day. One of our members, Jimmy, had a struggling business. He was barely scraping by. The business made a couple hundred thousand dollars a year. We helped him find one unlock in his business. That was $975,000 in additional revenue for him. Now him and his family are cruising. They've got a business that's doing millions of dollars a year.

• 18:37Codie Sanchez?

  Like, you have the opportunity to do the unlock. We see it every single day. But unfortunately, nobody else is going to do it for you. Nobody is going to come out and reach their hand and introduce themselves. You're going to have to do that.

• 18:55Codie Sanchez?

  Let me know what you guys think of this podcast and I'll see you next week.

• 19:06Speaker 05

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• 19:34Speaker 06

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