Building Confidence

This week on the Ed Mylett Show Ed gets interviewed! When Ed was first approached to work for WFG he was working in a group home helping boys that had come from extremely difficult situations. He knew at this point that serving others was his calling. While he did not think working in the financial industry seemed to be something he would be passionate about, when he realized that his love for service was also a huge part of the WFG culture. Get inspired and learn about another side of Ed Mylett this week! 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.

• 0:00Ed Mylett?

  I hear so many small business owners say the exact same thing. They just never have enough time in the day. Well, I measure time differently. I've compressed, condensed, heck, I've bent time. My first day is 6:00 a.m. to noon. My second day starts at noon and goes till 6:00 p.m. And my third day, 6:00 p.m. to midnight. I now get 21 days a week. Stack that up over a month, over a year, over five years, and my life's completely different than it would have been otherwise. And if you want to win as an entrepreneur, you have to compress your time too. And you definitely can't afford to waste it waiting weeks on a big bank for capital. Your best bet's to work with my friends at Cardiff. They know how to compress time for entrepreneurs. They get your business approved in minutes and funded the very same day. They're America's favorite small business lender, and for good reason.

• 0:45Ed Mylett?

  Over 20 years in business, over $12 billion deployed to small business across America. Stop letting bank delays slow down your momentum. Head to cardiff.co/ed. That's cardiff.co/ed. Cardiff.co. Real growth, fast funding. Cardiff. Borrow better.

• 1:01Speaker 01

  Mr. President, my company, for me, of the explosion on our rig.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  On October 2nd.

• 1:06Speaker 01

  Causing massive water displacement and triggering a tsunami. They all heap the blame on me.

• 1:11Speaker 02

  Tom Cruise is. Digger got us into this mess. And Digger's gonna dig us up. From the director of Birdman and the Revenant.

• 1:18Speaker 01

  What would happen if I stopped drilling? You stop, you freeze to death, that's what.

• 1:22Speaker 02

  With great power comes great deniability.

• 1:25Speaker 01

  I'm not the first nanny.

• 1:27Speaker 02

  Digger. See the trailer online. Only in theaters October 2nd. Rated R. Under 17. Not a middle without parent. This is the Ed Mylett Show. Compete, lead, and win.

• 2:13Speaker 03

  What's up, what's up, what's up? Chris Patterson with you again. I could not be more excited, guys. Check it out. So I am here in Laguna Beach, California, with my friend Ed Mylett. If you don't know who Ed is, you're about to. This is some good stuff, people. Ed is the agency chairman of a huge corporation called WFG. He speaks on the biggest stages with the biggest names, Cardone, Anthony Robbins, you name it, he's the man. He's a life strategist. He made, what, $200 million by the time he was 45 years old net worth? And he coaches professional athletes, of course. So, I couldn't be more excited. I'm so grateful to be here. Thank you so much for having me.

• 2:53Ed Mylett?

  My honor, brother. We're looking forward to this.

• 2:54Speaker 03

  Me too. So, I gave a 10,000-foot overview of who Ed Mylett is.

• 2:59Ed Mylett?

  Nice one.

• 3:00Speaker 03

  Why don't you give me a little bit of insight of actually what it is you do on a day-to-day basis?

• 3:05Ed Mylett?

  Wow, on a day-to-day basis? Well, that was a nice intro, by the way. But I think the important thing everybody knows, I'm a normal person, right? I'm an average, ordinary person. So, because I am, I've had to work really hard at overcoming my, you know, my average IQ, my average background. I'm not a big dude naturally when I was an athlete. And so, my days now are, they're all different. Because that's what I wanted. When I was young and I was up and coming as an entrepreneur, the one thing I didn't want was a routine. You know, I wanted to be able to choose my time, right? And so, my days are loaded now with whatever I want them to be. Mostly work, because I enjoy it. But I spend a lot of my time coaching people, mentoring them, creating content, as you know, through social media and my website and stuff like that, that tries to improve people. I just, about a year ago, I made a decision that,

• 3:50Ed Mylett?

  I had done all this privately for years. I had spoken onstage, I'd coached people. And a lot of the people that I coached would prefer that that remained private, right? And so, it was better that I was sort of a private person. But the encouragement of some people, particularly Tony Robbins, he said, you know, I think it's time- That you kind of get greater exposure and take some of your messages out there to the world. So I just started on social media about a year ago.

• 4:11Speaker 03

  Right.

• 4:12Ed Mylett?

  Which is crazy. And so now a lot of my time is spent doing that. I kind of feel like it's my, the second half of my life now is about that calling. The first half was about building sort of a legacy and, and, and a platform for my life. But now I want to share that stuff with other people. So that's what I spend most of my days doing.

• 4:28Speaker 03

  So tell me about those challenges. A lot of the audience out there, first time entrepreneurs, salespeople, people trying in the grind, in your twenties, been there, done that, guys. You are not alone. Trust me.

• 4:38Ed Mylett?

  That's right.

• 4:39Speaker 03

  So share with me kind of how you, because you didn't start out with 200 million net worth.

• 4:43Ed Mylett?

  No, my gosh, no, no. I, you know what? Being an entrepreneur, at least this is my experience. It's riddled with false starts too. So it's not all bad. There's, you think you've made progress, right? All entrepreneurs, and then you take two back and then three steps to the wrong way, right? Two steps forward, three steps back. So I had all kinds of false starts, big time when I started in business. And I just struggled and struggled and, and it got to the point for me where I almost quit several times. I mean, to be honest with you, and someone asked me the day, because we're here oceanfront. This guy's interviewing me for a book and he goes, what are you the most grateful for at this house? And I said, probably the fact that my backyard's an ocean, right? Like that is. But then I reflected on something which was that we got so broke when I was an entrepreneur

• 5:25Ed Mylett?

  that I had a home foreclosed on. And then after that, I had a car repossessed. In fact, my wife's car was repossessed. And then we had our electricity turned off. And those are all bad things, but anybody that's ever had this happen, you know, this is the worst. The worst thing that happened to me was the water got turned off at our apartment. And so when you don't have water, you can't cook and you can't shower. And so we would have to get up in the morning and it's cold and we'd have to get our stuff gathered up, our clothes and everything and gather our stuff down and go down to the pool at our apartment complex. And we would have to shower every morning in that pool, at the shower at the pool. And I remember being ashamed of that because we were newlyweds. And I remember thinking if I could ever change this. And I remember having to fake it so badly, right? Because I'm that broke and then I had to leave the shower pool and go out and pretend to be

• 6:09Ed Mylett?

  a successful entrepreneur, pretend to lead people, pretend to influence people. And so I told him the other day with the book, I said, "The most grateful thing I have is the ocean," but I said, "I have this weird trigger," and I'm not kidding you, "that goes off that many mornings I'm grateful, I'm serious, when I pull the faucet, the water comes out of the shower and hits me in the face and I'm grateful." It's like the smallest things, you never forget those times. And so, yeah, the ocean's amazing, believe me, I pinch myself, but there's a lot of mornings where I go, "Thank you, thank you, I'm so grateful." So, I relate to those struggles that all entrepreneurs have, that's why I admire them. It's why, when we meet each other, like you and I do, we're kindred spirits, I mean, there's a respect, because I don't know all of your story, but I know to get where you've gotten, you've gone through multiple difficult times.

• 6:53Ed Mylett?

  And so, all entrepreneurs sort of have that on the other side. And so, I have that for you and I sense that you do with me too.

• 6:59Speaker 03

  So, tell me about WFG. So, when did that come into play? What is WFG? Tell me all about it.

• 7:05Ed Mylett?

  I got into W, I had a couple blessings. So, I'm out of college, I get released from playing baseball, and here's this success dude story, okay? I end up back at home, living at my mom and dad's house, in the same bed, same teddy bear on the bed, same posters on the wall, and I'm unemployed, completely without work, watching Maury Povich every single day and Jerry Springer. Like, my whole day was like, anyone seen Maury Povich? My whole day was like, "Is he the daddy?"

• 7:32Speaker 03

  You are not the daddy, yeah.

• 7:35Ed Mylett?

  You are not the father, right? That was like, I waited all day for that. Like, that was the highlight of my day, right? I'm serious too, which is pretty pathetic. And so, my dad had recently gotten sober. My dad had a drinking problem. My dad's now been sober for years. But my dad ended up getting sober, and he came home from one of his meetings that they go to when they're in sobriety, and he goes, "Hey, I got you a job tomorrow morning, you gotta go to McKinley Home for Boys in San Dimas." And I'm like, "What is that?" He goes, "I don't know, but this guy at the meeting says he's got you a job at six bucks an hour, you get your butt over there tomorrow."

• 8:03Speaker 03

  Yes, sir.

• 8:04Ed Mylett?

  So, the next morning, I go to McKinley, which is in San Dimas, down the road here, and I walk in and I said, "Yeah, I'm here for the job." And they're like, "What job and who are you?" I'm like, "I don't know what the job is, but my name's Eddie Mylett." And they said, "Well, we don't know who you are and there's no job." And they said, "Well, who's hiring you?" And I said, uh, I don't know. I don't know the guy's name. They're like, so you're here for a job? You don't know what it is? And you don't know the dude's name? And I'm like, wait a minute. The dude's name's Tim.

• 8:30Speaker 03

  Right, right.

• 8:31Ed Mylett?

  My dad said Tim. And they go, Tim who? And I said, I don't know. But he's an alcoholic. And they go, oh!

• 8:38Speaker 03

  Oh, Tim the alcoholic, yeah.

• 8:40Ed Mylett?

  Right. So they bring me to this home. It changed my life, brother. I'm gonna tell you this. That's how I ended up in the business. McKinley is a campus of group homes of boys.

• 8:49Speaker 03

  Right.

• 8:49Ed Mylett?

  Hundreds of them. And my boys were seven to 10 years old. They're wards of the court. They're either orphaned or most of my boys were molested by family and removed from their home. These little precious boys, right? And all they wanted to be was loved, cared for, believed in, helped, right? And so, all of a sudden, I'm this young 21, 22-year-old guy and I'm thrown into this home and I basically live with these boys. Holidays, mornings, breakfast, school. When they get back from school, how was school? I became like a dad, a big brother to these little boys and my life, literally in that time, transformed into... I wasn't about me anymore. It wasn't just my ego or wanting to be rich or famous. All of a sudden, it was like, man, I love serving people. I love helping people. I love making a difference. Like those eyes these boys had.

• 9:34Ed Mylett?

  These abused kids have these eyes that are different.

• 9:37Speaker 03

  So, you know, you're on your... We're all on our journey trying to kind of figure our lives out, figure out who we are, what our gifts are.

• 9:43Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 9:43Speaker 03

  Was that a moment for you where you went, my calling is to serve?

• 9:47Ed Mylett?

  It was my calling. And what's amazing about it is I thought I knew what my gifts were. Cause everyone had always told me when I was little what my initial gifts were. Everyone puts you in that story when you're little, right? Remember, my parents had always introduced me as Eddie Shy. He's shy. That's the worst thing you could say for kids. So guess what I was? I'm shy. I'm introverted, right?

• 10:04Speaker 03

  Right.

• 10:04Ed Mylett?

  My gifts changed. And so what happened was, right when I got to work there, I spent there a couple of years, the same time, my best friend's dad called me and said, hey, I know you got a stable job. You could start in this business part-time. It's a financial business. I'm like, I have no background in finance. I hate money. I don't know anything about it. I didn't take a math class in college. It's not even... It's boring to me. My dad's a banker. No! But then they brought me down there and they were like, no, this is really about helping people. And I went, okay, you got my buzzword. This is about contribution. I'm like, wait a minute. And, and, you could kind of make the money you thought you were gonna make playing baseball.

• 10:37Speaker 03

  Right.

• 10:38Ed Mylett?

  And I said, here's the deal. I'm not leaving my boys. I won't leave these boys. They're like, you can start part-time. And so then I spent time in the business, part-time, growing my practice, growing my business, except I came at it differently. Instead of approaching it just like a stud and an ego and about making money, I approached it from the standpoint of serving people and making a difference. And my following exploded. And then it got to the point where it just financially, I had to leave the group home and spend my time in my full-time business. So that's how I got into the business.

• 11:04Speaker 03

  You just mentioned something that's so important to me and something that I'm constantly preaching. You know, there's a quote by a guy named Zig Ziglar. You should look him up if you don't know who he is. He said, "You can have everything you want in life if you'll just help enough other people get what they want." Ed is here. We're overlooking the most beautiful view I've seen personally in my life in this magnificent home with his beautiful wife. And, you know, he didn't get here by accident. The switch, I think, is he decided to stop thinking and working for himself and start thinking and working for everybody else. Is that accurate?

• 11:36Ed Mylett?

  It's accurate. And there's multiple benefits to that. Because, you know, that's why I love your work. That's why when you asked me to do this and I started to look at what you taught me, I'm like, "I'll do it," right? And the reason is because I love what you stand for. Because this is so important that people get. One, people matter, things don't. Things will never... Like, this view's amazing, but it's there every morning, right? So it does, you know, the Ferrari out front is awesome, but it's not as awesome as it was the first day I drove it. I'll be honest with you. I like it. And by the way, it's better than a Camry. It's better than a Hyundai. I'm not saying that. I hate when rich guys go, "Material things don't matter." I'm not saying they don't matter. I'm saying they don't endure, right? Serving people endures. And so, but the power of putting yourself where you're serving another person, here's what it does. It's beautiful. It takes the pressure off you.

• 12:19Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 12:20Ed Mylett?

  Every sales call, every encounter, every conversation, if it's about them and not you, the pressure's off you to say the perfect thing, to get it exactly right. As long as your intentions are good, people sense intent. Long-term, people will sense your spirit. They'll sense your intention. They sense your energy, influence and persuasion. It's why I like you. Like, immediately, I'm like, "Have I known... Remember I told you, have I known you before?" It's because... People respond to what they feel, which is energy, way more than what they hear or see. And they, people can smell a phony a mile away. They can smell it, they can sense it. But people can also sense, for the most part, sincerity, generosity, genuineness. And I really am in a position where I want to give you something and serve you and make a difference. And I care about you.

• 13:05Ed Mylett?

  That's a powerful energy that's rare. And if you're that way in business, I don't care what your business is, tech, speaking, computers, dry cleaning, sports, if you're that type of person, eventually your energy wins.

• 13:17Speaker 03

  It's a strategic advantage. Stop, stop thinking of yourself, think of everybody else. Hey, you've got a, an amazing speech. In fact, this is how I found you. I was, I was in, on a treadmill in Boca Raton. I was hanging out with my good buddy, Michael Chandler.

• 13:30Ed Mylett?

  Oh, yeah.

• 13:31Speaker 03

  And actually, I wasn't hanging out with him. I was just running, doing my routine. And I, I looked up motivational videos.

• 13:36Ed Mylett?

  Really?

• 13:37Speaker 03

  You came up and you started talking about the thermometer. And I'm gonna let you take the reins here, but as soon as I saw this message, I called up Michael, I said, dude, I know I send you 10 videos a day, watch this one.

• 13:48Ed Mylett?

  Is that right?

• 13:49Speaker 03

  I did, and he watched it. He called me back, he said, that just changed my life.

• 13:53Ed Mylett?

  Wow.

• 13:54Speaker 03

  So tell me, tell me about the analogy of the thermometer and why people do what they do and how all that works.

• 13:59Ed Mylett?

  Well, this is, thank you for asking that, and I appreciate the story too. So here's the thing, in your life, in my opinion, you will never get more out of your life than you think you're worthy of or you deserve. And so, our self-confidence worth, whatever you want to wrap that up is, is what I would call identity. It's the way you view yourself. And you can never, long-term, short-term you can, but long-term, you can never exceed in your life where you think your identity is. So, it's like a thermostat sitting on the wall. You set the temperature for your life based on your identity. So if you set your temperature at, say, 75 degrees of whatever, money, happiness, peace of mind, fitness, health, you name it, you set it right here. No matter what happens in your life, if you increase the conditions of your life and

• 14:41Ed Mylett?

  it gets better and better, you've all seen this happen, you will unconsciously turn the air conditioners on to get that thermostat back to 75 degrees of life. Unconsciously, all of a sudden, there's a car wreck, a missed appointment, some circumstance you think is out of your control, but what you've done is... You cooled your life back down to your identity. The reverse is also true. Life's going terrible, appointments are flaking out, your business isn't going well. Somehow, you always find a way to eat. You always find a way to get back to where you were and you turn the heater on and get it back up to your identity. So the key is, yes, you gotta do more work, yes, you have to improve your skills, but if you don't improve the thermostat temperature you think you're worthy of, you will always heat or cool your life back down to that same temperature. And as I'm saying this, people are going, "Oh, my God, that's exactly what happens to me.

• 15:26Ed Mylett?

  I get it going and then I cool it back down again. I didn't know I was doing it, but I am."

• 15:29Speaker 03

  Is it self-sabotage?

• 15:31Ed Mylett?

  It's self-sabotage, it's unconscious, it's energy, it's... I watch it with people all the time. Guys make a lot of money and then they spend it all because they don't have a rich man's identity. Or they save and save and save and they can't stop, they get a pile of it and they spend it. Or their business grows and they stop doing the things that got them there. Or an athlete, we're just talking with one of the top fighters in the world, you and I were. And I watch athletes do it, they climb and climb, then they become a champion or something like that. And they just let off a little bit, they don't train quite as hard, they're not quite as hungry. People think, "Well, he's not as hungry." No, his identity didn't grow with the title. And so now, if you make a championship in a sport, your identity can't be to be the champion. Your identity has to be an all-time great, a legend, world-class.

• 16:14Ed Mylett?

  And if you don't, you will cool it back down, all of a sudden you lose a fight you shouldn't lose. Or you drop a pass you shouldn't drop, or you miss a putt you should make. It's all identity. The governor on your life, this secret invisible force, is always identity and it's a temperature you set up. And there's ways to change it too, which is the good news.

• 16:32Speaker 03

  That was my next question, you beat me to it, Ed. How do we change our self-image, our self-confidence? What do we have to do to get to the next level in our life so that when we do hit an 80 and we're used to a 70, we keep going?

• 16:44Ed Mylett?

  Yeah, great question. And so this is, for me, it's like I want to spend my life's work getting people the tools to do this. But in brief, since we're in a short video, the first thing is self-confidence. So you must build self-confidence. This fighter and I, that you and I both know, we're just literally, he literally just said-

• 16:59Speaker 03

  Dominic Cruz, by the way. Dominic's here with us at the house.

• 17:02Ed Mylett?

  Dominic is here, right?

• 17:03Speaker 03

  We have nothing to hide, we're hanging out with our man.

• 17:06Ed Mylett?

  Right, Dominic's here. And so he was saying the same thing about confidence before I said it. And he said, "Confidence comes for me from my preparation." Right, and it's and what I would tell Dominic is it's not just that you prepared. It's that you told yourself you were gonna do certain things and you did it. So self-confidence is the baseline, real quickly. Self-confidence is very simple to build, okay? Self-confidence is self-trust. Self-confidence is you have built a reputation with yourself where you keep the promises you make to you. That's what preparation means too. So when I meet someone who lacks self-confidence, I know I've met somebody who has consistently not kept private promises they make to themselves.

• 17:44Speaker 03

  Right.

• 17:45Ed Mylett?

  When I meet someone like you, who I know has exemplary self-confidence, it's not ego, it's not arrogance. It's rooted in the fact that this man knows when he tells himself he's gonna do something. Get up at a certain time, eat a certain way, work out at a certain time, treat people a certain way. Show up, whatever it is, you keep those promises. So you've stacked and over time, you've built this muscle up of self-confidence where you have a reputation with yourself that's so good, you don't care about what other people think about you. The people who lack self-confidence, the ones always worrying about their reputation with others, what everybody else thinks, because they don't have a good one of themselves. So that's the first thing.

• 18:23Speaker 03

  That is so mind-blowing, and I heard you say that a couple of weeks ago. And since then, I am, I'm a disciplined person and I try to do what I say I'm gonna do. Integrity is incredibly important to me, above most things. But since you've said that, I caught myself on even some small promises I made to myself and said, "That's it."

• 18:39Ed Mylett?

  Yep.

• 18:39Speaker 03

  "No, I said I was gonna do it, I'm doing it."

• 18:41Ed Mylett?

  And here's why, other thing that winners have, they're more self-aware. They're harder on themselves and they're more self-aware. You are aware of the mistakes you make more than most, because you have the confidence to see them. Most people blame other people.

• 18:53Speaker 03

  And admit them.

• 18:54Ed Mylett?

  Right, because it's not their fault, because they don't, they don't lack the confidence. Confident people are willing to take ownership, they're willing to take responsibility, be accountable, because they're confident they can turn it around. If you don't have the confidence you can turn it around, you better blame everybody else. Second way you change your identity is association. In other words, if I'm an 80 degreeer and you're 110 degreeer in life, through proximity, through us being around each other, over time, you will heat me up near your level in the area I want to improve in. So I have friends who are 150 degreeers in their faith, and when I'm around them, the longer I spend time with them, my faith heats up in that level. I have other ones that are very wealthy people. When I'm around them, my thermostat of wealth increases. So it depends on self-confidence, right?

• 19:38Ed Mylett?

  Fitness, when you're around a world-class athlete like Dominic, all of a sudden, you don't think you're so fit. All of a sudden, but if I ran and trained with him every day, I promise you, my mental and physical identity would be more fit. So that's another way to change your identity is association.

• 19:52Speaker 03

  And on the same topic, you know, there's that famous quote, you're going to be the same person you are five years from now, except for the people that you spend time with and the books you read.

• 20:01Ed Mylett?

  That's right.

• 20:01Speaker 03

  So, but you had added something to that a little bit when I was watching one of your videos. You were saying that, for instance, their income is going to be, your income for the five people I've been hanging out with for the last five years, chances are I'm going to be...

• 20:13Ed Mylett?

  So somehow, you're exactly right. Somehow, if I were to study you, most people, if I took the five people you hang around, maybe minus one of them, your income was within a 20 to 25% range of theirs. So if they make 100, you probably make 75 to 125 of the people you hang around. And so for me, income-wise especially, and I do this very regularly, I'm constantly seeking out association when it comes to my net worth and my income that I know will heat me up because I really am right now. If I look at my life, the five people I spend the most time with, even now, most of them, we named some of them when we started the program, right? Our net worth is all within about 25% of one another.

• 20:50Speaker 03

  That's so crazy.

• 20:50Ed Mylett?

  So I love them, and they're going to stay my friends, but I need to add another one. I gotta add a new one who's going to stretch me, who's way ahead of me that way. Not too far. If you pick someone who's so far out in front of you, their pull power has no influence over you.

• 21:04Speaker 03

  Right.

• 21:04Ed Mylett?

  So I want someone one, two, three, four times more successful than me in that area. Not a thousand, if I make $50,000 a year, me running around with a billionaire is not going to...

• 21:12Speaker 03

  Not going to help you, yeah.

• 21:13Ed Mylett?

  So there's a proximity...

• 21:14Speaker 03

  Well, you just can't relate.

• 21:15Ed Mylett?

  You can't relate. And they can't relate to me. There's no influence there.

• 21:18Speaker 03

  So, one thing I've recognized with every successful person I've met is usually they rattle around with all kinds of favorite quotes in their heads that have made a difference in their life. What are some of your favorite quotes and why?

• 21:29Ed Mylett?

  Wow, that's a really good question. I have a whole bunch of quotes that I constantly use, but I think for me, my faith is like my foundation, right? So, my favorite quote is "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Okay? And so, every night, my wife will tell you, I end up hitting my knees every single night because I've had enough experiences of my life where my ego starts to take advantage of me and I start thinking it's me all the time. And I'm, by the way, I know part of this is me. Part of this is the work I've put in, the difference I've made, but I know the vast majority of this is blessing. And the minute in my life that I've neglected to acknowledge that, the Lord tends to remind me. So, if I look back at most of the setbacks that I've had in my life, when we go backwards,

• 22:12Ed Mylett?

  typically those are because either A, I stopped doing the things I needed to do, or B, my ego started to take over. I started to think I was something pretty special and that God's got a way of humbling you when that happens.

• 22:22Speaker 03

  At best, we can take credit for being co-laborers.

• 22:24Ed Mylett?

  That's exactly, at best.

• 22:26Speaker 03

  That's about it. And chances are, it's a lot, we're a much smaller piece of that pie.

• 22:30Ed Mylett?

  Huge. And I, and we're talking about self-confidence earlier, too. I'm a big, I love different parables. So, by the way, I love people of all faiths. I have great friends of every faith. I admire and respect people of faith. But I will say to you, there's the parable of the sower in the Bible. And I'm a big believer that when you're planting seeds, right? I'm a big believer, my job's to plant the seeds. It's God's job to help with the harvest, right? So, I do my job of planting the seeds. So, there's this, the wind is going to get some of my seeds, right? The birds are going to get some, the weather's going to get some, the rain's going to get some, the wind's going to get some. But if I just keep planting those seeds in my business, in my life, in my fitness, that there's eventually a harvest. I just, I have faith that that's true.

• 23:07Speaker 03

  It's interesting, this morning when we were with Dominic, he did another interview, and one of the things that he said was, "Man, the main thing that marks my life is consistent sacrifice." And it was just like, and that's what we're talking about, you know, because we're sacrificed planting those seeds and we're not looking, we don't see the harvest coming around the corner. So it's almost like the process is the goal.

• 23:28Ed Mylett?

  The process is the goal, right? Like it's sometimes you have to separate from your outcome and do the work. One of the other reasons that the sacrifice is such a big deal is that guys like Dominic, me and you, I get confidence in knowing I'm doing stuff other people aren't willing to do. Like I have this overriding belief that if I keep doing things other people aren't willing to do, I'm going to get things other people aren't going to have. And so the sacrifice, it's not important just to make the sacrifice, it's to be rewarding yourself mentally when you're making it saying, I am doing stuff they won't do. I'm up earlier, I'm making more calls, I'm in the gym more often. Thank you.

• 24:00Speaker 03

  There's Dominic Cruz, everybody. Come on in here, Dominic. Get at least a little face time.

• 24:04Ed Mylett?

  Do you want to make sure I was drinking Monster?

• 24:06Speaker 03

  Yeah, we got, we got a show off Monster.

• 24:10Ed Mylett?

  We were bragging about you when you were gone.

• 24:12Speaker 03

  Dominic in the house.

• 24:14Ed Mylett?

  I don't want to get beat up, so it's good.

• 24:15Speaker 03

  Alright.

• 24:16Ed Mylett?

  So part of that sacrifice is where my self-confidence comes from. I, I kind of get off on doing stuff I know other people aren't willing to do. And the reason is, I started out really insecure, right? I started out lacking self-confidence. I still fight it, right? I still fight my tendency to not always believe in myself. And so it's for me, I can believe in me willing to do the work. I can believe in me doing the grind, doing the nasty, because I know I'll do that. I trust me. I have self-confidence. That's different than being insecure.

• 24:47Speaker 03

  Right.

• 24:48Ed Mylett?

  It's different, right? And so the foundations are my self-confidence and my faith. Those are the things that elevate me. If I have both of those things going, life is cooking pretty good for me.

• 24:56Speaker 03

  Awesome. I've been listening to your podcasts and again, changing my life as every, every time I listen to one of these things. One of the things that you said to me, I'll probably never ever forget, or you said to me through the podcast, I'll never forget is the story about meeting yourself at the end of your life.

• 25:13Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 25:13Speaker 03

  Can you expound on that for me and tell, just tell the story?

• 25:16Ed Mylett?

  Sure. Well, my, it just came up the other day. If I could tell you my, we're having dinner the other night. My daughter will say anything to me, right? And so we're having dinner, she goes, hey dad, I think you're going through a midlife crisis. And I'm like, What? She goes, "Come on, growing the beard out, Instagram pictures, I think you're going through a midlife crisis." And I said, "I am. I'm going through a crisis." And I said, "I'll go through a 50-year-old crisis." I went through one when I was 20. Because I'm in a... Here's what I think would suck. I think what would suck would be to be the same 47-year-old I was as a 46-year-old. I already lived that guy's life. I already know what he experienced. I already know what he's capable of. I want the 47-year-old to be a completely better person, better version of me than the 46-year-old. I was at a car wash when my son was little.

• 26:01Ed Mylett?

  And there was a man I used to see there all the time. He's a nice man, I didn't mean to say it to him this way, but like most people will say to you when you have kids, he goes, "How old's your son?" I said, "He's six." And he said, "Well, enjoy the six-year-old, because when he turns seven, the six-year-old's gone forever." And then he said, "And when he turns eight, the seven-year-old's gone forever."

• 26:16Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 26:17Ed Mylett?

  And I said to him, reflexively, I went, "When did that stop for you?" And he just stared back at me, reading his newspaper. And I told Max, when he was little, I said, "That's never gonna happen to daddy." At some age for most people, that process stops. The 21-year-old is the same person the 20-year-old was. Or the 30-year-old's the same dude the 29-year-old was. Or the 40-year-old is the same woman the 39-year-old was. I want every year to be in a crisis, to be the next best version of me, because I'm chasing a guy. The guy I'm chasing is the man I'm capable of becoming at the end of my life, that God made me to be. That's my destiny, right? And at the end of my life, when I go meet the Lord, it's gonna be awesome. But I have this feeling, he's gonna introduce me to who I could have been. What my destiny was, who I was born to be, right?

• 27:01Ed Mylett?

  And when I get there, I wanna meet that guy and be best friends, like I've known you a long time, brother. The worst end of my life would be I would get there and we'd be total strangers. I meet this dude, I could have been, what he could have accomplished, where he could have gone, the people he could have helped, the peace, happiness, strength, all that, and I don't know him.

• 27:18Speaker 03

  Wow.

• 27:18Ed Mylett?

  I don't wanna be a stranger to that guy. And so, that happens every year, because I can't fall behind a year. Not every year's gonna be better than the previous year, but every year, I'm gonna be better. The year may not be better, the results may not be better, but I'm gonna be better, because I'm chasing that dude. And I think about it every day, I swear to you, every day I think about it.

• 27:35Speaker 03

  So I would assume, just that one thought, is motivation enough? Or it creates enough discipline in you? I mean, that...

• 27:42Ed Mylett?

  It's my barometer.

• 27:44Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 27:44Ed Mylett?

  So, that's what maxing out means. I wanna max out my life, and at the end of it, I meet that freaking guy, right? And so, my barometer is even this. When this is done and you leave, I'll go, "Did he max that out?" Or was it just good?

• 27:57Speaker 03

  We're maxing it out, baby. We ain't going nowhere.

• 27:59Ed Mylett?

  That's my hope, right? That's my hope, right? I'm always wondering that. I'm always thinking that.

• 28:03Speaker 03

  Look at these arms. How do you not look at these arms without maxing out?

• 28:07Ed Mylett?

  They're dinky. They're squirt guns now, everybody's telling me.

• 28:09Speaker 03

  Tell me about that, though. Max out's a really interesting slogan. I love it. And, you know, I've been watching and seeing, but what does it mean? And what is it all about? What do you do with it?

• 28:19Ed Mylett?

  Maxing out came from, my son's name's Max, but I got the concept of maxing out mainly because I had caught myself doing good. And I just put a video about this again, because I've fallen into this again. I caught myself, people say, "How was the workout?" I'm like, "Good." And then a little while later, like, "Hey, how was your meeting? How was your speech?" I'm like, "Yeah, it was good." In fact, Christian asked me today, "How was your workout?" And I caught myself again, "It was good." And so I caught myself, I'm like, "Good? What the fuck is good, right? Good is not going to get me anywhere. Good is the enemy of extraordinary, right? And I asked myself, like, "When's the last time I, like, maxed out a workout? Like, I left there, like, exhausted, fatigued. When's the last time I left the speech, I went, "I left it all there, that's all I had." And then what's it feel like when I do?

• 29:01Speaker 03

  Right.

• 29:01Ed Mylett?

  It's the best feeling in the world, right? And so I find I'm happier when I, so I just decided to start setting a new standard, because in your life, whether you're an athlete, or a business person, or a father, a mother, a person of faith, you get your standard. Your life's never going to exceed what your standard is. And I just found out, I'm working hard, I'm going through the motions, I'm a good guy, I'm calm, I've done all these other things, but what's my standard? Like, what's my daily standard for the things I do? And I realized, I didn't have one. I had no standard. It was just like, "Do good, get through it, work hard, do your thing." Well, Tom Brady, about to play his eighth Super Bowl, right? And I know Brady, he's a member of one of my clubs, and I can tell you that

• 29:42Ed Mylett?

  he literally said to me one day, "I'm in a crisis to get better every single day." That's where I stole from what I just told you. And he's like, and I'm around these elite performers, whether it's, and not name dropping, but if you, if Tony Robbins were here, or Phil Knight from Nike, or Tom Brady here, we're sitting here, or Zach Johnson, PGA golfer. Zach Johnson doesn't want to stack up 10 great practice sessions in a row. He wants 10 maxed out practice sessions. So when he's got a putt to win the Masters on a Sunday, he's confident he can roll that thing and have that ultimate max out, right? You don't get the ultimate max out by being good all the other days.

• 30:20Speaker 03

  Right.

• 30:20Ed Mylett?

  And so that's what it means.

• 30:21Speaker 03

  I love it. I love it. And I'm counting on a hat.

• 30:25Ed Mylett?

  I got one for you.

• 30:28Speaker 03

  So I was listening to Lewis Howes interview, great interview with you guys. He's fantastic.

• 30:32Ed Mylett?

  He's a great guy.

• 30:32Speaker 03

  And he asked you a question that I thought was amazing. He said, what do you wish people would ask you about more? And you said, the balance between drive and happiness.

• 30:41Ed Mylett?

  Yes, I did.

• 30:42Speaker 03

  Tell me what that means to you.

• 30:43Ed Mylett?

  Well, so a lot of successful people that are watching this have this false belief that I held for a long time. And the belief is this, that I'll be happy when. So it's like, I better reserve my happiness level, or I'll lose my drive, right? And so, it's interesting. Most people think if I, if I, I have to be unhappy in order to get to the next level. And they, they reserve their happiness. Once I get this car, I'll be happy. Once I get this relationship, once I get this house, once I get this promotion, once I get this amount of money. So they delay this place they need to somehow mysteriously get to in order to experience happiness. Those people never arrive, okay? The only way we ever arrive to a place of real happiness, real peace, is we have to be able to be at peace and happy now.

• 31:28Ed Mylett?

  I call it blissful dissatisfaction. You can live in bliss right now and still be dissatisfied. There's no correlation or relationship between happiness and satisfaction. They're completely different things. People confuse the two. They misconstrue it, okay? And so, for example of this is, you ever, I use this with Lewis, but you ever like bite into like the best steak of your life, right? You're like, oh, this is blissful, right? Are you any less hungry for the next bite? No, you want more of it. So there's a fuel to being happy where you are. There's no correlation between the two. So I try to live in a state of, and I don't always do it, but in a state of blissful dissatisfaction. I am the most dissatisfied person anybody that I know knows.

• 32:09Ed Mylett?

  Dissatisfied. Even showing you this house, I'm like, yeah, but, you know, I'm, I'm dissatisfied. But it doesn't mean I'm not happy. I've learned, life is too short. I've had too many friends of mine, work all their lives, retire, and a year later die of a heart attack. And they never enjoyed their life. I've watched too many of my buddies on their phone, and I struggle with this. On their phone the whole time they're with their family and never be present and be in the moment, right? So they miss moments, they miss life. God gave you today. You're supposed to enjoy and max out today. It doesn't mean you're any less desirous of a better tomorrow.

• 32:40Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 32:41Ed Mylett?

  Okay? And so that's what living blissfully dissa- and there's a science to that. There's an art to it that I teach.

• 32:45Speaker 03

  It's interesting because, you know, a lot of these correlate as you meet people that are akin and things like that. And the term that came up for me years ago was... It was a question and it was how do I remain content and ambitious?

• 32:59Ed Mylett?

  What was your answer?

• 33:00Speaker 03

  And it's the same thing, right?

• 33:01Ed Mylett?

  What did you uncover?

• 33:02Speaker 03

  Really what you just said is I needed to come to a point where I was daily accepting and grateful and happy and building routines into my life of gratitude and thinking about, you know, all the blessings that I have and how far I've come and where I used to be. So I'm like, man, I got it made today.

• 33:18Ed Mylett?

  Yes.

• 33:18Speaker 03

  But I sure am hungry for that next piece of steak.

• 33:21Ed Mylett?

  Exactly, that's exactly right, brother.

• 33:22Speaker 03

  So it's exactly the same thing that we've been talking about.

• 33:25Ed Mylett?

  There's nothing worse than meeting a person who has all of the things other people would like to have in their life and you get to know them and they're unhappy. It's such a letdown. We've all met people like this. It's like a letdown. It's like, I want to know I can be happy along the way. I'm happy here. I love being happy here. But to be honest, I was happy where we were before.

• 33:41Speaker 03

  What are you most proud of?

• 33:43Ed Mylett?

  I'm most proud of my family. So by miles and miles and miles, you'll get me choked up on that one. So my family, 100%. At the end of all this, I can't take any of this with me. I always say all the time, you know, people matter, things don't, but the real people that really matter are your loved ones and your family, right? And so by a mile, I'm the most proud of my children, my wife, my parents, my sisters. I'm the most proud of that. That's who I am. The story of my life, right? Like, I always talk all the time, you're the lead character in the story of your life, right? And most people go through their entire life worrying about all these ancillary... You ever watch the end of a movie? In a movie, it has all the leading characters, right? And then if you watch it long enough, you scroll down, it's like taxi cab driver number

• 34:27Ed Mylett?

  two, bouncer at the bar. They're not even named, right? You ever watched that in the credits?

• 34:31Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 34:31Ed Mylett?

  Okay. Most people live their lives obsessed with taxi cabber number two and what they think about you. Bouncer number three, these faceless people that will just pass through your life and they're obsessed with what they think about them. They don't take action. They don't live their dreams because they're worried about all these other people instead of focusing on the leading characters. The leading character in my life is me and my family. But when you read the book of my life someday or watch the movie of my life someday, my great grandkids come along and they read the pages, they're not going to know who taxi cabber number two is in the background. I'm living for the main characters in my life, right?

• 35:03Speaker 03

  Yeah.

• 35:04Ed Mylett?

  That's who matters to me. So that's what I'm the most proud of by miles.

• 35:07Speaker 03

  You speak a lot about your faith and it's incredibly important to you.

• 35:12Ed Mylett?

  Yeah.

• 35:12Speaker 03

  Tell me how that all happened and what it means and...

• 35:15Ed Mylett?

  Well, like everybody, my faith is something that I work on, that times I even struggle with, right? I don't... It bothers me sometimes, I think everyone's faith is perfect. I'm always 100% in perfect faith and harmony. I'm not, right? I struggle with that too. I ask myself questions all the time. But my, um, my faith comes, I was raised a Catholic. I was raised going to church. I don't know, it's interesting. I'm not in that church anymore, but my, my, uh, it's just interesting. My, oh, when I was a kid, my dad prayed well with me. So half the time, he was probably drunk when we did it. But, but my dad would do the right type of prayers. Like before a game, my dad would say, "I don't want you to pray to get four hits.

• 35:58Ed Mylett?

  God's not favoring you over the pitcher. But I want you, you know, let's pray, Lord, that the Lord will let you play to the best of your ability and that everybody leaves the game safely." And somehow, when I would go into sporting events as a kid, I would have this quiet peace about me that I was favored and that I was protected and that God had my back. Really, like I've always felt that, right? And then, to be honest with you, all of this stuff is almost evidence, almost of my faith. Cause I know what a screwed up dude I am. I know my frailties. I know how weak I am. There's no way just I produced this.

• 36:35Speaker 03

  Right.

• 36:36Ed Mylett?

  There's just no freaking way. It has to be blessing. It has to be favored, right? And so, and you don't need this to do that. But I am constantly saying, "Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord. Thank you, Lord." When I look at my life, because I know how screwed up I am. I know how weak I am. I know my insecurities and the things I'm not good at. And so, it's the foundation for my life. It's like, it's the only, if you really get down to it, it's really the only thing that really matters. It's like, there's gotta be a purpose to this life. Like, I wanna serve other people. I wanna make a difference. It's gotta be more than just this.

• 37:07Speaker 03

  For sure.

• 37:08Ed Mylett?

  And I have a foundational belief that there's more than this. I, I, I know there is. And so, I live my life acting like that most of the time. Not all the time. So, I'm a sinner, saved by the grace of God, right? So, so believe me, I'm screwed up all the time. That's why I need faith.

• 37:22Speaker 03

  What type, what type of, we're coming into a landing here. I got just a couple more questions for you, Ed. But what type of legacy do you wanna live? When you, on your epitaph, what do they, what do you want it to say? And what do you want people to remember you as?

• 37:35Ed Mylett?

  Yeah. I'll be okay. Um, I just got asked this the other day. In fact, I'll give you the answer, then I'll tell you what. I, I don't need to be remembered. Right, my legacy, I'm hoping is other people. I'm hoping that whatever works I do in this world, the other people that I impact pay it forward somehow else themselves. I'd like my own family to know I lived. It's important to me that my great grandchildren know I lived. They know I was here. They know that I made a difference. They know that I changed our family tree, my family and I, right? But in terms of everybody else, it's not all that important to me that I be remembered. What I want to be is that when I'm done with my life, I meet that guy. I meet that dude I was born to be. And that, there's two things that happen.

• 38:16Ed Mylett?

  That one, I meet him and that also the Lord says, "Hey, I'm proud of you. Well done. Good and faithful servant," right? And so, that's important to me. It's not so much that other people remember me, but that my family does and that me and the Lord are proud of me. Those are the most important things. Just put my name on there.

• 38:31Speaker 03

  Fantastic. I love it. Last but not least, we've got, you know...

• 38:36Ed Mylett?

  What a good interview, man!

• 38:38Speaker 03

  We've got thousands of people out there watching and, you know, I know for every single young man or somebody that wants to get ahead in life, or somebody that has not given themselves, or given up on themselves, their question is, "How do I get to the next level?" I want to end on that because I really want you just to talk to the audience and tell them, "This is my best advice for you to get from where you're at to the next stage."

• 39:00Ed Mylett?

  Okay, good. There's a lot of advice there, but the most important thing is clarity is the most important thing on getting where we want to go. So, in other words, complexity, as you know, is the enemy of executing in your life. You've got to get crystal specifically clear on what it is you want. If you don't know exactly what it is, your brain cannot go to work on producing a vanilla generic result. You've got to get super clear. Like, not, "I want to get in shape." Exactly what's your body weight. Exactly what's the body fat.

• 39:28Speaker 03

  So good.

• 39:29Ed Mylett?

  Not, "I want to get financially better." What's the exact dollar amount? Exactly when do you want to have it? But here's the kicker on it. A lot of people will get to that stage. Okay, the fuel, because here's the thing, now you got that, now all the adversity kicks in, right? You have got to know why. And why, people, I don't know what my why is, I'm gonna give it to you, I'm gonna give you the formula. Why is really easy. Why is always either your dreams or other people. The only reason you do anything in your life is your dreams or others. That's it, there's only two whys. So when you get clear on what you want, when you go, why do I want to do it? It's either another person, you're doing it for family, friends, some loved one, or it's a dream of yours you're making true. So if you can link the fuel to your dream, which is the why, right? If you got those two things locked in, then what holds you back is really simple. Your execution of the plan.

• 40:14Ed Mylett?

  Are you willing to outwork everybody? Yes. Outwork everyone, like you gotta be the hardest worker in the room by 10 times. And you can't compete against the other people around you because that's not a high enough standard. Maxing out is competing against your best, your capacity, the ultimate version of you, right? So if you put those three things in a room, exactly clear on what you want, know exactly why, and then you just decide, I'm going to outwork everybody in the world, and that includes my best standard, you're likely to produce the result over time. Last thing, okay, you can't quit. I watch people all the time in sports, I work some guys right now that are getting their bodybuilding card, right?

• 40:57Ed Mylett?

  And they train and train and diet and struggle and work hard, and they didn't get it in the time they thought they should, and they give up. And they were six more months away at another show, right? I watch athletes, I watch golfers, they're close, they're close, they don't make a cut, they quit. I watch business people, and they make all these effort deposits over time, and they quit before they get to make the big withdrawal. There's a, there's a, there's a power to staying, there's a power to not giving up that most people don't appreciate. And so you anchor those four things together, that's a recipe to eventually win. It's like this, I'm just gonna wear your ass out till I win. Ha. You're just, I'm just gonna wear you out, I'm gonna outwork you, I'm gonna know more what I want specifically, I'm gonna know why, I'm gonna wear you out with work, and you can't get rid of me. I can't tap out, you can't get me to tap out on this thing.

• 41:41Ed Mylett?

  Boom, that's a formula to win. So good.

• 41:45Speaker 03

  Ed, I'm, I'm ready to go lift up a, go bench press a Volkswagen or something. Do it. It seems like you look dominant. We'll do it. I can't thank you enough for having me to your home. Great to have you. Sharing your wisdom with us. This has been an amazing hour for me and I'm sure you blessed everybody out there too. My honor. Hey guys, Chris Patterson Daily, giving you another checkup from the neck up. Don't forget to max out every single day. Love you guys.