Brutal Truths About Money That EVERYONE Needs To Know Before 35 | Dan Martell

FastExpert: Compare top real estate agents near you at https://fastexpert.com/icedcoffeehour Notion: Try Notion with Notion Agent - your AI teammate: https://notion.com/icedcoffee Helium Mobile: Sign up (even for the FREE plan) & get $10 in Cloud Points with code COFFEE: https://app.heliummobile.com/o6WA/4jq Follow Dan Martell: On Youtube - www.youtube.com/@UCA-mWX9CvCTVFWRMb9bKc9w On Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/danmartell His Website - https://www.danmartell.com/ Add us on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jlsselby https://www.instagram.com/gpstephan Apply for The Index Membership: https://entertheindex.com/ Official Clips Channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCeBQ24VfikOriqSdKtomh0w For sponsorships or business inquiries reach out to: [email protected] For Podcast Inquiries, please DM @icedcoffeehour on Instagram! Timestamps: 00:00:00 - Intro 00:00:55 - Reflecting on where he started 00:02:39 - Why he stole a car 00:04:43 - Feeling hopeless growing up 00:06:08 - Rock bottom and turning point 00:06:55 - Spiraling and losing control 00:08:17 - Does he still feel rage 00:09:27 - How he reads people now 00:10:35 - Can reading people be taught 00:15:08 - His first major win 00:17:46 - Sponsor - Fast Expert 00:19:03 - When he first felt wealthy 00:22:46 - Misconceptions about money 00:24:57 - What to focus on internally 00:28:17 - How anyone could make $10K/month 00:44:54 - Sponsor - Notion 00:46:04 - Sponsor - Helium Mobile 00:51:30 - When AI becomes a real threat 00:53:43 - A life lesson he’s grateful for 01:00:35 - Habits that lead to success 01:08:20 - When to buy back your time 01:12:54 - His biggest waste of money 01:14:07 - Best things to spend money on 01:18:04 - Rapid-fire segment 01:18:19 - Most luxurious purchase 01:18:24 - Daily habit he never skips 01:18:27 - The tool he can’t live without 01:18:31 - Best book he’s read 01:18:38 - Entrepreneur he studies most 01:18:43 - His favorite failure *Some of the links and other products that appear on this video are from companies which Graham Stephan will earn an affiliate commission or referral bonus. Graham Stephan is part of an affiliate network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites. The content in this video is accurate as of the posting date. Some of the offers mentioned may no longer be available. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 0:29Speaker 01

  I'm who I am because of where I came from.

• 0:32Speaker 02

  Things got really crazy. I was hanging out with people from the Hells Angels, learning stuff I definitely shouldn't have been learning. One day, my brother calls me up and says, don't come home. The police are waiting for you.

• 0:41Speaker 01

  At 17, I was in a high speed chase with the cops behind the wheel of a stolen car. And then I smashed into the side of the house. And in that moment, everything changed. I know this because I went from broke at 24 to selling my first company for millions at 28. Today, I've exited three software companies, generated over a hundred million in cash a year. And now my only goal is to help others and motivate them to find success the way that I did. The path to success isn't complicated. It's just hard and I can teach it to anybody in a few steps.

• 1:09Graham Stephan?

  Do you think you could have changed without hitting that rock bottom? No.

• 1:13Speaker 01

  Zero.

• 1:13Graham Stephan?

  Why do you think things felt so hopeless to you at that time?

• 1:17Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's, it's, it's kind of interesting. I was shooting, I was shooting the other day with Cohen. I just said, ballin', just even think, I mean, it's like.

• 1:23Graham Stephan?

  It's still really tough. How often do you think about it?

• 1:27Speaker 01

  I get emotional thinking about it because I'm just like, looking at my life today is pretty cool. Like, couldn't went the other way, man.

• 1:35Graham Stephan?

  Yeah.

• 1:35Speaker 01

  So it's, uh,

• 1:38Speaker 01

  yeah, I mean, every week for sure, sometimes once a day. Just because I, I literally look, nobody's more surprised about what I, like how I live my life today than me. Like, I'm like, I don't forget. I don't, I don't forget the other people I met. Like, that was a dark period of my life, man. I didn't, I didn't want to live. That's, that was kind of the decision I made when I stole the car that if the cops get me, I'm going to pull.

• 2:01Graham Stephan?

  Does it make you more sympathetic to other people that are in that situation? Or does it make you think like whatever situation you're in, you can make it better?

• 2:09Speaker 01

  Definitely more sympathetic. I mean, my superpower is empathy with the kids. Like, I, I, I love adults, but I also think a lot of adults are adults and you should treat them like adults. But when I meet another kid that's like struggling with life, dude, I just get down on one knee and I just like, my mission's very simple. I just want to help kids not feel broken. I went my whole teenage years just feeling like I was broken. I was, I was, I mean, since I was 10, it's like, can't play with Dan. I have to hide in the woods to play with my neighborhood friends. Like, it's kind of crazy. So, yeah, man, it, it's something that, um,

• 2:50Speaker 01

  I think allows me to be sympathetic, but also because of where I came from, man. It's like, any, like, when, when you hear people say anything's possible, I like, I'm like, no, it's like legit possible. It might take you a long time. It might take you 17, 25 years, but, man, if you just like wake up and just decide to make better decisions, like, that's the start.

• 3:09Graham Stephan?

  How did you get to that point, though, of stealing a car?

• 3:12Speaker 01

  Essentially, what happened was I, I'd been in and out of jail. Like, I, I'd been in and out of the system. I, I was put into foster care when I was 11, crisis center, group home for a year. I turned 13 in a group home, living with people that were like 17 in and out of jail. So like, I was, I was raised by a bunch of people that didn't have the most positive kind of outlook on life. And, and then what happened was I just, you know, I ended up, I broke into a house, stole a bunch of, and my mom found them and she told, she, she called the police. And my brother called me and he says, don't come home because the cops are looking for you. I was like, well, where, where do I go? And he's like, I don't know, man, but you can't stay here, like in the city.

• 3:55Speaker 01

  And he met me and he gave me all the money he had in his, like, life, like emptied his bank account. Like, not bank account, like he emptied his piggy bank. And he gave me $63.50 and he said, get out of town. And like, that was, that was a wild moment. And then I actually went and lived in the woods for two weeks. Nobody knows this. I've never shared this. And what scared me is I went for a walk. I had a, there was a, but it's like an old hunting camp that my buddy Scott had. And I went for a walk with the,

• 4:28Speaker 01

  and I was gonna pull the,

• 4:31Graham Stephan?

  No, what stopped you at that point?

• 4:33Speaker 01

  God.

• 4:35Speaker 01

  It was, it was like, I was sitting in this field with the under my chin.

• 4:44Speaker 01

  And I knew if I just like pushed down, like thumb on the, just pushed down, it would have stopped. And I was just, I was just in, I was such a dark place. So, and then I just took the, and I like threw it and, you know, freaked out and called my brother to come get me. And that's, that's when I sold the cars. Like, I just had to get out of here. So I like started trying to like, let things calm down for a couple of weeks, but then it didn't. And the cops were still looking for me. So, sold the car to drive to Montreal. I'm Canadian, so.

• 5:13Graham Stephan?

  Why do you think things felt so hopeless to you at that time?

• 5:16Speaker 01

  Well, dude, the first time I went away, if you want to,

• 5:21Speaker 01

  if you want to make somebody feel like less than dirt,

• 5:29Speaker 01

  pretty much juvenile detention is that. And at 15, I got sentenced for essentially two months because of, you know, shoplifting and getting in fights. I, I had, there was a reason I went away. And after that experience, it was so scary. There's no, the guards are there, but they're not really there. And if, and so then, then what do you do? You fight back and then you get put in the hole. And then the hole's the worst thing could ever happen to you. I mean, they strip you down to your underwear and they don't even tell you how long you're going to be in there for. So after I got out the first time, I remember there was this guard and I was like, you know, nice to know you. Like, I'm never going to see you again. Not gonna be back here. And he says, I'll see you soon. This smug guard a-hole. And I was like, no, you won't. He says, we always do.

• 6:15Speaker 01

  And I had no idea what he meant. A year later, I'm in a high-speed chase. So it's kind of wild that like, even though I didn't want to go back, I couldn't make better decisions to change my life.

• 6:30Speaker 01

  And I think that's what it was. It was just like it had to get, it had to get hard for me to finally realize like I gotta make a change.

• 6:37Graham Stephan?

  Do you think you could have changed without hitting that rock bottom? No.

• 6:41Speaker 01

  No way. Zero. Zero. Dude, I'm the most hard headed. Back then, man, I would argue with everybody. You don't understand. Like dude, I was just that, you know, that I'm sure you guys went to high school or to school with that kid. You know what I mean? I had a look in my eyes. Like I don't have that look anymore. I used to this like, I don't know, man, like just troublemaker. I never made good decisions. It was, it was almost like there's a black cloud over my whole life. My dad would joke about it. It's like my brothers would go do something. Nobody gets in trouble. Dan goes and does the exact same thing. Dan gets arrested. Like, so I wish, I mean, I went, I went to rehab the first time when I was 13. 21 day program. Dude, I, I went to rehab high as a kite. Like there was no part of me that took anything serious.

• 7:25Graham Stephan?

  What would you say were the predominant emotions going through your brain at that period of time in your life? Like that made you so upset? Was it like pitying yourself? Was it just overall depression? Was it like anxiety?

• 7:38Speaker 01

  I mean, my parents are still alive, so it's obviously a,

• 7:42Speaker 01

  it's a tough thing to talk about. And we have a beautiful relationship. Like it's kind of wild. But there was a part of me that was very angry at my dad. My dad, again, he had four kids. He was doing the best he could. He just worked a lot. He was never there. And what I ended up learning at a very young age is when I act up at home, my mom has to call my dad and he comes home. It wasn't positive attention, but it was attention. And that's, that's how everything escalated. Man, I had a temper like I would get so upset that I would see red and literally hyperventilate to the point where in my room, I would break everything.

• 8:25Speaker 01

  Like if I asked you to smash everything in this room violently, that's how I would act as a 10, 11 year old. Like the reason why I had to go live in a crisis center is not, not because of, cause like my brothers and sisters didn't. I had to because of just like this temperature, this like internal rage that I would see. I, and, and where that came from, I don't know.

• 8:47Graham Stephan?

  Do you ever still feel that today?

• 8:49Speaker 01

  I don't anymore. There was probably 10 years ago is the last time I felt. I felt it.

• 8:56Graham Stephan?

  You think you're completely rid of that?

• 8:57Speaker 01

  No, it's there. I'm who I am because of where I came from. And it took me a long time to figure it out. The business stuff, I actually felt was quite easy because like growing up, you know, and people are like, oh, are you such a risk taker? I'm like, oh, this is nothing. I used, I broke into somebody's house and stole their. Like, you gotta understand that sentence. Like, I knew the person had, and I broke in to steal.

• 9:18Graham Stephan?

  How did you determine that house had?

• 9:20Speaker 01

  But he told me. This is what I'm telling you about risk. Like, the, the business risk stuff I do today is so a joke, considering what I like.

• 9:31Speaker 01

  That's why I like, and, and what's crazy is all the stuff I'm telling you, I didn't tell anybody for 15 years. So like, I would like, live this like, life of like, that's who I was. And then I got clean and changed my life and people, you know, then I finally had success in business, but I knew that part of me. So that's why when people ask me like, you know, where do you find, why are you such a risk taker? I'm like, oh, this is nothing.

• 9:56Graham Stephan?

  So if you could get a good read on people, what do you look for today? Like, how does that apply?

• 10:01Speaker 01

  Oh dude, I'm crazy. It's wild. It's wild, man. I can, I can tell the language people use, what they believe about life. I can, I can, you could say words and I could tell you about a belief that you didn't even know you had, just by the way you explain your situation. Language you use, body posture. I also went to rehab for 11 months. So I spent 11 months, every work, every cleanup at rehab, we shared our personal stories. That was the rule. It's like you partner up with somebody else in rehab and then you clean and you tell the story. Either you listen or you tell. So I did 11 months of like, hearing people tell me their crazy stories about their life and challenges and then got to see how they were living in this world.

• 10:44Speaker 01

  So it's like, I had 10,000 hours of thin slicing human behavior at 17, 18. And then when I got in business and people are like, how did you know that person's gonna screw you over? I'm like, oh. But again, I didn't tell anybody what I went through, so nobody knew.

• 10:59Speaker 01

  But I, I, I mean, it's, it's kind of like a superpower that sometimes I wish I didn't have because.

• 11:05Graham Stephan?

  So if you're gonna teach somebody how to get those skills, what would they look for?

• 11:09Speaker 01

  I mean, let's say you wanted to get into business, like, as an investor, I invest in a lot of companies.

• 11:15Speaker 01

  I'm looking in their eyes to see if they believe what they're saying. I actually don't care what they're saying. I care that they believe. If anybody's ever experienced, you know, like angel investing or investing or real estate. I mean, you're essentially making a bet on the person. There's no world where everything works out. So then the bet is the person communicates in a way with certainty and conviction. And also that you can trust they're going to make the right decision. When things get tough. So what's interesting is people that avoid the red flags. Red flags don't go down. A lot of people act the same way they've always acted. That's why I like adults. I'm like, you're an adult. Once you're 27, your brain's kind of baked. So I would just teach people like, listen to what they say.

• 11:59Speaker 01

  What do they choose to amplify?

• 12:03Speaker 01

  If they do say things that feel like a red flag and your gut says something, trust it. The most money I've ever lost was in not listening to my gut. Period, full stop. Like, you know, most people know hires, employees, whatever.

• 12:20Speaker 01

  And then I would say, listen to the words they use. Because, you know, hope, should, maybe. Like, these are all, like, people communicate their beliefs in the language they use to describe. And if you can listen to that, or even just asking people. I met, I met a guy named Patrick once, and he was so good. He would ask your birthday. He'd ask your relationship with your parents. And I knew what he, but I knew what he was doing. He was doing that. He might have done it on purpose or not, but he was essentially trying to figure out, what is your default? Even your, there's science around what age you are. Like, if you have brothers or sisters, what number? Like, are you first born, second born? And that creates character traits, right?

• 13:05Speaker 01

  So I would, I would just ask those questions and just look for it. Like, this is the thing is people will literally tell you who they are without telling you if you just listen for it. And I always go back to why? Why are you sharing this with them? Like, that's the question I ask, right? And what's interesting is from a psychology point of view, when women communicate, they communicate like this. Like, one of the things I find fascinating is when women meet other women, they're media to share how hard life is. For the most part, I'm being very, oh, yeah.

• 13:32Graham Stephan?

  They're what?

• 13:32Speaker 01

  They're really hard life is, oh, my God, how's your day? Oh, yeah, yeah.

• 13:36Graham Stephan?

  I actually agree.

• 13:37Speaker 01

  No, no, they say it all the time.

• 13:38Graham Stephan?

  Yeah.

• 13:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, yeah, my wife will literally tell the worst thing that happened to her to a person she doesn't know. Because when they communicate, they communicate, now that I've shared this, how close do you feel we are? Men, when they communicate, they communicate this way.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  Now that I've shared that, where do you see me in the totem pole of status? So the ones, when you ask yourself, okay, well, why would they tell me all this stuff? They're doing this. And if they have to start the conversation from there, why? Because they're trying, they feel insecure.

• 14:07Graham Stephan?

  So when people overshare you, literally, you just cut through all social fabric and you're just like, why are you telling me this?

• 14:12Speaker 01

  No, I don't say anything. Dude, I'm, I'm.

• 14:14Graham Stephan?

  Oh, you just try to draw your own.

• 14:15Speaker 01

  I just pay attention. I don't, I, I can talk a lot, and I've also learned to listen. And people just show you who they are. And they won't even know they're doing it just by, and that's the thin slicing, that I learned at seventeen in rehab that I didn't realize was one of my superpowers in business.

• 14:32Graham Stephan?

  You know, what's interesting is your ability, I wonder if they're connected, your ability to be able to see a person for who they are based off of how they speak. If, if that is related to your ability to appear nothing like what you shared at the beginning of this podcast, the struggles that you went through earlier on in life, like, that usually would be indicative of a, of a person of completely different character than who you are today.

• 14:56Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 14:56Graham Stephan?

  Like, if you're able to hide that and come off as something else.

• 14:59Speaker 01

  I think there was a part of me, when I, when I was in rehab, I remember one of the, the staffs, Mark Pence, he would always prod me. And he would say, when are you going to start doing your program?

• 15:11Speaker 01

  And first I said that, I'm like, well, I've been here for six weeks, I'm doing the program. He goes, when are you going to start doing the program?

• 15:17Speaker 01

  What do you mean, when am I going to start doing programs? It'd be great for you to start doing the program. And he would say this every week, every time I see him. What he was sharing with me is I had the ability to be a chameleon. I had the ability to understand what you wanted to see. I could act that way to get you, you know what I mean? Like, and he saw me do that, which meant I wasn't being honest. I wasn't truly doing the work.

• 15:38Graham Stephan?

  How long did it take you to find success after all that?

• 15:41Speaker 01

  A long time.

• 15:43Graham Stephan?

  And what was the first little win you got?

• 15:46Speaker 01

  I mean, the first thing, it's kind of funny. So I got into code. I learned how to code in rehab. That was like, you know, that was the weirdest and also the thing that I'm most grateful for is that I became obsessed with just writing code, software. This is, you know, 97. I get out, internet's early days. I'm talking ICQ dial-up. You guys are probably way too young. Anyways, I just, I became addicted to writing code. It was my happy place. I didn't like talking to people. I was trying to stay away from my old friends. I was kind of a bit of a hermit, but I would just write code and I would build stuff. And one of the first things I built was for my dad. It was a vacation, like essentially he needed a page for a cottage he owned and he was renting it out.

• 16:27Speaker 01

  This is again, 97, 98. And I, I told him, he's like, could you build it? I said, I could, but it's going to cost 600 bucks. I needed the 600 bucks to, to rent the servers. Okay, this is before Amazon Web Services. So it's a company called One on One, 600 bucks gets you a, like a physical server for a year that you can install and configure stuff. And I wanted to learn this programming language called Cold Fusion. So he gives me money and I build this app to manage his cottage, to build a page. Okay, this is early days of the internet. But I had an idea that, well, my dad has a cottage and then there's like all these other cottages that rent out, that I could probably get them to pay me for a page. And that was the first thing I ever built was essentially,

• 17:06Speaker 01

  I, my buddy Dave is like, there is a magazine in the city, it's a travel tourism guide that has all the air, the bed and breakfasts and the cottages for rent. And he said, those people would pay you for that page. It's called Maritime Vacation. And I built a Microsoft Access database, loaded up all the addresses. I paid my little brother, like to do it. And then I did a mail merge. And then I just did essentially a form letter, but I didn't know what it was. And I just printed off this sales page that said, if you want a webpage for your bed and breakfast or cottage, you know, send me $30 and fill out this application form and I'll load it up on the website and I'll send you back your link. And if you want the photos back, send me back five bucks. So my dad shows up one day, checks the mail,

• 17:50Speaker 01

  and there's like 13 envelopes.

• 17:52Graham Stephan?

  Hmm.

• 17:53Speaker 01

  And the first thing he says to me is, what did you do? And we sat down in the kitchen, it's a little apartment, and we started to open up the envelopes. This is back when people literally put money. That was like my first money ever, building something I built, was building these pages for bed and breakfasts and vacation rentals.

• 18:11Graham Stephan?

  So if we skip forward a little bit in the story, at what point in your life would you say you finally felt rich? So back in September, I bought this warehouse that you're seeing right here. And honestly, it's an extremely stressful and strenuous process. And honestly, one of the hardest parts is finding an agent you can actually trust. And that's exactly the problem today's sponsor, FastExpert, was built to solve. For those unaware, FastExpert is one of the largest platforms for connecting people with top-performing real estate agents across the country. The way it works is super smart and super simple. FastExpert analyzes real sales data, experience, and performance history, so you can see which agents actually get results in your specific area. Not just who pays for ads, because honestly, that's just what you usually see, or who has the flashiest profile, they're showing you real data. You're able to compare all of them side by side,

• 18:56Graham Stephan?

  see their recent deals, specialties, neighborhoods they know, and choose one that best fits your situation. Whether you're buying, selling, or investing, they give you the transparency as to who's best for the job. It helps you save so much time and it keeps you away from the agents that overpromise and underdeliver, which is a super common problem in real estate. FastExpert has helped over a million people find real estate agents and work with top-rated professionals nationwide. Check them out at fastexpert.com/icedcoffeehour, and you can see which agents best fit you in your area. Once again, that is fastexpert.com/icedcoffeehour, or you can just click the link down below in the description. Thank you so much to FastExpert for sponsoring this episode. So if we skip forward a little bit in the story, at what point in your life would you say you finally felt rich?

• 19:39Speaker 01

  I think my default right now, I would have said, I don't even feel rich. Like, I don't, like, rich is an interesting word. Somebody said it best, they said, if more money wouldn't change your day, then technically you're rich. And I would say from that definition, 100%, and it's been a while. But-

• 19:56Speaker 01

  I like to think of rich as just like, am I living to the fullest of my potential? And like always, not just like the money sign. But if I think like the money sign.

• 20:07Speaker 00

  This episode is brought to you by Indeed. You're ready to level up your business, but the pressure to find the right person to make that happen is intense. Indeed sponsored jobs can help carry the load. It boosts your job post to help it reach quality talent fast. Cut through the chaos with Indeed sponsored jobs. Get a $75 sponsored job credit at indeed.com/podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Hiring now? Then this is a job for Indeed sponsored jobs.

• 20:37Speaker 01

  My accountant called me one day. I was 27, 26. And he was like, do you want to hear something cool? I still remember I was driving on this little kind of internal highway in the city called Von Harvey. And, you know, it was a BlackBerry back then, the big BlackBerries, the keyboard. And he goes, um, hey, man, want to hear something cool? I'm like, yeah. He goes, you got a million dollars in cash, like retained earnings after taxes and all that stuff. It's just because I never, when I built that company, I just like sold, didn't mess with it, didn't, I was so scared to mess it up like this. I went a long time. That's why when you say, how long did it take you to get some success? I went, even that first company that people sent money in the mail failed. And then I did another company with my brother, hosting company. That didn't work out. And then it wasn't until my third company, and even that, for the first year, even though

• 21:22Speaker 01

  I made money, I didn't really know what I was doing. So when my accountant, Mark, called me up to tell me I had a million dollars in the bank account, my response immediately to him was, is that good?

• 21:33Speaker 01

  I'm 27 with a million cash in the bank account and I ask him if that's good. He laughs. He goes, yes, that's very good.

• 21:38Jack Selby?

  That's a really young age, like.

• 21:41Speaker 01

  And I didn't think it was impressive and I was worried I was going to lose it the next day.

• 21:44Jack Selby?

  And that's like a while ago too. So a million back then could be like two or something.

• 21:48Graham Stephan?

  More than that, probably.

• 21:50Jack Selby?

  Yeah.

• 21:50Graham Stephan?

  I'll be three.

• 21:51Speaker 01

  I'm not that old, you guys.

• 21:52Graham Stephan?

  Maybe 10 million dollars.

• 21:54Jack Selby?

  I will attack you.

• 21:57Jack Selby?

  That'll be the thing to set off.

• 21:59Graham Stephan?

  1930.

• 22:00Jack Selby?

  It's been 10 years, but today's the day.

• 22:02Speaker 01

  Dude, it was so rich.

• 22:04Graham Stephan?

  1950s, right?

• 22:05Speaker 01

  You'd be so rich today.

• 22:06Graham Stephan?

  Like 20 grand.

• 22:07Jack Selby?

  That's, that's crazy. I mean, a million dollars at 27.

• 22:10Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 22:11Jack Selby?

  Okay. And then, so what did you do from there? That was after exiting that first company?

• 22:15Speaker 01

  No, that was while I was building the company. I exited the company a year later. Even then, like I made like eight million bucks or something after taxes. Like I didn't have to work again.

• 22:25Jack Selby?

  Was that on the exit?

• 22:26Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah. I owned the company and it was like, I think I, I remember the, my accountant tell me, um, it was like, I could live, I could make like quarter million dollars a year for the rest of my life. You know, 4% or whatever, after all the taxes. And I don't even know, like, I didn't even feel rich then. It's like, maybe the reason, you know, I, I always look at trauma responses. I'll be honest with you. Like this is just, when I see somebody that's on the street and they're homeless and they're addicts and they're begging. I don't see a big difference between that person and me. Which sounds wild, but let me tell you why.

• 22:58Speaker 01

  There, people respond to their, their stories. And unfortunately, some people can have a negative response to it and other ones can have a positive. So like the person that's a high achiever never, never stops. You know what I mean? They're, they're, for the most part, when you start, this is my story. When I started, it was to fill a void, right? The not enoughness. And the only difference between the person that's on the street, addict, et cetera, is they had a negative response to the trauma. The person that's a high achiever and very successful, they struggle with the same stuff that keeps the person on the street. They just have a positive response to it. The overachiever. So like, I think that's why, when you say, when do you feel like you're rich?

• 23:38Speaker 01

  I don't think I ever felt that way because there's always something I was trying to become to overcome the not enoughness, if that makes sense.

• 23:47Graham Stephan?

  What are the biggest misconceptions people have about money?

• 23:50Speaker 01

  That your bank account's a reflection of your beliefs.

• 23:56Speaker 01

  That one people aren't gonna like.

• 23:58Jack Selby?

  What do you mean by that?

• 23:59Speaker 01

  Your net worth is a reflection of your self-worth, period, full stop. If you don't have more money, it's because you don't feel you deserve it. Cause if you didn't feel like you deserved it, you would fight for it. And I can prove it. If I took half of your money away tomorrow, you would act different that day.

• 24:14Speaker 01

  So if you'd act different, it means that there's a level that you feel you deserve. And if it goes away, you didn't, I mean, we've all been there. So, so then, so I call those the highs. And what happens is most people oscillate. If you're good, you kind of oscillate up, but most people go up to down, up to down, up to down. And the trick, if you want to optimize for making money, is to make the old high, the new low. So you got to act as if the old high is the, the low. That is a hundred percent based on the beliefs you have about what you've created or not. And I think that's, that's a big one where people think that their bank accounts are a reflection of maybe their education, their opportunities or their skillset. And it is, but it starts with the, do I feel like I deserve for it?

• 24:57Speaker 01

  And we all know these people that are talented that never asked for anything. And then we know these other people that are not talented, ask for stuff they shouldn't even been asking for. And sometimes they get it. And then they get these opportunities and live a life that the other person's going, how did they do that?

• 25:09Jack Selby?

  So you think people disagree with you on that take?

• 25:12Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 25:12Jack Selby?

  And why do you think that is?

• 25:13Speaker 01

  Oh, because if they agree with it, then it shows them that the way they've lived their life is a lie. Like that truth, if they believe it, takes everything that they, you know, university background, et cetera. And essentially voids it because they've put their self-worth into these other things. And I'm saying, no, it's, do you feel worthy? Like, do you literally feel like if you want a hundred million, go, go get it? And again, they'll be like, oh, if it's a hundred million, then what about my time? And what about my family and all the sacrifice? And I'm like, no, those are all things you make up to stop yourself from deciding to go do something. Cause I didn't tell you how to give up all your time. You can still strive and desire something and put constraints in place. But it's just to not even desire to do it. That's the biggest thing about money.

• 25:57Jack Selby?

  This is interesting. It's like the meta of how to make a lot of money. It's like the philosophy that one should have if you do want to earn a lot. We're going to get on to like what that looks like in application and the actual direct things that you can do to make a lot of money. But first I want to lean a little bit more into the, into the philosophy. I'm curious, what are like the primary things that people need to look inwards at? To see if they're in a place philosophically speaking about making a lot of money?

• 26:23Speaker 01

  I'll give you, I'll give you really tactical. And again, people don't want to hear this, but. First off, if you are the wealthiest person you know, and you don't have other people around you that are further along, then it'll make it almost impossible for you to get ahead. Because if you try to, the people around you who don't understand that will ask you questions that get you to second guess yourself. That was the big thing I learned in rehab. How am I supposed to get sober if I stay around the same people that were selling

• 26:54Speaker 01

  Right off the gate, I had to get into a different environment. So I think that's a first question is, when you share something positive with the people in your life, do they cheer for you? Or do they tear you down? And unfortunately, most people, they don't have those cheerleaders in their court. That's one. Two, everybody thinks that you get paid for doing hard work. And unfortunately, that's not the case. Because if that was the case, and the person putting the roof, I mean, today, this is hot outside. Imagine somebody putting a roof on a house today? That's hard work. This is not hard work. So it's not getting paid for how hard you work. It's the value you create in the world. That's the world we live in. That's capitalism. If people don't like it, go to another country that's different.

• 27:37Speaker 01

  But the truth is, is like, you just got to be honest with yourself. Do you create value that other people value? It's not even that you think is valuable, because a lot of artists think they're like really good artists. But if they don't learn the skills to create value by telling stories and doing the raps, or trying to figure out some really unique ways to create art, then nobody else is gonna... There's no value there, right? And then the other one, I think is just like, what do you believe? You know, when I mentor these kids, I always, I always ask them, you have two people. You have Mr. Grumpy Face, and you got Mr. Happy Face. And you're walking around, and there's people out there that want to be helpful. Who do you think those people in the world that want to be helpful are gonna help? Grumpy Face or Happy Face? Happy Face. Okay, then audit your thoughts.

• 28:22Speaker 01

  Audit your questions. Like, if somebody says to you, there's more opportunity around the world than anybody's ever seen, do you agree with that statement? Or do you argue against it? Like, that's the victimhood mentality. So a lot of people that don't agree with me when I share this, all they're trying to do is fight for their stock. Like, it's kind of wild. You know, we talk about like, human psychology? The amount of fighting people do to fight for their limiting story is wild to me. Because I don't do that anymore. I hang out with people that are like trying to like, oh, that's cool, Graham. You should do this. You know, Jack, what about this? It's like, oh, jeez, I don't know. That's that's big. That's that's what you want to get around, but most people literally argue with you to fight against you. And I think those are things.

• 29:04Speaker 01

  Those are things you can just ask yourself, do I see opportunity in the world? Or do I think everything is scarce? Do I? I mean, there's like a trillion dollars that exchange hands today. Did you get a piece of it? It's there. Somebody got a piece of it. Go get it.

• 29:18Graham Stephan?

  Speaking of that, how would you make $10,000 a month for the average person watching this? And that's their goal.

• 29:24Speaker 01

  Right now?

• 29:25Graham Stephan?

  Right now.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  Easiest way? Yeah, I think I got a video coming out on it because we did a little challenge video. Okay, I'm gonna give very tactical. First thing I would do is I would load up chat GPT, ask it to create a real estate offer. And the reason why I do real estate offer is, you know, every real estate agent's web or phone numbers on the internet. Like right off the gate, let's solve the lead gen problem. Okay, so I go on chat GPT, I create an offer to use AI to automate the marketing for a real estate agent. And then you you literally just ask the chat, the AI to give you the script to do the phone, the cold calls. Okay. Now, as soon as people hearing this, they go, yeah, but nobody's gonna answer their phone. No, they do answer their phone. I could literally, I'll pull up the real estate agents right now and start cold calling. And they'll answer. Now, can I sell?

• 30:10Speaker 01

  That's a different skill. What I do when I'm doing cold calls, first three to five, they're throwaway. You just get them done. Like, you almost shouldn't care because it won't matter. You got to get in the energy of the playfulness to try to get the person to stay on the call. And then the whole point is you want to just schedule a call to show them what you've built. Now, and the people are gonna go, well, Dan, I've never built AI before. Okay, cool. Well, schedule the meeting, like get the calls done, get the meeting scheduled. And then you got time between when the meeting scheduled tomorrow and today to go figure out how to do a demo to get a real estate agent to go, oh, that's cool. And then I would go on the internet and I'd be like, real estate. I mean, I did this the other day. It was like, um, real estate listing AI TikToks or whatever.

• 30:52Speaker 01

  And like, you can, you can do a lot using these tools that are free tools to impress a real estate agent, to get them to give you a couple hundred bucks a month, or 500 bucks, or a thousand bucks. And then it's just a numbers game. Cause if you can sell one, you can sell 10, you can sell a thousand. And to me, that is such a very clear, specific tactical thing that they could do. Any person listening to this could do, then it goes back to their beliefs.

• 31:18Jack Selby?

  I think that a lot of opportunity, I'm sure we'd all agree, is in bridging that gap between like, the antiquated way that a lot of businesses are run, like the traditional corporate way, even mom and pop shops, bridging the gap between that and AI. Because there's just like so many businesses that operate on this older, older strategy. But if you introduce them to like instantaneous answers, solutions with AI, there's so much opportunity.

• 31:43Speaker 01

  You just show them. Like, one of the demos I like to show people is this product called Atlas, youratlas.com. And it's, it's a lead gen. Cause like, have you ever tried to like, hire somebody in a local business and you're like calling, nobody's even answering. This is what's interesting about local businesses is they all complain they don't have enough leads. And yet if we called 100 local businesses, we might only get 40% to answer the phone. So their phone rang with a potential client and they couldn't even answer. So your Atlas is an AI that will literally answer the phone, answer the questions, and schedule a sales call, or a follow-up, or demo, or whatever, fully automated. And if we called it and you would hear it, it sounds like a person.

• 32:21Graham Stephan?

  I got fooled by that.

• 32:23Speaker 01

  Dude, because it even does the background noise. It has like a tap, tap, tap.

• 32:26Graham Stephan?

  Yeah.

• 32:26Speaker 01

  And the tonality.

• 32:27Graham Stephan?

  When I was calling, it was like, um, hold on one sec. Uh, hold on. All right. Uh, give me one second. And then it was like, okay, we have this. It fooled me. And I'm like, wait a second.

• 32:36Speaker 01

  Is that real or not?

• 32:37Graham Stephan?

  This isn't real. It's a, it's a person. Or it's not a person.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  I'm, I'm telling you.

• 32:42Graham Stephan?

  It got me. It took me 20 seconds to figure this out. It was like, I had no idea.

• 32:46Speaker 01

  But even if it was AI, just the fact that it can answer the phone for inbound, and schedule a call, or answer a question, or get somebody's contact and upload it in your CRM, put them on the email list, like. That magic, because I think AI, the best stuff feels like magic. That magic is available in every part of the business. Financials, marketing, sales, operations, ideation, strategy. It's just people are still not, they don't know how to use it. You know what I mean? Like, do you guys use AI?

• 33:18Graham Stephan?

  All the time.

• 33:19Speaker 01

  What's the use case that you wish people knew more of? Like, what do you do with it that you're like, oh, people got to start?

• 33:23Graham Stephan?

  We use it to enhance our audio a lot. Like, that's been one of the easiest.

• 33:27Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 33:28Graham Stephan?

  I use it with idea creation. If I'm trying to bridge a gap between two subjects, like, let's say I'm talking about the stock market. I want to find a really easy segue to real estates. I just give my script to ChatGPT and I say, bridge a gap. Four sentences between these two that make it flow perfectly. And it just gives me five options. And then of the file, I'll be like, that's a great one. I'm going to tweak it, but I'm going to use that frame.

• 33:52Speaker 01

  You nailed it.

• 33:53Graham Stephan?

  Taxes, we've been.

• 33:54Jack Selby?

  Taxes are.

• 33:55Speaker 01

  Dude, like, I told my wealth manager, I was like, dude, you're not going to have a job soon. I love you, but it's all going away.

• 34:01Graham Stephan?

  I got a great one.

• 34:04Graham Stephan?

  I have six properties. And between those six properties, they're, they're all throughout Los Angeles County. I have two policies in each. One is a landlord's policy, one is an earthquake policy. And I have the amounts that I was charged on my Amex card. And I could see at the end of the year how much I'm charged from it. I was charged about sixteen thousand dollars a year. But I didn't know which charges went to which properties. So I asked my insurance agent, could you tell me exactly how much I paid in 2024 for the insurance, broken down by property? He does it. And I realized, wait a second, his only add up to fourteen thousand. Mine add up to sixteen thousand. Where did that two thousand and two dollars go? I have no idea. And I went back and forth with him over email for six months. He said, I can't find these extra charges.

• 34:49Graham Stephan?

  And he pulled up every little thing. I uploaded all the dot, the whole email thread to ChatGPT. And I, and I said, here are my charges, here are his, here are all the policy numbers. Find out where the discrepancy is. And within a minute, it found it. I was overcharged for one policy that was never refunded. And it found it, it found it by the, by the thing. And it was broken up into smaller little categories. And that's why we couldn't find it, because it was like a seven hundred dollar charge, a four dollar thing that was charged to this. But it found it. And then I sent him the chat GPT version. It's like, would you like me to put this in a PDF that I could send to your insurance?

• 35:24Speaker 01

  Yeah, so you guys.

• 35:25Graham Stephan?

  Yes. I sent it to him. He looked back. We got it resolved. But this was six months and it just found it. It was nuts.

• 35:33Speaker 01

  It's like the first time I showed my dad, my dad was, he would have been 63 at the time. He was at my event and I was like showing him some AI stuff. And he's like, how much is it? I said, Dad, it's free. He couldn't believe it. He's like, can I use it to like create a lease agreement for a tenant? I'm like, yeah.

• 35:52Speaker 00

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• 36:52Speaker 01

  Well, how to do that? I said, it's, well, I can't explain you the math, Dad, but it's AI. He's like, that's better. That agreement put stuff in there that my current lawyer didn't even think of doing. And I said, this is the thing, Dad, it's got perfect information of everything that's ever been done. I sit on a board. Sometimes I get behind, I don't look at the board deck before the call. I get on the call and while I'm on the call, realizing I haven't reviewed all the minutes and the notes and all that stuff, I just uploaded into a custom project in GPT and said, act as an investor. Here's the company, here's all the details. What are the five questions I should be asking the CEO? Waited my turn. I asked the first question. The CEO couldn't believe that I found a gross margin detail on the 37th page of the financial report. And all the other investors were like, how did you know to ask that?

• 37:37Speaker 01

  I was like, well, I read the information.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  You know what I mean? Like it's it's good. It's doing that and it's doing so much more. Like I just, I look at it and I think of like directors versus doers. Like the future is to the directors, the people that know how to use it to get the stuff done. Like GPT five, it's not out yet. The rumor is, is that if you've seen any of the operator stuff, which is like the browser based task execution, it'll log into software and do stuff for you. They're going to integrate that into the chat. Meaning that right now you use it to like research and like, hey, I'm going to this country. I want to put together a travel plan. But in five, you then say, and book it. And it will do all the booking, all the doing.

• 38:20Graham Stephan?

  That's cool.

• 38:21Speaker 01

  I just like, and people are like, but you wrote a book about executive assistants and virtual assistants. I'm like, yeah, all the doing they do today is is going away.

• 38:29Graham Stephan?

  But do you think that this is a bad thing in the sense that people will never learn how to think for themselves? Because I do find quite a lot of mistakes in chat GPT. I worry that at some point, people are just going to be reliant and say, well, my source is chat GPT because it told me so. And like, that's the source is because that says it.

• 38:47Speaker 01

  We've been there before. So I'm a big fan of like, looking at history as kind of a predictor. So like, you just think of all the people that are like instant, you know, medical experts because they went on about dot com because of some symptom, you know what I mean? Like, so there's, there is a history of us using technology to kind of self-serve that could be harmful. But I think we're going to get to a point, let's say, just in the medical space where it will be considered malpractice for you not to use AI. Like, I don't want a doctor, based on how his night went last night with a newborn, deciding if he saw something on a scan or not. So the thing is, is once you understand that the way AI is built today, and it will change next week and next month, is just a fancy autocomplete.

• 39:32Speaker 01

  It doesn't do math well. And that's where there's a lot of issues. It does, it does predictive text really well. That's why marketing was one of the first use cases for it. In the future, it will fix that predictive analytics part so that it is accurate. And I'm talking like months away. Like there's a company called Precision that does like business analyst kind of dashboards. And I think it's precision.co and they ran into this, but essentially what they're going to do is continue to use like the coding. It's called the tool in software, so they'll use the tool to do the analytical part, but still use the AI to do the strategic part. So you have the dashboard data that's accurate, but telling you what you should do in your business, that's based on strategy.

• 40:14Speaker 01

  Right. Based on who you are, the context, your employees, how big it is, the comp structure, your tact, you know what I mean? Like, and I think that it does really well, but you also gotta, that's the part that is the director versus the doer. Like a good director, I'm going to pay because they have domain experience and they know when something comes back that it's wrong. And that's, I think that's where like AI is really good. There's three types of intelligence. There's analytical intelligence, there's creative intelligence, and there's emotional intelligence. And if you think of what AI is world-class at, better than most humans, analytical intelligence. You'll never be able to outthink, we're talking PhD level doctorate research projects with the new reasoning models. That's today. And then the creative part, writing ads, helping you with your scripts.

• 40:59Speaker 01

  It can do it, but what it lacks is taste, right? It lacks experience. It may get there, but today it doesn't have it. But I, I would say if I'm betting on how do I defend myself against AI? It's the creative part and it's the emotional part. It's the EQ side, right? I mean, as long as humans are still involved in the processes of getting things done, the emotional intelligence will always be needed.

• 41:22Graham Stephan?

  You know what I think is going to happen? We're going to get our own AI that we're going to grow up with. It's going to know us so intuitively well and you'll never be able to exit that because it's got all of your info. Yeah, built in and you could start doing this at like 13 years old, working with your chat GPT. Grow up with it and by the time you're 50, my gosh, it knows you better than anyone else.

• 41:45Speaker 01

  It knows it right now. You can actually ask it prompts.

• 41:47Graham Stephan?

  I do that all the time.

• 41:48Speaker 01

  Yeah. Like what, what, what's my shadow side I don't want to acknowledge?

• 41:51Graham Stephan?

  Yeah.

• 41:52Speaker 01

  That's a crazy question to ask the AI or ask it, what do you know about me?

• 41:57Speaker 01

  How does it know? And that's Sam Altman, the founder of, you know, ChatGPT or OpenAI. He stated like, we want to be the AI that does that. And then you can use Claude and Gemini and the other ones, but we want to be the layer of personalization above. What's interesting, if you think about it, is how does this apply when you have people at work? And they create IP at work and then they go take a new job. That's an interesting question that I've been thinking about is like, how do you take essentially your work experience with you? When a lot of it was filtered through the AI co-pilots for your job? And you've built these like best practices with the AI at work. But then you take a new job and they're saying, well, you can't take it with you because that's we own that IP. Nobody talks about that, but I think about it a lot.

• 42:40Graham Stephan?

  I think for relationships too, that people are going to have robots that they could just.

• 42:45Speaker 01

  Dude, I heard Gary Vee, dude.

• 42:47Graham Stephan?

  No, it's true.

• 42:48Jack Selby?

  ChatGPT could have the craziest matchmaker ever. Think about it in terms of that for you have like user profiles. And then if it's collecting, which it doesn't collect today, it claims it remains on the platform. But like, if you could say, who in the world matches my personality perfectly? And then ChatGPT says, oh, this user over here in like Iowa.

• 43:06Speaker 01

  That's wild.

• 43:07Graham Stephan?

  Oh, I'd love to imagine you upload your photo.

• 43:09Jack Selby?

  Yeah.

• 43:09Graham Stephan?

  And you, you, it gives you like a hundred faces and you rank attractiveness of like all these faces. So it knows exactly what you like, body type, facial structure, eye color, hair, everything.

• 43:20Jack Selby?

  People would pay like $50,000 to find their like partner for life.

• 43:24Speaker 01

  Oh, yeah, they do that today. It's just they're, they're only the pool. Yeah.

• 43:28Graham Stephan?

  To be like that.

• 43:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, like they pay it, they don't get that.

• 43:32Jack Selby?

  And ChatGPT could drop a prenup.

• 43:34Speaker 01

  Dude, imagine they just scans all Facebook, like it's got all the data. Like I think of like the data sets to train this thing, it already exists.

• 43:40Graham Stephan?

  That's a fantastic idea.

• 43:42Jack Selby?

  Yeah.

• 43:42Graham Stephan?

  To find the one, the one in a billion. That is your best match.

• 43:47Jack Selby?

  What you could probably do is just create an app that does that. And then you copy all of your user memory, upload it to the site. And then people just do that and then take pictures of yourself. Like you said, it generates photos of people you say what you like. Dude, that right there, billion dollar business.

• 44:01Graham Stephan?

  I'm going to tell you a bit of a, I'm going to tell you a bit of a morbid idea that I had, that I think it's a great idea that someone's going to think of this at some point. You have, let's say, a parent or someone who's getting older. They could upload their voice through everything into a cloud or into like Chat GPT. And it asks them all these questions about themselves. How would you answer this? What is your thoughts on this? But enough so that it has like a lot of data, voice, everything. When they pass away, you would be able to call in a phone number or hear this person's voice and talk to them. And it talks as though it's them. And it, but it would, I think it would help people.

• 44:40Jack Selby?

  I don't think it's that morbid. I don't think it's morbid at all, yeah.

• 44:43Speaker 01

  I mean, people frigging grab their animals and stuff them and put them in their home. And I think, I hope you, I mean, if you guys do that, that's cool, but like, that's kind of fucked.

• 44:50Graham Stephan?

  No, but I'm just saying, if someone.

• 44:52Jack Selby?

  You're awaiting to see what you're inside of, like.

• 44:54Speaker 01

  Like looking in your eyes, I'm like, did I touch a nerve?

• 44:56Graham Stephan?

  It would help you feel good if someone passes away.

• 44:59Jack Selby?

  No, that's.

• 44:59Graham Stephan?

  And you could just say, you know, I miss this person. I'm going to go and talk to them. I know it's not them, but this is what they would say. It just makes me feel better. That there's all, they're always there.

• 45:07Jack Selby?

  Yeah.

• 45:08Graham Stephan?

  A part of them is, is that I could talk to.

• 45:10Speaker 01

  What's interesting is us, the three of us, are already creating that. So whether we want it to exist or not, it already exists for people. Like they're doing this right now, like with the coaching models and stuff where you can just like create a phone number where people call and they can ask Dan Martell or Graham questions. So I think it's interesting that the more content's created that like, you know, my kids definitely with my YouTube, like they'll be, that, that exists.

• 45:35Jack Selby?

  Yeah.

• 45:36Speaker 01

  Like they could do it now. I don't think it's that morbid. I think it's actually a beautiful, like.

• 45:42Speaker 01

  Yeah, it kind of brings up this idea that the amount of people that live for their parents' approval that aren't even alive fascinates me.

• 45:53Speaker 01

  And that same breadth of like.

• 45:54Graham Stephan?

  It's a Black Mirror episode like that.

• 45:56Speaker 01

  Is there?

• 45:56Graham Stephan?

  Yeah, yeah, her husband passes away and she calls this number and they. They deliver a new husband. It's AI. So it's not.

• 46:04Speaker 01

  Sorry. Husband passes away, calls a number, gets a new husband.

• 46:07Graham Stephan?

  A new husband with with his memory uploaded to that robot. And he acts a bit differently. And she says, oh, you wouldn't actually do this. And it reprograms. Okay, from now on, I'm gonna do that. And so like, over time, it molds more and more like him.

• 46:22Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:22Graham Stephan?

  It just it became an unhealthy obsession that she would spend all of her time with this AI.

• 46:26Speaker 01

  Would she overcorrect it into like the perfect husband?

• 46:28Jack Selby?

  Yeah, into like her idealized version of her husband?

• 46:30Graham Stephan?

  Kind of. How about don't say that?

• 46:32Jack Selby?

  But the ending.

• 46:33Graham Stephan?

  Don't nag me. Yeah. He wouldn't have done that.

• 46:35Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:36Graham Stephan?

  He is perfect now. Yeah. Why did I wait so long? But the ending was that she couldn't move on because she was so attached to this thing. And that part of the grieving process was you can't have, you can't rely on that. So maybe it helps people back, but.

• 46:48Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 46:49Graham Stephan?

  I think it would be a unique thing to be able to call someone who's passed away.

• 46:52Speaker 01

  Yeah, and talk to them and hear them. Yeah.

• 46:55Graham Stephan?

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• 47:35Graham Stephan?

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• 47:52Graham Stephan?

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• 49:29Speaker 01

  The world we're going into, the world we live in, like, I haven't been this excited since the internet, like, legit. This is, this is bigger. You know, there's a great quote that says, "Things that can be electrified will be cognified." So that's an interesting idea. Everything that's, I don't know if you guys know, some of these robotics companies are humanoids, like the Tesla Optimus, but my favorite one's Figure. So Figure has this, yeah, Figure 2. And it's like sitting there grabbing parcels off the UPS line and sorting and packing it down. And you swear it's not real, like, it looks fake. And it's getting to the point where, like, that in two years, when it's taking care of the dirty, the dumb, and the dangerous jobs, and then all that cost savings gets bubbled up in the economy.

• 50:13Speaker 01

  I don't know, man. I see a world where we're gonna get to a place where, like, food, transportation, and shelter is kind of taken care of. Through robotics.

• 50:21Graham Stephan?

  Yeah, I saw one, there was a robot doing floors in a house.

• 50:25Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:25Graham Stephan?

  Like, one robot replaces two workers.

• 50:28Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:28Graham Stephan?

  Perfectly installing floors.

• 50:30Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 50:31Graham Stephan?

  I think, I think the cost of a house should go down dramatically. Just because you could utilize these robots and these things to build a house in like a third of the time.

• 50:40Speaker 01

  Yep. No smoke breaks, no complaining, 24 hours a day. And I, and that's why I like the humanoid form factor is the best one because it's a generalist robot. There's the, we, we went through this like period of like specialized robots. You see them in like car manufacturing plants. And the argument now is we go humanoid because the world was built for us. So everybody talks about self-driving cars, for example. What about when the robots drive the cars and every car becomes self-driving? So I just, I think people don't see that curve. And, you know, the construction, I mean, I thought we'd be have 3D printed homes by now. Like, I used to watch like 3D printing, kind of the big stuff with the cements and all that.

• 51:22Graham Stephan?

  I think it's more zoning.

• 51:23Speaker 01

  Yeah, it is, it is the, it's even like the, you know, the prefab, you know, like box homes and stuff really haven't taken off either, but.

• 51:30Graham Stephan?

  I looked into those, those are really interesting, but, but bringing in plumbing and everything to them. And then you're more than the cost of just building it from scratch.

• 51:37Speaker 01

  Yeah. Yeah, I think the robots, though, because they're generalized robotics, like the one that does UPS line, that morning worked at the BMW factory. And it's the same robot that grabbed the stuff and helped build the car that also grabbed packages. That's, and the, the reason the CEO talks about like the home will be the last one to do is because, you know, accidentally knocking over a candle and burning a house down or having the robot run out of power and fall down on a baby. Like, those are serious concerns, so they're gonna wait to do the home last and use the manufacturing and like the facilities first and the dangerous stall and, you know, dirty jobs that nobody wants, right? And that's why they've started with those jobs where they're dangerous, people are losing fingers or.

• 52:19Graham Stephan?

  Yeah, underwater welding, that seems like an easy one.

• 52:22Speaker 01

  Yeah, man, just get some gaskets on those motors and put them underwater and they just, and it's crazy because they can learn with only 60 hours of training data, 60 hours of watching a human do the job. That's today, so it might get down to an hour.

• 52:35Graham Stephan?

  I want to see robots making other robots.

• 52:38Speaker 01

  That's

• 52:38Graham Stephan?

  That would make me happy.

• 52:40Speaker 01

  You brought something.

• 52:41Graham Stephan?

  You go into your like basement, you see a robot creating its own thing. You're like, hey, what's up? Nothing, nothing, nothing. Don't worry about it.

• 52:48Speaker 01

  But that was like, somebody asked you, they're like, when did you know AI? Like, was gonna be something special? It's when I saw AI write code. And it was before GPT-3.5. It was like six, five, six years ago, when I watched the AI write code and realized that it could write code for itself. At some point, it was just logical that eventually the robot makes robots and the code writes code. And then you see this right now with the reasoning models. If you use an O3 model and tell it to write the code, you can watch it write code to solve problems for itself. It's kind of wild. Like, if you expand that little window and say, show me what you're doing. It's, it's searching the internet and it's trying to figure out whatever you ask it to do. And if it gets stuck, it will write code to get unstuck.

• 53:32Graham Stephan?

  So when has it become a problem? When, when did they take over the world?

• 53:37Speaker 01

  My biggest concern is just the evil. So like, I grew up and I saw some evil stuff. And those people exist. And I'm just worried that, and I think that's what Elon is trying to do with like Grok. And he started OpenAI as a nonprofit to essentially say, hey, if, you know, these superpowers in the world, or these companies, you know, the FAANG companies have access to this. Like, we got to make sure that everybody has access to it. That's like his essentially like antidote to the problem. That's also why he's doing Neuralink, because he knows that if the AI goes into superintelligence, not just general intelligence, now we as humans need the ability to, the I/O of a human is very slow, input-output. It's, it's our thumbs and our cortex. But they, the AI, airdrop stuff.

• 54:22Speaker 01

  So if we don't have the ability to have the AI and talk to it the speed that the computers can talk to each other, then if it gets malicious, we can't protect ourselves. That's just real. Like, it will get there. It's just, I think Elon is one of the few people that are like, hey, we need to make sure Neuralink works. We need to make sure AI is available to everybody and not just controlled by a small group of companies. And then it's like everything in the world with nuclear power or whatever like it's, it's really positive and it's also potentially the worst thing could ever happen to us. But people go, well, isn't that bad? I go, how are you going to stop it? Show me your phone. Like, what are you talking about? I said, what kind of phone you got? You got the latest phone? Yeah, I got the latest phone. Cool. I dare you to stop wanting the latest stuff.

• 55:09Speaker 01

  Exactly. Every human on earth is born with a DNA that says, I want a better life, which means a nicer home, which means a better phone, which means so. So, you know, I don't know who said it, but I think it was on Rogan where he said that humans are the bootstrapper to artificial intelligence. Like, we, we might be the biological bootstrap. The bootstrap is kind of like software thing. So there's like a boot loader in operating systems to kick off this synthetic intelligence. Whether you like it or not, it's probably, it's gonna come. And I don't know, man. Then we have a conversation of, are we in base reality?

• 55:45Jack Selby?

  I do think that we're getting a little distracted because a lot of people are going to be clicking on this video to learn how to make money.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  Let's do it.

• 55:50Jack Selby?

  Because that's what a lot of your content is about. And we've been watching it. We really enjoy a lot of these like life lessons, personal philosophies, how you can make a lot of money. I'm curious, what is one life lesson that you listened to when you were younger that you wish you didn't?

• 56:04Speaker 01

  Wow, that I listened to when I was younger, that I wish I didn't? I mean, it's all the, the money stories, man. Money doesn't grow on trees. Like the, what, what other ones? The life lessons? Man, I had to deal with every one. Like, like the money is evil? Like, money's a fork, man. Like, people are like, money's bad. I'm like, well, is a fork bad? It can, it could feed you, nourish you, or it could also somebody. So is it bad? It's a tool. I think that I used to believe. I had a belief for a long time that if I don't go bankrupt, I'm not successful.

• 56:41Graham Stephan?

  What do you mean by that?

• 56:42Speaker 01

  I just kept reading stories of people that I admired that went bankrupt. And I thought to myself, well, if I admire them and they're successful, then I guess I have to go do, go be so successful, I lose it all to build it back up to prove that I'm successful. Like, that's a dumb story. That was the dumb, that one I probably held on to for 10 years. The dumbest of dumbest. And then I remember sitting there and I asked myself a question, what am I pretending not to know? Well, I'm pretending not to know that I can hire people that can fortify my wealth so I don't lose it. So hire the people and then let them be your partners in the financial planning. So it's like, that was a weird one.

• 57:20Speaker 01

  I don't know, the, the, the, the people that are rich are evil. You know, growing up and, you know, not a lot of stuff and, you know, you'd be on vacation and you see a nice car and, you know, my mom would say, oh, that guy's in the mafia or something. Well, I don't want to be in the mafia. Do I have to be in the mafia to drive a car like that? Do I have to be evil if I drive a car like that? Like, that's, it was, it was just all the beliefs that are just simply not true. And sometimes I wonder, did I believe those things? Because it allowed me not to play towards what I was trying to create, you know, almost like self sabotaging beliefs? Or allowed me to live in this like story? Or, you know, what's the opposite?

• 58:02Graham Stephan?

  It's hard to tell yourself that you really want something.

• 58:04Speaker 01

  Totally.

• 58:05Graham Stephan?

  Because as soon as you realize that you do, like through and through,

• 58:09Speaker 01

  Then you gotta do it.

• 58:10Graham Stephan?

  Then if you don't achieve it, then it's like everything was a lie.

• 58:12Speaker 01

  This is why people don't say their goals publicly. Because if I tell you what my goal is publicly, then you're going to ask me about it next time I see you. So most people live these kind of like quiet lives of desperation for a desire to create a life that's bigger. They don't tell anybody because as soon as they tell people, then, then they're accountable. But if words create things, and they do, that's how you, everything you've ever gotten in your life is on the backside of a conversation. Whether you know it or not, that's how it's always been. Humans buy from humans, people do things with humans, it's conversation, video content, all that stuff. And the words we use are what create those opportunities.

• 58:49Graham Stephan?

  I always thought it was the opposite. When you say something, people reinforce it and you get the same feelings of satisfaction as of though you actually did it. Like if I tell Jack-

• 59:00Speaker 01

  That's when you ideate. Yeah, same, Mark, because I'm not, yeah.

• 59:02Graham Stephan?

  Yeah.

• 59:04Jack Selby?

  That's when you say like, like, I'm gonna go to the gym every day.

• 59:06Graham Stephan?

  And Jack's like, oh, man, Graham, that's awesome. Yeah, you're gonna go to gym. And I feel great. Look at what I just did. And then I never do it. My, my, uh, is, is, my whole philosophy is the opposite of that is just, I never say anything.

• 59:19Speaker 01

  And quiet. Just, yeah, watch this.

• 59:20Graham Stephan?

  Cause I, but I'm also superstitious that if I say something, then maybe me putting it out there, it's not gonna happen. So I'd rather just not say it.

• 59:27Speaker 01

  I used, I used, actually in high school, I used to believe that when there's like contests in class.

• 59:30Graham Stephan?

  Yeah.

• 59:31Speaker 01

  I would just be like, I'm not gonna win. I'm not gonna win. I'm not gonna win. And then I won. I created this belief that if I just believe I'm not gonna win, I'm gonna win.

• 59:37Graham Stephan?

  Yeah. And if you think you're gonna do something, then it's not gonna happen.

• 59:40Speaker 01

  Just, it's not, it's not true.

• 59:41Graham Stephan?

  Yeah.

• 59:42Speaker 01

  It statistically is not true. If you actually ran the numbers and tried both, it probably would, it would work better. And the reason why is because even the idea was ideation. When you talk it out loud and the person says, yeah, let's go, you at least had to say it. And I think that's what's interesting, but like, the more you tell people what your goals are, if you think about like somebody runs a marathon. Better yet, vegans or CrossFitters? How do you know they're vegans or CrossFitters?

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• 1:00:35Graham Stephan?

  A vegan will tell you.

• 1:00:35Speaker 01

  They will tell you as soon as possible. So it's interesting because I remember the first time I did an Ironman. I just decided I'm gonna do an Ironman, but then I started training and I was talking about it and I was tracking it and I was changing my calendar around it and I was. So then I realized the, the, the, the frequency of the talking about the goal went up by like a thousand. So. Was it that I did the work or that I talked about it and I kept talking about it? It was front of mind. So it's like that whole like, you know, when people talk about like manifesting? I don't know if it's, it's literally just like based on the brain and the science. It's you create a heat seeking missile towards an outcome. The more you talk about it, the more people hear about it, the more they say, hey, have you tried this equipment? Have you done this? Have you talked to this person?

• 1:01:15Speaker 01

  You watch this video, you know, have you watched the, you know, frigging dude, James Lawrence, who did a hundred Ironmans in a row, right? And you watch this video and then you feel more motivated. So it's like, that doesn't even get presented to you if you didn't say something in the first place. That essentially allow you to create a goal. Like that's, that's the thing I'm fascinated by. If you look at every successful person in the world, from Elon to Steve to everything, they spoke their future in existence.

• 1:01:39Jack Selby?

  I always wonder though, if it's even helpful at all to look at the most successful people, because they are so far outside of the norm of like the bell curve of personalities and character, that it's like, why would you even look to someone that's just not remotely close to you at all? Like, I feel like you take the most successful people, you look at their personality, and it's just like all of them, they got like, you know, they have Asperger's or they have something going on. That you're like, okay, well, do I really want to follow in this person's footsteps? When their code, their genetic code is completely different than mine.

• 1:02:14Speaker 01

  Yeah. I think, I think what happens is that there is survivor bias, right? And especially CEOs, because CEOs are typically like louder and blah, blah, blah. And so people see that, but the, the pattern matching, I think is a useful, you know, strategy. Because, and it's not necessarily like the CEOs or the Oprahs or the, the Richard Branson's, like the people that are well-known, because there's a lot of people in the private equity space that nobody knows that are billionaires. And if you watch their character traits, there's stuff to learn from them. So like, I don't know, I'm, I'm a fan of, I guess my whole life has been a byproduct of pattern matching. It's like, if I'm here and I want to go here and these people are doing this. I first asked myself, who do I need to become? Cause to me, it's not the skill. I can develop the skill. I can learn to code. I can learn AI.

• 1:02:58Speaker 01

  But it's like, who am I that's gonna make like, cause self sabotage on the way up? And I think that's what stops people from making their first 10K.

• 1:03:08Jack Selby?

  So what habits or practices do you recommend for anybody? If they see themselves living like a mediocre or average life that wanna turn into something exceptional?

• 1:03:18Speaker 01

  I think it's less about adding and more about subtracting. So it's less about, you know, people asking like, what do you do? It's what I don't do. I think, how can you possibly change your life for the better? If you talk about the negativity and lack in the world, the scarcity in the world. You know, so I think right off the bat, you know, just change, change the way you run your day. I mean, everybody knows like a morning routine that starts off with like water, a workout, reading something good for the book or from a book, gratitude journaling, like those are very simple habits that, that provide energy for the day, clarity for the day, writing down your intention for the day. Those habits, but it's like, you gotta stop all the other stuff.

• 1:04:01Jack Selby?

  Okay, let's, let's break down, cause you said it's subtractive, not additive, but then you added a morning routine. So it was, okay, so let's, let's get a little granular here. First, let's talk about the morning routine.

• 1:04:11Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 1:04:11Jack Selby?

  Okay. If you were to break down the absolutely perfect morning routine for everybody watching right now to set them up for success, what would it be?

• 1:04:20Speaker 01

  Brian Johnson's protocol blueprint.

• 1:04:22Jack Selby?

  Nine hours. And you finish by noon.

• 1:04:26Speaker 01

  Dude, when I talk to these people like Ben Greenfield, it's like, how do you travel the world and still do this? You know what I mean? So like, I think there's the, if you just, again, if you ask ChatGPT, analyze all the most successful people in the world, look at their morning routines, what do they all have in common? You will find these, these things. One, they typically get up earlier than most people. Do they get up at four in the morning, 2:30 in the morning, six in the morning? It's just earlier than most. And the reason why I think is because anytime you get out of bed, when you don't wanna get out of bed, you start the day off by telling yourself, I'm doing something I don't wanna do. That just like, I had a client once and he had like 17 alarms, like every three minutes he had an alarm. And he'd go to bed and he'd set like six of them. And he just like snooze and just, yeah, I don't know if I'm triggering any of you.

• 1:05:10Speaker 01

  Like, are you guys snoozers? Like, do you hear the same? Oh, no. Like, I couldn't understand why he had all these alarms set. And it's just like, he built this habit of like delaying the start of his day. So I think right off the bat, you know, go to bed on time and get up earlier. That's a great start. Most people would agree. I know that changed my life when I started even just getting up at six. I get up at four every day and have for almost five years. But I just started with six, like 15 years ago. And that was a change, you know? And then I would say, make sure you have a plan for the morning. Most people get up and they don't have a plan. I think if you, your plan is to read, you know, feed your mind. I think reading books to give you insight, it's not even, it's not even reading to learn. It's reading to get your mind focused on positivity. Like, that's what I read.

• 1:05:54Speaker 01

  Like, I've read 1,600 books. I don't need to read another book. Like, I, I do it because I want to remind myself what I've already consumed. It's more of a remind, not taught. And then I'm a big fan of writing out like gratitude. I think gratitude is like, it doesn't matter how bad of a day you are. My, my kids, you know, they're two boys. They fight all the time and anytime they're in a fight and like I break them apart, I just have a conversation about gratitude. Cause it's just the instant, you can't be grateful for something and be pissed off. Like, it's the, those emotions kind of cancel each other out.

• 1:06:28Speaker 01

  So I think gratitude journaling, I use a five minute journal. You know, my buddy Alex started this company. It's just really easy. So five minute journal, gratitude. And then I like to move the body, man. I think exhaust the body, tame the mind. Like, this morning we were working out, I was explaining this to Cohen on my team. I was like, I think of like Etch A Sketch, you know, the red Etch A Sketch? When I work out and it's like the last two reps and you're, you're like feeling the pain and you push. It's kind of like a reset on the mind. It's an Etch A Sketch.

• 1:06:58Speaker 01

  So you might, you know, have a lot of self doubt, doing a bunch of podcasts today, nervous, speaking, whatever you got going on, right? Big opportunities, got to present to your boss. And to me, the workout in the morning, even if it's 25 minutes, is just this beautiful reset, not necessarily to get in shape, but just for the mind. And if you had to like distill it into the minimum effective dose, I think that's what you got. And you could probably get it done if you wanted to go real fast in about an hour.

• 1:07:27Jack Selby?

  That's interesting. It kind of reminds me, I always think about this. We had Dr. K on the podcast and he always talks about single pointed consciousness, which is the idea, or one pointed consciousness, which is the idea that your brain is, every, every fiber in your body is all oriented towards one goal. And if you're on those last two reps or whatever, and you're hitting maximum atrophy, then you can't think about anything other than those last two reps. And it's like about orienting your life to find those moments. Cause I think that is kind of that brain etch a sketch refresh, where afterwards you have like a moment of clarity. That's interesting because I usually, I've found that I have the best workouts in the afternoon. Like I'm able to push myself the hardest because I'm not tired in the middle.

• 1:08:07Speaker 01

  You have calories.

• 1:08:07Jack Selby?

  Yeah, it's probably that.

• 1:08:08Speaker 01

  It's a hundred percent food.

• 1:08:09Jack Selby?

  But, but the difference is if I were to work out earlier in the day, maybe I'll have more mental clarity throughout the rest of the day.

• 1:08:15Speaker 01

  That's why I work out in the morning. And I used to work in the afternoon because I had kids and I had to stay up late and then not get up early. And I like to reset the afternoon, like a lunchtime workout. I used to do that for a few years. But the value of getting the workout done in the morning, even if I, I usually wake up and I work and then work out at like eight o'clock. So I'll even push off because I like to, like the morning for me is such a precious time to create, connected to my creator, like that's my morning, that I'll do an 8 a.m. And it's still the mental reset for the day, a hundred percent. And it's also flow state. When you're in flow, you don't worry about going to the bathroom. You don't have insecurities, you don't have concerns. Like flow state is this single point of something. That's why most people have the best ideas in the shower, driving or at the gym, because they're doing a thing that lets their brain kind of go on autopilot.

• 1:09:00Speaker 01

  And then they're, they're kind of like this, this mind thinking about problems and open loops. And then they get downloads because of that single point of focus. And most people drive home and don't remember how they got home. Not interesting. Most people leave their office, drive home, and they don't really consciously remember driving home.

• 1:09:20Speaker 01

  Because they're in a flow state and they don't use that time to improve their life. I, I would, I would give myself something to think about, like what problem do I need to solve today?

• 1:09:31Graham Stephan?

  One of my biggest things, I stopped listening to music in the car. Now it's just podcasts. I get so much done.

• 1:09:37Speaker 01

  It's, I will tell you this, my wife told me this and I thought she was a psycho. She goes, when I drive, I don't listen to anything. That's crazy. Do you guys listen? Like, do you have to have something play?

• 1:09:49Graham Stephan?

  Sometimes I, I just am silent.

• 1:09:51Speaker 01

  You've driven without music or a podcast?

• 1:09:53Jack Selby?

  I've tested myself before. Yeah, but it's not like a thing.

• 1:09:56Speaker 01

  When she told me that she does this and it is her happiest part of her day, I thought that was fascinating. Then I asked myself, what am I trying to be distracted from?

• 1:10:08Speaker 01

  And then I remember one time I was working with this coach, Stephanie, and she said, go for a walk in the woods. I said, okay, for how long? She goes, you'll know when you're done.

• 1:10:19Speaker 01

  And I'm kind of a systems guy, like, is it hour? She goes, you'll know it like Mr. Miyagi style. And I went by myself in the woods. Like when I run, I run trails, but I'm always listening to podcasts, books, music, something, right? Like I'm like, I make phone calls. I call my friends and just talk while I'm running. Cause I don't want to be like out in the woods doing nothing. And I remember going for this walk and just being like, oh my gosh, there's a totally different level of existence when you can be comfortable in the silence. Like I got it. I finally got my wife, who I thought was completely crazy, driving in silence, just how wild that idea is.

• 1:10:53Graham Stephan?

  At what point do you begin to buy back your time?

• 1:10:56Speaker 01

  I'll tell you why I'm smiling. Cause I listened to you talk about that period of your life where you were editing like three videos a day or something. And I was like, Graham, why are you do, like I literally before I ever met you.

• 1:11:07Graham Stephan?

  Cause no one could do it like me.

• 1:11:08Speaker 01

  I know, bro, but it's like, it's, and you're not wrong. Here's the way I like to explain it to people. Eighty percent done by somebody else is a hundred percent friggin awesome. And if that's not good enough, be better. Meaning that there is a world where if you had to sit down, document how you do it, it could have got done. Okay. And I teach this in my book. It's a 108010 principle. 10% upfront ideation, 80% execution from somebody else. The last 10% is integration. Where you didn't have to not be involved in the editing. You just need, didn't need to be the primary editor. I met a guy that's got like, I don't know, 10 million on YouTube. And he was doing the full stack. And he's sitting there trying to say like, you know, I don't have time to go to the gym and I don't have time for this.

• 1:11:53Speaker 01

  And I'm, and I'm just like, you know, I try to shut my mouth if people don't ask. But like, when I watched you do that, I was, I was, it was kind of fascinating to me because I think the most, the, the biggest expense in your business is anytime you're doing stuff that isn't making you the most money. And when I heard you say that, I was like, bro, you could have been getting so much time back to go do more real estate deals or other stuff that.

• 1:12:18Graham Stephan?

  What's, what's funny is I did have Alex who helped me with my editing. And some of those times I realized like, I wish I just had edited myself. Because sometimes it's, it's good for me to edit and I just.

• 1:12:30Speaker 01

  You get in the flow.

• 1:12:31Graham Stephan?

  I get in the flow.

• 1:12:32Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 1:12:33Graham Stephan?

  And I need that break. Sometimes I would finish like planning, filming, send it off to Alex. And I'm like, oh shit, now I just got to go back to planning. I didn't have that like break in between.

• 1:12:42Speaker 01

  Yeah. I mean, the way I look at it is, um, you know, my background is studying like agile and like manufacturing. So it's, it's, it's always workflow. Left, left side, raw materials, right side, finished goods. So when I help anybody think about buying back their time, I go, okay, well, what's the production line of value in your life? What do you do? Right? And then we just map it out. And I go, okay, what part do you feel you don't ever want to do? Let's put that in red. And then what's the stuff you really enjoy doing? Like editing, cool. But even in the green stuff, so red is stuff I really hate to do, like invoicing and consolidating bank accounts, all that stuff. Green might be editing, but even in the editing process, what parts do I want to be involved in and which parts I don't? So like capturing content, putting it on the drive, clipping it out, da, da, da.

• 1:13:26Speaker 01

  Like you could have even just paid somebody to do the first 50%. They would have got you half that time back and then reinvest that time in the thing that makes you more money. And like, that's, that's the, nobody's ever built a million dollar business doing $10 task. It's impossible. Like, I'm assuming you do have people in your life that support you, house cleaners, like, no, jeez Louise, then you pulled it off.

• 1:13:48Graham Stephan?

  My wife may see, there's a lot of the.

• 1:13:50Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yeah. I just think like, if you're trying to optimize for wealth, if somebody wants to make 10 grand or, you know, I mean, especially people are making 300 grand a year in their business. 300 is like this level where you can spend 1500 bucks a month, a couple of grand a month, to get back quite a bit of time in a week. I'm talking like 30 hours back in a week.

• 1:14:08Graham Stephan?

  Like what, like laundry, cooking?

• 1:14:10Speaker 01

  Dude, just errands. You know how many people waste time just driving around town, running errands? I haven't gone to a retail store or whatever in years. Like, I don't, I mean, I don't want to like, it's not a flex, but like, I don't even put gas in my car. I don't, there's a, you can live a life where you only, like, I hang out with people I love, my family, my friends, my coworkers, or I do things that I love to do. Like, that's, those are two things. Anything that's not that, I try to create an allergic reaction to it. And on purpose, leave it there until I find the solution to get it done. And that's the creative game to try to figure out, how do you build a machine that runs a machine? I don't, if I get involved, then I'll always be involved. But if I like step back to build a machine, so it gets done at the level I want it to and documented and trained them, I get to buy back my time. And

• 1:14:54Speaker 01

  with that time, I can decide, do I want to go increase the quality of my life, spend time with people I love, or do I want to go create a business or make more money? But there's just no way to get out of that. And you'll always hit what I call the complexity ceiling. We all have it. I have it today. You guys have it. You have a ceiling of complexity that you're able to deal with. And anything above that, you feel over your skis and you pull it back. So the only way to get that higher is to actually do the work to figure out what skills you got to acquire, what beliefs I have to adjust, so I can learn to let go. Most people just can't let go. Cause it's scary.

• 1:15:27Graham Stephan?

  What do you think has been your biggest waste of money?

• 1:15:30Speaker 01

  I mean, I lost a couple million invested in a company. That sucked. That.

• 1:15:34Graham Stephan?

  What happened?

• 1:15:36Speaker 01

  I had to sign a document, so I couldn't talk about it, but I can't talk about it without the details. I just got, you know, like when you're in business and you like have a little success and you start to feel really good about yourself. So you start doing a bunch of other stuff that you probably shouldn't be doing. That's what happened. I like got to a point in my career where like, after you learn and you like go through some tough times, you kind of feel like you have the Midas touch. So you start agreeing to do stuff. So I like bought this guy's company and thought I'm going to turn it from, you know, two million to 10 million. And, and essentially I underestimated the fact that I'm not going to run the company. You got to run the company. There's a reason you sold the company is probably because you're not talented enough to run the company. And after about 18 months of it, it was, and it was the massive time suck. You know, I mean, time suck, emotional suck. I just had to like, literally I called my business partner,

• 1:16:19Speaker 01

  who was part of the deal with me. And I was just like, bro, I gotta like call my loss. So that was a tough one. I felt bad because I felt bad for the CEO that of the company, we bought the company and my business partner, because like we had to swallow the pill. I would say things that I buy that I feel is a waste of money. I just, it's tough because I don't think I would spend money on things that I think is a waste of money.

• 1:16:40Jack Selby?

  What are the best things to spend your money on?

• 1:16:43Speaker 01

  Time. It's literally time.

• 1:16:44Jack Selby?

  So like what, what specific things?

• 1:16:47Speaker 01

  Oh, what are my favorite things I spend my, so I have a, I have a, I would say, and I'm going to put it through the filter of my wife, Renee. Okay. There are people in my life that she would, she would get rid of me before she got rid of them. One of them is Betty, our house manager. Betty runs the family for us. Like when I say, when I say she runs a family, she's, it's the house manager role is something I learned from my friend 12 years ago. And essentially, and, and people can have this at a part-time role, but it's what their job is to be accountable for everything that parents would be accountable for. I'm talking about credit card expiring, passport deals, insurance, all that stuff, paperwork. I manage, I manage my personal finance in Xero. So Betty manages all my accounts, personal, as a P and L for my life in Xero. Right? Now that's,

• 1:17:32Speaker 01

  That I thought that was pretty clever. Like, how many people do you know run their personal home as its own business in a P and L? They don't. But if you do it that way, then you can have other people actually own it, almost like a GM, general manager. So Betty manages all the details, the coordination, the maintenance. So that when my wife and I want to do stuff like buy a home in Cabo, like we just did, we don't, there's no like, okay, do we have the time for maintenance and like, try to figure this out, like Betty owned that, right? And I think like that to me, because it takes care of the personal stuff. So my wife and I don't have to worry about like putting furniture together. Instead, we get to play with our kids or go to the gym. Like dude, I would, I would sell every one of my supercars before I ever got rid of Betty. And the same thing for my assistant aunt.

• 1:18:17Speaker 01

  Like I would sell everything I own before I got rid of those two.

• 1:18:19Jack Selby?

  How much is getting a person like that?

• 1:18:23Speaker 01

  I mean, I pay her like close to a hundred grand a year. Yeah, my, my executive assistant more, but she's more of a chief of staff.

• 1:18:30Jack Selby?

  And basically you're saying like, hey, we're going to go on a trip. And she's like, okay, I'll get everything ready.

• 1:18:33Speaker 01

  Oh, you have no, I, I mean, so we're going, we're taking the kids out of school. We're doing world schooling for nine months, leaving in September, 18 countries, 50 cities. She planned it all with us, like all of it, like found an educator that's going to travel with us, interviewed them, managed it, put the budgets together, figured out all where we're going, booked the first, you know, month worth of hotels, figured out what the kids are going to do with the educator, train the educator, like they, they, if you allow yourself to let go. Now, my wife likes to be involved in certain things that involve the kids, which totally makes sense. So there's a difference between accountability and, and, and consulted. Okay. So there's this thing called the RACI matrix, responsible, accountable, consulted, informed. My wife likes to be consulted about my kids' education stuff.

• 1:19:18Speaker 01

  I personally don't care because I think every kid's homeschooled, just whether the parents know it or not. I homeschool my kids. I just don't formally do it, if that makes sense.

• 1:19:26Jack Selby?

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:19:27Speaker 01

  So then you just work with the person and let go and just say, hey, here are the things I need you to be accountable for. And if you need to let me know, like you can let me know or not, and that's okay. And here are the budgets. You're allowed to spend five grand, Betty, without ever asking me. You just have to tell me after you do it. And what's crazy is a lot of people don't even know how to work with the house manager. So I've created a whole document that lets people like not only figure out how to hire, but what to get them to do. So if people want to just find me on Instagram, damnartel at two L's on Instagram, just message me house manager. Direct message, I'll send them the link directly, no opt in, no nothing.

• 1:19:59Jack Selby?

  And what's she gonna do when ChatGPT five takes over?

• 1:20:02Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 1:20:03Jack Selby?

  Stop, they could start like doing.

• 1:20:05Speaker 01

  I told you this. I told my assistant and her. I think what happens is that the, it's true. I think like she gets more efficient because she gets 80% of her time back. And then we talk about, okay, what else could we do? Do I, like, I have enough work for my assistant and because she's more of a chief of staff. She coordinates all the legal, financial kind of coordinations of people. But I think it's just a retraining and a recalibration of like what they work on. You know, just like where else can I create value in my life that I'm not doing because I don't have the time? And can they help me with that?

• 1:20:37Jack Selby?

  What's the best investment you've ever made?

• 1:20:40Speaker 01

  My wife, like not, obviously I'd invest my.

• 1:20:42Jack Selby?

  She's washing us.

• 1:20:43Speaker 01

  Yeah, just.

• 1:20:44Jack Selby?

  Okay, but really though.

• 1:20:47Speaker 01

  Intercom is a software company. So I invested in Intercom, the chat software. They haven't gone public, but that was a big one.

• 1:20:53Jack Selby?

  What is the most luxurious thing you've ever spent your money on?

• 1:20:55Speaker 01

  This watch. It's kind of dumb.

• 1:20:58Jack Selby?

  What is one daily habit you'll never skip?

• 1:21:00Speaker 01

  Working out.

• 1:21:01Jack Selby?

  Name one software or tool you cannot live without.

• 1:21:04Speaker 01

  ChatGPT.

• 1:21:04Jack Selby?

  What's the best book you've ever read?

• 1:21:06Speaker 01

  The Bible.

• 1:21:07Jack Selby?

  What's the book you've gifted the most?

• 1:21:09Speaker 01

  Thinking Grow Rich. I'm at 6,000 copies.

• 1:21:11Jack Selby?

  Wow. Who is an entrepreneur you follow the closest?

• 1:21:15Speaker 01

  Elon for the first principles thinking.

• 1:21:17Jack Selby?

  What is your favorite failure or setback you've ever experienced?

• 1:21:20Speaker 01

  The time I offered everybody in my company 15 grand to quit.

• 1:21:23Jack Selby?

  How many people said yes?

• 1:21:24Speaker 01

  Unfortunately, 36%.

• 1:21:26Jack Selby?

  Wow.

• 1:21:27Speaker 01

  That was a dumb day.

• 1:21:28Jack Selby?

  How, how much? Who told you to do that? How much did productivity?

• 1:21:31Speaker 01

  Zappos.

• 1:21:32Jack Selby?

  How much?

• 1:21:33Speaker 01

  Remember Zappos would brag about how they would offer people five grand to quit after the training?

• 1:21:37Jack Selby?

  How much did productivity slow after those 36?

• 1:21:39Speaker 01

  Six months of just hell. I, I created a world of hell that was self-inflicted.

• 1:21:45Jack Selby?

  Funny, that, that was advice that maybe you should have ignored.

• 1:21:47Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 1:21:48Jack Selby?

  You know?

• 1:21:48Speaker 01

  Yeah, I'm a slow learner.

• 1:21:49Jack Selby?

  Thank you so much for coming on. Really appreciate it. We'll link to all your information down below in the description. And for anyone who wants, by the way, the uncensored version of this, because I know there's going to be parts that we had that kind of cut around. Feel free to join the membership. You get to watch this full episode completely uncut. It helps us out too. And Mikey is doing a lot of the work behind it. So a lot of it just goes to Mikey. Thanks, Mikey. See you, guys.

• 1:22:23Speaker 06

  Now, more than ever, we need someone on our side. But Rob Whitman? Whitman's votes drove up costs, cut Medicaid and risked 350,000 Virginians healthcare to pay for tax breaks for himself and his donors. He's not on our side. Shannon Taylor will fight corruption, cut taxes and bring down costs. This November, vote for Shannon Taylor. She's for us. Paid for by HMP, the House Majority PAC dot com. Not authorized by any candidate or candidate's committee.