MBA2611 Extended Interview: Dan Martell – The Shortcut To Business Success

Is there really a faster way to achieve business success? Could mentorship or coaching be the key to unlocking your full potential? Omar thinks so. After working with Dan Martell as his coach, Omar scaled his software company WebinarNinja to over 30,000 users, generated millions in revenue, and landed an acquisition by ProProfs. This episode […] The post MBA2611 Extended Interview: Dan Martell – The Shortcut To Business Success appeared first on The $100 MBA.

• 0:00Speaker 00

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• 1:27Speaker 00

  When I was struggling to get to the next level with my software company, Webinar Ninja, I sought out help. And that's when I met today's guest, Dan Martel.

• 1:42Speaker 00

  Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.

• 1:55Speaker 00

  Dan was my coach for several years as I was growing my company Webinar Ninja. I'm proof that having a great coach actually helps. The business grew to over 30,000 users. We made millions of dollars and the company was so valuable. It got acquired by ProPross. So in my book, this concept of coaching actually works. And that's what we talk about in today's episode with Dan Martell. Why you should get a coach? Why he gets coaches? How do you find a mentor? How do you learn from somebody so that you can grow faster? Dan shares some incredible value in today's episode, including his story. And it's nothing short of incredible. At 17, he found himself in a prison cell, on the wrong path, mixed up in drugs. That moment became a catalyst for change. He learned to program.

• 2:40Speaker 00

  He learned to start building businesses and building software. And he went to launch and sell three successful companies. Today, he runs SAS Academy, the largest coaching program for SAS founders in the world. If he stopped there, he would be a legend, but he is beyond a legend. Dan is the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of Buy Back Your Time, a must read for anyone who values their most precious asset, their time. His book has inspired countless entrepreneurs and since its release, Dan has become a prominent online figure with rapid growth on YouTube and social media. In this episode, we dive into the power of mentorship, how to find the right coach, and the importance of leveraging other people's experiences to accelerate your own success.

• 3:25Speaker 00

  Dan has a unique perspective on growth that I am thrilled to share with you. So let's jump right into that conversation with Dan Martell. Dan, so good, so good to see you again in person. I think last time we saw each other was right before COVID 2020, Atlanta SAS Academy.

• 3:43Speaker 01

  Sure was. That was a while ago.

• 3:45Speaker 00

  That was a while ago and it was just like we crept in before they closed the doors. I remember that so much.

• 3:51Speaker 01

  A hundred percent.

• 3:51Speaker 00

  It was a crazy time. It was a crazy time.

• 3:53Speaker 01

  For everybody.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  For those who don't know, I started to get to know you through mutual friends, but we really got to know each other when you became my coach. And I never was a coach guy, like I never really had a lot of coaches, read a lot of books, watched a lot of videos, had some mentors along the way. I would love to learn a little bit more about like, who was like the first person that gave you this kind of feeling like, maybe I can do something with my life? Who kind of influenced your life that was like a mentor or somebody that kind of just turned it on for you?

• 4:24Speaker 01

  Well, I mean, there's two, there would be two answers. The first person to ever spoke belief in me as a human was a guard named Brian. That was back when I was 17.

• 4:35Speaker 00

  Like a security guard?

• 4:36Speaker 01

  Yeah, like a prison guard.

• 4:37Speaker 00

  Oh, okay.

• 4:38Speaker 01

  Yeah, so I mean, a lot of people knew to my story. I just made a series of bad decisions as a teenager and just ended up in a lot of trouble. So, you know, to go from that conversation where at a time when I didn't even believe I deserved to breathe the air, having Brian share with me that, you know, he didn't understand why I was in prison was like a pivotal moment in my life. And then honestly, I like, I got out and I only had one strategy or one plan was to stay sober. Like I just knew my life was a lot better if I wasn't using drugs, which luckily I was successful at, which is very rare. Like most people, the recidivism rate or even the relapse rate was very high. And then I started building companies at a very young age, software specifically.

• 5:22Speaker 01

  I actually learned how to write code in rehab, which is kind of bananas. But it wasn't till I was 23 that I read a book that inspired me to get a coach. And that guy's name was Bob, this crazy Canadian dude. It was funny because I didn't have any money. Like I had, I think I had like five grand in my bank account. He was 1,500 bucks a month US. And I figured it was a year commitment and my, my math was, well, if he's so good. He'll teach me how to make money.

• 5:51Speaker 00

  Get ROI.

• 5:51Speaker 01

  So I had two months worth of money to pay him. So I was like, let's get to work.

• 5:56Speaker 00

  This is not financial advice.

• 5:57Speaker 01

  Yeah, not financial advice, but it was beautiful in the sense that I showed up to those calls going, I need to get some return. So he always laughed. I mean, I went from two failed companies, 17, 19, tried to, I went consulting for a while, tried again at 23. So at 24, started my third company. And in the first year, Bob showed me how to, to build a business and we did almost a million in revenue. 960,000 in 12 months.

• 6:24Speaker 00

  Wow.

• 6:24Speaker 01

  So obviously the ROI was massive, but I think there was just also perfect timing for who I was at the time. Like I was just so hungry and dedicated and I just, I just looked at it as like, if I would have kept doing the thing I was doing and expecting different results, that's the definition of insanity. So the only thing that hadn't done up to that point was hire somebody to help me.

• 6:44Speaker 00

  What do you think you did that helped you succeed with Bob?

• 6:47Speaker 01

  I did everything he told me to do. I did not argue with him. Trust me, as a coach today, that is unfortunately the byproduct sometimes of people you help. They're like, oh, but I'm a special snowflake. I'm like, no, you're not. Yeah, but it won't work for me. Yes, it will. You know, so like what happens because it was such a large part of my money saved that I only have one option is to follow everything he tells me. So I call it model. Then once I learned how it worked, then I could modify. So like, the first thing he ever got me to do was to write my eulogy. I mean, today you hear it like begin with the end in mind, right? Seven habits of highly effective people. And first thing he made me do is like, fast forward to, you know, I'm now in the casket

• 7:30Speaker 01

  and there's people getting on stage, talking about my life from different aspects, from my impact, my business, my community to my family. And what would I like for them to say? And with that North Star, all right, now we build a business. That was the first thing he got me to do. And I, I just think that I had such agency, like, I call it like zero knowing, doing gap. As soon as he told me to do so, sometimes I'd want to hang up the call 20 minutes. It cause I was like, I gotta go do that. And he's like, calm down, Dan. Just like, let's finish the concepts. And then, you know, I would just execute like nobody's business and he, and he tells people like it's, I was one of his favorite clients. Cause like I didn't, I didn't question him. I didn't argue with him. I just, if he taught me how to do something, I just went ferociously executed. And I think that

• 8:11Speaker 01

  pattern and that muscle I developed is the reason why I ended up, you know, exiting that company four years later and became a multimillionaire.

• 8:18Speaker 00

  I'm gonna dig a little because I know people that are watching and listening are gonna be like, like, okay, great. How do I find my Bob? Like, how did you find Bob?

• 8:24Speaker 01

  Well, I read a book and went on the internet and I searched the title plus coach. But I don't even tell people to do that now because again, I don't, like you said, it's not financial advice. Like, if you got five grand in savings, you shouldn't spend all of it on a coach. Or maybe you should, I don't know. Like, I also don't want to stop people from like, you know, whipping that football down the field and pulling a Hail Mary if they feel inclined to do so. But I just think there's mentors all around us.

• 8:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 8:49Speaker 01

  You know, so after I understood the value of mentorship or advice from other people, because that's the difference, right? A book, a book's beautiful because for $20, you can literally get 20 years of experience.

• 9:01Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 9:02Speaker 01

  Like, that's in fact, like, there's no better trade, period, full stop. The challenge with a book is that I then have to interpret what I'm reading to apply it to my life. So I'm the translator of the content to map to the context, which is tough. Because, you know, I mean, how many times have you reread a book and it's like you've never read it? Because who you are today is not who you were. So there's this loss and translation thing that can happen. Whereas with a coach, they do that translation for you. They map the content, their strategies to your context, your situation, so that it hits harder. It works better. And that's where like a mentor, even if you're not paying for them, you know, finding them, finding somebody that's been to where you want to be is a key thing.

• 9:44Speaker 01

  I always say that, you know, mentors are people you turn to instead of your parents when you have big life decisions. Because if I turn to my parents, I'm gonna get the same life as they have. And if I aspire to live a bigger life than my parents, it's actually a flawed strategy for me to turn to them because they're gonna give me the advice that they would do, which is gonna get me the results that they got.

• 10:01Speaker 00

  Right.

• 10:02Speaker 01

  Which kind of doesn't make sense. So where I look for mentors is nonprofit boards. It's my favorite place. Every city-

• 10:08Speaker 00

  Got time.

• 10:09Speaker 01

  Dude, they're, they show you they're generous, they've got time, they're public, you know who they are. And most people make the mistake of trying to find some person on social media that they follow. I mean, I'm not your guy. Like, hitting me up to ask me to go for coffee, not gonna work. Whereas somebody that's a local, you know, ambassador for a certain nonprofit that's got experience, like-

• 10:30Speaker 00

  And they're doing well. Like, they're, they're, they're all around us and we don't even know.

• 10:33Speaker 01

  They're right there. Those people have actually become some of the most influential people in my life.

• 10:39Speaker 00

  Right.

• 10:39Speaker 01

  And they're very successful. They're just not on Facebook publishing or on LinkedIn. So- Mentors are all around. It's just you have to be a good mentee and most people don't know how to do that.

• 10:49Speaker 00

  That's incredible, man. And the reason why I was sold on SAS Academy, which was the largest SAS training program or training

• 10:57Speaker 01

  In the world, yeah.

• 10:57Speaker 00

  In the world. And the reason I was told about, we were talking beforehand, our mutual friend, Rob, the reason why I was kind of sold on you before we talked was that you've already accomplished what I wanted to accomplish, which was a successful exit with my SAS. At the time, Webinar Ninja was trying to get over the hump. We were working really hard, but our churn was out of control. We just needed somebody who's been there before. And you built and sold three businesses. We were like, okay, this guy has talked the talk. I want to learn a little bit more about like, why did you decide to say, okay, I'm done with building my SASs. Maybe I'll do some investment. I'm not going to go into the grind of starting a SAS business. And I want to start helping other people find

• 11:41Speaker 00

  their exit. Talk to me about those days, those months of thinking about becoming a coach.

• 11:46Speaker 01

  It's a fun question because I was anti-coach for two years, like hated the term. It's funny because coaches literally transformed my life. But I think just like real estate agents or social media experts, there's like a lot of noise in the signal.

• 12:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 12:00Speaker 01

  Sales, too. Yeah, sales. I mean, I just, so I never called myself a coach. What happened was, you know, I was just finishing up Clarity. So I exited that company. And I remember I had my friend Martin Latulip, who's like the French Tony Robbins, incredible speaker. He's like one of the youngest indoctrinated speaker, Hall of Fame. Well, yeah, he's just, and he just happened to live like eight miles down the street from where I live. He was at my house having lunch and he's the one that planted the seed. He was watching some of my YouTube stuff I was doing at the time. And he goes, have you ever thought of coaching? And I was like, no. He's like, I think you'd be really good at it. I go, it's not for me. Like I'm a business builder, I'm an operator. And he planted the seed. And the only thing

• 12:40Speaker 01

  that I knew is I just didn't see the desire to spend an hour on a phone call every two weeks with somebody the way I had engaged coaches because I just, you know, I just feel like I can tell you what you need to do, then you got to actually go and do the work.

• 12:55Speaker 00

  So it could be also disappointing. It could be quite disheartening sometimes.

• 12:58Speaker 01

  Yeah, just like, I just think sometimes people are gonna move at their own pace and that's totally fine. So actually, my first coaching thing I ever launched was a cohort and it was like 12 people. They were all, most of them were my best friends. So literally four of my best friends, my wife, my brother, and six other people that have been following me at the time.

• 13:17Speaker 00

  Right.

• 13:18Speaker 01

  That was my first program I ever launched. It was for six months. I think I charged like 10K for, you know, 12 modules to this thing. And it was so rewarding, man. It was like, seeing other people in the group format made it really fun for me because it allowed me to like, teach and then also answer questions and then watch how, because I always thought this with my coaches. At the time, I was working with this lady who brought companies public. She was incredibly, you know, well-known in the Silicon Valley space and like, you know, just successful. But I always joked, I was like, I never met her clients.

• 13:52Speaker 00

  Right.

• 13:52Speaker 01

  And honestly, for me, and I mean, I feel like we resonate the same thing. Like, we learn from other people.

• 13:57Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 13:58Speaker 01

  So, why wouldn't you, you know, host a dinner and invite me to it and allow me to meet your other clients? Because we're all learning the same methodology and all of a sudden, we can cross-reference our notes and say like, when she said this, how did you take that? So, doing the group was actually transformative for me, because that showed me that sometimes there's the content of what I'm teaching, but then the community is a big part of it.

• 14:18Speaker 00

  I feel like you actually learn, this is my experience, sometimes you learn more through other people's experiences and watching you coach somebody else, because you're not so self-conscious when you're on the hot seat. Like, am I sounding stupid? What's happening?

• 14:30Speaker 01

  You won't even ask the question sometimes. You're like, I'm not asking that question. Oh, I'm glad he did. You know? And I think that's the thing. It's like, oftentimes, it's what's caught, not taught. It's not what I said, it's what somebody inferred. And then what's cool is even doing like a breakout session and have everybody write down their top three takeaways and share them with each other.

• 14:49Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 14:49Speaker 01

  So even orchestrating a group coaching structure is a skill I paid somebody to learn. So like, I'm a big fan of investing in the thing I want to get great at. And then incorporating that into my events, into my coaching, into my sessions, I think has just been like, the most beautiful skill. It turns out, it's also a great thing to do with your teams. So the better of a coach I've gotten, the better I've been as a leader. It sounds crazy, but I'm learning how to develop people. And that is the ultimate skill.

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• 16:49Speaker 00

  How was that like transition? Obviously, you had to pick up some skills, even maybe just start thinking about your own identity differently. That transition from builder, put the product on the world, market it, you know, make sure that I'm making more than I'm spending, all that kind of stuff, versus, okay, now I gotta build this coaching program now. And now I gotta figure out these students, I gotta know how to... Get a result and

• 17:12Speaker 01

  It was tough. Yeah. I'll tell you why it was tough. This is the first time in my life that the thing I sold was me. Like, hey, man, webinar ninja, it's a platform, use it. You don't like it. Oh, that's too bad. The features don't work. Omar, hiring Omar and you not wanting to work with me no more. That hurts my feelings. That's what I got. I got like, you know, the first time you do a call with somebody who's interested and it's like, yeah, I'm evaluating a few coaches and you're like, ouch. You know, like, they're like, I decided to go a different route. So it was hard for me, I think, because I was used to selling a product and now here I am trying to like sell me, but not be salesy and not, you know? It was very interesting. And just even the marketing, like, I didn't want to lead because I think oftentimes we attract what we used to impress.

• 17:57Speaker 01

  And I'd watched a lot of these internet gurus, right? That like build these audiences of folks that I would never want to coach because there's a bunch of people that are like, get rich quick or entitled or whatever, whatever their thing is.

• 18:09Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 18:09Speaker 01

  Because they use those things to impress those people. They create a community of it. And I was like, I would be very upset if I had to coach those people. So I just kept leading with like strategies and knowledge and experience and stories and just trying to put my stuff out there. And it was hard to learn. I mean, literally learning how to tell a story about the worst stuff that's ever happened to you as a lesson to help somebody see a perspective differently. That's not easy. And just even the coach moniker, I put it off for two years. Oh, actually, you know Kyle Rakke from Proposify?

• 18:39Speaker 00

  I've heard of Proposify.

• 18:40Speaker 01

  Yeah. So Kyle was a client and he's the one, man. He did a whole podcast called, here's why my coach is one of the best investments I ever made. And he called me his coach. And I remember the day I was like, I should probably add that to my Twitter and my social media.

• 18:53Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 18:53Speaker 01

  And then I became a coach and slowly I became really proud because I was actually working with a lot of incredible entrepreneurs. But yeah, marketing was so weird because it's like, you're the product and It took a while. It wasn't till I started building out a team where I felt like I was finding my zone of genius in regards to the business itself. That it started to get really fun. But I mean, like, marketing and doing sales, like, dude, I do your sales.

• 19:15Speaker 00

  Yeah, yeah, I remember that.

• 19:17Speaker 01

  And it's just like, I, I just, or even like when people would cancel or not renew. Like it would break my heart.

• 19:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:22Speaker 01

  So eventually I told the team, stop telling me like if I find out later on that they didn't redo it and we're at an event and they're just like, yeah, I really enjoyed working with you. And I'm like, oh, cool. Like I just didn't want to know. I think the world will show you where you're not free.

• 19:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:34Speaker 01

  And those moments of feeling really awkward, putting myself out there and creating content.

• 19:40Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 19:40Speaker 01

  You know, it shaped me big time.

• 19:41Speaker 00

  So I'm going to share something that maybe I haven't told you. So I've been doing a couple of keynotes at SaaS conferences, business conferences, last few months, microconf. I spoke at DC BKK and then they have a Q and A after that. And people ask me, okay, what was like the pivotal moment for Webinar Ninja's trajectory? How did you guys get out of the grind and start growing and start hiring and start becoming a valuable company to be acquired? And the answer is very shocking for people. And I said, I hired a coach, Dan, I mentioned you, of course, Dan Martello was my coach for a very long time. He gave me some tough love. He told me the truth and he asked me like real questions, some of the questions, I'm getting kind of emotional about it because I remember when you would ask me questions like, do you actually want this? Do you actually want to win? Or are you just trying to like not lose?

• 20:25Speaker 00

  And I was just like, yeah, I guess I'm a little afraid of losing, you know, and I'm, I'm afraid, I just kind of want to keep it going and not aspire for something bigger. And then you, you helped me break through that and you gave me some tough love that I needed at the moment. I'm not sure if that's right for everybody. I need that because that's something that I really appreciate when somebody tells me the honest truth. Tells me my numbers suck when they suck. Tells me like, I'm not a good job with, with recruiting or the things I was struggling with. What was the response of that style with your clients? Do some people just eat it up and some people just can't take it?

• 20:57Speaker 01

  Oh yeah. So it's interesting is I, I just believe like when you build an audience, right? Coaching clients, social media, audience, followers. You know, and a big audience comes with big responsibility. Essentially you can be well known and have zero influence. You know, it's like Fousey Tube or whatever, like there's.

• 21:15Speaker 00

  It's a good one.

• 21:15Speaker 01

  Yeah. Like a lot of people watch, but it's a train wreck, right? Whereas like, you know, the other streamers like Akai or Speed, which are, you know, these multimillion follower audiences, when they, when they do something, people pay attention, right? And I think that's. That's the responsibility I've always thought to myself, if I'm gonna have the privilege of getting that attention, I want to do right by it. And I had to be honest with myself that I couldn't hold back. I had to be a truth teller. And I'm telling you, it's the hardest thing to get okay with because you understand in that moment, you may not be liked, or you may be misunderstood. The way I resolved it, anytime I gave people tough love, was my intentions

• 21:56Speaker 01

  pure. My intentions are always, I see what you're capable of. I see the story you're telling yourself that's gonna hold you back from that capable outcome. And I need to ask you if you see it. And if you tell me you don't, I'm gonna sell you on why you do. And then, once you understand it and you see it for yourself, it's up to you. Like sunlight sanitizes all things. All I did as a truth teller is bring things to the sunlight. I'm like, literally, stop hiding. You're hiding right now. You're playing entrepreneur. This is what excellence looks like. This is what it's gonna ask of you. Do you want that? Oh, and by the way, I'll go first. Omar, I've never asked you to do anything. I've never told you to do anything that I haven't done perfected, executed, and been very incredibly consistent at. I just could never do that. I've never been a hypocrite. I can't, I can't stand fat

• 22:41Speaker 01

  life coaches. I can't stand broke business coaches. I can't stand, I just never wanted to be that person. And does my style not work for some people? A thousand percent. But does it cause me to lose sleep? Zero. Because my intention is always to be the biggest cheerleader for you. I just want everybody to win. And I know sometimes they need, some people need to be shaken up. But I, dude, I've kicked people out of my program and said, go find somebody else to, yeah, like literally, here's a full refund. Go find another community to go get involved in because somebody else is gonna caress and coddle you. And you might like that. It's not what you need. Come back when you're ready.

• 23:19Speaker 00

  And a lot of people ask me like, what damn hacks did he give you? Like, it wasn't like one little thing. Actually, the thing that you gave us that was the most valuable was systems. Like, that was the thing. It was so boring, and it was so tedious to put these SOPs together, and to train our team, and to get our team to write the SOPs. And in the moment, you're like, what is this? Made it so much easier for us to hire, so much easier for us to train.

• 23:43Speaker 01

  Scale, exit, all of it. I mean, at the end of the day, the playbooks is what makes a business valuable.

• 23:48Speaker 00

  I mean, the first thing, when we went through due diligence, Proprop's, Proprop's has acquired so many companies, Qualaroo. And the first thing they said to us is like, your systems are impeccable. Like, this is so easy to acquire because.

• 23:59Speaker 01

  I'm a proud dad right now. That is cool, dude. I love that.

• 24:02Speaker 00

  Everything's documented, our, I mean, from commenting code, from, you know, how we deployed, everything was just like so perfectly put together. Videos, documentation, everything. And we were like, people were crazy, like, why are we wasting all this time? Like, no, this is important. And it really helped big time.

• 24:19Speaker 00

  I have a story I haven't shared with you about SAS Academy. 2012, Nicole and I leave our teaching career. Both Nicole and I are teachers for over 10 years, and we start our full-time entrepreneurship career. She wanted to get into film. She went to New York Film Academy, and I was kind of her part-time slate video, audio guy. And I was, I started a business consulting firm. I built websites for people, and that's kind of how I got my chops in full-time entrepreneurship. I was like side hustling for a long time. Our first client, Nicole's first client, was a hedge fund in New York. And they wanted some sort of documentary-style video to show off some sort of competition they're running. And we're like, awesome, this guy is gonna hire us. $500 for this gig.

• 25:02Speaker 00

  It was like five videos and three days of shooting and whatever, $500. A year later, they like rehire us for like $3,500. Eventually, Nicole and I stopped doing the film work because we're focused on the $100 BA, Webinar Ninja. We had to say no to everything and just focus on our businesses. 2020, I'm sitting at the table at SAS Academy, you know, the round tables you put together. And across the table is Tim Harrington, the guy that hired us for 500 bucks. And I was like, what the hell is this? I was like, and I was like, in that moment, I was like, there's gotta be something going on here where Dan is attracting black-minded people somehow. You know, from Battlefield. Yeah, Tim is incredible.

• 25:45Speaker 00

  And we were laughing and we're having a great time at the table, and people were like, what's going on? Like, oh, we know each other way back. Different worlds, different lifetime, blah, blah. But do you, do you believe in some sort of power that brings you into the worlds of other people?

• 25:59Speaker 01

  Oh, thousand percent. Here's what's interesting about life. The irony of it is that it makes complete sense looking backwards, but it has to be lived forward. And so all I've gotten really good at is just absolutely smiling in the perfection of what it is in the moment. That like I'm in Australia in your home, dude.

• 26:21Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 26:22Speaker 01

  Like, it's kind of awesome. There's like a handful of people in the whole country I'm here to visit and you're one of them. Zero surprise, zero surprise that you came into my life, you supported the book when it launched that it's all perfect, right? Cause like, I remember when I was training for my Ironman. It was literally around 2020 because COVID happened and the whole world shut down and the race got canceled. But I kept training for it because we decided we're going to run our own unsupported race. And as I'm training for it, I get hit by a car. Okay, cut off, smashing inside the car. It's all in video, I have a video of this. And that was bad. And then I kept training and then I end up cutting my heel wide open, my Achilles. And that was an issue. And I remember like everybody around me saying, maybe this is a sign, you know?

• 27:05Speaker 01

  Maybe this is a sign that you should take it easy. People would say this, like, calm down, Dan, maybe you're running too hot. Maybe you should chill out a little bit. And I got so mad. I was like, maybe this is actually exactly what I need to prepare me for what I'm about to go through. Maybe what I've been asking for, this is what gets me ready to receive. Maybe everything that's ever happened to me my whole life is going to prepare me for the moment where I can actually be ready for the challenge that's going to be facing me and that it's not that I should stop or slow down. So when I think of like all the perfect, beautiful introductions, conversations, you know, even you were mentioning Rob earlier, I still remember when I was talking to him and Liam and just like

• 27:51Speaker 01

  all these people have come into my life. I just believe all of it is just like perfect, but I think it's a response to your energy. I think that had I been different, I would have attracted different people into my life. You know, when you go to those events, you talk to people, you can just trust the fact they're in this room. They're good people. You don't meet, like I said, you attract what you used to impress. I was always leading with my ideas. I wasn't leading with fancy cars and make a lot of money in six months and, you know, young hustler millionaire. I was like, hey, this is how you beat churn. This is how you

• 28:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:20Speaker 01

  build a go to market. Here's how revenue recognition works. Like just nerdy business concept, but the people that showed up were just like, I call them kind warriors. They were like kind people. They were willing to do the work. That's why I was never surprised when I would meet people and they'd be like, man, I met this guy and it's just like me. And I'm like, yeah.

• 28:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 28:37Speaker 01

  It's kind of how it works. That's how community works, right? It's curated.

• 28:40Speaker 00

  Totally, totally.

• 28:43Speaker 00

  A few years ago, you wrote a book, one of my favorite books, because I think people, I don't know if you, have you trademarked buyback your time?

• 28:50Speaker 01

  I don't have a trademark now.

• 28:51Speaker 00

  Okay. Cause people talk about this phrase all the time. I'm like,

• 28:54Speaker 01

  Well, I think people have been saying that word before I ever wrote a book about it.

• 28:57Speaker 00

  Okay. But I feel like you've made it.

• 28:59Speaker 01

  Oh, I brought it into the lexicon for sure.

• 29:01Speaker 00

  Yeah, totally. Yeah. So you wrote this book and it's a topic that is beyond like this idea of like, okay, outsource and you know, buy yourself some ready-made meals. It's not life hacks. I think what people don't understand, and it takes a very long time for people to get this, especially people in a job, is your time is most valuable asset. Like you cannot make more time. Okay? The breath I just took is numbered and it could be my last and definitely, you know, not going to increase over time.

• 29:33Speaker 01

  Unlimited. Yeah.

• 29:33Speaker 00

  Yeah, exactly. You obviously have the lens of business, have the lens of life when it comes to like, hey, how do you take control of their most valuable asset again? How do you figure out a way for you to let money allow you to live a life that you want, but also how do you utilize your time in ways that light you up? While you launched this book, You actually did what you practiced what you preached and you started to transition out of being the guy that was doing everything in SAS Academy. I got really lucky. I told you this. I got really lucky. I got in when you were doing the sales calls, you were doing the one-on-one calls and the checkups. You were doing the monthly calls with the group

• 30:15Speaker 00

  masterclasses. You were doing the events on stage, teaching probably sixty to seventy percent. You know, you get Patrick Campbell up there, but whatever, you know, but

• 30:23Speaker 01

  I have a couple of speakers. It takes some time. That was me on stage for two days.

• 30:27Speaker 00

  So were you feeling forced to be like, I gotta do what I'm writing about? Or did the transition happen before you wrote the book?

• 30:34Speaker 01

  No, I mean, I've been doing the buyback principle my whole life. I mean, I wrote a book about how I was able to scale companies, how I was able to live an integrated life, how I was able to, you know, really become the person. I mean, the premise is very simple. The world rewards those that create value. They don't reward those who work hard. Because the guy that built a cement wall works harder than I do. And unfortunately, the compensation I'm going to receive for what I do in a day is going to be a lot, a lot, a lot more than that person that built that wall. So if you

• 31:05Speaker 00

  I just want to, I want to stop there for a second because some people might hear that and feel like, well, that's not fair. That's not whatever. And we're playing in a game called the marketplace.

• 31:15Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 31:16Speaker 00

  And the marketplace right now values certain things.

• 31:19Speaker 01

  Yep.

• 31:19Speaker 00

  And you're either valuable in those things or you're not, right? And there's obviously a spectrum and you're somewhere in between. Some people are becoming less and less valuable as days go by because of AI and all of the technologies happening every day.

• 31:32Speaker 01

  Hundred percent.

• 31:32Speaker 00

  But that doesn't mean you're not valuable in society.

• 31:35Speaker 01

  Yeah. And that's a different value. Like you can be, I can value your soul, but I'm not going to give you everything in my bank account. So like, I'm, this is not a debate about like your humanity. This is about the size of problems you solve for other people. Because that's what labor is. It's like you pay somebody to solve a problem for you. And somebody can clean your windows. That's one size problem versus fix your car when it's not running. So whether you like it or not, you get paid based on that. And at a certain point, you need to trade better. Some capital to get some time back to go invest to be better. And that's what buy back your time at the core is about. It's, you know, until you get to a place where you have more income coming than time to like,

• 32:18Speaker 01

  have to go be better and become the person, then that's the whole trade. And those are the time trades. And that's all I've gotten really good at. So even with SAS Academy, you know, I remember when I mapped it out, I was like, I love to coach. Here's my thing, and I, in my book, I call it the production quadrant, right? The drip matrix. So in the top right quadrant is production, which is I like to create new frameworks and coach.

• 32:41Speaker 00

  Right.

• 32:41Speaker 01

  I don't like to repeat myself and that comes from software. Anybody's written code, it's called dry. Do not repeat yourself.

• 32:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 32:48Speaker 01

  So what I did is for a while, and the reason why it's like, I had to do the sales call to build the frameworks to then hire a salesperson. And I did, then I had to build a marketing program until I could afford to hire somebody. And I did, and that's in my book, I call the replacement ladder. So if you look at the timeline of SAS Academy, I was just executing the framework. And then you came in right after, like probably a month before I handed off the sales calls. And then I kept the coaching, but then I got rid of the onboarding, but you were already in by then.

• 33:13Speaker 00

  Right.

• 33:14Speaker 01

  And then I had to create the catalog of frameworks for growth.

• 33:17Speaker 00

  The videos and all that stuff.

• 33:18Speaker 01

  And I knew there was about 350 because I broke down SAS business into six components. And then each one of them had like these three accelerators and like, I knew what I had to build, but it took time because I wasn't going to just like, sit there and create them right away. I used the events and the monthly training sessions to create them. With the vision, I always knew to write a book, because then the book would become the certification for the coaches that would then teach the methodology, which just came out three months ago called software as a science.

• 33:43Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:44Speaker 01

  So like, I knew where I was going to end up. It just, it just, like everything, it takes time. And it's been fun because like, I honestly don't think I can think of another coach that started as a face of their company, still owns it and it continues to grow and they're no longer involved.

• 33:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 33:59Speaker 01

  And I'm essentially the president on the board. Johnny's the CEO and the team runs it and it's incredible. And we have incredible coaches and we monitor it. And yeah, we just had the largest event we've ever done. And it's just, and it's beautiful and the NPS scores are off the chart. So that's, I'm proud of, but honestly, like, that's how I built my. Martell Ventures, like, you know, I've never stopped investing. And then I started buying software companies with Kevin at Big Band Software. So he's my partner in the acquisition side and then Martell Ventures, we incubate software companies now. So I've always just done software. The coaching has just been my outlet for teaching. And then with the media stuff I'm doing now, that's just my version of amplifying that.

• 34:38Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 34:38Speaker 01

  And that's, that's been the latest, like, new skill acquisition. Cause I mean, that's, if you want to become more value, you gotta go add skills that become valuable.

• 34:46Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 34:46Speaker 01

  Communicating, persuading, leading yourself, dealing with your mindset, improving your belief systems. Those are all incredibly valuable skills because people, like, I mentor these 14 year old kids for free. It's my, my King's Club program. And like, I remember the first day I just taught them the simple concept of positive expectation versus negative expectation.

• 35:08Speaker 00

  Right.

• 35:08Speaker 01

  I was like, you got two people, Mr. Happy Face, Mr. Grumpy Face. Who do you want to help?

• 35:14Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 35:14Speaker 01

  Happy Face, how about we just start with that simple premise of trying to be a happy person? And they were like, oh, I get it. Exactly. So right now you might be neutral because you're an introvert and you don't smile. I would encourage you to smile at every person you see for the next week. Build that happy face character, right? And then guess what? That's valuable because being a happy person on a team is actually valuable, something I look for.

• 35:36Speaker 00

  Yep.

• 35:37Speaker 01

  And then you can add the skills to make yourself like actually create and be more productive. But I just think that is the essence of buying back your TAM is being a better time trader.

• 35:47Speaker 00

  Right. Today's episode is supported by Rosetta Stone. I absolutely love Rosetta Stone because it's helping me learn Italian faster than I can ever imagine. Why do I want to learn Italian? Well, who doesn't love Italy? But of course Nicole's family is Italian and I love to have some quick Italian conversations with her mom. And Rosetta Stone just came out with Rosetta Stone Sapphire, their biggest launch in over a decade. One of the coolest features is chat missions, which turns conversation practice into a game. With chat missions, you're put in interactive scenarios and given three objectives. A mission to accomplish, like asking how much something costs, ordering a cold brew coffee. Or getting a wifi password.

• 36:27Speaker 00

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• 37:11Speaker 00

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• 37:56Speaker 00

  Banking services provided by Cash App's bank partners. Bitcoin services provided by Block Incorporated brand. For additional information, see the Bitcoin disclosures at cash.app/legal/podcast.

• 38:10Speaker 00

  I used your book. When we sold Webinar Ninja, I went all in on 100 MBA. And I wanted my life to be different because total transparency, I was working 16 hours a day with Webinar Ninja. I didn't prioritize my health. I didn't prioritize my relationships. I didn't prioritize what I love. I love to snowboard. I love travel. I was just putting that one day, one day, one day. And I saw this like window of opportunity. It was like, okay, now I can kind of shape this business the way I want. I went to your book and I thought, what are the things I want to do and only do? Right? And really it's just the content I want to teach because that's what I've been doing all my life. And we've built a team a whole around that. And that was really like such a small

• 38:52Speaker 00

  concept, but so powerful. We're just like, what do you like to do? Just do that and get everybody else to do everything. Like, I don't have to do all the other stuff.

• 39:01Speaker 01

  No.

• 39:01Speaker 00

  You know, especially when you have some capital, it's easy to kind of like, okay, now I can do this and hire the best. By the way, like, it's so great to hire the best, to work with the best. And it's just a great feeling.

• 39:12Speaker 01

  Cheat code.

• 39:13Speaker 00

  Cheat code, but then you realize, I actually am not good at this. Like, I thought, oh, I can't let somebody else do it. No, they're better.

• 39:22Speaker 01

  Most people don't realize that to be great at something is to actually communicate how it works. Like, you know Tom Clancy?

• 39:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 39:29Speaker 01

  Okay, so he just came out with a bestselling book called like, you know, Defense Protocol or something, last month, bestseller. He's a Hunt of Red October, Patriot Games, a lot of the video games, Rainbow Six, all that stuff.

• 39:42Speaker 00

  The Amazon show that's really popular.

• 39:44Speaker 01

  Yeah, Jack Ryan. Okay, he died in 2013. So, most people don't even realize that you can be an artist and create a process for creating your art. And after your time here on Earth, it continues to pay massive dividends.

• 39:58Speaker 00

  Well.

• 39:59Speaker 01

  So, explain me that, people that think you're a magic snowflake, that nobody else can do the thing you can do. It can be done. And I use those examples, or the Warhol, the factory, so Andy Warhol, he created art, but he had a whole team of people that supported him because he knew that his favorite part of it was the ideation. Or Steve Jobs with Johnny Ives, where he would just be like, look, I want you guys to tell me what the state of the art of the hardware looks like, and let me try to figure out how that's going to be applied, where this, like, human interaction meets innovation and technology. And that was the fun part for him, to go into the design studio, to like, play around with these pieces of hardware and interface design. But he wasn't sitting there at a routing machine.

• 40:39Speaker 00

  Right.

• 40:39Speaker 01

  Right? He got to collaborate. And I just think, like, when you give yourself permission to really go all in on the thing, I mean, Mr. Beast is probably the modern day example of this, and you see, he talks about it all the time. He's like, I just have a bunch of clones, and they follow me around, and they help me do. Stuff until they get good enough to do it without me having to be involved. And then they take it off my plate and he literally says, this is how I built. You know, Beast films. It's like, I just. Kept throwing stuff over my shoulder until the person could catch it and do it and it worked. And then all of a sudden, now he has the largest YouTube channel and the biggest, you know, I just did Beast Games. It's like. I mean, I just think that it, that's how it's always been. It's just, I guess.

• 41:21Speaker 01

  Nobody ever talked about it and a lot of people, unfortunately, they did it, but they didn't know they were doing it.

• 41:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:26Speaker 01

  And I just codify things. I'm a, I'm a principles teacher. I like, I don't even want to talk about like the steps per se. I want to talk about the principle behind the steps. So that you can apply it to the different areas of your life.

• 41:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 41:36Speaker 01

  And it makes it more fun. And the coolest part about that Omar is you'll do this for the rest of your life because you enjoy it. And anytime.

• 41:42Speaker 00

  That's the coolest part.

• 41:43Speaker 01

  Dude, my, Martell Media is me doing what I love to do in a way that I'll never have to not do it because I enjoy doing it. And if I, if there's any aspect of it that I don't enjoy doing it, I don't mind giving it up to somebody else because. Even if I could do it better, my disimpassionate version of it will never beat. An up and coming passionate version of it from somebody else. You know what I'm saying? Like I might be able to edit better today, but my lack of desire to do it and it feels like a grind versus somebody else. Dude, your energy that you use to create the thing is felt by the viewer.

• 42:18Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:18Speaker 01

  The energy, the book, the reason why the book did so well, dude, I poured my heart into it. Every word, every comma, every sentence, it rewrote it three times. It's like, I knew I was writing it for, I knew that I wanted it to hit the right way. And that energy I put into it, I think was felt by the reader and I just consider that always the ultimate form of expression in art. It's just, if you don't love doing it anymore, you're better off finding somebody else that is like super. Like still nerdy about it, right? Like they're just like still in that awe phase.

• 42:47Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 42:47Speaker 01

  And mentor them and give them those pieces and then just. You know, collaborate. I think, I think co-creating with other people is like my favorite thing about business.

• 42:56Speaker 00

  The co-creating is great, but also this concept of like, who's the best in the game? Like the people that I admire most did this, like. I'm an, you know, unashamed, big, big Michael Jackson fan and. Thriller is the best selling album of all time because the producer is Quincy Jones. The guy has the Midas touch. Everything he does is amazing. You know, rest in peace, just passed away. You know, you look at all the great athletes, they have great coaches, they have people that are helping them and they've done it before. And for some reason, we want to have this badge of honor of like, I did it myself. You know, and I was talking about this at SASEK at MicroConf. That I'm not a big fan of this narrative that's happening on X where everybody's just feeling so proud of themselves.

• 43:41Speaker 00

  Of, you know, I'm doing, you know, 500K ARR and I'm a solopreneur and I've built this software by myself and I do the coding at night and I do the marketing by day. It's like, this is nothing to be proud of, bro. You're doing this on hard mode. Like, why are you doing this? You know, and I'm sure you've seen it as a coach. But do you think it's, I personally think it's fear. I think it's you're scared to kind of get people involved in your world. What do you think the reason why people just want to kind of like, I'm gonna plow through the valley by myself?

• 44:13Speaker 01

  Well, I know personally, I used to think that. So back when I started my first company, my first successful company, I hired my coach, Bob. And we did pretty well. Couple of years in, we got to a new plateau and I hired a different guy, Stu. And Stu I met through my dad. My dad worked at Siemens, Westinghouse, so like big Fortune, whatever, 500. And Stu was like a consultant that they brought in that lived in another city. But then I kind of reached out to him as I was in a tough spot. I remember I was talking to Stu and I was running into a negotiation issue around IP ownership with a massive company we're doing some software stuff for. And he goes, why don't you call your dad? I go, why would I call my dad?

• 44:57Speaker 01

  And he goes, Dan, your dad's one of the best business minds I've ever interacted with in my whole career. What are you talking about? And I was like, my dad? He's like, yeah. I go, no, we're not calling my dad. Let's, let's figure this out, you and I. He's like, why?

• 45:12Speaker 01

  I say, well, I want to do it on my own. Dude, you want to know where my tough love comes from? People like Stu in my life. He said, that is the dumbest thing you've ever said to me. And I'll tell you why. He goes, you have access to somebody that cares a lot about you. They would actually put the time aside to, to meet with you, to teach you. What I know, he has the answer. I've seen him do this. The thing you need help with right now, he literally knows how. And your ego is in the way of getting that help. So do you care more about doing this on your own? Or winning and doing it for your team? Which one is going to win right now? And I said, I'll go call my dad. And I remember two things.

• 45:50Speaker 00

  That's a friend for life.

• 45:52Speaker 01

  My dad never been more excited to receive a call from me. And two, gave me the answer in 30 seconds that I need to hear. I didn't even understand how these clauses work.

• 46:02Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:03Speaker 01

  And that's when I realized like, I'm going to take advantage of everything I've been given. That's why it's funny. Like I have a lot of friends that are really close to me and they never asked me for advice.

• 46:12Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:13Speaker 01

  It's not because they, they're like, oh, Dan's a coach. He gets paid. I'm not going to take advantage of it. Like I want to, if you're my friend, I want to help you. I don't, you don't need to be in my program or anything.

• 46:20Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:21Speaker 01

  And I think it's just their fear of success.

• 46:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:24Speaker 01

  So I know why people don't do it. Because they literally are scared of how successful. Most people think it's fear of failure. I actually think it's fear of success.

• 46:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 46:34Speaker 01

  I think there's something you believe about being successful. That you, that scares you, right? Some, some, some negative belief. And that is showing up in your life today in the form of sabotage. Telling yourself, I gotta do it on myself. You're silly. Cause if you had that time back, you could go be way more productive doing the thing that made you more money to accelerate your path to that future vision. But you have a belief about what that means. And it could be the belief is that if I have other people that help and they take the credit, then nobody's going to believe that I'm as good as I think I am. Which comes from a place of insecurity. Let's talk about that.

• 47:08Speaker 00

  I was shaking my head there because you told me that on a call. You told me you're afraid of success. You had this concept of you won't grow into pain.

• 47:17Speaker 01

  Nope.

• 47:18Speaker 00

  And I didn't get it for a while.

• 47:22Speaker 00

  But once I got it, you know, my parents didn't come from money. My parents are immigrants from Egypt, came to the US, had to read and learn the language. My mom was an elevator operator until she got her degree. She worked hard. My dad worked hard. My dad was in sales. Great, great parents. They were never ahead with money. We never had a lot of money growing up. I was lucky enough to be in a home that I didn't really feel poor, but we were poor. And I think deep down, I realized when you told me that after a long walk in the coal that I think I'm afraid I'm gonna screw up being rich. Like, cause I've never had money to deal with it. You know, always kind of just kind of went month to month or whatever. Okay, we're doing all right now, but never, never had to worry about how to invest or how to, you know.

• 48:04Speaker 01

  Yeah. What if I get a big windfall? Everybody knows and I lose it?

• 48:08Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 48:08Speaker 01

  Those are all real fears. I literally think that whatever your goal is, you either have limiting beliefs or negative beliefs. The limiting beliefs are about your abilities. The negative beliefs are about the people that have achieved. So if you think about just the concept of being rich and you have a negative belief of rich people being selfish, how hard are you gonna fight to go be rich if you think rich people are selfish? What if you think that rich people don't pay taxes? What if you think that rich people are compensating for something? Or what if you think that, you know, whatever, like it's just, or that I'm gonna lose it? Or that I won't know how to manage my money or whatever it is. But what, again, I'd like to make a list of that stuff and bring it to the surface.

• 48:51Speaker 01

  So I can evaluate it and be honest. See, a lot of people, it's fear of failure, fear of judgment or fear of success. And most people are so capable and they know their light is so powerful. If they allowed themselves to shine it, that it scares them to even think about what that could look like. Even with social media, people listen to this podcast and they're like, Man, I'd love to have a podcast.

• 49:15Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:15Speaker 01

  But then they're worried, well, what if I was massively successful and now all of a sudden I'm getting fake accounts made up of me.

• 49:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:22Speaker 01

  Asking people to invest in her. Dude, I mean, nonstop. Like, these are the things. But some people have these fears. What if I accidentally say something that was a private conversation, but now it's on my pod and it's public? And then the person hears it and they get mad at me. Again, all real concerns.

• 49:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 49:37Speaker 01

  But at the end of the day, your fear of success is the thing you have to go work on. So I say the world will show you where you're not free. Your insecurity about being successful is the work to go do.

• 49:48Speaker 00

  I think what helped me a lot was I had a chat with my sister Mona. She's, we were close growing up. She's my older sister. I have two older sisters, but we were closer in age. She said to me, you're already successful. What are you talking about? Like, you know, I talked to my friends about you. They're like, brother's like a big podcaster, blah, blah, blah. Like, like, that ship has passed. Like, you know, like, what are you afraid of? And I was just like, oh, I never thought about that. Like, I've already done better than my parents. I've already kind of, from a financial point of view, from a business point of view.

• 50:21Speaker 01

  Yeah, impact.

• 50:22Speaker 00

  Yeah. And that kind of helped me along with your advice.

• 50:27Speaker 00

  I haven't seen you in four and a half years. And when you walked through my door, I was like, dude, this guy looks great.

• 50:35Speaker 01

  Thanks, man.

• 50:35Speaker 00

  This guy looks great. I want to talk about, you know, your transformation in terms of prioritizing your health, prioritizing your fitness. What was kind of that moment where you're just like, I gotta, I gotta take this seriously? And why? Because you were unhealthy when I saw you.

• 50:50Speaker 01

  No, no, I mean, I was, I was doing CrossFit back then. I was running. I just wasn't disciplined. I lied to myself, man. I lied to myself about like, you know, at the time, you know, I would have been 40 and like, I had a young family. And like, I wasn't fat, but I was, I was chubby. I was like, you know what I mean? I was carrying some extra weight. And what happened was just this like realization that I don't look the way I feel. And I hope people understand this is like, and I don't look the way I should for the amount of effort. Workout every day. I sweat every day. You know, I was doing Ironmans. I was doing races to try to keep the weight down. I'd eat like crap, right? But if you're doing triathlons, like you're literally burning extra 2,000 calories a day.

• 51:34Speaker 01

  So you can like, kind of be a little loosey goosey with your meal. And I remember just getting to a point where for me, everything in life is like, who do I need to become to achieve the next level? It's it's not, how do I do it? It's who do I need to be? Cause I believe we don't create success, we attract success by becoming an attractive person that pulls that like, and I knew I needed the energy, I needed the physicality, I needed, I needed the presence, like if I really want a shot at communicating to young people to like, they they can't look at me and go like, oh, that's just a dad. Right? Like it needs, there needs to be kind of a thing and I'm hanging out with a bunch of guys on the media team that are all like bodybuilders and stuff. So I went all in, man. I made a 90 day commitment to have visible abs.

• 52:19Speaker 01

  I didn't know how to do it is a whole thing we documented on my YouTube channel and I went from, you know, 17% body fat, which is not crazy, down to 4%, like full cut, like full progressive overload, macro based nutrition. And it's a year later and I'm the same like same effort, I work out every day. Bicep veins is a McLaren of the body, I say, so like, you know, just it just become culture. It's just, yeah, I'm unapologetic about it because I went for so long lying to myself.

• 52:50Speaker 00

  So sell it to the listeners, like what benefits outside of looking good?

• 52:54Speaker 01

  Health is wealth, like if you, I call it quiet confidence, like a lot of guys that I help like with their macros or their progressive overload, their training style. Once they they get lean and ripped and I'm talking like, like not good for your age, I'm talking like undeniably different than the rest of the population. You just don't have to say anything. You see it in somebody's face, you see it in their presence and it's just like, that comes with a ton of other things. Right? Your confidence goes up. Most people don't have the money they want, not because they're not skillful, it's because they don't feel they deserve it. You don't get what you think you deserve, you get what you think you're worth. And if you're not willing to fight it because you don't keep the commitments you make to yourself, you're lying to yourself.

• 53:37Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 53:38Speaker 01

  And I know when I say that I trigger people good. Dude, if my truth shows people where they've been living a lie. That's what I'm here for. And I used to live that lie. I used to use races as a way to keep my fitness in check or like, you know, I don't need to use food as a way to comfort myself anymore. Right? Like, I'm doing a whole day of media. I got meal prep in the car. Food is fuel. I want to use it. Cause like, I didn't know that micronutrition is how you feel. Macronutrition is how you look. Calories is how much you weigh. Well, once I learned that, I was like, okay, well, how I look is macros. What do I need to change my macros? Well, I mean, the whole thing, right? And like carb loading and cutting your fats and all this stuff. It's just, most people don't even track their food.

• 54:19Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 54:19Speaker 01

  And then they have all these beliefs. Again, what's the belief? Well, life would be boring. My life isn't anything but boring. It doesn't mean I don't have the opportunity to go have a fun meal. I just don't do it every day. The energy is off the charts. The influence, man, you know, like most kids, I mean, the truth is, is the biggest abuse to a child is an unlived dream of a parent. Wow. That's facts. And that one's really going to get people going, but it has to be said, man, like the amount of parents that I see come and drop their kids off at King's Club. And they drop them in and they say, you know, it's a hundred kids, max out, it sells out every time. And I mentor these kids, parents aren't allowed in the room. And they wait outside. And I watched them essentially like, please go listen to this person.

• 55:01Speaker 00

  Right.

• 55:02Speaker 01

  Because I can't. I didn't do the thing I know he's going to teach you. And I would love that for you. So please go listen to this person. I want to frigging grab all the parents and put them in a headlock and say, hey, it's time for you guys to step up. It's not too late. Zero too late.

• 55:14Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:15Speaker 01

  Dude, I know, like, what's fun about being here is 20 years ago, I was here. 20 years ago, I was a broke backpacker, traveling around Australia.

• 55:22Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:23Speaker 01

  Today I fly around in my jet and like have a beautiful life. 20 years from now, man, what's that going to look like? 20 years from that? Like, I just think that people, even if you're six years old, you can transform your life in six months. Thousand days at most. A thousand days. You know this. Hundred million or a hundred dollar MBA and a thousand days of consistency.

• 55:45Speaker 00

  Totally.

• 55:46Speaker 01

  Dude, it took me 90 days to transform my body.

• 55:48Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 55:49Speaker 01

  I documented the whole thing. It's all on YouTube. I share it all. It's all free.

• 55:52Speaker 00

  Yeah. One of my favorite tips. From Scott Adams, one of his books is just show up to the gym every day. That's all you gotta do.

• 56:00Speaker 01

  Yeah.

• 56:00Speaker 00

  Walk through the doors because once you're through the doors, I'll do a few reps. Okay. I want to get on the treadmill and like, whatever. But what I found in terms of exercising every day is that it's such a huge confidence builder because you learn that you're not breaking promises to yourself.

• 56:19Speaker 01

  Dude, that is how confidence is built. Keeping the commitments you make to yourself in private.

• 56:23Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:24Speaker 01

  Period, full stop. Yesterday was one of those gym days.

• 56:26Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:27Speaker 01

  I went in the gym, I literally looked at Sam who's traveling with me and I said, no part of me wants to be here. Today we do the work.

• 56:33Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 56:33Speaker 01

  Today is the day I actually earn the confidence because there's no part of me that wants to be there. The days I want to be there, that's easy. Okay. I land after a 16 hour flight and I know to reset my body, going to the gym is an incredible habit. And I just had to get through the front door. 23 minutes later, I'm laughing at how good I feel. Literally, I'm like prioritize the pump, man. Pump cures all like just getting that exercise in changed my whole energy. And that's why happy face, grumpy face. Like, these are very simple concepts and it teaches you so much. So it costs nothing really to work out. You can do air squats and pushups and situps. You don't have to go to gym, but if you go to gym, you should. And that skillset of learning to dial in your nutrition, you know, going to the gym,

• 57:18Speaker 01

  deferred gratification. Like it doesn't matter where you're at in your life. Getting your fitness and your health in check is a beautiful foundation for success. Period, full stop.

• 57:29Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 57:29Speaker 01

  And it's something you can control. You can't control the weather. You can't control the news. You can't control politics, can't control anything. You can control what you put in your mouth and what you do with your body. And it can start right now. And a diet can be started halfway through a bag of chips.

• 57:42Speaker 00

  Yeah. I remember vividly when things were challenging at Webinar Ninja and I was going through some tough times and I had to make some tough decisions. The gym was like my retreat because it gave me a chance to one, be in my own head, listen to my books, you know, do that kind of stuff. But also it gave me a chance to feel like I can control something. Like I, I have full control over this. And in business, sometimes there's a lot of things out of your control, you know, and sometimes you don't make the right decisions and you feel like, oh, why did that happen? All that kind of stuff. But the gym is kind of a constant you can always go back to. And it's kind of almost like a, I don't want to offend anybody, but it's a bit of like a temple where you get to have some form of meditation where you're just like, and everybody do you. Like, like you said, find your thing, what, maybe yoga.

• 58:27Speaker 01

  Whatever it is.

• 58:28Speaker 00

  Maybe it's, you know.

• 58:29Speaker 01

  There was a quote at the gym yesterday on the wall and I, I shared it on Instagram and it said there, there's no amount of hurt the iron can't cure. And I was just like, yes.

• 58:38Speaker 00

  That is great.

• 58:38Speaker 01

  Like no amount of hurt, or no amount of hurt the iron can't heal. Right? And it is that, is that, is that mental place for people to go. Cause I think about it, like in the moment where you want to stop doing that rep and you do one more.

• 58:51Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 58:51Speaker 01

  You just, you just taught yourself something beautiful.

• 58:54Speaker 00

  Huge.

• 58:54Speaker 01

  Yeah. And, and again, it's just, it's so subtle, yet so impactful. And then you walk around with this quiet confidence.

• 59:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:01Speaker 01

  You don't have to say anything. You, you're proud of yourself. You woke up and you went to the gym in the morning or at noon to reset your energy for the afternoon. When you know most people didn't.

• 59:09Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:09Speaker 01

  You don't have to say anything. You walk into that meeting, notebook out, ready to go.

• 59:13Speaker 00

  I'm winning already.

• 59:14Speaker 01

  Yeah, you won the day, man. It's just like, that's, that's been the unlock for me is, is bringing that level of quiet confidence into every aspect of my life, especially as a content creator. I think creating content is the ultimate personal development program. Dude, you wanna, you wanna find where your demons hide? Go grab your phone and start talking to it and post it on your Facebook.

• 59:34Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 59:35Speaker 01

  You wanna see what the world will talk about when you start sharing your ideas and you want to read those comments? You will learn more about yourself creating content than going to therapy.

• 59:45Speaker 00

  Yeah. What hurts, what doesn't, all that.

• 59:46Speaker 01

  Dude, you'll find things that you didn't even know about the way you look or sound that, that other people will clearly communicate. And you're just like, wow.

• 59:54Speaker 00

  It won't take too long.

• 59:55Speaker 01

  That one was tough. But I think in that place of intention of trying to help other people.

• 1:00:01Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:01Speaker 01

  Like you will find yourself.

• 1:00:03Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:04Speaker 01

  Like I've become more Dan, the more I've created content, because the only way to do it and for it to resonate is just allow yourself to be you through the camera.

• 1:00:12Speaker 00

  Hmm.

• 1:00:13Speaker 01

  There can't, you can't wear a mask.

• 1:00:15Speaker 00

  Especially when you're doing consistently. There's no way.

• 1:00:17Speaker 01

  Zero chance.

• 1:00:17Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:00:18Speaker 01

  Cause then, then, then you're always like, you're stressed out and it's just like, oh, I didn't, I didn't have the energy. It's like, no, just be you.

• 1:00:24Speaker 00

  Right.

• 1:00:24Speaker 01

  Everybody is really great at being themselves. It's a thing you can be the best at. And you know, bring everything to you. And I think it's just a great personal development program where you just do the work.

• 1:00:35Speaker 00

  I want to share with you something before we wrap up. I'm a huge basketball nerd. I love basketball. I've been, it's the through line of my whole life. Played basketball in my life.

• 1:00:43Speaker 01

  It's good. You're so tall. I'd be sad for the basketball industry if you didn't play.

• 1:00:47Speaker 00

  When I see someone who's tall and doesn't play, I'm like, oh, we could use you. I believe, it's very controversial. I don't know why it's controversial, but I believe Michael Jordan's the best player of all time. I think he's the GOAT. It's not even debatable. If you know, you know, if you've seen him play, the dude just took over, you know, you couldn't do anything about it. But Jordan didn't become Jordan until 91, when he won his first championship. 91, he won his first championship and it was a couple of years after Phil Jackson joined the Bulls. And Phil Jackson is known as one of the best coaches, if not the best coach of all time, 11 rings, coached Kobe, you know, crazy guys, unbelievable, Zen master. And the reason why Jordan didn't win a championship without Phil Jackson as coach was because

• 1:01:31Speaker 00

  he wanted to do it all himself. He was dropping 55 a game. He was dropping 60s in the playoff, still losing, can't get to the finals. And then Phil Jackson taught him to trust his teammates. You gotta trust your teammates. You gotta be able to delegate. You gotta be able to pass the ball. You gotta be able to get them involved early. Don't just forget about them. And that's what got him over the hump. He, in 91, he won his first championship, 2092, 93, the first three-peat. And for me, those are the best years of Jordan because he was just fresh out of learning from his coach, learning how to make it happen. And another thing you may not know about me, I'm a huge, a little bit of a sneaker head. I love sneakers. So as a, as a new tradition, I wanted to get you something. And as one

• 1:02:16Speaker 00

  of my coaches that has helped me throughout my time, and my Phil Jackson, and I'll call myself Jordan here, but my Phil Jackson, I got you a little something. So these are some very special Jordans.

• 1:02:26Speaker 01

  How did you, did you know about this?

• 1:02:28Speaker 00

  These are some special, special Jordans.

• 1:02:30Speaker 01

  Dude, I don't have a pair of Jordans.

• 1:02:32Speaker 00

  You gotta open these up. These are special.

• 1:02:33Speaker 01

  This is gonna be my first pair.

• 1:02:35Speaker 00

  So first of all.

• 1:02:36Speaker 01

  Like, did you, do you know my size?

• 1:02:38Speaker 00

  Yeah. Renee told me.

• 1:02:39Speaker 01

  Come on, dude, come on, come on.

• 1:02:44Speaker 00

  So.

• 1:02:45Speaker 01

  Dude.

• 1:02:46Speaker 00

  So these Jordans are, there's, there's a part of the 91, 92, 93 championship, the sneaker he wore in those championships.

• 1:02:54Speaker 01

  That's really kind of you, man.

• 1:02:55Speaker 00

  Yeah, and I love them because, um.

• 1:02:58Speaker 01

  Oh, man.

• 1:02:59Speaker 00

  They, they, that's what started all for him.

• 1:03:01Speaker 01

  Dude, I heard it was funny this morning. I was watching TikTok and some guy was asking, he was talking, he was talking to Jordan and he asked the question, he said, uh, you know, who would, who would have won the, you know, the Bulls of back in the day or the Lakers of today? And he goes, that'd be a tough one. I mean, probably the Lake, you know, probably us, but only, only by a couple of points. He's like, really? He goes, yeah, I mean, most of us are retired.

• 1:03:33Speaker 00

  I believe.

• 1:03:34Speaker 01

  I know. And I was just like, that confidence?

• 1:03:36Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:37Speaker 01

  I was like, dude, that's why.

• 1:03:39Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 1:03:39Speaker 01

  You look at his mental capacity in his movies or his documentary, that's why. Dude, this is an honor.

• 1:03:45Speaker 00

  You're welcome.

• 1:03:45Speaker 01

  Thank you so much.

• 1:03:46Speaker 00

  Thank you. And thanks, man, for, um, just the friendship and the mentorship throughout the years. I, I do think that we live in a world that's very small and I feel like, uh, we've been lucky enough to get to know each other over the years, but I do feel like there were some forces that helped us get to know each other and I'm, I'm really grateful for those, that, that force.

• 1:04:05Speaker 01

  So am I, brother.

• 1:04:06Speaker 00

  Thanks. Appreciate it.

• 1:04:07Speaker 01

  That's cool. Thanks, Omar.

• 1:04:09Speaker 00

  I hope you loved this conversation with Dan Martell as much as I did. He's not only a successful entrepreneur in my book, but he's also one of the most down to earth, curious, giving people I know. He's not only a friend or a mentor, but he's an inspiration. His story is proof that anyone can turn things around in their life and achieve great things if you have the right mindset and the guidance along the way. If you enjoyed this episode and you want to learn more from Dan Martell, head on over to his website, danmartel.com. And you can grab his book, Buy Back Your Time. It's one of the best investments you can make in your growth because it shows you through his buyback principle, which is the principle of his book, how to scale yourself and spend your time on what matters most

• 1:04:53Speaker 00

  to your business and your life. You can also check out everything else he offers on YouTube and his podcast over at danmartel.com. Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of the $100 MBA Show. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't just keep it to yourself. Share it with a friend, with a family member. Send a text message, a WhatsApp, a messenger. Put it on social media. Send them an email. Tell them, over dinner, whatever you want to do. The point here is that share this episode so others can grow just like you just grew in this episode. I'll see you in the next one. Take care.

• 1:05:34Speaker 03

  What do I gift my mom and nieces?

• 1:05:36Speaker 04

  Walmart has top brands you know, like Ninja, Disney, Lego.

• 1:05:43Speaker 03

  Oh, Dad loves music.

• 1:05:44Speaker 04

  Sonos can bring his songs to life with sound that hits just right.

• 1:05:51Speaker 03

  And my coffee-obsessed bestie?

• 1:05:52Speaker 04

  Delongi Brew's Coffee, right for mornings extra bright.

• 1:05:56Speaker 03

  All those great brands at Walmart? Who knew?

• 1:05:58Speaker 04

  We knew, now you do too.

• 1:06:01Speaker 05

  Shop gifts no love at Walmart.