#1410- I'm Done Chasing The Money

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• 0:00Speaker 00

  What's going on squad? Welcome to another episode of the change lives make money podcast for business owners that want to grow and sell on social media. My name is Brian Mark. I'm your host. And in today's episode, we're going to be discussing money, money, money, money, money, money, money, money. I feel like I do a money podcast. I'd say like once a month, money mindset, talking about money, talking about philosophies and beliefs around money. And as somebody who has done millions of dollars of sales, I've got a lot of experience with this, this whole thing that we're going to be discussing today, which is the money. As a business owner, I think that we can all agree that we're in business ultimately to be able to generate a profit and be able to take something home, to be able to do something with our lives. Like all of us, like, nobody gets into business to do it for free.

• 0:40Speaker 00

  And I think that common trap that all of us fall into, myself included, is in the pursuit of making more money. The money becomes the focal point and the main focus and the number one priority. And we end up chasing the money at the detriment of how we feel about ourselves. And when we are making more money, it feels fucking awesome. And when we, when we're not growing at the pace that we want it to, we start questioning our own self-worth. So I just want to remind you guys, we are giving away a thousand dollars on the podcast. All you have to do is screenshot any episode, share it to your Instagram stories, tag me at the real Brian Mark. Let me know that you're tuning in. All right, let's get back into it. So I, I noticed this pattern in myself recently because we're on the pursuit, like, one of the goals that I have had for a long time is to do two million dollars a month.

• 1:26Speaker 00

  And so this month I made the decision that I was going to do like a little bit of a, when I say a little bit of a, I mean a big push. And then, so it's like, I've done a big push all month and we're still doing well, but we're not on pace to finish where I want to. So we're going to be slightly behind of where I want to. And I noticed myself feeling this like, uh, just like shit, you know? I was feeling like absolute shit. And I'm like, sitting here, like, I've been in business now for 12 years at this point, impacted over 14,000 students' lives, got 52 coaches over a hundred thousand dollars a month. And I'm like, looking at the fucking number in my payment processor and I'm judging myself based on this number.

• 2:04Speaker 00

  And I was just sitting there as I just like, had this fucking moment where I was like, sitting in my office reflecting like two weekends ago, last weekend. And I was like, just thinking to myself, like, man, like, I was just, I felt this like fucking heaviness. And I don't know if any other business owners can relate to this, where like, you are pushing so fucking hard. And the, the growth isn't happening at the pace that you want it to. And when it's not happening at the pace that you want it to, you just feel so fucking frustrated with yourself and your business. And you just feel this like, you just feel this feeling of unworthiness. It's like, what am I doing that's not good enough? Like, why can't I figure this out? Like, what's wrong with like me? Like, maybe I won't figure this out. Maybe there's somebody better than me. Maybe I'm not talented enough. Maybe I'm not good enough.

• 2:49Speaker 00

  Maybe the people that made it are fucking lucky unicorns. Maybe they cheated. Maybe they lied. Maybe they steals. And I'm like, sitting here in my fucking office, just like literally contemplating like all of the reasons that like, I could be colossally fucking up. And then I did something that was like a little bit, little bit cuckoo. I'm just going to tell you guys because it's, that's what we're doing the podcast for, right? So I did something that was a little bit cuckoo. And what I did that was cuckoo was I started talking to myself. And when I say I started talking to myself, I actually started talking to God. And I was like, you know what? I was like, God, I was sitting here in my office. I'm like, God, I, uh, I understand that I've been pushing super fucking hard. And, and I know that I want this goal so fucking bad.

• 3:30Speaker 00

  And I'm like, I fucking don't know what else to do to achieve this goal. So I fully surrender. That's all I said. I was like, I fully surrender. It was like, I fucking surrender to you. I surrender to the path that you presented to me. I surrender to this like idea that like everything that is happening right now is supposed to be happening at a pace that it's happening. And I, I fully fucking, I just like fully trust that you have my fucking back and that the path that I'm walking is the path that I'm supposed to be walking. And that things are going to happen at the pace that I, that you want them to for me. So like fucking lead me. I'm like, guide me. I'm like, help me. I'm like, I surrender.

• 4:14Speaker 00

  So after I had this conversation with God in my office, which was like a 15 minute conversation of me just talking out loud, like looking up at my fucking roof. I had this like overwhelming sense of intuition to like, reach out to this dude. And there's been like, uh, there's been a bottleneck in my business that I've been like, working through, and I've been like, trying to figure it out. And there was a guy that like offered me to help with this bottleneck. And he's like, dude, like, I'll do it for you for free. And I initially I'd like blown him off, but there was like a part of me that was just like fucking reach out to this dude now. So I reached out to the dude. And it's like, y'all, I'll take you up on that offer to like, fucking help me out with this thing. And he's like, fucking done. And so we set it up so that like next week on Tuesday, which is tomorrow, he would come in and he would support with the thing that I was, uh, that I needed some support with.

• 4:56Speaker 00

  And within 60 minutes of me setting up this agreement with this dude, I had a brand new client, like he had gone out and generated a brand new client. And I text him, I was like, what the fuck? I was like, how did, he's like, send me a payment link. I need to get this guy to pay. I'm like, how'd you do that? And then he just didn't respond. And then two hours later, bam, another one. Two hours later, bam, another one. Four hours later, bam, another one. And I literally just looked up and I was like, it's like, okay. I was like, I see you. And, um, I'm not trying to be preachy here and like, literally you guys can do whatever you want with this information. I'm just telling you what has worked for me and what is working for me. But here's what I realized, God aside and money aside, I think for too long, I chased money for the, for the sake

• 5:37Speaker 00

  of making more money because I viewed money as a measuring tool for my personal development. And when I was in survival mode, and my definition of survival mode is like when I was recovering from my addiction, when I was like at my rock bottom, when I like, needed to get out of the trailer park, when I needed to make $5,000 in Bali. When I was in survival mode, like chasing the money is what got me out of survival mode. It did. Like, I'm not, not even going to fucking lie to you. Like, because I focused, I was like, I need to fucking make more money. I was like, because I actually focused on that, like that got me out of the place where I was like, I didn't have to fight for survival. And my definition of fight for survival is like, like, if I didn't make money, I wasn't going to eat. And so chasing the money got me out of survival mode. And I think that because chasing the money, getting me out of survival mode was so effective, I just kept doing it.

• 6:22Speaker 00

  And I've done it forever, you know, like I've literally set a monetary goal and then said to myself, like, as I get to this goal, I become a better man in the process and which is absolutely 100% true. Like, if I think about when I was doing 10 to 20,000 dollars a month versus when I was doing a hundred thousand dollars a month, like those are two completely different versions of me. It's completely different, completely different in the way that I thought, completely different in the way that I spoke, completely different than the way that I showed up, completely different in my level of integrity, in my level of character, in my level of discipline, in my level of output, in my level of value that I was delivering, complete wildly different individuals. The Brian that was at $10,000 a month versus the Brian that was at a hundred thousand dollars a month.

• 7:02Speaker 00

  And if I think about the Brian now, the one where in the last 11 years have generated 51 million dollars in sales, that this version of Brian Mark is significantly different than the version of Brian Mark that made his first million at 27, significantly different individuals. Like, if we met on the street and like, we had a conversation, like, there's a lot of things that we wouldn't agree on. And I got to this level because I was chasing the money. And that's the truth. Like, and I knew that it wasn't just the money because I was like, when I hit this monetary goal, like for me to hit one million dollars a month, I was like, I need to have over a thousand clients that like deeply like love my service.

• 7:40Speaker 00

  And so I became a better coach, a better leader, a better man, delivered more value, upgraded the program, gave them what they were asking for in return for the monetary goal that I was chasing. So like, I knew that in order for me to get the money goal, I had to become a better man. And so I set the monetary goal, knowing that as I got to that goal, it would make me a better man. But I didn't consider the consequences of what happens when I don't hit the goal. And it's honestly because like, the growth in my business up to this point has been pretty organic, you know? And when I say it's been pretty organic, it's like, like my business has just grown pretty consistently for the last like few years. We're talking like 10 to 20 to 30% a year.

• 8:24Speaker 00

  And there's been years where it's five Xed, like from 2021 to 2022, we went from like 1.6 million to 5.5 million.

• 8:33Speaker 00

  What's going on fam? It's your boy Brian Mark. If you didn't know, we just launched the $10 million Instagram funnel blueprint, became a three time national best seller within the first week of us launching. You can get the book, the $10 million Instagram funnel blueprint. That is my literal start to finish complete guide on how to make money with your social media account on amazon.com. So search out the $10 million Instagram funnel blueprint by Brian Mark and get your copy. Guarantee you best purchase you've ever made.

• 9:01Speaker 00

  But I'm noticing now that like at the level that I'm at right now, to go from like, to go from $1.5 million a month to $3 million a month is like, it's like a completely different fucking level that requires me to learn a brand new set of skills that frankly, like I've never learned before at this level. Like I've learned how to lead people for sure, but leading a team of high performers that are all hungry as fuck at the level and getting people on my team to perform at an extremely high level for every single day of the week. Like that's just a level that I've like never really fully played at.

• 9:40Speaker 00

  And so right now I'm in the place where I'm like learning a bunch of skills and like all the systems that I built to get the business to 1.5 million dollars a month are breaking as I'm growing past that level. Like a lot of the things that I set up to get to this level, no longer are the same systems that are going to get me to the next level, which means I need to basically fucking rebuild things. Need to tear things down and put them back together again. And to be completely transparent, like that has been stressful as fuck. It's like rebuilding processes and systems as I'm like scaling the business has been extremely stressful. And any business owner that has scaled to a level where they're like, holy shit, the level that I'm currently at right now, like the business systems that I have right now are not going to sustain the next level of growth.

• 10:22Speaker 00

  Like that, to think about like tearing the shit down that got you to this level and then rebuilding it and getting it to the next level is stressful as fuck. And it's been even more stressful because when I didn't hit the monetary goal, like when I, or when I'm quote unquote, not on pace to finish at the monetary goal that I have, I judge my own worth based on the amount of money that my business is making. And so when we're crushing it, I'm like, I'm the fucking man. And then when the numbers aren't where I want them to be, I'm like, I'm a piece of shit. I'm a failure. I'm not very good, which is fucking crazy when I look at the life that I've created for myself. Like I look at the amount of revenue we're generating, like the amount of revenue that I'm generating now compared to what I was generating two years ago, like, like it's not even, not even the same fucking conversation.

• 11:05Speaker 00

  We'll make more in a day now than we used to make in a fucking week, three years ago, four years ago, than I used to make in a month, six years ago. And it's like, I came to realize that I had it all backwards, right? I had it all backwards. And when I say I had it all backwards, this is what I mean. I believe that I would set a monetary goal and I would chase that monetary goal because as I achieve that monetary goal, that monetary goal would make me a better man in the process. And I've now come into the understanding and I will be actively practicing the opposite of that cause and effect. Okay. The opposite of that cause and effect is very fucking simple. I'm no longer trying to make more money to become a better man.

• 11:49Speaker 00

  Instead, I will be becoming a better man for the sake of becoming a better man and knowing that because I trust myself and I trust God and I trust the universe to fucking have my back, that the money is going to follow. And my number one, the number one principle, the number one philosophy, the number one measurement of my own personal development is not going to be how much money my business is making, but how I'm showing up as a man on a daily basis. Like how was I as a father today? How was I as a leader? How was I was as a communicator? Did I say what was on my mind? Did I speak what was on my heart? Did I show up with integrity, love, passion? Was I intentional with every single thing that I was doing today? And that doesn't mean that I'm not going to dream or I'm not going to fucking, you know, set goals and try to achieve them.

• 12:31Speaker 00

  But what it does mean is I'm not going to measure my own worth based off of whether or not I hit that goal. I'm not going to say to myself, oh, I'm a failure because I didn't get there. And these are not, it's not like I'm actively, and I think we, none of us do this as business owners where we actively and consciously say to ourselves like, oh, I'm a failure because I didn't get there. That's not something that we're like consciously saying to ourselves. It's just an emotion we experience. When you feel tired, burnt out, overwhelmed, stressed out, not looking forward to the day, anxious, up at night, thinking about your business, thinking about your business in the morning, thinking about your business before you go to bed. It's like constantly can't even fucking stay present when you're with your family. It's like, you're not like actively consciously being like, I'm not good enough.

• 13:11Speaker 00

  But the fact that you can't turn your brain off when you're fucking not working on your business and you're constantly overstressing and thinking about it means that you're judging your worth based off of your business's revenue level. And I get it. Number one, because the reason get into business is because you have a genuine love for what you do. That's number one. But number two, it's like, it's very tempting to chase the money because that's what we're in business for. We're in business so that our business generates more revenue. So it would make sense, that would be a focal point for your quote unquote success. But coming from somebody that has achieved like levels of revenue that I honestly didn't even fucking believe was possible for myself. I can tell you that like no amount of money will actually make you happy. I can honestly say that with certainty.

• 13:56Speaker 00

  You know, I like the most, the craziest part about money is like, I used to believe that just made more money, then I'd be able to get a jet. If I just made more money, then I would be able to get a car. If I just made more money, I'd be able to get all these things. I used to believe that, but now it's like, I, I understand that I can't, I can't out earn. I can't make more money to make myself happy because the jet, the Lambo, the house, the car, all of these things don't actually do anything for the man that I am inside, you know? It's like the man that I am inside is, has nothing to do with the amount of money that I'm making. And when I fucking, when my kid grows up, you know, when my baby girl grows up, she's not going to be like, daddy, I'm so glad you took me on a jet.

• 14:41Speaker 00

  Daddy, I'm so glad I got to ride in your Lambo. Daddy, I'm so glad that we had this mansion. She's gonna be like, daddy, I'm so glad you were present with me. Daddy, I'm so glad that you cared. Daddy, I'm so glad that you spent time with me. Like that's, that's what I want to measure my success against. And the people that are in my business that are in my organization, like yes, I want high performance out of them. And yes, I want to push them to the next level, but also like, I also want to be a compassionate and loving leader in the process. So money cannot be the measuring tool for your personal development. You can't chase the money because if you chase the money and you achieve it, you'll feel this momentary fucking glimpse of success. And if you chase the money and you don't achieve it, you're not going to feel like you're good enough. And that is not a productive and conducive, that is not a like productive and conducive way to live your life. It's just not, it's just not fun.

• 15:26Speaker 00

  I've done it. It's not fun. It doesn't, doesn't lead you to happiness. And so the practice that I'm going to embody moving forward as an entrepreneur, as somebody that has done measuring my own personal development based off of the revenue that I'm generating, the practice that I'm going to embody is to become the man, become the man, knowing that if I think about all the goals, dreams and aspirations that I have and all the things that I'd like to achieve. If I can just put all of my attention, all of my focus, all of my energy, all of my heart into becoming the very best version of myself and ask myself in order to achieve these goals, who must I become? And then just focus 100% of my energy on becoming that person every single day. That to me is my definition of success.

• 16:07Speaker 00

  If you're listening to this and you're an entrepreneur that's in the game, you're in the fight, you're in the trenches and you have been not growing your business at the pace that you want it to. And you have been feeling like shit because of that. I want to give you permission to like, let go of that feeling because I can tell you from somebody that's done this for fucking years, that working on your business from that place is not going to get it to the level that you want it to, just not, it doesn't work like that. If you want to get your business to the next level, you literally have to let go of that feeling. You have to get yourself back to a place where you feel good, where you've got energy, where you're excited, where you're full of life, where you love working on your business.

• 16:46Speaker 00

  And you can't do that if you are judging your own self-worth based off of how much money you're making, because you won't allow yourself to feel good. You just won't do it. And if we don't allow ourselves to feel good, if we don't allow ourselves to feel good, there's no, there's nothing that you can do in your business. There's no amount of money that you can make that will shift that or change that. Because yes, you'll feel a momentary high, but as soon as that, soon as you pass that emotion or that moment where you make a certain revenue level, you're going to be onto the next target and you're going to be back repeating the same fucking cycle. And it just never ends, just keeps going and going and going and going. And you say to yourself, once I get to 100K, then I'll be good. Once I get to a million, then I'll be good. Once I get to 10 million, I'll be good. That's what I did.

• 17:29Speaker 00

  And then every time I got to the next level, I was like, well, if I can get to one, I can get to two. And if I can get to two, I can get to 10. If I can get to 10, I can get to 100, which yes, all of this is true, but I also want to enjoy the journey along the way. And I, I used to be the type of person that would be willing to sacrifice myself for certain seasons. Like I'd be like, I'm just going to fucking put my head down for like six months and fuck everything. But it's like, once you have a family, that, that kind of shifts because it's like, I don't want to put my head down and sacrifice myself for a season and then miss six months of my daughter's life. Like that's just not a thing I want to do.

• 17:59Speaker 00

  So it's like, there's a better way to go about this and I'm, I am on the pathway to achieving that goal is yeah, to, to hit all the goals that I have financially, physically, emotionally, spiritually, physically, but also do it in a way where I'm enjoying the journey along the way. So that's a wrap. I hope you guys have the best of your entire lives. Thank you guys so much for listening to the podcast. I'm giving you permission to let go of the negative emotion you feel about your business because I promise you, working on your business from that place is not healthy, conducive and will not serve you. It also is just not going to help you grow your business. If you want to grow your business, if you want to get yourself to the next level, if you want to take yourself to the next level, then you absolutely must, you absolutely must get yourself to a place where you feel fucking good.

• 18:43Speaker 00

  And in order to do that, you've got to take yourself out of the need to, the need to make more money for the sake of making more money. And instead focus 100% of your energy on becoming the person that you must become. Because when you do that, all of the goals, all the dreams, all the aspirations and all the visions that you like to achieve will be on the back end of you becoming the person that you were meant to become. Peace, love and protein. Have the best day ever. Talk to you guys soon. Deuces. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. Hopefully you got some value. If you did, and you want to learn more about how me and my team can help you scale your online fitness business to $10,000 a month, DM me 10K on Instagram, at the real Brian Mark for more information. And I'll reach out to you to see if I can help you grow an online coaching business.