In life, you have two choices. You can build a lifestyle or you can live a bullshit life, but you can't do both. Welcome to the “Freedom Lifestyle Experience”, where we focus on building the lifestyle you want—and now, here's your host, Michael Burns.
Mike: Welcome back to another episode of the freedom lifestyle experience. I'm host Mike Burns. How's everyone doing? We've had looking out to the office window today. We've got quite a bit of snow out here in Utah. So this week I want to talk about preparation on, so on Saturday Kia and I had, I think we had about 15 people over to our house and we had brought this guy in and he was basically doing we did an all day six or seven hour training on basically emergency medical training, like trauma medical. So we were at a gun show last year, probably last summer. And one of the guys that had a booth there, he was selling, you know, all sorts of different first aid kits and just different medical packages that you could buy all sorts of different levels, basic, you know, first aid for your car, all the way up to like you were ready, full blown for war. (01:10)
So we got talking to this guy and it's like, okay, well, you've got all these different, you know, packs like what's in the packs. Like there's all sorts of just military grade bandages and just different that we had never seen before. And weren't really aware of. And the guy told us, like he actually does trainings where he'll hold training classes that you could go to and, and basically learn how to do all this medical stuff. But he said he also does like private events too. So we had been in, in touch with him and finally lined up a date. So on Saturday we had about 15 people over at our house and this guy came in and he did training for us. So he's got extensive been on the SWAT team. And then he ran the flight program for the university of Utah, like the medic flight program where, you know, someone gets hurt and they fly out the helicopter and do all that.(01:57)
So pretty much 30 years deep of any and everything, military police, you know, hospital training with essentially like emergency medical. So he came in and we did this class and it was, it was really cool. And one of the things, like he said, he said multiple things, but just as we were in the class, he said a couple of things that stuck with me and it just kind of sparked the whole thought of what I Joe's gonna be about, which is preparation. But he said, you know, when you have a plan, it gives you confidence. And that was something that just really set in with me. When you have a plan, it gives you confidence. So, you know, especially like with, if you were to roll up on a car wreck or some sort of medical situation happened, and you had a little bit of training and a little bit of a plan, you could have confidence in that moment, or if you're executing on a business deal and you've got a plan, you're gonna have confidence in that.(02:53)
And really what's behind the confidence is, is really the preparation and having the preparation, the plan, the training, the reps, it really comes into play. And that's what I wanted to talk about today. And really the idea of being prepared. It, it applies to everything like any and all things in life. It really applies to, but going back to COVID when COVID first started and Utah, they started shutting down the middle of March, late March. And, you know, you saw on social media and maybe if you watch TV or whatever, you'd see clips of stores. It had bare shelves and stuff. And I remember Kia and I went down to our local grocery store that we shopped at at the time. We don't shop there now because we vote with our dollars in this place. Doesn't get our dollars anymore. It's called Harmons.(03:38)
If you're in the lakes sit or the Utah area, Harmons is one of those businesses that has decided to act the way that they do. And, you know, when people start voting with their dollars and spending your dollars at pro America and pro freedom companies starts to get their attention. So anyways, we don't shop there anymore, but we went there and it was, it was later at night, just remember rolling through. And the shelves were bare and it was super E just, I'd never experienced anything like that. So we went through and, you know, grabbed a Carter, two worth of. And we were filling up gas cans and stuff afterwards at the gas station. And just going through the whole COVID situation really made KIAA. And I, I realized how unprepared we were like, yeah, we're prepared financially. We got money set aside and credit lines and, you know, prepared there, but we were not prepared for any sort of situation like this. (04:31)
You know, we don't have, we didn't have extra gas on hand. We didn't have the food storage. We didn't have just all the basic that you would really need in the event that everything shut down for a couple of weeks. So that was a big eye opener for me and, and really kind of sparked like, what else are we not prepared in? And really starting to take this preparation thing serious, not only on the home front and getting your house in order, but it's like, you know, what else am I not prepared with? What other blind spots do I have or what other gaps do I have due to lot lack of preparation. And in the event that a situation were to happen, whether it's life, business, family, whatever it might be, where's those blind spots at, and what can I do to make sure that I'm prepared moving forward.(05:12)
So, as I'm just thinking about, you know, just going through the whole COVID situation and then expanding on the preparation there, and then this class that we had with this guy over the weekend, and a couple of things that I wrote down that I wanted to share, and just some different thoughts in, in that in the whole being prepared conversation, but the more prepared we are, the better we will perform, I'll repeat that the more prepared we are, the better we will perform. And really, you know, if you look at any of pro athlete, they spend a tremendous amount of time preparing for just a small performance an hour long game, like think about the super bowl that we just had, the amount of preparation and practice and, and, and running drills and conditioning and weightlifting and studying the playbook and watching game film, studying the other team, just all the mental preparedness, the physical conditioning, all of the preparation that goes on for just a 60 minute game or 40 minutes a game time, the like people who are elite performers, their preparation in tur, like the amount of preparation that goes into just a small event.(06:23)
It's so lopsided and that's really where you're winning the game, you know? And so the more prepared you are, the better you're gonna perform. And that's when, like the preparation and the reps and everything, you know, like when guys are shooting a free throw, they have done that a million times, hundreds of thousands of times. So it's just automatic. But one thing that this guy had said, you know, when, when he's rolling up on, on a situation, identifying what the immediate need is, and then what needs care right now. And he was talking about like, when you roll up on a crisis, situ how much, like your blood's pumping, your adrenaline's pumping. And that's when you really revert back to your training, which is your preparedness. So you take, you know, he called him combat breasts, but you take three deep breaths, you know, three times and then handle the situation.(07:13)
And that's really what the training and the preparedness comes in into play, but going to, to, to pros or any, anyone who's elite at what they do. As you guys know, I'm in RTA syndicate. And I refer back to that a lot because I've learned so much from Andy and ed and, you know, those guys are obviously elite performers, but ed Mylet told us one time that he spends 30 hours preparing for a one hour talk 30 hours for a one hour presentation. Now, you know, I'm, I'm sure at this point, the dude's the greatest speaker in the world that he probably has this different things down. But I was, I just remember when he told us that I was just like, and he, he's always talking about the preparation, and Andy's always talking about doing the work and running the play and just winning the day at 30 hours going into to one talk or one, the preparation for a speech.(08:04)
I just thought that was wild. Another thing that requires a tremendous amount of preparation for just a small period of time is body building or any type of physique show. Like I've got a couple of buddies that are into that. And just, you know, they've got six of working out hardcore diet, militant, diet, you know, waking up doing fasted cardio, and just the amount of preparation and that goes into maybe five minutes of standing on stage in your, you know, in your board shorts or your, you know, man, bikini, whatever, and, and sitting there, you know, showing off all the work that you've done or a business meeting know like a deal, for example, our, you know, the amount of like preparation that goes into raising capital and, and having the understanding of like, what is, what does a deal look like and putting your team in place and all the preparation that's required for you to have in place.(08:55)
So when an opportunity comes up and you see a deal, you can jump on it. You've probably heard the saying before as luck is when preparation meets opportunity. And that really is the truth. So like I said, it doesn't matter if it's, it's your home life, your business, like whatever it is, or lack of preparation or us being prepared is really going to decide what's gonna happen when it comes down to that moment where you need to take action, like either you're prepared and you're ready, or you're not. And what's comforting about this is being prepared is, is something that's totally in our control. You know, I've talked about in the show and my mentor, Mark Evans is always talking about control the controllables, because that's what we can, you know, we can't control the outside world. We can't control other people. We can't control what happens and, and what comes in our way, but we can absolutely control our controllables and being prepared is a huge part of that.(09:52)
So when we were the burns team, but before we opened up lifestyle lending and lifestyle Realty, and we were just, you know, branded the burns team homes and loans, but the logo for that is the, an iceberg. And I'm sure you guys have seen like the meme or there's some different wall arts that places sell that's posted on social media, but essentially it's an iceberg. And, you know, below waterline, the, the whole concept is, is nobody sees below the water line. And you just see, you know, what's above the water line and below the water line, that's where the preparation's at. But that's also where the grind is. The grit is the, you know, the long nights, the no weekends, the, the cold calls, the debt, the eating failure, the failure, the failing again, and all of the preparation and all of the work that goes into what you see above the water line.(10:48)
And that's why in business, you know, people, all of a sudden someone will come show up hot on the scene. And it's like, oh, this guy's an overnight success. It's like, no, he's been grinding and busting his and eating and taking his licks for 20 years. It's just now people are seeing the accomplishments and momentum because of the preparation is now starting to, to take the center stage if you will. And that's why I picked that logo. But the thing with the iceberg, I just connect with it so much because the prepar it's not sexy and no one sees it preparations. It, it's not a hot topic on Instagram. It's not, it's not the result, right? Everybody's so focused on the result and the end goal. And no one really focuses on the preparation and looking at what really went into that. And last week, when I was talking about, you know, buying the Ferrari, this is exactly what I was talking about.(11:40)
It, it's not about the Ferrari, but that's, what's sexy. And that's what people see. And that's what is a tension grabbing, but all this that went into that Ferrari being parked on top of the iceberg, you know, that's what I'm talking about here. And when you really start taking this serious and taking personal accountability for controlling your controllables and doing your part, whether it's doing the work, the mindset, making sure you're on top of your environment, you're doing the self-development, you're doing all the different work. You're controlling the controllables that's being prepared. And when you do that over time, you're gonna start to get momentum, but there's also gonna come situations that are opportunities for your work and your preparation to show. So whether it's I'm at the gun range and, and an accident happens, and, and I have this training, but not only do I have this training, I also have the equipment to be able to act on it.(12:36)
Or I've been preparing myself in business and doing everything I'm doing. And a big deal comes up. Just like, for example, last week I saw this 24 unit deal got hit my email 24 unit apartment deal in Albuquerque, New Mexico popped up, well, guess what? I'm prepared for? Something like that. I've got my money. I've got capital I'm bankable because I'm part of a mastermind group. I've got a new buddy and contact who's in one of my high level mastermind groups. And he lives in Albuquerque New Mexico. So, because I was prepared and I saw an opportunity, well, it looks like I'm gonna get lucky here because you know, I pick up the phone. I'm like, Hey, we, or are you interested in this deal? You know, I got this deal. I'll bring the deal in half the money. You're there locally boots on the ground. Why don't you bring the other half of the money and, and operate the deal and, and deal with the boots on the ground, local.(13:26)
And, and let's do this thing together and just boom. It happened. But that's because I was prepared. And another thing that this guy that we were working with over the weekend said, you know, and he said that that's cool. You know, he had us raise our hands, like, Hey, who has a first aid kit? Who's got what, whatever level it is. But basically he wasin insinuating like who who's got a first aid kit at, at whatever level it might be. And he said, what good is your first aid kit? If you don't know how to use it, if you don't know how to do a tourniquet, or you don't know how to use an Israeli battle wound bandage, if you don't know, and you don't have the training to use the tools that you have, well, it doesn't matter. It's the same thing with a handgun, you know, with this crazy world we're living in and all the different things.(14:15)
It's like people think because they go to the store and they buy a nine millimeter and they got some bullets and stuff, and they've got a gun that they're safe and, and they're protected. And everything's good. Well, if you don't know how to shoot the gun, it doesn't really matter if you have it. So you could have whatever tools it is you think you need. But if you don't know how to use them, they're useless to you going back to the prep thing. Like even right now, myself calling myself out for being a little bit of a hypocrite. I bought a really nice generator, probably late, like in the fall last fall, I bought this badass generator. It's big enough to run my whole house, but I don't have it set up. So it's like, okay, we're in the middle. You know, right now it's snowing outside.(14:56)
We've probably got six inches of snow in my front yard. And if the power went out tonight, that generator doesn't mean no good, even though I have it. And it looks pretty and it's just robust, badass, a generator. That's capable of powering my whole house. And we wouldn't up a beat. If things went out, it's not set up. And I don't have, you know, I haven't had the electrician come out and fully wire it, I don't know how to use it. I haven't breaking out the manual. I haven't filled it with oil. So even though I have this tool, it does me no good because it's not set up and I don't know how to use it. And it's the same thing with no, no matter what it is like, if you don't know how to operate the vehicle that you're, and you can't get it out of park, it doesn't even matter if you have it.(15:35)
So, you know, I've, at this point, I've kind of made the point of preparation and the point that I'm trying to get across here, but how is that relevant to you? Cuz that's, that's the whole purpose of this show is I'm trying to give applicable tactical stuff that you know is not only motivational, but you can actually go do something with. So I would invite you guys, take, take a look at your, you know, start with your household situation. Like, are you prepared? If a situation were to go down, are you ready? And again, just because you have the different tools and the different things that doesn't mean you're prepared and it doesn't mean that you're ready and you're gonna be in a position to where you can execute. If it comes down to where you need to execute. Another thing to keep in mind is, you know, when we're in a high stress situation, you're gonna, your, your motor skills are gonna not gonna be as good.(16:23)
You know, your blood's gonna be pumping. You're gonna be pretty amped up. And that's really when the preparation part comes in and the reps and the practice is, and your training is gonna kind of take over in that moment. So really, like I said, encourage you to take a look at your home situation. Like, are, are you prepared there if you follow me? And you're, if you vibe with my message, you're, you're, you're probably down with the second amendment, you know? And like, that's great. You have a gun, but do you know how to use it? You know, if you don't go and, and even if you do know how to, you need to con you need to practice, right? Like if without practice and without repetition, we lose our skillset. So that's great. You have a gun, but go out to the desert, go down to the shooting range and, and practice with it.(17:04)
Shoot it, learn how to handle it, how to maneuver it, how to load it. If it jams, what do you do if it jams, like not only is it preparation to make, make sure that, you know, you can use the gun and the situation that you need to, but also if you're gonna be a gun owner, it's a responsibility that you have to yourself, to your family and to the community that you actually know what the you're doing. If you're gonna be ha handling, you know, something, that's got the capabilities that, you know, a rifle or a pistol or shotgun or whatever it might have. And same thing in business, you know, you have to be prepared. I'm a real estate guy and people are always asking me like, what do I do to get in into real estate? How do I get a deal?(17:42)
Well, it's like, if you don't even know how to analyze a deal, a deal could fall in your lap today. But if you don't even know how to look at something and realize if it's a deal or not, you're not prepared. So learn the market, learn how to run comps, get a rough idea of what costs like start building the relationships that you need. You're gonna need hard money lenders. You're gonna need a realtor. You're gonna need, you know, a title person, an attorney you're gonna need contractors start doing the work to be prepared. So like I said, luck is when preparation meets opportunity, same thing with your health and fitness, right? Are, are you prepared with a meal plan? Like, are you prepared with a workout plan? Are you just winging it? Like the bottom line is, is when you have a plan, you're gonna feel more confident.(18:30)
And that, that was one of the biggest things this guy said to me over the weekend is have, when you have a plan, you're gonna feel more confident. And that's really what we're trying to do here guys is, you know, when as you have confidence, you're gonna continue showing up and doing the work. And that's part of building the momentum. And as you keep showing up and as you preparing, and as you keep doing the work, you're gonna start building some self confidence, which is gonna turn into momentum, which is gonna turn into results. And you just keep building on that and building on that and building on that. And that's freedom, lifestyle experience, right? No matter, you know, whether it's, like I said, money, home, life, relationships, whatever it might be, you know, are you preparing yourself to be a good spouse, a good partner?(19:12)
:Are you working on the things that, you know, don't, aren't good traits and good qualities to be in relationship with somebody. If you've got some insecurity issues, when you're in a relationship with someone and you're insecurity issues start coming up, that's gonna be a problem. It's gonna come across as jealousy. It's gonna come across as needy. So there's all of these different things that we can do to be prepared. And that's controlling the controllables. And really, like I say, in every show and the foundation of my message, it's at the, at the end of the day, what it is is it's taking personal accountability for me and everything. So I really hope that provides some value. I got some great news guys. I'm back Graham. So please follow me on Instagram. I'm trying to rebuild this thing. My handle is at Mr. Mike Burns burns B U R N Z as always. I'm still on Facebook, Mr. Michael Burns. But if you like the show, if you're learning from the show, if it brings you any sort of value, please share it. Tell a friend, leave me a review. And again, I want to hear from you guys, you know, some of you hitting me up with different topics, and I really appreciate that. And I want some feedback as well. So until then go build that lifestyle. We'll see you guys next week.(20:25)
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