Have a podcast in 30 days

Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” the trip that changed my life forever and how it could change yours too. With that said, let's get started. [00:38]

Mark: Hey there, it's your host Mark Evans DM, coming to you from Cheeca lodge in the key Largo area, Florida with my beautiful wife Deena. We packed the bags up for a couple of days and rolled out to hang out and talk about goals in life. No kids. We dropped the kids off. Actually, I left him at the house, and a lot of Peanut butter and water in there. Bottled water, that is, I didn't want to hurt him, you know, with all the stuff in the crazy top water. Just joking of course, but dropped him off with my in-laws and they had a great time in Naples and all that good stuff. But you know, getting away, today's show might be a little bit different today just because I want to kind of share with you some insights about kind of, you know, where I'm at today. I forget, I'm not saying this to be silly, but I've been an entrepreneur my entire life. [01:29]

Literally, I've never had a job. Um, unless I kill it, I don't eat. So as I'm sitting here, you know, like I said, we're just plotting and planning and goal setting and talking and hanging out and I'm not drinking. Um, I'm working out twice a day still. Um, and truth is, I don't feel that good. You can probably hear my voice. Um, I have a, a weird sinus thing going on anyways, I just, before I get into this too deep, I do want to say, guys, thank you so much for all the five-star reviews. I, um, I was checking them out today and just gets me excited. I know sometimes it's like, man, I, you know, I don't wanna I don't have time to take two minutes to leave someone a review. I don't know what to say. It might sound stupid or whatever, but it truly does. [02:15]

It means a lot to me. As you guys know, I don't charge anything for these shows. Um, I want to keep providing great value to you when I have value to provide. Um, as I, I, I don't want to have to do the show, I want to do the show. And that's how it always will be. Just so you know, I don't bring in advertisers and all that, uh, ma, you know, make this a big advertising pitch to dry draw, drive all... I can't even say it today. Drive eyeballs and ears, but you leaving five-star reviews guys. That truly is awesome. One, I sit there and with my son on my lap and we talk about and we read them together, you know, my wife, I tell her the cool ones and it's just amazing. So I do appreciate you guys leaving five star reviews that iTunes for me. [02:55]

And you know what the making of a DM show is for you. I genuinely want to help the people that want to help themselves. So however you found out about me through your buddies or through, you know, just following me, appreciate you being here. If you do feel like the show is helping you, it'd be really good for you to share it with your friends and colleagues and share it on social media. Tag me. I always love to give you share back and all that good stuff and just keep spreading the word. It's the love effect, right? So let's talk about something. I'm sitting here, like I said at Chica, Ana, I'm just thinking about my advantage. I do have an advantage and I think the advantage is, I'm not that smart. I barely graduated high school, never went to college. I know I don't know anything, but I will work and outwork anybody around me. [03:45]

I'm not afraid of work. I know I wrote a book called 10-minute business owner, but the premise of that book is not about working 10 minutes a day. It's about a power of constraint. If you only had 10 minutes a day, who do you talk to and what do you talk about? And the reason that's important is because I'm an entrepreneur just like you. I'm a business owner just like you. I have life going on, I have kids, I have family, I have employees, I have all these things moving just like all of us. The problem is if you're a micromanager like I used to be, you have zero life. Like balance is nonexistent in any way, shape or form and I'm not talking balance in life, in business, I'm just talking in general just in life period I guess. [04:25]

Right. All the way around. So to me the 10 minute business owner was built through my travels and that's what I want to talk to you about today. My advantages, I left, so October 8th, 2005 my grandmother passed away very quickly, two-week timeframe. She had stage four cancer and I was so thankful I could sit down and hold her hand and tell her how much she meant to me and I actually had to do a recorder because I was too emotional to tell her one-on-one I would be balling. I was crying the whole time, of course, because it literally is like my last opportunity to tell her what she meant to me. So I was so grateful that I had that moment. So is that my house back in the day recording? This is tape decks. Most of you guys might not even know what that is, but it was a tape deck. [05:06]

I pushed record pause, record, pause, record, pause to get through this letter that I wrote her and told her how much she meant to me, all the cool memories and all that stuff. Anyways, it was an amazing thing. And if you have someone that's sick that you care about or love and you have the opportunity to do that, I recommend it's very vulnerable. It's very powerful. And when they pass away, it makes you feel so amazing. Not that they're dead, but that you're able to share with them, um, a conversation that you're going to have with yourself no matter what. So it was pretty cool, but it really, I was 27 years old. It really stuck with me. Like, Oh my God, I'm 27. I’ve been busting my tail, working crazy hours every day. Never, never bothered me. I don't mind working, have money in the bank, but I never traveled. [05:50]

I was too afraid to, honestly, I was too afraid as a business owner to leave the business because I had a lot of people in the office, had a lot of money moving around. I felt like the business was me and it was, if I left, business is going to shut down, business is going to slow down. It's going to stop. It's going to come to a screeching halt. Interestingly, a girl named Dena, now my wife and she started talking to me, she's like, you know, we should, uh, go on a vacation somewhere, whatever. But keep in mind, I'm a hillbilly from Ohio. I don't really travel. I'm too busy working and too afraid to travel cause if you leave the nest, you know, it was ingrained in me. We just never really got on airplanes and all that stuff as kids. So I, uh, I kind of agreed to it. [06:32]

I had that life altering moment, my grandma passing away. And that day I did. I went back to my office and I was bawling. I was bawling. I shut the door. No one was there. It's like 11 o'clock at night. I'm like, cry my eyes out pouring down rain outside. It was just, there's one of those moments where you're like, if I don't change something, I'm going to be here 10 years, 20 years, 30 years from now. So a big lesson for me is like what got me to where I'm at today isn't going to get me to where I want to go in the future. And it takes change. So it's funny, people come up to me and I'm like, dude, you've changed so much since the last time I saw you. Yeah, you saw me a year ago, dude, I change every three months, six months. [07:13]

I'm a different person. I’m talking about bigger stuff. I'm moving forward. I'm talking about things that I'm trying to develop and grow and, and grind out and push forward. And you know, all these things. If you're not changing, what's the, what's the saying? If you're not evolving, you're dying. And that's one of my biggest fears. So I literally had to come to Jesus moment, if you will, October 8th, 2005 in my office. And I said, dude, like pen to paper by the way. And I was just writing down my thoughts, crying. I call it thought audit where I'm just bawling my eyes out. I'm like, what do I want? Where am I at? What is this guy? What can I do different? What, who, what? What do I really stand for? How can I do this better? How can I be bigger? How can I be stronger? [07:53]

Is this what I want in 10 years from now? Just like asking all these questions. And ultimately, you know, Dina asking me that question, go travel like really allowed me to open up a different door and say, let's do it. Commit. Let's do it. I have no clue how I'm going to do this. By the way. This is October and uh, she said December, we're going to leave December 4, 2006. So far in 2006 I procrastinated so far. We left December 31st, 2005 and we went to South beach, Florida for one month. Gotta be honest, I was scared to death. I'm actually getting a little jittery just talking about it cause I remember those emotions so much. I was on that plane shaking like a leaf. I was scared to death. So I'm overdrinking clearly and trying to suppress that moment, knowing that whatever happens is on me. [08:47]

I don't know about you guys. If you've ever left your company for 30 days, most of you haven't left it for three minutes, let alone three days, let alone 30 days. 30 days I left. And this is before what you know today existing like the way the internet exists. Keep in mind, I was owner, I owned a real estate investment company. You know where you go chest to chest, shake hands, write contracts, sign them in a pen and paper, go to title companies, go to the Bank. Like there's a lot of personal one on one meetings that you typically have to do. So we left, we land there in South beach, Florida. So excited. Obviously it's new year's Eve and we were passed out. We're on the 16th floor, South beach, Florida overlooking the ocean saying, Oh my God. Like it was so beautiful cause I've never seen anything like it. [09:35]

The condo was amazing. We rented for the month, it was awesome, but I couldn't enjoy it. I was like, I got to get to bed, I gotta get up early. I got to go. I got, I went right back into my instant routine. Kind of what I know, right? Like you can't just wake up and deprogram and nine years of effort over just a moment, right? So it was a process and we went to bed at 10 o'clock while everyone's getting wasted and shooting fireworks off and I'm not judging it. It's just what they were doing on new year's. And it was wild. It got up early, act as if I was in Columbus, Ohio. Went, walked down to the Starbucks, sit down and started working. And this is flip phone days. And when I traveled, you had to travel with a big old briefcase of stuff. [10:18]

Like you had to have a fax machine, you had to know who where the local notaries were. I mean it's a different game today than it was back then. So much so like, uh, well let me go, let me tell you a little bit more here. So, I had massive anxiety attacks. I had moments where I felt like I had to go to the hospital because I'm going to lose everything. And in your brain, we create these worst-case scenarios, situations that can supersede reality. And the reality was the team was thinning out, people were leaving quickly and or getting fired because they weren't holding their weight. Cause I was the glue that held everything together. I was, the guy said, give it to me, I'll knock it out. No one can do it as good as me, give it to me, I'll make it work. [11:02]

But I was making salespeople look like they were good when they weren't. And I was also, you know, keeping things together. It was all band aid effect. And you know, when you're sitting from afar there, teams in Ohio, I'm in South beach, Florida. Like I had to start digging deep. I was a micromanaging maniac. Not only that, I was an egotistical maniac. I wanted my name on everything. I wanted everyone to know who I was, this and that. And that's definitely, I'm the opposite now. I, I could give two shits if anybody knows who I am, I just want the checks and I want the results and I want the team building to grow. But with that said, you know, me shooting the show and sharing with you, people get to know you and I do love helping the people who want to help themselves. So, there are some good sides to that and some people are behind the scenes so people will like, you know, I, I don't want to be here. [11:51]

I feel like I have to be here by the, because I have a voice to share and a genuine like I have, no, my motive is to help you. That's it. No more, no less. But with that said, it's like, you know, I remember sitting on the beach, Dina loves hanging out and getting tan and all that stuff. And I don't mind at once in a blue moon, but I'd be on my flip phone and I'd be there stressing out and I literally went through so many yellow pads of paper daily writing down, I'm going to lose this. I want to do this. How do I do this? How do I do this? What do I do? Who do I need to hire for this? What does? Like your brain just starts thinking differently. You start looking at this stuff way differently and the power of constraint is massively real. [12:29]

It is a real thing and if you've ever traveled, you know you've experienced what I'm talking about, the build up, the leave, you're very productive. The last day you've put everything off so far, but the last day you just magically get your shit done. Pretty powerful. What I did and I started realizing I was hacking this information, hacking this stuff. When I started realizing what was going on every 30 days to 90 days, my wife and I, we started traveling, so we were there actually we were in South beach, Florida. We extended for five months or six months, something like that, and it changed my life. This is the times of when you're, like I said, this is like using Craigslist. It's very weird because people know Airbnb now and HomeAway and all this stuff, the people were, we were traveling all across the country and outside of the U S and they're like, Hey, meet me here with 7,000 euros. [13:22]

And this were like, okay, cool. It was like totally normal. Could have been someone else's place. Who knows? But we never had any issues ever. But it was amazing to me that every time I would travel, my business would grow. I would push things forward, more things would happen, business would develop, connections were made differently. My team would step up to the plate and Excel. The other ones, some of them would not. They would de-cel. And for me it gave me great awareness of what my strengths and weaknesses were. I think a lot of guys and gals don't really understand what their strengths, strength and weaknesses are because they don't pay attention to it because we don't need to sometimes. When you're in the game, you're just in the game, but someone needs to be the quarterback, so when needs to be the lineman, someone needs to be the receiver, someone needs to be the Potter, the kicker, et cetera, the coach, the owner and all that. [14:19]

There's a role, there's a place for all of us. Question is where are we at? And through travel, my wife and I, we traveled the world, US and the World for seven years at a point in our travels for two and a half years, we had no house. We put everything in a storage facility and just traveled around. We did not live out a suitcase. I know it seems like we might have, but like we're staying at places for 30 to 90 days. We're staying at home, not hotels, but condos or houses or or something of that sort. We weren't staying in and doing the touristy stuff. We were really trying to decompress and I was trying to figure out what the hell I wanted out of life to be honest with you. As the journey progressed. So, what was interesting is I started learning some stuff. [15:05]

So again, like I started asking myself, how many business owners Mark did you know that could take off for 30 plus days? You guys don't like, this is a true story. I never went back to my office in Columbus, Ohio after I left December 31st, 2005 I never went back. Even when we shut the office down, I paid someone to go over there, throw everything away, take the paperwork of course and put, send it to the other office. But I never went back. I didn't have to go back. There was no need for me to go back. And us as owners, we feel like we need to be a part of everything. Well, why do we feel that way? So another thing, it forced me, this is very big. So think about this. It forced me to stop micromanaging small problems and start focusing on bigger solutions and bigger results. [15:55]

See if the copy machine guys, I'm not joking. I used to fight my assistant to save 12 cents on post it notes, go to this store, go there. You got to remember that. That's how I was trained as a child. I saw my parents skimp every penny they could because they had very limited resources and maximum upside. They only could make so much an hour at their job and everything was very like hard. The way they talked about money was so different in the way that their actions, you know were led behind that. Like I modeled them. That's all I knew. So what happened? That's how I was running a business and you're going to drive yourself bananas if you're trying to figure out how to save money. I was talking to a guy yesterday, true story and we, we literally, him and I just made $23,000 together. [16:45]

So you know, what is that 23 divided? So it's like almost 11 grand and change each and he spent maybe four hours on the deal. If that any message me, it's like yo man, I need to get a credit card because I need to save points and I want to get points and I'm like, dude, why? Like I don't even know how to use points because it doesn't matter. Secondly, like your foe, like why are we using our brain energy on getting a couple points when we just made $23,000? Why isn't your brain triggering how do I make 230, how do I make 2.3 how do I make 23 million. Points become irrelevant at that point? Right. So you as an owner, when I started traveling, I started doing thought audits on this stuff. Like I would trigger, it would trigger me when I heard saw the bill, I would go nuts, what the hell are you doing? [17:34]

You know to go to office Depot and get that for this and that. Like again, it was so silly looking back. I still catch myself doing this by the way. That's why I have things in my company organized in my life in general, just with wife and I too. I don't want to hear about things. I trust you that you are going to go out and do the best you can to find the best deal or whatever that means and execute and get results. I don't need to hear about anything, especially in the house, unless it's over whatever thousands of dollars or hundreds of dollars wherever you're at at that moment or in business, I don't, nothing has to get approved by me unless it's over 1000 bucks or 5,000 or 10,000. There's a process behind it though. It's not just sloppy, right? So, because what it does is if you're like me, as soon as that happens, what the fuck? [18:24]

12 cents what do you like? Boom. You go from zero to 100 in a second, your emotions drive hardcore up and now all of a sudden what my, and again this is like they chime in through the day and I might have five, six, seven, 10 of those a day back in the day. But I'm still trying to be happy. I'm still trying to be positive. She'll trying to push the ball forward. I'm still trying to keep the team on focus, but yet I was so unfocused dealing with such petty shit. If she bought a hundred of them and save 12 cents, it's only a dollar twenty that's how stupid I was. A dollar twenty cost me millions of dollars. I know it did because all that energy, because it wasn't just that post and it was every time that posted notes, scenarios, tile type of thing happened, right? When people are out going to T mobile or wherever their phone service is trying to save $18 a month when yet it takes you 17 hours to figure out how to do that. [19:20]

Like take that money, go make more money. I'm not saying be stupid with this stuff, but like you're paying attention to your thought process, your audit. You've got to audit your thoughts. Why do you think the way you do? For example, I have an event coming up. It's called the mastery event. It's at my office. It's a small group of people. I've helped hundreds if not thousands of people. Well, that's actually thousands of people over the years generate mass, many hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars in revenue in real estate and in business and the investment's only $3,000. It's so low. It's a joke. Truthfully, and I'm telling you from my perspective because I've seen people put three grand down and I've seen them go out and make many millions of dollars within the first 12 months. I've seen it multiple times happen over and over and over and over. [20:08]

And not only that, if someone puts three Gs down, if they can't make you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars back in the next 12 months with the knowledge and information they gained from there, I cannot help them. They can't even help themselves because we give them everything they need to do that. I know how to do it cause my team does it every day. It's very real. It works. But you got to do the work. And when I have people like see people like, Hey man, I got a question about your event. Like, dude, like that your old thought process that got you to where you're at. It's stopping you from getting to where you want to go. Start looking at like I think like this and my buddy Tim Bronson, I talked this on stage, I was there last week speaking in front of 200 people at his commercial event cause he, you know, he came to me, he was a solopreneur and I'm gonna have him on the show one day, he's an awesome guy, buddy of mine now and all that stuff. [21:00]

But you know he went in four years built a 3,300 unit apartment building portfolio. And when I met him he was a solopreneur, barely making a hundred grand a year. And I told him to hire an assistant. He almost peed his pants. I explained to him the process of how to hire and why and the downside, the upside, blah blah blah. And within his next 12 months he did over 400 grand and then beyond. And I'm not taking credit for his success by the way, cause he had to do the work. But what I'm saying is when you hear other people shine the light on the other end of the tunnel, i.e. it's not a freight train. Hopefully it's a light saying hey, follow me over here. It allows you to make the right decisions to implement. It gives you confidence. But with that said, how I met Tim, just a quick synopsis, a quick story of that is I met him on Craig's list and not that side of Craigslist, not guy who wants guy or whatever they have, but like he was selling some deals and I was in Maui just hanging out with my wife and I, I found him online and I called him and talked to him about his deals. [22:00]

And I don't try to buy deals or sell deals. I tried to connect with someone and you know, do deals with individuals, not deals with properties. That's just my personality. So, we're talking and I'm like, dude, I think you could solve for this. I would do this and you know, whatever. I'm not, I think there's enough for all of us. Well. Anyways, the deal progressed. You know, two months later he called me up. He's like, dude, my money's about to go hard. I need 10 G's cash and we might make money. We might lose money, but worse, we could lose this 10 but we can make a couple million probably. So my brain, it's very simple. Downside 10, upside millions? I’m in. It's not like show me this show me that show me, this like dude, like what's the worst that can happen? I lose 10 grand. if my problem, if I'm afraid to lose fucking $10,000 I should get out of the game today. [22:49]

It's nothing, especially with educated guests and working with quality people like so when I post something that's three grand, like number one I'm not in business to rip someone off for $3,000 that's a fucking joke in itself. So, it's like I'm doing it as a separator because when people invest in, they pay, they pay attention. The truth is it should be 10 grand or more because you'll actually, people still pay it and people will get bigger results. Someone recently, my DM family, that's 35 grand a year. We have guys in there five, six, seven year, well however the longest six years now and they've been there every year. And what's interesting is one guy mentioned something, he's like, dude, you know, literally in night, in 30 days, I paid for this for three years. So he paid 35 grand and made over a hundred grand in 30 days was something I shared with him and he'll go on to make millions. [23:39]

This year he plans on making $5 million in revenue, net revenue on side because of what he's learned inside the DM family. And that gets me excited and I said instantly inside this group, I'm like, that's awesome. What if I were to charge you a hundred grand a year? I might be stealing from you by not charging you more. Cause if you can make 5 million on 35,000 if you paid a hundred you might make 15 million. I might be a fucking thief to you. Think about that. I'm being serious because it's just like a hotel. Like what's your worth? What are you worth? Not what am I worth? But what are you worth? Do you know how much time people spend decision making about no fucking decision? [24:28]

And by the way, indecision is a decision. So while you sit there and watch people succeed? Know the only difference beside them working is they're actually making a decision and executing. They're looking upside. Downside. Let's go upside. Downside. Let's go. But most people, well, I don't know. I got some questions. What's the refund policy like? What's the guarantee like? what am I going to learn? Fuck, how do I know? I can share with you what we're going to talk about, but I don't know what you're going to learn from that and I don't even know who you are. The real question is what are you trying to gain from it? Right? If you're trying to figure out how to be a better husband, you're not going to hang out and how to go to the IO and the bookstore of how-to pick-up chicks, right? [25:18]

It just doesn't make sense. But the truth is most people are walking and saying, this is, I want to be a better dad or a better husband or whatever. And they're in the wrong aisle. They don't, they're not. The truth is I don't have to be walking in the fucking bookstore. So when your decision making, this is what the reason I'm sharing this is because when I was traveling outside of my comfort zone, 24/7 by the way, cause again I was a hillbilly boy from Ohio. I never traveled like this in my life. Like literally mama, if I would go 20 minutes outside of my town, my mom's like rolled the windows, lock the doors, don't talk to strangers. And if they flash your light, they're in a gang, you gotta run. Please do not talk to anybody. Like I'm not joking. Here's two quarters. [25:55]

This is when they had pay phones and we didn't have car phones. Here's two quarters. If you need me, call me ASAP. This is not a PR, you know, call nine one one you're like, scare the Holy shit out of you. And then I get out in the real world and I'm like, it's kinda not that bad. Actually. People are pretty nice. Go figure, Mark, when you're in New York city, do not look up. If you look up, people will know that you're a tourist and they're going to Rob you while you're looking up. They're going to be have your hands in your pocket and take it like this is how I was trained. I'm a different fucking person today than I was back then. I'm a different person today than I was three months ago because I'm evolving. I'm growing, I'm pushing. I found out, I recently just got robbed like $4 million on a deal or whatever. [26:36]

That's like, so I'm a different person now because I have different pieces in place that prevent that. And back in the day it might've been $4, $40 ,400 $4,000 $40,000 or 4 million. Now it's just different, levels on levels. It's all relative. I don't stop moaning, groaning pissing and compliant. I step up to the plate and I said, we've got to execute. We've got to get better. What did we learn? Guys the only way to lose in this business in or life in general is by quitting. It’s the only way to lose. I'm either winning or learning. I've never lost ever. I might lose money temporarily, but I never fucking lose it cause I know exactly where it went, so it's not lost. It's just not in my pocket, right? It's not lost. I know where it went. Therefore, I can learn how to not make it go that way anymore. [27:26]

I'm learning. But through my travels it forced me to learn and grow and be real with myself. Mark, you suck at this. Mark, you're really good here. Wow. Mark, you just made 600 grand on a deal. Wait, you've only talked to two people for three minutes each. Like how was that possible? What does that look like? How do you replicate? How do you duplicate? What could we put into the front end, middle back? How do we do this more often? It really what I'm talking about is that in another role like that I learned it forced me to become productive, not just busy. I think it's one of the most amazing things to me when people like Mark, you don't understand I'm busy, we're all fucking busy. But what does busy mean? Because guys, I know a lot of busy people that don't do a whole lot of anything. [28:19]

They're on their phone 24/7 they're busy, they're looking at Instagram, they're busy, they're hanging out at the pool, they're busy, they're playing with their friends getting fucked up at the bar. They're busy. I'm not doing any of that shit. By the way, if you haven't listened to the show I did about, you know, using social media, are you consumer or creator? Is it a tool or distraction? You got to check it out. You can see it on here. I forget what show number it is, but it is, I'm telling you, it is a very powerful show and I've had lots and lots and lots and lots of responses on it. So another thing I learned by traveling for seven years across the world is it got me uncomfortable. Meaning I had to start leveraging other people to help me accomplish my vision without me being in the micromanagement moments. [29:11]

So, I had to become a better communicator with my vision, right? I had to get very clear with my vision and then I had to hire them to execute the process that accomplished the vision. That wasn't pretty for a while started getting better as I developed, but it's just all about communication. So it's like communicating better with third party people,right? I had like, I was hiring people from all these different resources, virtual assistants or hiring people, you know, virtually working with us in different States are right down the road, but I've never met them. But you have to ship, you have to start getting clear with what you're up to. And sometimes there's a bit, well, all the time as a business owner, if you're in the day to days, sometimes you're like, dude, I just hope I survived today. I don't know if my visions fucking wake up and make it by the end of the day and have more money in the bank than I had when I started. [30:05]

That's my vision. Well, that's not a good vision. FYI. That's not a good vision if you're trying to build a company. I know I tried. I tried for years to do that and it doesn't work. You're always going to be frustrated. You'll never be pleased ever. And you're always going to be ultra anxious, like everything's collapsing around you. So I don't know when you're listening to the show, but I just want to kind of like, if you do a, speaking of my event in uh, West Palm beach, Florida in my office, you should get on that list and check it out and see what we're doing. It's March 12th and March 13th. What's kinda cool about this event? We actually end up the last day we do the whole, you know, we're working, you guys learned a lot of stuff, but we actually come to my house here in Florida and I have dinner, with the chef and you know, all that good stuff and we get to connect. [30:56]

I don't know anybody that brings people to their house, their real house. Because most people are living in apartments with their moms acting like they're crushing the game. But I like to get close with people. I want to know what they're really up to. I want to connect with them, I want to work with them. I want to really, I really, I really just want it, like it's, it's one of my favorite things I get to do in my life. I have time to be able to like really work with people, like who want to grow and uh, it's amazing. So that website is MarkEvansdm.com/mastery, all lowercase. And that's MarkEvansdm.com/mastery. So back to this travel stuff. So, like I said, I'm at Chica and um, it's about two hours from my house. Um, I've never been there. Uh, I've never been here I should say. [31:41]

And wherever you're at, I don't care where you're at. You could drive an hour or two hours away. You don't have to pay for plane tickets and you could go to a resort. I did this when we lived in Georgia. I'd go to the blue Ridge mountains and rent a cabin for a week. And it's, you know, it gets you out of your comfort zone. It forces you to find new places. It gets you disconnected if you're not the, you know, it's like, Hey, my cell phones are not in service today, so don't, if you don't need me, don't call me. You guys can handle it. I trust you. Let's go. Obviously, they call and you try to help them. But for me, getting away from home base, it's a good time to recharge. And secondly, yeah, it kind of was like, it clears the fog. [32:27]

It's not foggy. I'm very clear on what I want and I start writing it down. I don't know how I’m going to get there yet. Don't get anxious on that because that's not the goal. But I think in 10-year terms, I'm not trying to get there tomorrow. 10-year terms take a lot of anxiety out of this, this factor, I know Dan Solomon talks about 25 years. It's a hundred quarters right of your life. And it sounds crazy to think depending on what your age is. I'm 41 I have a four-year-old son. We all say time flies by and you might be 20 what? Listen to this. But if you think in 10 to 25-year terms, it changes the game. It really does put patience on your side and secondly forces you to kind of like do the right shit when you're building what you're trying to build. [33:12]

Because a lot of people are just trying to make money. I know I used to do it. It's silly. So, well I'm passing just trying to make money and I wish I didn't know what I'm talking to you about because I'd have made a lot more money instead of being a taker. I should've been a bigger giver of content of connecting and all that. So, the travel thing, it's big and anybody can do it and it doesn't have to be extravagant. I don't know if you ever watched that bill Gates thing, but he is working on a project. He goes to like a little one room or two room cottage on the Lake with a bunch of diet Coke and all his books and writes. It doesn't have to be extravagant. It doesn't have to be the four seasons. Even though there's nothing wrong with four seasons. [33:54]

That's where I typically stay, but like the Chica lodge, I'm here, you know, you could say something like this for $1000 or $1500 a night or whatever, but you connect whatever it is. Get out in the wilderness ship Papa 10 if that's what you're into, just get away, recharge, dream, get uncomfortable and start hyperventilating because in the hyperventilation you're going to figure out why. You're going to start the thought audit processes. Like why do I feel this way? Why am I feeling anxious? Why is this breaking? Do I even need to do it? Some of the shit that we put on ourselves. We don't even have to do it. It's not even relevant to where we're going. It's just a moment in time so you can hand it off and good is good enough. Some of the stuff people create massive anxiety cause they're trying to be perfect. [34:40]

There's no such thing as perfection. Perfection is a form of procrastination. It will drive people bananas that are perfectionist, i.e. procrastinators at the finest level and you're going to have a tough time. It's going to be tough on you. So again, what got you to where you're at at this very moment? You got to ask yourself, is it going to get you to where you want to go? And the problem is with that you're going to pull from your past. You're going to pull from like, Whoa Mark, you don't understand man, I was dead broke. I used to blah blah blah. Now I make 180,000 a year. Well, I do understand because I was that person. And I promise you, you have to be a fucking way different person, 180 degrees different person to be where you want to go. If you're trying to be bigger, stronger, better leader, better business, better, you know, better giver in the future, you have to change. [35:30]

You have to change 180 degrees from where you're at at that moment. And let's not get this twisted. I don't know everything. I'm still learning every day and I'm not acting like I do. But I can tell you I'm a way different person today than I was three months ago, three years ago, even 30 years ago. Right? Clearly. So, another thing is making money and keeping it are two different things. When I started traveling as well, I started looking at money differently. I started looking money as a tool. That's just the tool. No more, no less. You know, probably one of the dumbest saying is money is time or time is money. Well it’s not. It's a dumb statement. Time is not money, right? When you talk to them, well, time is money. Well, here's the difference. When time has gone, it's gone. You can never ever, ever, ever get it back. [36:22]

Ever. When money's gone, I can go make more money. So time is not money. It's a terrible statement. If you think about it, I get what you're saying, but my time is not money. My time is my time and we have very limited amounts of it. So, through my travels, you know, now I'm 41 I'm starting to get on the other side. I only ha I might live to 82 I'm, I'm 50% of my life has gone and or I have 50% of my life left. And that's if all goes well, get to watch my kids grow up, get to maybe even marry my daughter off, walk down the aisle. Maybe you get to play golf with my son. You just never know. Right? Travel gets you connected to yourself better than ever because you're constantly uncomfortable. Again, I didn't have my cell phone in my face because back then it was flip phones. [37:09]

I actually just walked around. I'd be in Paris drinking lots of a coffee and you know, hanging out and writing, doing lots of reading and lots of writing. Like things around me were breaking. I'm not acting like everything was perfect. By all means. It was not perfect. It still wasn't, but things were breaking, but it wasn't devastating. You know, a lot of times we think if something breaks, it's going to change everything. Well, what if it does break? What if it does? I'm not saying you shouldn't pay attention to it, but does it have to get your attention today? We've all heard this, and I know I've said this before, but we're saying forever is we actually, as entrepreneurs, we walk around and say, Hey Mark, what do you do to all man? Put out a lot of fires today, putting out fires. I should be called a fire man. [37:54]

I'm a, I put out fires all day at my company. Well if you say that or other people around, you're saying that call bullshit on it because if they're putting out fires continuously, the truth is if they're always the same fires, which they typically are, cause I used to do this, we're arsonist, not firefighters because these fires don't really exist and if we have proper procedures, people in place, business structure, vision team, organization, et cetera, most of your shit that you're putting out is because you're creating it. You're fueling your Schelling chaos. You're Schelling the fire. So instead of you putting it out, you just keep adding more fuel to it. I used to do the same bullshit. Sometimes I still do because I don't catch myself. And then someone on your team's now like, dude, stop it. Let's focus on one project, get it done and move to the next. [38:47]

Until then, it's too much chaos. Nothing gets done. Lots of people are busy, lots of money's going out the door, nothing's coming in and nothing's getting done. Therefore, creates massive anxiety and massive stress personally, you know, mentally and financially. So making money and keep money. It forced me to start looking at money differently as a tool. I like to stay in nice places and I want to fly first class minimum at least if not private. That takes money. So I look at this and I start saying, how do I make more now? How do I save more? Because I already had the saving mechanism. I already know how when I say save, I actually know how to preserve capital. I know how to grow money. That's a skill set that I've been working on for 23 years and still working on it. Through many different channels to IRAs, Coverdell solos to life insurance, whole life policies, et cetera, to deal-making, to investing in other companies like we have a lot of residual companies I've invested in that create residual income every single month without me working. [39:45]

My money's going out and making babies. That's the goal. I want to do more of that. I like to do that. If you're an operator or business owner and you're a hustler and you want, you need help, that's the kind of stuff I can help you with. I know how to do it. I have teams to help me do it right. And I've invested in lots of companies to do that. Some are ultra successful, some not so successful and some are okay successful, but we're still learning and growing together. But the trip, well traveling for seven years, it was cool. One point in my trip, Dina and I were in Palm beach in the condo watching, you know, kind of recovering from a long stent and we watched a movie called ‘the way’. I like movies. I don't really like TV shows. I like movies, but I was watching a movie called the way it's with Emilio Estevez and Martin sheen, his father, and it's about this walk called the Camino de Santiago, the way of Saint James, and I'm not really into Catholic and all that stuff. [40:44]

My wife's Catholic and you know all that. But what, but like to me it was like about the journey because you walk this journey. it's literally 42 days, like almost 500 miles. And Dina and I look at each other's like we should do this and literally keep my, we've never walked probably a mile in our life like that. I mean this is like real terrain and you know we said let's do it. So I committed, we committed to doing it and within I think 60 or 90 days we were in Paris getting ready to go over to the cause there's a town right outside of Spain because you walk through Spain the whole time other than the first day. And we, we walked in and you guys could see that on the website. I'll put that in the show notes but you guys could see the website where kind of shows are scheduled. [41:27]

It's pretty wild. Our first day, I think it was 16 miles we walked, it was like over a 10 hour walk up a mountain. I think we went up the Pyrenees mountains. It was like, I forget how many thousands of feet up in the air. It was wild. It was like beautiful in the ground. You get up there, it's like snowing like crazy blizzard like winds blowing massively. We got lost. I mean it was, it's legit. People die on this thing and keep my, we're at Florida, prepare for it. Walking on flat surfaces and sunshine and trying to wear sunblock cause we're and uh, something, get a drink afterwards but for 42 days you're in no man's land. You're walking, you stop it. You, you go to your hotel or some people did hostels. We did hotel, but we have a hotel that that would be my internet connection. [42:07]

It'd be my team time and I could be 10 o'clock at night. 10:00 AM like, you just never know if the internet even worked. So, you're preparing, you're planning, you're plotting, you're sharing vision prior again, the constraint. It's a very powerful tool. We as humans think we have unlimited amounts of time. I know if you're successful or not, the way you use your time with yourself and others. Because with my teams, like I'm getting, actually when I'm done with this podcast show, I have to hop on the phone for an hour and a half with one of my companies, which I do every Wednesday and talk about where we're at with everything. I love the call, I barely talk. I'm actually more there for an advisory role. I own the company. I built the company five years ago and hired people to help build it. Actually, I didn't build it myself. [42:56]

I hired people and it's a very, it's a multi, multi, multimillion-dollar company and amazing people. Like my goal again is to help people is I sent everyone recently a book on how to, you know, preserve capital, how to grow and be wealthy and how to be a millionaire. And I'm like, I want my team all the way down to the person that makes 40 grand a year to be a millionaire in their life. I love that shit. I think about it. I want it truly to happen for them. I want them to buy their dream houses through us. I want them to buy their dream cars. I want them to take dream vacations. I want them to have an amazing life and I want to be a great leader in sharing with them how to do it. And by doing that, some will leave, some won't, some will. [43:38]

I can't focus on the ones that leave. I can only focus on the ones that want to stay in and partake and grow. Because it is uncomfortable to talk about this as a leader to your team if you don't understand the concept. I know how to create millions of dollars. So I share with them what I did and how I did it and how I screwed it up and what I had done right and what I wish I'd had done more off. And here's a book. I don't know all that you know. I'm not going to teach you a, B, C, D, but here's a great book that will, and as you're developing and growing, I could share with what I do every day and how I grow my wealth, my kids' wealth, my wife's wealth, and my family around us wealth. But let's just start here, right? [44:15]

So, traveling as counterproductive as a sound's made me a better business person, made me a better person, period. Me, I love myself more. I know more about myself than I ever have and I'm more excited about the future than I've been. Every day I was traveling again, getting uncomfortable and we were in India, we were in Cambodia, we're in, you know, Malaysia, wherever they call it out there. We're in. And again, no disrespect if you're out there, it's just, I forget if it was Malaysia or Malaysia or whatever, but all these areas, you know, Paris, England, meeting, all these great people that I would have never met if I didn't get my ass off the couch and go do it. If I didn't get uncomfortable and get scared and go do, I was scared by the way, I was scared. I was deep programming what my parents taught me for 27 years. [45:09]

Be careful, watch out, don't look up. Don't be, you know, like, well tell me what the fuck I can do. Well, you can stay home and we'll take good care of you. Right? And I get my parents mean well, they're not trying to hurt me. This just, we all have this going on in our lives in one way, shape, or form. Financially, emotionally, mentally, et cetera, right? So, I was carrying that over. You could do this in baby steps. Here's what I mean. Get in your car, and I love doing this. I still do this today and just start driving. You have no clue where you're going. Just drive. Take that left down that road you've wanted to go down your whole life that you never have. Go down and go straight. And when you think at dead ends, keep going straight and see what happens. [45:52]

If it says we have guns, we'll shoot you. Don't go down that road. Go down a different road. Maybe it's just a thing and hillbilly Ohio, but you have to get lost and you'll realize that you're never lost. You're just moving towards a target and taking a different path. What's the worst that could happen? You stumble upon a great restaurant. You meet a great person at the gas station that's giving you directions. You connect with people. You talk to yourself about great stuff about, wow, this is freeing. It's like business, guys. You know what me pass. I've taken at her dead ends. I just stop, turn around and go back. Take another road, take another right, take another left. Go straight, go forward. I don't stop because it says dead end and I don't get stop when I lose money. I don't stop when someone quits. [46:46]

I don't stop when I get pissed off. I get excited. I encourage it. Go get lost on purpose. Drive kid driving. What's the worst? Take a credit card with you that works. What's the worst? You drive for eight hours and you look up, you're like, Oh shit. Yeah, I have no toothpaste. I have no toothbrush. I don't have any clean underwear. I don't have clean socks. I'm in the same mouth. Who gives a fuck? Go step into the hotel and relax and stay all night and drive home in the same outfit. What's the worst that can happen when you start getting comfortable being uncomfortable? Guys, I'm telling you, this is a real thing for me. You can ask anybody that knows me. I very rarely take the same way to go home anywhere. I very rarely I'll take the long route. Not because I don't respect my time, it's because I want to get uncomfortable. I want to learn about new locations. I want to learn about areas. I want to learn about what's going on around me. I don't understand how people take the same way over and over and over and they brag about, man, I could drive this with my eyes shut. Why? That's going through life with blinders. It's stupid. Get lost. Smell the fucking air. Listen to the birds’ chirp. Roll down the window. Have your hair fly around. Trust me. You want to do that before it goes away like mine. Enjoy the time by yourself. Connect. [48:20]

Grow. Thought audit the whole time you're driving down the road. Man. Gas is $2 and 68 cents a gallon here. I'm going to go 30 more miles. Let's see where it's at. Oh shit. Gas is two 74 a gallon here. Guess it should have waited and got it back 30 miles ago. Let's go 30 more. Problem is you only got 20 more miles left in the tank. Why do you think I don't even know what fucking gas costs? Cause it doesn't matter. You're going to pay. If it's $3 a $30 a gallon, you're going to fucking pay it. It does not change or affect your life in any way, shape or form. That thought process will change. That's, that's the way you're making decisions in your life, in business though. Focus on what matters. Focus on what could change. Do you know how many people are trying to make 1% increment changes? [49:13]

Dude, if I can't get a 30-50% increase in something, I'm not even focused on it. Why would you go from a dollar to a dollar a one on something when you can go from a dollar to a dollar 50 on something else? Please explain why. They both take effort. They typically take the same. The funny thing is the one that do a dollar 50 will probably be easier to do. Sounds crazy. I know a guy that bought a company, this is a true story. It's a monthly service company. Let's say they charge $5 a month for the service. I don't know what it is, but five bucks he bought the company, I swear on my life, did nothing different and doubled his revenue by simply doing one thing, changing the price from $5 to $10 nothing else changed. He went in the shopping cart, delete, delete, $5 $10 the business doubled literally in 30 days. Revenue, I should say. He didn't go in there and change the customer service. He didn't have a recruiting software. He didn't go in there and disrupt anything. He simply changed the price by 100%. Sounds simple. Yeah, because it is. We as humans mess it up. It's real guys. Protect it. Protect it. Your brain is a very powerful system and operating machine. Get Lost. [50:45]

When you do this, it becomes so bright out becomes like literally you see a tree in the winds blowing the tree like that's fucking amazing. It's all, I've never done LSD, but I'm assuming it's something like that euphoric feeling. Dude, I'm so lucky to be alive. By the way I’ve done this when I was piss-poor broke and I've done this today where I have more money than I even know what to do with it and I want more. I'm excited more than ever today to be alive. The more you know you can do, the more you want more not to get more, but to be able to give more. It's powerful. It's amazing. And I hope you take this information and take it and implement it. Please share the story. Go fucking get lost for three hours today. Just drive. Don't stop at the adult bookstores because their everywhere trying to lure you in. [51:43]

Just drive past them and go down the back roads. And go find something that you've never knew it existed and it's probably within an hour or less of your house. You've lived there your whole life. It's funny, I meet people in New York city, like New York area. They're like, man, have you ever been to the statue of Liberty? I'm like, why? I get it. I used to do the same thing. Go get uncomfortable. Go get lost. Pay attention to the way you breathe, what you think about, what you see, how you see it, what it feels like, and just take it all in thought audit, thought audit. Why do I think this way? What would I do differently? How can I change my thinking? This is what I really want. Who do I need to become to get that? You start seeing the world in a different light, folks. [52:33]

It's powerful. I hope this information is powerful for you and please share your stories with me. Follow me on Instagram @MarkEvansDM and please, I'm not joking. I will respond to you. Let me know how this show has helped you. And if this show has been powerful for you, please share it. Tag me, share it. Let's spread the word. Let's help people get lost to really find themselves. Get lost, to find themselves. It's very powerful. It's very real. And I hope this episode has been amazing for you because I've had fun doing it with you today. Have an amazing day. You need anything. Hit me up. I'll see you on Instagram @MarkEvansDM. Have a great day. Talk to you soon. Peace. [53:11]

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