Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” It’s okay to lose money. The truth is it's typically the first step to creating wealth, more importantly, understanding the process of growth. We'll be sharing that and way more in great detail on today's show. So, with that said, let's get started.
Mark: What's up, everybody? It’s your boy, Mark Evans DM, coming here from Shaker Heights, Ohio. Hope you're having an amazing day. [00:56.0]
If I sound a little off today, it’s because my head literally is about to explode. I know for the haters, they wish that would happen. That's not happening anytime soon, but there's one thing that I always think about. The show must go on, headache or no headache. It's not from drinking either. I just woke up at 2:00 AM this morning just with a crazy headache. If I sound a little goofy or loopy today, that's why.
Anyway, yesterday's show was big. You need more water. I’ve got a lot. Dude, I literally drank a gallon and a half of water yesterday literally. I drink a lot of water. I've always drunk a gallon of water, truthfully, guys. I have many of these huge bottles, the little bottle. I have a lot, a lot of water. Water is not my problem. It's just sometimes it's…I don't get headaches often, so it's kind of different. But, anyway, the old me would just lay in bed and relax, and I don't have to work. I’ve got money coming in. It's whatever. It's easy. But the new me, the better version of me would not lay in bed with a headache.
Today's show, it's okay to lose money. It's the first step to creating wealth. I’ve got a bunch of stories to share with you on that. [02:03.9]
The truth is I taught or I’ve mentored thousands of people over the many years I’ve been doing business over 24 years, but what I’ve realized is so many people are so afraid to lose money. In fact, you hear about my buddy, Jeremy, buying stock. He wanted to buy stock. I'm like, Dude, just go buy stock. Just get it in motion. If you're afraid, what are you afraid of? You lose money. That shouldn't stop you from progressing.
One of my boys, Tam, was a solopreneur and I'm like, Dude, you’ve got to hire an assistant. He's like, But it's three grand a month, 36,000 a year. I'm like, I know. That's all you're investing to get massive amounts of your time back. Go invest the money.
And, really, what they're worried about is this money. Isn't it amazing how money controls our actions? It's pretty wild, right? Have you ever thought…? I thought-audit on money all the time. All the time. I'm very conscious about money behavior, actions or lack of actions with money, and everyone's out here touting, Save your money. Okay, for what? [03:06.3]
Listen, they're saying, Go save. I've never met a millionaire or billionaire that has saved their money. They're constantly investing in themselves and in things. It's so powerful to see how fast you can grow, the speed of execution once you understand what I'm sharing with you. Guys, I lose money every day, but I make a lot more than I lose. That's the plan anyways, right? For some reason when people lose money, they freeze up. They think it's them. They didn't learn anything. They don't understand.
But the truth is when you lose money, me, I'm talking about me in particular and many guys I’ve coached and mentored to grow many million dollars of businesses, it’s what did you learn when you lost? My losses, I learned so much more than [from] my wins. My wins actually make me lazy. That's why I ended up losing sometimes. [04:00.0]
My wins make me feel like I'm invincible. That's why it's a reality check when I lose money. My thoughts that I get in these deals and I'm like, I can't lose, this is a no brainer, then I lose on the deal because I either drop the ball on operations, drop the ball on the acquisition price or whatever. If it's a company or a real estate deal, whatever, it's all the same thing. But it's okay to lose money.
Who has ever told you [this]? By the way, seriously, think about this. Who has ever told you it's okay to lose money? It's okay. Money is just money. We make it so much bigger than it is, but it's just money. We all want more of it, right? I do. The way to get more of it is to be okay about losing it. I'm not saying to be reckless either, but when I was that small town Ohio boy, where I grew up, I literally had no money, no credit, 18 years old. I borrowed from my own pre jobs. Getting jobs in construction, you always get 50% upfront for materials, by the way, but I took that money and I went and invested in myself $2,500 for a real estate investment course. [05:03.5]
I had no money. I had no credit. I just had the drive and a dream. Again, I'm important enough to invest $2,500 in myself. I saw the value in expediting education and learning the knowledge to get what I wanted. I wanted to do real estate. I don't have cash. I need to go out there and learn it from someone that's doing it.
I did this and I wouldn't be here if I didn't. I put it all on the line. Most people I know that are ultra-successful that are going places put it on the line daily. I go broke daily. I'm trying to go broke. I was just talking to a buddy yesterday. He's going to have more money coming into him literally. He's in the DM family. He's going to have more money coming to him, literally, in the next 30 days more money than he's ever had in his entire life. This is a 40-something-year-old individual. He's going to have more money in one month come into his account than he's ever had in his entire life, and the first thing I said was, “That's awesome. Go broke.” He was like, Huh? That's my goal. Go broke. [06:04.8]
When I say “Go broke,” if you understand the language or the context behind that, it means find profit, passive-producing assets or active assets that are producing revenue where if I put 100,000 in, I'm going to get 1,000 bucks a month back or more or less, whatever the number is that you're shooting for, but that's my goal. I'm trying to get that money and play. Get the money and play, because if not, most of you sit there and I go on your Chase account or whatever bank account you have, Oh my God, I’ve got $12,000. That's a lot of money, and you just sit and look at it. You sit and look at it.
I talked about this in my book. I did the same thing. I used to look at my bank statements and think, If I hire someone, it takes from me, because it's money coming out of my account. That's how I used to think. When I was hiring people, I’ve always had an assistant because I always understood the value of an assistant because I'm not a day-to-day paperwork guy. I'm terrible. Most entrepreneurs are absolutely horrible. But when I'm investing in the money, what I realize is every time I invest in people—again, understand the language I'm talking. I'm not even doing on purpose—but I'm investing, not losing. [07:14.3]
See, the thing is I’ve trained my brain to see it as investments. If I win or lose money, that is I'm still winning because it's an investment. What did I learn? The truth is on my walk today, I was talking with my buddy. He bought a stock at 6. It's now down to 3.50. He's down 50%. He’s like, Man, I just feel like I haven't learned anything. I'm like, Whoa, whoa, what do you mean?
I was like, Dude, you knew it was kind of a little bit a play on the opportunity. You generated 18% on the front end with the covered calls, so now you know how to do a covered call. Now you know how to buy a stock. You learned two things right there because you've never done it before.
Third thing is now we know what we should be looking for when you acquire the stock. What's going on with the news? Why am I getting such a high return on the money? Because 18% in 21 days is a lot of return for a covered call, so that means it's very speculative, right? It's very speculative. That's what that means. Usually a good covered call in a month is usually 8 to 12% depending, but now we're at 18. The higher the return, typically I’ve got to step back and say, Oh, what's going on? So, I learned that. [08:15.4]
Then I’ve got to learn about the news. What's going on in the news? This is a drug company. They're coming out with a new drug. The drug didn't pop off like they thought. They already had a scheduled date, so I would have known that. Then, not only that, there's heavy volume on the option. What does that tell you? That tells you there's a lot of speculation.
Literally, he learned 30 different things that he didn't know. He learned just by talking it out and, more importantly, he wasn't afraid to lose money. He was more excited to get in the game of the sock, if you will, and this happens at all levels. For me, my thought process on losing money is very different than most people. I do lose money every day literally. I have so many holes in so many places. It's not reckless loss. It's like things didn't work out. [09:02.1]
I have different businesses that are sucking wind on certain spots of the industry or the business or whatever. We hire people. They don't do the right thing. I just lost seven grand that month with hiring, bad hiring. Right, so what did I learn? What did we learn as a team? What did we learn as a unit? This never, ever, ever, ever, ever will stop, FYI, but, again, money is not my driver necessarily. My driver is to build the team and organization, generate revenue, i.e. money. But, ultimately, you can't get big. It's kind of like the chicken before the egg. You can't get really big until you understand the concept that it's okay to lose money.
No one tells you it's okay. No one says, Mark, go lose money. I remember when I had probably 12, 15 grand in the bank. That was a lot of money for me back when I was 18, 19 years old, you know what I mean? When I was in the game and I had to hire this individual to acquire properties for me, I'm like, Oh my God, I can't pay you that much. What are you talking about? [10:00.0]
What I realized is that when I ponied up and I executed my fear of losing money, I gave the person a $2,000-a-month salary and then they got paid on commission because they were their own sales and they were acquiring property. When I say salary, back then that's called draw against commission. It's kind of a base. When I pushed him in there, they started cranking and he started making money.
The truth is, this is God's honest truth, he actually started making more money than me as the owner. That's the truth. That's a whole other mind fuck. This guy was making more money than me and I’m the owner of the company for the last three years. How is this possible? And then I started asking my coaches and my mentors, and started reading better books about understanding growth and understanding. I'm building a company. He's helping me build my dream, my dream vision, my company, ultimately, our company, as it grows.
But what happened is obviously salespeople come and go. The company remained the same 24 years later. It's still an existence because I was hiring people. I put people in place. I’ve got great SOPs to build up and such based on them. [11:12.8]
But there was a point for many years, actually this guy, multiple people made more money than me than my own company because salespeople, once you understand salespeople never cost you money, they're just a value add. Then you're spending all this money on them, investing all this money, I should say, spending all this money on advertising, investing in ads, investing in marketing, investing in platforms, investing in systems, building a team around these individuals to help them grow. There is a process where these guys make more money.
Now guys aren’t making more money than me, but I do have sales guys that make 30, 40, 50 grand a month, per month, and I have multiple guys doing that, many actually, multiple, multiple, multiple, multiple. It's pretty cool to see, but none of that would be possible if I… It's not about you. It's not about your best friend's company, how great they are, but you're not. It's about you. It's the way you think about money. It's what's holding you back from executing the decision. [12:12.8]
You're sitting here nickeling and diming your way to the top. I don't know how it works like that. I've never seen anybody nickel and dime themselves to happiness and to success. You're always scared. You're always overwhelmed.
By the way, I'm not saying you can't have money doing that. I know millionaires that are scared. I know millionaires that are frustrated. I know millionaires that can't make a decision to save their lives because they're so afraid. Every move they make, they're afraid. They're stuttering every move. Dude, pull the trigger. Just because they have a million dollars, they should actually have 100 million, 200 million, if they actually would understand what we're talking about here today. Money is a big deal. I know it's a big deal because we all need it, right? But it's not that big a deal, if that even makes sense. You have to use money for what it is. [13:05.5]
Why are you trying to save every penny? I did this. It's stupid. My assistant, Katie back then, I remember her going into the Post-it thing. I've talked about this, but she bought a bundle pack for 3.50 and I went ballistic on her. I'm like, You could've gone down to blah, blah, blah, blah depo and got it for…it’s 12 cents cheaper. I used to freak out about this shit. I was stressed out. I was overwhelmed and frustrated about nothing, 12 cents.
We see people do this with gasoline. Dude, there are apps to save gasoline prices like a penny or two, but I don't even know how much gas costs. I truly don't. I know it's $2 or $3. I don't know how much it costs. It doesn't matter, does it? You're still going to buy gas if it's $2 or $10. You're buying gas, period, so why even put any thought, why put any stress into it? [14:01.9]
Let's be honest, at the end of the day, maybe the guy across the street is at 25 cents less or 2 cents. Is that changing your life? If that's changing your life, your problem is not saving. Your problem is earning money, period. You can't save your way to a different path in that space. Break through the financial PTSD barriers. We all have them. Our mom and dad laid the groundwork for our financial thought processes. Our grandparents laid theirs.
You guys aren't saying we're in a different world. We're in different times. We could push a button on this phone and make hundreds of thousands of dollars, if not millions of dollars in a day, a month, a week, a year, with a phone. We don't need anything else.
We don't have to go to the coal mines like Grandma and Grandpa did. We don't have to go to the construction job sites like my dad had to do for so many years to take care of the family. I can work from anywhere on this fucking phone and make millions of dollars, period. Yes, you can, too, if I can. [15:01.4]
I'm the poster child for dummies. Look at this. I mean, I’ve got the face for it. I mean, if you want to see stupid, just look at me. I'm not that smart, but I thought on it all the time, just like this watch. Right? I've talked about this watch. You guys know anything about watches, this is a $120,000 watch, rose gold AP Skeleton. I bought it in June of last year. I was scared. I have plenty of hundreds of thousands of dollars. I was scared because I'm thinking in my mind, Am I being reckless? Am I being silly? Am I being goofy? But what about my family? What about my employees? What about my team? What about this? What about that? And I started playing this game.
Dude, if I take a hundred… First of all, if you're buying a $120,000 watch, you should not be financing it. You should not be worrying about if it takes food off your table, but it's that this old mentality of my thoughts went into it because it's the biggest, most expensive watch I’ve ever bought. Prior to that, it was 40-something thousand, so it was like I took a big leap because, dude, I'm worth it. I can invest in myself. [16:07.8]
By the way, I'm not trying to impress you. I'm not trying to impress anybody else except myself. I'm trying to break my own barriers. By the way, that's a 120k watch. I know a guy who has a $3 million watch. It's all relative and it's not like he's better than me or I'm better than him or any of that. It's just that it means something. It's a level on a level. It's my trophy to myself.
So, in my mind I'm thinking I'm losing money. I'm taking money out of my account. I'm going to lose that money. It's gone forever. The truth is I could sell this watch for six figures today, so I'm not losing it. I'm just parking it into my watch. This is my trophy for myself. I could pass it down to my child. I could sell it. I could keep it and just look at it. I can put it on my arm when I die and put it in the casket, and no one would have a clue what it's worth, right? Who knows? Who cares? But this is how my brain was thinking. [17:00.0]
What I'm trying to constantly do when I'm asking you guys to play with this and work this is to change your financial thought pattern. You have to change your mind. My buddy, Tim, some of you guys may know, Tim Bratz. He's crushing it in the commercial real estate investment space. He has thousands of units, very young, mid-thirties, just cranking it up. I’ll be hanging out with them actually. The 17the or 18th is his birthday.
But he came to me when he was a solopreneur. He was sitting there and he was making 100k+, 100-ish a year, and he talks about this, by the way, in the Magician vs. Mule book that I wrote. He talks about on the foreword about how he's generating about 100,000 a year and my mastermind is 35, and I'm like, Dude, you’ve got to join, so we can help you.
He was like, But I want to retire my wife one day. Right? Don't we all want to do it? We all want to retire someone? My mom, my dad, my grandparents, my wife, whoever, right? That's kind of a driving force that I’ve seen pretty common with entrepreneurs that are driving hard. I was like, Dude, that's why you need to invest in yourself more. In his mind he thought 35 grand is 35 less that he would have. Instead, I'm like, I see it differently. [18:06.1]
There are two things to the story. One, he’s like, Mark, I don't have $36,000 to pay an assistant, because that's what I told him. The first thing he needs to do is hire an assistant. Everyone around the table in the mastermind said, “You have to get this stuff off your plate, dude,” and he's like, But I don't have 36 grand just sitting in an account. That's what our brain goes to. It’s three grand, times 12 months is $36,000.
The truth is you don't need $36,000 in the bank to hire someone for $36,000. Especially in the beginning, it's never going to happen. You’ve got to hustle your face off for a while. You’ve got to generate a little bit of cash. You've got to start learning about understanding how to lose money. It's okay to lose money because it's a trick to your brain. If I give this individual 3,000 a month, am I losing money or my earning money? It depends on how you see it. [18:55.8]
Do you think realistically—and this is how we sold it to Tim—if you paid someone $3,000 per month and you gained 160 hours extra a month, 40 hours a week, times four weeks, 160 hours a week, you as the entrepreneur-business owner, is there any way possible that you could not generate an extra three grand a month with 160 hours?
By the way, if you can't, you're not an entrepreneur. By the way, if you can't, I don't know what you're doing. I mean, to generate $3,000 in 160 hours is…I don't even know what you would do all day if you can't do that. You can do that in a day or a minute, depending on what you’ve got going on, but that's the thing I'm thinking of. That's how my brain thinks. That's how it's [programmed]. I’ve rewired my brain to think like that, by the way. It took me many, many years. What I'm sharing with, you took me many years to discover that it was all here. I had to rewire.
I used to read that book, The Millionaire Next Door. It's so dumb. Looking back, it was cool. I thought it was like, Oh man, that's cool. I want to be the millionaire next door. I don't want to be the fucking millionaire next door. I want to be the guy that has the biggest house with the coolest cars, with the biggest bank [account]. Why can't we have it all? [20:09.7]
See, the thing is with The Millionaire Next Door, and, again, I'm not knocking it if that's what you like, by the way, this is what I like. Right? It's what drives me. Yes, it sounds materialistic, but to me, it's an estate. I’m building a family estate where the family comes in for cookouts and we turn it into a farm, and we have the kids playing out back. That's, that's where my mind goes, not just like, Oh, it's a big house. Dude, I want it all. Why can't we have it all?
These are the things I'm constantly thinking about, but when I started understanding the power of The Millionaire Next Door or the lack of power, it allows you as a reader to be okay with your shitty situation. It makes you feel like you're on the path of greatness. [20:54.4]
Who the fuck wants to save for 40 years to take a family dream vacation? Who the hell wants to shut every door? Who wants to live in a house where I can sleep comfortably at 76 degrees because I’ll save $12 a year instead of it being at 70 degrees? It's so retarded to me in my brain. It doesn't correlate. It doesn't make sense knowing what I know now.
But what I realize is that book is written for the everyday person to make their shitty situation—shitty situation—feel normal. It's not normal if you're trying to be ultra-successful. It actually is the opposite. It's abnormal. It's not cool. I'd rather be piss poor broke, pursuing my dreams and passions, than to be the millionaire next door, holding on to every penny, driving 23 miles to save 2 cents a gasoline gallon, going to the shitty supermarket to save 25 cents on my groceries, to be cutting and clipping coupons, to have 3,000 business bank cards or checking account cards because I can get points here and there and I can add. [22:05.5]
I'm not knocking it, if that's what you're into. I'm not into it. Why do you think things like My 600-lb Life work? Why do you think the Kardashians work? Because when you watch this shit, you're like, Dude, my life is not that bad. They’ve got a shitty life. That guy is huge or that gal is huge. I'm not that fat. I'm only 400 pounds. I'm serious, this is what we do to ourselves. This is what's happened with our mental programming. Why else would you watch that shit? Why else? It makes you feel better about your shitty situation, period.
Back to the money thing. You're doing it with money all the time. You're justifying your shitty car because I only need it to get from point A to point B, Mark. You don't understand. There's no difference. Oh, there's a big difference, but I'm not here to tell you about it. You’ve got to figure it out on your own. You’ve got to live it. [23:00.0]
It's okay to lose money. When I buy my Rolls, I lose money every single time, but, man, how much has that Rolls made me? Do you understand the conversations that have come from the Rolls-Royce that I’ve been driving since I was 30 years old?
By the way, it took me 12 years to get my first Rolls, so don't get it twisted like I’d overnight just bought a Rolls-Royce day 1 out of Mommy and Daddy's bank account. Don't get it twisted. Knowing what I know now, I could have done it a lot quicker, because the truth is the first 12 years was all mind. I had to undo so much negative programming about money and wealth and success, and “Don’t be materialistic.” Everyone told me material. Dude, I like nice stuff, and you're telling me not to be materialistic? The people that say “Don't be materialistic” don't have shit. It’s because they gave up on their dreams. They don't want any. They’ve given up. They've settled. I'm not settling ever. [23:55.8]
This is a true story. My house here in Shaker, I have nothing else to do to this house, nothing, from the ground up. Since we bought it five years ago, I’ve redone the house from ground up, every single centimeter of this house, indoors and outdoors, golf course, grass. The yard looks [like] it's the best yard in the world. We spend thousands of dollars a month just for the grass. Literally, the house is like there's nothing to touch. Every inch of this house is done.
So, I start thinking, What do we need to do next? Where do we need to go bigger? How do we get another property to do more? Progression. It's not like I'm not thankful or grateful. I'm very grateful I'm here. I'm very thankful, but my brain, it's like if I go buy a house and I improve it, it's for me. I'm not trying to make money on it for my personal residence. I'm trying to build what I want.
See, too many people are afraid of losing money, they don't live their dreams out. Go buy the boat. If you want a boat and you have the money to do it, go buy it. Who cares? But the best time to sell, the best two days of a boat owner is the day you buy it and the day you sell it. Okay, but many people I know just love the water. My COO, one of my COOs, he loves the water. He literally could live on the water on his 27-foot boat. He loves the water. [25:12.8]
Don't judge it. Don't talk shit to people about what they should do or shouldn't do with their money, because that says more about you than them. Pay attention. When you talk shit or say something about money, that's you. When you say that out loud, that's you. Dude, you're losing money on that. Am I? Says who? How? Where? For what?
And maybe, yes, I am losing money, but I get to enjoy it. That's okay. That's a value. That's a value to me. When I go on a yacht trip and spend 150 grand for a week, you can look at that as a loss like, Holy shit, but the truth is that expands me. It makes me grow. It makes me see what opportunities are available, the possibilities with our mind, because when you're out there floating in a 150k-a-week boat, then there's a bigger boat. [26:05.5]
Then it’s like, Oh yeah, he owns Home Depot. Oh, yeah, he owns this hedge fund. Oh, yeah, that guy owns this company. Oh, yeah, that's Hendricks Automotive. Oh, it’s this guy. Then you're like, Whoa, what? That's Oh yeah. That's 1.2 million a week to rent. Oh, yeah, that one is 700 grand a week to rent. You think you're big-dogging it up, and by the way, you might be at that moment, but now you understand that there's a level in the level. There's no right or wrong.
Am I losing money? I've made more money on that. Actually I wrote some of the…actually not some. I wrote a lot of my book, The 10 Minute Business Owner, on the boat. I use it for business. I bring people on to expand their mind. I bring high-level guys and gals to talk about real life, big structured growth businesses, and every single person that comes on that boat with me wants to do it again next year or next time. Why? And it costs a lot of money in dollar terms if you look at it, but the reason is that it expands them. They take this expansion and then I can go out and implement. It's powerful. [27:11.7]
Tim Bratz has been on there multiple times and will be on there multiple times again. Actually we're working on something really cool. You guys are into yachts and you want to go out on a yacht with us one day, probably in December-ish if everything is cool. It's going to be about $20,000 to $25,000 a person. We're going to do something that no one's ever done, and if you want to get on the list, I’ll update you there. It's going to be cut 20 or 25 grand a person. I’ll update you about it.
It's going to be epic. It's going to be life changing. It’ll literally be written about all over the internet and the newspaper. I mean, it's going to be insane what we're up to. If we can pull it off, which if we can, I don't know who could, we're going to pull something off. It's going to be spectacular, more importantly, mind-blowing for every participant there. It’s going to change the game. It's going to be pretty cool. If that's something that interests you, shoot me a message, a private message, and just say yacht trip and include your email, and I’ll make sure we get you on the list and keep you posted as we progress on that. [28:07.4]
But for me, yeah, you're right, Nick, the rules are a mobile billboard. See, I always dreamed about that stuff. I love cars. I love nice houses. I just love nice stuff, and as I drive the Rolls and I’ve been putting in multiple books because of the Rolls, some lady who was a famous author, she saw the Rolls at a Starbucks. I've talked about that before. She's like, Who owns the Rolls? Oh, Mark does. Cool. Can I talk to him now? She’d come in and we started talking and whatever.
The book was, one of the books was, Do You Think God Wants You to Be Rich? and the simple answer I asked her, I was like, Do you think God wants you to be poor? Again, it's a really simple question, right? Not a simple answer, but a really simple question. And I believe in abundance. I don't just talk about it. I live it. I'm pushing the boundaries daily. I'm trying to figure out how to expand more. [29:00.0]
I mean, could you imagine being Jeff Bezos right now? I mean, do you understand this guy’s salaries he pays daily? I mean, it's got to be billions of dollars a day. It’s almost a million employees. The salaries have got to be billions. It's probably billions of dollars a day. That doesn't happen overnight. He's been grinding for 20-something years, but think about the mind expansion he had to do to get there, and I see so many people trying to get they're overnight. It doesn't happen, by the way. You’ve got to make a dollar before you make 10, 10 to 100, whatever. But this money thing that's holding you back is that you're so afraid to lose.
When you invest in yourself in a mastermind and spend 20, 30, 40, 50 grand, whatever it is, you lost that money out of your account because your account went from 100,000 to 80,000. You just lost 20 grand. You're like, Oh my God. But what you didn't do was look at what the opportunity cost and opportunity value is in that money. It's a great investment. You are a great investment. For you guys and gals, losing money, you’ve got to train your brain. What are you losing? I've never lost money. I've learned a lot. I've transferred money. [30:11.3]
By the way, think about this term, “I lost money in the stock market. I lost money on the deal.” You understand you did not lose it. It's not like it just got lost. You transferred the money to someone else. It's in someone else's possession. I knew exactly where it went. I didn't lose it. I transferred it and my goal is to get it back. My goal is to get more of it. My goal is to get some money from someone else by providing a great service, great product, great, whatever.
Think about how the world's programmers talk about money. I've lost it. Hmm. You guys understand here's what the world's shaped you to do. Go work hard for money. Put that money in a checking account, savings account, 401(k) account where 201(k) depending, and put them on all these accounts where the real money guys that understand money, control it. [31:03.0]
Then you become a victim in the process, meaning that when the stock goes from $10 to $100, you feel really good, but the problem is you're only 36 years old and, when you go to retire at 65, now the stock is only worth $2. Now you feel like shit, but it's not your fault. It's the stock market’s fault, so I’ve got to go work at Walmart today, and you repeat the process.
You realize that's the goal of the economy. That's what they've trained you to do. That's the objective. That's the agenda, period. When you park my money in the savings account makes me 0.000001%, okay, inflation is whatever. It's called 3% for simple, so you're losing 2.9%, 2.999999% a year, just on your money sitting in the wrong environment. If your money's not making you at least 6 or 7% on your money at least, you need to find another place to park the money because there's a lot of safe places, safer places to park your money amazingly at 6 or 7%, for sure. [32:13.0]
For example, real estate because I do a lot of that, if you had a $100,000 house and you could give someone 50 grand and get 6% on your money, there's not much risk in that deal, right? The house is worth a hundred. You're only giving 50 cents on the dollar. If they default, which you're probably praying at night they do, you’re going to turn your 50 grand into 100. That's a hundred percent return on your money. They default and you take it back, sell it, discount it, whatever you need to do to get your revenue or money back. It's not passive. It's a little bit active, but listen, you’ve got to make money. Your money has got to make you money, period. You have to make money. Your money has to make you money. [32:56.0]
We need more. We need more people pushing this limit. Invest in yourself. You're not losing. When Tim hired his assistant, the truth was Tim was able to retire his wife way sooner. When Tim hired his assistant, it started becoming fun. You start looking back and saying, Wow, why didn't I do that sooner? It's because we have to deprogram. We have to get knowledgeable about what we're talking about. We have to understand that you've never lost money.
You've never lost money ever. You're always learning. I'm either earning or learning, period, earning more on my money or learning what I can do better. stronger. It's responsibility. That's what I'm talking about. We're taking responsibility for our financial future, period. If you wake up 20 years from now and you have less money, that's your fault, no one else's. I don't care if you gave it to a broker. I don’t care if you invested in your buddy’s next best business that fails. Every decision is your fault. It's a hundred percent accountability responsibility to you. [33:59.0]
And not only that, no one—facts. What's up, Tiffany? Facts—first hire was an assistant. Everyone should have one, outsource everything, absolutely, but you’ve got to start somewhere. Start with the assistance. It works. You're buying a lot of time back. If you can't, the reason I always say assistant first, guys and gals, is because the assistant is the simplest person to hire. Why? Because they're literally taking stuff off your plate that you're doing every single day. If you can't hand off stuff that you're doing every single day, you can't share vision. You can't share problems. It's so easy, it's so amazing.
I was actually with my assistant, Kim, yesterday for two hours. We were working on some cool things in the DM world and she came over to the house. She’s awesome. She's amazing. I met her on Facebook through a…I ran an ad actually on Facebook that said, “Hey, I need an assistant. Here's what I want.” My buddy Dave said, “Hey, you should know Kim,” and birds together fly together. Dave is an amazing guy. He knows Kim. Kim is an amazing person. I believe Kim will be with me for the rest of our lives, period. I truly believe that, and I hope so because she's an awesome person. [35:06.8]
But she could not, and then if she doesn't, it's not like, Oh, Mark lost money. It's like, Wow. We earned a lot together. It was just an awesome time. It's just a time thing. We need to lose money. That's today's show. We need to lose it and that's why I kind of wanted to leave with that headline because that's how we think about money. We're either losing or winning. Most of you think about making money by working hard. I don't work hard for money actually. I work hard, period. Money is just an outcome of the activity and the truth is it's not about hard work. It's about specialized knowledge work.
I’ve heard an analogy before about the guy that comes to your house. Picture this. Your hot water tank is not working and everyone in the house, there's five people in the house, they all need to take showers, but there's no hot water even though you could take a cold shower, but there's no hot water. What do you do? [36:07.3]
You call the hot water guy or gal. They come to your house and they say it’s $500. I don't care, just get me hot water. They go in there and they go {thump, thump, thump}, Try it now. Hot water is working. Great, $500. But you were only here for two minutes. You're not paying for that two minutes of time. You're paying for his 20 years of experience of knowing how to solve the problem just like when people come to me. Mark, I want to grow a multimillion-dollar business. I know how to do it. I've done it multiple times and I’ll continue to do it bigger, stronger, better, quicker, more streamlined, etc. I'm still learning. I don't know anything. I'm still learning it, but people will pay for massive results. I do. Why wouldn't you?
See, I use money. Successful people use money to expedite results. If you want something, you can pay money for it. I want to get in front of the line. You pay more money. I use money as a tool. Hey, I want to take a faster trip. Here's more money. Take a private jet. Hey, I want to go to a nice resort and feel… a nicer resort. I don't want to say that the HoJo. I want to stay at the nice place on the ocean. Boom, pay a little money, have a better experience. [37:19.8]
Depending on what you value or don't, I value experiences. I most importantly value this one thing. This commodity that you and I don't have, it's not a renewable commodity. It's called time. Time is our commodity. It's nonrenewable energy. When my time has gone at this moment, I can never get it back, and so many of you are out there using your time like it's going to last forever. It's not. We know it.
I oftentimes think about that call I'm going to get when my mom and dad pass or my wife or me or my kids. You never know. Time is what I'm buying more of. See, I can be sitting out back, smoking a cigar, reading a book right now, but my time is most valuable to me with you right now because I care, because I want to start letting you guys know I'm showing up because I care about you and where you're going. [38:12.9]
I might not know you individually, but I know you as a collective, because if you're still here and you're still showing up consistently, I know where your mind is at. I know where your brain is at. I know, more importantly, where your heart is at. You want more. It's not because you just want more to have more. You want more time. You want more family. You want more family time. You want more money. You want to help make a bigger impact in your church, your family, your [relationships]. Whatever it is, I don't care, I just know you want more of it and that's the way we have to [understand it]. I have to tell real stuff like it's okay to lose money.
I want you to really think about who tells you it's okay to lose money. It's okay to lose money. It's like showing up to a football game saying you can't lose, you'll never lose, you're a winner, all you do is win. Great, but you're going to have losses in that process. That's how it works. [39:06.8]
Then, growing a business, you're going to lose money, i.e. learn, and every time you lose money, be very thankful that you have another day to get the money back, and that's very powerful because now you switch from the loss to gratitude, to learning. Game over. No one can compete against you.
I don't care if my neighbor is pointing at me saying, Ha, ha, ha, I saw you in the newspaper. You just lost all that money on that deal. You're so stupid. Ha, ha, ha. And I look at them as I roll down my window in my Rolls-Royce and say, Keep driving your shitty Kia. Keep talking shit. Because you know what? I'm going to buy your house and I'm going to tear that bitch down. By the way, that's what motivates me.
Anyways, kind of serious, not joking, but kind of serious. But that's how my brain thinks. I just do it just out of spite. I buy a big house and just tear down just because, right? It's not bad. It's what drives me, and I'm not trying to tear people's houses down, by the way, but that's how my brain goes. [40:09.4]
Do you understand, I would not be here today if people didn't tell me I couldn't do certain things? My wife and I, this was one of our biggest fights, when my wife tells me not to do something, guess what I do? It doesn't serve me well all the time, by the way, but so much of my life. I've been told what I can't do, so much of my life, I use it as fuel. Some of you use it as, Oh, well, maybe they’re right. Dude, if someone tells me I can't do it, I have to do it three times over. I have to do it to prove to them, prove to me and then prove to them again. I have to because that's what we have to do. That's what successful people do. That's what entrepreneurs do. [40:56.1]
How many people have told you, You can't do this? How many people have told you, Mark, there's no way that can work. If it can, why isn't everyone doing it? Huh? You're telling that I can’t. In the real estate space specifically or business, period, you're telling me I can't buy a house and make money? How the hell do all these houses exist then? Someone is making money. Why can't it be me? I don't care if it's in the boating business. I don't care if it's in the jet business. I don't care if it's in selling the mug business. I don't care what it is. If someone's doing it, you can do it.
By the way, my buddy, Matt Larson, amazing outsourcer guy, business guy, individual, period, just a great guy all around, you should get his outsourcing program, his VA program. I don't even know what it's called, but the virtual assistant. He outsources all kinds of stuff and this guy is running massive operations in multiple niches. You should learn from him, and it's very affordable and it's a no brainer. Everyone should get it, even here. So, Matt, feel free to post it here. Make sure to include my affiliate links so I make some money with you. I'm just joking. But in all seriousness, for all of us, it's okay to lose money. [42:02.2]
At the end of the day, you could play this game where you can go to Applebee's to get a steak or you can go to the most expensive steakhouse and get a steak, or you can go in the middle of the road to get a steak, or you can keep your ass at home, go to the grocery store and make it yourself. Why can't you do anything you want? It's nonjudgmental. But the problem is where the problem really lies is where you're sitting at Applebee's thinking you're killing the game of life because you read the book The Millionaire Next Door and you're saving money. I'd rather pay more money to have a different experience.
By the way, if you've never been to a nice steakhouse and you've been to Applebee's, there's a massive difference all around. I've never seen a valet in front of Applebee's. The steak quality is going to be drastically different. I mean, how could they sell you $10 steak that costs $100 at a steakhouse, a normal steakhouse? But what do you put value on? I'm judging that for myself, you know what I mean? I'm judging it for myself. [43:01.3]
This goes for house cleaning. Actually Marilyn is our cleaner here in Ohio. She comes every Friday. She's an amazing person. She just recently last year got cancer. I think I’ve talked to you guys about that. If you follow me on my podcast show, I’ve talked about it, for sure, but my wife is out golfing with her mother who's in her seventies, amazing person. I don't even know how much we pay Marilyn, but say a couple hundred dollars a week, 200 to 300, I don’t even know. Whatever it is, it's worth it.
I could say, I could clean it myself and save 200 bucks or I can have my wife clean it and save 200 bucks, or I could have the nanny clean it and save 200 bucks. But we have a nanny here taking care of the kids. She's amazing. She's making sure they're safe, making sure they're fed, making sure they're learning because we're teaching them every day at schoolwork, whatever, and then we have the cleaner cleaning. I'm up here working while everyone gets to do all that, and I'm fine with it, by the way. I love it.
It's what makes me feel great, more importantly, for my wife to spend this time with her mom because it will be that one day when that mom is not there. Are we losing money? Are we? Are we gaining or do we understand the value of money more than the individual things we're losing? [44:10.6]
If you've ever lost someone you care about, this a real thing. You wish you would have spent more time with them? You can't do anything about that now, but you can do something about it moving forward. Anchor in the people you care about. Love, understand the value in money. Understand what money is. It's a tool. If I didn't make money, I couldn't pay Marilyn. If I didn't make money, we can’t pay the nanny. My wife wouldn't be able to go hang out and golf and pay for golf, and spend time with her mom and connect with her mom, and have these memories forever, all because of a couple of dollars.
Seriously, are we losing? Are we winning? I think we're winning at a massive level on this side of the fence and there's no reason you can't do the same. It's abundance at its finest level. I will do it for the rest of my life. I'll continue to push the levers to the next level. I'll prod. I'll wake up the sleeping dog, the sleepy bear, whatever you call it, to keep pushing and forging ahead. [45:11.9]
I'm going to keep working on this brain. I'm going to keep showing up and learning from better people than me, understanding financials. I have Jim. I have parquet. I have multiple people in my financial corner helping me get smarter, tighter, understand it deeper. The more I know about money, the more I realize it's a bet. It's a tool. That's it, no more, no less.
We carry so much emotional baggage with money. We all do. Until you get it under wraps, until you understand how it works, it's going to be tough. You’ve got to start playing the game. Invest 2,500 in yourself. Go to an event. When I do an event, go spend five grand at my event or someone else's event. If it can serve, I don't care or if it's me or someone else, just invest five grand. Get out of your comfort zone, make the investment. It's not about me. It's about you. It's about yourself. You're worth five grand, aren't you? It's a very powerful tool, and if you use it wisely, it will serve you well. [46:06.7]
I don't want to be a slave to money. I want money to be a slave to me. My money is making me money. I have enough money where my money makes me enough, I could easily live for a long time, and that's not to be cocky or arrogant. It's the truth and that's it, no more, no less. How you interpret that is up to you.
And what I’ve realized is people interpret money differently, right? We all do. I get it, but we have to capitalize in this moment. Don't let this conversation go to the wayside as if it's no big deal. I believe it's the first step to the next step. Once you understand the power in placing the money and using it as a tool, it really will change your life.
Guys, if you want to get on the event list, just shoot me an email. I don't have a date yet. It's going to be in August. This is the goal. It's going to be a small group of people, probably will be five grand. We're going to go deep. We're going to teach people and help you. [47:02.4]
Again, I'm not here to sell you anything. If you come, great. If not, that's fine, too. I'll keep showing up here. I do know the people who show up will get big different results and the people that don't…but, again, everything is timing, so I understand.
But use money as a tool. Go lose some money today. Use it. Lose it. Earn it and gain more, just gain traction. The biggest thing you're trying to do is get in the brain and understand the power. This goes for the marketing guys. So many of you are afraid to market because you're afraid to lose money in marketing. Go lose money in marketing because you're learning. Just flip the narrative in your brain. This is all about learning, constant learning. You're using money as the problem to hold you back. I'm using money for a solution to gain more. That's it.
Anyways, go use the money as a tool. Again, we've all been raised differently, but there's something that triggers in your brain that’s like, Got to earn more. How can I get it back? How can I turn this, what is perceived to be a liability into an asset, right? You start here. Then you go there and then you go there. It's a game. It's all it is. It's a game of your mind. Play it properly and enjoy the benefits of it. [48:13.4]
But as I sit up here and I know that my wife is out golf and hanging out with her mom, I feel very grateful. Marilyn is cleaning the house, making the house smell good, look good, with two kids, you understand what I mean? I feel grateful. With the nanny outside, taking care of the kids, wherever they're at, knowing that they're safe, being taken care of, learning, knowledging up on our agenda, right beside our side, I can see them, I can touch them, I can talk to them, I can encourage them, I feel very blessed in that. None of this happens without understanding money.
All these things cost money, by the way. But is it an investment or is it a cost, or is it a loss? I think it's an amazing investment for a lot of cool things to happen, and I think about these memories. I don't know what I would do if I had to go to a job nine to five for someone I didn't and miss out on all these amazing experiences. [49:07.0]
Because as soon as I'm done today on the show, I'm going to have one more call with my buddy, Matt, talk to him about a couple of things as I'm outside smoking a cigar, reading a good book, watching the kids playing in the backyard, as Dria is coming up to me, trying to get on my lap probably, not being super focused, but what does it matter? These are memories. She's one years old and she's not going to be one ever again. Mark is not going to be four and a half ever again.
One of my best things that happened yesterday, if you follow me on Instagram, guys—by the way, you should on Instagram @MarkEvansDM, and make sure to get a copy of Magician vs. Mule. If you don't like it, I’ll send you your money back. You don't have to send it back to Amazon. Just text me and I’ll send you your money back. It's 15 bucks. I'll send it back to you myself, but MagicianVsMule.com—but Mark and I went down and he was like, Dad, can I go work out with you today? Because I work out twice a day or actually yesterday I took two walks, two one-hour walks. We went to the track and we were running around the track, and he saw this guy, a 20-something-year-old guy with six little kids and their parents out there, and they're doing sit-ups and pushups and little sprints on the track. They're probably anywhere from probably 10 to 14 years old girls. [50:11.3]
He was like, Dad, I want to hire a coach to help me get better. This is my four and a half year old son, and I sit there and I’m like, I mean, it's amazing to me, and then I'm like, Yep, time. Definitely, let's have that talk, and then we took off on the walk around and I'm like, Buddy, everything in life, never stop hiring people to help you become better, ever. It will help you. It will drive you. It will give you a direction.
Don't think you know all the answers. The only answer you need to know is that you don't know the answers. That's the only answer you need to know in life. Hire people that are better than you and the place you're trying to get better. That's it. Never stop investing ever in yourself. It doesn't stop at high school. It doesn't stop in college, if you decide to go to college, which I don't think he ever will, but if he does awesome, but that's just the start.
Why would you stop paying or stop investing in yourself for knowledge to become a better person? I don't know about you, but it will never stop on this end. It's never a loss. It's only a game and I'm gaining my brain and I hope you do the same thing. [51:13.9]
Hope you have an amazing day. Keep up the amazing work. It takes work, effort. Dig deep. It's not always easy conversations with yourself mostly, so just dig down. I'm thinking about you guys. I'm rooting for you.
If you guys have a subject you want me to talk about or you're struggling with something you want me to talk about, I don't need to say your name, let me know how I can best assist you. I'm here for you. Check out the podcast show at the Making of a DM and we've got something cool coming out next week, so be ready. Appreciate you guys being here. Have an amazing day. Now go lose some money. Make it count. Peace.
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