Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” There's a million ways to make a million dollars, so why aren't more people millionaires? We'll go into that in great detail and more on this episode. With that said, let's get started.
Mark: What's up everybody? It's your boy, Mark Evans DM, coming to you live here, Shaker Heights, third floor, heading out. Got contractors here, so if it gets loud, that's what's going on. Anyways, always moving, always growing, expanding, always cleaning up. Thinking about you guys. Hope you have an amazing day, but I would like to know, did you get your homework done yesterday? [01:03.8]
I had a lot of people actually messaging me privately like, Yo, Oh my God, it's working. Oh my gosh, I never even knew I should email my list. I spend all this money on marketing and I have the honeypot right at my fingertips. If you didn't watch yesterday's show or listen to the show about “Can you make millions of dollars by simply sending emails?” you need to check it out. It's a real thing.
Guys, today I want to talk about a million ways to make a million dollars. Let's pick one and go all in.
What I'm talking about here is the shiny object syndrome. I know there's not one person watching or listening to my voice that has shiny object syndrome. It's only me, right? And I can tell you I talk to people every day. I've coached thousands of people across the country for many, many years, and the number one reason most people fail, it's not because they don't have opportunity. It's because they don't focus on one opportunity. I want to talk to people, talk to you guys about why people are failing here on a consistent basis. [02:03.3]
It's actually unfortunately getting worse because there's so much social media like, Hey, man, I just made 70 grand doing this. Hey, man, I just made 20 grand on this. Hey, man, I just did it 50 grand doing this, and you're watching it and you're like, I want to do that. I want to do that. I want to do that. I want to do that. All of the day you're doing that. You’ve lost your opportunity on what you can do for yourself.
Again, there's billions of ways. I've talked about it, like my boy said—good morning, Jim—talked about like my boy said, Sean Whalen at my event last year. He's like, You guys realize there's people that make millions of dollars creating dildos. There's people that make millions of dollars that are casting these sex toys. There's people making millions of dollars, selling iPhone cases. There's people making millions of dollars selling books. There's people making millions of dollars selling lighters. There's people making millions of dollars. This is called turn on the money goggles, but you’ve got to know how to shut them off as well when you're growing.
Good morning, Shane. “I watch this live while I'm working and also at night for a second time in case I miss anything.” Awesome, Chris. Tell me what you did with your homework. [03:07.5]
The biggest reason is I think the truth is—I don't think. The fact is—most of you have shiny object syndrome because you don't really know what you want to do. Yesterday I was talking to a great guy, him and his brother, and they're doing wholesale real estate investing and then they want to acquire 100 units, and then they're going into multiple markets and all this stuff. Again, I love all of that. I love all of it, but I need to focus on one.
See, you can't go build a million-dollar business by trying to create four million-dollar businesses. It just does not work. It's too much going on. Not only that, how disrespectful are you to the deal, to yourself, to your family? It's very disrespectful, thinking that it's super easy to make a million dollars in four different businesses before you've ever made a million dollars in one. It's very delusional. This is why you feel crazy. This is why you feel overwhelmed. This is why you get frustrated. It's because you're trying, taking for granted what it takes to be successful. [04:14.2]
Let me just be honest with you. I don't have to work to make a million dollars. I don't. I don't have to work to make a million dollars. It already happens, but I'm 24 years deep in the game. Seriously, what is going on? You’ve been dicking around for four years. Why do you think you can go and do this so easily? You’ve got to respect the game. Understand, one, what game you're in, and number two, respect it. Respect the game.
I'll use real estate because I’ve done real estate for 24 years. Wholesaling is a business. Rehabbing and retailing is a business. Apartment complexes is a business. Storage facilities is a business. Lending money, it's a business. You get my point? Owning turnkey rentals, it's a business, and if you don't treat it as such, you're going to get bit in the ass. It's going to bite you in the butt. It's going to sting. You're going to lose money. You're going to lose momentum. [05:16.0]
Pick one until you get to a million plus a year. One, just one. I can tell you it will change your life. Pick one business and go deep. Stop going wide. “I'm in 72 markets.” Dude, you haven't even figured out one. Stop scaling chaos. Stop scaling unhappiness. Stop scaling crazy, crazy frustration for no reason. You’re doing it to yourself, by the way. Put the books down. Stop listening to every different [mentor]. You can't listen to me. You can't go listen to a tactical approach and storage facility investing, and then go listen to my boy, Tim, on video about buying 3,000 apartment units in five years or less. What are you doing to yourself? Why do you think you can do all this stuff? You haven't even successfully done one. [06:15.1]
Until you dial this back, until you really get focused, nothing else changes. Respect the void, because you're going to have that void on growth. You're going to make 150,000, 250,000. Then you're going to have to hire someone. You’ve got to learn how to hire. More importantly, you’ve got to learn how to manage. Then you can hire that person. Now you see, Okay, that's in the gym. I'm working out. Okay. Boom, I hired someone. Okay. Throw another player on each side. Okay, I'm working out, and then, boom, now I’ve hired someone. Now I'm up to 400,000, 500,000 a year. Okay, things are growing.
Then you go, What do I do? We’ve got to go bigger. We’ve got to go bigger. What does “bigger” mean? Maybe I’ve got to get more efficient. Maybe I’ve got to change my type of deals I'm doing product-wise. Maybe I’ve got to look at my profit margins. Maybe I’ve got to look at how I can become a better leader. Maybe I need to hire a salesperson because I'm tapped out. [07:09.3]
If you're working 16, 18 hours a day and not making millions of dollars a year, you're doing it wrong. That's the truth. What are you doing wrong? I don't know, but a lot. You're doing a lot wrong, you know what I mean?
“How important is it to find the right accountant to make the big money?” The right accountant, Donovan is asking. Dude, first of all, you don't make big money by having an accountant. You make big money by doing the fucking work. The accountant is supposed to sort it out for you. So, accountants, that's the wrong question, my man.
We have to get focused. We have to know what we're going after. What do I want? See, the problem is the reason you get shiny object syndrome is because you have an identity crisis. The truth is you have no effing clue what you want. It's the truth. I've been there. Sometimes I'm still there. I'm pursuing big things and I'm like, Shit, that's not aligned with where I'm going and I’ve got to pull the plug. I pull the plug on stuff all the time and I'm going balls deep on other stuff that I'm working on that's working. [08:13.5]
See, it's interesting to me that there's this weird thing in our brain that, when we're growing and it's working, we don't keep fueling it up more, because we're like, Be thankful. Don't wake up the sleeping bear. Don't poke it too hard. Slow it down. Relax. It's okay, you're making millions of dollars a year. Have you ever thought, Can I make more millions of dollars a year with the same thing? The truth is my business and my days are very similar. I'm very similar. If it doesn't fit in my day, the business I'm trying to create, I try not to do it. Try, by the way, like I said.
Again, as an entrepreneur, there's this thing in the beginning that you say yes to everything because you think saying yes is going to get you to the next step. I'm not saying it's not, but it's only going to get you the next step. It's not going to get you the ultimate step of where you're going, because with entrepreneurs, once you're making millions of dollars a year, now your job has to become the power of saying no. [09:11.1]
You don't have to believe me. If you've been there, you know exactly what I'm talking about and you’re probably already reading that book again. I think there's books. I mean, shit, I know. I think there's tons of books about saying no as an entrepreneur. See, entrepreneurship gets us to one step. What got us to where we're at isn't going to get us where we want to go, right? And we have to understand how to compartmentalize that and know when we're making the wrong decisions.
It sucks when I talk to people and I hear it as clear as day, Mark, I'm wholesaling. Mark, I’m wholesaling, but I haven't hit my goals. Mark, I'm buying apartment buildings, but I haven't had my goals. Mark, I'm starting a new market, but I haven't had my goals. Every time I hear that, I'm not knocking it. I've been there. I've been there multiple times, but I never had someone like me saying, Yo, dude, focus. You’ve got this. You're so much better than that. [10:03.5]
Then they tell me in the same breath, I have children. I'm not spending the time I need to with them because I'm building these things. Dude, you're not building anything, and even if you built the biggest building in town, there's zero foundation. That's going to collapse ultimately and you’ve just lost all that amazing time with your kids.
The whole reason, truthfully, that entrepreneurs are working really hard, one, we're motivated by money, be honest. I'm motivated by money. I hope you are. It's not what gets me out of bed, but I am motivated to make more. That's what my job and fiduciary duty to my companies are, to make revenue. But I’ll make revenue and I can't pay bills, right, and grow?
I have to make money. The company has to generate rev, but my ultimate goal is really that we're really trying to take that money to buy back our time, so I can go to the kid's soccer game, so I can hang out with my kids and talk to them about life stuff, so I can go down to the park and play in the sandpit with them, so I can go and see these memories of them walking, taking their first step, saying their first words, so I can have these moments where I can go hang out with my friends and talk about life and business at dinner at five o'clock, 5:30 in the morning. That's what this is about to me. [11:11.8]
I stopped. When I stopped chasing money, I realized how much money is available. It's going to make you feel uncomfortable as an entrepreneur because you're going to feel like you're not doing enough for a while. I still feel that way, by the way, but I understand that's a feeling, that that's a good thing for us to keep us driving forward, but we also have to figure out how to harness this information and this emotion and start focusing on the data.
If I said I'm growing my wholesale company to one million a year, that's what I'm focused on. Nothing else matters. I don't care about my CRM. I don't care about apartment buildings. I don't care about storage facilities. I don't care about mobile home parks. I don't care about anything except wholesaling. Now, listen, I could wholesale an apartment building. I can wholesale apartments or all these other infrastructures. That's all I'm doing, though, and until I hit the million dollars, I don't do anything else. [12:06.7]
See, when you have that very super singular focus, things change. The world, the universe opens up and serves you. It's like, Yo, that son of a bitch has got his shit together. I'm going to help him find his path easier. Guys, it's almost like the water parts way, so you can walk right down the middle of the ocean. It's amazing. I'm telling you. I can't even [describe it].
I was talking with my buddy. He has made some big moves in his life in the last 30 days, big moves. He's a DM family member and I was talking to him yesterday via text. He was like, Dude, deals are flowing to me easier than they ever have, LOL, and I was like, That's not by accident because I know what he's dealing. He's going through. He's pushing. He has actually told the universe, This is what I stand for. This is what I want to do.
See, when you release that energy from what you're trying to accomplish because you're going to accomplish it, it gets a lot easier. You just commit to the process and stay focused. Nothing can deter you. Yes, you're going to have COVID. Yes, things are going to shut down. Yes, this is going to happen and that is going to happen. I don't care. I'm staying focused. [13:17.6]
Yes, this is happening. Dude, you know how many people messaged me and during the pandemic? Again, you see this all over online. You see this everywhere. Dude, I’m selling this. I’m selling this. I’m selling this. This is a great opportunity to do this. I'm going to do e-comm store. I’m going to do that. Dude, just pick. I don't care what you do, just pick one and do it great, and until you do that, you're not going to ever accomplish any, any success at a high level.
Even if you think you're successful, one, you're delusional, and number two, if you're scattered, you could be so much bigger if you got focused. See, it's this weird thing in our brain that thinks we have to be busy to make more money. I'll make a lot of money today without being responsible for making the money. [14:02.4]
I've already done all the hard work. I’ve already put the 24 years of experience on the front end. I’ve already hired the people. I’ve already gone through that whole thing. I can send an email which will send multiple emails today. It's already happening without me because I have procedures. I have a process. I have people, amazing people. Some shitty in there, I'm sure, but most of them are pretty amazing.
Most of them I don't even know. Most of them I’ve never even met, right? Because the company builds itself now. We have a team. We have amazing COOs, multiple COOs doing amazing shit every day. I'm not the guy calling them every day, What’s going on, man? What are you doing? trying to create chaos, trying to share my big idea. Dude, I know we're really crushing it right now, but, listen, this is way bigger. Don't act like you don't do that. We all do it. When I get that feeling, I shut up. I grab a piece of paper and a pen and I start writing down my big ideas and I share them with myself. You can't be tossing shit to your friends, tossing stuff to your employees, tossing stuff to your people, until you have your stuff dialed in. [15:08.1]
The problem is most people here are delusional. You think you're killing the game of life when truthfully all you're doing is killing dreams, getting the wind sucked out of you 24/7. This is why you can't. You're not good at sales. You're not good at CR management. You're not going to product management. You're not good at deal flow. You're not good. You can't be good at all these things. Find out what your core ability is, i.e. unique ability as Dan Sullivan says. Find out what it is and get focused.
See, I do real estate. I'd rather have 20 percent of your business than 100 percent of my own business. But, Mark, why? That’s so stupid, man. You can make a hundred percent. Why would you do that? Cool, there's no right or wrong, but that's the path I like. I'd rather have 1,000 partners generating 20 percent of revenue with their success of revenue. We provide value because I'm good at that piece of it. I'm a good leader, a good driver, i.e. Christian is the guy doing this daily on that side. He's amazing. He cares. He wants more, and we could do one-to-many. [16:15.0]
Would you rather have 20 percent of 1,000 companies or 100 percent of one company? There's no right or wrong. That's the difference, but you thought, But, fuck, I want 1,000 now. No, I'm not saying that. I'm just using it as an example. There's other companies I have 33 percent of companies in, but I'm only going to do a handful of them and I'm going to push them to millions of dollars a year.
Yes, I'll make millions of dollars a year, too, with them by not working in two, three years from now, but I get it that the first year to two years is a lot of front-end connections and relationships. Everything that took me years to build, I'm handing it on a silver platter for an investment, for a fee, for a percentage of growth. I understand my value. I know what I'm great at. I know what I suck ass at, too. Right? I'm very clear on that. [17:07.8]
Stop trying to be everything for everybody because we know you become something for nobody, and the biggest person I'm worried about it in all of this is you, because if you're unhappy, frustrated, overwhelmed, pissed off, not making any money, what's going to happen is you're going to…20, 30, 40 [years]. When does it stop?
We, as entrepreneurs, are pretty crazy people, right? You almost have to be to sign up. We didn't even sign up for this. This is just what's been handed or tapped on our shoulder and we have to either accept it or we have to just suppress it. I don't recommend the latter. You accept it. You understand it and you acknowledge it, and you go all in. You owe it to yourself. You owe it to your clients. You owe it to your potential team members in the future. More importantly, you owe it to the people you care and love the most about. We have a duty to get focused. Now has never been more such an opportunity to get focused. [18:08.4]
When I speak in rooms and go to events and talk on stages, everyone is trying to do everything. What if you just had to do one thing today? One. What is it? One. The problem is that you have too much opportunity. Opportunity oftentimes is an obstacle disguised as opportunity. But, Mark, you don't understand. Okay, I understand. You don't understand. But, Mark, I'm working on three things and blah, blah, blah. One has got to work out. Pick one. Commit. It will always work out.
Now, listen, with that said, I would not be starting a restaurant business today. However, I'd be a consultant to restaurant businesses because I have no risk. If that's what I truly love to do like Jon Taffer. He's a consultant to restaurant industries. This guy is printing money today, I'm sure of it. His consulting businesses on how to deal with COVID, how to make a profit during this economic downturn. There's a lot of it. He's all in. [19:08.6]
When I say Jon Taffer and him on this TV show, he's the turnaround king in the restaurant industry. He's not the turnaround king. He's not the ACH guy. He's not the guy that understands this and that. He’s not the blueprint guy. He's the fucking guy that helps you turn your company around in that industry. If I ask people what you do, what do they say? Oh ho, dude, he's the best contractor, best lawn care guy, best gutter guy, best street guy, best cotton candy maker, best blah, blah, blah. Dude, what is he good [at]? What does he do? I don't know, but he's always busy. He's always busy.
Shane, “If you had to start over, what path in real estate would you go on with?” Shane, number one, it's the wrong question. What I would do does not mean that's what you should do. It's a good question just to understand, just to have knowledge maybe, but it doesn't mean anything. It holds zero weight. Why? Because I'm a fucking badass on deal-making. You might suck at it. [20:04.0]
So, if I tell you what I do and you go try to do it, you're going to fail miserably and you'll be pissed off thinking you're doing something wrong and the only thing you're doing wrong is you're just in the wrong lane, man. That's it. When I realized I don't give two shits what the other guy is doing, I want to know here's what I'm great at, here's what I want to be known for and here's what I want to do.
I don't care what you do. I don't care what he does. I don't care what Russell fucking Brunson does. I don't care what Jeff Bezos does. I don't care because it doesn't matter. I can be inspired by him. I can pull pieces from him here and there. Wow, that's pretty cool. Wow, technology, Amazon. I don't know how to do that shit. I'm never going to learn it. I have people I hire to do it, but that's 20 years later. If I was going to start anything, it wouldn't be in real estate at all anyway. Why? Because technology is amazing. If I was a tech guy, I'd be making a hundred times more money than I make today, but I'm not. Instead, I invest in them. [21:06.1]
I invest in companies that are producing revenue today. If you're making over 250 grand a year in your company, I want to work with you somehow. Maybe I have equity. Maybe I bring cash. Maybe I bring knowledge. That's what I'm good at, growth. I'm not good at the technical details. I'm good at growth. I'm good at vision-building. I'm good at the driver, right? It takes all of us, guys. It takes all of us and it's all timing.
Shane, that's a real answer, by the way. I wouldn't do real estate, man. I wouldn't do it. There's a bunch of dipshits in it. The barrier to entry is zero. Just takes hustle. Listen, it has served me well. I still am involved in it. It's my biggest frustration, though. I constrain my growth massively by being in the real estate industry. I just don't like it anymore. I don't care about Home Depot. [21:53.9]
With that said, I’ve spent tens of thousands of hours on projects by myself. I’ve spent tens of thousands of hours at Home Depots and running back and forth to different projects, not getting paid, getting paid, messing up, losing money, earning money. I've been in the trenches so long on that side, I wouldn't do real estate. The scalability is not there. The growth model, it's very tough. Again, I don't like debt load. I don't like having $500 million in debt on apartment buildings or storage facilities.
I'm not knocking it. I think it's cool. I don't mind being an equity partner in those. “I” just don't like that feeling. I don't like feeling like I have to wake up and I owe $500 million today. I just don't like it, but that's me. My boy, Tim, he loves it. My boy, Austin, is amazing at it. My boy, Joe, loves that shit. I don't like it. It doesn't make it right. It doesn't make it wrong. It makes it right for me because that's what I like.
See, how do you deal with things? Again, this is all thought-auditing. Everything I'm talking about, I talk about a MagicianVsMule.com. It's thought-auditing. What makes you feel the way you feel? Why do you feel, I have to do what Mark does when I'm not good at it? Why do you have to [do it]? [23:12.9]
I'm not a hardcore sales guy. I suck at that actually. I feel slimy. I won't look you in the eyes because I know it's wrong, for me. I don't like to push your buttons and manipulate your words and navigate you down a conversation and fucking hard close you. That's not my style. My style is more like, Yo, man, and, by the way, you can ask anybody. This is how I sell dollar products and $35,000 products.
It's like, Yo, when you're ready, I'm ready. I'm here for you. If you want to keep playing around, keep playing around. I don't care. It doesn't affect me. I want your money. I don't need your money. If you want results today, I can help you. I'm not saying I don't sell. It's just that I sell differently. I'm more consultative selling. I really want to know how I can help you. If I can't help you, I don't want a dime from you. I don't want a penny from you. Truth is I don't want to talk to you. I can't help you. [24:03.6]
Why would I waste my time on someone I can't help? It might sound like a dick move. It's called a fucking, very smart move on my part. I'd rather hang out with my kids. I care more about my kids. I don't care about you ever. You should do the same. But all of you are out here, dicking around with the wrong people because you don't know what you really want, so you're bouncing around, bouncing around.
I get it. It's not good. I'm glad that I didn't have kids during that journey of discovery. It took me a long time to discover that. I'm not saying you can't be in the weeds trying to play. Half the work, you have to earn. You have to fight. You have to call. Why do you think it's easy? The hardest part is staying focused.
The hardest part is staying focused. Pick one. Stay in your lane and do you. You will make money. I talked about this, be a number two, be a number three. What if there's collaboration opportunities? If you're amazing at deal-making, go find someone amazing at deal-selling. If you're amazing at deal-selling and deal-making, go find someone amazing at deal operations. I know you suck at operations because you can't be good at selling and buying if you're operating a company. It's too hard. [25:15.0]
It's too hard, right? Because you need someone managing the front end, managing the back end, getting front-end leads, managing the CRM, managing the sales stuff, managing the account, managing the tax roll. It's endless. Yet you're doing that bullshit, trying to do 30 other different things. How? How? Really, stop it. It's really hurting you. Your kids are like…
I always kind of look at this and think, if my son came to me, and by the way, you're half-assing all of them if you're doing that, a hundred percent, but if your kid came [and said], Daddy, Daddy, I want to still play soccer, but I really don't want to play a much. I just want to play when I want to. But I really want to play baseball, but I want to play when I want to. Hey, I really want to play hockey when I want to. Dude, pick one and get great at it. Pick one. Learn the greats. Learn what they did, how they did it, what they do, why they do it. Do you love it? Do you not love it? If you don't love it, get out now. [25:15.0]
See, we've been cast this vision, this identity that our parents have given us like, You're so great at this or great at that. Have you ever asked yourself what you're great at? Have you ever asked people around that actually know you differently than your mom and dad, and brother or sister, uncle, cousins, colleagues that know you're a badass at marketing or a badass itself sales, or badass at deal-making or a badass at operations, or bad-ass in the field working with people? Have you ever asked yourself these things? The answer is probably no because you're too busy chasing seven rabbits around trying to catch one. It's not working too well. Go make a million dollars. Making a million dollars is easy once you know how to do it. The first million is the hardest, promise you that. [27:01.3]
Hey, Dan. Says, “I learned many years ago, get rid of masses of asses and the best deal is the one I don't do. I had to deal with my own issues to learn who my favorite student is and only mentor those.” Absolutely. “There's no way we can help who isn't ready to help themselves.” Yes, a hundred percent. Always delegate, hire people to do the stuff you suck at, especially if they're great at it. Only if they're great at it.
For so long, I was in my own way with thousands of different ideas and it never produced results. Folks, this is why when people come to me and they're like, Dude, you have to sign this NDA, but I’ve got the most amazing idea that’s going to make you so much more money. Uh, okay, I've never heard that before.
First of all, I’ve never had an idea brought to me that I’ve never heard before. Ideas don't make money. Implementation, massive implementation of an idea, idea, not ideas, make money. You're playing it. You've been played by the world thinking that this shit is easy. You've been played. [28:02.7]
You actually truly want to believe that you do nothing and get rich. Don't lie. Don't lie. I know you do. I am you. But when you realize that's not how it works, you get very focused, because the only one that can do it for you is you. You're in control. This is why, if you don't like flying, because you don't have control, even though you control to get on the plane. That's a whole different story, but you have to get focused.
You have to focus on one path and until you hit your goal number, nothing else matters. It will be scary. It will be uncomfortable. You'll feel like you'll pass on opportunities daily because, again, opportunities are typically obstacles in disguise. Stay focused. Focus.
I don't know anything about a whole lot. I know a little bit about one thing. I know a lot about one thing or two things. I know how to scale and I know how to market, and when you can do those two things, those are very universal things, and if you guys are great at that, you need to maximize that. You can help a lot of people and, more importantly, you make a lot of money. [29:13.1]
You guys, one day maybe I’ll share with you a bunch. I have many, many, many streams of income and multiple genres. One is in the media. One is in the data. One is in publishing. One is in the real estate, multiple in the real estate. I'll do a video one day, breaking down some multiple streams of revenue. When I say I have a bunch, I have a lot, and I'm not saying that to be braggadocious in any way, but to impress upon that wouldn't have happened if I didn't focus on one first, real estate. That’s my path. I didn't know any difference. I started at 18. That's what I did. I focused on it. I'd be 10 times richer if I'd have stayed focused.
I'm telling you, I got unfocused a hundred times a day. It's so easy for people like us to get unfocused. That's why you have to harness the conversation. That's why you have to compartmentalize when that happens. The next best opportunity. Dude, I don't need ideas, trust me. Trust me. I need someone to implement. Are you an implementer? [30:11.3]
Hear what I'm saying. If you are an implementer, you can print money. I'm looking for implementers every day. Other entrepreneurs need implementers daily. If you're great at implementing, you don't need to be an idea factory. You just take the ideas that we have and execute and implement. You'll make a lot of money. The entrepreneur makes a lot of money. Everyone wins.
If you have the opposite, maybe you're a great visionary but no implementer, [no] implementation skills. You’ve got to kind of do a little bit of work for a while until you can find an implementer, but you have to look for strategic relationships. I'm not saying partners necessarily, but strategic relationships where you can each help each other grow, as long as you guys are constantly carrying out the consistent vision, where you're at and where you're going. [31:04.6]
I don't need to talk to you daily. Maybe in the first three months, you might talk a lot more, but after that, you need to be looking at how do I talk less and do more? How do I talk less and get more? Right? This is the thing, as I talked about this in The 10-Minute Business Owner, the power of constraints is a real thing
If I didn't travel for seven years around the world, I don't think I'd be sitting here. I know I would not be sitting here because I was hanging out in my comfort zone. I was hanging out, the King Dingalings. I was the King of the dipshits. I was hanging out high-fiving the same people, talking to the same seven people. It was all the same stuff. But when I got out of my comfort zone and started realizing how big the world was, how much opportunity there really was, and this was in 2005. I was scared shitless, but it didn't hold me back from growth. When I'm that scared, I know I have to do something. I have to lean into it and do something about it because it's not controlling me. I'm controlling it. Most people aren't willing to do that, it's scary. [32:02.0]
The cool thing about what's going on with this whole COVID lockdown stuff is that it's giving you an opportunity to create massive reflection. That's a lot. It's creating massive vulnerability, massive anxiety, and, hopefully, you're journaling this process to realize what you really want in your life, what you're willing to give to get, and ultimately what you're willing [to do], what your skill sets are. What’s your worth? What's your value to the world, more importantly, to yourself? But what's your ultimate value? Just be great at that thing.
I think what's that book? The ONE Thing. Why do we think we need to do 20 things to make money? Logically, it makes zero sense. I can't make a million dollars on one, but I'm going to start four companies that make a million dollars. It doesn't make sense, but this is what we do to ourselves. That's the truth.
“This is one of your best.” Thank you. “Every day someone is getting something from you.” Thank you, Mike. Thank you, Mike. [33:03.1]
So, what's stopping you? What's holding you back? What's creating this craziness? Why are you creating this on yourself? Life is so much more important than starting a business, another business and another business before I actually get another, until I get a real business working? I see so many of you promoting bullshit junk just to make a couple bucks. It is what it is, but you're better than that. Focus on you. Build a real business, build a real plan. Stop trying to earn money off the backs of other people by doing nothing.
By the way, my companies, I will give everything to help them. I'll bring money. I'll bring time. I'll bring other people. I'll bring resources. I'll do anything to help my partners succeed. Anything, and it's not just lip service. It’s real. I have real expenses to help them grow. I pay for that. They don't pay for that. I only earn when they earn. I want to help them genuinely. [34:09.9]
We've qualified them to make sure that they're quality people that we can grow with, but the problem is, unfortunately, they get sidetracked. They start making 50, 60, 70 grand a month, they're like, Dude, oh my God, I can’t pay you 20 percent of that, right? Even though they make five grand a month now. Then they go on their own and they're like, Man, it's so hard. I didn't realize. You guys are taking for granted knowledge, effort, dedication.
I've given 24 years of my life to this shit and I'm going to give another hundred of it. I'm never quitting until I die. That's it. I promise you that. Don't bet against me. Actually, do bet against me. It makes me work harder. It makes me work smarter actually. I like when you bet against me. I enjoy it actually. [35:03.5]
Again, that's something. Maybe you don't like that, negative stress, negative pressure. I actually thrive on it. I get excited. I actually get excited just talking about it. I want you to bet against me. I want you to. I'm going to roll over you. I'm going to be laughing at you. Someone told me recently, Dude, man, I'm making 450 grand a month. I'm like, That's cute. That's what I spend every week in marketing. What's up? See, it's all perspective. It's not being a dick, but you bet against me, I'm not the guy to bet against. I want to win. I don't want to lose. I want to win. I'm more afraid of losing than winning and that drives me. That doesn't drive you maybe.
But, again, I know exactly who I am, exactly what I want, not to say you won't have foggy moments, by the way, but when you do this, you can't be stopped. I'm not saying you're not going to get smacked in the head with a two-by-four once in a while. I'm not going to say you're going to get someone sliding your legs out from under you. That's a part of the process. No, that will happen. Not maybe, it 100 percent is going to happen. [36:16.3]
You're going to lose money. People are going to steal from you. People are going to lie to you. People are going to take from you. People are going to leave you. That's what's going to happen. Just know that and do it. I promise you, it's a lot better than sitting around trying to avoid it. What if you could do anything you wanted? That's what you start writing about. What does it look like? Again, maybe it's maybe it's crocheting or whatever. Cool. That's what you want to do. How do we figure out how to do that? Right? The truth is I think, as crazy as this sounds, most of your undershooting your upside and growth opportunity. [37:01.0]
It's always funny, you always have the guys that are like, Dude, I want to make $200 million next year. You've never made more than $80,000. How the hell is that going to happen? But whatever. That's what you say. Go do it. But then you find the gals and guys that are realistic. It's like, Yo, I want to make a million dollars a year.
By the way, that is not hard to do in any way, shape or form. Making and keeping a million dollars are two different stories, though. Making a million dollars is very ultra-super-duper, duper, duper, duper, duper easy once you understand what your path is, once you understand. It's just a formula. I don't care what it is.
If it's this pen, if it's this marker and to make a million dollars, I need to sell a million of them, the formula is really simple. I need to sell a million pens. I need to sell 3,000 pens a day and 3,000 pens a day equals X and then blah, blah, blah. It's a formula. I'm focused. I know what my tasks are. Wake up, sell fucking pens. Is it big, so one pen at a time or sell 10 pens at a time, or go corporate, and so, cool, pens and sell 10,000 pens at a time? I don't care, I'm selling pens. That's my job to sell pens. That's it. [38:13.6]
That's really simple, but so many say, But, dude, I mean, I didn't realize it was that hard. It's that hard. By the way, what's hard to you, it might not be hard to me. That's why it's important for you to know what you're great at and what you're not great at, what's hard and what's easy. What do you want to deal with? Guys, I don't want to deal with certain things today that I used to deal with five years ago or even a year ago, for that matter. I'm past it. I'm beyond it. I don't want to deal with it.
“We're all doing similar tasks, different goals, just different zeros.” Absolutely, Andrew. So many of us are undershooting where we could really be. That's why you're unfocused. See, when the goal is so big and you're so focused on that goal… [39:02.0]
I'm not trying to be the best football player hanging out on a soccer field, kicking a soccer ball. I'm not playing baseball, trying to be the best football player. I'm focusing on football. I'm watching reels. I'm playing catch. I'm running sprints. I'm doing stuff that's going to make me better on the football field. Not to say there's no crossover opportunity if I'm playing baseball, but that's not where my focus needs to be.
We saw this with Michael Jordan. He's an amazing athlete, amazing athlete on the basketball court. You stick him on the baseball field. He’d suck ass, period, and he’s an amazing athlete. Don't think and do not confuse that you can carry these in other industries and other things, and succeed at a high level. I've been kicked in the face many times entering other markets. I'm not going to stop. I'm learning. But don't think it just happens overnight. You have to invest the time. Time is an amazing, amazing value add that you have. [40:02.7]
Why would someone pay me 25 grand for a day and come sit down with me for six hours? Why? Because they value their time. They're going to buy 24 years of my knowledge in six hours for only, only 25 grand. Would you work for 24 years? It's a thousand dollars a year. It's nothing at all. Not only that, that $25,000 typically equates to a lot of money in earned revenue from the clarity, from the focus, from the actions, from everything else that they gain from that.
That's not for everybody because the truth is most people don't think they're worth 25 grand. You're not paying me 25 grand. You're worth 25 grand. You're just transferring the money to me to help you acknowledge that you're worth 25 grand. Not only that, when you get the results, would you pay someone 25 grand to make 500 grand? Sign me up. I'm in. [41:04.7]
I do it every day. I pay people all the time to help me get better. I have a call today at 12 o'clock I'm paying a lot of money for, for one hour, that will help me get massive clarity. By the way, it's not even to make more money, but I know I'm buying their time. They've been 17 years in an industry that I need to learn specifics about. Seventeen years and I'm only paying $10,000. That's it. They undercharged themselves. Hopefully, they're watching because they should charge more. Not me now because I’ve already paid, but $10,000 for 17 years for a one-hour conversation. I'm worth $10,000 an hour. Aren't you?
I'm looking for solutions. See, you see the cost. I see the value. That's the difference. That truly is the difference where I'm so focused on one thing, I'll pay anything to get the results. I'll hire anybody to get the results. I'll do the work to get the results. [42:05.7]
I'm not chasing seven rabbits. I'm focused on one and I'm laser-focused, and I'm sharpening the arrow and I'm practicing in my throws. I'm going to get that rabbit. One rabbit, that's all I need to survive, and then that's all. That's what I do. I'm telling you, anybody that knows me, I'm a dog on a bone. I am so focused, you cannot stop me. I will do anything, come hell or high water, to get the result I need. That's what I do. That's what you should do.
Instead what I used to do is to say, Man, I’ll get to that, but I'm onto this, man. You’ve got to understand, this is a way bigger opportunity. It's a lot less work and I can make a lot more money. And then I’d bounce to another thing. No way, that was a cool idea, but, no, this is bigger. Dude, last week I told you about blah, blah, blah. This is bigger. You don't understand.
Hey, we all say the same crazy stuff. I'm laughing because I have been in that position many, many times, and, unfortunately, it caused me massive anxiety, massive stress, massive identity crisis. I didn't even know what the hell I was doing. People would say, Yo, what are you doing? I'm like, Good question. I don't know. Tell me what you think I do. [43:14.6]
That's an interesting question, by the way. You should ask people that know you in the business world, What do I do? Based off what I see, Mark, you just hang out with smoke cigars all day and shoot videos for an hour a day and act crazy, but other than that, I don't know what else you do actually. See, that's a one-to-many conversation, right? I'm marketing. I don't even know what I'm marketing. I'm just sharing knowledge. Hopefully, this knowledge is helping you guys.
By the way, the DM Gear is live, Beacon, put that on there. You guys, if this videos help you or these adios help you, buy some gear. Support. I'm not getting rich off of gear. It just shows me that you're acknowledging, Hey, this crazy guy across the video that I'm listening to or whatever you're listening to and the kind of device, I support him. Here's 20 bucks. Here's 100 bucks. Whatever it is, it's going to a good cost. A couple bucks. I might make $2 on a shirt, right, if that? Shit, I don’t even know, Beacon. I don't know. Maybe nothing. [44:12.7]
Beacon probably screwed it up. I'm probably losing money. I'm probably paying people money, right? I'm paying. I'm buying your shirts. But it just shows me that you're paying attention, that you're valuing the knowledge and information. The truth is I asked you guys to send in like, Hey, what do you need help with? And I'm truly asking all the time. Very few people actually ask for help.
By the way, I might answer your question quickly, right there in the chat. I might say, Great question. I'll answer it on a show one day. But asking for help, don't be an asshole. But if you ask for help, it's power. It's strength. It shows people…for guys like me, I love asking for help. I need help every day. [45:00.0]
By the way, I'm hiring an accountant. I'm hiring salespeople in the media space. I'm hiring data, data scientists over on the data company. My team is hiring every single day in all companies. We're always looking for great people. In all seriousness, if you know an amazing accountant, I do need one for one of my companies ASAP because I'm sick and tired of dealing with the ding-a-lings at this other one, but, anyways, I digress.
Focus and share with me what you need help with. I don't see that as being weak, being stupid. There's no such thing as stupid questions, just stupid people asking questions. As long as you're not a stupid person, i.e. asshole, ask and I’ll help. I'll know if it's a real question or if you're just trying to ask a question to ask a question.
If someone keeps asking me a question like, Dude, what do you do with this? It's none of your fucking business. That's what I did. Why are you asking that question? It doesn't serve you. No matter what I say, it doesn't mean anything. Just be conscious of the questions. Again, it's for you. [46:01.1]
I feel like the show has helped me, directly me, specifically. It's one of the magical things you do, Mark. Speak to many.” Thank you, buddy. I appreciate that. The truth is I'm speaking. Here's God's honest truth, getting goosebumps before I even say it. I'm speaking to myself. If I was talking to my younger self at 18, 19, 20, whatever age, I'm speaking to me and I believe it resonates with all that are in the same position. If you're an entrepreneur trying to pursue more, you know this. Everything I'm saying is real. You don't have to tell me it's not. You might say bullshit, Mark. That's because you're not there yet. Everything I'm sharing with you is raw, authentic and real. I'm sharing my story. It can't be wrong, you know what I mean? I can't be wrong.
Mark. Thank you, buddy. Go snag them. MarkEvansDM.com/collections/all. Get some gear, guys. We don't have that much of it, but snag some. This COVID stuff has kind of put a damper on. That's why we've kind of taken forever to launch it out, but I get a lot of requests for it. I'd love to see if you guys are supporting the message. “A great idea for some teammates.” Absolutely. [47:11.5]
Beacon. I'm talking to you over here, too, my man, aren't I?
Beacon: Oh yeah. No, you're really hitting it home right now. I feel, you say you're speaking just to yourself, but I guess great minds think alike or, when you're trying to tap into a certain wavelength, you can actually start listening, tuning in with the frequencies. I definitely believe in that. I’ve been surrounding myself with great individuals, just like yourself and your team. I haven't had that kind of opportunity from what I’ve been experiencing.
When you're talking about there’s millions of ways of making millions of dollars, and it's like let's say you're just… How do I say it? You're just a naive new person into the entrepreneurial industry. It's the top one percent. There's only one percent of people that are actually are not even talking, but just doing it, and it's hard to find those people that are doing it because they're in the trenches. [48:05.7]
You’re able to just go one-to-many and broadcast your voice. It's like you're reaching out and you're giving that hand up, that handout, but now people are able to actually grab and see the inner workings of the mindset that it really takes to do this. It's like, Oh, I'm this bigshot guy driving awesome cars, but, dude, I'm nothing if it wasn't for the team, for the experiences that I had to go through. You can do it, too. It's just are you willing to put in that 24 years of effort? So, it's the mindset shift.
Mark: No, it's the mindset shift. It's definitely getting down into one-to-many. Your biggest problem is you're trying to…you're chasing 20 rabbits. Not even seven, you're chasing 20. You and I, when you and I talk, it's always getting you focused on the one thing. You know this. It’s not a secret.
Beacon: Right, I’ve got to know.
Mark: Because Beacon, he's young. He’s hungry. He is excited. He's trying to…he's invincible. He can do it all. But, guys, we're not. We can't do it all. We can't be everything for everybody. We've got to focus on what we're great at. [49:10.3]
What I'm trying to help Beacon with is hiring people. He needs to learn how to hire and how to manage, and stop focusing on cost, but focus on value. By the way, there are multiple lessons in that one statement. When we're doing that, this is something Beacon is going to be overcoming. You guys, why I want you to Beacon on here sometimes with me oftentimes is because you're watching his journey unfold before your eyes, working directly with me. Right, Beacon? It's happening.
Beacon: Yes.
Mark: We’ll share with them some big news here sooner than later, but there's some cool things going on behind the scenes that you guys don't even know of evolving, evolution, growing, expanding, getting very uncomfortable, would you say, Beacon?
Beacon: Man, uncomfortable is an understatement, as in I don't even want to use that vocabulary. It's not about [being] comfortable. It's just knowing the goal and just getting there by all means necessary. [50:06.8]
Mark: Yeah.
Beacon: That's just it.
Mark: Beacon is so uncomfortable over there. He's constipated. He can't even go to the restroom, he’s so nervous.
Beacon: No, for real. It's a real thing.
Mark: It is a real thing. When you're so uncomfortable and so scared and so focused, that's a real thing. Again, I'm being authentic and real. As disgusting as it sounds, that's a real thing because your body is trying to [figure out] like, What is going on? You've disrupted your core body so much. You're like, This is faith. This is stepping onto faith. This is expansion and growth. This is my time. This is now. Again, it's amazing. Amazing things are about to come from that.
Beacon, is there anything I'm missing out on this? Because, like I said, you're seeing kind of the behind. The truth is Beacon and I probably are going to talk three minutes after this call. That's all we talk all day. Most of the time there might be via text here and there about some stuff, but he’s doing his thing and I'm doing my thing. I could probably be better. [51:00.0]
The truth is, and I'm just chattering here, the truth is I'm not good at micromanaging people. I don't want people to micromanage me. Therefore, I don't micromanage others. I’ve never been good at micromanaging. I used to do it and I hated it, but I was a psycho micromanager because I forced it so much because I hated it, but I had to do it.
I felt like I had to do it to survive. I was fighting every day. Dude, what's going on? Beacon has never experienced that with me, even though I do it sometimes, but I used to say, literally every five minutes, Yo, where is that? Yo, I'm getting to do it, Mark. No, where is that? No, seriously, it's been seven minutes. Where is that? And I was just like, boom, boom, boom, and it's not fun. It's not. It was not enjoyable for anybody.
But, Beacon, is there anything else, departing pieces that you could think of that you see from your perspective with me on that side?
Beacon: I mean, it's just consistently turning up the heat. It's like an energy. Let’s say, if you ever get in those types of moments, it's not like, What the hell? Obviously, a little bit like, What the hell? Why aren't you doing what you're doing? But it's not, no, do you understand how important this piece is? Put emphasis on it. Let's get this out of there. You don't have to get it right. You have to get it going. [52:12.4]
A lot of us don't even understand that. There's a reason why the coach put me on the team. It’s because he knows I have some sort of talent so just get out there and play.
Mark: Yeah. Now it’s time to mold, though. It's like the thing is you're showing up. You're getting laced up. You're going in the field. Now my job as the leader is [to figure out], Where is he the best fit? What are his best skills? Where is he?
When you find great people like Beacon, you’ve got to latch hold of them. The truth is at one point during… Beacon, you've been, what, two years you said with us?
Beacon: Yeah.
Mark: He's been in multiple divisions, but there was a point, I think two or three months, when he was getting paid without doing any work. That's the truth.
Beacon: Yeah.
Mark: And it's like I didn't want to call him up and say, Yo, man, I want to cut you. It was more like, He's a good guy. I just don't have a place for him yet. I wasn't really doing a lot of social stuff, a lot of visual stuff. I knew I needed to do it, but it wasn't like I called you and said, Yo, man, I can't pay you, or anything like that. It was more like, Let's just keep them on the payroll and let's see where this goes. That’s the truth. [53:09.0]
Beacon: That's life changing for me. I'm truly blessed for that because there was always a bigger picture, a bigger purpose to it all, right?
Mark: Absolutely.
Beacon: I look at it that way. What I was going through in my life, I mean, he doesn't know what the hell I was going through in my life, but he already has an idea, so he didn't have to think too hard about it, but he's like, I know this guy wants to play. I don't need him just yet, but I’m going to find something for him and I'm keeping him in, because that really helped me get through school, get through all the other nonsense that I'm going through. Yeah, truly blessed for it. Yeah.
Mark: That’s big, man. No, it's huge. Again, guys, we're just trying to share real authentic stuff here and these are true stories. Clearly, they're true stories. But I think seeing that, I guess where I was going with that is you don't always have to know where people need to fit in today. If you latch hold of amazing people that have the right heart, they just lack direction or organization or whatever, us, me as the leader, I'm looking for just great people. I can't train great people. I can't train you to be great. If you're a great person, I can train everything else. [054:14.5]
Heart. If you have heart, you have hard work, your passion, your purpose, you're a great person, you just need direction. Yo, Beacon will come in hot. Yo, man, burr… I'm like, Yo, dude, stop. I don't need that shit. What are we getting done today? That's all I care about. But, again, that's harnessing, harnessing energy.
We all have amazing energy. We just have to harness it for the better good of the direct vision of where we're trying to go and focus on that one thing. Take the one business to $1 million before you do anything else. Nothing else matters. Stop trying to buy rentals and build, make $100,000 a month. That's not exciting. That's not fun. That's not easy. One month of lack of rental, that wipes out all your profits. One bad break in the basement wipes out all your profit. Focus on making money, not making [passive income]. [55:01.0]
Don't try to make passive income before you make real money on active income. Make a million dollars on real earned money. You can always get passive income, guys. You can always buy and sell assets. It's easy. They're always for sale, by the way. There's never not going to be a time where you can't buy something to make passive income. The more you do active income, the more you'll realize the power of passive income, and not only that, you'll see better passive income streams, too, which is very powerful.
Beacon, I’ve got a bounce. I appreciate you guys being here. Learning to hire and delegate, and step back was hard for me in the beginning. Absolutely, man, it's still hard for me sometimes because I get excited about it.
But, guys, make sure to check out, get some gear over at MarkEvansDM.com. Click on products and Beacon threw up the link there, but I appreciate you guys’ support. I'd love for you guys to start hopping on and sharing what questions you have, so I can come in hot with some questions. Share it in my private message because then I take it and put it on an Excel document and that helps me create better shows for you. [56:00.0]
I'm here for you guys. I'm rooting for you, your number one fan. Appreciate you guys being here. Have an amazing day. Make today count. Peace.
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