Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” Why I’ll never go broke. I know it's a bold statement, but on this episode, I'm going to share with you exactly why I will not and you will not ever go broke. So, with that said, let's get started.
Mark: A lot of cool things going on, guys. I know the subject line today is “How I’ll never go broke”, but what the heck is he talking about? I'll share that with you in a second as it is a super important lesson that I wish I would've learned a long time ago.
Q&A today, I'd love for you guys to ask some questions. By the way, if you guys are over, follow me, I appreciate you being here in the social environment. This is so cool to me that we are able to have this amazing technology. Could you imagine, right now, if we're in lockdown and we couldn't connect like this? It's pretty wild, isn't it? [01:12.5]
But for me, if you guys could do me a huge favor and hit me up later today or tomorrow, go over to MarkEvansDM.com and, at the top, subscribe to the website. I’ve got a cool water responder email series in there to kind of get to know me, what the DM stands for, kind of my journey, my conversations, what I stand for, what I'm about. I know you're getting a piece of it here and there, but it's a good structured format that allows you to really connect and see if you like me or not. Then there's nothing wrong if you don't like me. That’s cool, right? Just find somebody you like and stick with them.
So, guys, how I’ll never go broke. Like I said, you might be thinking, What is this guy talking about, especially in these kinds of times? And the truth is there are a lot of people going broke. But “broke” to me is a little bit different, maybe in context of what one is thinking. Recently, about, I don't know, five or six months ago, I posted a message. It said how I lost the cool Rolls-Royce, $375,000, and what that meant was I was pissed off. I was pissed off for a second. I had a loss in a business deal I’d done. It was, like, a nanosecond. [02:10.9]
Back in the day, I used to get mad and hold the anger, and literally let the person that ripped me off win for years on in advance. I would just not allow myself to let go. And the reason I was mad, it was not because of the money recently. It was because of my pride. The truth is that I am a business guy. I consider myself semi-savvy and the deal got messed up. Why? Simple. I took my eye off the ball. That's really what happened. Not only that, I put my trust into someone that I really felt that I could grow with and they let me down. They let a lot of people down. But it is what it is, right?
What do you do in those situations? Maybe right now your business is going through this transition. Maybe something is happening. You're starting to see partnership vulnerabilities. You're starting to see things collapse instead of unite, and kind of separating. What's going to happen when shit hits the fan? [03:01.0]
For me, I get back up quickly. See, the key is how quickly can I bounce up? I'm bouncing up fast. I didn't go out and get wasted with my buddies. I didn't call my friends and do gossip talk for 23 days. I literally bounced back up and immediately did a couple of things.
Here's what I did and I'm talking immediately within 25 minutes of finding this out from my accountant. What I did is I actually funded three real estate deals. I called a salesperson that I’d been wanting to hire for a while. I called them and made a commitment to them, and I invested in myself. I invested in myself. I went all in. The thing is with momentum, right?
You might be asking, Why would you do that, Mark? You just lost 375 grand. Why would you invest in deals? Why would you invest in hiring people? Isn't that when people are supposed to retract, they're supposed to see where they're at, see what's wrong, what's missing? How can I get better? How can I reduce? For me, it's very simple. It's momentum. Momentum is a real force. It either works for you or against you. [04:00.6]
What happens is we create this brain momentum. Back in the day, like I said, when I used to lose, I used to allow that momentum to take over my life and literally I missed out on so much opportunity. I had so much, just no sleep for months on end because the momentum was against me. I was sad. This is the kind of momentum I was talking about. I'm talking to the momentum type where literally I was sitting at home saying, okay, I’d go to Starbucks, I spend $3.27 a day. If I stopped going to Starbucks for 3.27, I could save $100 a month, 3.27 times 30 days equals X. Do you think my problem with saving $100 a month?
See, that's where I was spending all my brain space. That's where I was spending all my creative energy. That's where I was spending my momentum opportunities. But my momentum was shifted to saving. How do I save money? How do I preserve money? And I'm not saying there's not a time and place for a little bit of that, but what I'm talking about is you have to shift your conversation. [04:59.5]
Again, as a business, you have to have someone focusing on that maybe a little bit, but when you're in growth mode, you have to be focused on revenue generation. You have to be focused on your emotional. I call it thought-auditing, as you guys know. You have to be thinking, Hey, what's that thought? Why do I feel that way? As soon as I found out I’d lost 175 grand, boom, I needed to jump in. I need to get serious. I need to get back on the horse. I need to get it going. I need to go, go, go. Where are the opportunities?
See, when I'm investing in myself, by the way, investing in myself and other people, that's going to solve the problem. Revenue always solves the problem, but what happens when we lose, we typically take our eye off of what solves the problem, i.e. revenue. What happens is we start looking for the problem, why the problem happened to me. My ego got in the way. My pride is much bigger than that. I must be stupid. I'm better than that, and all this other stuff we tell ourselves. Again, some of it may be true, but the truth is it doesn't serve your bigger cause of where you're going to. [06:01.8]
See, momentum is an amazing powerhouse. We've seen it all in sports. Fourth quarter football they're down 21 points and then they shift of momentum. You literally see people's faces like, boom, it's over, and you're like, Oh my God, what just happened? They just lost because the momentum shifted to one team as opposed to the other. It's that powerful.
Now picture us, sitting at home, dealing with what we're all dealing with and the momentum shifting. Oh, man, turn off-- By the way, shut the news off now. It's not going to serve you. It's nothing. It's not going to help you in any way, shape or form, period, I promise you. You don't believe me, turn it on five years from now, someone is dying, the government is doing something they shouldn't be going and there's an epidemic somewhere. Somehow, some way, something tragic and drastic is going on. That's called media. That's called news. They're trying to get your eyeballs. If it doesn't bleed, it doesn't leave. [07:02.0]
Momentum. Be careful when you invest in yourself. This is why I’ll never go broke. I don't allow momentum to control me. I control momentum. Now, listen, we all are human. We're going to get smacked in the face with reality sometimes. We're going to get losses. We're going to take it on the chin. But the difference is that I see when I talk to someone they're like, Hey, man, I got wiped out in 2006. Yeah, dude, it's 2020. What the hell is your excuse now? It's 16 years later and they’re still using the same bullshit excuse. Why? Why?
You know what my biggest problem with that is? It's not the 14, 15, 16 years that they've screwed around. It's who's watching them for the last 16 years that make up all these B.S. excuses, their kids, their grandkids, their cousins, their brothers. There are all these people sitting there. You're the leader at one moment and now, boom, the market is going to set you straight and that's what's going on right now. [08:01.0]
As you guys know, you're starting to see who the real players are. You’re starting to see who the implementers are. You're starting to see the muscles being flexed of the people that have been sitting on the sidelines doing this work behind the scenes. For example, how do you think the Cigars and Coffee show came about? See, momentum doesn’t necessarily mean it's easy. I’ve got to show up and do a show here for 30 to 60 minutes every day. I don't think that it's not hard, but I have stuff going on. This is important, though. Why? Momentum.
Here's the thing with that the momentum factor. See, the thing is what I'm trying to do is suffocate negativity, suffocate the problems and focus on the opportunity. Focus on the solution. And, hey, I get messages every single day, multiple messages, many, many, many messages, asking about, Hey, Mark, about your mindset. Hey, man, what's going on with your workout? Hey, man, what's going on with your business? Hey, man, what's going on with your finance stuff? Hey, man, how's that stock trade going? And this and that. [09:03.0]
So, instead of doing one-on-one, how do I do one to many, share the message with many? Yes, I have to put it on the books. Yes, it takes my time away from myself and my family. But this is important to me. Why? Because you guys are important to me, the people that want to show up, and it's important that we grow together. Pay attention to my momentum factor. I'm doing it.
See, the thing is if you're in sales and you're used to making one sale a week, you have to do twice or three times the amount of work today to make that same cell a week. But that's okay. What else are you doing all day? See, most people are sitting around. The markets are making people complacent, lazy and think they're smart. None of us are smart. None of us have ever dealt with the situation that we're dealing with right now, no one at all. Yet you're going to have people sit there and tell you how to deal with it. Here's what I do know. I don't know how to deal with it. I know how to deal with me. [09:57.6]
Do you think you'll be better off four months from now with a show online with thousands of views, with a following, with building trust, rapport, relationship, or do you think you'd be better off sitting on the couch, eating Doritos, jerking off the Porn Hub and watching whatever else you watch at the day? Where do you think you're going to be better off serving yourself and the world?
Knowing that, why are we sitting around watching what others are doing? Why aren't we trying to figure out what we can do? I think that's truthfully where we all need to be. We need to suffocate the problem through momentum. I’ll work harder.
See, in my mind, I will literally outwork anybody, including you, anybody watching this video. It doesn't mean I’ll outwork you in the field if you're doing construction. It doesn't necessarily mean that's the same type of work. But, to me, outworking is-- We all, by the way, you should be saying you can outwork me. That's what competitors do. I can outwork you. No, I can outwork you. Okay, cool, let's outwork each other. Guess what? We both win. That's how it works. [11:03.3]
See, me outworking you doesn't outwork yourself. Me outworking you does not affect anything that you're trying to accomplish. That's the beautiful thing about this. Me getting wealthier doesn't take money out of your pockets. You helping people get rich doesn't take money out of their pockets. See, once you understand abundance and momentum factors, there's so much opportunity. So much opportunity. But what do you focus on? We talked about this yesterday. What you focus on grows. See, I'm not focused on, Oh, man, there's a problem out there. You know what I'm focused on? How much opportunity there is.
See, this morning, my buddy, Mike, always used to say this. Hey, man, I’ve got out of… Picture this. You’re lying in bed. It's a long day. Let's say you get up in the morning. Boom, you wake up. As soon as you step foot out of that bed, guess what happens? You stub your toe. You can think for me. I know it wasn’t meant to be. I’m just going to lay back down and figure it out, or this is a sign to get your ass up. It's time to get to work. [12:09.2]
See, today, this is a true story, my feet are busted up. I'm on day 71 of 75 Hard. My feet are jacked. I’ve got blisters galore. Blisters will take any man down, I promise, any person down. But I have blisters. I won't even show you the feet because they're so disgusting and it's not even needed, but I can barely walk. Barely walk literally. I'm limping around because these blisters are hurting so bad, right? And I'm sitting here going crazy like, I have to do it.
I'm up at 4:30 this morning, wide awake. I go out and I'm learning some stuff I'm working on, business stuff, and then, boom, it’s 6:30. I'm walking on the golf course. I’m walking around here. My feet are killing me. I don't want to do it. I have to do it because of momentum. [13:00.0]
Starting your day off by getting up and getting out of bed, and getting focused on yourself and getting focused on business, and doing the work you don't want to do, do you think your days are going to be better off or better or worse off? Right? This is the kind of stuff you need to be thinking about because your actions aren't representing what you say you want. See, I always talk to people like, Man, I want to make a lot of money. Cool, you’ve got to do what a lot of people do to make a lot of money.
Man, I put in 40 hours. I put in hundreds of hours and that doesn't… First of all, you're measuring against the wrong thing. Hours. I'm focused on results. Typically to get the results that I seek, I have to put in many more hours than 40 hours.
Another, Oh, man, you don't understand, I need to get a raise. I'm like, how do you invest in yourself? How do you bring value to the table? That's what business owners do. That's what smart, intelligent people do if you're trying to get successful. You ask better questions. The questions you're asking yourself if you're not where you're at, where you want to be, it's not because you don't know how to ask questions. You just don't know how to ask the right questions, because everything that has got you to where you're at is because you’ve asked questions to get there. [14:01.3]
Hey man, how do I go to Chi-Chi's tonight? Hey, man, how do I get messed up with my buddies tonight at 6:00 p.m.? I can't wait for happy hour, [unclear 14:09.1, but that's the shit you're thinking about. I'm thinking about how can I buy another business? How can I have four team players? How can I invest $2 million in this? How do I buy a whole life policy that can protect me and my future for my family when I die? Not when I'm alive, but when I die.
There are things that real business owners are thinking about, and I'm not saying you have to be a real business owner to do this, but you have to be thinking in advance, right? Focus on the plan, not the problem, absolutely. Again, guys, we have to create a plan and execute. I’ll share more of that, about some stock trading stuff I do or even in business, but stock or anything, just create a plan and execute the plan.
The problem is everyone lets emotions get in the way, distractions get in the way, problems get in the way. Oh, man, you don't understand, I hired a bad person. Fuck, we all do. But that has nothing to do with me. That has something to do with you. You have a commitment to me, no more, no less. That's an excuse. [15:06.3]
Alice is saying, “Hey, Mark, what do you recommend for business owners to look for other business opportunities that are focused on their business right now during this difficult time? Because I see a lot of people right now that are trying to look for other business opportunities and not trying to fix the problem with the current situation. Any advice?”
Yeah, Alice, this is a great question, by the way, and I have a couple answers for it. Depending the type of business you're in, depending on what you're trying to accomplish with the business you're in. And not only that, depending on fixing the problem, what's the problem? Is the problem internally? Is it the business? Is it the corona? Is that a combination of both? Because the truth is if you're trying to fix the problem during the corona, the problem typically is internal. The problem has been there the whole time. It's just we haven't put any attention to it because the market has made us sloppy, complacent and lazy. What happens is now that we have a massive something going on, by the way, we didn't know it was going to do this, but it's just been in the making and we've all been here. We all have been here, by the way. We're all semi-sloppy in good markets. That's what happens. It's complacency. It's a real thing. [16:06.4]
You guys have got to understand how to harness conversations. See, when there's something going on, you’ve got to pay attention and you can't be thinking out loud. It's cool when you're [isolated], and this is what happens when you get isolated. You start thinking out loud, talking out loud through your thoughts. There's nothing wrong with that, but when there are people here, you’ve got to kind of put it together.
“What businesses are you focusing on right now?” Chris is asking. Great question. I’m focusing on my business, me, my real estate business. I’m focusing on how to streamline lead flow. I'm focusing on my media company. We're focused on our supplement company and we're focused on the acquisitions. I'm looking to buy a lot of properties and a lot of not real estate properties but a lot of properties inside of my other business environments. When I say properties, I'm not talking single-family houses or even apartment complexes. I think it's other businesses. It's properties that I can revive to create additional income, more importantly, create strategic relationships with my companies. [17:02.2]
In my media company, for example, we sell a lot of stuff in the survival niche, if you will. Why wouldn't I buy survival niche affiliate companies that already have investors’ lists, buyers’ lists, customers’ lists and all that stuff? I can actually buy that company for XXX and step right into the profit generators.
Let me share with you something with momentum again. Guys, this is a real thing. Right after I graduated high school, I bought a seamless gutter company from Larry, Larry out of small town Ohio. I had no money. I just knew I was never going to work for anybody, so I went to him and said, Hey, man, I don't know what I can do, but I'd like to buy your company. At first, I played it differently like my uncle wanted to buy it, just to get my foot in the door and created this conversation. Then, all of a sudden, what happened is I went over there and said, “Hey, man, my uncle is not interested, but I'm interested.”
I bought it for 25 grand, if I remember correctly. I gave him 1,000 bucks down. I think I borrowed the money, and then that was a no-money-down deal, by the way. Then I paid him $287 a month for five years. Actually, less than that because I sold it. [18:03.6]
But, at the end of the day, what's cool about that is momentum was built inside that company, because the company was already up and running. See, for some reason, us, you think as entrepreneurs we have to create something, we have to create something new. The truth is and what I’ve realized as I'm getting older and a little bit wiser, definitely getting uglier and not funnier, the key with business to me is why can't I buy it? I wish I had done that in the past.
I bought a seamless gutter company. I bought a garage door company and I’ve bought a website, and I’ve bought a lot of different things, but I never did it intentionally. I kind of did subconsciously like, Hey, I need to buy revenue. What that means is if I give them 100 grand for something and it makes 10 grand a month, I'm buying 10,000 a month in revenue. But inside of that, there are still efforts that have to take place. You have to pay people. You have to hire people. You have to manage people. You have to create companies, etc. All of us could get more strategic about building your company by acquisitions. [19:01.8]
You guys understand some of the largest companies in the world, the reason they're the largest is through acquiring, not creating. And why do we think we have to create? The truth is it's so much harder to create. You have to create the idea. You have to come up with the content. You have to come up with a website. You have to hire the people to do all these things. It takes a year or two years. If you think it takes a year, it takes 10, by the way, right? But it takes all this hard work and then you hope it works out.
Why not find someone it's hard to put the five, six, seven, 10 years of their life into that process, and then they just want to liquidate and move on because they're moving on something else and/or they just want a steady paycheck? Do you have a different knowledge, a different insight? There's so much more you can do with acquisitions. I can buy income today, you know what I mean? I could buy income today.
Beacon, you’re over there talking out loud still or what? Eating waffles?
Beacon: Nope. Christian talking on right now.
Mark: What's the question, Christian? What have you got? [20:00.0]
Christian: Yeah, you touched on it a lot and as we continue to have conversations and all the rest of it, it continues to kind of almost like a good weed, if you will, but it's growing in my mind. I'm trying to truly understand it. The concept of what your business can do for you is so powerful, but what I struggle with as I'm working on becoming that magician, right?
When I'm transitioning into that new lifestyle and all the rest of it, what does that work start to look like, right, where the business is serving me and I'm no longer a slave to it where I have to grind day to day, day in, day out. I hire the right people. But still I feel like it pulls me back and different things like that. I would have to answer the lower-level questions or whatever that looks like. As your big picture vision, that's your unique ability, right, so what does that work start to look like as you start going down that line?
Mark: Yeah, no, it's a great question. I talk about it in the Magician vs. Mule book coming out April 24 at 12:34 p.m. [21:01.2]
Christian: Looking forward to it.
Mark: But, I mean, Christian, at the end of it, you and I talk a lot. At the end, for me, honestly, dude, I think people are trying to become a magician too soon. We forget, I'm 40, almost 42 years old, man. I grinded it out as a mule. There's nothing wrong with being a mule. I think people get this confused. There's nothing wrong with being a mule as long as you're picking up skills by being a mule and you have an end plan of exiting the mule activities inside of that piece, i.e. hiring someone or handing it off to someone and/or just not doing it anymore, right? I think, for me, and, dude, I deal with shit every day that I don't want to do, so you can call that a mule effort, but I call it a piece of something that we’ve got to do if we want to grow a company.
Christian: I feel the same, yeah.
Mark: Guys, by the way, Christian runs the DM Alliance where we have partnered and we partner up with other investors across the country. We have a lot of people in there that Christian is talking to. He’s great at sales, tactical, KPIs. He's the guy in the day-to-day stuff. But I think, at the end of the day, man, one, I think you're doing an amazing job being a magician. It doesn't feel like it sometimes. [22:05.0]
You've got to picture the magician oftentimes will spend two years to perfect one magician move in front of his audience. Does that mean he's being a mule to be a magician? No. It's like he's practicing his craft. He's learning what he's good at, great at. I think with the mule thing, the whole concept is mules where I'm from, they don't even know they're mule. It's like asking a fish to climb a rope. They can’t do it.
Christian: Yeah, I understand.
Mark: The fish is like, Yo, I can't do it. I'm a fish. They don't even know there are fish, you know what I mean? But, yeah, Christian, I mean, I think, dude, at the end of the day, man, one, you're an amazing guy. You’ve got some amazing stuff going on, and I know some days suck and some days are amazing and you're trying to navigate that, but ask. Dude, picture where you've been five months ago.
Christian: No, I know. I know. And the reason why I ask this also is not so much just because I'm battling with it, but because you're so good at it and you have it so ingrained that I know this will serve a lot of other people as well, because, I mean, in the day to day that we're discussing, obviously when we talk to DM Alliance and all the guys that we've partnered up with, there's a lot of that stuff that they try and outsource too early or, just like you said, we're trying to get too big too quick and it ends up being a bottleneck because now you're babysitting rather than just doing the work, right? [23:22.8]
A lot of times I get, because my natural inkling, especially as one of those, I'd like to feel like I'm a high-level operator, right, like I want to get in there and get it done, so I want to go out and I want to incite certain things, like now I'm managing or I micromanage, or I think I can handle a little bit better certain [tasks]. We'll start getting in that mindset. I just wanted to have you explain that overall to everybody and also because it helps me, so I appreciate you.
Mark: Guys, like I said, Christian and I talk a lot. I mean, Christian, on your side from what you're seeing, I think the biggest thing is for you and I, for example, even in the DM Alliance, we have to pivot. Everyone is talking about pivoting right now with what's going on. How many times have we pivoted inside of DM Alliance? [24:08.2]
Christian: A lot.
Mark: Endless. It's never going to stop. We're learning. We're growing. We're getting better. We're getting stronger. We're figuring out where our weaknesses are. We're very vulnerable in certain situations. We just want to do great work and help great people. That's all we want to do and that changes as we grow, right? Because Christian is only one guy. The team is not huge and we're not trying to be big. We're trying to be impactful and there's a big difference there for us anyways.
I think, at the end of the day, for you and me, it's just making that plan and executing the plan. There are going to always be pivot moments. There's going to be days you're like, What am I working for? What is all this? This is stupid. Nothing is happening. By the way, anybody in life and business, it never happens quickly enough, ever. Then what's funny about that is when it does happen, you sit back and you're like, Man, I wish I had those times back again. It's kind of a weird game to play with yourself. [25:01.0]
You don't have to believe me. Read the books, a lot of great people you guys would know. I know I was talking about Delivering Happiness, Tony Hsieh, someone coming from real money and he's like, Oh, my God, that's it? There are a lot of guys that I know that have sold companies for nine-figure exist and they're like, This is all there is? It's not just about the money. That's why you’d better find some love in showing up. You’d better find some love in connecting with people.
And I'm very passionate. Christian, you know that. I may say stuff that might offend you via words. I'm not saying it to be mean or a cuss word or whatever, but I'm excited. I'm ready to go. Let's tear it. Let's go together.
And I'm not just talking. I’ll actually march the lines with you, right? I think that's the key. For all of us, man, I think what you're doing is awesome.
Paul asked a question. “What would a good skill set be for someone to start picking up on?? I think marketing. I think marketing is always a great skill set, right, Christian?
Christian: Yeah, marketing and sales.
Mark: Marketing and sales.
Christian: Marketing and sales is the foundation to pretty much any business, but if you have that sales, that sales mindset, it'll help you even better on marketing because now what's going to trigger the call to action. You get really good at marketing and getting in front of people, then converting it once you have that person in front of you. [26:09.5]
Mark: That's awesome, man.
Christian: Amazing. I’ve got to hop off for the Huddle, but I appreciate you.
Mark: Later, buddy. Thank you. Michael said, “Hey, I own a business that's shut down due to COVID-19, outdoor rec. Hey, I’m looking to SBA loans to get the company through this time. My real estate business is slowing down. There’s still a lot of opportunities. Now is the time to double down on lead gen and call everyone in your database and check in, have a conversation around the needs, be calm in the storm and help them lift up.” Absolutely, man. I love it. I think that's exactly what you’ve got to do.
Beacon, you've seen me on momentum. A lot of people don't know me maybe the way you do. You and I hung out up in Tampa at that event and stuff, and we got to hang out for four or five hours. I mean, you slept pretty much most of the time, but you want to talk about some of that real quick. I mean, I think that's a good story. I mean, it's real. Feel free to talk openly kind of about what we talked about, what you learned and all that. [27:03.4]
Beacon: Yeah, I mean, hey, guys, so momentum is a real thing. How do I say it? The shifts usually happen when you least expect it. I mean, of course, but it's usually where you've been down and dirty in the grading work. You've been staying consistent. You haven't been seeing any sign of life until you first get that first sale. That happens in any part of business from Shopify to when you were laying your first client as a service-based business. You guys have been working so hard putting the systems and processes together, and then you feel everything has abandoned ship until we finally strike land or you finally strike gold.
Then once you strike gold, that's when you actually start hitting the point of momentum. Momentum is able to start to shift. A lot of people, especially myself, I'm guilty of it, where we finally hit that sign of life and then we just kind of remove our foot off the pedal, and then now we start slowing down. [28:08.5]
The whole point is that once you get there, you’ve got to get to the next spot, the next level. You have more momentum to now take it to the next spot. If you're on a slingshot and someone's helping you pull back to launch forward, and you're already launching forward, why would you try to force and pull back? Just keep going with the flow, if that makes any sense.
Mark: Yeah. Alice is down here, too. He just stopped throwing and said he's here as well, Beacon.
Beacon: Okay, Alice, click on the link and then hop on with your microphone, and then you should pop up right within our little group chat right here.
Mark: Yes. I mean, man, when we were driving up there real quick while he’s working on that, you and I are talking about a lot of different things.
Beacon: Yeah.
Mark: But here's what I think. People don't understand that me muling is different because it's not muling. It's actually me chasing a dream, being passionate about helping people and wanting to be present. I mean, dude, I don't remember when we left and when we got done and when we repeat that process, but, I mean, these are real days. [29:07.1]
Beacon: Yeah, and the biggest thing to me was, me, just like everybody else, just watching the stream, probably just mentioned through online. Me, I’ve met you through a client which I met through online. Since they actually meet you and actually see you do your own stunts, I mean, Mark, he drove four and a half hours from Parkland to Tampa, South to North Florida, no joke with no Uber, no show photo, nothing, and it's not because he can buy. It's because it's the journey. It's like, Why would I not wake up and do it? I don't have enough time. I'm always on the jet. I'm always flying out. This is now an opportunity that I have a chance to finally drive my car. [29:55.8]
A lot of us think once we get to success, it's the leisure, like, Oh, I don't have to do anything because I'm making money. But, no, essentially like what's the whole point of being in business, trying to lead a team, if you guys are always leading to the next goal, to the next mission, to the next journey, and if you're not going to be there with them along the way? And you are there with us along the way.
Yeah, but other than that, unexpected conversations happened that changed my life completely, completely. Priceless. It's not about a money thing. It's all about time and time is valuable.
Mark: No, time is the key, man. I think the biggest reason why most people never get successful, you and I have talked about this that they're chasing the wrong thing. They're chasing. They're chasing the ghost. You guys, if you fall in love with the journey, I promise, and I'm not saying fall in love with sitting on the couch, drinking beer and eating Doritos and trying to create weight loss programs. I'm not saying that I'm saying you have to have a passion, you have to have something that has an opportunity to serve and make money and help people, and yet solve problems. But the journey is amazing. It's the most amazing. [31:04.3]
I'm telling you, me grinding it out, me sitting there trying to figure out and hit my head. I actually can't wait for my kids to do this and really hit their head against the wall and watch them fall and watch them scrape, watch them cry, watch them upset, because that's how you're made. It’s how you're creating this hard-wire effect that allows you to do grit. Grit is the most amazing. That's why I like, I don't like necessarily what's going on, but I enjoy what's going on for me because I'm gritty. I'm dirty. Dude, I'm a hillbilly kid from Ohio, grew up in a truck until I was 10. My parents still live in the same house they live in and we just work. I love that about where I grew up.
But I'm not afraid to get dirty. I'm not afraid to get punched in the face. I'm not afraid to lead and get smacked down. My ego is in check. I check my own ego. I don't get off the stage and say, Oh, yeah, man, I'm the best. I get up on the stage and say, Man, I should have done this. Why aren't there more people here? How could we do better? How can we impact more people? How can we show the streaming? Beacon, you’ve seen that, you and I. I’m not just saying this to Beacon, but this is real talk. [32:03.3]
Beacon: Yeah, man.
Mark: You and I have been up. Boom, let’s go, man. Okay, what are…? And we're not just talking about shit. Here's another thing, too, Beacon. We should talk about this. My conversations and these are my daily conversations that I'm saying. This is not something where I'm just putting on a front to like, Oh, guys, this is what I'm thinking about. If I'm driving four and a half hours, we're talking about the same stuff we're talking about, growth, business. I need you to push harder. I need you to get this stuff quicker. You need to tighten up your thought process. You need to tighten up this SOP. My brain is doing that all the time.
By the way, this is not necessarily the best thing at home, right, because there is a balance. There’s a conversation balance there because in my brain I see things and I see problems, and I see the solutions to problems. It's like, boom, okay, there's a problem. How do we fix it?
Not only that, I'm good at compartmentalizing things. As a business owner for my whole life, you’ve got to understand, at one minute I'm screaming and fighting and strapping. The next minute I'm calm, collected, and I have to collect money and I have to present something big to get access to more money or access to more deals, or access to even this. I might hang up this phone and have to be in a lawsuit somehow. [33:07.4]
Beacon: And that all basically happened while we're on that four-hour journey, too.
Mark: Dude, it's my day. It's my everyday. Where I’m going with that is that it's all about how, one, compartmentalizing these conversations with themselves. That's why you have to invest in yourself. That's why I’ll never go broke because I'm constantly investing in myself. Broke, to me, is not just about money. Broke, to me, is about mental capacity. Mentally broke. There are so many people that have money in the bank, but they're mentally broke. They don't have drive. They don't have determination. They don’t have grit. They're always complaining. They're always a victim and it's like, why? Life is miserable. That's not fun to me. I can talk about this stuff all day, which we do.
Beacon: Sure.
Mark: All right, buddy. “What are three books I should read that will change my life?” I have no clue. No one can answer that, and if they could, everyone, I'd be a trillionaire. I don't know what books that can change your life. The question is what are you seeking to find? Not change your life because it’s what are you changing? You're changing your weight. You're changing your mindset. You're changing financial. There's so much to that. [34:10.6]
There's a lot of books out there on mindset. I'd read anything mindset-driven, right? Maybe you're having challenges at home. Maybe you're having challenges in business. Maybe you're having challenges in sales.
There are so many. Again, you’ve got to get better at asking questions for yourself. Not for me, for yourself. Hey, how do I lose weight? That's not a good question because the problem is, when you lose weight, you always find it back. You need to make lifestyle changes.
Who do I need to become to get the results I'm seeking? That's a little bit more higher level question to ask yourself to get the desired result that you're really seeking? The truth is why, if I don't reach my goals, it’s because I'm not asking the right questions. It’s not because it doesn't exist. It’s just that I'm not asking it and triggering it out to find the right path, like, Dude, how do I get smarter? What does that mean? How do I do this? I don't know. No one can answer it. [35:01.1]
More, “widen my perspective about life and business.” Again, spend time with yourself. Paul, and this is a real thing, he’s asking, “How do I widen my perspective about life and business?” I think you widen it by what do you want? I talked about this on Friday. What does your perfect day look like? And I'm talking from the time you wake up. What kind of bed are you in? What kind of location are you in? Are the birds chirping or is it raining? Are you on the ocean or are you in the woods? Are you naked? Do you have your spouse whom you love to death besides you naked? Are you guys getting up, having sex? What are you doing? What are you thinking about? What's going on in your day?
See, to me, my perfect day is not about doing nothing all day. It's about pursuing greatness. It's about pursuing then because I want today to be perfect and I want the next day to be 1% better, and then that next day I want it to be 1% better than that day. When you're chasing that, and I'm not saying I'm not enjoying it, I'm not grateful for all those moments either, by the way, so don't get that twisted. I'm actually thinking about how to become a better person, a better human being every day in all levels. [36:06.0]
Sometimes it doesn't show and sometimes it doesn't necessarily serve me, but it will always serve me long term, right, because sometimes being better, you have to do things you don't want to do, i.e. fire people in business, i.e. tell family members, I can't hang out with you because you're too negative. You don't have to say that like that, but that's what I say to myself and then you create a conversation where you kind of avoid them and/or minimize timelines with them.
And if it's your spouse, that's a whole other story. One of my biggest fears in life is outgrowing my spouse or her outgrowing me. Maybe I'm not paying attention to her. Maybe she's not paying attention to me. Maybe I'm outpacing her on self, mindset and growth. Maybe we're not communicating enough. I think over-communicating is a good problem in relationships. You can't over-communicate if you love someone. That's a real thing for me and I'm trying to get better at that side at all levels with all my team members, because I tend to set it and move on, set the expectation, move on. We'll revisit it once a week. That doesn't work with spouses. [37:07.0]
I'm just being genuine with you guys. These are things that I'm constantly thinking about how to work on. I try to buy flowers often. I try to write letters often, little love letters to her like, Every day I’m thinking about you. I love you. I can’t wait to spend the next a hundred years. Things I'm thinking about, passionate. Emotion creates emotion. I want to just move and let her know I'm thinking about her. You’ve got to remember, they're dealing with stuff and I'm dealing with stuff, so you’ve got to find that in between where we're talking and conversating. It's not always pretty. Who said it is, by the way? No one has ever said everything's easy and pretty.
Paul, back to your question. Create your perfect life today that I'm literally talking from the time you wake up until… Did you sleep good? Was it restless? Was it not restless? Did you wake up feeling amazing? Because we all wake up feeling different all the time. Today I woke up at 4:30 feeling very anxious. It's not my perfect day, but I'm an anxious guy in general, my thoughts. But my shoulder was hurting because I slept on it wrong and then I got out of bed and my feet are killing me, literally killing me, but I'm like, I’ve got this, I’ve got this. [38:09.6]
Again, my back is still hurting. My joints are hurting. I'm playing around with my diet. I'm thinking about how to like, Do I eat less sugar? Do I eat less carbs or less this or less that, or add this to the diet? Maybe my joints, my inflammation. That's the stuff. I'm always trying to work on me. That's the only thing I can control.
I went on a little tangent there, but at the end of the day, guys, I think you’ve got to figure out what you want. I think when my life changed, because I’ve been involved in many masterminds my whole life, literally, that's how I’ve got started in real estate. I went to an event and I call it a mastermind, but I went to an event where I saw what was possible. But I knew what I wanted. I wanted to be rich. That was my first thing I wanted to do. I wanted to be rich.
Now, what does “rich” mean? It means something different to everybody at all different times. Me being rich, I wanted to make 100 grand a year. If I made 100 grand a week, I'd be in trouble, let alone 100 grand a year now in my life. Right? Shit, if I made 100 grand every three days, I'd be in trouble because we're spending real money every day. We're investing in people. We have ads going on, marketing going on, teams going on, product going on. We have real things going on, so it changes. We evolve. And, again, it's exciting. [39:18.0]
Here's what the truth is. Let's say, you make 100,00 a day. In your brain, it has to trigger something. If I can make 1,000ba day, how could I make 10,000 a day? If I can make 10,000 a day, how can I make 20,000 and so forth, right?
Rob is asking, real quickly and we'll get to Mike, “Hey, Mark, do you write your goals down daily?” I don't. I don't anymore. The problem I see with writing goals down daily, and again, you don't take advice from me, I'm not an expert at goal writing, when I used to write my personal goals down daily, I used to not accomplish them. Why? Because I was daydreaming. Oh, I'm going to be rich.
First of all, I wasn't even writing good goals. I was writing goals like, I want to lose weight. I want to be rich. It's too open-ended. There was no definition to it. I was getting closer to it and I wouldn’t even know it or I was getting further away from it and I wouldn't know it, right? Unless I stepped on the scale, but then I wouldn't step on the scale because I was afraid to step on the plate. It just perpetuated. [40:14.2]
So, I just said, Hey, here's what I'm going, my big picture in 12 months and obviously I'm navigating it through effort, and depending on what your goals are, there are certain activities you do. I do have goals, but I'm not writing them down daily.
Beacon: We’ve got Mike McKinley.
Mark: What's up my, man?
Mike: Hey, Mark. How is it going?
Mark: Awesome, buddy. How are you?
Mike: Good. Good. Yeah, I just had a question. Let's say that you have a business or a job that has been affected by the current situation and you're just kind of stuck. You don't know what to do. There's nothing you can do with your current situation. What would you say would be the best use of your time to move forward?
Mark: Can we talk specifics or no?
Mike: Sure. Yeah, specifically to move forward as far as how to create revenue when your current business is closed because of the government. [41:07.4]
Mark: You're in the outdoor. You're in the outdoor space, I saw.
Mike: Yeah, outdoor recreation.
Mark: What does that mean?
Mike: It’s a paintball facility.
Mark: Nice. I love it. You have a list of customers that come to that facility?
Mike: We do, yeah.
Mark: Have you communicated with them? Are you talking to them daily? Are they on an email list? Are they buying products still? What are they buying? They're all buying products, by the way, but what are they buying?
Mike: Right. Yes, our biggest ticket sales here are just entry fees to the facility and then paint sales once they're here. We don't really have an online, a big online store for that.
Mark: That’s okay. This is me. I'm calling every one of my customers, my top-rated customers that come in once a week, once a month, whatever. I'm calling the guys. Hey, man, what's up, Mike? How are you doing, buddy? Hey. Anyways, this is so-and-so with Paintball.com. Thinking about you, man. I don't have anything to sell you today. I just want to know how you're handling everything today. You guys are out paintballing with your buddies, right? [42:01.6]
Because, first of all, paintballing in the woods, where I'm from, that's social distancing. That's fun. You're six feet away. You're blasting each other with paintballs. So, they need more paintballs. You can give them a good deal, asking them questions, kind of figuring out what they're buying, what they're not buying, what they're up to.
I'm assuming that they're into stuff like paintballs, guns. Clearly they're into guns and ammo. Where are you seeing the struggles? What's going on? Do you need any targets? Do you need any tips? Just be present for them and navigate a conversation. I would really see what they're buying and then I would try to navigate that conversation and get myself in the middle of an opportunity.
Mike: Love that. Awesome. Thank you.
Mark: Not only that, you're planting seeds for your facility. No paintball company is calling their clients.
Mike: Yeah, I see that.
Mark: And not only that. I would create [an email database]. I mean, do you have an email database? Are you using a CRM management system?
Mike: We are. Yeah, we are.
Mark: Which system do you use?
Mike: Developed by a guy that owns a paintball field in Texas. It's called Ventura, yeah.
Mark: Can you email your database?
Mike: Oh, yeah. Yeah, we do quite regularly. [43:00.2]
Mark: What are you emailing them, though? Are you emailing them…?
Mike: Typically we email them content around upcoming events, birthday parties, just other content of what's going on with the facility, events that are coming up.
Mike: Yeah, so in that sense, you haven't emailed them in three weeks because there’s nothing coming up, right?
Mike: Exactly, yeah.
Mark: I think the thing is I would be doing more asking them how you could provide value to them. Sometimes, us, as owners, we think we need to know the answer, what our clients want. The truth is, what I’ve found out is, what if you just ask them? Hey, it's Mike over at blah, blah, blah. Hey, man, I hope you're doing well anyway, staying safe and everything over there. Is there anything that I could provide value to you? Is it a video? Is it how to make your gun shoot faster?
I mean, what are these guys into? They're trying all about the finger [triggers], port. There's stuff that you can provide content and value around that can be valuable to them that they're sitting around watching all day or YouTube videos of how to become a better paintballer. Hey, here's some outdoor courses I would recommend. Maybe do this or that. Not only that, ask them what they want to buy. They'll tell you.
Mike: Right. Yeah. Thank you. [44:08.7]
Mark: That’s awesome. I think you've got to pivot. You've got to remember, that business what you're dealing with, I think it's going to be a minute for it to recover.
Mike: Right.
Mark: I think that business would be a little bit quicker than big facility stuff just because there is outside outdoor movement in social distancing. But I think, at the end of the day, man, I think you really can provide some… Dude, you might want to get into the online. This is a perfect time to invest your time on how to become a good e-comm guy in the paintball space because you know it so well.
Mike: Sure.
Mark: It serves both purposes. By the time the storm gets cleared, now you have a bigger database of people in your local community and from afar, and then now I'm asking myself, How do I be more B2B with B to C opportunities as well?
Mike: Love it.
Mark: Dude, you can teach. By the way, you learn this, you get results, guess who could be your clients? Other paintball business owners. You can go to them and say, Hey, here's $1,000 package to show you how to email, how to create content. I'll do X, Y and Z. Now you package it up and make their business better. Now they make more money. They use your platform becoming an affiliate. I mean, there's so much to do that you could help and it'd be fun. [45:10.7]
Mike: I like that. Thank you.
Mark: Yeah, awesome, man. Thank you very much for the question. Appreciate it.
Mike: Yeah. Take care.
Mark: Hey, Will is asking. Beacon, Will is asking if you can get a word. “Hey, Mark. I'm 30 years old from Springfield, Ohio. I’ll soon be a third-generation business owner at a niche machining company in surface grinding. We've been successful for 54 years, basically word of mouth and very little salesmanship. It will be up to me to grow the company and the old machinery employees, and the message that will be difficult to scale. Any advice for mindset or action, the modernizing, scaling, the niche, the market scale, eight to 10 employee business?”
I have a lot of thoughts on that. One, document the process. There you go, John. Will, for me, first of all, congratulations. It's awesome, carrying on the legacy, if that's what you want to do, by the way. It sounds like you're thinking more advanced, which is awesome. You’ve got to look and see where the opportunities are inside of this obstacle because you’ve got to remember the thing is with legacy businesses, i.e. third-generation businesses, you're carrying over grandpa and dad or mom or whoever's a vision and you’ve got to have that conversation with them. You're going to be caught spending a lot of energy going back and forth with them, depending on how much they're letting go of the reins. [46:19.2]
In my personal opinion, I think if you're trying to scale it, one, word of mouth is awesome, but what about this marketing, by the way. It’s just not forced marketing or conscious marketing, even though you're doing it subconsciously just by doing good work and service. There are ways to stimulate word-of-mouth marketing through, Hey, if you give me a referral, I’ll give you $100 to do your next deal. There are a lot of ways to do it.
As for the machinery, and by the way, I suck at selling. I know you said something about very little salesmanship. I'm not good at selling. I'm just going to provide a solution to a problem. I'm actually really bad at selling. I'm not into the trickery, hardcore closing and get this deal. If you don't do this deal today, it's over. It's expired. You're done say. It’s like, Dude, I'm ready when you're ready. Hit me up. [47:03.8]
The truth is I think most people I talk to will be successful. The question is, do they want to take the fast path or short path? I'm cool either way. It doesn't affect me. If they want to take the short path, I think I can help them accelerate it. If they want to take the long path, go do it. I'm cool with that, too. It does not affect me, you know what I mean? I want to help them, but if they don't want help, how could I help them?
Ask them basically, Help me grow the company. What would be difficult to scale, I guess? Because I know you're talking about old machinery and old employees and methods, I would be very interested in what is difficult about it. I think it's going to be challenging. I think it's going to have to have high-level conversations.
What you have to do, here's how you do it. You have to paint the vision of “we're going to do something bigger, better.” They're not just muling it out to do their job. Ask them how they could improve it. I just did this actually. Yesterday was the day that they build it to my team, and in our media company, when I see a problem, I don't want to solve the problem because I can do that sometimes and/or find people to do it. [48:06.0]
Instead, I went through the team and created a challenge internally where each person could win $1,000 if they solved the problem, created better revenue for the company, created a better streamlined SOP for the process and/or both. Then we created teams and we competed against each other. One team came out massively ahead and each one of them would get $1,000. The other team learned from it and they learned how to get tighter.
Not only that, it creates a better culture and it creates better solutions that I would not even come up with, right? They're dealing with the problems every day. Tell me how to make this better. Tell me how to make your life easier. If I could grow the company 10X but made your life easier, gave you more time off, allowed you to have a better quality of life, would you be okay to help me do that? That's the kind of stuff I'm thinking about. That's kind of the conversation that I really have.
Now what you do is you get them involved to help them feel like they're…and they are, by the way, help them get involved to help you get a clear picture of what the future will look like, so now it's not forcing them to change. You're actually having them navigate change. [49:06.2]
I personally like to help people, and if I can help you as an individual, guess where it carries over to? It carries over into my company, right? Ask them what can help them. Ask them what they really need or want, or don't want. Ask them, Hey, I need a better machine. This is only printing out 14 volts per minute. If I can get a machine that did 200 volts per minute, is this something that we could do over the next five years? Could we expand the company? Could you hire and train three people?
That's the kind of stuff I'm thinking about as an operator or an owner, but I'm excited for it. I'm getting excited just talking about it because I love that side. I love machinery-style business. I could watch that show, How It's Made, 24/7, because that's how I see it. It’s just a process, right? And every time that machine stamps, it's money, money, money, money, and if we can get it doing this, it’s more money. That’s what I'm thinking about. When I see that stuff going on, and then obviously there are supply chain issues and there are invoicing issues. There's a whole other level of problems with it. Now it's just a matter of what you’ve got going on. [50:05.7]
Guys, two quick questions and I'd like to ask the question, Beacon, and I see someone popped on here a second ago. But, one, if you guys would give me a huge favor and follow me over at MarkEvansDM.com at the top area. Will, I'd love to [hear from you]. If you want to hop and chat here as well, so feel free to. Follow me on MarkEvansDM.com.
I have a new book coming out, April 24 at 12:34 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. You guys will be first alerted over there inside of the Mark Evans DM email list. I'll let you guys know. You'll have a first head start and get some cool prizes, cool things that we'll give away, so that'd be a cool thing to do.
Not only that, tomorrow I’ll have a special guest coming in. Yesterday, I mentioned his name, Mike Agugliaro from CEO Warrior. He runs and manages that company. He sold a company for a lot of money outside of the Jersey area, an amazing guy, very detailed. He smokes me in detail, smokes me in tactical. He's a very smart guy and I want to bring smart guys and gals on the show to help you guys become better business owners, leaders, and just human beings in general. I'll be sharing that with you tomorrow at 8:30 to 9:30 as well. He's awesome, guys. Bring questions. [51:10.8]
By the way, you check him out at CEO Warrior, but he does a lot of stuff with tradesmen, if you're trying to figure out how to grow your trade company, if it's machine company, you're trying to figure how to get your team on the phones, getting better on the phones, how to get better salesmanship through the process.
By the way, salesmanship is not necessarily the person selling. It could just be a better process, right? If I come in, let's picture the garage door because I'm sitting in the garage, but if I come in here and I'm servicing this door but I’ve got three other doors, maybe I can teach them the path of like, Hey, I'm already here. I can avoid the service charge, but for $40 per door, I’ll put some grease or lube on the wheels. I'll check your springs and give you a one-year warranty. Boom, just made an extra $120 and the total job is now 350. I just 45% X-ed my revenue.
All this stuff that he's good at. He's very, very smart, like I said, way smarter than me, so that's why I'm bringing people on here. If you guys have a great gift or a great unique ability, and I can get you in front of some people, I'd love to hear from you. You can always message me, private message me here inside of whatever channel you're in, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or even Periscope. I'd love to talk to you. [52:14.1]
I love this stuff. I appreciate you guys being here. Thanks for the great info. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you. Loving the content. Thank you, guys.
Hey guys, this has been a big help and a big share. Please feel free to share it. I'd love to get some more followers here. This is a hundred percent free. I have no agenda except to help you guys. I'd love to do some live Q&A videos. It helps make my job easier over here. If you need anything, hit me up.
In the meantime, check me out on Instagram, @MarkEvansDM.
YouTube, Mark Evans DM.
Facebook at Mark Evans DM.
More importantly, follow me on the website at MarkEvansDM.com. Sign up, newsletter and there’s some cool stuff over there for you. Appreciate you guys being here. Check it out.
Hope you have an amazing day. Thank you, Beacon. Appreciate you guys. Bye. [52:54.5]
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