Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” The new norm. It’s either going to make you or break you—and, oh, by the way, I’m not talking about the new norm you might be thinking I’m talking about—so, with that said, let's get started.
Mark: Hey, there, it’s your boy, Mark Evans DM. Appreciate you being here. We've got a big show today. I want to share something very powerful with you that I think you can have some big breakthroughs in your life. If it happens in your life, it will happen to your business, if you have a business. [00:57.0]
But as I’m sitting here, never been here before actually, where I’m shooting this show, I’m at my house here in Cleveland. As you may or may not know, I have a big 14-acre estate here, overlooking a 200-foot ravine, flanked around. It's kind of like a moat around my house, and so I have a bench set up here, back in the woods. I have several benches in different places to go back and meditate, and think and thought-audit, and just watch birds and deer. Whatever I want to do, right?
As I’m sitting here thinking about this, just a lot of cool stuff has been going on in life. A lot of crazy shit actually, too, on the other side as well. But I just want to take a second and say thank you, guys, very much for all the messages I get via private message and Facebook, Instagram, email. I appreciate all you guys going over and supporting on the podcast, just giving a five-star review over on iTunes and all that. It really does mean a lot to me and it helps other people find out about the show. If the show has been beneficial to you, you can share it with a couple people, share your message on social or whatever. Just I appreciate it. Tag me because I typically will repost and reply if I see it. [02:13.5]
But enough about that. Again, thank you guys all as well about supporting the new book, MEconomy. Came out with blazing guns. Many people supported that, hundreds and hundreds of people, so thank you, guys. A hundred percent of those profits go to Tim Ballard's charity. It's always neat to be able to give back to you guys and help guide you and share my knowledge in any way I can.
It’s in book format and will come out on audio in a couple of months, but for $15, not only is it just great information that can help you, but also it just goes to a great cause. If you find it in your heart, or if you want to learn and educate yourself, it's a very simple read, 175 pages. You can read it fairly quickly, a couple, two, three days, depending on how slow or fast you read and how much time you put into it. But I’ve had mega feedback on it and I’m very honored to be a part of that process with people. [03:06.8]
Check it out. It's on Amazon. That’s where all books are. Get over to Amazon.com and type in “Mark Evans DM MEconomy”. Really neat to see that happen.
Today I want to talk to you, as I’m sitting here from the bench, overlooking this 200-foot ravine, watching these black squirrels run around, a couple of deer, and I want to talk to you about something that I hear, the word that is thrown around a lot as we're coming out of COVID or the pandemic or whatever we call it these days, and people are calling it “the new norm.”
I was thinking about that because they're using it in a context. I’m thinking, dude, “the new norm”, it's disgusting, right? It's not normal to be wearing a mask everywhere. It's not the new norm. Anyway, as I thought-audit, I think about this kind of stuff and I’m just wondering, the new norm. [04:05.8]
Then I started thinking about the good about the new norm, and the truth is, as I’m talking to you at this multi-million-dollar property, this is my norm. It is my new norm. This wasn't my norm 25 years ago when I started. This wasn't my norm 10 years ago. I started thinking about my normal, my new norms have evolved consciously over the years. For the first 10 years of my life, it was subconsciously, right? I’m just working. How do I make a million dollars a year? Actually it was first $100,000 a year. Then I wanted to make a million once I realized I could make a hundred. I’m like, what is your new norm? What does your norm look like? I started thinking my normal, if I’m not evolving, I’m genuinely dissolving. I feel it. I’m not happy. [05:01.0]
It's not about money, by the way. I’m talking about evolving as a person, as a company, individually, as a family guy. I’m looking to evolve at all levels, and when I’m really in the trenches evolving on all fronts and I’m making a very hardcore, conscious effort at all levels—the fun, financial, fitness, faith, family, and all that—I really start to feel better. Things are clicking.
My new norm, I have a new norm daily. My norm is changing. My norm will be different next month than it is right now, right? Ideally, you have more money in the bank. Ideally, you're healthier physically. Ideally, you have more relationship capital with your friends and your family and such. Ideally, you have a great relationship and it's evolving with yourself.
What does your norm look like? Have you looked at your normal? Have you given yourself a thought about where you're at today and how you’ve got there? [06:09.7]
A lot of people are out here subconsciously getting to where they're at today without even putting any thought into it, because actually if you think about it, you're going to get some anxiety. Why? Because time is limited. You want it now, right? This is the thing with high performers. I’m very fortunate to get to work with a lot of great guys that are pushing the limits and growing, and this is cool to me that actually a couple of my people, actually a bunch of my people, clients in the DM family, have bought their dream homes. I’m talking multimillion-dollar dream homes. People have bought hundreds of thousands of dollars of cars, watches. I guess it sounds materialistic if you just hear that piece, but the truth is these are dreams these guys have had for 10, 15, 20, 30-plus years and they're coming to fruition. [07:00.2]
What I mean by that is the anxiety piece I just mentioned. You're going to get a sense of anxiety when you start building your dream list. You start building and getting conscious of your new norm in the future. Your new norm in the future is going to require a new you, a different you, obviously the same body, same person, I should say, maybe a different body. Maybe it looks way different. Maybe you’ve got six-pack abs. Maybe you’ve got an eight-pack. I don't know what you're going for. Maybe you're able to move better and this and that. Sorry, if you hear the leaves, getting a little breezy just now. It's the new norm. The leaves are blowing.
But as I’m sitting here, this is the stuff I’m thinking about. I’m looking at evolving the new norm on purpose. Like I said, there was a lot of talk with the government saying this is the new norm and people are like the new norm looks like this and that. Again, back to MEconomy. The only fucking norm I care about is my norm, and when I get normal, I want to get un-normal. I want a new norm. [08:04.1]
See, about 10 years ago, actually when I was 30, so about 13 years ago—oh, shit, I had a birthday even. June 19, turned the big 43. Thank you. I had thousands of messages, it's wild. I can't reply to everyone, but if anybody here did reply to me, thank you very much and that means a huge deal—but when I was 30 years old, me and my wife, we were sitting in a 16,000-square-foot house and it was the first time I bought my Rolls, so it was actually my first Rolls, my first mansion, and it was kind of like I was coming off this travel stint.
Me and my wife, we were traveling for three years. I thought we were going to settle down for a minute, but this big pad out in Chateau Elan in Georgia, Atlanta, Ga. area. I remember walking around like, Ugh, this is it? And I had the Rolls. I had the mansion. I had the money. I had the stuff. But I just wanted to help people. I wanted to do more. I wanted to renormalize. I want to create a new norm to my life. [09:03.7]
Listen, for 12 years of my life, I gave every minute of my life to work, every minute. I love working. I don't mind working, but the problem is I was working on a lot of the wrong things, and sometimes when you're so deep in the trenches, you don't even know what's wrong or right, you're just working, because that's what you're taught. Right? I had to stop to fucking reevaluate my norm. Did I like it or not? And then what did my new norm look like if I wanted something new?
I started asking different questions and it forced me to pivot, to rearrange my day to when I’m driving to a job site to be listening to podcasts. Now it's podcast shows, but back then it was CD players with a rubber band around it plugged into the tape deck, so I could play a CD in the tape deck truck—this is a true story, by the way—and it wouldn't skip. There were a lot of things I had to do. I had to reprogram, rewire my brain, listening to the Tony Robbins, the Proctors, and, shit, everybody, anybody I could listen to. The mobile university became my place. It was my safe haven. [10:10.0]
I wanted to go big jobs. That's when I was doing construction and rehabbing houses for myself, and we were driving an hour each way. Dude, I’m listening to this shit. I’ve got to literally reprogram my brain, hardwire it. I wanted a new norm, and this is what it really comes down to. What does your new norm look like?
See, my new norm looked like mansions, a lot of money in the bank, healthier lifestyle, family man, and all these things, and as you have kids, the norm starts changing drastically. As the kids get older, your new norm starts changing. As the kids leave the house, your new normal is different. As you make a lot of money, your new norm looks different. Because, again, in the beginning, straight up, I wanted to fucking get, I wanted to make money. I had to make money and I would work my ass off to make money. [10:59.3]
Now I don't have to work when I make money, right? True story. I don't have to work. I want to work. Right? I have enough things in place. I’ve built up all these awesome assets and great team members that are amazing. Absolutely amazing teammates all the way, for sure. But I don't have to work. I genuinely love to wake up and create a new norm for me and my family.
What's cool about it is I’m only 43. Only. Shit, tomorrow could be the last day. But I haven’t done dick for where my norm will be a year from now, five years from now, 10 years from now. Let me paint a picture. Again, I’m just sharing with you guys real life shit. This isn't meant to be douchey. If you think it's douchey, it's not. That maybe says more about you than me. [11:52.4]
But right now I’m working with a buddy of mine. His name is Adam, and I’m working on starting to scour to look for a jet to buy for myself and my family, and looking at different types of jets, different aircraft, which ones make sense. How much does it cost a year to run? To run the kind of jet I want, it’s a million to a million and a half a year just to maintain it, right, a year, so you need 80 to 100,000, 120,000 a month minimum, and that's just to maintain. Flying a bit, a little bit here and there, nothing crazy, right? This is not massive. This is not flying all over the country every day.
So, I start creating. Okay, cool. I have houses. I spend hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on house taxes and insurance, and landscaping and all that. Cool, okay. My cars, I don't owe payments on the cars because I pay cash. I probably should have talked about that many times, but I pay cash for my cars. If I have a car, it's cash, free and clear, I promise you that. Stupid, I know, but it is what it is. [12:54.4]
As you may or may not know, I lost a car to repo back when I was 20-ish, 20, 22, somewhere around there. I’m not saying that to be silly. I kind of forget it because I had massive financial PTSD at that moment. That's a real thing, too, by the way. Ever since that moment, I always said, if I’m going to buy a car, I’m paying cash. If I can't afford it 10 times over, I don't buy it, period. Cash, right? There are a lot of people out there that have a lot of cool shit, but they're massively leveraged.
Where my brain goes, back to this new norm and the jet, I need 100 grand a month, for easy math, let's say, to pay for the monthly jet. By the way, I pay cash for the jet. That's just for monthly maintenance of the jet, the crew, etc. My brain goes to work, not saying, Oh, I can't afford that, or, Oh, God.
By the way, that was my old norm. That's how I grew up. “I can't afford it. It must be nice. Yeah, it's good for them, but that stuff doesn't happen for people like me.” Bullshit conversations we've all had, by the way. Instead, I’ve reprogrammed my brain over the years to ask different questions, have the universe started aligning with my objective. [14:09.8]
My new norm is “What assets do I create to pay for my jet?” This is not, by the way, maybe you could buy a property or whatever, but $100,000 a month, I’m talking clear. That's what we need to clear, 100,000 a month. That's not so easy with a couple of properties. You're going to need a decent amount, so it's a heavier lift. Me in my brain. I know I understand how to build or buy, and scale businesses, right? I understand I could buy something that's making 50 grand a month today and I could buy that today for whatever … six, six …say, $2 million, and I could buy that and I could turn that into a $100,0000–200,000-a-month income stream to pay for a jet, using this as an example. This is real life, by the way. This is real time. This is the shit I’m thinking about looking at, as I speak to you. [15:04.8]
Another thing is, as I’m sending messages to my buddies that are looking to buy jets and some buddies that own jets and saying, Yo, here's the jet you said you wanted and here are some details. My buddy already did research for me. This might help you as well because I know you're on the journey to buy one as well.
They're like, Oh, shit, man, blah, blah, blah, and then my brain goes, it's like, Dude, our new norm, it's not like meet me at fucking 7-Eleven in your shitty Chevette or S-10 truck, which I used to have, a lowrider. Meet me there at 7:00 p.m. and we'll hang and get a super Slurpee and a hot dog. My new norm is “What tarmac, what FBO are you going to be at? And when are we meeting, in what state, what country?” Right? It's like, Yo, I’ll be at the Masters on this date. We're landing at this time. I’ll see you in a few. [15:55.4]
Picture this. Again, when I was a wannabe business owner—and I owned a business I said, but I really had a job—I always envisioned pulling up to an office complex with a bunch of cool cars and I’m the boss, true story. I wanted to be the boss. I thought that was what you were supposed to be. By the way, just to be clear, I was an entrepreneur before it was cool. An entrepreneur when I was growing up, you were lazy, trying to get out of work and trying to figure out how to make money doing nothing, and that wasn't the case. I knew I was never going to work for anybody. I just wanted to create a new norm for my life.
But now, instead, kind of what I envision—and I dream about this shit, by the way—is me, and I have a lot of buddies buying jets right now and in the process of looking like I am, but I picture us landing in a very cool location with 20, 30 jets all lined up and we're all doing business together. We're all buddies. We're all great fathers. We're all great leaders. We have great, amazing teams. [17:03.4]
Our new norm is us being like, Yo, man, let's go meet for dinner somewhere. We fly an hour to go, meet for dinner. Instead of drive an hour, we fly for an hour. Landing on the tarmac, we get swooped up by the driver. They take us to dinner. We’re swooped back to the tarmac and roll out. That's my new norm in the future. I promise you that. Watch me. Don't listen to me. Watch me. See, this is the shit that I’m thinking about daily.
See, when people are like, Mark, I want to pay you 10 grand for the day, no, because my vision, my goal, 10 grand a day ain't paying for this jet, you know what I mean? Ten grand. I need to be thinking about businesses where I can get a multiplier. That's why I like buying companies or creating companies. I can multiply growth through my connections, through my knowledge base, etc. I understand business a little bit. I’m still learning, by the way. I don't know dick for the next level, but I’m still learning and growing, and my new norm is “When do we sell a company for 100-plus million? When do we create a franchise opportunity, blah, blah, blah?” and I have some buddies in that space, so I’m talking to them about that kind of stuff. [18:12.6]
See, these are the new norms. Where you're at today is only temporary if you're actionable. By the way, even if you don't even know what the hell you're doing, it's only temporary because you're either going to have a windfall of money or you're not going to have money in the future, right? You're either building something or destroying something, your body, your health, your wealth, etc., right? What we put attention to grows.
I’m telling you, I want you to all get financially free. I want you all to have massive amounts of wealth. I want you all to be bigger givers to charity and things that are important to you and your family and your life. I want you to have that healthy body. By the way, that's the hardest thing for me. I talk about this in everything I do. That's the hardest because I enjoy being lazy. I enjoy eating. I enjoy not working out. Not enjoy, but that's the stuff that’s a slippery slope and you’ve got to be careful. [19:09.5]
What does your new norm look like? What does your new norm do? What time does the new normal get up? What time does the new normal do thought-auditing? What time does the new normal get with your team and grow your team's vision, your vision, global vision? Where are you at today? Where do you want to be tomorrow, next week, next year?
By the way, I’m 43. As of June 19, my goal is to own a jet when I’m 50. Genuinely, I’ve never really wanted to own a jet as much as I’ve wanted to today. I’ve always used the excuse of like, Wow, it's a lot of money. I’ll just charter, and I do charter and I’ve been chartering for a long time, but charter. [20:00.3]
But now it has come to a point where there could be some great opportunities with the jet, tax deductions, flexibility. It's mine. It's kind of cool to say it's mine, and we're not here forever and I might expedite my timeline. By the way, speaking of the jet, I literally have the model of a jet I want. I had it custom-made, painted, everything, color-coated out and everything. I did that four years ago, 39 years old. That's what I’ve got for myself for my 40th birthday. The jet I wanted 10 years from that point. Now, by doing that, I didn't know I was going to get to this point where I’m like, Damn, financially I could do it. I could actually pull this shit off. Right?
Have you ever been in that where you're like, Shit, I actually think I might be able to do this? Right? You almost have to believe your own bullshit initially. Not you might not have to. You have to. You start taking the steps and you get so busy doing that you actually forget you could do it, and then you get to that point. That's what I’m saying you’ve got to stop, look at your norm, and where your new norm is taking you. [21:06.0]
Sometimes, by the way, your new norm could take you down the wrong path, right? We've all been there. My new norm, again, is growing, evolving. I might expedite my jet purchase five to six years, maybe seven, who knows? But what happens, too, as my brain starts looking for the opportunities in the jet, maybe I’m at the club and I overhear a guy talking that he's selling a fleet of his jets from his company and he just needs to liquidate them fast, and he doesn't want anybody to know because they don't want people thinking they're losing money and they're just selling off the jet division. I hear that conversation and I go buy a $5 million jet for 4 million, right?
Again, these are the things that happen. You don't have to believe me. Think about that time you bought your new car. Think about the time you bought the new shirt or new shoes or new pants. Shit, you see it everywhere. Once you buy it, whatever kind of car, let's say, red Corvette, everywhere you go, you see a red Corvette almost it feels like, because it's brought to the subconscious mind, right? [22:14.8]
So, you’ve got to start writing down your new norm. I'll show you guys later. I can't do it right now, but I’ll talk with my wife on this. I’m not trying to be quirky here, but I’ve talked to you guys about the dream room. As I’m talking to you, they're still putting it all together, but it's a dream room. It's my dreams, my wife's dreams, my son's dreams, and my daughter's dreams. Now, keep in mind, my son is not even six and my daughter just turned two, so their dreams are a little bit different. “I want a Lego Nerf gun.” Shit, I don't even know if that's a real thing, but “I want Legos. I want Nerf guns,” or “I want a red fire truck. I want this or that.” But who are you sharing your dreams with? Do you even have your dreams written down? Do you even have a visual representation of your dreams? [23:00.2]
By the way, your dreams are your new norm in the future. You understand that, right? Your dreams are your new norm in the future. Let's say, you have a company right now and there are two employees, maybe you and someone else. In the future, do you see yourself one year, two years, five years, 10 years from now, in that same exact position?
If not, you’ve got to fucking stop doing the stupid shit you're doing and start becoming a better you, a different you, to start building what you want in the future, because, if not, mark my fucking words, you're going to wake up 10 years from now in a way worse fucking position because you've lost 10 years of your life and you have two employees.
Trust me when I tell you this, I did the same bullshit for 10 years of my life. I was all talking bullshit, acting like the big dog, king of the dipshits, if you will, surrounding myself around people less than me to make me feel better about myself. This is a true story, by the way. Instead of making buildings bigger, I was just trying to hang out in the smallest area. I had the biggest building in the smallest area. By the way, it wasn't even a big building, fucking two stories around one story just bigger, right? [24:16.8]
I had to start thinking differently. I had to start reading different books. I had to start taking a different conversation. This is why when people come to me and I’m going to give you a huge tip here, when people come to me and they're like, Mark, I want to grow my business. I’m like, Cool, do you have an assistant? And I’m not saying this is for everybody, but this is for everybody I work with. Do you have an assistant?
No.
You need to get an assistant.
But I don't have 35, 50 grand a year.
You don't need that. You only need three grand a month. Can you do that?
Yes.
We need a fucking assistant. If you cannot lead an assistant, you can't fucking lead anybody else. An assistant is doing the work you don't want to do, period. It's the easiest, natural thing to hand off. [25:03.0]
What you're doing is, through that cycle, the new norm, my new norm. I don't worry about that. By the way, I’ve always had an assistant since I can remember because I hate paperwork. I hate doing petty, basic bullshit. Even though I used to micromanage it, which sounds stupid because it is stupid. I used to micromanage these fuckers because they were like, Hey, man, at 68 cents I’ve got these post-it notes. I’m like, Fuck, you can get it down the street for 42 cents. What are you doing? I’m micromanaging a 20-cent conversation.
What's cool about the assistant piece, in six months, 12 months, 24 months, you're going to see you’re starting to let go of things that don't really fucking matter. If 20 cents is changing my business, motherfucker, I ain't got no business, period. But, Mark, I’ve got to pay attention to small details. Sometimes you do. Sometimes you don't. I promise you, 20 cents ain't changing the game for anybody. We need to be focusing on money in, not money out. [26:08.8]
This is the new norm, by the way. The old Mark, I used to think an assistant cost money. I used to think hiring a COO cost money. You guys understand, I have sales guys making 20, 30, 40, 50 grand a month. I have people, I have affiliate partners making 100,000 to 200,000 a month with me. I’m asking myself, how do I fucking pay these guys more money? Because if they get paid more, that means they grow it more. If they grow it more, guess what? I fucking make more. The team makes more. We can hire more people. This is how I’ve been able to build companies from zero to $20 million in a year because I understand the real process of money and how to hire and bring people on. [26:54.8]
By the way. I’m really good at fucking this up, too. That's why I’m able to do it because I’m okay to mess it up. See what I mean? My old norm was Mark squeezing the penny so tight, fucking Lincoln's nose was bleeding, thinking I was going to get rich, I was going to get wealthy. That's why Mark back then, 1.0 Mark at 18 to 24, never even dreamt about the big jet. It wasn't even a thought in my brain, I promise you that. My thought was, how do I make a million a year and how do I buy a Ferrari? That was my thought from 18 to 24. And a Rolls-Royce, by the way.
By the way, I didn't buy the fucking Rolls until I was 30, because I realized once I broke free from the old Mark 1.0, my old norm, I had to start becoming a different person. I was so busy and so focused on becoming a better new-norm Mark that I didn't even care about the thing I was actually initially going after, because it didn't matter, because I was becoming a better person. [28:03.5]
My bank account was growing. My time was evolving. I was learning how to enjoy my wife, actually my girlfriend then, Deena, now my wife, because we were traveling around the world at 27. For seven years, I traveled around the world with her, seven fucking years. That wasn't a part of my life.
Like I said, in October, my grandmother passed away in ’05. It was a pivotal moment. Boom, December 31, ’05, I was hanging out in South Beach, Fla., and that's when it started. I was evolving. Literally, my new norm was every fucking other day. I was thinking way bigger, way different. My mind, I stepped back to step up. I was so deep in my company, I was so micro-managing every person, I was so worried about pennies, I wasn't focused on dollars. My friends, this is the shit we need to be thinking about and talking about more. Your normal is only temporary and I challenge you to thought-audit on your normal. [29:03.7]
Where you're at today, is this where you want to be five years from now? If not, you’d better get the fuck to work? The truth is, in the next 30 days, in the next 12 months, if you're not where you want to be in 12 months, you need to become a different person to get what you want.
This shit does not magically happen. That's like saying, I want to lose 20 pounds in 12 months. Guess what? I can't be fucking eating pizza every Sunday. I can't be drinking on every, every day of the week because there's a new sports game on or whatever. I’ve got to get my ass in the gym. I’ve got to stay focused. I’ve got to eat healthier. I’ve got to do this. I’ve got to do that.
Who do you have to become to get your new norm? More importantly, are you willing to do it? Because, if not, stop bullshitting yourself. Stop creating stress that's not needed. There are a lot of people that talk shit that are not going to ever do anything with it, trust me. There are a lot of shit-talkers out there. Most of them are to themselves. [30:10.0]
Are you willing to create your new norm? My 18-year-old self never even pictured where I’d be at fucking today, financially, with my family, what I’m able to do. I could wake up, go anywhere and do anything I want, and yet I’m here shooting a podcast show because this is part of my new norm, leading, giving back, being a better talker, learning how to speak and share the message at the next level.
I’m still learning. I’m still evolving. I’m still creating a new me, and so are you. My goal in life, this is really cool, is that your new norm and my new norm in the future can match up. The truth is you might be dreaming to be an ultra-billionaire. I might only be dreaming to be a billionaire. You could surpass my norm. [031:11.0]
By the way, my norm doesn't have to be your norm and any of this other bullshit. That's a whole other story for a whole different day, but there's an identity crisis going on. People are trying to be me. People are trying to be whoever and it's like, Dude, fuck, be the best you. The cool thing about the world we live in is we have access to pretty much any and everybody and everything we want based off what they show, right?
What I do, and this is just a quick tip before I move on, is I look at people, more importantly, pay attention to what they do and not what they say, by the way, the result of what they say, actually fucking do shit, but you’ve got to understand this. Just because someone is a great business owner doesn't mean they're a great person. Just because someone is a great business owner doesn't mean they're a great husband or a great wife. [32:01.5]
I’m not knocking them. I'm just talking like, if you're newer to business, you might be looking at one person and idolizing them so much that you don't see their flaws. We all have flaws, all of us. What you can do is say, Wow, I really liked this guy about what he does here. What I’m talking about is being specific with what you like about the character trait in this individual.
By the way, this is something that's really cool that I’m very proud of. A lot of people see what I’ve done in business, which is cool, but one of the biggest responses, and actually it might be the biggest that I get from people is like, Dude, you're such a fucking amazing dad. I love how you get to hang out with your kids. I love that you're teaching your son this or your daughter that, and this and that. To me—to me, by the way—that's the best gift in the world. I talked about that on a show I did about my father. [33:00.5]
My dad was an amazing guy. He just didn't have the time I have today to be able to spend with me, even though we spent a lot of time together. That's how I got into construction. If I want to spend time with Dad, guess what I’ve got to do? I’ve got to go to work with Dad. I loved it, by the way. I’m not knocking it. I loved it. I got to connect. My dad was like, Quit being a pussy. You’ve only got two blisters. Why don't you have five? Quit slacking, Mark.
I want to do that to my son as well, my daughter, shit. It's fun, right? It's some of my best memories of my life to this point. These are traits. These are things. These are norms. When you don't have kids, that's not your new norm until you have kids, right? Your new norm, your life changes. A lot of things change, your cadence, your thoughts. There's a process to all this.
But back to the business and the new norm. I’m rambling here because I’m excited, because I believe if you take this information and write down my norm today, my norm for 12 months from now, my norm from five months, five years from now, these norms, you have to evolve. [34:11.2]
Back to the assistant thing. When I hired an assistant, they allowed me to start learning how to let go. Then I hired a sales guy. There was a point in my career when my sales guys were making more money than me, a lot more money than me, an ultra lot more money than me, a lot, lot more, but I saw where it was going, I knew who I was becoming. I saw the path. I saw the trajectory of opportunity.
This is something the old Mark would have never done. I’d be like, Get the fuck out of the way. I’m the sales guy, bitch. I’ll do this myself. Now, I’m not saying sometimes that won't happen, but, dude, if you're building real companies, you can't be the accountant. You can't be the assistant. You can't be the paper maker. You can't be the salesperson. You can't do it all. I know you can try. I know you can say, Yeah, but I made some money. [35:00.5]
I see people caught up making 100, 200, 300 grand a year. This is your problem. You're spending all your money on bullshit, trying to keep up with the Joneses, even though you say you're not, and you don't have enough money or wherewithal or insights on how to hire people, because you're too afraid to mess up. Newsflash: you're going to fucking mess this up.
But guess what? Keep messing up until you get it right, because when you get it right, your life will change forever, because there are amazing people out there that want to do good work that are not like the visionary, if you will.
Let me step back for a second. That's actually a little true, but kind of not true. Let me explain. The truth is as I hire teams, my vision actually grows through them. I see what they're capable of and I see, again, when you're by yourself, you believe some of your bullshit, but when you've got a team around you, you actually start picking up on the nuggets and the growth and you're like, Fuck, we're doing 10 million. I think we can do 25 million this year. We actually can gain. I can pull strength because I know they’ve got my back, and I know if I grow this bitch, they're going to make more money. [36:09.5]
That's what excites me, by the way. Them making more money, them living their dreams, them impacting clients, us growing the vision of the company and evolving things. As we do this, what's neat is a lot of cool shit can happen from this. Yes, your team can help you build a vision that they'll make you a better visionary. Your team definitely will.
A lot of neat things here. I just do know your new norm needs to be conscious and it never stops. My new norm one day will be when I’m dead. That'd be my norm. Mark was a good guy or a great guy, hopefully, an amazing guy. Hopefully that's what they're saying, but that will be a norm one day. I'm not thinking about that as much, but I’m more thinking about the jet. I’m more thinking about the kids getting older. [37:02.8]
Actually I’m trying, true story, I’m looking at buying a cool lake house here in Ohio, just for the summer, right on the lake, 15, 20 minutes from the house. If there are any wholesalers in real estate that have a bad-ass house over on Lake Erie, I’m in the market, cash, ready to close whenever the deal presents itself, and I’m willing to do full rehab, whatever. But the market is so hot. Things are moving so fast.
Again, my new norm is I didn't know I’d have multiple houses in multiple states and then still be able to take trips. See, the world I used to live in, the old Mark was like, I can either do this or that. I never asked myself, this is a true fucking story, by the way, it took me many years to figure this out. I never asked myself, how can I do both? I’d rather do both or none, to be honest with you, at this point in my life. I’m either in or I’m out, not half pregnant, right? [38:00.0]
My new norm is my conversations with myself or better. My new norm is reading better books about life and business growth. I don't need to learn about fucking marketing. I understand marketing, right? Now, I’m not saying I wouldn't hire a better marketing agency to drive my company. I understand the fundamentals because I have 18 years of my life and I’ve invested millions of dollars to learn marketing, so I kind of have a little bit of knowledge about it, right?
Hire great people. Don't fucking nickel and dime yourself to wealth. Grow other people. They'll grow you. They'll grow you financially. You’ll grow financially. Everyone wins. What does the new norm look like? You. The new norm.
I’m excited to see you on the journey. I’m excited to see you evolve. I’m excited to see you put a fucking flag in the ground and say, This is my old norm. I’m moving on from this point forward, because too many of you are stuck in the old norm. Same old shit, a different day, right? Just trying to figure out how to get by. [39:04.0]
Bullshit. Fucking figure out how to try to get successful. Be more successful. Make more money. Make more impact. Make more connections. Have better relationships. Dude, there's so much to do. There's so much work to do, so much opportunity, if you're focused on the new norm.
I’m glad that word came out that was being talked on the media because they're good at fucking pushing narratives, but, to me, when I read the new norm, that's what it really means to me, what we're talking about here today. What does your new norm look like? And I’m not talking mask. I’m not talking fucking COVID and all this stuff. I’m talking to your new norm in the ME economy, your economy, the only fucking economy that matters. What's your new norm?
I’m excited to share this message with you. I hope you take this information and do something with it. Please share what your 12-month new norm will look like. I’m very interested in and excited to hear about it, and I typically pretty much all the time reply to all messages if I ever see them. I’m not saying that to … [40:09.8]
Guys, I care about this shit. I know just being connected to you is going to make things better for all of us in the future and today, so it's very important to me as we're evolving and growing and expanding. Maybe, back in the day, I could call you for 30 minutes. I can't do that shit anymore, but I could at least shoot you a quick message. Sitting out here, I could think about it. I need to hear where you're at and need to hear where you're going. If I have real shit going on in my life, which we all do every day, but I’m willing to share the good, the bad, the ugly, and everything in between, and this is a mindset journey, folks. Don't get it twisted. If you can get the mind right, everything else will definitely, definitely work itself out.
I’m here. Keep me posted. I appreciate the shares. If this message hit home, share it away. Tag me, and I’ll see you on the other side. To your new norm and for my new norm. See you. Make today count. Peace. [41:06.0]
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