Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” One of the biggest mistakes I’ve made in my life and businesses—this mistake caused me a lot of heartache, financial distress and prosperity on many levels, and once you understand what I'm about to share with you, it will change your life if you implement it. So, with that said, let's get started.
Mark: Hey there, it’s your host, Mark Evans DM. Today is a little bit different. I'm actually recording today in the late-p.m. I was downstairs in the cigar lounge, smoking a cigar, sipping on some red wine, and I had something come to me that I need to share with you. [01:11.0]
It's something I keep asking myself as I thought-audit. I thought-audit often, daily, constantly, and it's something that keeps popping up and it's something I think could help you a lot. I’ve had the benefit of being in business for over 25-plus years, have a lot of different experience with the many different types of personalities through that process of selling hundreds of millions of dollars of businesses and assets in real estate, ecomm, etc. This truly is one of the biggest.
I kept asking myself, what is one of the biggest mistakes that I’ve made in my life in business over the years? This is one of them and it's one that has crippled me. It has cost me millions, probably hundreds of millions, if not billions of dollars, because there's a compound effect that takes place with what I'm about to share with you, and the faster you can nip this in the ass, the better off you're going to be. [02:08.8]
I tell you what, I'm being honest with you, I literally am out of bed, sitting out back by the pool, pacing. You might hear some birds chirping, or actually it’s not birds, it’s crickets, because it's pretty laid out. But this is a message I have to get to you, in your ear, open your heart, open your mind to this, because, I promise you, this is one of the biggest pieces that has cost me so much heartache, so much money, and if you can start working on this, because this is a work in progress. I still suffer with it sometimes, but it's a work in progress.
You might be thinking, Mark, the hell are you talking about? I'm glad you asked, but before I answer that, I just want to give a big shout out and tell you guys, thank you so much. Recently, I shared a post about a big loss we had and kind of what happened. Just keep your feet moving. I'm not going to change for anybody and I’m going to keep being me. I'm just going to learn from it and I didn't fall victim. I became a victor. It sucked, lost over $2 million on a situation. It is what it is. You’ve just got to keep these feet moving. [03:16.7]
But I had lots and lots of people reach out to me via text, via email, via social media, direct-messaging, me saying, What's up, man? If you need anything, let me know, I'm here for you. You guys really are amazing and I appreciate that. Not only that, all the amazing five-star reviews we get on iTunes and Amazon. The book MEconomy is crushing it. I’m trying to get the audiobook out for you guys sooner than later. We're working on that now, but it really is a lot of work to record that and edit it and clean it up and make it good listening, because I do not have that voice that makes it pop and I wanted to make sure it hits home with you. [03:59.1]
If you have not shared the podcast show, if you have not left a five-star review, I would ask that you do that, please. I don't ask for anything really much from you, except just let people know what's up, and if this show helps you, give me a shout out and share it with them. You don't have to give me a shout out. Just share it with them and we get a lot of cool messages. I get a lot of cool messages from people that their buddy listened to the show, one of the shows, and he's like, Dude, you’ve got to listen to this crazy guy, and then I have an amazing, amazing email to me and it's pretty cool.
But back to this main subject here. Again, like I said, the truth is it had me scared every single second of my life, and when I started working on this piece of my brain, more importantly, in my actions, a lot of cool things started happening and even today it's something, like I said, I'm continuously working on—and what is that thing? The biggest thing is understanding that it's not about the cost. It's about the value. [05:09.5]
You might be sitting there trying to build your business and you want A+ players. We'll talk about that, how to get A+ players, for real. You might be sitting in your business in the beginning stages, thinking every penny you save as a penny of opportunity. Not all pennies are created equal, I can promise you that, because a lot of these things are, and I remember, this is God's honest truth, I remember I'd be driving in my truck, heading to a project, and I'd hear a commercial, “T-Mobile. Sign up for three years and say it's 26.99 a month” or whatever the hell it was, I don't remember, back then.
I literally would stop, change my entire day, go to fucking T-Mobile. If you guys have ever been to these stores, you know exactly what I'm talking about. I mean, that's a shit show in these places. I would sit there for hours to save five bucks a month and sign a three-year contract and get a free phone upgrade and all this other shit. I thought I was saving money. [06:11.2]
See, I didn't really understand the importance of time value. The commodity of time is the only commodity we can never get back. Money can and will come and go, right? But I used to cut all expenses. I would sit down, true story, every morning for an hour or two and every night for an hour or two, not asking myself, How the hell do I make more fucking money by getting more clients? but I'd waste all this emotional and mental energy and power on how to cut costs, how to save money, how to reduce my phone bill, how to cut down the staff, how to work them harder, how to shave off two pennies a square foot on shingles and go to this company as opposed to this company. [07:04.5]
I would disrupt my life. I'd fuck up my day. I'd fuck up my weeks and months to save 30 cents per square foot on shingles or siding, or whatever the hell we were doing at that time, or flooring, or going to Home Depot and getting in a fight and going to the clearance rack and trying to get it cheaper and all this shit. I'd be fighting a guy. I’ll never forget it, this gal. I was like, Dude, it says 17.99 in the fucking paper and you're trying to charge me $22. I'm literally losing my shit in the store. This was a long time ago, by the way. This was in ’96, ’97, but I remember it because these are the embarrassing moments that hit me.
I’d gotten in my truck. I was shaking. I was so pissed because I ended up having to pay the $22 as opposed to $17. We're talking $5. But I was so fucking embarrassed at myself that I acted like such a fool. Literally, I'm shaking, have my hands on the steering wheel, sitting in park, by the way, about to lose it, literally about to just lose it. Who knows what was going on that day? Clearly a lot. [08:10.3]
This is how I functioned or at least that's how I thought I functioned. That's how I was trained my entire life. I saw my parents and everyone around me my entire life, negotiating, asking to save.
“Shut the door. What do you think? We're born in a barn?”
“Goddammit, shut the lights off, Mark. If not, next time you get your ass kicked. What do you think, I'm made of money? The hell do you think, money grows on trees, Evans?”
“Get out there and mow the lawn yourself, you little shit. I ain't got time for this. I'm working. I'm trying to make money.”
This is the stuff I had to deprogram. I saw my mom and dad, my grandparents, my cousins, my uncles, everyone I cared about my entire life, they were molding me subconsciously, so I was running my days as if I was them. [09:07.8]
I had to start. I got so embarrassed in that moment at Home Depot, I was literally shaking in the truck and I was like, Dude, is this what I want to be doing all my life? Keep in mind, I was 18 years old and this took a long time, years, I still deal with it, years to really start understanding the thought-audit process of how to deprogram.
See, a lot of people talk about reprogramming. Dude, reprogramming is awesome, but I'm telling you right now, you have to, one, acknowledge it, and then start deprogramming. I had to unwind 18 years, 19 years of my life. You might be 40 years old listening to this shit. You’ve got to rewind 40 years of your fucking life to get to where you want to go. [09:55.6]
I want to ask you, how does this mindset serve you? How does it make you more money? Are you always frustrated with shitty people that work for you because you always want to pay the least amount or the middle-road amount? Have you ever asked yourself, why the fuck does the Four Seasons exist? Why the fuck does top-notch party-planner event people exist like MMJ that we use? How do people pay so much money to do an event for their staff when I could do it?
I remember going to an event and the guy told us, “Toss 300 grand to put this on.” I smirked. I was 20-something, 22, 23. I was at a mastermind. I kind of smirked and I was like, Shit, I could do this for 30k.
See, like Aramark, you’ve got coffee in the back. It's $125 a gallon of coffee. I'm like, Fuck, dude, I’ll just go down to Starbucks or whatever back then and I’ll get it for $20 a gallon. No one will know. I just saved. Boom. Just save some money. [11:02.5]
Oh, man, I’ll bring my own snacks in. I ain't paying fucking $12 a muffin. I'll pay $3 a muffin, bring in my own shit.
This is what I spent all my time on. I spent so much energy. I didn't ask myself how to create better CRMs, how to advertise better and get better KPI management in place so I could make more money per call, per lead, per sale. What was the upsell process like? What was the extension model when they came in at $12, how to get them to $24, to $72, etc.?
What was it like when I went to go bid windows, but also did the garage doors and windows and siding and everything else? Oh, by the way, do you need a landscaper? I’ve got you covered. By the way, do you need a new place? I’ve got you covered? I’ve got these people in my pocket that I'd get paid for.
I had to ask myself, who do I want to be when I grow up? What does this look? I used to be the guy trying to save money on sending emails. In 2005, mid-2005, March something in 2005, I learned about email marketing. I invested $50,000 to spend for a day. [12:10.5]
I was starting to unwind myself from all my mental stuff, but I paid this guy 50 gees to teach me how to do a web page, set up a squeeze page where we’d capture email and then send them an email. Back then, this was a way different animal. Now, shit, you can do it for free online on WordPress probably. I don't know because I don't do it, but I pay people to do this shit now. But if you're trying to inch your way into it--
By the way, let me just stop this here for a second. I'm not saying go out and waste money, but what are you spending [your mental energy on]? Ask yourself. Pay attention to yourself. Where are you spending a lot of your mental energy at? Oh, jeez, that cost a lot of money. Oh my god, how do you get it cheaper somewhere else? [12:50.8]
You go on Amazon, you start searching and go down a rabbit hole. You're looking for something for $7. You search for three hours and find it for 6.49 and you're like, Fucking winning. Dude, you just lost three hours of your life. More importantly, you're programming yourself to be that person. If you'll do that for 51 cents, what else would you do for $510, $5,100, $51,000, $510,000? You're fucked. Truly, you’re fucked.
Now, some of you listening might have a little bit of money in the bank, but I can tell you right now, you will never, ever be wealthy, ever. It's impossible with that mindset. Even if you have money, like I said in the beginning of the show, I was always scared, overwhelmed and frustrated. I saw the world through a different lens.
I remember I used to go, this is a true story, I used to go to Longhorn Steakhouse and I would convince myself, Dude, it's just a fucking steak. It tastes okay. I like the bloomin' onion or whatever the hell they have, right, for a third of the price of the Hyde Park. But I was only focused on the cost and I would lie my ass off to myself saying it's only a steak. [14:14.6]
I can tell you well right now, one hundred percent, it is not from the same butcher. It does not taste the same. The ambience, the environment, and the type of people are not the same. I'm not saying you can't be wealthy going to fucking Longhorn. That would be stupid to say. But I can tell you right now, the probability of opportunity at Hyde Park—which is a high-end steakhouse in Columbus, Ohio, that I used to go to all the time, still do when I head back there—the profitability of sitting at the bar and connecting with a big dog, sitting at dinner and people seeing you come through once a week, twice a week, three times a week, however many. The truth is I used to go five or six times a week. Ask my wife, it's a true story. I would never have reservations. I'd walk in, hand them a $100 bill and I magically had a reservation, go figure. [15:04.8]
But people talk. I've realized that. I'm not trying to showboat and bullshit. By the way, I was 25, 26, 27 years old then. This was a long time ago. I understood the game that I was living in. I wasn't trying to disrupt. The truth is I was trying to disrupt my brain. But once I figured out what I'm sharing with you a little bit, I started leaning into it more.
Like I’ve talked about, publicly I had a mentor tell me one time like, Dude, if you don't fly first class, you do not come back to this mastermind group ever again. Keep in mind, I was flying back and forth from Cali. I was out in Cali, we were traveling, me and my wife, for a long time then and we were out on the West Coast a lot, and every quarter, boom. I was scared.
See, I was taking it in baby steps. I was chunking it out. He was realizing it because he's a great mentor. That’s what great mentors do. They push you when you need to be pushed. They don't pussyfoot around. They guide you. They tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear. [16:10.6]
“Mark, great job, man.” No, it's like, Dude, don't fucking show up if you don't fly first class, I need to see the tickets. Now, respectfully, I flew first class. True story, ever since that moment, I’ve never not flown first class or private now. I haven't flown first class for a long time. I've been flying private for many years now, but it's an evolution process. It's all mindset.
Now, I'm not saying everything I'm just talking about, like, if you change this one piece, your world changes drastically, but you will see a massive drastic change in your life. It's interesting, when I see people come in and make an investment in a thing like the ecomm store, say 40, 50 grand, whatever it is at the time, and they're like, Dude, that's a lot of money. [17:00.1]
Huh? You understand, I used to be that person. If 40 grand is a lot of money, that's the fucking problem. Forty grand is not a lot of money at all. Compared to whom? Compared to what? You're in a life-altering situation. Is $40,000 a lot of money to save your life? Yes or no? No. $40,000 for a lollipop may be a lot of money, but for something that could produce double-digit returns, you're looking at the investment wrong.
I see so many great people have access to a little bit of capital either through their HELOC, their home loan or their house equity, right, or maybe they have cashed in their 401(k) or self-directed whatever, and they just can't pull the trigger because they think everything is like, Oh my god, that's a lot. I can never do it. That's so much money. Have you just ever asked yourself, why the fuck does it exist then if it doesn't work? Why does the Four Seasons exist if it's a lot of money? [18:06.7]
Now, listen, I'm a professional Hojo. Personally, I don't know how many nights I’ve stayed in Howard Johnson's. Most of you listening might not even know what the hell that is. It's a cheap-ass hotel off the beaten path. I would justify it by saying, but, Mark, all you're doing is sleeping there and showering and that's it. Then I’d test my bullshit. I’d stay at the Four Seasons in Palm Beach, Fla. If you've never been, you should go. But a nightly room where we were staying, anywhere from 1,800 to 2,500 a night. “Oh, my god, that’s a lot of money.” See, there you go. What did you just hear? Say 2,500 a night. Is that a lot or a little? It depends.
Depends on what lens you're looking through. [19:00.8]
Now, I'm not going like, listen, when I go anywhere, I’m thinking about how to grow me and my life and my business in luxury. That's my mindset initially now. But as I'm sitting at Four Seasons, tapping in, it's popping off, it's through the winter, and I'm hanging out at the pool with my wife and son at the time and I'm drinking a glass of Rosé around the pool. Actually, I'm in the pool. I'm talking to my son. People are watching me play with him. I'm watching their kid.
By the way, when you're in these kinds of environments, it's not judgment. Listen, if you don't think people judge you, you're full of shit already, but it’s non-judgmental, but we're thinking, What the fuck is this guy doing that he could be here? That's what I think anyway. Keep in mind, I'm a hillbilly from Ohio. What the hell do they do? I genuinely want to know, so I have to get uncomfortable. [20:03.6]
As I'm sitting here, playing with my son, Mark accidentally bumps into this other guy's kid and I say, Hey, man, sorry, buddy. Hey, by the way, how long are you in here for?
Oh, man, I’m here for five days.
Cool, man. Where are you from?
New York.
Awesome. That's cool. How many kids have you got?
Three. Stevie, Johnny and Jenny.
That's awesome. This is my son, Mark. He's two and a half, three years old. What do you do?
In these kinds of environments, this is normal conversation. I've never met a business owner that says, Uh-uh-uh, I don't do anything. I don't do a whole lot. He’s like, Dude, I actually own blahblahblah.com. I can't tell you the domain, a $250-million-a-year company me, my dad and my brother started 12 years ago.
I was like, Dude, that's awesome. I've actually bought from your domain and it's very clean. It's functional. If you go search my name, you'd see I’ve spent some decent money with you guys. [21:04.7]
He’s like, Man, thank you. That's awesome. I appreciate that.
I’m like, Dude, just keep it up. It's great marketing.
He's like, What do you do?
I'm an investor. I own multiple companies in media, real estate, ecomm, etc..
Different niches inside of it because there are multiple verticals in ecomm. He actually owned a brand, a massive, massive brand, and all he did, truthfully, is he just rotated product through his cycle. He just had a big following, big domain and made a lot of money.
Naturally he asked me and we started talking. I’ve never met anybody that says, Dude, I don't want to do real estate. Everyone wants to learn about real estate investing. It's just natural. We understand real estate. Why? Because we live in a fucking house or an apartment, or we live somewhere and we understand that costs money every month and we're asking ourselves how to get on the other side of that money play. If I'm giving five grand a month for rent, how do I get five grand a month? How do I collect that? [22:06.6]
As we start talking, what happens after that? Hey, man, what's your cell number, Mark. Boom, boom, boom. I have access to the president, his father and his brother in literally a 15-minute conversation at the Four Seasons.
By the way, this is not an anomaly. This happens pretty much on every single fucking occasion I'm there. Some are worth more, some are worth less, but they're worth more money than I ever thought even existed when I was rolling up small-town Ohio thinking about costs, not value.
Again, I’ve been to a lot of shitty hotels, a lot of them, I’ve personally never had a conversation like that in my entire life at any of them, ever, at the bar, and I'm talking random, through the pool, at the bar or whatever. Most of the time I talk to these guys or gals and I’m like, Yeah, just rolling through, man, got a job I’ve got to do, got to get out to the field and get some work done. Again, I'm not talking down to them. I'm just saying, that's not where the fuck I want to be, so why am I? By the way, it's very cordial. I love people, in general. [23:15.2]
But if I'm sitting there for me, trying to get to the next level, but I'm constantly hanging down on the low level, how do I expect to get to the top level? This was the constant cycle I was living in my life. I was so frustrated. I was so angry that I couldn't step it up. Again, you’ve got to understand, my entire life I was told save dollars, save pennies, every penny counts, every penny counts. I'm not saying it doesn't, but every penny is not created equal. True story, if I couldn't go stay at a Four Seasons, I wouldn't even go stay at a hotel. [23:55.1]
Not only that, I know a lot of people stay at Airbnbs and all that shit. Awesome. Go to the higher-end ones. Go to the higher-end communities. They have higher-end community pools. They have higher-end community polo fields or soccer or golf, etc. If you want to gain access to high-level people, go where things cost money. They've realized value.
I'm not saying I have this figured out yet a hundred percent, but I can tell you this. As I do more and more and learn, it does make a massive, massive difference. Have you ever seen a thief? Have you ever seen a thief and you're watching and you're like, Dude, if that thief would work as hard as he did doing the right thing, he would be so much better off? He'd have more money and he wouldn't have to look over his shoulder.
That reminds me of me trying to count pennies and save dollars. I was a thief of my joy. I was a thief of my financial future. I was a thief in that I couldn't enjoy anything. Everything was about the dollar. Every fucking thing. It drove me. I'm getting anxious talking about everything. It was about the dollar. I was a thief. I was a thief of my joy in my future. [25:18.0]
I was sitting there wracking my brain like, Dude. I used to do a lot of direct mail in the tens of thousands of dollars, let's say 10,000 a month. By the way, when you focus only on cost, loyalty is non-existent in your life. You're a fucking whore for dollars in pennies. I was. I never even realized it. I would ruin a relationship over pennies.
I remember this direct-mail company that was charging me 42 cents for a postcard. Keep in mind, I would send 10,000 of these postcards or 20,000 postcards a month and I'd make six figures a month gross and net actually. But I was so laser-focused on the wrong number, I tried to get it for 40 cents, actually 39 cents, and I changed companies for three fucking pennies. True story, for three pennies. [26:13.5]
Guess what happened? My first, second and third month after I switched, I made less money than I’ve ever made sending that amount of postcards. They were sending the wrong postcards to the wrong people. They were sending postcards that didn't have numbers.
Because I was so focused on cost, I never really realized the value that that company was providing me. Great service, I could call them and have them on the phone in a second. They would actually answer. They would send me examples of what we were going to send out this week, so I could approve them. They were very hands-on. But I wasn't thinking about that. I was so focused on saving three pennies. Pretty stupid, huh? [27:01.5]
Reminds me of my pops, my mom, everyone I grew up with. Gas prices, $3 a gallon. Twelve miles away, 2.96, but the line is three hours long. We’ve got to go over there. It's cheaper. It's cheaper. It's disgusting to me. Again, by the way, my parents didn't do this on purpose. They've been trained, just like I was. I just had the mental fortitude to want to change, to ask myself a different question. I got so stupid embarrassed at that Home Depot, I actually had to make a change. I was not happy. I was not happy at all. [27:52.5]
I had money coming in. It wasn't staying long. I ruined a lot of amazing relationships over the years in the beginning because I focused on cost. I'd beat up the title companies on the real estate side to save an extra $20 on a closing. A closing. Is $20 changing the game at a closing on a property that I'm about to make 25 grand on? I'm a loser.
I see people right now. I know a guy right now literally. This guy is a good dude, but he has the same problem. By the way, this is financial PTSD at the highest level. It's a real thing. He will not send a wire because it costs $40 for him and this guy sends real wires, seven-figure wires if he sent wires. Instead, he goes to the bank and gets a check for $10 or whatever the bank checks cost. I don't even know because I haven't done one of those things for fucking ever. I used to be this person. [29:06.7]
There was a guy in my office building. His name was Ted, awesome guy on the title company, right downstairs on my title, and I would always beat him up. Great guy, amazing family guy, would do anything to get the deal closed to help you, but I always renegotiated the price at closing because that's how I thought I would win the game of life, by cutting $20 here, $10 there, $13 there. I never looked long-term at the relationship capital. I never looked at the deals that I never to do because I was working with the wrong people.
See, when it's transactional, no one gives a fuck You beat them down so hard, it’s actually almost like the universe is like, I'm going to prove to this little fucker until he figures this out, this ain't how it works. If you think you're getting ahead of life by doing this silly bullshit, by cutting every corner, cutting costs, fighting people down, $3 here, $10 there, you're losing out, I promise. [30:12.1]
Why would I want to see you win if you're beating me up every time we talk? “Man, that’s just the way I do it.” You're not doing business with me then, because there are fuckers that say that. “That’s just the way it is.” No, fucker, that's the way it is in your life, not my life. My price is my price. If you don't like it, get the fuck out of here. I don't care.
You think Four Seasons built this multi-billion dollar brand by jackasses coming in saying, Dude, I would never pay 2,500 a night. I'd go down the street for 325 a night.
Why the fuck are you in here telling me? I don't care. Get over there.
It's wasted energy. All this energy and emotion and drive is the thief of happiness, the thief of progression, the thief of your next level. [31:08.7]
It's always funny to me, when I talk about the Dealmaker Family, it's $50,000. “Oh my god, there's another mastermind. It's 35 grand a year.” Okay, so join them both. Make a conclusion on which one is better for you. “Oh, I ain’t got … I mean, yeah …” Keep in mind, everyone is a big fucking baller until you toss the money out, right, or the dollar amount? Then they join none because they're looking for a cheaper one. “This guy is 15 grand. What's different about you?” Nothing, clearly nothing. The only difference is my price. But what they forget to figure out is their business model is churn and burn. My business model is relationship capital. [31:55.2]
True story. Today I sent a guy 650 gees that’s in the DM Family, because he's in the DM Family, for a deal. I would not do that to any Tom, Dick and Harry off the street. I wouldn't do it to someone that didn't invest in themselves with me and the DMD Family. Another guy, 100 gees. Another guy, a million. Another guy, texting back and forth, he needs 500 gees for a day. That shit doesn't happen when you price-cut people. I would have zero desire to do it. I would say, Nope, not interested, thank you.
But I get to know my people. I actually understand where their weaknesses are and their strengths are. I want to show them how to elevate and guide them to the level, many different levels, not just business and financial. I'm talking about family. I'm talking about goals in life.
You understand it's cool because, in the DM Family right now, lots of guys have made millions of dollars extra this year with some stuff we've been sharing in there. Lots of them, pretty much all of them, I believe, have made over seven figures, over a million, minimum just this year alone, on top of everything else they're doing and expanding. [33:04.4]
But what's cool is I get excited because one guy just posted his dream home in there. He has designed it. It’s coming to fruition in 2023. It's emotion. They're cutting down the land right now. It's an emotion. That shit excites me. This guy is a fucking winner. He's not a whiner. He's a winner. Another guy bought his dream car. Actually two … three … four guys have bought their dream car this year and the DM Family. That's where they're at in their life. They're ready.
Who has told you to join a 50k mastermind group? Who has told you to stay at the Four Seasons? Who has told you to buy your dream car? By the way, everything I'm telling you you should do is to invest in yourself. Invest in your dream. Invest in your mind. Invest in your time. [34:00.8]
Everyone is talking about hustling and hustling and hustling. That's awesome. But hustle in what? Are you going to hustle at the Howard Johnson’s or hustle at the Four Seasons? I promise you the outcome will be drastically different. I’ll put a million dollars and guarantee it, it will be drastically different if you're hustling, if you’re connecting. The caliber of people, once they're already paying, investing in themselves at 2,500. I mean, there are rooms in there at probably 10 grand a night, maybe more, right?
It's interesting. I remember, in Chicago, this was when I was “young” young, and I was meeting this guy for a meeting and he rented out Al Pacino’s room. It was I want to say 12 grand a night, I can't remember. I remember him telling me and I was like, Holy shit, are you serious? He was like, Yeah, man, just for the meeting and we'll drink whatever, hang out, whatever. We're going to shoot some videos, and he was like, Now I’ve got to get back home. He lived there. [34:56.7]
I was like, What? Dude, can I stay in this room? He was like, Yeah, I mean, I’ve already paid for it, so whatever. This was when I was staying in the same hotel, but then the $500 basement room, literally. I stayed in this room, two-story, amazing, and I felt different. I asked myself, “How can this be my norm?”
See, what I’ve known about myself and other people is that we've come to accept things as the norm.
“It’s the way it is.”
“It's just the way it is.’
‘It’s the way it’s supposed to be.”
“I was not dealt that hand. Therefore, it won't happen to me.”
If you think like that, you're the thief, stealing from yourself. Go, look in the mirror. It's the biggest thief you know. Look at your wife or your husband. Look at your kids. Look at your friends, your family, people that you want to help in life, and know that every time you act like I'm talking about, focusing so much on cost, forgetting about value, you're stealing from them. [36:10.8]
You could solve your problems by focusing on making more money. Any problem you have right now, if it takes money to solve it, it can be solved through this mindset shift. If you don't do it now, when do you do it? Seriously, when do you do it? If not now, then when? No one is going to do it for you, by the way, right? No one. I always focused on the wrong shit. Again, that's how I was taught. It's how I was taught.
It's funny to me, right now, we live in a world where things are more expensive, in particular, real estate, and there are so many people that are in the real estate game that just cannot wrap their head around investing more money in the same asset that was 300 grand a year ago and now it's 425, because when they retail it, it’s going to be worth 600. [37:12.5]
You see it in stocks and crypto all the time. For example, I remember I’ve invested a lot of money in ADA. When I say a lot, at least seven figures. I know a lot of people are like, Dude, I put a lot of money in it. It's fucking five grand. It's not a lot of fucking money.
But, again, if you think five grand is a lot of money, it's not. If you think 50 grand is a lot of money, it's not. The truth is a million dollars, it's not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things. I'm not saying, again, to be risky and bet that the farm on everything, but, dude, I do that shit. I bet the fucking farm all the time. I'm in the game of life to win this shit.
I digress. I put a decent amount of money in ADA out the gate at 38 cents. Now, keep in mind, it just ran from 4 cents to 38 cents very quickly, and my guy, I looked at the chart and I'm like, Dude, fuck, it has already played out. I'm dumb, lost the opportunity. [38:13.1]
I hired a coach, paid him $12,000, maybe more, I don't remember because it doesn't matter, to get on the phone with me for a couple hours and walk me through the process. Now, when I say I'm fucking dumb with this stuff, that's an understatement. I literally don't know what wallets to download. He needs to take a pic of the app to show me the app to download. I had zero clue, but I hired him to walk me through the process and he was like, Buy this coin. It's going up.
I said, “Are you sure?” He was like, Why would you fucking pay me and ask me that question? Noted, bought, doubled money in 42 days, if that. Actually, no, it's a lie. Less than 30.
He's like, Buy more.
But, wait, it's over a dollar.
Buy more, Mark. It's going up.
I threw another seven figures in. No, yeah, what did I do? Seven? Yeah, because at that point it was a million. Yes, I put at least a million more dollars in, in crypto, and I was like, Dude, are you sure? [39:11.8]
He's like, Trust me. Today it's 2.25, $2.25 cents in less than a year.
But, again, in real estate, they're doing the same shit. Dude, I could have bought that house for $150,000 in 2016. Hey, fuckwad, it's 2021. Why didn't you? And it doesn't matter what you coulda, shoulda, woulda. It didn't fucking happen. Are you going to repeat the same process? This goes on and on and on in every industry. Housing, building, right? The same thing with HEX. Got it at less than a penny. Today it’s 42 cents. They're talking it's going double. I have many millions of millions of coins. Many. [40:00.0]
The old Mark would have never done that. A penny? I mean, it's got to be risky. I mean, dude, go online, you see what it says. Dude, where are you pulling the information from online? Who are you listening to? The guy at Longhorn? The gal getting blasted on whatever those little wine bottles are over at the Hojo? Where are you hanging with guys that are bouncing around, fucking their side cars or Rolls-Royces, hanging out at $2,500 minimum night rooms, etc.? If you don't think this shit matters, you're absolutely fucking thieving from yourself. You can't stay in these rooms.
Again, let's get this out of the way, not everyone is amazing at the Four Seasons. Not everyone is terrible at Hojo. I'm just saying on a global level, I promise you, you get in a room where money is flowing like water, it's just absolutely amazing and you have conversations with people, these conversations will be drastically different at the Four Seasons as opposed to Howard Johnson’s or the Holiday Inn or whatever. The same thing with Longhorn Steakhouse or Hyde Park or your high-end steakhouse where you live. [41:16.7]
Are you willing to change who you are to become who you want? That's the question. Everyone wants the fucking big office, the big house, the big cars, the big bank accounts, the big team, the big business, the big money-making? Very fucking few of you listening to my voice have what it takes at this point. You've been trained wrong, and now you're an adult, so you either fucking accept it and just think, This is the way it is, Mark. It’s the way it is for you.
I can tell you, you can get out of this rut. It's not easy. You're going to be dry heaving a lot. You're going to be pushing boundaries you didn't even know existed, but you’ve got to get in around people that hold you accountable to becoming a better you. But first you’ve got to commit to yourself. You’ve got to do the work. I call it thought-auditing. [42:16.0]
I want you to pay attention over the next seven days. When you go to make an investment in yourself, when you go to buy the book online, do you shop for the better price? Every behavior you have about spending money, I want you to pay attention. I want you to pay attention. How do you feel? How do you make your decision? Why do you buy the $17 bottle of wine as opposed to the $42 bottle of wine? I know why. It all tastes the same.
I want you to understand there's another level out there, many other levels, but when you unlock what we're sharing, what I'm sharing with you, you will be in a whole other world. You'll live a lot happier, too. [43:05.5]
If you want to get A-class people working with you and in your organization, you’d better be willing to share the wealth. You’ve got to be willing to pay the pony, pay the proper. You’ve got to pay the money. These fucking people want to work.
Right now with the pandemic and the mandated vaccine shit they're talking about or whatever, people are leaving amazing jobs making real money to go work somewhere else for less, and these are amazing people. They're not leaving because they suck. They're leaving because they have morals. They're leaving because they're saying no. They stand for something. It's an amazing time to pick off amazing talent. The question is do you have the balls to do it? Are you focused on value or cost?
It's always funny to me. People come to me like, Mark, how much do you pay people? I overpay every single person at my company. Every fucking single person, I overpay. Why? Because I don't care about the money. I care about the results, and if you pay people to get massive results, the money will always take care of itself because these people know how to make money. These people want to get up and work. These people own this shit. They're amazing. But the old Mark would never have these people in his team. [44:17.0]
You guys have to understand, I have salespeople I’m paying $40,000, $50,000, $60,000-plus a month. I've seen those making massive, massive residual, massive, massive money. The old Mark would never do that. I would try to figure out how to pay less, work more. I wrote a book about it called Magician vs. Mule. I started working on me to get what I wanted.
This is where you're at today. Thought-audit to where you want to be a year from now, and you’ve got to start taking baby steps to get there because this is not something you just wake up and say, Fuck it, I'm paying 200 grand a year for this person. It's not like that, because you're going to freak out at Month 1, Month 2, Month 3, in the worst case scenario. What you need to do is you need to ease your way in your buying habits. You need to ease your way in understanding your behaviors of how you act or react and/or both with money. [45:11.4]
I know a lot of people are like, Dude, money is not everything. Why does that control every single fucking thing you do then? See, when you look, no, money just will flow. Focus on the controllables. You. You are the controllable. If you don't have money, it's not because money doesn't exist. It's because you're not allowing it to exist. You're holding things wrong. You're pushing, positioning things wrong. You're buying into bullshit. “Dude, it’s all about patience.” Patience, my ass. You can sell what you want, but no one, I’ve never met a fucking entrepreneur that’s patient, ever, ever. Now, I'm not saying patience won't serve you well long-term, but you’ve got to be impatiently patient. You’ve got to be fucking on it white on rice 24/7, right? [46:03.5]
I don't want to beat a dead horse here, but I want you to understand this. If you only focus on cost, you're thieving from yourself and everyone you love and care about in life. I would never be where I'm at in my life as the old Mark. Not even remotely close. I wouldn't buy the Ferraris and the Rolls-Royces and the big houses, and fly private and take care of my family the way I do.
It's not just materialistic. It's time. I have time. I have money coming in every day, every second, every hour of the day, to be able to give me the time to do what I love to do. I love to help people. It's something I get great joy out of with the right people. That's why this podcast show exists for free, because a lot of you don't understand the difference between value and cost.
Right now, you think you're getting it. Oh, yeah, this is awesome. I'm getting pumped up. It's free. [47:00.0]
Your life is not free. Your future is not free. This podcast show may be free, but you need to get in my world and other people's world that we understand value. You need to hire people. Get in their networks. Get in their mastermind groups. Invest in the jet trips and all this shit that we do and get around high-level people that are investing in themselves, because it's a very, very small percentage. There are a lot of fucking people out there online fronting and faking, I promise you that. For example, I'm getting ready to do a jet trip.
By the way, I'm going to do a jet trip from Cleveland, Ohio, to Orlando in the first or second week of November. I think it's November 7–9. It's going to be … I don't even know the amount, but it's not bad. You're going to be on the jet with 10, 12 other people and we're going to talk about life, business success, be around great people. Everyone is paying to be a part of this. Then we're going to fly in and we're going to hang out in Orlando in my buddy's mastermind group, talking about seven-, eight-figure deals and real estate and business.
This isn't just about real estate, by the way. This is getting around money. If you have money, be there. If you have real estate desires, be there. We're talking about big commercial stuff. You can't even pay to be in this. This is only for his mastermind, but he's doing this for me because I'm speaking at the event. [48:15.0]
Then you get to fly on the jet two and a half hours each way. We have five hours on the jet together. We're going to do some other cool shit together. But, dude, it's impossible, whatever the cost is, it's impossible not to create massive value for you. For the people that show up, again, I could have 500 people raise their hand and say they're in, and I say it's 10 grand and they're like, Oh, that's too much. Man, I thought this was going to be affordable. To do the jets, that costs me 100 gees, so what's affordable?
See, you always can create an excuse of why this shit can work or not work for you, but don't you just ask yourself, if you're on a jet for five hours with people that all pay to be there, don't you think just accidentally you could generate some ideas, generate some money-making? You could generate one fucking connection that could change your life literally. Literally. I’ve seen it happen every single trip I’ve ever done on the yacht or the jet. [49:15.0]
That's why I keep doing it. It's life-altering and changing for every single person on that fucking thing. But most people will look at the cost and just discount it. “Can’t do it. Nope. I just don't have time, man. I'm too busy.” Too busy doing what? Saving money? Cutting costs? Preserving cash? Working on a project they've been procrastinating for the last five years? When you quit making fucking excuses of why you play the level you play at, your game will change to the next level, but until then, you're going to keep living in misery and keep wallowing in fucking pain. [50:00.0]
I always picture, you're in hell and it's full of glass on the floor. You're butt naked. Some people walk. Some people run. Some people jump. But most people crawl around and roll around. “This hurts. I can't get out of here,” as opposed to just stand the fuck up, man up, gal up, whatever you want to do, and get the fuck out of there, and let's kick this up to another level.
By the way, if this jet experience sounds amazing to you, private-message me @MarkEvansDM on Instagram and say, Yo, Evans, jet trip, Orlando. Let's go. I want to roll with you. I want to help you. If you want to help yourself, I can help you. I have connections. The people on that jet will definitely fucking have connections. It will be epic, but only if you have the balls to take the next step or the guts. [50:53.4]
I have to get to bed. It's crazy, crazy late, but this show is very important to me and I could talk to you for hours and hours on things, moments in my life that changed when I stopped focusing on cost. Stepped my game up, bought nicer clothes, went to nicer events, did the things, and I feel better. I look better. I feel better. I think better. I mean, what the fuck is the problem? Why?
We've all been trained and programmed in many different ways, but this is what I see hurting a lot of amazing people. A lot of amazing people and that may be you, and if it is, I'm sharing with you how to get out of it. Take the steps. Start thinking about value and start implementing it in your life and enjoy the process.
Again, with that said, thinking about you guys. Five star review on iTunes, five-star review on Amazon. Get over there. If anything I'm sharing with you is making a change in your life, share it. I appreciate it.
Thank you. Thinking about you guys. This is what it's about, making moves. With that said, make today count. Peace. [52:02.4]
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