Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” Why traditional thinking is crushing your life in business. We're going to go and deep-dive on this one. So, with that said, let's get started.
Mark: Hey there, it’s your boy, Mark Evans DM. What a day it is today. It’s one of those days where it's just crazy shit going on nonstop. Our website got hacked. We’ve got it back. They’re trying to hold us hostage, which is kind of interesting. Just a lot, a lot of crazy stuff, but I had on the schedule to do the show for you today and you stick to the schedule, stick to the plan, execute the plan. I wish I’d learned that a long time ago. [01:15.0]
But as I'm sitting here talking to you today, I'm in the woods. Fall is coming. The leaves are changing colors. It looks amazing. It's my favorite time of the year. I've got a nice little pair of shorts on and a little long-sleeved shirt, nothing crazy, but it's just like you're not sweating your ass off. It's just perfect, perfect weather. If you want to wear jeans, good. If you want to wear shorts, perfect, whatever. Anyway, I digress.
Today has had me thinking a lot about what I want to talk about today. I actually went out in the woods with a notepad, a pen that works and a cigar, and sat and took notes of what I want to share today. [02:00.0]
Actually, what I'm sharing today is what I'm going through and what I do to get to where I'm at and where I'm going, and a lot of people that are successful, from my experience, do this. I don't think it's a thing. I don't even think about this, honestly, but today, I’m just kind of like, man, I want to share a message that can help make your life better and I think this message will hit home to many.
Before I get started, thank you, guys, for all the amazing five-star reviews on the podcast show. We're getting a lot of shares. Actually, our show is growing every single month and I appreciate you guys supporting it, sharing it to your tribes, letting them know about it. I've got some really, really amazing, impressive stories from you guys and that means a lot to me—if you haven't left a five-star review, please do. It'd mean a lot to me—as well on Amazon. We're crushing reviews, Magician vs. Mule, MEconomy, all those are really getting a lot of reviews. Thank you, guys, for that. As you know, all the profits go to charity and it's always good to see. [03:10.7]
But today with a lot of going on, I'm involved, as you guys may or may not know, in many different companies. I own a media company. I own ecomm companies. I have hundreds and hundreds of partners in multiple industries. I have partners that I’ve known for many, many years and we ride or die together and we do stuff. Our job is always how can we help people live a better life? That's the narrative number one in all of our companies, Care 360. I've talked about that all the time. Real estate companies, lending opportunity, a lending company I have, and everything in between.
Not all companies are crushing it every day and if anybody acts like everything is always amazing daily, they're full of shit, absolutely delusional and/or have nothing going on because that's not how real life and real business even works. But a lot of challenges happen. A lot of things are going on. [04:11.4]
As I’m sitting down writing where I'm at today and kind of my thoughts, because it's easy to be reactive. With one of our companies, we have some partners in it and they're very reactive. They have zero emotional financial control in their brain. They just react worst-case scenario and freak the fuck out. It's always interesting to me because it makes zero sense of service. No, it doesn't serve you.
See, the thing is, in business and in life, what I try to do and what I'm always doing is asking myself questions. We all say it all starts with the question. The problem is most people's questions suck. They ask, How do I get my money back? Was that the question? The question is, how do we solve the problem? If you solve the problem, the money will come back. The problem is they think they're asking the right question in their brain, but the truth is they've got to re-engineer it, you know what I mean? [05:14.0]
Here's what I mean. In 2005, December 31, ’05, that's when me and my girlfriend, now my wife, Deena, we took off for a one month trip to South Beach, Fla., initially. I had a full-fledged brick-and-mortar real estate investment company in Columbus, Ohio. It was cranking. I had people. I mean, I was there every single day, day in, day out. I pretty much slept there, right?
But then my grandmother passed on October 8, actually a couple of days from now when I'm recording this and 16 years ago. That was a life-changing moment for me. I said, man, if this is all there is to life, I’ve got to start living. Deena wanted to travel, so it worked out. [06:06.0]
I sat in the office and I would think. I'd go to Starbucks back then. I'd be sitting down there for hours with my headsets on with a notebook pad. People probably thought I was some weirdo or pervert or whatever, just staring, and I wasn't staring at anybody. I was staring off into my future. I was staring off into the abyss thinking, asking myself different questions.
I've realized my entire life, conventional thinking will never get creative results. We’ll say it again. Conventional thinking will never get creative results for you. They just don't mix, right? We all know one plus one equals two. What if one plus one equals 11, right? These are thoughts that are always rolling through my brain. [06:58.4]
But as I'm sitting there staring and asking myself different questions, the question was, how can I buy a house without ever seeing it? How could I sell a house without them ever seeing it? How could I close a transaction without me ever being present at the location? How can I get someone to take pictures of the property without me being present, to let them in? How can I market these properties without going to event after event after event with me marketing the properties myself? I would just cast the question. I had no fucking clue, zero, truthfully, how to answer these questions and that's the real problem.
You're asking the questions you know the fucking answers to because it makes you feel comfortable and confident. Everyone I know that's crushing life, when they asked the question, it's so fucking big, they need to bring in help. I don't know the answer. If I did, I'd already have fucking solved it. [08:11.0]
I literally had so many people tell me I was batshit crazy when I told them, “I'm leaving for a month.”
“Oh my god, Mark. Everything you've built for the last nine years is going to collapse right before your eyes.”
“I'm willing to let that happen.”
But back to the question, I would say. How do I close this real estate transaction from afar? I asked title company after title company after title company, because that's who closes deals in Ohio. They all said the same thing. “You’ve got to be present. You’ve got to come on in. We'll give you a cashier's check.”
I said, “I can't come in. I can't give you a cashier's check, but I can sign my name on paper from afar. I can send a wire from afar. Tell me how to close this deal without ever being present.” [09:05.0]
You’ve got to keep in mind, this was 2005. I had a flip phone closing more real estate deals than most people did in their entire life in a year from afar, not because I'm better than anybody. It's because I just realized I asked different questions. It forces you to get out of knowing all the answers, right?
I know you're the entrepreneur, just like I was. “No one does it as good as me.” Have you ever thought for a moment that there are a lot of ways to do the same thing? You and I probably have different stuff. You're probably great at sales. I'm great at sales. We probably have drastically different selling techniques. It doesn't mean one is right or wrong. It just means we both sell. [10:06.3]
The dumbest thing I used to tell myself as no one will do it as good as me. Listen, I can tell you right now, the guys that mow my fucking lawn here in Ohio mow way better than I could mow it and I could mow it. I could hire 10 different people. I could get 10 different looks on this lawn. They all would look good. When you start challenging your thoughts, this is thought-auditing again, by the way, which I talk about all the time. Why do you say the stupid shit you say? Why do you ask simple questions to complicated solutions? Why is it complicated? Because it's so big out of the thought process. [10:56.0]
Guys, by the way, this is why a lot of you probably will never invest in crypto, because you can't wrap your fucking mind around it and/or you don't have the thought process to hire someone that could give you some guidance to make you millions, if not hundreds of millions, possibly billions of dollars, with the greatest thing that I’ve ever seen ever with cryptocurrency, and I’ve been doing crypto before it was cool.
In 2015 or 2016, I believe I started buying a little bit of crypto. I'm in it. I still can't wrap my fucking brain around how it all works, but I don't need to know exactly how it works to benefit from it, just like when you get your ass in your car, do you know exactly how that car works? If you do, cool. When you get in the airplane, do you know exactly how that works? Do you know exactly how your blood works in your body? I mean, endless. [11:54.0]
Some of you need to know everything before doing anything. You're literally crushing your life and your future and driving yourself fucking batshit crazy because you need to figure everything out before making a move. If I don't know the answer, Mark, I can't make a decision. Okay, cool. What question are you asking to create the answer? Because I’ve sold hundreds of millions of dollars of cash-flowing assets.
If you're asking the wrong question, you're never going to do a deal because your brain thinks you know everything. That's why you’ve got your fucking money parked in the bank, making 0.0001% because you're a fucking genius at investing. Clearly, you know the answers to your questions. Do you understand risk allocation? Do you understand diversification? Do you understand the asset class a little? At least know someone that does that who can explain it to you in the terms that make sense to you? When you ask bigger questions ... [13:01.5]
For example, let me ask you some questions. These are just random questions that I think about with what's going on in the world. Have you ever asked yourself why they're mandating any company over 100 people that work there? Is it like the system doesn't know if you have 99 and under you're okay, you're protected, if that's your thought or belief? There's a reason behind that number, by the way, not here for that today, but that's a question I have. Why only 100? If it's so deadly, why not every person that has a company? Hmm, I don't know the answer.
I don't try to ask questions I know a hundred percent of the answers to because it doesn't force me to get out of my comfort zone. It doesn't force me to think differently. It doesn't allow me to become a better human being by understanding a lot of different perspectives.
Have you ever asked why they say the retirement age is 65, not 70 or 72? I know a lot of people that work until 75 and they don't even want to retire at 75, but they're like, Well, we're forced into it. I love what I do, but I'm forced into it. [14:14.0]
Have you ever asked yourself why it's 65? I know you might think you know the answer, but people live longer than they did when they created that number, right? Not to say and the truth is I could retire whenever the fuck I want if I ever would want to retire, because, again, the question is what does retirement mean to you. It could mean something totally different.
Remember this again, traditional thinking is the enemy. It's enemy number one for creative growth. What got you to where you're at is because of the way you think and do. If you like where you're at, cool, keep doing it. If you don't, you must start thinking and asking different questions and acting upon these questions and actions way differently. [15:10.6]
A lot of you are sitting on cash, not making moves. Why? Why? What are you waiting on? You’re sitting around watching everyone get rich around you. I bought a house recently for 1.25 million. A side house, right? I could sell that thing literally for a $400,000 profit today, I’ve done nothing, dick, to this property, zilch, to be exact. It’s because it's in the hot market. It doesn't mean I’ll sell it or not. I don't even know. I don't care about that. That's not the point of the conversation here. The thing is, if I didn't think about becoming wealthy, if I didn't think about creating wealth to get cash to be able to purchase a property like that, I would've never been in the position to take down the deal to be able to have that opportunity. [16:00.0]
For nine years of my life, this bullshit crushed me. I was thinking. I call it stinking thinking. Every thought I had, I thought I was King Ding-a-ling of it all. I always knew the fucking answer. What questions are you asking yourself? It blocks progress at the highest level. It literally prevents creative thoughts. That's why I like hanging outside. I look at these trees. I'm like, Dude, I mean, it's just ginormous trees everywhere around me, animals running around like crazy. They know where they're going to go, get food. I mean, they're in a process. It almost reminds me of humans, the average human. They're stuck in a rut. They're just going through the motions.
You're better than that. That's why you're listening to a show like this, because you want to expand. You want to grow. It is not always fun and comfortable and easy. The truth is all of it is very uneasy, very uncomfortable, because you're changing. You're unediting. You're literally rewiring your brain to become someone different. [17:14.0]
I want to see you become receptive, accept the ideas. If I'm talking to someone—I usually or I always do this, by the way. I do this often—I’ll ask an outlandish question, just some fucking over the top that I have, just to see. Here's what I'm doing, by the way. I just want to see the person I'm talking to, their facial and body reaction. Nope, can't do that.
I do this to my team all the time, by the way, my immediate team. I was talking to them yesterday and I was asking a question. Again, how can we send a billion emails a month while reducing the team and increasing profits? “Nope, can't do it. No way, Mark. It's impossible.” Then the other person says, “It's an interesting question. It's something we should put some thought into.” Which one do you think could create the solution? [17:14.0]
See, the problem is when someone says no, “I already know it can't be done,” you've literally shut it down. That's 95 to 98 percent of the people in the world, by the way. They're not thinking. Critical thinking. You guys see this. This is all over the news. You clearly see that the average population of this fucking world just has zero critical thought process, zero logic. Different words. Pay attention to people. Ask crazy questions. [18:56.6]
I remember when I wrote the book, The 10-Minute Business Owner, I said, “How can I?” because I was on a yacht, by the way, doing this book with my family, I'm in the middle of the Exumas on a private island, true story. My cell phone didn't even fucking work, to be honest, but I asked myself, “If I'm stuck here all day, 24 hours a day, and I have all these businesses, all these things going on in my life, I get a global phone for 10 minutes, who do I talk to and what do we talk about to keep me a sane, progressive, profitable business owner?” Why do you think the book is called The 10-Minute Business Owner? I've done it. [19:45.5]
See, the beautiful thing about the three to five percent of people that say, That's an interesting question, let me think about it, what it does is it opens you up to become experimental. Ask my wife, we don't go on the same vacations. We go to different places pretty much every single time. I don't drive the same routine. If I'm going to the gas station, there are four different ways to take and I take a different way every single time. I want to see different.
Most people are the opposite. I know this. Most people want consistency. Most people want familiarity. Most people want to just, Du-du-du, oh, did I just run the green light? Okay, du-du-du, okay, fill it up. Not me. I want to go, get lost on purpose.
When was the last time you jumped in your fucking car and just started driving? I do this all the time when I leave the house. I don't need GPS. I don't need Waze or any of that shit telling me where to go. I'm not going anywhere. I'm trying to get lost to discover new things, to enjoy the great stuff this beautiful world has given us. Most of you have your nose so deep into the GPS, you never even look up to experience where you're even going to. [21:04.8]
This happens in business as well. Business is a constant editing process. It's not set it and forget it and do nothing forever. It's not how life works at all. I'm not sure why people believe that's how business would work. But I want you to go, get lost. I want you to just jump in the car, grab your cigar or whatever you grab. Don't grab weed because that's probably not smart to be driving with that, but grab a cigar or nothing. Listen to a podcast show, hopefully, the Making of a DM. Just drive.
You're going to discover areas where you live that you didn't even know were right around the corner from where you live. Two miles, seven miles, 12 miles, you're going to discover a park. You're going to discover a cool little Dairy Queen spot. You're going to discover, oh my gosh, check out this pumpkin stand right now in this time of year, right? The discovery and you get your brain thinking. [22:00.0]
See, the reason people like Point A to Point B is they've already answered the question. They know where they're going. I know where I'm going. I'm leaving the house and I'm coming back. That's all I know. Everything else is going to be a discovery moment … Take a left here. Wow. Take a right. Shit, dead end. Turn around. Go down the street. Go right. Oh, wow, damn, that's amazing. I never even knew that park existed. What? This company is here. I’ve been buying from this company for 23 years. I didn't even know they were three miles down the road … Your awareness factor changes because you've unlocked the door of seeing more.
Some people say, Nope, can't do it. Nope, A to B, that's it. What you've done is you shut down creative thinking at the highest level. You've shut down any creative opportunities that could come your way. When people tell me there's not enough opportunity there, do you know that life-changing opportunities hit my door every day? [23:10.0]
My problem is, and this is a true story, as you get bigger in the game of business in life, your biggest problem will be saying no at a point in your life. I just can't do it all. I want you to read new books. I want you to explore your palette of books. Go to a restaurant that you've never been to that you didn't even know existed. Don't look at the menu before you arrive to see if you even like it and try food you've never fucking tried before. I'll have the mountain oysters. Try it. Try something different. It's not going to kill you … possibly. [23:57.5]
You’re set too much in your routines. Your business is stale because you’re stale. This was me a long time ago. I still fall into this category sometimes where I'm just going through routines because shit is just going on. I’ve got to stop. I’ve got to be conscious of this. I say, “Evans, jump in the car and take a ride.”
The truth is when I get done with this podcast show, I'm going to talk to 36 DM Family members for an hour and a half and I'm going to jump in the car and go get lost. I'll tell my wife I’ll be back tonight sometime. I don't know when, I don't know where, I don't know what I’ll discover, but I promise you this. I'm going to drive around. I'm going to be smiling. I'm going with the top down in the Ferrari. I want to be smoking a cigar and I'm going to be thinking about all the cool things that I'm seeing right before my eyes. It's the ultimate, being present, which will create presence for you in your life. [25:07.2]
These new books you've read in real estate, which reminds me, back in the day when I was real estate only, I only read real estate books for the first couple of years of my life. Of course, I read Think and Grow Rich as my first book, but then it's real estate. I need to learn the trade. I'm not saying you shouldn't learn a specific trade, but what I'm saying is I didn't want to be real-- Again, this is a question I had to ask myself, so please take notes. This changed my life. Everywhere I went, I met people that said, “I'm a real estate investor.”
“Hey, what do you do?”
“I'm a real estate investor.”
“Cool.”
Go to another event. “What do you do?”
“I'm a real estate investor.” [25:54.5]
One day I was driving, thinking, thought-auditing, and I said, “I'm so much more than a fucking real estate investor. I'm motherfucking Mark Evans DM, and I understand business, I understand real estate, and I'm only just getting started in my life. I'm so much more than real estate investing.”
I started on a journey to understand business at a different level. When you set that in stone, “I'm a businessman” or business gal, whatever, whoever you are I set up to create a thought in my brain. That's what I want to be. Therefore, I’ve got to learn about business. Real estate is easy. Starting a business is easy. Running it, growing it, scaling it and all this shit, not as easy. There are a lot of different components here. But when I set this down in stone and I started going forward, I personally have never read a real estate book since that day and I know I’ve done a lot of real estate deals over 10,000, and by that time I’d probably done 100 or less. [27:11.8]
See, the thing is real estate is fairly simple. Find a good deal, numbers back out, execute the transaction. Now, there are a lot of in-betweens in there, if you're financing, if you're owner financing, creative financing, etc., but guess what? I actually wrote a book about this called One Buck Deals. I had no fucking clue how to make 15 grand on a deal and I made 15 grand on a deal. It was, at that time, the biggest check I’ve ever seen in my life that I got, and I didn't know the answer. But I called a lawyer and I paid him and he did. See, when you start getting outside …
The reason you can't make more money at your job is because you're stuck. You've created this bubble for yourself. “Mark, that's all they pay for people in my position.” Change the fucking position. Create a new one. Build your own, right? [28:04.4]
These are the things that will make you progressive. Trust me, being progressive is way better than being the opposite of that. I want you to try new. I want you to grow. I want you to push your investments bigger, harder. You're going to mess it up sometimes. It's okay. It's going to suck when you lose. I lose all the time, but it doesn't deter me. It encourages me. Why? Because I know that's when most people quit. I'm not fucking quitting, ever.
Now, don't get me wrong. There are days I want to cry. There are days I want to dry heave. There are days when I wake up, I don't want to get out of bed. There are days I go in the theater room and I just shut the lights off and just sit there, just for some peace and quiet, some thoughts. I'm scared. I'm overwhelmed. I'm frustrated. [29:12.2]
I'm excited for the opportunity presented to me in those moments because I know it's when people quit. I know that's when they crack. I know it's when they fucking break their knees at that point. Maybe yours is fishing. Get out and go fishing for the day. Maybe it's snowboarding. Whatever it is, go to your happy place and start asking bigger questions.
Everything I do is focused on people winning with and around me. My partners, my team, everyone I come in contact with, I want to see them win at the highest level. I want to challenge them on their thoughts. Yeah, we'll have some talks and we'll be cool and all that, but I want to challenge. I want them to challenge me with my thoughts as well, like, Mark … [30:02.5]
Actually, I was talking to a guy yesterday. He has a pretty cool company that does about 3.5 million a year. If he’d just implement one thing—I understand, one thing I know very well is email marketing—if he would just implement that one thing in his business, he'll double his business in the next 12 months, guaranteed. He has a massive booking business. It's all written in pen and paper and he says, “Mark, I'm old-school, man.”
That's no longer an excuse. I get it, it has served you well to this point, but if you want to double or triple, grow your business, get you out of your business so you can actually enjoy your life, not to say doesn't enjoy it, but when the things gets bigger, the last thing you want to do is be there 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The whole reason to build a business is so you can actually go do the things you want to pursue, maybe build the business bigger, maybe create more locations, maybe take family vacations and all that. One thing. [31:04.2]
See, a lot of times people think it's 90 things they’ve got to implement. No, actually it's usually the opposite. Most people I know that have companies, if they would just implement one or two things in their company, they could see massive, massive results financially, but they don't know the answers. They think it costs too much money to hire people to help them. Right? Because they know those answers.
I have this guy, Steve Johnson, $12,000 to help me do emails and he flaked out on me in Month 2.
Why do you flake out on you?
Oh no, man, you know it's just how it is.
Let me call Steve Johnson.
Oh, yeah. They didn't call me back. They never followed up. They never followed through what they said they were going to do. They never gave me access to their database to help them grow their business. They always talk shit. They never did anything.
Interesting, because you can do it better than them, right? So good you don't even do it. [32:02.3]
Hire professionals. Hire the best lawyers. Hire the best accountants. Hire the best development team. Hire the best CEO, COO, CFO. Hire the best. If you want the best, expand the mind. Stop asking shitty questions because your shitty answers are creating the shitty life that you don't want. That's why you're here. I’m not saying shitty all around, but we want to grow.
If you're not growing, it's not because growth doesn't exist. It’s because in your brain, you haven't unlocked that door. It's really exciting when you can ask yourself questions all day long that you have no fucking clue of the answers. Sounds crazy. I do it all day. For very few do I know the answer. I might know some answers if guys are asking me or gals are asking me on the team, but I'm more focused on posing the big, crazy question that no one knows the answer to. I'm more looking at this, How do we simplify? How do we streamline? [33:15.5]
“Can’t do it, Mark. Real estate business is chest-to-chest selling. No one would ever sell you their house over the phone.” I was told by people day after day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year, that that could never happen. I fucking did it and many people have followed my steps now. I wrote a book about it in 2007. The truth is you can do more deals without ever meeting them, as crazy as that sounds.
“But, Mark, I did a deal and I met the guy and I shook his hand. He said he would have never done the deal if I wasn't there.” Cool. What about the 300 other people? What about the five people that you didn’t get to their house because this guy fucking chewed your ear off for three hours talking about nothing, while you're in his flea infested house, getting eaten up, but you closed the deal, right? Keep winning. [34:13.6]
See, the thing is the difference is we're playing a different game. You’re in the singular game. I'm in the scalable game. It's way fucking different. Then I asked myself, how can I do real estate deals without ever doing a real estate deal again in my life? Try that one on for size. Do you know who has asked these questions?
Uber, probably the largest taxi company in the world without owning a car. Airbnb, probably the largest hotel extension without owning any assets. You understand, Airbnb is worth more than the Marriott family. They've been around an inkling of the amount of time compared to the family and they're massive, asset-based. Telemedicine. I mean, I could go on and on and on. [35:09.7]
Until you post different, crazy, over-the-top questions, nothing is changing. Ask people a question. Your job, if you can get really, really good at asking crazy fucking questions, and I'm not talking about being an askhole either. I'm talking about stuff that is like you're sitting there and you're like, How do I make more money by working less? That's a real fucking question.
See, what's funny is most of you are doing the opposite. You don't even know you're doing it. How do I work harder and make less to accomplish my goals of creating a lifestyle? It makes zero sense. You're searching for the thing that you know the answer to. You already know how to work hard. Now you've got an unprogram some of this, working hard and working differently, and smart and hard at the same time. Go to work hard on the questions. The answers will show up when you start surrounding yourself around the right people. [36:10.0]
My car breaks down. I don't know the answer. I call help. AAA Mechanic, done. Pay, move on. My house. I know how to build a house from the ground up. If a fucking light goes out in the house that I'm not doing, I'm calling a handyman. I'm not doing it. If I had to, I would, but I don't have to. Get a flat, call AAA. You don't know how to change a tire? Fuck, yeah, I do, but I'm in a suit. I'm in my flip flops. I'm going to the meeting. I don’t want to get dirty. Give the guy a $100 tip. Make his day. It made my day that I don't have to do it. Perfect. Done.
See, too many people think they need to tell everyone and tell the world how hard they work. I change tires. I cut down that goddamn tree. Yeah, did you cut your leg off, too, though? Right? Different questions. Equal different answers. What game are you playing? Singular game or multiplication game. I fronted for years. [37:04.4]
I could close any fucking deal I ever showed up at. I knew how to talk. I knew how to communicate. I knew what to say. I knew what not to say—that's just as important, by the way—and I knew how to listen as if they were selling me the deal and I wasn't selling them the buy to sell me the deal, I should say. The game can change when you change. It won't be easy. It's a process.
You have to uncover this stuff through thought-auditing. If you're looking at your CRM, a new CRM does not change your business today. If you already have one, it doesn't change. That's an activity, not a result, and most of you are fucking confusing activities with results.
“Mark, I'm busy.” I don't give a fuck if you're busy. No one cares if you're busy except you, by the way. No one cares except you, zilch. The best thing that would be music to my ears is “Dude, I'm fucking crushing it and I have too much time on my hands and I'm not sure what to do,” because that's what we talk about in the DM Family. [38:06.5]
That's the biggest problem with the guys I roll with. We have to constantly be pushing up to another level because we're getting to the point in our lives and our businesses and our growth processes that we're gaining so much traction, creating so much wealth, and getting around so many other great people that we’re like, Dude, literally, every dream I thought I wanted, I have now. Now I'm not sure what to do and I'm not doing any of the work. The company is big enough to hire everyone out. The company runs better without me.
Let me say that again. This is music to your ears, by the way, when this happens. “The company runs better without me,” not to say you can't be inside of that once in a while and help guide from the top down. What game are you trying to play? What kind of business are you trying to build? I would probably, if I was a gambling man, every single person listening to my voice, the biggest thing they're really seeking is time freedom. [39:08.0]
I know financial freedom is up on that list, but once you get financial freedom, you'll gain the time freedom. I think if you focus on the time freedom, financial freedom will find its way to you, because you're so focused on the time that you're not worried about money. I know people that get the financial freedom. They never get the time freedom because they're too focused on making more money. Focus on what's really matters to you. For me, it's time freedom.
I had a buddy message me the other day like, Dude, I want to get you on my yacht, and I said, “Cool. Let me know how to Skype.” He's like, I know, Skype and Zoom, LOL. My guys know. Unless I'm in that town, unless I don't have anything else going on, which is very rarely, I'd rather hang out with my kids. I’d rather hang out with my wife. I'd rather hang out by myself because I'm working on a lot of projects that require a lot of input in my brain. [40:05.0]
Don't get me wrong. I love those offers. I love those. I'd love to do them all. I just can't. Do I make less money or more money? I don't know. I do know this. I'm making more money today than I made last year, making more money than I made three years ago, etc. It's not like I'm saying that to be arrogant or cocky. It's just, when I set in stone what is important to me, things work. Again, my brain starts asking different questions to be able to accomplish that and it's going to find the path or the paths to make that a reality.
I'm not chasing dollars. I want them, but I'm not going to chase them. I'm asking myself, how can I be more of a magnet? How can I go sit down in the middle of the woods and hang out when money comes to me, money flows to me? How can I send an email one to many and make $1,000, $10,000, $20,000, $1,000,000 on one email? [41:10.7]
How can I do a voice broadcast call, a text broadcast, a webinar, a Zoom meeting, one to many? How can I invest my time to write a book today, sacrifice six months of my life to be able to get a book out in the market where it gives me some notoriety? People know who I am now. People get into my funnel. They understand what I stand for and we started doing business together. That's the stuff I'm thinking about.
This podcast show is one of them. This podcast show has been downloaded thousands of times, tens of thousands of times a month. That's what this is about, connecting, sharing my thought process with you. I pray that you become massively, wildly successful in your own right. It would make me nothing more happy than seeing you in person one day and/or getting messages online, telling me what's going on in your life as you're succeeding, pushing forward. [42:12.5]
“Dude, this show changed my life. This was a pivotal moment for me. Here's what's going on.”
“Dude, I’m homeless in my car. The only person I listen to is you. You've changed my mind. I'll be out of this car in two weeks.”
I have guys like that and gals that I get messages like that. This is real life, so it keeps me going. I’ve got a shit ton to do, but there's nothing more important than this show right now at all. For me, anyways, at this moment. I know I might not say it the way most people say it. I'm definitely not the Harvard-style guy, that's for sure, but everything I'm saying is genuine. It's real. It's from the heart.
I have nothing here to sell you except sell you on the vision that you're better than what you're doing today and you're capable of so much more. If some hillbilly, small-town, redneck boy like myself, Mark Evans DM, can do and accomplish crazy shit, I sure in the hell know you could and can, and will and probably are. [43:13.3]
That's what the show is about. I have people from all walks of life that listen to the show. I'm honored, to say the least, humbled at the highest level and just very excited to see what the next show is and the show after that, and then we meet and we connect. This ain’t going away anytime soon and you'll listen to me as I evolve. I'm changing. I'm becoming bigger, better, smarter. Maybe not smarter, but I try to be smarter. Not too smart for my own good, though. But be aware.
I want you to follow me on this journey forever. I hope we all live on for another 100-plus years, a healthy 100-plus years, and we just keep driving our dreams, helping people make the world a better place, because that's what it's really about for me. I love the life I've built. I'm proud of it, but I'm just getting started. [44:06.8]
I love the teams and people that I work with every day. If I didn't, I promise you, there's not one person on any of my teams that I don't care about. If I didn't, they'd be fired because life is too short. I don't play games like that. Surround yourself around people you want to be around, not because you have to, but because you want to.
See, again, this is a thought process that I had to go through. I used to keep people because they made me money. I used to keep people around because they made me look cool. That's not cool. It's stupid. I was weak. Stand up for what you believe in. Do the right thing when the right thing sucks. I'm doing that right now at one of our companies, literally millions of dollars going out the front door, back door, side door, every door. I’m matching their funds. I don't have to do it. I'm doing it because I want to, I think it's the right thing to do. I want to get them their investments back as fast as humanly possible. [45:06.5]
My team is busting their ass, working 12 hours a day, seven days a week. It's amazing to see, and one thing is constant in the company culture, which is that this is where champions are made, in the trenches. When shit hits the fan, how are we pulling together? How are we coming together as a team? Are we bickering? Are we pointing fingers? Are we working, collaborating, conversating, and creating results?
For our team, it's the latter. They're crushing it. That's the shit that makes me proud. That's the stuff that gets me excited. I'm not doing all this by myself, by the way. I have amazing guys and gals on my teams that help drive these narratives daily, live these narratives daily. It's an amazing thing when you get all these cylinders running together. [45:53.0]
I just want to challenge you one more time. Please do this and let me know how it goes, seriously. On social media, shoot me a message. Jump in your car and go get lost for an hour or two. Just drive, smile, giggle out loud, say stupid stuff, scream at the top of your fucking lungs. Stick your head out the window and stick your tongue out like a dog, who cares. It's your time. It's your moment.
I'd love to hear how that goes. I'd love to hear what you discover. I’d love to hear it, because, again, there's a lot of discovery in this, not just on the sites, discoveries, the internal. Take mental note, pay attention, and enjoy the ride.
With that said, make today count. Peace. [46:41.5]
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