Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” There are two types of people in this world: those that act and those that think. I’ll ask you a simple question that will reveal which one you really are. So, with that said, let's get started.
Mark: Hey there, it’s your boy, Mark Evans DM. A beautiful day here in Parkland, Fla. Lots of cool stuff going on over here. We bought a house back in April and totally renovated it while I was in Ohio. Thanks and a shout-out to my assistant, Kim. She was here, kind of moved everything in and out and all that stuff. [01:05.4]
I don't know about you, but I absolutely hate moving and I, personally, haven't moved for many, many years because, thank God, I’ve made some money here and there to be able to afford to have people help on that. As you know, it's a big undertaking and a lot of work.
Anyway, as I'm sitting, I just want to say thank you so much. Last week I shared a show and it has been massively responsive with people replying to me via social media, people reposting, people sharing to their people, so I just want to say thank you so much for that. It means the world and I asked in that show and I’ll say it here, because, again, I'm not sure if I'm going to do it still even though I’ve had a lot of responses. Actually, an overwhelming response.
As you may or may not know, I have a mastermind group called the DM Family. It's 50,000 a year. It's capped out. We max out at 36 people, which we always have a waitlist for. The truth is that most people stay for many, many, many years and there's a reason that happens and I love it. They're great guys. They're my boys. It's a high-level brotherhood. [02:11.5]
On a business standpoint, straight up with you, dollars for my time, it's terrible value, for me. I can make so much more money with the time. I invest many, many, many, many, many hours with that group and I love it and I'm not complaining. I'm just sharing real insights. I know everyone is like, Dude, start a mastermind, it's so profitable, the profit margin. But how much is it costing you to do that? It's one question some people typically forget to ask.
But I said, hey, I'm thinking about doing something where I could talk to you guys and help you once a week on a global scale for $1,000 a month, literally only $12,000 a year to share high-level real shit, how we've been able to build many companies and to the next level, from marketing to hiring, to firing, to HR, to growth and mindset, and everything in between. Real shit, not some kind of “Oh, here's the formula.” We would share real stuff on the weekly and create a cool little group where you guys could communicate and connect. [03:19.0]
But what's cool about that as I’ve been thinking about that, honestly, to be honest, I’ve been thinking about it for a couple years, I just haven't had the time to dedicate to do it the way I'd want to do it. If you give $1,000, in my brain, I want to make sure it's returning tens of hundreds of thousands of dollars per month to you in value and from raising private money.
I know I could show anybody how to raise millions of dollars in private money. It's very, very easy once you understand how to do it. It's very easy to grow, to generate millions of dollars of net profit to you as a business owner if you understand how to do it. It's easy to send emails and make some of the easiest money you'll ever make in your life. It's easy to utilize the phone and generate millions of dollars a month or a year, whatever, depending on the size you're at today and where you want to go. [04:07.5]
But that's the stuff we would cover, and there are a lot of groups out there, a lot of things out there, which is cool, but I do believe the DM, what we stand for and kind of the culture we've created, we could really bring the heat to help you get the results that you want. I would only want people that are doing stuff that are not complainers, that are serious about growing, and I see this as a massive legacy piece, for me, honestly.
There could be great opportunities. I might even invest in some companies inside of it, but if it fits my niche and fits our criteria, I'd love to figure out a way to partner with the people. But that would be kind of my deciding factor. If you're inside this group and if I get to that point, it would allow me to let me know that you're investing in yourself. You understand the value of what you bring to the table. Like I said, for 1,000 a month, it would be a steal, and if you can't afford it, you’ve got to ask yourself how to afford it. Think about that. [05:03.0]
Again, if you have not responded, do me a huge favor. If this is something, say, “1k mastermind, (in or out).” Let me know over on social media, Instagram @MarkEvansDM. All I'm doing is I’ll reply to you and get your name, your full email and your phone number and all that good stuff, so I'll put you on the list. If we decide to do it, you'll be the first to know, because there will be caps out and we're going to shut it down and all that good stuff.
My thing is I want to help people. I really love helping people that want to help themselves. It's my greatest joy that I get to do and, if I have the time, which I do, I’ve kind of built my life to have that time right now, and so I’m seriously considering it. Again, if this is something that interests you or you feel would be a no brainer, go to Instagram @MarkEvansDM and say “1k mastermind, I’m in” and that would let me know you're at least interested and I will communicate with you from that point forward. [06:01.8]
Today's show is going to be powerful. It's, again, something that's a trait I’ve seen in every highly-successful person I know, including myself. As I get more successful, it becomes more relevant, but every day, every time, this is very powerful. But before I get into that, two more things. One, keep up the shares. Thank you for all the five-star reviews and all that stuff on the platforms. Appreciate that.
But number two, I have a deal for you. It's $50,000. Please listen. This is very important. I have an investment. It's $50,000. It's producing right now 16% net ROI, totally passive income. It's a real estate deal. It's worth more than 50. It's ready to go now. Are you in or are you out? What is it? [07:07.3]
Five seconds, five minutes, five days, or never. Are you one of those that Google for a better price or use the excuse “I’ve got to ask my spouse,” “I’ve got to check with my CPA,” “I’ve got to meditate on it with my dog,” “I’ve got to sleep on it”? I just did, by the way. I have investments like that every day, but I'm not here to sell you an investment. I'm here to help you make faster decisions.
Fast decisions equal more money. It is one of the number one traits I see in all highly-successful entrepreneurs and business owners that have this thing here right here, fast decisions. One of my great mentors, Frank, always said, “More is lost by indecision than wrong decision.”
That example I just shared with you, the $50,000 deal. You mind thinking, Okay, I’ve got 50 grand. Okay, I'm here. Okay,16%, all right. Shit, that's amazing. Oh, it's real estate secured by real estate, so it's got real value, blah, blah, blah. [08:11.0]
Yet in your brain, I want you to stop this show right now and think about what your thought process was. Were you ready to make a move? Were you ready to throw up things in front of you to create resistance? What type of buyer are you? What type of decision-maker are you? That's why I like to talk about buying because it ultimately shows you the type of decision-making process person you are.
Now, just a full disclaimer. I'm a massive fucking fast-action decision-maker. Literally, people around me almost get scared it happens so fast and I'm talking big fucking decisions or little decisions and everything in between. I've trained myself. It is a muscle, by the way, and that's why I want to share it here with you because it's an important muscle. [08:59.0]
But if I'm buying something for $5 million, I'm not sitting around thinking about it for 10 days. I'm executing the decision within nanoseconds. It's either yes or no, not maybe. By the way, “maybe” is a decision. Yes and no are decisions, too. No, next. Yes, next step. Maybe, that's the indecision. I want to share real with you guys, so please understand that you should stop this and take notes on how you're thinking when I shared that offer with you, because it would tell me where you're going and why you're struggling with all the little shit.
See, you're sitting here dealing with little shit turning into big-mountain problems that are the size of a molehill, because, in your brain, you haven't taught yourself how to make fast decisions. Why? Maybe you're afraid to look stupid. I look stupid all the fucking time, so it doesn't matter to me. Maybe you're afraid you're going to make the wrong decision. News flash: why is it that people that wait to make a decision that it takes them forever, and then they make it and it's always the wrong decision? It's weird how that works. [10:05.8]
By the way, part of growth is making wrong decisions is part of the game. The question is, what do you do when you realize it's the wrong decision? Do you fucking go back into the same five-year thought process, decision-making process, or do you make a faster decision to execute, to solve? What do you do?
It's funny, this is a true story and I'm sharing behind the scenes in my personal life. One of my wife's biggest fights in the fights between her and I is over indecision on her part. I love my wife to death. She works really hard on stuff. She takes care of the family and all that good stuff, but I have rooms in all my houses. We just bought this house, like I said, in Florida. We remodeled it from the ground up and there are things that are not in the rooms like pictures, and in the bathrooms like having a plunger and having this, and “What color shower curtain do I need? Oh, man, I'm going to get the bedspread, but it's not the right bedspread. What if it's too hard? What if it's too soft? What if it’s the wrong collar? What if it doesn't match the floor? What if it doesn't match?” Literally, she'll drive herself fucking bananas before making a decision. [11:06.4]
I want to ask you, what the worst that could happen is. Even with my particular situation with the 50 grand, the ultra-worst that could happen is you lose 50 grand, but the best is you could make 16% on a passive income. I'm not saying make blind decisions, by the way. You're going to educate yourself and know what you're making decisions on, but, dude, I don't know what fucking drapes to pick, but I'm going to pick drapes.
I’ve got guys right now, as I'm speaking to you, I'm watching them re-landscape my entire yard. I don't know what fucking flowers they are. I know they're red, green, yellow, trees, leafy, not leafy, big, small. I made a decision to meet the landscaper and say, Hey, here's what I'm thinking. I need some color in the back. I need this to happen. I need this to happen. Boom, done.
I didn't ask, How much is it? Would you do more or less? I didn't go online and try to beat him up. I didn't shop him. He has always been fair to me. I said, execute. This was Thursday. When I'm recording this is on a Monday and it's being done. It will be done today. It's going to cost anywhere from 20 to 30 grand. [12:10.0]
“But, Mark, I don’t make decisions like that. What if it's 28?” Fuck, I don't care, 20 to 30 grand is the price, I'm in. See, the thing is so many people exhaust so much energy on the wrong shit. $26,522. Couldn't you do it for 24,000? If you can do it for 24,000, I can make a decision next year. Don't act like you don't do it. I've seen people do this all the time at low levels. I'm not talking that you're lower than me. I’m just saying.
I used to be this fucker, by the way. I used to be the guy stressing out about buying post-it notes for 42 cents when it should be 39 cents. I used to be the guy that I was trained to be because my parents trained me to go save 2 cents on gas per gallon by standing in line for six hours to save 2 cents 13 miles away, and by the time I got home, I’d burnt enough gas. My time wasn't valuable. My energy wasn't valuable, but I saved fucking 42 cents on filling up my car. Yay, winning. Not. This shit has been trained on you, this stuff. You've seen this. You've watched people around you in your life. [13:09.5]
You've probably worked for corporations potentially in the past and/or now and you're caught in the middle of the crossfire, because if you make a decision, you're going to piss off Nancy. If you make a decision, Joe is going to be excited, but you're more worried about pissing off Nancy than making the decision that's better for the company than you. Therefore, you don't make a decision because you don't want to ruffle any feathers.
Making decisions gets results, good or bad, but they're fucking results. This is genuinely why I think I don't like sports at all because people just want to think and talk about shit that they would have done or should have done. It means nothing, zilch, to my life and their life. But they get a hard-on talking about it.
“Dude, did you see what Antonio Brown did? He took his thing off in the third quarter. No one wants him.” [14:01.5]
“Oh, yeah, I bet he gets straight to this, blah, blah, blah. I bet he gets big money.”
“No, no one wants him, man. I promise you. I promise. You want to make a bet?”
What does it fucking matter? You have children. You have a business. You have charities to go after. Let's build. Let's grow. Let's talk about something productive that we can control and manage. See, why most people are talking about sports and stats and all that bullshit. “Oh, man, looks like Tom Brady might get another ring.” I don't give a fuck about Tom Brady. It's cool. He's a great athlete. Awesome. But I'm taking care of the “ME” economy.
He’s not going to ever fucking know who you are nor does he care, so why put any thought and energy into him? Why? If you're trying to become the best football player, that's probably someone you'd want to model. I'm not. Not to say maybe I won't do business with him one day, but I ain't going to be talking about his fucking stats. I'm going to be talking about where we're at, where we're going. [14:59.6]
I don't give fuck if you're Tom Brady, Donald Trump, or someone off the street that’s just hustling, making real money. If we're going to deal, we're talking about the deal in future. I don't care about your past. “Man, I just scored 10 touchdowns.” I don't care. It doesn't matter.
A lot of people like to talk about stuff that does not pursue anything greater than where they are at today. “Killing time.” “Must be nice for you.” “Man, not in this lifetime.” But what fucking lifetime are you talking about then? See, when you really start executing decisions, you'll start getting freed.
You know that anxiety you feel? By the way, I still get this, right? We all get anxiety. But when I feel real anxiety, the reason is I'm lacking fast decision-making. Maybe I'm stalling on a decision and I know it. I feel it. It's creeping up in me. Man, I need to relax. No, I just need to make a fucking decision and then I’ll relax. [16:04.4]
You see, this house here in Florida, like I said, we’ve redone it and all that. There's still lots of stuff in Ohio. We moved. We remodeled a million-dollar renovation literally in 70-something days and my wife picked out the wrong-colored cabinets because I was like, You pick out these cabinets or I pick out, and she made a decision. English white. We like bright white. We didn't realize it until the cabinets arrived and, literally, the cabinets were holding up the project, but they arrived and we looked at them, like, Shit, that's not the color we want.
We didn't point fingers. We didn't say, You're dumb. We didn't say, You're stupid. We didn't say, What were you thinking? Why didn't you pick the right color? I went straight. What's the solution? Let's call the painter. Let's get them over here and let's get these painted up. He priced it out, I don't remember, but, say, seven grand. He painted all the cabinets bright white and they look absolutely brand new and amazing. Solve the problem for $7,000. [17:09.5]
Now, you might think, If you did just pick the right color, blah, blah, blah. Cool. Interestingly enough, my wife did check to see if that color was even [available]. It wasn’t available for the next eight weeks, so it held up this entire project if we had picked that color anyway, right? Which would've never happened because we weren’t holding the project up, because that's not how we roll. We're moving fast. She made the decision and we edited the decision on the fly and it worked out really well.
See, the thing is there are going to be obstacles and pothole and U-turns and fucking detours and all this shit, but who is to say that's not actually a path to the new, where you're really going. Maybe your path that you think is A to B is actually the wrong path. I know it has been for me many times. When I take the detour, when I hit the speed bump, when I have to pull over to the side of the road and change the tire, I realize that I have to edit and adjust, and move forward to a different path and it's a better path. [18:04.7]
See, when you start making decisions at rapid paces, I promise you, your mind will start growing and expanding to whole new levels. If you're sitting around and you can't make a decision, I genuinely look at people and I'm like, how do they even take a shit? They can't even make a decision on which bathroom to go to. “I’ve got one upstairs and I’ve got one downstairs, but if I go downstairs, I’ve got friends in there. And if friends are there, then I go upstairs, but then they're going to know what I'm doing, and if I go upstairs …” Dude.
You know what I'm talking about. There are people out there like that. They have nothing big going on in their life, guaranteed. It's impossible. It's impossible. Big to me, by the way, right? Maybe they have more money than their friends, but that doesn't mean it's big. Maybe it's big to their life, but they're not happy. That's a miserable life, by the way. If that's how you think and make decisions, you're fucked. That's a stressful life, straight up. I was stressed for the first 25 years of my life like that. I literally was, and then once I started realizing the faster I made decisions. [19:04.8]
See, in real estate, it programmed me to make fast decisions. Why? I'm sitting down with Susie, the seller, and she has a motivation to sell fast and my job, how I make money, is buying low and selling higher. Right? If she says I'm ready to sell today, it's not like, Awesome, thank you, Susie. I'll get back to you in five days or less and I’ll let you know if I'm ready to take action. No, that deal would be gone. Another smart investor would grab it up and make the money, and then I'd sit at home in the bathroom I took 20 years to decide where I'm going to take a shit and I'd be all upset, wondering what I did wrong.
The only thing I did wrong was the most important thing and that was making a decision. I didn't say, Yes, Susie, let's close this fucking house and get you your money ASAP. Back in the day, I’d shit my pants, literally, because I didn't have the money to close the deal in my bank account. But I had relationships, I had connections and I had opportunities galore flying at me 24-7. Why? They called me the deal-maker, but the truth is I'm a fucking decision-maker. That's what I really am. [20:12.2]
Fast action decision-making. That's the only way you can become a deal-maker. It’s by executing decisions fast. There will be fuckups. There will be things that happen, but I learn from every single one of them and I know you do, too. Listen, we all have a decision-making process. I want you to go buy a TV. I want you to go buy a car. I want you to pay attention to how you buy, how you make decisions. Why are you making the decision? Are you buying the watches you want to be cool? Are you buying the watch as an investment? Are you not buying the watch because you don't want to be weird around your friends because you're rolling around in a $250,000-watch and they're going to judge you? How do you make decisions or do not make decisions? Right? [21:02.5]
I want you to really think about this. Do you have any opportunities? I see people pass by because they can't execute a decision. They just can’t. Your decision-making process has to be edited if you want to grow. If you want to grow with confidence, you want a hundred percent, you have to get better at this. I'm still getting better at it. I'm still learning it every day. I'm still leaning into it. How do I make a faster decision?
More importantly, here's a decision, by the way, that I make. A long time ago in my companies, I made a decision to hand off power to others. I wrote a book about it, for God’s sake. It’s called Magician vs. Mule. That's a decision, by the way. It's a big fucking decision, handing over the reins to things that I'm good at, things I shouldn't be doing, but I'm capable of doing and I'm good at it. Since you start growing companies, your time is better spent on bigger problems which equal bigger decisions than Mickey Mouse decisions. [22:10.3]
Again, I'm using this loosely because they are Mickey Mouse for where I'm at in my life today. But, like, Hey, do we hire this person? Do we not hire this? These are big decisions, but we've built. I made a decision to hire someone to help us build an environment that we could hire great people, right? That's a decision, by the way. Then the next decision is I have to hire a scout, someone that could go find me prospects to put in and plug into their companies. That's a decision, right?
A decision to let go is a decision. “I trust you.” The truth is, I swear on my life, every single person in every single of my companies I trust with my life. I really do. Most of them, I've never even met in person, but I see the way they communicate with our clients. I see the way they communicate with each other. I see what they live like, how they live and what they live for and why. I can relate to them. To me, that's what it's about. [23:07.5]
I want to build companies and organizations that can get around people, make decisions and help for the better good of the vision of the team, right? If you've ever been to something like a Four Seasons, do you know how many decisions had to be made to give you the experience you have at a Four Seasons resort? Seriously, think about that. How many decisions had to be made at a high level?
By the way, in a lot of your decisions, you may think you're losing money. If you've never read the book about the Four Seasons, you should, but there's a part where he was doing silk drapes and all this shit, silk linings on the bed and all this stuff. Then the money guy comes in and he’s like, That's absolutely a waste of money.
They always do a prep room, right, prior, before buying for 1,600 rooms. They'll prep one room and then make sure they approve all things and then they'll just go put it across the board and put it in all the other rooms. The guy walks in, the creator. Isadore Sharp rolls in and he's like, It’s not the same color and it's the wrong fabric. [24:12.6]
They're like, Yeah, but it's half the price.
He's like, I'm not worried about the price. I'm worried about the look. I'm worried about the appearance. I'm worried about the textures. I'm worried about the customer enjoyment and the customer experience.
See, when you put your customers and people over profit, your brain starts making decisions differently. If you're looking for A players, the reason most people don't have A players is because they can't make a decision to truly hire A players. Why? Because they're going to make a lot of fucking money and you don't like that when you're not making big decisions, because you think if you give them big money, you can't make big money.
I just recently saw Tim Cook, who runs Apple. $100 million he made in 2021. I look at that and I'm like, Dude, he's fucking short-changing himself. Everyone else is like, Dude, it must be nice, $100 million. The company is worth $3 trillion. $100 million is nothing in the grand scheme of things. [25:11.4]
See, we live in a world where people are saying things based on improper data. If I made you $3 trillion, don't you think I'm worth more than $100 million? If I go, and let's use smaller numbers, but if you're a small-time business owner and you make 10 million a year gross and I bring someone on and they make me 50 million, do you think I could cut them off at 1 million or 2 million to do that? If you're making 50 million and your profit margin is 20 million, the company generates net 10 million—basic math I'm using, by the way—and I'm going to pay someone 2 million to do that.
You might be thinking, $2 million, dude, I would do anything for that. Get the fuck to work then because you can make way more than that, depending on how big of a solve you’ve got, depending on what you're out there doing. [26:01.4]
I'm not saying this is for everybody, by the way. This is definitely not for everybody. Right? There's different risk tolerances here and all that. But if you're a business owner, listening to my voice, the reason most people don't make money is because they're more worried about what everyone else in their organization is making instead of them. I focus on the company. Dude, if you can pay Tim Cook 100 million, don't you think he's probably doing a really good job for the investors and partners and everybody else? I would say so.
I talked about it in last week's podcast show. This is why most people don't get A class. That's why they can't even get C-class people, because you're so worried about the dollar. You're so worried about what it costs you as opposed to what the investment is. You see, when making big decisions like investing in your brand, investing in you, your investment in yourself—like if we did the $1,000-a-month mastermind program or the $50,000-a-year DM Family group or whatever—it's really hard for people to make a decision, to wrap their head around it, to fucking invest in themselves, invest in others, because they don't have a direct correlation of return of investment. [27:13.4]
Aren't you the best investment you could ever make? The beautiful thing about knowledge is once you have it, you have it, period. You can invest in knowledge and gain it, and now you just start compounding that growth. Start making it a point to invest 50,000 a year in yourself in mastermind groups and all that stuff. It would pay off in spades for you.
How do I know? Because that's how I got here, where I'm at today. I've invested millions of dollars up to this point, but I started off at 2,500. Then I went to 15,000. Then I went to 25,000, all the way up to 100,000 a year and beyond. It doesn't count travel and all that good stuff. It's a $250,000-a-year commitment for me. Right? Flying private, staying at nice resorts, hanging out, doing all that, all that shit, it costs money. It's okay, it's just money. Go make more, right? [28:06.0]
But your decisions are what's crippling people or lack of. It genuinely is. I see so many great people not making a decision. Don't you want a better life? Don't you want better people around you? These are all decisions that you have to make. Do you want to make more money?
I was hanging out with my buddy, Matt, today. We were working out. We were talking about one of his mentor students. He's like, Yeah, man, he says he’s doing big things this year in marketing. I was like, That's awesome. I love hearing that, by the way, “big things in marketing.”
By the way, everyone here listening to my voice, I don't care what business you're in or what industry you're in. You're, first and foremost, in the marketing business. If you don't know how to market and you don't have a path of growing for scalability, you're always going to be a slave to the business, always. There's no way out. See, if I can build a marketing channel and I can get 50 leads a day, and turn that into 10 deals a day and it equals X, I have a formula. I can grow that and scale that. [29:05.2]
“But, Mark, I'm a word-of-mouth business.” That isn’t a business. That's a high-paying job, working for a psycho, i.e. you. I’m not saying word of mouth is not good, but there are ways to stimulate word of mouth through marketing. There are ways to stimulate business growth through marketing and word of mouth.
Not only that, if word of mouth works so well, why aren't you making millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars? Some years you can make millions, but it would never be a confidence thing because you don't know how to drive it. If you're just waiting for the phone to ring because Steve talked to some guy at a coffee shop and said, Oh, my god, you don't know Mark? You should give him a call, I'm not fucking building a business like that. No one is. Yeah, I could make money when that guy calls me, but I can't build a business like that.
See, a lot of times people confuse making money with creating a business, two totally different activities. Massive difference. Not saying you don't need to make money, but building a business and making money are two drastically different things, just day and night. These are totally different podcast shows that we need to do, for sure, in the future. [30:08.7]
But as I sit down here and think, because I’ve been sitting here pacing because you guys got me excited, is this decision stuff is real. I’ll share a story with you. Yesterday, actually, Sunday, I was sitting here reading a book, and I don't know if I'm the only one that does this, but sometimes when I'm reading, I'm thinking, too, and someone popped in my head, a buddy of mine named Rich.
I haven't talked to him for maybe a couple months or whatever, but this is a good dude, very well-off. He has built a monster company and I’ve known him from the beginning. I’ve known him from the beginning. I’ve known him from the get up, which is cool. I love that actually, a lot more of me and my friends. It's interesting, because I’ve been in the game for almost 26 years of business and a lot of my buddies are really, really finding their pace, their niche, and it's really just very inspiring to say the least to see these guys hitting their groove and they're just getting started, just like I am. I'm just getting started, so it's really neat to see that, and because I know where they started. [31:09.6]
Anyway, I'm sitting here reading a book and a thought popped into my head. “Tell Richard you're thinking about him.” Something simple, that's all. That's it. The old Mark does this. I grab a pen, write down on paper, “Text Rich”, or “Call Rich” back then, right, or whatever, and then I go back to reading and I don't do it tomorrow. I don't make fast decisions.
Instead, I said, “Happy Sunday, Rich.” Immediately. I put the book down and grabbed my phone. This is a nanosecond. Your phone is a weapon, by the way. I said, “Happy Sunday, Rich. Just was thinking about you over here in Florida and wanted to say happy New Year and thank you for being you.” That's it. I was thinking about him. He's a great dude. I just wanted to say “Thank you for being you.” [32:02.2]
I don't need a response back, I'm good, but then he followed up with the response, “Happy Sunday, Mark, and happy New Year to you and your entire family. I appreciate that and I appreciate you and our friendship over all these years. Hope everything is awesome in Florida.” You know what that decision does to you as you're building a company, as you're building relationships? It anchors. It forges. It evolves. It develops. If something or someone pops in your mind, there's a reason that's happening, and if you don't make a decision to do something about it, it's either going to die on the vine or be eliminated.
I'll share another real story. This just happened. My buddy's father is kind of sick right now, actually really sick, and he is going through chemo and this has all happened very quickly. My buddy has a little bit of money. He has done well for himself in business. A great guy, I've known him since ’06 and he and I have done a lot of stuff together. He's a problem solver. I'm a problem solver. You're more than likely a problem solver. We like to solve problems. [33:10.5]
His mother, his father's wife. He’s in his seventies, so a little bit older. He can't really pick him up. He's a bigger dude, whatever. My buddy goes out and goes online immediately. Solved the problem. “How do I get my dad a wheelchair? My dad is prideful. He needs a wheelchair ASAP. He gets the wheelchair. The first thing he does is he checks it. “It needs to be available today, period.”
He goes online. Boom, boom, boom, boom, today, today, today, today, and now he looks at proximity, three hours, three and a half hours, six hours, 45 minutes away. Call him, execute. $400 later, he's driving back from the place with the wheelchair to his father's house to make his life better. Fast-action decision, rapid decision-making. [33:57.6]
He didn't go online and search for the best price. He didn't go online and search where all the best components are. All he needed to do was solve the problem of a wheelchair. Maybe in the future it has to have bigger wheels or wider ranges, whatever, but it doesn't matter.
So many people sit there and do this shit to themselves. People put themselves through misery, “But if it's not gray … he really likes black, but if it's not black, he really would rather have yellow and if it's not yellow, we should probably just get gray.” Right? They get decision-fatigue and then they do nothing.
But what's even more interesting in this conversation is I was talking with my buddy today and he told me, he was like, Yeah, dude, my dad actually got pissed. He was like, Man, take that back, I can get a free wheelchair, because he is older and all this stuff. His dad was more worried about the $400 than the convenience of the wheelchair that he has had for the last week. [34:52.6]
This is how we've been programmed, though. See, he's like, Son, take that back, that's $400, that's a lot of money. I can promise you, $400 to my buddy is not a lot of money at all. He wouldn't even know it's missing, right? But his dad has a preconceived thought that his son … It’s his son, I get that. But we're a week and a half later, right? Then by the time he identifies the wheelchair he wants and then he gets it two months later. Instead, my buddy solved the problem in 24 hours or less, because he made a decision to.
See, are your decisions holding you back or are your decisions driving you forward? And I'm not saying you won't make bad decisions. I just want to be crystal clear. I make a lot of bad decisions, but, fuck, I make decisions. Decisions are the key. It will give you confidence in making moves. I was just telling my buddy when we were working out today. Because we are pretty heavy in a couple coins here in the crypto world, I was like, Dude, I'm at zero in my brain. I look at it and I have millions in these things. I'm like, Dude, if it goes to zero, I'm good. I assume they're at zero. [36:02.6]
This is how I protect my decisions, because I'm not going to stop working. I don't care if it says 100 million or a billion, I'm going to still work. I love what I do. I'm very, very, very lucky to be able to figure out that I want to do this in my life while I'm alive, the decision I made to go in, the decision I made to protect my brain, because I'm going to keep making money. I can't control that.
See, a lot of people are trying to make decisions to control. I can control me saying yes or no. I can't control if I say yes, if the thing shows up three months later, right? If it says it's coming tomorrow and it shows up three months later, obviously, I have another decision to make tomorrow if it doesn't arrive. We'll solve that. We'll venture down that bridge if that even happens. So many people, and it's typically smart people, are so analytical about shit that will never happen. They're stressed out. They can’t eat. They're a mess because they won't make a decision. [37:05.3]
I want you to start documenting and thought-auditing about this. How do you make decisions? Are you fast, slow, medium, quick? Where do you need to improve? Do you make faster decisions on expenses or faster decisions on investments? Etc. Because you can pull from those, right? That's like if I'm trying to play football and I'm great at baseball. I'm going to use my confidence in decision-making that I became successful at baseball and move it into football, right? Because I'm thinking about it. I'm thought-auditing. I'm very conscious of my efforts.
I want you to buy a car, buy a house, buy an investment, do something. Make a decision. More importantly, pay attention to how you're making the decision. Ask yourself, How is it working out? Is it? How do you feel? More confident? More stressed? More blessed? What is it? What is it? [38:02.5]
See, too many people are asking for permission. That's what I’ve really, really decided. I really do believe the number one reason most of you guys, most people, in general, don't make the real decision very quickly is because they have to ask for permission. “I’ve got to ask my CPA.” If your CPA tells you yes and you do it and it's a bad decision, then you can blame your CPA. See, it's called taking accountability and responsibility for every fucking thing you do, good or bad, right? “I’ve got to ask my spouse (because if it fails, then I can blame them.)” No you're a big boy or girl. Make a fucking decision and execute. [38:45.2]
One of the interesting things in my life, again, back to Susie, the seller, I’ve trained daily, hourly, per second making fast decisions to buy millions and million, hundreds of millions of dollars of real estate, because the deal was not there tomorrow. If you don't decide, now it is gone, for real. I'm not joking, it's that fast, especially now more than ever in a hot market. I mean, it's nanoseconds, and it had better be a sweet deal, a deal with least resistance and all that because there's so much heat on these things, you know? Are you asking for permission or forgiveness?
See, when I'm talking to someone—that's where I was going with this—when I'm talking to someone, back in the day, when I used to do a lot of calls myself and I'm talking to the guy or gal, they're like, I’ve got to ask my spouse, keep in mind, they make the decision. They own the company or whatever, and I'm like, Huh? Do you call your fucking spouse on everything? If so, you have no business. Truthfully, I'm being straight up. I'm not saying that to be a dick. I'm saying that because I care.
Dude, let's get your spouse on the phone then, because the thing is, you're going to say it differently than I say it. You're not going to answer the objections like I would answer them. You're not going to know some of the answers, so you're going to half-ass it and then now that person's going to make the decision for you based on half-loaded data because you did a shitty job of explaining it. [40:12.1]
The truth is most people are using that as a crutch. Does your spouse not trust you enough to make a fucking decision? I'm being honest with you. I'm being straight up, for real. I'm asking a real question. Me and my wife have never, ever talked about making a financial decision. There's no need to. She trusts me and I trust her. I'll lose money and I’ll make money. She'll do the same. She doesn't have to ask me. She might want to consult me after she's made the decision. The truth is we don't even talk about it.
I have so much shit going on, I couldn't even imagine if I used that bullshit excuse, “Let me talk with my spouse.” My spouse would be like, Leave me the fuck alone and go to work. Quit being a pussy and man up and go execute, you know what you're doing. [40:59.3]
I see so many great people and I'm talking to him on the phone. I was talking with this guy. He’s all gung-ho about joining the DM Fam and all excited. It's 50 gees and he is like, I’ve got to talk to my partner. Really? Your partner that you said you're making 3 million a year with is worried about you spending 50 grand on yourself to invest to make 10 million a year? Either you're full of shit and he's full of shit or you’ve lied to me this whole time.
See, decision making and/or lack of are common traits of lots of things. I mean, it's going to stem from other things. A lot of people lie. Everyone has the money until they have to give the money. Everyone has the best deal until they have to present the best deal. Pay attention to these behaviors. Pay attention to these actions. [41:47.7]
By the way, words, people fucking lie. It's part of the game. But the question is—that's why I say focus on data, not drama—if they say, Mark, blah, blah, blah, blah, I'm in. Cool, here's a wire . “I’ve got to talk to my CPA and then I’ve got to set this up and I …” Dude, you're out. You're out. By the way, that's a bullshit pussy way to undo your shitty half-assed decision that you really did make, true story.
When I talk about the $1,000 group I'm thinking about starting, some people are like, Dude, $1,000, that's a lot of money. I actually had one guy say, Yo, man, could I do 1,000 a year? No, thanks for asking. See, what you guys realize, depending what level someone is on, they're not doing it for just the money. They're doing it because they actually care. They care so much, they don't even want your money if you're like that. Why would I want a shithead like that in my environment? I don't think like that. I don't rule like that.
I was talking to a guy at the gym today. He was like, Mark, I searched you online, man. Hey, can I get a discount? Actually, if anybody asks me about a discount, I charge him double. I'm not fucking around. I'm being dead serious. He started laughing. He was like, Come on, man. I was like, It's 100 grand for you now or something to that effect, and I'm being for real. [43:09.8]
It's like, dude, you don't call Sam. You can't call Sam Walton anymore. You don't call Jeff Bezos. You don't call Warren Buffett. You don't call the McDonald’s owners. You don't do this shit. You don't call the Four Seasons owner, saying, Man, I need a discount. See, that's a decision, by the way. That's a decision to be a cheap-ass. That's a decision, thinking you're hacking the game of life because you're asking your friends. By the way, if you ask your friends for discounts, your chumps. You're a chump, straight up. It's wrong.
I think I told you guys, I signed them some books and he is like, Yeah, here's the price. I'm like, Absolutely not, dude, charge me, because I’ve sent him a lot of business. I was like, Dude, charge me the full price. I'm not paying you. I'm paying you what I would pay you. He said, But, man, I appreciate it. I was like, Dude, I appreciate you, that's why I want to pay you. That’s why I want to work with you. That’s why I refer people to you. I pay fucking retail. I pay over retail for people. I want to pay people that help make my life better. That's my decision. [44:09.4]
See, again, there are a lot of talkers out there and very few doers. I want to see you be massively successful. I'm going to tell you the shit that helps you get to that next level. It's not stuff you always want to hear. The truth is, who wants to be told that they don’t know how to make a decision? You’ve probably heard this from your spouse, I'm guessing. I'm not joking. A lot of times your spouse is saying this, “Just make a fucking decision.” “I did. No, I can't. I needed help.”
Again, I go on and on, but, for you, moving forward, audit your thought process on decision-making from everything you do. You're getting ready to get a new CRM to grow your company. The company could make $1,000,000. It costs $4,000 a year and you can't make a fucking decision to save your life. Do you talk yourself out of it or do you talk yourself into it? What decision process do you go through? [45:01.7]
You see a car. True story, when I see something I want, I become massively obsessed with it and I'm executing in a very quick time. Rapid timeframe. True story, I swear my life, I have never sat in a car that I’ve bought prior to 2006. Every car I’ve bought since 2006 has been online, out of sight out, not in person, over the internet, right, the interweb, and I’ve had it shipped to me, one hundred percent, and I'm talking millions of dollars in cars. I’m not saying that to brag or boast. I'm telling you the truth. It's true, because when you know, you know, right? You're in the game. We're moving so fast.
Dude, I don't need to go to the fucking car lot and limit my opportunities to a 30-mile radius of where I live here in Florida. The world is your backyard with the internet, the world, and there are ways to protect yourself and all that shit, obviously, but, dude, I made a decision. I'd love to shop local. They don't have the fucking car I want local, so I’ve got to go. Local is the internet. Right? [46:07.8]
I'm rambling now, but I just want you to know, I appreciate you being here. I appreciate you being on the journey. If the $1,000-a-month club sounds like something you're serious about and, listen, don't message me if you're not serious. There's no need to be messaging and saying, Dude, thank you, I think it'd be cool, but I don't have the funds. I get it. You don't have to message me that.
But if you do have the funds and it's something you're serious about and you really want to grow, it would be 52 weeks, 52 calls once a week over 12 months, and then we'd probably meet twice a year. Actually, I have a really cool event planned in June or early-July. It would be amazing, epic, and possibly life-changing.
Not only that, what's cool about these kinds of environments, you’re only one deal, one person, one opportunity away from changing the trajectory of your life. Like I said, I’ve been there and done that multiple times. I see it happen every day. It's very powerful—but that's for the people that invest in themselves and make a decision. [47:09.0]
I hope this show has helped you a ton. Like I said, message me @MarkEvansDM on Instagram, “1k mastermind, yes, I’m in.”
Hope you're doing absolutely amazing. Stay focused and make those decisions. Thinking about you. Have an amazing day. Make today count. Peace.
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