Welcome to the “Making of a DM.” How to get everything out of life in your business that you desire by simply reverse-engineering the process. This show is power-packed, so be ready. So, with that said, let's get started.
Mark: Hey there, it’s your boy, Mark Evans DM. Boy, am I glad to be here with you today? Hope you're having an amazing day, amazing week, amazing month and an amazing year. Sitting here, Parkland, Fla., want to share some real stuff with you. As you know, I like to share what's going on in my life and, more importantly, how, how it can make your life easier, bigger, better, more profitable, more enjoyable, etc., at my demise, so just sharing real stuff with you. [01:16.7]
As I’m talking to you, we have so much going on. I just got done doing a DM Family retreat. If you follow me on social, you probably saw what's going on. We'll kind of share with you guys first and foremost. I have that documentary being shot about me on Lifestyle Entrepreneur, and we started that journey last week. Camera crews are there. They're doing all their stuff, what they do, but you'll see some of that stuff start coming out little by little and reels and such. We released two reels last week and it's an exciting journey. It's very different.
See, the thing is that “deal maker”, to me, means so much, even me just saying it, I get goosebumps saying it, but it's not just cool and catchy. It really does have real meaning to me. It's been my life, making the deal with myself, making the deal with my children, making the deal with my wife, making the deal with my family, just being the better husband, the better son. I’m not the best at all this stuff every day. I screw up like everyone, but being conscious of this, I want to share with you kind of how this all started and getting to this point. [02:18.2]
But before I get into that, I always like to say, thank you guys so much for sharing. Our show is growing every single week, every single month, every single episode. We get more downloads, more views, more engagement, more replies from you guys, letting me know how it's challenging you and helping you, and changing your lives. People are quitting their W-2 jobs to take off on their journey and create their life and all that. It means so much to me. It means way more than money will ever mean to me, by the way. It’s amazing.
I’ve been talking about this $1,000-per-month thing that I’m looking to do. If you're not aware of that, and if you're new to the show, welcome. Make sure you check out all the other shows, but I’m looking to do a $1,000-per-month group get-together, where we're going to meet once a week and talk real life, real business, live Zoom, and I’m going to help you guys grow to another level through the mindset, through marketing, and just bringing on all my people that I work with on a daily basis to grow all of our companies that we have. [03:19.0]
I've never done this before. I’m excited and nervous. I’m still like I’m 80 percent going to do it, but if this is something that interests you, what we're going to do, it’s only limited to so many people, so I can't have thousands of people in there. But get over to social media on Instagram @MarkEvansDM and say, “1k - I’m in.”
Then what will happen is my team will message you or I’ll message you actually and say, hey, send me your name and email and phone number and all that stuff, and we'll make sure we put you on the list when we go live, if we do go live. It's looking like we will and we have a lot of people on the list already, so thank you so much for that. This is not something I take lightly. This is something when you're making an investment in yourself and with what we are sharing, my goal is to have the best return you've ever seen in your life. Not to say there won't be work with that, by the way. There will be a lot of work, but it'll be very rewarding work. [04:12.8]
Thank you guys. Let me know. Again, get over to Instagram and let me know if you're in and just make sure you say, “1k - I’m in” and then that lets me know what we're talking about here because there are a lot of messages over there.
I’m anxious today if you can't tell by my voice. I don't know if it's that big energy drink I had two hours ago or the 17 meetings I’ve had in the last three hours, literally, with companies that are crushing it, companies that are having challenges, companies that we discovered we’ve just lost 460 grand on some marketing stuff that there was bad data. It happens, and what I love seeing is my team step up. We always do the right thing, even when it sucks. We're patient. [05:01.4]
Let me just stop for a second. In business and life, it never happens quickly enough. It never happens as planned. It will never be perfect. It's not rainbows and unicorns, and when you think it is, that's when you're in trouble. We have the e-comm company, and so many people, they have a couple hiccups in the game and they're like, Jeez, you're ripping me off the book. It's like, dude, we don't own Amazon. We don't own Walmart. We're here as a team, a unit. We don't work for you. We're your partner.
The way people talk to us, it’s a very interesting concept. Some, not everybody, by the way, just small percentage, but the way they talk to their team members, i.e. us, it's always interesting to me because they create all this anxiety and stress, and if they're talking to us this out loud, I could only imagine the shit in their brain going on a daily basis. I say it seriously, that's something you have to get in check if that's you. [05:56.7]
If you instantly go to the worst-case scenario and the game is over, what I want you to start doing and what I want to talk to you about today and kind of about the deal maker, what “deal maker” really means to me and how it came about is what I did. I actually reverse-engineered what I wanted. Anything you want in life can be reverse-engineered.
What I mean by that is actually, I talked about this before on a podcast, when I was 17 years old, laying in my bed at my parents' house in small-town Thurston, Ohio, I was thinking, How in the world do I make $100,000? Right? That was my thought process and what I’m really doing is reverse-engineering it. Keep in mind, I’m a hillbilly kid, barely graduated high school, zero, zero intentions of college. It wasn't even a thought, to be honest with you, and I’m asking myself how to make 100 grand. I didn't know anybody who made 35, 40 grand a year. So, I’m asking a different question, not like, Dude, who could hire me to make 100 grand? It's like, No, how do I make 100 grand? And let's reverse-engineer what this looks like. [07:04.5]
“Mark, what are you willing to get to get 100 grand?” I’ll work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, 365 days a year, 366 on leap year, true story. I’m not fucking around. I don't take weekends off. I’m not taking off Christmas. I’m not taking off Easter. I’m not taking off Valentine's Day, Thanksgiving, birthdays, none of that bullshit. My goal is bigger than that moment, right? Again, suspend the opportunity, right? We’ve got 100 grand, all excuses out of the window. Then you just start breaking it down. Okay, 16 hours a day equals X. Seven days a week, boom, 365 days, okay, that's how I get to 100 grand. You start breaking down the numbers.
I do this in all my businesses, by the way. We're actually looking to acquire a company right now for many millions of dollars and I reverse-engineer how to get there. See, the thing is most people only see the challenge. I see it as an opportunity. [07:58.3]
See, 100 grand might sound like a lot of money to you in the beginning. It's not a lot of money at all in the grand scheme of things, especially in today's day and age. By the way, that was 26-ish years ago. A hundred grand today is way different than 100 grand, 26 years ago, right? Now it's more like kids are thinking, How do I make a million? And the truth is I didn't even know a million was possible or I should have been asking that question, right? Even today, I’m not asking how to make 100 grand a year. That might be what we've been trying to figure out, how to make 100 grand an hour in our companies. So, reverse-engineering.
Then what you do is like, Okay, let's go on the opposite side of that. Again, if I’m bouncing around a little bit, I promise you, this has a point. Let's say, I have companies. I have many companies. I have one that has a lot of stress in the company. Let's say you're stressing out. Ask yourself how to relieve stress and grow the company, and what I’m doing is reverse-engineering “Who do I need to hire?” the who to do the how. [09:01.8]
See, the thing is, if I’m making 100 grand a year and I can hire someone, and I have a lot of stress, I might be able to hire someone for 50 to 60 grand a year to take the majority of the daily stress off my plate, netting me out 40,000 a year, but I have no stress. I’m just making these numbers up, by the way. I’m not getting out of bed for 40k a year, but that's where I’m looking at reverse-engineering the situation, 100 grand a year gross. Okay, cool, I can do that, reverse-engineer that. That's basic math.
But I don't think a lot of people put much weight on the stress, the emotional daily warfare. Knowing what I know now, again, reverse-engineering my thought process, I want to make 100 grand a year passively, and when I say “passively,” it's not like I get money doing absolutely dick and I don't do anything. That's not how real passive income works. I had to vet this situation. I had to put money at risk. I had to do some actions to get the results and now the results start working, and you have to manage them. [10:05.8]
It's kind of like, I don't understand why people think passive income means you do absolutely nothing. It's the biggest lie you've told yourself, by the way. If you think you can make money doing absolutely nothing, it's impossible. Every stream of income has different activities that need to take place.
By the way, you say, Mark, I could put my money in a CD and do nothing. No, bullshit, you’ve got to put the money in a CD, right? Hopefully, you never do that because it's a declining asset, certificate of depreciation, really. That's what that means, by the way, not certificate of the deposit. But you have to make the decision and you have to lock up your money for one to five years or more or less, right? That's a decision, so you did something.
By the way, you’ve got to run accounting on it once a year. You’ve got to make, pivot decisions as you get older and you're getting kids. You have kids now and you get married and you have all this stuff going on in life. There are activities that have to happen in passive environments. [11:07.0]
Like I said, I have companies that generate me six figures a month that are semi-passive, but, dude, I’ve busted my ass. I’ve invested millions of money, umpteen tens of thousands of hours of my time to get to that point. Yet when people come into a situation, “I thought I was going to make five grand a month doing nothing.” How? You fucking make four grand at your job working 40 hours a week, but you expect me or someone else to give you 5,000 a month. You're a liar to yourself and your future, and you'll never ever make any real money. Why? Because you're delusional.
Instead of getting off and frustrated and pointing the finger and blaming everyone, you can ask yourself a different question and reverse-engineer what you really want. You don't care if you have to work, as long as you like doing the type of work you're doing. [12:02.2]
See, I don't like doing everything. I like doing some things, but I’m not saying I won't do the terrible shit to get to this stuff I really love doing. Do you know how many years I ate shit, literally, from people punching me in the face, people stealing from me and robbing from me? Daily. But I stayed focused on what my goal was. I didn't realize in my reverse-engineering process that I had to deal with that. It's kind of like getting married, right? You wouldn’t realize how hard it is to have a real relationship, and this is someone you love you get to sleep with, you get to hold and cuddle with and all this. It's tough. There's no such thing as passive relationships, and if there are, that's not good, probably.
But back to the point. Reverse-engineer anything you want. I remember sitting and, again, I talked about the 100k and I talked about some other stuff, but I remember when I wanted to take my first yacht ride. My first shot. It was $130,000 for the week. Yep, $130,000 to rent that thing for a week. [13:10.8]
I asked myself a different question and that's what we're really talking about today about reverse-engineering what you want. You must start asking different questions to ultimately get what you want. I wanted that day to go on a yacht and spend a week with my family. I did not understand that 130 grand is a lot of money, no matter who you are, for seven days, so I asked myself a different question. “How can I go on this yacht and get paid to be there?” Huh, a way different question. The results are the same.
I can get on the yacht for seven days with the fam and there are so many rooms. We can have 12 people, let's say, 12 people in the yacht. Twelve people need to pay 10, let's call it 12 grand a piece. Not even that. It's 11, right? 12 times 10, 120. Yeah, 11,000 a piece, or it's me and my wife and my son at that point. [14:16.5]
Actually, that's a lie. It was me and my wife. My son was in my wife's belly. She didn't know it at the time. That's why when we were on the top deck, her smells were really crazy. I remember it very clearly. But I said, “How can I get on this thing?”
My one buddy hit me up. He's like, Dude, I’ll split it with you literally. Now we're 65k each, right? And there are only four people in the yacht and we can fit 12, so I have eight spots and I only need to get 65,000 more. Then what I did was, I was like, Cool, dude, so I’m going to do a three-day, or actually it was a two-day mastermind on the yacht and it was 10k a piece. It's a steal. It's an experience. [14:58.7]
By the way, my guy that came with me, my buddy, literally, this guy does tens of millions of dollars a year in revenue—so when we’re hanging out on the yacht for two days with you, guess what? You have our undivided attention. We love that, by the way. It's fun. Our families are hanging out. We're hanging out with you. We're talking about where you're at, where you're going. The best part about this is you're so qualified to be on the yacht. Go figure, you're actually going to do something with the information. It's very enjoyable for someone like me that doesn't want to just talk about it. I want to see results from the conversation.
We had eight people show up, generated $80,000. Keep in mind, my cost was 65. I made $15,000 on something I thought was going to cost me 130, and more importantly, I still have relationships with every single person that was on that yacht that day and we've done multiple business deals together in transactions and generated millions of dollars collectively. Huh, all I did was reverse-engineer asking a different question. How do I get on this $130,000-a-week yacht and get paid to do it? And you start chopping it up. [16:09.3]
Me and my wife, and my buddy and his, we were able to stay on the yacht for four and a half days for free and he paid, and then the people, the folks that came on, spent two and a half days with us, because they’ve got there the night of and all that. We crushed it, an amazing experience.
This is why real estate was so simple for me to understand, because real estate simply is a reverse-engineering process. I never said, “I can't buy that. I don't have enough money. I can't buy that. I don't have any credit.” See, that has instantly shut off bullshit conversations that you've had with yourself and you've lied yourself. I was 18 years old, zero money, no credit, and I bought millions of dollars in real estate. How? I just asked different questions. That's the answer. That's the simple answer. I reversed-engineered what I wanted and I went out and found what I needed to get what I wanted. [17:07.8]
“Mark, you have no cash and no credit.” Noted. That's a fact, by the way. That was a fact. “The house is $100,000.” Okay. Oh, shit, I don't have any money. Right? How do I get that $100,000 house? More importantly, how do I make money on that house? I learned and educated myself, go figure. I invested time and money in myself to learn a skill set that could make me many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many millions of dollars.
While most people will go to fucking school for four years and learn how to make $60,000 a year, I went to one seminar to learn how to make millions of dollars and only spent a fraction, $2,500 to be exact, of what it would cost to go to a college to make 60 grand a year and you spend 100 grand to do that. Am I the only one who thinks this is crazy that someone would go spend 100 grand to get an education to only make $60,000 at a job they probably don't even like? That's a different topic. [18:08.0]
But back to this house. When you start asking different questions and reverse-engineering what you need to get, the who to help you get to how, that's when things start fucking changing. That's when shit gets very fun and interesting. Do you understand, and this is a true story, every day I bite off more than I can chew? Every fucking day. I’m choking on my food because I’m biting off so much opportunity, hiring people, investing in marketing, investing in teams, investing in shit.
So many people are like, Dude, you’ve got to eat one bite at a time. Cool, but your fucking bites are nibbles. See, when you choke this shit down, you start realizing like, Damn, dude. By the way, this happens at all levels. I always thought, Man, when I have 10 million-plus in the bank, this will be easy. That's not true. It actually gets crazier. [19:06.2]
But when we reverse-engineer what we really want, we start looking at the world in a different lens. You've heard me talk about money goggles. What happens with money goggles is you start seeking opportunity, not obstacles. With money goggles, what's cool about reverse-engineering, that's that $100,000-house, no cash, note credit, those are facts. That $100,000-house I know because I understood construction. That's what I did my whole life as a kid, since I was five years old with my dad. That's what my father did and does. I understood I could do sweat equity to make that $100,000-house worth 150.
Huh, so you're saying someone is selling something for 100 that could be worth 150? “Mark, if it's worth 150, why aren't they selling it for 150?” Dickhead, because it needs to be fixed up and it might not even be worth 100. I say it could be worth 150, and by the way, you're assuming it's just about money to the seller. [20:13.3]
This is where I messed up a lot in the beginning. I made everything about money because I had no fucking money. Have you ever heard of this thing called convenience, simplicity, fast, solution-based? That's where I was solving a problem. I didn't realize it for many years, and once it clicked, not only was I freed of all the stress, I just made so much more money and helped more people, including myself, most importantly.
See, that $100,000-house, I would have to put $5,000 in material and I’d have to put about 200 hours in manual labor hours by myself. I used to do all this shit myself, folks, all of it. I remember in Westwood, I’d mow the hill. It was a fucking hill. It was a mountain and I was out there mowing that thing once a week minimum, and I’m talking a mountain. If I slid, I was cutting my legs off. I can't believe how stupid I was. I had no excuses. I had to make this work. [21:12.8]
I couldn't blame Mommy and Daddy. “They were mean to me. They said I couldn't do anything.” I couldn't blame someone else. I took full responsibility at age 18. I’m a fucking adult. I own this shit, good or bad. See, most people, they only want to accept the good stuff. Listen, if there's bad shit happening to you, which we all have, it's your fault. It's happening, period. You created the situation. You said yes or no. You've made all these decisions that make that a reality.
Reverse-engineering the 100k-house. It's worth 150. I put in five grand, plus 200 hours. I buy it at 100. Mark, how do you buy it at 100 if you have no money? Great question. You find someone that doesn't need the money. You find someone, which I wrote a book about called One Buck Deals. I gave the guy a dollar and took over his mortgage. A dollar. We all have a dollar. [22:06.5]
Because I learned about owner-financing, lease options, Subject 2s. Whatever you want to call it, it's all the same shit, just different paperwork, same end goal. Tie up a property for pennies, if not a dollar, to make it a legal transaction and look at the upside value. Do whatever you do, sweat equity, whatever your creative stuff is, or do none of that, just have different buyers in your pool.
I reversed-engineered. My motto was put a couple bucks in it, sweat equity, and turn around and sell it, owner-financing for that big down-payment. If I put a dollar down and I accepted 15 grand down, I just made $14,999, and when I did that, it changed my life. I’d never seen a check for 15 grand in my life, ever, and I didn't even have to put 200 hours on that particular house. That was my intention, but the people that wanted to buy it, bought it so fast, put a sign in the front yard and the phone was blowing up. [23:07.4]
It could have made more. That's why most people never do it. “Well, maybe you took it off too fast.” I made money. That's what matters. I saw something through from start to finish. That's what mattered to me at that moment. You can always make more. You can always make less. But most people, why they're worrying about if they can make more or make less, guess what? I’m making money the whole time because I’m executing. You’ve got to start being decisive. You’ve got to start making decisions to execute. When you get caught up in the middle, nothing happens, nothing, except frustration, stress, anxiety, and that overwhelming feeling that we all have experienced because we can't make a fucking decision.
But when we reverse-engineer shit, it forces you to look at the situation and notice the opportunity, not the obstacle. I have a deal right now I’m looking to buy, many millions of dollars, literally more money than I’ve ever spent to buy a company. I am fucking scared and excited at the same exact time. I have to do the deal because I need to see if I believe my own bullshit today. I believed it yesterday, but today is a new day. [24:13.3]
See, it's easy to talk the game. Lots of people do that bullshit. But when you're in the game playing it, it's a whole different animal. As I look at this deal, this is a truth story, last night I got up at 3:00, at 2:58 to be exact in the morning, and I just laid in bed for hours, two and a half hours, asking myself how to put this deal together, reverse-engineering the situation.
I will actually get paid to buy this company. I will retain 80 percent ownership and I’ll make them millions of dollars and I’ll make many millions of dollars as well. Not only that, it has a team and it has an infrastructure. I’m going to change the lives of the people that work inside of the company today when I purchase it. It's in motion. It will close in the next 30 to 45 days. I will go as fast as the seller is willing to go. [25:04.3]
Do you know what’s even crazier? This is a true story. This guy didn't even know he wanted to sell. My buddy ran into him. He lives in Texas, ran into him in Fort Lauderdale because he was at a birthday party and heard the guy, and overheard what kind of company he has. He said, “Hey, my buddy is looking at buying something in that industry or that vertical. Have you ever thought about selling?”
“Actually I haven't, but I’m interested to hear what he has.”
They shot me a text with him on it and we started talking within one hour. I believe we're very close to closing the deal. See, I always thought this stuff looked different. I always thought there were all these lawyers and all these people that were way smarter than everybody and all that. No, dude, it's called connection.
What I’m doing is sharing with you my reverse-engineering mindset. Company X, it has all these employees that offer these products. Here are the assets they have. Here are the liabilities they have. Where's the opportunity? Not, where's the obstacle? Where's the opportunity? This is reverse-engineering. This is asking different questions to get to the solution. [26:13.7]
I have to raise a decent amount of money, millions of dollars. Excellent. I know 10 people, at least, that have access to the money. They could purchase this whole thing in full with themselves, but I’m not looking to do that. I’m only going to allow them to take 15 to 20 percent of the amount per person because I want it to be strategic. I want it to be a relationship that we can make. I’m going to make them a lot of money for them participating. That's what I’m saying.
See, the old me was like, How do I do everything myself? I have the cash in the bank to stroke a check and pay cash for this. I even talked to my team, my fiduciary about it, and they're like, Why would you put any of your money into it? See, I used to buy real estate. I wrote a book about this, too, called trifecta profits. This is a true story. You can go on Amazon and buy this shit. I got paid when I bought it. I got paid, renting it out monthly and I got paid when I sold it. [27:12.5]
I do this with companies as well. Let's use fictitious numbers. Let's say this company is 10 million. Cash, stroke a check, 10 million, cool. It's making 3 million a year net, right? Let's say I charge an acquisition fee, 10 million, plus a 5-percent commission. It's 500 grand. I can make 500 grand to buy a company, sell and give a piece of equity, and with my skill sets at my team that I have in place, true story, I can take that company from 3 million net to 10 million net in two years or less.
How? Glad you asked. With the assets that he's underutilizing. I have a special set of skills that I’ve developed over 26 years. I see very crystal clear how to triple or 4X this company in two years or less. The best part is I don't have to execute the actions. I have the team to do it, the team that loves to do it. This is reverse-engineering. [28:16.3]
Again, picture what I’m saying. I’m going to get paid 500 grand to buy a company for 10 million. I’m going to get paid monthly because the company is making real money every month, you know what I mean, like 250, 300 net right now, today. There's going to be debt against the asset. Let's say, this thing nets out 100 grand a month. That’s 1.2 million a year today, as is, if I touch nothing. Investors make money. They make a good ROI.
But what I’m looking to do is increase enterprise value, so when I sell it for 50 million, which will happen, by the way, or more in this particular situation, sell it for 50-plus million. Not only will I make a whole lot more money monthly, but I’ll also make a whole lot more money when we sell, and what's cool about it is the four, five, six, 10 investors that invest with me, they're going to make many, many hundreds of percent of return on this particular deal. That's how this shit works. [29:17.8]
The old me would say, Oh, can't afford that, 10 million, I’m out, and I would just go about my day and complain. See, everyone wants to fucking make millions until they can't figure, but all their actions and all their thought processes are exhausted $1,000 conversations on going to fucking T-Mobile to get a new iPhone, so you don't have to pay $1,200 and you’ve got to sign a 17-year contract and they literally own your second child, but you'll do that shit. I haven't done that in years. Actually, I’ve never done it, I swear on my life. I buy my phones. I pay cash. I keep the same. I don't do any of that shit. I’m not trying to save pennies or dollars or thousands of dollars. I'm too busy focused on making millions of dollars, many millions. [30:03.8]
Listen to what I’m saying, please. This changed my life. The old Mark growing up saw everyone do exactly what I’m sharing with you. “I can't afford it, out.” Hey, you want to go in a yacht? Nope. Can't afford it. If you just switch, just a little bit switch and say, How can I make that happen or how can I afford it, or how can I get paid to do it? abundance becomes massive.
See, how can you tell me you're an abundant thinker, which everyone [replies to] “Hey dude, are you an abundant thinker?” “Yeah, yeah, man, I’m still abundant.” Why is everything you do minimal, everything. Your actions, your cars, your houses, your trips, everything in your life is minimal. “Man, I’m a minimalist.” How the fuck are you abundant then? Seriously, if you're an abundant thinker, the questions are never known. [31:04.1]
If you think I want to go on a yacht for 130 grand, okay, then what do you do next? What's your thought process? This all comes down to thought-auditing, right? I actually wrote a course, and this was back in 2005, it was called “Reverse Real Estate.” Many people have copied me since then, but you’ve got to remember, I was a poor kid from Ohio, lived in a trailer court until I was 10, and then, at 18, I started doing real estate. I owned a seamless gutter company and did all construction. It was just kind of what I knew.
But I started getting a little wiser as I got older and I started asking myself, Mark, because I was always limited. Whatever I had in my bank account, I was always limiting myself, my vision, my growth or lack of. “I want to buy 10 houses a month. The average acquisition is 50,000. I need a half million in the bank, minimum per month.” [31:59.0]
When you're broke, this is nonexistent. I started asking myself, okay, how can I reverse-engineer the process to get what I want? I didn't really care about the houses. I cared about the profits. I don't care if I do one deal and make 50 grand or do 10 deals and make five grand in each deal and make 50 grand. To me, I was more worried about the number, the volume of the number, the 50k, but I needed 500k to do that in my brain with my model I had back then, so I reverse-engineered.
If I could find investors that would pay more than I’m willing to pay, and just wholesale it out, I already knew. Say you're the investor and you're like, Mark, I have $100,000. I want to buy a house a month from you.
Cool, what's your buying criteria?
I buy it for 75 cents on a dollar, boom, boom, boom, boom, these zip codes.
Excellent. I would forge a relationship with the investor or buyer and, in essence, myself back then and one person, my assistant, Katie, back then, I was seeking deals that would match my criteria by 60 cents or less on the dollar, knowing that I had a 15 percent spread if I didn't have the capital in my bank to close the deal to execute my deal. [33:12.1]
The truth is I always had enough money in my bank account to execute that particular transaction, say, 50 grand, but if you going massive volume, 10, 20, 30 deals a month, which we ultimately got to some months over 100 deals a month, if you're trying to build your business with what's in your bank account, you're always limiting your growth, i.e. you're not biting off more than you can chew.
I’m not saying go into debt. I’m not saying go out there and fucking risk the farm, even though I do that all the time, every day, still, what I’m saying is start looking at this picture differently in reverse-engineer what you're trying to really ultimately accomplish, and by doing so, you're going to start looking at this shit way different. I just shared with you multiple ways to get paid to fucking do something. I want to own a business that makes 10 million a year, which I do have some that do that, but this instance, I’m brand new. That's what I want. [34:08.6]
I don't have $10 million to do that. Okay, noted. What structure, what value, who do I know that would be interested in a passive opportunity that understands business development, business growth, business, etc.? Because you're just the news flash. There are a lot of people sitting on a lot of money that have no clue what to do with it, a lot, and they're looking for great jockeys.
Don't you think it would be a pretty good investment if you gave me a million dollars, and then in five years, you’ve got three to four back, three to four million? I’m not saying this is guaranteed. If anybody says it's guaranteed, run. They're lying. No one can guarantee anything. But based on what I know I can accomplish, based on what I’ve looked at, I feel very confident I can 3X this company in two years or less, for real. Get paid to buy it. Own the majority stake in the deal. Investors make a lot of money. I make a lot of money. We get paid to buy, get paid to run it and get paid when we sell it. [35:16.4]
Let's say, just using this map, by the way, this might be a little, again, if you're listening on a pot, you treadmill or driving or whatever, it might get a little choppy in your brain but I’ve got a marker here and I’m writing on my wall right now, my window, but 10 mil, I took 10.5 because I need a 5 percent acquisition fee.
By the way, you don't have to do that, but why would you not? You put this whole shit together. It's that your time is worth something. I make 500k today. Let's say it's 80-20. I retain 80 percent equity and then I give 20 percent of equity away for 10.5 million. I’m not saying these numbers are exact, by the way. These numbers could vary here and there. This should just illustrate a point. [36:03.6]
This company is producing net $3 million a year. It's not a bad return. It’s only a 3X-ish. It’s what they're investing into a 3X number. I’m very confident that I can take this 10-million-a-year in two years or less, right? I’m going to plus 7 million in net revenue, 7 million and that rev in two years. As an investor, this is very good news for you and for me, right?
We're going to have a 10 million value, $10 million EBITDA in this particular industry, because there's a couple variables here. There are monthly residuals and all that built in, but this is a 5X to 7X play minimum. 5X it's a 50 to $70 million, settled. Fifty to 70 million, sell. It's not a bad-two year run, but I probably wouldn't sell it in two years. I’d probably get the books really dialed in in two years, get it cranking at 10 million, get stabilization, get a T12, T24, trailing 24, 24 months of returns, residuals, so they can see it really pumping and growing, and then maybe sell it for 70, 80, 100 or more million dollars. [37:17.6]
How are you thinking about your life, your business, reverse-engineering? Isn't this what we do with our diets? We reverse-engineer our diets. If you need to lose 10 pounds, your actions, your process is going to be way different than if you need to lose 100 pounds. There's going to be some similarities, but your efforts are going to have to be increased. You don't go to the gyms saying, I’m going to bulk up, but I need to lose weight. No, dude, it’s how do I eat less calories, more output, more intensity. The weight's going to start shedding. It's just how numbers work. When you start looking at this stuff differently, you're going to start getting different outcomes in your life. [38:00.3]
I’m not saying this stuff is going to be pretty. I’m not saying this stuff is going to always be easy. Earlier today, before I jumped on this, we have one of our companies, like I said, almost $500,000 lost in marketing, literally, out the window. I was talking with my team and I was like, Hey, what did you learn? And she said, “I learned that we were looking at the data wrong, clearly.”
“But what did you really learn?” and I always look at this positively. At least we caught it before it hit 5 million loss. At least we caught it before we lost a million. Not to say, I’m happy about this, by the way. But this is the old Mark. Eff you, you're fired, done, and now I’ve got to do all the work. I’ve got to stress out. I don't even know what work to do anymore. I genuinely don't know what they do all day. I know they bust their ass and they’re great people, but that's not what you do daily. It's just different. [38:56.1]
But the old Mark would literally go straight to firing. Me, today, Mark 2.0 or 27.0 or 2000000.0, as I’ve evolved through my thought audits and my growth as a business owner, 26 years deep, is what did we learn? I actually become very calm, not reactive, very understanding, trying to understand how we can improve and understand that we had a problem going on that we didn't understand. Now we understand. How do we make it better? How do we improve this system? How do we improve this company?
Now, you don't have to feel sorry for me. Our company generates many millions of dollars a year, but it could generate a lot more, discovering what we’ve discovered. See, the old Mark would never even get to millions of dollars a year because I was firing people left and right. If someone was on the phone, get off the fucking phone, you suck. You're fired. Why would you ever do that? You suck. You're fired. Why would you ever do that? You just wasted $1,200 on material. We didn't need it. You're fired.
I never realized how much I’ve messed up, until I started reverse-engineering what I really wanted. Do you know what I wasn’t? I want great relationships. I’ve got long-term business growth. I want to be happy. I want to live in my unique ability, as Dan Solomon would say. [40:11.6]
If I don't build teams and leaders to roll with me and guide them through the journey of fucking this stuff up on a daily, I’m going to be sitting here lonely, stressed out, not getting anything I really want. I genuinely care about every single person at every one of our companies. I genuinely do. It’s B.S. It's not feel good. I want them to be better human beings all the way around.
Again, core value number one in our companies is Care 36, in all of our companies, Care 360. I care, sometimes to a fault, but it's what I like. It's what I stand for, truthfully. I’m not happy to lose 500 grand, but I would have never gotten to be able to have the opportunity to lose 500 grand if I didn't reverse-engineer what I’ve really wanted. [41:00.0]
I invest millions of dollars a year in great people, in the companies, collectively, millions. You want me to do a team trip, it costs six figures. I can't wait to meet them. I can't wait to hang out with them all. I haven't met 90 percent of that team in person. I’ve met them virtually, but never in person.
Never in a million years did I think hillbilly Mark from Thurston, Ohio, would be able to generate what we're able to generate in a daily, let alone weekly, let alone monthly, let alone yearly, collectively in our companies. The best part is I don't know anything. The best part is we're just getting started. The best part is we're just forging and just driving, and pushing and prodding.
Do you know what my real frustrations are? Talking about the same problem multiple times over. That's when I get mad, because that means I’m not doing a good job leading. Everyone on my team needs to understand, I trust and believe them. If I didn't, they wouldn't be on the team. If you make a decision, I’m standing behind you. When my team lost 500 grand, I’ve got your back. We will make this right. We will learn from this and we will grow from this. It's not pointing a finger. [42:12.1]
But what's cool about it is that the individual this has happened to, she accepted it. She was like, It was my fault. I messed this up and the real truth is it's my fault. My fault. But the ultimate real truth is it's all of our faults because we all fucking care about the company. We all care about the vision. We all care about the team members. We all know our job is to protect the growth of the company and drive revenue, and drive results for clients, period. We will learn from it. This is a great case study.
Do you know one thing I can promise you? This situation will never happen again with this individual. She has been beating herself up for the last seven days about it in her brain. I don't have to yell at people. The old me was a jerk. This was years and years ago. “Eff you. You stole from me. You've taken it away.” [43:08.8]
Dude, this is a company. Things are going to happen. But I hope through the shows of the Deal Maker and other things that you're listening to, that you’ve become a better human being, let alone a better business owner, for the stress of your life, just for your wellness, and for your team members. Do you know how much money I’ve made and lost with my team collectively over the years, happening today, happening tomorrow? It will never not happen. It's going to happen. The question is, how quickly can we catch it?
See, when I started reverse-engineering, understanding that problems happen, it's how do I react and how do we deal? What's cool is when you build a great team, we work on it together. I don't have to work on it on my own. I can ask better people better questions. My job, truthfully, is to share vision and ask better questions. That's my real job all day, every day. [44:05.0]
See, a lot of people are saying, Man, I want to make more money.
Cool, what does that look like?
Five grand a month.
Cool. How much time do you want to give to that? Blah, blah, blah. Cool. How much do you want to invest to make that happen?
Most people don't know how to ask the questions because they haven't reverse-engineered what they really want. We all want easy money. We all want lots of money, but what are we willing to get to give it? It's not that it's not out there. Shit, I’m looking on my back window. There are millions and millions and millions and millions, hundreds of millions, maybe actually over a billion dollars in houses I’m looking at, literally, as I’m speaking to you, billions.
We're trying to figure out how to make a company make 5 million a year, 100,000 a year, whatever your number is, it's not because it doesn't exist. It's because we haven't asked the right questions or reverse-engineered the strategy to ultimately get what we really, really want. [44:56.9]
I’m not saying you won't have any stress. I’m not saying you're not going to have blips. I’m not saying you won't have setbacks, but have you ever thought these setbacks could be setups for bigger growth? Have you ever thought that these setbacks are like an opportunity to reflect and see how far you've come, to make you aware? I don't know about you, but I always learn more when it's bad than I do when it's good. What about you?
Everything I’m sharing with you is because I’ve reverse-engineered this process. I didn't even know I was doing it when I was lying in bed at 17 years old, asking myself, How do I make 100 grand a year? What do I need to do it? It wasn't the reverse-engineering I’d do today because I was asking, How do I work? How do I give my hours? How do I give my time?
But, again, you know what? I don't hate this, because without this, I wouldn't be fucking here. I was willing to do whatever it took to get the result I desired. Now the questions are different. How can I get paid to acquire this, make a lot of money for everybody and do it as a collective? The old me wanted it. I was very selfish. It was all about me. That's why I only made a little bit. [46:02.7]
When I started reverse-engineering and asked myself, “How can I build a team to serve the greater purpose and the greater cause of what we're doing, and to realize that other people have skills I don't have and vice versa?'” By the way, there's a great book called Unique Ability 2.0 out there that exists. You can learn about this, but start learning about what you're great at and you don't even realize it. Have you ever talked to somebody like, Dude, how don't you get that?
It reminds me of my bookkeepers and accountants. How the fuck do you want to sit in front of a computer and push pennies around and dollars around on spreadsheets? I absolutely will cut my eyeballs out before I do that stuff. But they're like, What are you talking about, man? I love it. Mark, I don't know how you do what you do. That's magic. Pay attention to that. That's beauty. That's literally like, aha. What you're saying, we're not all the same. I started reverse-engineering the opportunities and building the companies that served me instead of me serving the companies.
I hope this makes a lot of sense. More importantly, I hope this makes you a lot of money. With that said, have an amazing day and keep me posted. Make today count. Peace. [47:04.5]
This is ThePodcastFactory.com
