Welcome to the “Inner Circle Podcast”, the place where patriot entrepreneurs create, build, and play. Each episode will help you move forward to the place where we all want to be, a place of total creative freedom, personal freedom, and financial freedom.
My name is Mike Fallat and I am your host. I’ve started a bunch of businesses, helped to write a couple of hundred books, and interviewed lots of millionaires. I will be your guide as we enter the Inner Circle.
Mike: This episode will help you own your life. Man, I love that phrase, “own your life.”
See, today is January 6 and, as we all know, it's historically referred to as “Mike Pence is a coward” day. Yeah, it's exactly right. If you know the history of January 6, you know what I'm talking about, but we're not going to get into that in this episode. We're going to get into the American Dream. [00:59.0]
What I used to think the American Dream was all about was getting into entrepreneurship, starting a business and running your own business. Then I realized that the American Dream is all about owning my life. All the way, start to finish, mentally, financially, spiritually, every decision. I can't forfeit any piece of my soul, my body, my mind, nothing. It's mine. Every decision is on me. That, that to me is the American Dream.
I'm on my way down to the Great American Summit and I cannot wait. It's with Barb Allen and Dave Brown, and a bunch of other Inner Circle members. Speaking of which, we have 250 Inner Circle members. Holy smokes, thank you guys. The American Dream is to own your life. There are three things that I’ve realized that I did that helped me own my life to live my American Dream and that's what I want to share with you in this podcast.
When I started writing, it gave me three things and I call them the three Cs. Okay? Writing was the conduit to these takeaways. [02:06.3]
Number one, the first letter C, get clear. I got very clear when I started writing. Where I came from, where I was at, where I was going. It's magical, once you become clear about who you were, who you are and who you're going to be, man, it gives you certainty. Certainty gives you this dangerous mind. You could become a weapon. You know when to fight, where to fight and with whom to fight.
Going back to your childhood. When I started writing about this stuff, it's amazing what it did to me. I know what my strengths were. I know why I thought this way. I know where I messed up, but I also realize where I succeeded. I know what allowed me to become great at hockey to a certain extent. I wasn't Mario Lemieux or Sidney Crosby great, but I was good enough to hold my own and be dangerous in hockey, but I knew what my mentality was to make me successful in that arena and I realized even whenever that started to fade that I didn't have the want and the drive. You're able to analyze when things went right and when things went wrong in your life. [03:16.8]
Childhood memories in school, when you succeeded, when you felt your best, that feeling of being alive, analyzing where you come from in every aspect allows you to put a map together. Then when I started writing about my life as of right now, it made me become very honest about where I was at financially, spiritually, mentally, physically, with my circle, everything. Did I like who I was or not?
It's amazing. I was even talking about this with someone recently. It’s amazing how you could love something or somebody but not love yourself at the same time while you're doing it. You could like being with someone so much, but not like who you are. I dated someone I really liked years and years ago and it was amazing how I felt so weak at that moment and I was so dependent it felt like, and my happiness was sort of tied to that individual. [04:13.5]
I didn't like who I was, and by writing whether it is in a book—it doesn't have to be in a book. I'm just talking about with Facebook posts and Instagram posts and blogs, and even just putting on a podcast or on a video—by writing, you clarify things because you have to make things tangible. You put it out into the world.
The world is going to judge you. The world is going to actually see what you think by making your thoughts real and that's what you're doing by formulating them. You now have to defend them. By writing, you have to defend it on a Facebook post or defend it in a book, or defend it on video or in an interview. That gives you strengths. That gives you this backbone. That clarifies, really, is it worth fighting for or not?
When you start to clarify who you are, where you're at right now, and being very honest about your finances, about your happiness and about your levels of excitement day to day, if you get very honest about that, you'll know what type of person you are. Then if you get very honest about where you're going, you become super-deadly. [05:16.4]
You ever meet someone or do business with someone, or even date someone, and they don't know where they're going and it's such a turnoff, right? You could hear it in their voice. You could see it in their eyes. You could see it in their body language and they just don't know where they're going. You almost want to take a step back. It's not attractive. It's just not, because why would you partner up with someone if you don’t know where they're going? If they don't know where they're going. Maybe that's the best way to put it. Why would you partner up with someone if they can't tell you where they're going? That makes no sense logically, right?
You think that you're going to go somewhere together. You hope so. You want to partner up and go somewhere together. “Oh, you're going to be doing this? Great. Let's work together to accomplish that.” But when you meet someone who's just foggy, it's not a good look. [06:05.2]
That's why you need to become very certain yourself because clear people want to do business with clear people. Clear individuals want to do great work with other clear individuals. That way, there's no fog. There's no mess. There's no noise. If you can get clear about where you're going, my god, you have an advantage in this life. People will find you, say, I believe in you. I want to vote for you. I want to buy from you. I want to do business with you.
Clarity. It came from writing for me. If you start to write, you'll understand where you came from, where you're at right now and where you're going. This will make you a certain individual. A certain individual, a person of certainty is dangerous.
The other thing writing did was, and this is number two, this is the second C that it gave me, it gave me a championship. If you want to own your life, you want to live the American Dream, get clear, get a championship. Champions love champions. Winners love winners. [07:10.3]
Maybe you're going to tell yourself in the morning, you're not a winner, you're not a champion. Then you're going to act not a winner and not a champion. How do you spark that in you? How do you change that definition of who you are? Get a championship under your belt. How do you do that? The way I’ve got a championship and I'm telling you this is God's honest truth, I wrote a book and turned it into an Amazon bestseller.
Writing a book gave me a championship right out of the gate. Turning it into a bestseller also was one level higher of championship. I had something that other people wanted, for sure, dead certain. I knew it. But it also rebranded me. Now I had something that other people didn't have. I'm a champion. I’ve got something. This is a wrestling belt. This is a trophy. Whatever it is, this is it. I’ve got something. I started to rebrand myself right then and there. [07:58.7]
Maybe your championship isn't a book, but maybe it's a podcast. Maybe it's breaking six figures. Maybe it's breaking 1,000 bucks today. Maybe that championship is buying your dream car. I bought my dream car and that was a trophy of mine, that's a championship. It's almost like you surround yourself with things in your life that are championship-worthy, a book, a podcast.
You create an apparel line, that's a championship. You created a great business idea and put it out there, and it's making money, that's a great championship. You join this group 365 Driven and you're proud of it, that's a championship. Other people want to join, but they didn't. They don't have the risk tolerance. You have now a championship. You date that significant person, that's a championship. You're rebranding yourself as a winner.
Get championships under your belt. When you do that, you're rebranding yourself as a winner. Now you're starting to surround your day to day life with memories of winning, and if you can surround yourself with enough memories of winning, enough championships, you are now a champion. The confidence just exudes from you. [09:05.5]
I see people and I see how their lives change after they get something big and that big thing could be as simple as writing a book or becoming an Amazon bestseller, and then, all of a sudden, the trajectory of their life is different. It goes way up because people look at the differently. If they look at themselves differently, other people will look at them differently, for sure.
What if it's the direct opposite of that? What if other people start to respect them more and trust in them more and believe in them more? It's going to do something to their psyche and they're going to start to believe in themselves more.
You want to win? Start to analyze what your championships are, and I'm just looking around my life right now, and it could be buying motorcycles. I remember when I had a really tough client, I bought a motorcycle, a DR650. That was a championship to me. [10:04.4]
It was a tough client and I rewarded myself with an awesome toy and that toy is still with me today. I look at it as a championship. I still think of it. Yeah, I worked my ass off for this thing. My ’69 Mustang, I worked my ass off for this. This is my championship. This is my dream car. My TW200, another dirt bike I have and I’m buying a bunch of other ones now, but I look at them as, man, these are toys, but these are also championships in my eyes.
Every time I create a new piece of apparel, which we're selling on Mike’s Inner Circle, great plug there, by the way. I also think that every sale, every successful apparel that we put out is a championship. Every new member, like I said, we have over 250 members. When I break 250 members, that's a championship to me. We just put out our 256th bestselling book. We have 70 in the pipeline I think. I think it's 70 books in the pipeline. That is a championship. [11:06.0]
Every win is a championship. These are big goals, something that drives you, and if you're thinking about running for office, like there's a member, Jim Riley, he's out there, that's a new championship for him. Starting a new business, championship. People who are putting on big events, that's a championship.
When you promote, promote, promote, and promote your old championships, promote a championship you're working on, promote what you're about to accomplish, god, it brands you as a winner. Get clear. Get a championship. It's going to do wonders for you.
The third C is to get a circle. Get a circle. When you write, you understand what's important to you and what's not, right? And the more you make it tangible, you do something, you magnetize yourself. If people don't know what you really believe, how the hell are they going to trust in you and believe in you, and, most importantly, find you? They're not. [12:05.4]
If they come across your Instagram page, your Facebook page, come across your website, your videos, your YouTube channel, your Rumble channel, your Gettr, your Twitter, do people know who you are right away? Probably not. But if you're like me, you realize how important it is to put it out there on a daily basis. The reason is that when you do that, when you write, you become clear of who you are. You share it with the world. You make it tangible. You magnetize yourself and you also to repel those who are not you.
Yes, let me repeat that. Your circle is not just about who's around you. It's about who you keep at bay, who can't affect you anymore. I'm going to put this out there. You're not on board, you don't think like me? You're not going to enter this circle. On your own accord, by the way. On your own accord. I don't need to do anything. A strong circle repels the bad and attracts the good. [13:02.3]
If you like what you hear and you are a patriot entrepreneur, go to Mike’sInnerCircle.com. Remember, you are only as strong as your circle. We'll see you there.
When you start to identify yourself and you start to get clear on, what's important for you to actually spend time on writing and identifying everything that's sign significant to your future, the championships that you're pursuing, the championships you've accomplished, and you start to fight for every thought that goes through your brain and you put it out there into the universe for the world to see, your circle will find you. A strong circle will give you more certainty, give you more momentum, give you more movement, plain and simple. It'll give you movement, give you options, give you ideas. [14:03.4]
A strong circle can give you this pick me up whenever you don't feel you are really moving. It'll start to show you how other people are doing really amazing things and that energy is going to rub off on you. “Oh, this person can do it. I can do it.” It's amazing how many people from Pittsburgh, Pa., are signing up for the Inner Circle right now. I'm blown away by it.
I'll tell you, I'm from Pittsburgh. I started this business with one intention, to do business with people outside of Pittsburgh. I could not focus on Pittsburgh anymore. Pittsburgh rejected me. I tried my ass off for freaking Pittsburgh to help me build this business. I couldn't get speaking events. Schools shut me down. Nobody gave a shit, and I'm telling you right now, nobody gave a shit. I had to become successful elsewhere and then people in this city started to actually see it. [14:59.0]
Why? Why is that? It's because maybe it was just part of my journey. I had to go elsewhere. I had to look elsewhere. I had to find other cultures, other ideas, other people to turn me into the person that I am today. Maybe I just wasn't as vocal, but maybe it was that it was just crucial for me to find a circle all over the world, not just focus on one area.
Maybe that's what people are struggling with, which is that they focus only on the five miles from their house. The diameter, right? The five-mile diameter from their house or if just even a five-mile radius, 10-mile diameter. That's insane. Your circle is everywhere. Your circle is online. Your circle is in different countries. I'm getting messages daily from people in different countries.
“I love what you're saying. I'm with you all the way. Let's do this.”
“I like what you're saying. Let's write a book. You believe in what I believe.” [16:01.2]
“I like what you're saying. I want to join the Inner Circle because you are saying what I want to say, but I can't because I have a job.”
“I believe what you're saying. I'm with you.”
“I'm saying the same thing. I know where you stand on things. You're not going to be jumping to the other ship if things go south. You say what you really feel.”
Your tribe is looking for you, guys. They're looking for you. They're trying to find you. They're looking for people who are unafraid to be themselves. That is a super-valuable piece that I don't think they can teach in school. People are looking for other people who are unafraid to be themselves, the moment you start flip-flopping and being shaky and not being true to yourself, people will see it and then you don't have a circle anymore. You have a bunch of people standing in a room that are probably more lost than you, or just as lost, or even less lost than you. Maybe that's probably the best way to put it. [17:00.0]
The more you get clear, the more championships you get, and the more you focus on your circle, your circle starts to reward you. You start to see who your real friends are. You start to get excited about meetups. I'm going to the Great American Summit in Texas and I can't tell you how excited I am to just meet up with people who we've been talking about things for years maybe that we have never met in person, sharing the stage with some big names.
I'm going to be getting around people who are just like me. We're just going to let the hair down and have a good time talking about the American Dream, just being ourselves. There's no fake bullshit anymore. This circle came from getting clear, getting championships and focusing on the circle. That's how it came about and all that came about from writing. My American Dream is owning my life. [17:57.4]
Now, what does this have to do with owning your life? See, when you can own every decision and you can see your life for what it was, what it is and where it's going, and you could see what's valuable to you, the championships, and you could see the people in your life and you respect them and you could fight for them and they can fight for you, it allows you to wake up every day and say, I believe this and I'm going to do this. I know when I say I'm going to do it, it's going to get done. I know whenever I say it, other people are going to trust me. I could hold my head up high and say, I'm going to be a person who gives and my relationship with God is solid, and my finances are in my control. I know what I want to be remembered for when it's all said and done and I have a lot of championships under my belt that allowed me to show the world that I didn't waste my time here on Earth. [18:53.6]
You own your life. You start to say, You know what? What you're telling me about this whole vaccine stuff doesn't make any sense, and I'm not afraid to say that because I believe what I believe. I don't have to rely on somebody else to pay me. I'm going to be in control of my finances. I'm right with God, so I don't really have to care what you say. I know my relationship with God is solid, so nothing scares me. If something happens today or tomorrow, I'm okay. God wins in the end, so you could say that.
Then your relationship with your family, it's real. Maybe if you're spending time with them and they're on the same side as you when it comes to certain ideas and different political worlds, the more you're okay with yourself, you can wake up every day and say, I don't have to put on a freaking mask. Pun intended, I guess. You could say I don't have to fake any of this anymore. I'm real. That means I just do. I just feel. I just believe I know this is who I am and since I know who I am, I know how to act in this situation. [20:05.3]
If I know I'm this guy who wants to do great things and wants to be around great people, who wants to have strong conviction and a strong backbone, how would that person act? Oh, I'm going to get up on stage and kick ass. Oh, I'm going to get that client and kick ass for that client. Oh, I'm going to get that person in the circle and I'm going to help them get to the next level of their career. I'm going to put them in rooms they couldn't even believe three months ago, six months ago, a year ago. They couldn't even believe it. That's how that type of person acts.
When I think about my spiritual side, I know how a person would act if they're a true believer and I know how a person would act if they're not a true believer. You now know and that right there is how you can own your life all the way. You do your own research. You think critically and the fear goes away. [21:00.6]
You see other people and maybe it's just the greatest time to be alive. Maybe it is. You could see how other people are just so afraid internally. We were never able to see a tangible form of being afraid as we can right now. I know if you're afraid or not by looking at you. I didn't and I couldn't before. Now we know, and I guarantee, if I look deep enough, I’ll be able to find out how every pattern of your life is in sync with that fear.
Then I could see people, like at this Great American Summit. They're not afraid and I could see how every pattern of their life is the exact same way. They are unafraid. They are ready to go. That's the circle I want to be around, because I got clear, because I’ve got championships, and I’ve analyzed what was important to me. I understand that they are really important to me. These people that are just like me, they're out there. They never gave up. [21:52.6]
One last piece to this. You see, if you're out there right now and you don't know, maybe you're at ground zero. Maybe you're struggling. I’ve met with a lot of people who are just getting over an addiction or struggling with an addiction, or struggling with a divorce or a big relationship breakup, or a failure in a business, or just things didn't work out, or even maybe the evil that's being exposed is really affecting them right now. Maybe they're coming out of that cave and it's scaring the shit out of them, right? For the first time, they're like, Wow, everything is fake and I don't know how to take it.
Maybe you're at this ground zero and I trademarked the phrase, “Start it from zero,” a couple years ago. That's how I started to become known in the book world, started from zero. People got tattoos of it on their body. It's pretty wild. I started from zero. If you're starting from zero, if you're at this like, Oh my god, I'm at this low level of happiness and confidence, I'm telling you right now that that could be the greatest thing for you. It could be the greatest thing.
Here's why. The Zen master story. Have you ever heard of this, guys? The Zen master. There's a story about a boy asking for a horse and his parents got him the horse, and he's so excited and everybody in the town says, “Oh, how amazing,” and the Zen master of the town says, “We'll see.” [23:12.2]
Then the kid gets on the horse and starts to ride, and he falls off and breaks his leg, and everybody in the town says, “Oh, how awful?” and the Zen master says, “We'll see.”
Then there's a war that breaks out and he can't go and fight in the war and die because he's stuck at home with a broken leg, and everybody in the town says, “How amazing,” and the Zen master says, “We'll see.”
I say that story because no matter where you're at right now, it could be the greatest domino that just fell to set you on path for something amazing. But it's up to you. The answer is always “we'll see.” [24:08.8]
At this event, I'm going to this event with Tony Whatley. Now, whenever he had this moment in his life a couple years ago, he was in his Dodge Viper. He crashed into a wall. There was a moment where he thought he was about to die. He didn't die and he was able to survive, and everybody probably around him all said that crash was super-tragic and will affect him for the rest of his life. Tony Whatley probably said, “We'll see.”
Why do I say that? It's because how you respond to something is all that really matters. He looked at that crash and it's in his book, Sidehustle Millionaire, and he talks about it often on his podcast. That might have been the domino that fell to push him to get on podcast, to become more of a speaker, to help other people start businesses, because he realized that fulfillment is everything. Life is short. It caused him maybe to just try a little bit more about where he wanted to go in life, try a little bit harder towards really becoming his true self. [25:16.8]
You could say the same thing with Jim Riley, another Inner Circle member. He left one of the biggest chains, restaurant chains, an In-N-Out Burger. He was making great money and he picked up and just left. He was I think the manager of the number one In-N-Out Burger, sold the most burgers, I think a million burgers or something and just broke records at his locations, and he just picked up and left one day. He went to get a job, I think it was a ski resort, making very little money.
Everybody around him probably said, How awful, right? How awful. That's so sad. That's so tragic. But Jim Riley said, “We'll see,” because this moment of clarity probably came about that once something is taken away or once something bad happens, then you can really become who you're meant to be. Maybe there's extra fuel. [26:11.4]
Jim Riley went on to become very successful in many different aspects, many different industries, many businesses, and that change caused him to become his one true self. He responded in a way that just led to greatness and you could say that for many Inner Circle members whether it's Toni Vanschoyck or other people that have done great things, and it's always about “we'll see.”
This ground zero or this tragic event, or anything that happens to you, it could be the domino. It could be the spark that fires you in the right direction, finally, right? Finally, and that breath of fresh air is amazing. I'm alive. I could do this now. I'm on my own or I'm free. I could go wherever. This is amazing. That clarity can come to you at that moment. Oh, I know what's important to me. I know it's not important to me anymore. I know where I'm going. You can start to get very clear. [27:12.0]
If you're at that ground zero, you could say to yourself right now that ground zero moment was either tragic or amazing, and there are probably people out there that'll say, Oh, how awful that thing that just happened to you was. You’ve got to look them directly in the eye and say, We'll see. I want you to get clear, get a championship, and get a circle.
2022 is going to be an amazing year. You want to own your life? You want to achieve the American Dream? Start writing. Are you ready? We'll see. [27:54.8]
This is ThePodcastFactory.com
