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Fake Entrepreneurs vs Real Ones | Accountability Separates Them · Harder Than Life

• 0:00
  There's so many people out here talking and telling you about business. They'll never own a business. It drives me crazy! And if the business they own, all fail. And they're giving you the system. But you can't create mastery from something you haven't even done. Yeah. Entrepreneurship is an abused word. Everyone calls themselves an entrepreneur. People don't want the pain. And the harder it hurts, the better it's going to be. Instead of going through things, how do you grow through things?
• 0:26
  My entrepreneurship world is wealth, freedom, and relentless execution. Wealth is not money. Wealth is health. Wealth is the ability to have a good life. Freedom is to be able to do things when you can, because you can. And relentless execution is just going no matter what.
• 0:44
  We get knocked down all the time. One important rule, don't get knocked down. From a teenage hustler in construction to a multi-million dollar entrepreneur and business coach, Dan's story is one of raw resilience, radical reinvention, a relentless execution. Let's get into it.
• 1:03
  Thanks for making the trip. Welcome to the Heart of Light podcast. It's like you got the memo with the white shirt and the watch. You know, I love doing these kind of things when we don't really know each other. I get to know you really well. And I'm excited because Dylan is a very good friend. He's a very good judge of character. So it's like I'm looking into a mirror. Yeah.
• 1:22
  Take us to the moment where everything fell apart. What happened and what made you rise? There's that hero's journey. First fall was 24 years old. I went bankrupt. I started my first company at 17. I made just under $4 million by the time I was 24. And the economy crashed. 2006, the housing market. I was in the construction industry. I didn't know what I was doing, but I was chasing
• 1:50
  what I appeared to be wealth, and what I appeared to be success. MTV Cribs was something I grew up on. So you watch the big house, the nice cars, and all this stuff, and that's what you think success is.
• 2:03
  And it all fell back to when I was 14 years old, 15 years old from New Jersey. We passed Bon Jovi's house. We grew up humble beginnings. And we passed Bon Jovi's house. My dad's showing me the house. And I go, man, that's pretty cool. I thought it was a store. I didn't know houses could be that big. And he goes, those are rich people. You'll never be rich. So I had to figure out what rich was. And because of things like MTV Cribs, I thought that's what success was.
• 2:28
  So that was the breaking point in my life where I realized I was chasing money at a young age, that I needed to start chasing purpose instead of money. True. We got all of these notes about betrayal, and we've all got the betrayals. First of all, how'd you start at 17 and such? What were you doing exactly at 17? Started a construction company. So how it started, when my dad said that to me around 14, 15, something resonated with me. I knew that the switch that he had down, I wanted to flip up.
• 2:55
  I wanted to be rich. I wanted to be different because I didn't like the way my parents were thinking. And I think a lot of people take it to offense where it's like, you know, I have to listen to my parents. Listen, we are to love our parents, but we don't have to love the way they think. And I just decided to think a little bit different. So what was interesting was I came across Rich Dad Poor Dad at 15 years old. After reading the book, I realized I had the poor dad.
• 3:18
  How do I find a rich dad? So the first job and only job I ever had in my life from 15, 16 into 17 years old was with a guy, Dave. He was in construction. He was my only boss. Dave was my rich dad. Dave had it all. Beautiful house, everything. I used to go to Dave's house on Saturdays and Sundays, sweep his garage floor, sweep his basement floor, clean his leaves just to ask Dave questions. And Dave was the only person in my life that ever told me he believed in me.
• 3:45
  So I have my rich dad. So then I read Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. And what got me in that book at 17 years old was when a general went to Creed and they were outnumbered and he turned to his men and he burned the boats. So I basically burned the boats at 17 and said, I'm not turning back, I'm gonna be successful no matter what it takes. Success to me was chasing that money. So what was the betrayal that happened? So a lot of stuff happened, right? So I could just like turn it up real quick, right?
• 4:13
  Lost my company. After I lost my company, I had my back up against the wall. We make two choices. We either sit here and feel bad for ourselves or we make a decision. I just went after it again. I built another company.
• 4:26
  Sold the company. And then first sign of betrayal was my competitor, which I was friendly with after I sold that company, I bought his company. Him and his wife were getting divorced. They sold me a business that had cookbooks. Accountant looked at it, lawyer looked at it, looked amazing. Invest $100,000, $3 million in collectibles, home run. You know, I'm whatever, 27, 28 years old. I buy the company, I buy the company, it's $3.8 million in debt.
• 4:54
  In debt. They took checks and didn't insert them into the system. They used a separate bank that none of this stuff was in the purchase or none of the profit and losses of the company, and there's nothing I can do. He fled to Florida. I had to bite the bullet.
• 5:09
  So that's the first sign of betrayal in my life. And I had to take a suffering company and try and make it work. I couldn't make it work. Too many things happened over the course of the next two years that it was impossible to bring this thing up. So after that, I built a new company, built another company, built two more companies. Throughout the process of this, I get divorced. Going through the process of divorce, my ex takes my kid away from me. I have three kids all from the same mom. My middle son doesn't talk to me for four years of my life, his entire high school career.
• 5:38
  Throughout that process, I'm building another company. As I'm building another company, we're going to fast forward to four years ago, 2022, I had a heart attack. Oh. Companies generating 30 million, doing well.
• 5:52
  Had a project manager who I trusted, brought him on. He's been on for three years. I felt very confident. And I said, the doctor's telling me I can't really continue right now. I got to work on my health. You mind taking on sales? I'll pay you extra. No problem. So over the course of the next, I would say, 18 months, sales are going up. But my bookkeeper calls me and she goes, something's wrong. I'm like, what's wrong? She goes, the numbers just aren't matching up. His commission sheet literally flew up about
• 6:21
  300% in six months. He's signing jobs at any cost just to raise his commission, but the jobs really had no true value because they were all under. He was just trying to get work and get work and get work. Come to find out, he was taking advantage of me, just signing work so he can raise himself, and he was building a business on the back end. So he was taking as much money as he could to exit and start his own company.
• 6:46
  So this betrayal happened, and he actually went to the attorney general's office and said, hey, listen, this guy is selling work. He's doing all this stuff, and he's stealing and robbing from people. Wild, bro. So I get served by the AG. I got a $3 million lawsuit. I fire this guy. I figure it all out. But it doesn't matter. I'm the owner of the company. I got to take responsibility. So we go through this whole court case with the attorney general, you know, depositions, everything. They see clearly what he's done.
• 7:15
  But when you're fighting a state, no matter what you're doing, you're not going to win.
• 7:19
  because the state has unlimited money. So me and my lawyer sat down and I go, you know what? Like, I'm not going to fight anymore. Let me take whatever you want to take. Like, whatever. I've lost it before. I'll lose it again. I don't really care. It's an endless battle. And I think so many people try to fight something that's just not going to end. So I just decided to move on. So at this point, I said, you know what? I'm going to get rid of the company. I'm going to do what I got to do. And I'm going to move forward. So what I learned a lot over the span of my life is we want to trust people.
• 7:49
  No, we do trust people. We want to give people the benefit of the doubt. And we do. And we do. And we care so much about people because we want to see them succeed at their highest levels. But in the back, a few people out there just want to burn us. And I've learned it more and more over time. And I learned it with my ex-wife, you know, what she did with my son. She told me when I filed for divorce, she said, I will take all the kids from you. I will destroy you. I'm like, that's cool.
• 8:17
  So she tried to do it with all my kids, and one of them actually went. Four years of his entire high school career, I didn't spend any time with him.
• 8:26
  So throughout that process, two years into it, I had a heart attack. And so that was the beginning of it. Then it led into the project manager, then it led into everything else. But my son ended up coming back. He's been back. He just showed up one day. I said, hey, he goes, it's time. Everyone was always like, hey, he'll be back. Hey, he'll be back. But if you've never dealt with it, you don't want to hear that from everybody if they've never dealt with it. Yeah, when you're in the weeds and you're in the mud, man, you don't want people telling you that it's supposed to be dirty. Yeah.
• 8:55
  It's uncanny, the parallels to our lives. What advice would you give the listeners, the 15 to 35-year-old that's grinding and trusting? What would you do differently?
• 9:11
  Number one, if I take it all the way back to when I was young, the one thing I regret not from 17 to 24 is not having a coach. I think there's a point in our life where ego steps in and it happens to all of us. Like we've got this. And no matter what people say to us, older, younger, whatever, same age, we're not listening. We're in our zone.
• 9:35
  So when Dave was my mentor, my rich dad, at 17, I told him I was going out on my own. He goes, listen, I believe in you. Only person ever say that to me. But he said, you're not ready. The only thing I heard was, I believe in you. You forget about the rest. So fast forward 2004, I've got nothing left. All I remembered was I wasn't ready.
• 9:58
  So what changed? One thing I remembered about Dave when I was sweeping his garage floor is he had a mentor he met with every single month. I didn't have that. That's some good advice. So since 24 to today, I have a mentor. I pay for a mentor. I have elevated over the years. And it's super important because the minute you stop growing, everything in your life will fall apart. You know how you know when you're ready? This is the seagullism.
• 10:26
  is you're going to the next level. It's about the only time you're ready for the last level. And usually you're working on the next problem. And it's like I'm working with more therapy right now, and I realize, holy cow, this is what I'm unlocking to get to the next level. That was great advice to coach. Guys, hire a coach. He's absolutely dead on what I would say.
• 10:50
  is my, the reason I was getting betrayed, and it happened multiple times, the list of people that got rich off of screwing me over is long. You guys listen to this. I always thought that if you just did good things, good things would happen to you. Yeah.
• 11:05
  And it is true. In a long span of things, yes. You treat people right. You do right. You trust people. And you believe in people. It'll come back to you. But you also need to watch. And you need to say, hey. So you have to become and trust yourself. Believe in yourself. And become your own hype man. So that would be my advice. Work on you.
• 11:28
  look in the mirror, become a better you all the time. And it's easier to do when you're learning from someone who else is learning. I just heard this exponential learning. Learn from someone else who's also learning and it's exponential. So absolutely, if it happens more than twice, you're making a choice. And God sends you a lesson until you learn it. So you youngsters that are listening to the show, and I know a lot of you do, and you're owning business,
• 11:54
  Pay attention to what's going on. Because if the same thing keeps happening, I got a newsflash. If the same people keep coming in your life, it's you. That's the advice I would say. That's the same thing with relationships, right? People have shitty relationship after shitty relationship after shitty relationship. Until you level up, you can't expect anything better. What did you need to learn then? What did you need to learn? Right. What did you need to learn? What did I need to learn? What did you need to learn? I needed to learn that the people around me
• 12:20
  were the most important thing. And at the same time, whatever I'm going through right now, this is something I learned early on in life. And most people never take this for understanding. Instead of going through things, how do you grow through things? What is this doing to me and for me so it can elevate? Remember, every single thing, hardship, rock bottom, whatever it is in your life, all that is is you're graduating
• 12:49
  You've already made it. You fell back. Now you can go to a higher mountain. So I say, like, if you're sitting somewhere, you're really, like, looking out at the mountain. You can see the lower one. There's a higher one behind it. There's a higher one behind it. There's a higher one behind it. So you're going to the top of the first mountain. But to get to the next one, you still got to go to the valley. Right? So the only difference is the drop is there. The climb is taller. But you get there faster.
• 13:11
  Because you've learned how to take it. You learned which way to go. You learned all these different things. So there's that book out there that 2X is harder than 10X, right? Same thing with business. You want to make a million dollars? If you can make a half a million dollars, a million dollars is easy. Once you make a million dollars, you can make $10 million. But it's all about getting through that first threshold. But people look too far ahead and it looks too far away. But they don't realize one step at a time is going to get you everywhere you need to go.
• 13:37
  What do you think about taking the law of subtraction? To me, it's easier to subtract than it is to add. So it's what you take out. That's what the book 10X is easier than 2X talks about. Stop doing the 80% of the things that give you only 20% of the revenue and then the vice versa. Do the 20% that gives you 80% of the revenue. It's the Pareto principle. 100%. And it's like the moment I took away the bad things, the drinking, the drugs, the partying, the toxic women,
• 14:07
  That was exponential. When did you do the same thing and how did you come about learning that? Because you guys, you're getting a master class right now. Whoever's listening to this, if you're watching this, it's what you say no to. Hire a coach, what you say no to. What was your, what was your no? My stuck was actually my ex-wife. Are you as good now? No. How many years has it been? Got divorced and I filed in 2018, got divorced in 2020.
• 14:34
  Oh, it's 11 years. But I was with her for 17 years. 10 years. Yeah. It takes. I don't know what it is. Everybody told me that. Guys, who you pick in your partnership is so important. I finally have a good one. And all of a sudden, everything's blowing up. Who you choose can either make or break you.
• 14:56
  Yeah, 100%. Why were you choosing her, though? So I honestly, I was young, right? So when I met her, I was 21. She was 28. I had my shit together. She had her shit together. I was just trying to hook up with her, bro.
• 15:11
  Famous last words. She got pregnant six months after she was into it. So it's like, I've never met her dad. The first time I got to meet her dad, I got to tell her dad that she's pregnant. And her dad's like, oh, you guys are getting married. I'm like, fuck, you know what I mean? I'm 21 years old. I'm getting married here. Are you serious? Right. So at the end of the day, like,
• 15:30
  I just did the right thing. We didn't get married actually until way later on in life. Like when I went through that bankruptcy in 2004, we got married just so we could save the house. There was 30 people there. The day we got married, we go, why are we doing this? And we knew. So I just really tried to do what was right. But here was a pivotal point in my life. My daughter at nine years old, 2018, comes up to me and she goes, Daddy, why don't you sleep in a room with mommy?
• 16:01
  Why do you sleep in my bed? I said, I don't know, baby. I mean, you're sleeping. You're sleeping with mommy. It's fine. But for that entire day, I was numb. And here's what I said to myself. I'm teaching my daughter. I had two boys already that were a little bit older. And when you have boys, I think you think a certain way. But once you have a daughter, you adjust the way you think. And I said, I'm teaching my daughter what's okay, but it's not okay.
• 16:27
  So meaning if I do this until she's 18, 19, then I get divorced, my daughter's going to clone me as a husband and the same stuff's going to happen. So I need to teach her what real love is and this isn't it. So it's my job to get out of this to show her what's not right.
• 16:46
  And that's the reason why I got divorced. Kudos to you. Model the behavior, because they're watching. This stuff is, they're watching. You could tell them everything. They're just gonna emulate what you do. I was the one, and it sounds like you were too, that broke that, I was the one that got, that did everything different. Everything. Literally, the way I was raised, I did the exact opposite. And you're right about the daughter. That changes everything. You start looking about how you treat people, how you treat women, what you've been doing, and you're like, whoa.
• 17:15
  We need to be nice. Let's dig into some business principles because you said a lot of things that are very similar to me, women-wise and betrayal and mistrust and just grind, grind, grind, grind, grind and make some success and get a little money in your pocket and you think you're cool and you think you got an ego. But I'm going to assume that you ran into the $1 million mark, the $3 million ceiling, the $5 million ceiling and the $10 million ceiling. Mm-hmm.
• 17:44
  Did you hit all those two? Hit them all, yeah. So the hardest one is that million dollar one. Tell the listeners how you were able to overcome that and why is that so hard to break through? In the beginning when you're involved in business and you're doing everything, you want to become the most successful person, but you think you could do it alone.
• 18:08
  Most people can't hit multiple six figures, seven figures, anything higher than that.
• 18:15
  Because they feel, here's what most business owners say that are on a smaller end of business that are really tied into their business really heavily. I wish I could duplicate myself. If I could just find another one in me. That's super selfish, right? Like we really suck. And at the end of the day, like what I found out was there were people I could put in place that were way better than me. And as long as I allowed them to do their job and I paid them well, my company was going to grow. Because I limited my time.
• 18:42
  Outside of that, I realized that if you're always trying to take one vehicle somewhere without something else coming, like whether it's real estate on the back end or whatever you're doing, what may happen to me again is what happened to me in 2006. If everything were to fall apart and I only had one thing going on, I might lose it. So I started investing in real estate. I started having different opportunities out there.
• 19:03
  And I said to myself, if this breaks, I still have this. If this breaks, I still have this. So I think the opportunity to be able to grow, but people do that too soon. People are starting a business and they look at what you're doing. They look at what I'm doing and they go, oh, I want to do that too. You got to be good at one thing. And once you're good at one thing and once you're able to master what it is, then you can take time away.
• 19:25
  If you can't take time away today because your business will fall apart without you, don't even think about anything yet. Put processes, systems in your business and be able to grow. So what allowed me to grow was putting systems, processes in my business and allowing people to do their job without managing them, micromanaging them, letting them lead. So one thing I learned in my early 20s was we get some kind of feeling at a young age when people call us a boss. Tough name. We're a boss, right? Right.
• 19:54
  So those are my employees. Later on in life, if you really grow up, that's my team. I'm a leader. That's my leader. That's my team leader that does that. You work for them. Right. And you change the mindset. And it makes them feel good because they know they have a very important role to make this thing work. They're not just there because you're cutting them a paycheck. So the way you make people feel, especially inside your organization, really transfers the way your organization grows.
• 20:24
  So I had to come to terms with that.
• 20:27
  So you're giving the best of systems, guys. So I resisted doing systems and building standard operating procedures because I just I hated the meticulousness of it. And nowadays with chat GPT and AI, there's no reason to have to do this. So systems, save yourself time, energy and money. Build a system. You can literally just go and say what you're doing today into chat GPT for free and say, build me an SLP.
• 20:57
  And it will. So you just heard it from Dan. You heard it from Kelly Siegel. Build, document the system, and then delegate said system to multiply yourself. And believe me, what he said is true. No one can do it like me. You think that until you grow up and you realize there's so many more people better than you, but you teach them the system, and it's usually just something about communicating that you haven't done. So he's giving you masterclass.
• 21:25
  Who you surround yourself, who you marry, systems, and there was another, oh, hire a mentor. That's what we've got. And we're 10 minutes into, 15 minutes into this thing. So one thing I'll tell you is this. Your ultimate goal in business should have a team that does so well, makes you look very bad at what you think you're good at.
• 21:47
  That's really good advice. Because we all think like whatever, we want to go in business for a reason. Because we feel like we're really good at this. I can make this work. But over time, you want to have people in your business that are operating at such high levels that whatever level you were playing at, it doesn't even compare to what they're doing.
• 22:04
  It's really to remove yourself. Remove yourself. Because if you go away and the business fails, you don't have a business. You have a job. Yeah. So you've got to have this thing run without you. And actually, I laugh all the time. When I knew I had a lot to learn was when...
• 22:20
  my business would do better when I left. Because I was the bottleneck. I would hold things out and hold it up. And a lot of that too, I learned, you're constantly learning. Here's one that most people probably don't even know. I answer people's questions too fast.
• 22:36
  So you come to me with an issue and I slow myself down. I do this one, three, one. Now, what's the one issue? Not four. What's the one main issue? I do the same. Give me three possible solutions. And what's the one you'd choose? How many times for years, Dan, you come to me, hey, we're having a difficult time installing in 30 days. And I just go, we'll do this, this, and this. Can you learn anything? Yeah.
• 23:03
  They just follow directions. That's the old Rockefeller way of doing it. We have got to empower our people to make decisions and be able to analyze data. Make. I don't want. I want facts, not feelings. Data, not what you think. And if you're not measuring, what you measure gets better. So you're going to masterclass that business from the two of us. And believe me, two of us have probably lost millions.
• 23:27
  and been screwed over by everybody. Smartest people in the world learn from other people's mistakes. Learn from ours. One thing you just said there is super important. A lot of people in business think they're so good. I'm so good at this. People need what I have to offer. And I say, okay, well, what's the transformation? The people that you do work with, what's the actual difference from before you to after you? And most people can't answer that because most people think they're better than they really are, but they don't really see the result that they're trying to drive because they're not driving it.
• 23:56
  Let's get into a little bit of mindset about that because when you said that, I just felt a little jolt in my heart. And when people say that, I used to say that too, and it was from scarcity and fear. Did you find that to be true for you? Yeah, 100%. We didn't get into your childhood. How was your childhood that, like, I didn't have food. I was beat.
• 24:18
  I think we were all beat. The belt, the spoon, everything. If we could do that to our kids these days, things would be different. I mean, there is a point where there's punishment and then there's just abuse. Abuse, yeah. I was abused. And when you're doing that, you grow up in constant fear. You tend to create fear. So if you grew up in anything like that,
• 24:43
  heal so go to therapy number one but talk about that because i didn't know i was doing that i would surround myself with people that would treat me the same way so i have a brother i don't know if you have siblings but i have a brother my dad was an addict and when my dad would be mad or whatever he beat the crap out of us with his belt and that was his love for us that's how he showed us love
• 25:10
  He was very abusive to my mom, but I didn't know my dad was an addict until I was in my 30s. Here's why. My brother becomes an addict. My brother's doing heroin, whatnot, goes to rehab, comes out, brings his book to the office because he worked for me. He was a functioning addict, and he was my brother, so I still cared for him. I tried to give him as much opportunity as I can, but it was never enough. He has this book. It says N.A. on it.
• 25:40
  I've never been an addict. I have no idea what NA is. But here's what I do remember. When I was eight years old, seven years old, my dad used to give me colorful key change that said NA. And I had a whole bunch of colors. I thought it was cool carrying around my belt loop. So now I'm registering that my dad was giving me key change because he was going to programs trying to get better. And he was given to me as a gift. But I didn't resonate. Here's what the difference from my childhood to today's children.
• 26:11
  My parents kept that a secret. So anything that was going on in our childhood with our parents and our grandparents, we had no idea. They kept it in the closet. Today, everyone fights together. Kids are there. Everyone's there. So everything is very wide open. If dad's an addict, the kids know dad's an addict. Like, it just changes the game.
• 26:30
  So realizing this later in life, I realized that my brother's behavior came from my dad, and I never liked the way my dad was. I never agreed with him. I didn't like it. And I think because I read Rich Dad, Poor Dad, and I think because we drove by Bon Jovi's house that day, I think that's when everything changed for me. Because I realized, like, I love you, Dad, but...
• 26:49
  You're full of shit. Yeah. You literally... It's that whole... I am the two brothers. You have the story. The two brothers, one become an alcoholic because of dad and one didn't drink because of dad. It's... You can... Again, your upbringing has nothing to do with your choices. 100%. I want to blow your mind. So I walked in on my dad shooting up and it was the single point in my life that changed everything. Because at that point...
• 27:18
  He would talk about it with me, but at that point, he stopped coming to get me. So I equated drugs with, oh, I don't deserve love. He chose drugs, not me. So there was abandonment issues. So I would choose women that would abandon me. You know how weird the mind is. But I'm gonna tell you guys, thoughts are magical lies, and whatever keeps coming up, hire a therapist and
• 27:46
  dive into that because those are not true, even though it feels like it is happening. And that's when you're saying, oh, I'm just like that. And if you look around and you're being betrayed like Dan and I were, it's you, brother, it's you. And if the quicker you can address that, the more money you're gonna save,
• 28:04
  But it gets scary, man. You start looking into a mirror with a therapist. I just did it the other day where we were talking about, I feel this triggered when I'm trying to give somebody advice and they don't listen to me. Turns out,
• 28:19
  When I was eight years old, my mother beat me with a fist through my face. And when I'm trying to help you or I'm trying to give you advice, this is probably why I started Heart in a Life podcast. I'm trying to pay it forward because at that eight-year-old kid, I was helpless. And I don't want anybody to be helpless. Yeah.
• 28:41
  So I keep paying it forward. And when you shut me down, I feel like that 8-year-old kid. And it's reliving it. So I just gave you a mindset thing. It's crazy. In your mind, you think it's actually happening. So if I give you advice and you shoot me down, it's like you're punching me in the face. That 8-year-old that couldn't do nothing. I'm a little, little kid, 8 years old. And also, I don't know about you, but this is why I'm a big guy. Because my stepfather was a big dude when we used to beat. We didn't get the belt. We did get the belt when he was sober. Yeah.
• 29:09
  When he was drunk, we got everything. Boards, fists, drowning. My dad had a paddle mead.
• 29:18
  And on a paddle was engraved, me and my brother's names, Paddle. How's your brother doing now? He lives in Florida here, don't really talk to him. He's clean, but he still makes bad choices. You know, like in women and whatnot. And he doesn't want to surround himself with the right people and do the right things. Dude, I came to a point where I'm like, I just can't help you anymore. We're in that mindset. Keep going. What's your advice to somebody that's listening here and they're like, man.
• 29:44
  I got the same stuff going on. They're on life's hamster wheel. I call it, you're on a merry-go-round, and if you don't get off, you're going to puke. I would take this back to childhood, right? Early, early childhood. Think about when you were really young. No matter what was going on in your life,
• 30:00
  If you wanted something, no matter what it was, somewhere inside you felt you deserved it. Even if it was an ice cream cone. Still do, man. Even if it was an ice cream cone. But from some point, then you started being like, well, you're either your parents or someone in your family started telling you that's not for you. You don't deserve it. You're not getting it. And you either believe it or you don't. So we make up this magical word called can't.
• 30:26
  It's not a word. So when people say I can't do something, if you take yourself back to early age and you want to do something, you did it. I can. You figured it out. But somewhere in your life, conditional thinking fell in, mediocrity fell in. Now you start to believe that things aren't possible.
• 30:45
  So when life starts to turn, it's when you take that apostrophe T away, and now you can do it again. And sometimes it never happens for anybody because they're not willing to go back to that person that they once wanted to be. And they're willing to settle for what they once never thought they should be. So I have a little play on, and I've never said this before, and even Stephen's never heard this before. I have a little play for can't.
• 31:08
  First of all, I can and I will watch me. So when people, that's contagious, but some people still just, they don't think they can. So I call it constant and never-ending tenacity. If you keep going, water will wear out a rock.
• 31:27
  And I'm planning to come. So I always tell people impossible only describes a degree of difficulty. It says I'm possible. I'm going to keep coming until I figure it out. And you will not stop me. So I'll even make it fun and be like option A is you give me what I want. Option B, I'm going to, I'm going to take it. I don't know where that confidence came from, but I would tell you that it came from faking it until I made it. And now that I've done the mind, mindfulness work, it's,
• 31:55
  You said, I'll see it when I believe it, but when I believe it, I'll see it. I believe I can.
• 32:02
  Let's figure out like that whole like fake it till you make it thing because I think it's important to dive into that for a second. Because if your audience is young and older, you really have to break this down. You got the influencer world out there, right? Fake it till you make it means rent all this stuff, look this certain way, and try to act like you're something. It's not that. That's not what it means. Yes, thank you. It means – and I just wanted to clarify that because you're saying the age of your audience in today's world –
• 32:31
  If you don't really explain specifically, they don't understand. So people go, hey, did you fake it till you make it? I go, no. I believe that I just haven't achieved. I just had to figure out how I was going to achieve. So I believe I arrived.
• 32:45
  I just was trying to figure out how to get there. So faking it till you make it is like knowing, hey, that's me, I'm doing these big things, and all of a sudden now your subconscious doesn't know the difference between reality and what you're thinking. So you start telling yourself that you're this person, you're doing this stuff, you're elevated, you're successful, now all of a sudden your life just starts to catch up. So that's what fake it till you make it means. Thank you for the clarification. I would do the dang thing. My first job was selling copiers.
• 33:12
  I call and say, you want to buy a copy? I want to buy a copy. That didn't work. So I realized I read a sales book, Zig Ziglar, and I just adjust. Pivot, pivot, pivot. What I meant by fake is just go. Progress over perfection. Action builds confidence. Correct. Our age knows, but the term fake it till you make it has transitioned so much to the younger generation today where they see –
• 33:37
  this glorious lifestyle, and they buy into the bull. Yeah. Well, there's so many people that are out here, and I don't talk about this much. There's so many people out here talking and telling you about business that never own a business. I talk about this all the time. It drives me crazy. So I talk about it, Steve. I'm like, this dude doesn't need, he's never owned a business. And the business he owns all failed. And they're giving you the system because they went to ChatGPT and they said, this is what you do. And they listen to one of our podcasts and they put, dude,
• 34:06
  You wouldn't take advice or workout advice from somebody who's overweight. You wouldn't take relationship advice from someone who's three times. Why would you take some business advice from somebody who's never actually won in business? So this takes me back to a couple of things. Freshman year of high school. First period is gym, phys ed. My phys ed teacher is a fat shit. This is gym class telling us to be fit, to work out. You're 380 pounds. Yeah.
• 34:36
  Something's not right. My third period is business. I'm so intrigued at this point. Like I wanna know about business. I don't know anything about business. My family doesn't know business. I go to the teacher before the class even starts. We're there a couple minutes before the bell rings. Hey, what business do you have? Oh, I've never owned a business. Freshman year. Something's wrong here. We're getting taught things from people that don't even know. I gave up in school freshman year, the first semester.
• 35:04
  because I realized it was just a system. I had freshman English as a senior and I still can't spell today. And I go to people, I go, listen, I never got a PhD at Public High School diploma, but I do know how to build an MBA, massive bank account. Because it's not about what you learn, it's about how you learn it. And outside of that, talking about the influencer world and the people who wanna sell programs and all this nonsense is people like you and I,
• 35:34
  We own the shovel, we use the shovel, we broke the shovel, we had found a better shovel, then we sell the shovel. The other people see the shiny shovel, they go, oh, this looks good, let me sell it to the whole world. And let me try to chat GPT how to use the shovel.
• 35:49
  But you can't create mastery from something you haven't even done. Yeah, absolutely. And so many people out there are doing this, and it's terrible. And I feel bad, it's like, what did they say? The youth is wasted on the youth. I wish I had the energy that I had when I was younger, but the knowledge I know now and the wisdom and experience I have now. Because literally, entrepreneurship, owning a business,
• 36:12
  is absolutely bashing your head against the wall day in, day out, and thinking you're making progress. And you probably are as long as you keep bashing your head against and believing in invisible progress. And then one day, you got a couple dollars to rub together. People quit, like my head hurts. I'm done bashing my hands on the wall. Keep doing it.
• 36:33
  Because eventually it's going to work. And that is the hardest thing. We did it with the podcast. Done it with my business. Every single level you're going to encounter a different devil and you have to become a different person. The 1 million, I told you. I did it at 1 million, 3 million, 5 million, and 10 million. And we're doing it with the podcast. I've done it with relationships every single time. Entrepreneurship is an abused word. Everyone calls themselves an entrepreneur. Entrepreneur.
• 37:02
  And I lay it down to what you were saying. And I wanted to cut you off because I wanted to just bust a train of thought before I forgot about it. You're talking about entrepreneurs. You're talking about building. You're talking about doing all this stuff and hitting your head against the wall. But if you talk to a majority of people out there, they're going to tell us that they're entrepreneurs.
• 37:23
  because they have their real estate license and maybe they have a job. So it's two things, now they're an entrepreneur. Most people today don't understand, like if we look back when we were younger, the people who were making hundreds of thousands of dollars, totally different breed. Now it's just an unspoken word, which feels like everyone's an entrepreneur in this world. Just because you have something, if you're not doing the stuff that you're talking about, beating your head against the wall, going until you can't go no more, I mean the amount of energy that we put into everything we do at such a high level,
• 37:54
  The entrepreneur person, the wantrepreneur doesn't do that. So it's important to understand that what you said about beating your head against the wall, it's going to hurt. People don't want the pain. It's supposed to. And people don't want the pain. And the harder it hurts, the better it's going to be. What is an entrepreneur, then?
• 38:13
  So an entrepreneur is I believe someone who elevates at a high level, number one. Number two, has everything not figured out, but has everything working as a well-oiled machine. Because as an entrepreneur, we're never gonna have it figured out.
• 38:28
  But as long as we have all the bolts running and all the belts running and everything is running, we get to fine tune things. We get to see through our processes and systems what's going on. We get to see this life. So I talk about my entrepreneurship world is wealth, freedom, and relentless execution. How do you do that? So wealth, what do people think wealth is? Wealth is not money. No.
• 38:48
  Wealth is health. Wealth is the ability to have a good life, not a wasted one. Freedom is to be able to do things when you can because you can, right? Not going on vacation and phones burning in your hand. And if you're not around for 30 days, everything falls apart. That's not freedom. And relentless execution is just going no matter what.
• 39:10
  fighting the fight because at the end of the day, if you're an entrepreneur, that's the label that you want for your entire life. You're going to burn it until the day you're gone every single day. So you're going to fight the battle. You're going to get your ass kicked. And I always tell people, listen, we get knocked down all the time. One important rule, don't get knocked out.
• 39:31
  So that's my definition of entrepreneurship, taking it to those levels and being able to execute there. I love the master's degree and falling down a PhD and getting back up. What was your first job? What was the first thing? I only had one job. And it was the construction. Working with that guy, Dave, for two years. I went to high school.
• 39:52
  And I was on a co-op program where you went to school half the day, worked for half the day. And then my senior year, I went to school for two hours and worked with him for the whole day. Yeah, we did the building houses. Building houses. Yeah. Because you grew up in a poor neighborhood. Yeah, yeah. Same. I want to go through the traits of one. And I want to say the reciprocal of what you said is true as well. You can be an entrepreneur. And that's what I recommend people. If you don't own a business and you're like, oh, this doesn't apply to me. Guys, you should run business.
• 40:20
  If you work for somebody, you should run your business unit like it is your company. And they'll notice. Because if you're working for somebody who knows what they're doing, you have a number and you're blowing that number out, whatever it is. It could be customer satisfaction. Yeah.
• 40:37
  It could be number of phone calls that we took. It could be sales. There's always, you should have a number and you should blow that thing out and you should treat it like it's your own. I did this, my first job, I'm surprised that you didn't do these things, was I went door-to-door selling candy. I went door-to-door selling papers, newspapers. I went, I had a paper route. Those were things. I live in the hood, bro. You weren't selling papers. You get shot.
• 41:00
  Yeah, well, we didn't, I was too stupid to freaking realize it. I would do it, and we still did, we had money, so I'm surprised I didn't get robbed. I lived in the hood too, but, you know, I just grew up off of 8 Mile. But I wanted, my desire to eat, and that's what I did. Make no mistake about it, I was 11, 12, I lied. I said I was 13 at 11 to get a paper route so I could make some change just to go get food. That's how bad it was at my house.
• 41:26
  We're on welfare. My parents were drunk. They were gone. So let's roll this thing back. One thing, jumping on what you said about the entrepreneur. Yeah. So work at your highest level and act like you own it. Yep. Take ownership of your position. You shouldn't have to be told what to do. You shouldn't have to be asked if you're doing it. If you don't want to be an entrepreneur but you want to execute at your highest levels as an entrepreneur –
• 41:52
  You make sure that you're delivering so high and so good that you don't have to be asked. And that's one of the things is most people have to be babysat in business. And if you're babysitting in your business, that's another part of your business that you are getting thrown under the water and it's destroying you. So sorry, go ahead. That's some micromanaging stuff. Let's shortcut people. What do I need to master to break through the million dollar hump, the $3 million hump, and the $5 million hump?
• 42:19
  In your opinion. And not even your opinion, what was your experience? And I'll see, I'll guarantee you, you and I agree with him. So what, at 1 million, what do I have to do to get over a 1 million?
• 42:30
  So what I did in one million, I wore every hat. Yep. I did everything in the company. I was the estimator, I was the sales guy, I was the one running the jobs, I was doing everything, collecting the money. So I basically own a glorified daycare center with adult children, and at the same time, I was bringing on all the work. So I wore the one hat and I hit the plateau because I only had enough hours in a day to get to a certain point. So I mastered what the business was, but I didn't master how the business can develop.
• 42:59
  So the next thing was to get to the next part was I had to hire someone and I hired a coach and I also hired someone to do all the little work. And people don't understand what the little work is. Sending emails. Me as an operator, owner of a company, I shouldn't be sending emails. I shouldn't be taking phone calls. I shouldn't be doing this stuff. And outside of that, now I need guidance.
• 43:21
  I got to this place right here where I'm stuck and I can't go any further. So I'm going to stay here unless I'm willing to learn. But what I had to do is I had to forget the stuff that I learned to that point and reconfigure myself. Meaning all the stuff that got me to a million dollars and the way I was thinking was going to keep me at a million dollars. Yep. So what are some of the things like you said earlier that I have to forget or get rid of?
• 43:48
  So that I can go to the next rise. So I got rid of some responsibilities. I put some things on other people. There you go. Delegate. Yeah. Start a delegate. Start putting things on other people. Start trusting other people. Business starts growing. Now you come to a point where we forget how we got to that next step and we start going back to that first step.
• 44:11
  And we start looking at like, okay, like we're here and now we're managing again. Now we're doing things because we're happy, we're successful, we're making a little bit more money. Now it's like, oh shit, I hit a ceiling. Now we gotta hire somebody else to take us to the next level. The biggest problem in business is we all try to figure it out ourselves and we only know what we know. But we have to forget the things we know so we can learn better things.
• 44:38
  So when the company went to 5 million, I literally was sitting back and the entire company was operating, doing its thing. But what I wasn't doing was I wasn't paying attention to the growth. I was just letting the company float. So the company just kind of did what it was doing. And it was like, it was kind of like cynical, like it was jumping up and down. It was staying, you know, 4 million, 6 million, 4 million, 6 million. And I was like kind of disengaging myself, which was bad.
• 45:06
  Because I was putting too much trust on other people without giving them culture, without having core values. Now things start to change. Yep. Now you're running an operating system with people where every single person who comes into your business has to be part of the core values. They have to believe in them. They have to trust in them. They have to abide by them.
• 45:26
  The next thing is making sure that your business isn't operating. Every fire isn't going through you. Every decision isn't going through you. Every call isn't going through you. The only thing that you're doing is making a decision on the outside now how you can grow the company. The day you step out and you build from the outside, not the inside, is the day your company goes like this because you're allowing people to do their stuff. And now you have a team. So I had employees on my way up.
• 45:53
  Once I hit about five million, I realized that my employees were taking advantage of me, so I was going backwards. Shit, I'm in this company, I don't know what's doing. Now I'm managing people, now I'm yelling at people, now people who aren't doing what they're doing, my company's going backwards. This company's never gonna be sustained if it keeps doing this stuff. How do I go to the next level? Stand outside. It's like when you're in a bad relationship. You're in a bad relationship. Year after year after year, it gets worse and worse and worse. You're still growing as a couple, but you don't really see what's going on because you're on the inside.
• 46:23
  Everybody on the outside tells us for a long time, what are you doing? What's going on? You don't look happy. We think our problems, but we don't listen to their advice. You want to elevate? You got to start taking people's advice. People who are doing better than you. People who are willing to take you places you've never been. So that's what I found was that in the beginning of my businesses, when I was very small, I was hanging out with people who had a common past. Then I started hanging out with people who had a common present.
• 46:53
  When I elevated to 10, 20, 30 million, I was spending time with people who had a common future. I just had to catch up. So it was all about the people and the things that I was bringing around my business and my life that took me to a certain level, to the next level, and to the highest level. I have not really thought of this. This is gonna be my first run at this. And I had to think about it while you were talking and still listen to you. Zero to a million.
• 47:20
  You invest in yourself and your people and work hard. Just because you make $100,000. I don't think you invest in your people yet. I just believe in them. And you're starting to build the culture. Zero to one. One to three, you're building systems.
• 47:37
  That's it. And then after three to five, then it's the culture that you started at the beginning. And by then you're starting to roll through people and the people that came with you ain't gonna make, what got you here ain't gonna get you there. And then this is what I just sent to my staff this week. We're in an AI driven age and the skills that used to make people successful aren't the ones that will carry them forward.
• 48:01
  The next era is about reclaiming our human strengths, the things that AI cannot replicate. Creativity, strategic thinking. This is what you started off saying, by the way. Creativity, strategic thinking, problem solving, clear communications, which is difficult conversations that everybody avoids.
• 48:21
  and real collaborations. So that means we're gonna kill the old mindset of learn once, use forever. That's dead. So this is what I said, and we're gonna learn constantly,
• 48:34
  evolve continuously and adapt faster than the world changes. This is what it just said, literally yesterday. And it was also, this is living the NTM core values. So we are doing that to a T, and we just gave you a master class. How did you balance being a single dad? This is a hard thing, I had to do it. And actually to this day,
• 48:56
  This is why we do podcasts on Thursdays and Fridays, because my parenting time is sacred. Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesdays are parenting time. Thursday, Friday. My ex-wife, she has the father, so she has the weekend. So she Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and then comes back to me. So all of my work, all of my extracurricular happens Thursday, Friday, Saturday.
• 49:21
  And I had to play the game because I had an unhealed one. I told her I wanted every weekend. And, of course, she wanted to block me. So how did that work out for you? And how did you have those? Notice what I just said, boundaries. Boundaries that I did not break. If you want to meet with me, I don't care how big of a deal you are. If you said to me, let's do the podcast on Monday, it's a no. He says, let's do it Monday. Can't.
• 49:47
  I, that's my daughter time, and I'm investing in her. And she knows that she's a priority. How did you do it? So I fought for 50-50 custody. Even though I was fighting for it, I didn't know how I was gonna figure it out. Dude, I'm running on all cylinders, bro. You know, it doesn't matter if you're running your business from the inside or the outside, our brains don't shut down. Now you're getting divorced and you're like,
• 50:16
  I'm gonna have my kids for half the time. At this time, they're going through school, they gotta get to the bus, they gotta get up, I gotta do stuff that I never did before, gotta make them breakfast. That wasn't my job. So I said, what I'm gonna do is all the things I need to do, the nights I gotta work, the late estimates, whatever I'm doing, everything was gonna happen. So I had my kids Monday, Tuesday,
• 50:41
  my ex had them Wednesday, Thursday, then it was every other Friday, right? So five on, two on. That breakup was weird to me. So I knew that I had five days with them, then two days, and then the cycle just went. So five days on, two days off. So that's how it went. So I knew in the times that I didn't have them,
• 51:01
  That's when I had to get everything done. Yeah. So I'm a person like the guys will tell you, like, dude, I'm boom, boom, boom. Like, I'm systematized. I'm by the hour, by the minute. Like, I get my shit done.
• 51:14
  And it was a lot more important for me to do that because as my kids were growing up, I knew right now more than ever they needed me. They needed their father. I can't imagine you had three of them. I had one. Three. I was scared to death. Going through sports, travel, all this stuff. So listen to this. Every time I spent time with my kids, it was just me and my kids. Nobody else. My ex-wife would have a boyfriend, would have this, and the boyfriend would be there. Whatever I'm doing...
• 51:41
  Outside of my kids, I'm doing it without them. But when I had my kids, it was just me and them. We would go on quads and ATVs on the weekends, just us. We would go to a football game, just us, whatever it was. It was just us. Know your friends. You know, yeah, your friend could come, but we're not going to your friend's house. You're not doing that stuff, especially on the weekends, because this is my sacred time with you. Your friends could come with us because I didn't want to miss that time with them. And what I found out was I was able to really know who my kids were.
• 52:10
  Outside of that, they saw how present I was. And something happened. My ex-wife got a DUI. My kids had to get Ubered everywhere. Sorry. My ex-wife went reckless. I didn't. If you looked at me in high school, bro, I was the one who was going to be reckless. But I think, like, oh, I have ADD. I have this. I have that. Bro, that's why we are who we are. But at the end of the day, when we got to control our shit, we control it. And that's what I had to do.
• 52:40
  So the relationships I built with my kids over that time, except for my middle son, were super important. My oldest son is a successful entrepreneur. He spent his entire high school career with me, living with me, staying with me, doing everything. My daughter is 16, talking about the business she's going to own, all this stuff, because we spend this time together. And I build things around them. So one thing I did importantly was this. Guys, listen, I'm not going to work when I'm with you. I may have to take a call.
• 53:04
  But if I take a call, here's why. Give me the next two years. I lost everything in my divorce. Give me the next two years and I'm going to give you guys something super promising. And when I brought my kids to Aruba for the first time to this new place, I go, guys, this is the rest of your life. All they talk about now is we're going to Aruba twice a year. This is what we're doing. Our place in Aruba, blah, blah, blah, blah. Like, let me put my head down when I'm not with you. But when I am with you, I might need a couple seconds. But here's why I'm building it. So I got my kids on board with what I was doing.
• 53:34
  My one son who didn't talk to me, later on in life comes to find out that his mom was his caretaker and she missed more football games than I ever did. I went to every game. I missed one game. I was in Aruba with my kids. And I was sitting across the street at the gelato shop taking their Wi-Fi so I could watch them live stream. I never missed a game. Yeah.
• 54:01
  I was always engaged in what I had to do. I post about him. I'm proud about him. I texted him every day. I told him, hey, you know, he was an amazing kid. I believe in him. I love you. Even though he didn't text me, every single day he got a text about what a great human he was. And then one day he just showed up. Everyone that I talk to that doesn't talk to their kids, you know what they say, I text my kids. They don't text me back. Forget about them. I go, what is wrong with you?
• 54:28
  I would never give up on my kids. And I never gave up because I never gave up and because I gave my kids all that time. The day my son came back, my daughter and my oldest son saw the joy in my life. But one thing I never did was take the joy from their life because my one son wasn't around. I still gave them 100% of me, even though I was hurting on the inside. Yeah.
• 54:52
  And that was the proudest moment, the first time the four of us went on vacation again. I see it in your eyes, man, I'm happy for you. You're triggering me because we went from my first, right when we were freshly divorced, I didn't have, she took all the furniture, she took everything, so I had to go replenish everything. I didn't know what I was gonna do, but I did it. And we went to a trip in Cancun. We had a place in Cancun and I was scared to death. I went, what am I gonna do with a two-year-old little girl in Cancun?
• 55:21
  And all I do is I'm just gonna be present. And I have a picture of me pulling her through the Cancun airport with her sitting on the luggage with Candy, so happy. And we did that every year. And then at one point I painted her nails and I was just so nervous that I got it everywhere. It was the worst nail job that I've ever done. But I still have that picture. She's 16 now, she was two and she remembers that.
• 55:48
  And it was just because they talk about scarcity. And this is full disclosure is that I was abandoned. My dad chose drugs. My mom chose alcohol. My stepdad just liked to beat on me. And I wasn't going to abandon my daughter. And I never did. I never will. And she knows that. And that confidence allows her to do things. Now, there's certain things that she hasn't gone without anything. So I've overcorrected. But...
• 56:15
  I'm happy for you. I'm proud of you. And that's what this is all about, man. That legacy, paying it forward and watching them become amazing human beings. We're up against it, but I want to do a rapid fire with you. But I want to ask you one more question. What, all the coaching, all this stuff, what do you want? We didn't even say it. It's called Big D coaching for Big Dan. What do you want Big D coaching to stand for 10 years from now? So when I had the heart attack, I realized one thing.
• 56:43
  If I were to die today, what impactful stuff did I really do in this world? Nothing. I built some houses, developed some land. My grandkids, what are they going to talk about? Oh, yeah. My dad said he was in the excavator with grandpa. You know what I mean? Like, cool. I realized one thing that day. And I was already a man of faith.
• 57:05
  I said to God, and I think everyone prays to God in their worst times. I've always prayed to God, even been grateful in my best times. And that's the most important thing. Most people talk to God and say, why me in a bad time when I always ask direct to God, whether whatever time is in my life.
• 57:22
  Like, try me, show me, guide me, right? So that's kind of what I do. And that day I said to myself, I don't remember. It was all blurry. An ambulance texted my kids thinking it was it. I'm in a hospital. I came out of cardiac arrest. They're talking to me. Everything's fine. I said, God, listen, the last 40 years of my life, I've proved nothing to nobody. But what I want to tell you is that the day I come meet you in heaven, I want you to tell me that I gave you opportunity. And, Dan, you blew the lid off of it.
• 57:51
  So that was my goal, to be the best servant so that when my grandkids were sitting around a table with other people, someone says, you know what? Your grandfather instilled something in my dad or my grandpa, and that's why we are where we are today. He believed them enough to change his life. So good. So I decided that I know how to make money. I know how to lose money. How do I teach people? Before, you talked about the bottleneck.
• 58:18
  My focus is on the beginning entrepreneurs that are on their way to 10 million, that are stuck in their business. That's where I am, because I knew how to get out of that. Yeah, yeah, I didn't tell you. You know your shit. I knew how to get out of that. Every single person I see who thinks they're successful is in that bottleneck position. Now I'm going to show you what success looks like.
• 58:42
  I want to teach you how to be the CEO of your life and the CEO of your business. And if I can do that for enough people, Big D coaching forever when I'm gone, we'll be like, hey, Big D, YouTube videos will be here forever. That guy changed my life. What did Jim Rohn do? We still look at Jim Rohn. We still look at Zig Ziglar. I had Jim Rohn on a car with these guys. They're like, who's this guy? He's boring. I go, listen. Listen.
• 59:04
  Now they're addicted, right? So at the end of the day, I just want to be an impactful person who could change other people's lives and show them their true potential without them thinking being busy is being successful. You have a book coming out. When is that coming out? I have two books coming out. I have a clothing line coming out this year. It's called Never Broken.
• 59:25
  And my book is called Never Broken. Mine's unbreakable. I always say I'm unbreakable. We're like the same person. What is this Failing Your Way Uphill? That's another book that's coming out as well. When are these coming out? So Never Broken. I was actually on a phone with my publisher yesterday. That book will be out early 2026. Okay. And that's going to come out with a clothing line. And Failing Your Way Uphill has been done since 2016. Really?
• 59:51
  It talks about all life failures that I use for success. So I want you to come back when the book comes out and let's talk about mindset. Because we talk about business. Because there's a big mindset that needs to happen. You have a hell of a mindset. I would tell you that the listeners hire this guy as a coach. He knows what he's doing. Because I can see it. I ask questions. Some people are full of it. Not many people that come on this show are full of it.
• 1:00:15
  That'll get through all Steven, the watchdog over here. But you're the real deal, man. And I appreciate you. And anything that we can do to help you and pay it forward, you got it. So let's have some fun. Rapid fire. Just whatever comes to your mind as quick as this can be. And I've been told I can't give any commentary anymore and I won't. So rapid fire is worst business advice you've ever taken. Just figure it out. Best investment under 100 bucks. Best investment under 100 bucks? Rich Dad Poor Dad.
• 1:00:44
  I bought it at 70 cents at a garage sale. Is that the book you gift the most? No. What is it? The book I gift the most is really all dependent, but it's actually make your bed. Really? Yeah. First thing you do every morning? Wake up, cup of coffee, and write in my journal my gratitude. There's the mindset we're going to talk about. Most common lie business owners tell themselves. I'm doing well.
• 1:01:13
  What's a hill you'll die on? I would just say the mountain or the hill of attitude. Like your attitude is your altitude is created by your attitude, right? And so your attitude is your altitude. So it's just being able to know that no matter what, you're going to make it happen. So I would say attitude.
• 1:01:28
  I would have thought you would have said your word. My word? Your word. Because my book is Four Agreements. Be impeccable with your word. Number one agreement. When I say something, it's going to happen. Sorry I deviated. Well, I think it has to do with your attitude too, right? Yeah, it does. You've got to believe in yourself. Right. So I love it. Attitude of gratitude, though. Oh, so good. Entrepreneur is what you do. Who are you when no one's looking? Same person. Hell yeah, brother. One habit is...
• 1:01:57
  That saved your business? Hire a coach. A belief you had to kill to grow. I'm the best. So good. Best client success story that surprised even you? It's always the one that you don't think is gonna do it. Six X's business in six months. Ooh, man. One red flag in a business owner you'll call out instantly.
• 1:02:27
  Fake it till you make it. Right, just bullshit. Bullshitting. A quote or mantra that keeps you going? Never give up. One thing your clients never expect about you.
• 1:02:39
  that I'm a big teddy bear and I really care. You are, I can feel it. I'm gonna tell you that you're the real deal and I've appreciated this. Everyone's always like, you look so tough and that's why we hire you. You don't. But then when we hire you, we're like, wow, like you really care. Guys, we didn't even throw the bonus plug out here. Dan offers a seven day free coaching series to help business owners get unstuck and reverse engineer their growth.
• 1:03:01
  Visit BigDCoaching.com to access free training to clarify your next move. Breakdown of his three coaching tiers that we didn't even get into. Access to his mastermind groups and testimonials about that 6x growth. And he'll also answer any DMs that you send him on Instagram personally. So, brother, thank you. You are literally harder than life. Thanks for hanging out. And you are a big teddy bear. Appreciate it, man.
• 1:03:27
  Please rate and share this podcast. I'm active on all social platforms and love to hear from my Segal supporters. Each and every episode is sponsored by my company, National Technology Management, the easiest and best IT company to do business with, delivering peace of mind with technology every day, even simplifying cybersecurity. Visit TrustNTM.com for more info. Until next week, be harder than life.