Michael Macdonald: Why Most Entrepreneurs Fail Before They Even Start | DSH #1679

Speaker 1 Believe in yourself. What you want to do, you have to envision it, you have to write it down, and you have to say it out loud.

Speaker 1 If you do it enough and believe in it enough, you can be on investor estate. Manifestation, right? Yep, it's very important.
I'm huge on that. Self-talk, talk positively about yourself.

Speaker 1 Everything I do, like I always say, it's not real unless you write it down. All my goals I write down.
So, if I say it, I'm gonna do it, it's cool, but it's not tangible.

Speaker 1 I can't touch it, I can't see it. But when I say it, and then I write it down, I could see it.
It's something real.

Speaker 1 Now, I have something tangible that I can look at every single day until I complete that mission.

Speaker 1 Okay, guys, we got Michael J. McDonald here, co-founder of Earn Your Leisure, brought the squad today, man.
Yo, you know, you got to travel with your family, you know?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I've never seen someone roll this piece. It's important.
You got some good people around you, huh? The only way.

Speaker 1 The people that you grew up with, your family, your friends, got to stay true to who you are. You always travel that way?

Speaker 1 Most of the time. I like that, man.
Yeah, I'm a solo traveler, but it's cool to see you got a group of guys around you like this. Well, I would I grew up, you know, I have a big family.

Speaker 1 I got five kids, five um siblings, so four siblings. So I was used to being around a lot of people.
You in time for the fight tomorrow? I'm very excited. I can't wait to, I can't wait to go.

Speaker 1 Who you got winning? You putting some money on it? Crawford, all the way. All the way? Yeah.
Canelo's favorite, though, right? I don't know, but Crawford's gonna kill he's gonna demolish him. Okay.

Speaker 1 Have you interviewed him before? We have. That's still a bad guy.

Speaker 1 He's cool. We've interviewed him.
And then right after the interview,

Speaker 1 it's called

Speaker 1 Dykeman, Basketball and Dykeman. Right after the interview,

Speaker 1 he came with us to Dykeman to

Speaker 1 watch our team play. Wait, so you got a team, too? Yeah, we got a team in Dykeman.
You ever heard of Dykeman League? No. It's a major streetball league in New York City.
Oh, shit.

Speaker 1 They play like Rucker Park and stuff? Well, Rucker doesn't exist, but that kind of took the...

Speaker 1 The

Speaker 1 realm of the streetball. So you're a hooper, too.
No, I'm not. I mean, I'm not a hooper, but we own a team.
Ernie Elisia owns a team in the league. Nice.
Congrats on InvestFest, man.

Speaker 1 You guys killed it. Man, we killed it.
It was the best year ever. I couldn't believe some of those photos.
That might have been the biggest business turnout for an event I've seen, 25,000 people.

Speaker 1 Well, when you say business, it was a business, it was the biggest impact that we've ever had.

Speaker 1 Because the one thing about business and doing anything, right, you have to learn

Speaker 1 from experience, right? So we have four years to learn the correct way to do the the event at the highest capacity.

Speaker 1 And what we noticed year after year,

Speaker 1 we added things, we took away things. And

Speaker 1 our fifth year was the fruits of our labor. Like it was the, it was the lessons we learned.
It showed like 99% success, right? What people just enjoyed the event.

Speaker 1 It was truly amazing. And you got up on stage, right? First time in a while.
First time, got on stage. Well, first time I got on stage and spoke.
So, you know, I got on stage.

Speaker 1 It was a memorable moment because like, I was nervous. I was scared.
I was praying with my wife, praying with my family. I was just, it was just, it was scary, right?

Speaker 1 And then the moment that I stepped on that stage, everything changed. It's like, I had a high that I couldn't even explain.
It was, like, I felt it and I just,

Speaker 1 if it was the most fulfilled moment, like one of the most fulfilled moments that I felt. And it showed me that that's my call and that was my purpose to be on that stage.
Wow.

Speaker 1 Yeah, to start on a stage like that is pretty insane. 25,000 people.
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 1 And the crazy thing is, I didn't even see anybody. I didn't see anybody.
I didn't hear anything. The lights were so bright? No, I just, it was just, I was in a high.
I was in a zone. Wow.

Speaker 1 It was just, it was,

Speaker 1 it was just God just guiding me through. It was just, it was just amazing.
And what was the core message you were trying to get across?

Speaker 1 Believe in yourself, right?

Speaker 1 What you want to do, you have to envision it, you have to write it down, and you have to say it out loud. And if you do it enough and believe in it enough, you can be on investment stage.

Speaker 1 Manifestation, right? Yep. It's very important.
I'm huge on that. Self-talk.
Talk positively about yourself. Yeah.
I mean, everything I do, like I always say, it's not real unless you write it down.

Speaker 1 Right. And all my goals I write down.
Right. So

Speaker 1 if I say it, I'm going to do it. It's cool, but it's not tangible.
I can't touch it.

Speaker 1 I can't see it. But when I say it and then I write it down, I could see it.
It's something real.

Speaker 1 And now I have something tangible that I can look at every single day until I complete that mission. Yeah, that handwriting is important.

Speaker 1 That's why I handwrite on every episode because I learned something from each guest. People ask me why I'm writing during episodes.
That's dope.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm writing this down and then I'm typing it when I get home. Oh, that's nice.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 You want to send me it? I might.

Speaker 1 I take notes. What you've built is really impressive.
I want to give you your flowers and your leisure is one of a kind. I mean, how old is the the company now?

Speaker 1 2019. So January 19th, 2019, we started.
That was the first episode. Feels like you guys have been around longer, honestly.
I mean,

Speaker 1 because we're in it, we don't realize the amount of impact that

Speaker 1 we've done thus far. But I will say, I mean,

Speaker 1 sometimes I do stop and think, like, how is this possible?

Speaker 1 How do we have one of the biggest, the biggest financial illiteracy event? The the biggest financial literacy podcast you know

Speaker 1 the biggest educational community right like we've been building like everything we've been building has has had a tremendous impact for our community and we've changed the the landscape of how people do business in from our culture right now you see a lot of people starting investment on investment shows now you see a lot of people starting communities you know the event space that's a hard space

Speaker 1 to conquer. You know, I mean, look at Coachell, not Coachella,

Speaker 1 ClickFunnels. Yeah.
I think they canceled their event. 10X canceled.
10X canceled. All these events are canceled.
You know why? Because they don't make money. They're not profitable.

Speaker 1 They're not profitable. How do we make them profitable? Because

Speaker 1 we listen to our people.

Speaker 1 We understand the bottom line. And we don't have this.
A lot of these big corporations, what they do is they hire a bunch of people to handle the business.

Speaker 1 Meanwhile, the the co-founders, you got me, Troy, Rashad, Matt. We're in the business.
We're on calls every single week.

Speaker 1 I'm handling a bunch of different tasks. Troy's handling a bunch of different tasks.

Speaker 1 We're in the business, right? And that definitely cuts down costs. Understanding, you know, why are we paying $10 for this paper when we can get it for $3.
We understand costs.

Speaker 1 So we're really inside the business, unlike a lot of these big corporations where they're just paying people and they don't understand the numbers and then they're spending millions and millions of dollars on ads.

Speaker 1 It takes away. We probably spent $9,000 on ads.
That's it. That's it.
Holy crap. That's impressive.
All organic. Yeah, because you built the platform.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 the way we do business is different. And that's why we've been able to be so successful.
A lot of people, and I'm not against what they do because it does work in some type of capacity.

Speaker 1 But when you build, so say people that do challenges, right?

Speaker 1 Which, again, a lot of my friends do it. it.
They do challenges, but

Speaker 1 it's a moment, it's a trend, right?

Speaker 1 So you got these people that have these challenges that it's a trend

Speaker 1 for a small period of time. They do like a five-day challenge, right? And then they don't do a challenge for months on, right? Where Earn Your Leisure, we have a live show every single week, right?

Speaker 1 We're building moments, right? We're building momentum, right? So we have that moment and

Speaker 1 it lasts over and over over and over. It's an everlasting moment, right?

Speaker 1 So when we want to promote something

Speaker 1 we build up that moment at that time, but we have your attention every single week. That makes sense.
Yeah, you guys are consistent. You're paying for it.
So no one's doing that.

Speaker 1 No one's understanding how valuable your platform is. So we built a platform that we don't need to go Facebook ads millions of dollars.

Speaker 1 Does that make sense? No, it does. I'm in the same boat.
This show makes about 150 grand a month and I don't run any ads. It's all the platform I built.
It's important.

Speaker 1 And I was losing a shit ton of money at first, but I saw the long-term vision of like, let me build this audience. Let me invest in studio equipment and all this stuff.
Let me ask you this.

Speaker 1 What is the number one, the number one revenue

Speaker 1 profit coming from the show? It's paid guests. Paid guests? Yeah.
Wow. People paying to come on.
And then it's sponsors and then events. I have events too.
Okay.

Speaker 1 So I could fill up a room in any major city, 500 people,

Speaker 1 no ads. That's dope.
You know? Because

Speaker 1 of the platform. Because of your platform.
You're doing the business the right way. Yeah.
And I don't understand. We've been doing this and we've been explaining to people every single day.

Speaker 1 Even we've got a lot of patience. But,

Speaker 1 well,

Speaker 1 you want to build something for the moment, or you want to build something for a lifetime? I'm with you. I'm 100% with you.
But I'm not going to lie, it was hard.

Speaker 1 Like, I almost called it quits a few times. A lot of people do.
That's why when people say the podcast space is oversaturated, it's not. You know why?

Speaker 1 Because it's going to be a lot of podcasts that come and go. Come and go.

Speaker 1 You know?

Speaker 1 And if you look at joe fat joe joe what is it called joe and jada yeah that's a brand new podcast right and now obviously some people say like they're celebrities

Speaker 1 that's why but they're the number one podcast in their space now just because you're a celebrity doesn't mean you can have a good show too correct it's a lot of celebrities that fail yeah right how is the how is the podcast space oversaturated when they just came three months ago and they took the number one spot in their in their in their in their industry in their genre yeah i don't like that excuse because any industry when you look at the failure rates it's going to be high

Speaker 1 Podcast is no exception to that. And I started pretty late too.
I started two years ago. So I never used that as a

Speaker 1 one of your posts. You was like, what, like number one or something? Number one in your space.
We've hit number one in education. Right now we're number four.
We're anywhere from two to five.

Speaker 1 Congratulations. Thank you.
That's hard to do. And a lot of people don't understand.
See, and that's another thing. We understand

Speaker 1 the logic behind like how, do you know how you get number one? Do you know what's the metrics becoming number one? You need downloads and follows on Apple.

Speaker 1 it goes by subscribers right and it's from tuesday it's from tuesday wednesday to tuesday people don't know that right so people just think it's the listeners right i'm getting all these listeners and i'm gonna get number one no it's the it's the the podcast that get the most subscribers from wednesday to tuesday simple as that interesting and and that's why it's hard for the top shows to stay on the top so when you have like uh who's the uh number one guy on apple or on i'm talking about apple i think it's right now it's uh charlie kirk show because he just passed away but it usually it's usually like crime junkie or some true crime thing.

Speaker 1 I'm talking about the guy who got, you know, the original guy. He's a Rogan? Rogan.

Speaker 1 He's doing some amazing stuff because he stays in the top charts because

Speaker 1 he's getting such a

Speaker 1 massive following every single week that he's able to stay on the top. And that's how you see some new shows get on the top really fast because they're getting all the subscribers really fast.

Speaker 1 So people don't understand the metrics behind what they're doing. They're just doing it because it's cool.

Speaker 1 You got to know your numbers, man. I look at my Instagram analytics every day, seeing what videos are popping off, what topics are trending, you know what I mean? And that's important.

Speaker 1 Yeah, it's free information. Why not take advantage of it? Because data,

Speaker 1 and that's one thing we do. We focus on our data.
The fact that we're able to understand our data, we can make adjustments on the fly.

Speaker 1 And the fact that we own our data and we own our platforms, we can do what we want. And that's important too.
You know, like a lot of people are even on platforms that they don't even own, right?

Speaker 1 But they're the face of it. So they can't do what they want.
Yeah. So that kind of like putting handcuffs on them.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 So this was the fourth event you guys just had? It's the fifth year. Fifth year.
Fifth year.

Speaker 1 But we've done one year, we did it in Europe. Got it.
Okay. And when did it become profitable? Was it from the first one? Or

Speaker 1 it's never not been profitable. Wow.
Yeah. So our first year, we put up 1.3 million out of our pocket.
And we had six weeks. We had six weeks in the middle of COVID to do it.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 we took a chance and we got 4,000 people. But again, with no no ads, just, you know,

Speaker 1 minimal cost. Yeah, that's embarrassing.
We got a great deal that year because it was COVID. So the place wasn't being booked.
So we took advantage of that. So we got a great deal on everything.
AV,

Speaker 1 the venue, everything. So we were able to, you know, come up.
We made our 1.3 back. That's awesome.

Speaker 1 People don't know how hard that is, by the way.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 we've never had a major sponsor. That's crazy.
Today. That's what we're doing.
We have most sponsors of it. We have a lot of sponsors.

Speaker 1 Most events rely on those yep and we just rely on ourselves so you don't have any sponsors still no no no we have sponsors but no major sponsors like we'll have like our biggest sponsor like this year was probably

Speaker 1 fidelity

Speaker 1 qq

Speaker 1 yeah they didn't come in they didn't come in we didn't have a headline sponsor okay you know and a lot of these events especially like white events they get you know they get all these major sponsors and title sponsors like it's nothing where we we got over 50 million people in three days of impressions right over three days 50 million impressions and 25,000 people 75,000 people over three days and we can't we it's it's difficult you they tell us we have to prove ourselves man all right we'll keep we'll keep doing what we're doing wow so you still got a chip on your shoulder i mean i i was i was raised in the projects right so you know in a single family home So I've always had a chip on my shoulder.

Speaker 1 I always knew I always started from behind. So I always knew that, you know, I got to be better than the next person.
Yeah. yeah that's that's what got you to where you're at though right

Speaker 1 it's it's my makeup that's why my family's here you know i i'm a it's a close-knit it's a close-knit family a close-knit community almost everybody here is from greenberg wow you know so so so we we stay true to we stay true to our fabric yeah community is super important to me it's it's it's all we got is our people Yeah, and a lot of people, they get to the level of success.

Speaker 1 They get the fame, they get the money, and they forget where they come from. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Were you kind of aware of that as you kept leveling up? Like, let me kind of stay grounded? Well, you know,

Speaker 1 I'm cut from a different cloth. I'm a different type of person.

Speaker 1 My mother raised me like a lot of, a lot of even my brother's friends, I'm not going to say my friends, but I know my brother's friends, they kind of envied the relationship that we had with my brothers, right?

Speaker 1 And me thinking, I'm like, that's normal, right? Like, why wouldn't you be your best friends?

Speaker 1 I'm raising two boys. I'm like, they better be their best friend, each other's best friend, right? So, we've been very close, but that just extended to my friends.

Speaker 1 Like, I have friends that I've known since I was three months old. Jeez, you know what I'm saying? And we're still friends.
We talk every single day. So,

Speaker 1 a lot of people just, you know, it's a lot of fakeness going on.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I think people leave behind their friends sometimes. I don't know if it's like intentional, they're just trying to like expand, you know.
Well, the thing, this is the thing, right?

Speaker 1 I'm gonna get a little personal, right? Like,

Speaker 1 a leader, leader, right?

Speaker 1 See, they mix it up, right? This is what I think.

Speaker 1 A leader, they think that you got to get people to believe in your vision, right?

Speaker 1 But a true leader will get people to believe that you could be a part of the vision.

Speaker 1 And that's a real leader. And like my brother, right, Vincent, I think he believes in me a lot.
He believes in me. But my job is to get him to believe in himself that he can do this.

Speaker 1 He can get everything that

Speaker 1 he deserves, right? That's my job.

Speaker 1 Even my other brother, Richard, like he i got it i gotta get him to believe like he's somebody that i don't want to get too personal but he's somebody he's been through a lot right he's like the he's always fought for every all of us he's did every you know but you know i gotta get him to believe that he could do what he he does right he's great at what he does yeah you bring the best out of people that's my job that's a true leader not to get people to believe in me right because i got to believe in myself and my actions is gonna gonna dictate everyone else's actions yeah but but i have to get them to believe believe in themselves that they can do it.

Speaker 1 And that's the problem with bringing people with you. They say they don't got it.
But you're putting people in the wrong positions anyway.

Speaker 1 So how could they have something if they're in the, and you're setting them up for failure? And then when they fail, you just let you let you leave them behind. Right.
Unfortunate.

Speaker 1 So you're basically saying you didn't give them the right opportunity? Well, well.

Speaker 1 Well, a lot of people don't. But like Rich, right? For instance, Richard, my brother Richard,

Speaker 1 I learned photoshop on his computer when i was 14.

Speaker 1 so he's been doing this longer than me it's just i stay with it right i i i seen it and it became a passion of mine where he he's a drawer he's he had a bunch of different passions but that that became my livelihood yeah right but i knew he did it so what do you think he does for earning leisure He does everything that I do, everything that I learned on his computer.

Speaker 1 Right. I'm putting him in a position to win.
Yeah. Right.
My brother,

Speaker 1 he has a bachelor's in marketing.

Speaker 1 He runs the merch. He did the post office for 20 years.

Speaker 1 What do you think is going to happen when he's in merch?

Speaker 1 It's all about putting people in the right place. Yeah.
You know, and getting them to believe that they could do it.

Speaker 1 That's really cool you brought all your friends into the business because I hear some people say not to mix friendship in business, but you're like, nah, let me.

Speaker 1 I got a quote for that too. I mean, the thing is, is that if you, so do you have any of your friends in your business? In this podcast, no, but I've worked with friends in the past.

Speaker 1 What was your experience? I've lost friends, to be honest,

Speaker 1 but now I'm much better mentally. I think if I were to go into business with a friend, we would lay the groundwork first and it wouldn't happen again.
Well, this is the thing that happens, right?

Speaker 1 Your friendship, the business is going to expose that friendship.

Speaker 1 Can you see what I'm saying? Yeah, yeah. So it's like, if you had a good friendship, then it's gonna it's gonna, you know.

Speaker 1 Well, until money gets involved, I think. Well, that's the point.
That's gonna be, so were we really friends? Or were we not? You see people's true colors.

Speaker 1 So that's why it's gonna expose the friendship. It's the fame.
Oh, now you're famous. So now you don't wanna be my friend.
You don't wanna hang out with me? I'm not cool enough with you.

Speaker 1 Oh, then we were really not friends. So the business is gonna, and the business ultimately outweighs the friendship.
Why? Because if

Speaker 1 we're doing business together and you're my friend and you, you know, you holler at one of my girlfriend and my girlfriend,

Speaker 1 we might not be friends, but we're still gonna be business partners. But if you steal from me, we're not business partners nor friends.
Does that make sense?

Speaker 1 So, the business depart, the business relationship become, outweighs everything once you get into business. But my main thing is,

Speaker 1 it will show the business relationship will show how true your friendship is. Oh, yeah, you get to know someone.
Correct.

Speaker 1 Yeah, when you get into business, someone, they say it's like your second marriage, right? Yeah, I mean, maybe at first.

Speaker 1 Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 Did you put business before your like dating and like women? Like, did you give up that part of your life to pursue business?

Speaker 1 And my, my own story, I had, I was so immersed with my vision of how I see an earning leisure that I lost clients. I lost sleep.

Speaker 1 Relationship. I mean, I was in, I was in and out of relationships, but because I couldn't give the time that was needed

Speaker 1 because I was building the foundation and we know how hard, like a lot of businesses start on the wrong foundation.

Speaker 1 We've built our foundation so strong that we're able to succeed and excel every single year, right?

Speaker 1 And that's even one of the things I teach with the business engine is the foundation, your business model. What is your model? What is your business model?

Speaker 1 And a lot of times that they don't even have the right model.

Speaker 1 They're selling products and they're losing money from start. Right.
Right. So we lost, I lost a lot.
I sacrificed a lot, right? And that's what comes with success. Success comes with sacrifice.

Speaker 1 And it might be sacrifice friendships because I don't spend enough time with you. Like I'm, because I'm building my vision.
I'm building, I'm, I'm 80%, like you said, 80, 20, right?

Speaker 1 I'm 80% of my vision and 20% of anything else. That's it.
Nothing else matters because I know where I want to be. I have a vision.
I see myself where I want to be. I write down where I want to be.

Speaker 1 That has to come. It's tangible.
I touched it. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
Yeah. And that's what I was able to do.
And would I say I lost relationships or like in a real

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Speaker 1 Probably.

Speaker 1 But the people out of here,

Speaker 1 I ain't lose them because they knew what I was building. They seen it.
They watched me. Yeah, I sacrificed a lot too, man.
That's the dark side of entrepreneurship that I guess isn't.

Speaker 1 isn't sexy to talk about. But man, my personal health was shit.
My mental health was awful. Lost friendships, relationships, even family.
Are you in a relationship now?

Speaker 1 Yeah, I'm getting married next month now. Oh, congratulations.
Wait, let me put the ring up. Let me put the rings up in there.
You know what I'm saying? Yeah. Now that's a business.

Speaker 1 You know that, right? Yeah. Yeah, she's been my rock.

Speaker 1 Yeah, very. How long have you been with her? Eight years.
Oh,

Speaker 1 you had some time. So

Speaker 1 she's seen everything. I was broke when we met.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. She's a keeper.
Yeah, she's a keeper. That's dope, man.
Congratulations.

Speaker 1 It's hard to find these days. Where are you getting married? We met in Jersey, where we grew up.

Speaker 1 I'm saying you're getting married in Jersey, too? Yeah. Oh, like Jersey Champs.
Yeah. Oh, you did your homework on me.

Speaker 1 You did your homework on me.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that was my first or second business. First one failed.
Listen, it didn't fail. It was a lesson.
It was a lesson. It was a lesson.
I tried doing concerts.

Speaker 1 I took those lessons like we did with InvestFest and applied them to the next business. And the next business was success.
Yeah. Yeah, man.

Speaker 1 I tried doing concerts, believe it or not. Tough business.

Speaker 1 Any event space, like a lot of my, like a lot of people from our culture, we have these businesses where we want to start like restaurants or clubs. And

Speaker 1 it's the hardest and most risky businesses to ever start. I'll never do a restaurant again.
I invested 50K in one, lost it all. Yep.
It's normal. Yeah.

Speaker 1 You won't be the first and you won't be the last. The margins are awful.
It's like 10%, less than 10%. And now with tariffs, it's less.
Yeah. Yeah.
So, I mean,

Speaker 1 it's unfortunate. It's unfortunate that, you know,

Speaker 1 we don't apply

Speaker 1 the information in front of us. The most success, like even investing,

Speaker 1 the most successful businesses, you know, profitable businesses, we stay away from.

Speaker 1 We want the fashion, the fashionable business. We want the cool stuff.
I put emotion before logic with that one. The food was great and I invested.

Speaker 1 Anytime you put emotion to any decision, it's 99% going to be a bad decision. Yep.
It's just the truth of it. Every single time.

Speaker 1 In anything in your life.

Speaker 1 Put an emotion into, you have to be emotionless when you make decisions. Damn.
You think so? 100%.

Speaker 1 Wow.

Speaker 1 No emotion involved when you make a decision. That's an interesting take.
I do think emotions are important.

Speaker 1 I don't want to discount them, but

Speaker 1 it depends on what we're talking about. But when you're making a decision, you should never make a decision.

Speaker 1 And this is no

Speaker 1 thing on women, but why hasn't it been a women president?

Speaker 1 They've tried. Because more women are more emotional than men, right? Statistically.

Speaker 1 Yeah, that's not debatable.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 you can't have someone in emotional.

Speaker 1 Like, imagine Kanye West is the president.

Speaker 1 He ran.

Speaker 1 He can't control his emotions, right?

Speaker 1 He might make an emotional decision, and it could destroy the world.

Speaker 1 I mean, we got Trump. He's emotionally unstable.
Yeah, I can't deny that. And you see, you know.

Speaker 1 Madness.

Speaker 1 He's made some really crazy decisions. Yeah.
Think I was still here, but, you know, and not that I'm against Trump or for Trump, you know, but I don't, I do, I don't want to talk about politics.

Speaker 1 Never talk about politics, religion, or.

Speaker 1 I mean, it's a

Speaker 1 scary time these days to talk about politics, especially what happened to Charlie. Rest in peace to Charlie Kirk.
Did you know him? Yeah. You interviewed him? He's been on the show.

Speaker 1 I film at all his events.

Speaker 1 I'm starting to film at conferences and, you know, film content. And his event was the first one I ever filmed at in person.
Oh, wow. Yeah.
So he opened my eyes to a whole new world.

Speaker 1 And now look how many events are incorporating podcasts. Yeah.
It's, it's crazy. I mean, it's the new wave.
It's the, it's the new me, it's the new media

Speaker 1 format that can, you know, even like Marcus, right? Marcus Yrosia, he just said he'll rather do a podcast than do, than do a, to get on a stage. And this is a man that speaks for a living.
Holy crap.

Speaker 1 Why does he say that? Because

Speaker 1 You, you so this episode is going to live forever. That moment on stage is only going to live for that moment on stage.
So you're only touching the people in that room. Yeah.

Speaker 1 Right? Yeah. This podcast doesn't just touch the people in this room.
It's evergreen. It touches the world.
I think both are important. I do in-person events.
I think stage is still important.

Speaker 1 There's something about that in person. This is a stage, too.
Everything's a stage.

Speaker 1 That's what I teach. Like, your podcast is a stage.
Your webinar is a stage.

Speaker 1 You're being on stage is a stage. Your events are stage.
They're all stages. But what's the most valuable stage? I think podcast is the most valuable stage.
It's hard to beat. I'm sorry, you go.

Speaker 1 No, it's hard to beat right now if you just look at the numbers and who's making the money right now. It's podcasters and streamers, live streamers.
Streamers are killing it.

Speaker 1 Yeah, are you going to start a streaming company? I'm going to start live streaming, yeah. Not a company, but you're here so much.
I mean, I know, I'm here like six hours.

Speaker 1 I don't know if you guys know, but he lives here. He says he does 80, 800 episodes a year.

Speaker 1 Do you

Speaker 1 if you're in podcasting, you know how hard that is: 80, 800 episodes a year,

Speaker 1 yeah, 15 a week for two years straight.

Speaker 1 Super consistent with that. That's amazing, man.

Speaker 1 Thank you. God give you a clap for that.
Yeah, you can recognize the grind into that. I love your studio.
Anybody know, this is called an LED wall, if anyone doesn't know, and it's not cheap.

Speaker 1 Just to let you know. So he has an LED wall.
He has millions of TVs all around. I can see myself on every.

Speaker 1 So just know he's got a real situation up in all the sponsors. Wow, you got a lot of sponsors, man.

Speaker 1 means a lot coming from someone like you in the space. Nah, this is this is a really great, great space and a great, great, you know, gave us water, great host, hosting, yeah, amazing, man.

Speaker 1 How to take care of you guys. It's definitely like, I wish people understood.
Like, see, see, I don't know how long it took you to get to this level. Two and a half years.

Speaker 1 Two and a half years to get to. Well, I'm saying, did you have your own studio for forever?

Speaker 1 I used to rent at the Wynn Hotel. I've been all over.
Yeah. So that journey,

Speaker 1 I would bet that that journey that you had to go through to get to this point, it was probably so fulfilling because

Speaker 1 we used to run around. We went to Nigeria with equipment.
We went to all over the world with equipment, right? Interviewing people.

Speaker 1 We used to

Speaker 1 stay in houses for a month so we could interview a bunch of people in that area. It was just those journeys, those memories that you can't, like.

Speaker 1 You can't take that back.

Speaker 1 That was when it was fun. That's the best part of it.
That was when it was fun. It's just the journey right not the destination

Speaker 1 that's it yeah yep when i sold my company um i i come from the crypto industry that's how i made my money it was the most depressed i've ever been do you are you still into crypto i still have a lot of crypto yeah you do yeah what's the number one one you have right now it's either aetherium or yeah ethereum and then bitcoin and solano man climb he's in into crypto he says solano i have solano yeah that's that's a good one yeah he told me put all put put it all in there well right now it's 200 bucks um i got in at 20.

Speaker 1 what yeah so i'm up 10x so i'm chilling wow i mean it could could 5x we'll see i hate giving financial advice but well let me yeah me neither because you know people take it risky and you live in vegas so you must be risky let me ask you this one question on it so like in stocks you can borrow against your stocks yeah do they have something like that with crypto yeah they do yeah i did that when i bought my house okay yeah i bought my house in crypto you bought it in crypto well you take um it's a crypto loan so like say you have a million in bitcoin you could borrow a certain percentage of that in cash.

Speaker 1 Oh, wow. For the escrow.
I hope y'all hearing this. This is good, good advice.
You never got in the crypto wave, though? I mean, I went in and out, dipping out. I would only buy Bitcoin.

Speaker 1 These days, I'm much more safe. Yeah, I used to mess around with the alts a lot.
Yeah,

Speaker 1 I lost a ton of money. Believe me.
You know, in 2017, it was just, you know, it was hot. I seen the most money in my account.
I was like, I'm rich. And then I woke up the next morning and I'm poor.

Speaker 1 It doesn't feel real when you see it on your app. Well, one thing about investing, and I always like to say this,

Speaker 1 don't invest money that you can't afford to lose. Once you understand that concept, the game becomes so much easier.
And I think a lot of times, even in business,

Speaker 1 we make it complicated. Like we make things, like if it's hard, you put it on mine that it's hard, it's going to be hard.

Speaker 1 Like I could have came on this podcast, right, and said, it's going to be a tough interview. He's got a big stage.

Speaker 1 Like, but if I go on there, like, you know, I got this, I convince my mind that it's not it's not hard it's it's easy this is what this is you like I have this saying right

Speaker 1 when you know

Speaker 1 I come from the content space right and a lot of people get so caught up with making content right and they're trying to make the right content but how can you not how can you make the right content if you're not the content so you have to become the content to make the right content you got to be so immersed with the content that it becomes you you are the the content.

Speaker 1 Does that make sense? It does. You got to live and breathe it, right? People can sense if you're not being authentic these days.
Correct.

Speaker 1 And when people can stop worrying about posting every day and post quality over quantity

Speaker 1 and it'll get to a point like Ashton Hall, he posts high quality content every single day. No.
Right. And I'm not talking about just the visual aspect.

Speaker 1 I'm talking about the context of the content, what's in the content.

Speaker 1 And we were not a visual based, and we still not are the best visual, but context, educational, inspirational, educational, and inspirational will take you so far.

Speaker 1 Sometimes we got now, we got blackout, we got, we got a little entertainment, but we, our context of our content is so valuable that it outweighs a lot of this effects, like people worrying about putting effects on the things and worrying about having the best cameras.

Speaker 1 And

Speaker 1 it doesn't do nothing if the message ain't there. You need both.
Yeah, I used to film on iPhone 8s my first 100 episodes.

Speaker 1 Shout out. That's us too.
That's us too. Refurbished iPhone 8s.
That's us too. Not even new ones.

Speaker 1 Yeah, not even new ones. The whole studio setup was six grand.

Speaker 1 And I was renting because I didn't want to like. So you got that journey.
I mean, that was us. Our first like...
15, 20 episodes was iPhones. That's how you should.
I recommend you should start.

Speaker 1 Man, the transferring on, I don't know if you remember, but transferring a video from an iPhone took days. It took forever.
It was awful. It took forever.
But see, no one would understand that.

Speaker 1 yeah you know I'm saying nah but why would you put a ton of money if you don't even have the reps yet you know

Speaker 1 because people are so so

Speaker 1 people are like how if you follow if I follow you I'm only gonna go as far as you go

Speaker 1 right

Speaker 1 right if I follow if I'm following everything you're doing people see this amazing set so they think this is what made you you this isn't what made you you

Speaker 1 You were popping when you were doing it without all of this. Yeah.
Right? Yeah, I had to put in the work first. You got to put in the work.

Speaker 1 You wouldn't even recognize my first hunter guests. Like, I had to work my way up, you know? Those are the best guests, the ones you don't recognize.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 Our best episodes were people that you never know.

Speaker 1 It's crazy, right? Yeah, because it's like the insight, they're more relative to the masses. They're not scared of, you know, getting canceled, I guess.
Well,

Speaker 1 I don't know about that. Well,

Speaker 1 it might come and hunt you. I mean,

Speaker 1 you can't cancel somebody that

Speaker 1 owns themselves, you know? Yeah. Like, like even us.
I mean, you can't cancel us. They've tried to cancel me, yeah.
How? You own everything, right? Pretty much, yeah. I'm 100% owner in the company.

Speaker 1 How can they cancel you? Just who I have on, they get mad. You know, I've had on Andrew Tate.
I've had on the most controversial people in the world, so I get so mad.

Speaker 1 So you got canceled because you had a guest on? Yeah. Well, they try to cancel me.

Speaker 1 Because you wanted someone else's perspective? Yeah. I'm banned on TikTok.
I'm shadow banned on a couple platforms. It's part of the game.
Wow. You know, but I got to adapt.
I can't complain about it.

Speaker 1 That's why you got to continue to have your own platform because you can't cancel somebody that owns it. Yeah.
You know, it's really important.

Speaker 1 Well, I guess we're somewhat at the mercy when it comes to social media platforms, though. You know what I mean? Are you? I mean, I'm banned.

Speaker 1 I mean, there's...

Speaker 1 platforms now building their own streaming streaming streaming platforms.

Speaker 1 It's a lot of ways you can yeah, kick now, shout out to them.

Speaker 1 Rumble, shout out to Rumble, free speech.

Speaker 1 Yep, it's a lot of places now you don't need to you don't need i mean social media is very good facebook is good linkedin is good all those social media platforms are good it help helps you expand but you know

Speaker 1 you have the audience now you have the the people that's why i do a live event every two months i was just about to say that those events are gonna continue to keep you expanding my last one at uh over 2 000 people that's great it was crazy that's amazing couldn't believe it i got like my first event dude maybe 20 30 people wow and now to see 2000 it's just unreal.

Speaker 1 When did you see it? When did you vision?

Speaker 1 When did I vision like having the events?

Speaker 1 It's always been important to me because I'm a huge introvert. I have autism, and I was never social growing up.
So

Speaker 1 for me to develop these social skills and then gather people together, like it was really monumental for my growth. Wow.
That's amazing. Yeah, I was super shy growing up.

Speaker 1 What do you see in the next six months?

Speaker 1 Keep climbing the charts. We're starting to get offers on the company already, but I'm holding off.
I think it's still too early. I want to grow this thing another two, three years, maybe.

Speaker 1 Maggie Johnson said, don't sell early. That was just one of his messages on stage.
Yeah, I got offered $30 million and it was really tempting, but I turned it down.

Speaker 1 And I can't believe that's life-changing money, you know?

Speaker 1 For some, for some.

Speaker 1 You're a little past that stage. No, I'm not saying that.
I'm just saying, I mean, I don't think it's life-changing because it'll change maybe your generation, but it won't change the next generation.

Speaker 1 You know, when I think about life-changing, you got to change everybody in my circle, and you got to change the circle that I create. Respect, yeah.
Yeah, 30,

Speaker 1 if you don't invest it wisely, yeah, you're right. It'll only last one generation, maybe, maybe two.
They say Michael money cycles every three generations, I believe. Something like that.

Speaker 1 Something like that. So, and that doesn't even matter how much you have, by the way.
It could be a billion dollars. It's crazy how that works, right?

Speaker 1 It's all mindset. If you mess up a billion dollars, you don't deserve no money.

Speaker 1 It's all mindset, man. Information.

Speaker 1 I mean, you could put a hundred a billion dollars in in the market and make ten million dollars a month yeah but think about it when you have kids they won't have the same motivation you had and then when they have kids it'll be even less do you have kids not yet i want kids okay but it's just uh something i'm preparing for like my my kids are gonna grow up in a pretty like a mansion and you know i gotta give them some sort of mental hurdles yeah and i'm gonna tell you the hardest thing about that is and this is what i go through because i grew up in a project and and my kids are growing up in a massive mansion.

Speaker 1 Yeah.

Speaker 1 And they have the life that I couldn't even dream of,

Speaker 1 you know, when I was their age, because my proximity to anything, to my real life today, was nowhere close. So

Speaker 1 the fear is

Speaker 1 now that you put them into

Speaker 1 that life, You can't take them out of it. It's unfair.
So your grind becomes even more harder. Wow.

Speaker 1 Interesting. You know, so that's the one thing I will tell you.
You have to

Speaker 1 make aware of. Make aware of.
Yeah, it can't get complacent for sure. Because

Speaker 1 you're putting people, your wife, your kids, inside this lifestyle.

Speaker 1 You're not by yourself no more. You can't go back.
Like there's been times I made money, came down. Slept on my brother's couch.

Speaker 1 Went up, came down.

Speaker 1 Sold my car.

Speaker 1 Can't do that no more. So you got to make very, very strategic moves.
Got to move smarter. Yeah, I've made and lost all my money twice so far.
Me too. Knock on, oh, yeah.
Me too. Knock on wood.

Speaker 1 I hope it doesn't happen again. But hope.
Leave hope at the door. It won't happen again.
It won't happen. Mindset is important.

Speaker 1 You got to have the mindset to say it won't happen again. Yeah.
When I first moved to Vegas,

Speaker 1 my credit score was awful and I had $30,000 to my name. And

Speaker 1 I was renting a house and they were like, you got $30,000 to your name. Yeah.
Four years ago. You know, that's the difference of proximity, right? That's the difference of exposure.

Speaker 1 You said that, like, that was a bad thing. Most people, most people that I've grown up with never had 30,000 in their life.
Yeah, it's all perspective, right? It's very, it's all perspective.

Speaker 1 And that's the thing that, you know, we don't really understand. But I get you.

Speaker 1 So let me preface that because I explained that kind of entitled, but I had 30,000 to my name after becoming a millionaire. So I lost a lot already.
And then I had 30,000 when I moved here from LA.

Speaker 1 My landlord, because my credit was so bad, wanted six months of rent up front.

Speaker 1 $30,000 your whole $30,000 I invested everything when I moved here and I six months for 30,000 what is that 4,500 a month oh you got some crazy stuff it was a it was a good house i'm not gonna lie um so in that six months i had to figure out how to make it work dude and what did you do got into crypto

Speaker 1 made it work hustled grinded 12 hours working every day seven days a week were you mining crypto too i wasn't mining i wish i was some kid in my high school was mining and everyone made fun of him that guy's probably a billionaire yeah billionaire right now.

Speaker 1 But

Speaker 1 how to make it happen, man? Leave your computer

Speaker 1 money, yeah.

Speaker 1 It's working out. Looks like it's working.
The digital social hours looks like it's working out. Yeah, it's been quite a journey talking to the most interesting, the smartest people in the world.

Speaker 1 Learning what was your favorite episode so far? Depends which you messed up. You're supposed to say me, man.

Speaker 1 You're up there. I like how authentic you are.
Um, Andrew Tate's up there.

Speaker 1 He was like, I don't give a I don't care if I'm getting canceled. This is, I'm doing this.
That one got age-restricted.

Speaker 1 Where did you do that? Here, Right in this chair? Yeah, he was sitting right there.

Speaker 1 Tate sat in this chair.

Speaker 1 I'm on my way. I'm on my way.
I met him at PowerSlap, and then we filmed the next day. When did you do it?

Speaker 1 Six months ago. Oh, that was recent.
That was after he got out. So he had a chat.
I got one chair, played chess with him right after.

Speaker 1 I won. Wow.
Yeah. So he's not as smart as he said he is.
He's good at chess.

Speaker 1 I'm top 1% in the world, though. Really? Yeah.
I'm top 1%. I bet you 100 grand I could beat you.
What's your rating? I don't know. 100 grand is a lot of money.
I bet you 100 grand I could beat you.

Speaker 1 Yeah, but if I I don't know your rating, it'd be a silly bet for me. What do you mean? You could be really good.
You could be top 1% in the world. Yeah, so

Speaker 1 that means I only could be a 0.9% better than you. No, there's a big difference.
Okay. So even though I'm top 1%, my rating is 1,600.
1,600 in the world? No, like the ELO. Okay.

Speaker 1 It's hard to explain, but like the higher the ELO, the better you are. I'm just messing with you.
I probably couldn't beat you. You sound confident, so you made me nervous.
But

Speaker 1 mindset. Grant Cardiff.
mindset.

Speaker 1 That's a mindset shift. I believe in myself so much.
You do. I can't lose.
You got conviction for sure.

Speaker 1 Grant Cardone was up there. Good interview.
Yeah. Who else? Ty Lopez is smart.

Speaker 1 Just had Patrick Beverly. I was about to say, have you ever interviewed him? How was that one? Yeah, he was so honest.
I like getting the athletes after they retire because they can speak.

Speaker 1 They're not worried about getting fined or whatever, and they're just so authentic. Yeah.

Speaker 1 It's cool. And some of the people you mentioned, those are the people that are in my lane and that I'm going to surpass.
Right.

Speaker 1 And, you know, I think that's the problem too. Like one of the things you said, I'm genuine, right? A lot of these people, they lose themselves, right? Because

Speaker 1 they're fulfilled with the wrong things.

Speaker 1 And, you know,

Speaker 1 money is their motive. I already have money, right?

Speaker 1 It's not money. It's fulfillment for me now.
It's my legacy.

Speaker 1 I'm doing this because it's a passion of mine now. This is passion.
It's not like, you know, you're not doing 800 episodes because of money. No.
It's not happening. It used to be.

Speaker 1 Money used to be my number one motivator when I was younger. Of course.
I mean,

Speaker 1 you don't know anything. But as you grow and you start to see, you know, I'm not sure if you're in a happy place, but I would say right now I'm,

Speaker 1 yeah, I'm the happiest I've ever been right now. I mean, you're about to get married in a month.
Yeah. You know, you better be happy.
I've done a lot of work on myself. It's important.
Yeah. Therapy?

Speaker 1 Therapy.

Speaker 1 therapy sometimes it's important you know microdosing psychedelic all sorts of stuff yeah and a lot of these a lot of these people and you can see they're not generic they say things just for clickbait they say things and you know i do want to be you know better and i tell my speaking coach but he don't be listening to me i gotta you know reword some of the things i say to make him you know just just not not clickbait but i want you to remember it remember it easier easily when I say it.

Speaker 1 Yeah. But my brain, my brain goes so fast that sometimes I just be saying things in it.
But I learned something.

Speaker 1 I learned something that me and my partner, Denise, we came up with something called word vomit.

Speaker 1 It changed my life. Word vomit.
Word vomit. It changed my life.
I got to trademark that now because you might trademark it.

Speaker 1 Oh, man. What do you mean by word vomit? Words, get on the phone.
Trademark the word vomit.

Speaker 1 So

Speaker 1 you say, you know,

Speaker 1 you probably, you know, you move fast. Your brain moves fast.
I have ADHD. Imagine if you could slow your brain down with all your thoughts.

Speaker 1 How does that look? How do you envision that? Like you think about this podcast right now and two seconds later you're thinking about, why is that camera like that?

Speaker 1 Imagine if you can slow all your thoughts down.

Speaker 1 And so we came up with this thing where we're going to record, do a voice recording, right, of everything I'm saying, right? All my thoughts. at the moment.

Speaker 1 And you have, I know you have it because I have it, moments where you just start thinking about some great ideas. It just, they're coming like left and right.

Speaker 1 But you forget them because you're not putting them down and you don't have time to write them down.

Speaker 1 So instead of that, you start just turning on your voice memo app and you just start recording all your thoughts. Just keep the, just keep it on and just start saying it all out loud.

Speaker 1 Word vomit, just word vomit, saying it, saying everything that's coming to your mind. Because you have those moments that are.

Speaker 1 are just so creative like it's no block and you're flowing all these different great great ideas and it could be all unorganized and and

Speaker 1 disoriented or whatever. But then you take the transcript from that whole entire voice memo, which could be an hour, it could be two hours, it could just be three hours, it could be whatever.

Speaker 1 You take the transcript and you tell ChatGPT to organize these thoughts and put them in a way that is understandable and digestible.

Speaker 1 Something like that, depending on how you want to do it. And

Speaker 1 I do a coaching every week, the business engine. And I do my classes like that now.

Speaker 1 I do you know i do my journal you can even do content like imagine like you're in tech i can take a a help file from one of those cameras i can drop it into chat gpt and because of word vomit i'm like wait i can actually do this as well i took a help file and i put it into chat gpt i said i want you to make me the best that i want you to analyze this help file and and take the top five things that no one's talking about of this product and give me five content ideas.

Speaker 1 Wow. It's unbelievable what you get.
I love that. It's unbelievable.
You could do this with everything. That's cool.
Amazing. Yeah.
I use ChatGPT to summarize videos too.

Speaker 1 It just, it just takes, it takes like

Speaker 1 your ideas to a whole new level. So that word vomit, I was able to just say, I journal, journal one, one day I journaled my whole entire day.
I talked about my whole entire day with word vomit.

Speaker 1 And I said, can you make me content from this day?

Speaker 1 I had like content for days and people say they can't make content they've run out of ideas that's mind-blowing every day you breathe you you should have ideas yeah I never run out of content ideas I mean there's so many guests we're booked till January you know let's let's see how good you are give me one content idea from when I walked in the door to now

Speaker 1 content idea like that would that would go viral yeah

Speaker 1 damn put me on the spot yeah listen

Speaker 1 I'm good in a podcast clip setting I'm not so good in the IRL content okay so I'm not sure to be honest all right I know how to make clips go viral. There's, there's this formula.

Speaker 1 I used to think going viral was lucky. It's not.
It's not. It's not.
Because I've gotten over 100 million views a month for a year straight. I can

Speaker 1 confidently say going viral is not lucky. There's a strategy to it.
And you mastered it. I wouldn't even say I mastered it.
I'm still getting better at it. You know, but I've learned some tricks.

Speaker 1 It's all about the hook. In my opinion, you need to catch people in the first two, three seconds or they're scrolling.
Yep. So you focus on getting good hooks.
What do you think is more important?

Speaker 1 The visual or the audio?

Speaker 1 Ooh, visual or the audio. I have noticed certain guests go more viral often than others based off their looks, but I still think the audio is more important, the hook.
What do you think?

Speaker 1 If I throw this phone at you, you don't think that's going to go viral? Will you say, fuck me, or something? It'll go viral. Adam 22 does shit like that all the time.

Speaker 1 But I don't want to build a brand off that. No, no, no, I'm saying.

Speaker 1 I'm just saying, it's a visual hook. Yeah, yeah, it's a visual hook.
It's a visual hook. Not just how you look.
I'm saying about like people holding those mic. That's a visual hook.
Right, right.

Speaker 1 You know, I always say, I hate it. I hate it.
Like, because I'm a photographer, I'm a videographer. I hate when they're holding that mic, but I know why they're doing it.

Speaker 1 So, you know, a lot of things, you know, you can say, I think people understand visually more than they

Speaker 1 understand

Speaker 1 audibly or whatever that was. I can see that because some people don't even have their audio on.
That's why I have subtitles on my audio. That's why I'm just doing that.

Speaker 1 That's why visual hook is the most important. You think so? I know so.
Wow. Okay.
So we'll we'll disagree on that. Okay.
Because, well, we can agree to disagree.

Speaker 1 For me, when it comes to podcast clips, I guess it'd be harder to do visual hooks. Well, yeah.
I mean, podcast clips are totally different. You can't do this.
That's a whole different space.

Speaker 1 Like you said, you're good at the podcast clips. So, yeah.
But, you know, I agree with you then for other stuff. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, it's hard to make.

Speaker 1 I mean, we're having a conversation, right? Yeah. So, how can you, how can you consistently make visual hooks in a podcast space?

Speaker 1 Like, I used to, I used to, if you ever follow me, you know, and it was doing well, but I like to just, when people start doing the things I do, I just stopped doing

Speaker 1 swinging the mic, and I took, I just,

Speaker 1 that was my visual hook. Yeah.
But it was, and you could do this every time on every episode. Smart.
I'm back. You know what I'm saying? So it's all about how you do things.

Speaker 1 You can always be creative. And I only got that because the one guy, I forgot his name, but he used to light candles in the beginning.
You probably know. You probably interviewed him.
Like candles.

Speaker 1 He lighted candles in every video. Interesting.
And I was like, that's good. I got to think of something that is going to stick with people.

Speaker 1 And when people used to see me, they would say, and just to swing the mic guy or something like that. Photography.

Speaker 1 I'm 6'6. I'm a 6'6 guy, and I used to do nightlife photography.
You know what I called myself? Mikey. I hate Mikey.
But when I went to celebrities, they used to say Mikey. They remember me Mikey.

Speaker 1 Mikey, the tall, big, light-skinned or white boy or something, whatever. Right? And I was so memorable because my name was Mikey.

Speaker 1 It's catchy.

Speaker 1 It's a hook. I was hooking before hooking was a thing.

Speaker 1 Word.

Speaker 1 Damn. That's a bar right there.
Yo.

Speaker 1 Oh, pause, pause, hook it. Yeah, I wasn't hooking, hooking, but I was throwing hooks to people, and it was catching them.
It was catching them in the club. I clicked on it.

Speaker 1 It was catching them in the club.

Speaker 1 See, even nightlife photography, like I just did a post the other day. Like, I was in nightlife photography for like 10 years.

Speaker 1 And I don't know if anybody understands nightlife photography, but I would do three clubs a night. Jeez.
Three clubs a night, but I would run through them.

Speaker 1 I was so efficient with it because you only got like $75 a club. So I was trying to make the most money.

Speaker 1 And in New York City, at that time, nightlife was, it was popping, right? It was going. It was, it was booming, right?

Speaker 1 So I was in the club every, and now I'm paying for it because my hearing's messed up.

Speaker 1 I gotta, yeah, because I'm in the club every single night. But I was in the club every single night.

Speaker 1 And my goal, my golden life, like in that, and my mindset was to become a Getty photographer because they got to access to all the events they got they made the most money and they were just the coolest people on the thing I was trying to get to where they are until until InvestFest 2025 where they were taking pictures of me wow don't dream too small don't dream too small I love that my dreams were too small then I think everyone can relate to that, right?

Speaker 1 We have these dreams like for a lot of people, my generation is become a millionaire. Like that was like a dream of mine.
And then once you get a million dollars, you realize

Speaker 1 you can't live off that these days. Hell no.
I know people will say I'm entitled for saying that, but like it's not, I mean, you just don't dream too small. I mean,

Speaker 1 you have a season, right? And that season was to become a millionaire. And you successfully went through that season, and now it's on to the next season.
Don't limit yourself to one season. Right.

Speaker 1 There's four seasons in a year. Yeah.
Constantly be writing your goals, like you said at first, right? Correct. Yeah.
And, you know, never put limits on yourself for anything.

Speaker 1 I was, I'll tell you a story. I was in a, I was in my mastermind for speech.

Speaker 1 I'm learning to speak, to present, to become public speaking, right? To a speaker. I'm in the mastermind, and

Speaker 1 Marcus, I mean to throw his name out, but the instructor goes around the room and asks people what's their number from one to ten of the level they're speaking. And everyone said five, six,

Speaker 1 three.

Speaker 1 I go, two.

Speaker 1 He just says, go to the next one.

Speaker 1 The next person says three.

Speaker 1 The instructor says to the other person, you're not a three. You're at least a five.
I'm like, wait, so when I was a two, I'm really a two, but that's how bad I was, right?

Speaker 1 And I think I'm a lot better now. I'm about six, seven, you know what I'm saying? Depending on the day.
But it shows you that. You can learn how to speak.
You can learn any skill, but

Speaker 1 you have to envision it. I'm going to become the best speaker in the the world.

Speaker 1 Like, I'm going to become one of the best speakers in the world. I'm going to make millions of dollars speaking.
My pause, my mouth is going to make millions, right?

Speaker 1 Just for my brain or my mouth, however you want to say it. I'm going to make millions doing it, right? I'm going to travel the world speaking.

Speaker 1 It's going to happen, and it's going to happen very soon because I'm investing everything, all my time into this vision. I wrote it down.
I talk about it. I do repetition.

Speaker 1 And I'm working on my craft every single day. I created a whole entire stage in my house.
Wow. I got a LED wall.
I got a stage. I got lights.
I got every whole. I'm going to be on.

Speaker 1 They say that how do you get the number one question is, how do I get on the stage? Build your own.

Speaker 1 Simple. Build your own.
And that's what I did. I built my own.
So I'm on stage every day. They'll play this clip five years from now when you're one of the best speakers in the world.
That's a fact.

Speaker 1 Yeah, I can already see it. I can't wait to make a million dollars speaking.
Oh, you'll be there for sure. I know it.
And it's all about leveraging too i do have some leverage because i

Speaker 1 if you can book me the co-founder and ceo of earn your leisure invest fest that that brings you know some authenticity to your event 100 so it's a lot easier for me yes i will but you're not gonna book me if i'm gonna be speaking crazy right i have to come

Speaker 1 i have to show up yeah and that's what i'm working on showing up absolutely my man this has been awesome hope you have fun at the fight tomorrow hope you enjoyed vegas where can people find you and support you man Follow me.

Speaker 1 So,

Speaker 1 can I give some away? Yeah. So, this is this is a bar, right?

Speaker 1 This is like a thousand dollar thing that I'm gonna give away for free because your audience is dope, it's popping, and I want to, I always want to help people, right? And follow me on Instagram.

Speaker 1 That's all you got to do. Just follow me at Michael J.
McDonald. If you put it on the screen or put it in the description, it's M-I-C-H-A-E-L.

Speaker 1 M-I-C-H-A-E-L, J-M-A-C-D-O-N-L-D.

Speaker 1 Got that? D-O-N-A-L-D. You want to put it somewhere? Yeah, we'll link it.
Just put it somewhere, right? Just follow me and message me

Speaker 1 digital

Speaker 1 social. Message me social, right? Which word do you want me to message? I would do social or Sean.
De-sean or Sean. Message me, Sean.
Sean. Message me, Sean.
Message me, Sean.

Speaker 1 I'm going to give you that thousand. The thing that I sell for $1,000 is the business engine.

Speaker 1 My four pillars to building a successful business. It teaches you systems.

Speaker 1 it teaches you business model, it teaches you marketing, and it teaches you sales. Literally,

Speaker 1 it will change. I don't care what level of business, if you're making $10,000 a month, you're making $1,000 a month, making $100,000 a month.

Speaker 1 It's going to amplify your business in a way that you couldn't imagine. And I'm giving away for free.
I'm going to cut that shit.

Speaker 1 Message me, Sean, and I'm going to give you, you don't even have to put your email in. I'm going to just, I don't need your email, but I'm going to give you so much value in that.

Speaker 1 The next time you want to

Speaker 1 more information from me or you want to build partner with me, you're gonna be more willing to because I've earned your credit credibility. I've earned your trust, right?

Speaker 1 They get to know you from your

Speaker 1 platform, and they're gonna trust me from when they see what I give them for free. Yeah, thanks for doing that, man.
Means a lot. I got you.
Yeah, definitely message him, guys.

Speaker 1 I'm gonna need to get it, like I said. So, check him out.

Speaker 1 Enjoy the fight, man. Let's go.

Speaker 1 I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe.
It helps the show a lot with the algorithm. Thank you.