Purpose, Charity, and Creation: A Deep Dive of “Atlas Shrugged” with Josh Forti (2 of 5)

Speaker 1 Next up is a little song from CarMax about selling a car your way.

Speaker 2 Wanna take a sec to think about it. Or like a month.
Wanna keep tabs on that instant offer. With OfferWatch.

Speaker 3 Wanna have CarMax pick it up from your driveway.

Speaker 2 So, wanna drive?

Speaker 4 CarMax.

Speaker 1 Pickup not available everywhere. Restrictions and fee may apply.
apply.

Speaker 3 This holiday, discover meaningful gifts for everyone on your list at Kay. Not sure where to start? Our jewelry experts are here to help you find or create the perfect gift, in-store or online.

Speaker 3 Book your appointment today and unwrap love this season. Only at Kay.

Speaker 5 What's up, everybody? This is Russell Brunson. Welcome back to the Marketing Secrets Podcast.

Speaker 5 I hope you guys enjoyed part one last week of the Atlas Drug series with an interview between me and Josh Forty. I wanted to post part two.

Speaker 5 A lot of you guys have been messaging, asking us, wanting, waiting for the exciting conclusion. And so, or not conclusion, just part two.
So with that said, I'm going to jump right into this episode.

Speaker 5 This is the second hour of my interview with Josh Forty going deep into Atlas Shrugged.

Speaker 5 If you missed the first episode, make sure you go back one or two podcast episodes ago, watch episode number one, or listen to episode number one, and then come back and listen to episode number two.

Speaker 5 And I hope you guys enjoy this episode.

Speaker 5 In the last decade, I went from being a startup entrepreneur to selling over a billion dollars in my own products and services online.

Speaker 5 This show is going to show you how to start, grow, and scale a business online. My name is Russell Brunson and welcome to the Marketing Secrets Podcast.

Speaker 5 Because like what I'm trying to figure out, and this is, you know, it's an open discussion here. So like I am a pretty motivated driven person, right? Like

Speaker 5 I would never have described what I was doing as greedy, right? Would you have thought that when you're an athlete or that when you're greedy? No. But what is it?

Speaker 5 Well, yeah, and that's why I asked you the question because I don't know the answer for itself.

Speaker 5 I felt the same way because I never liked it. It was until I was reading the book and said,

Speaker 5 the utopia of greed. Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 5 And also I started thinking, I'm like, all these things we're doing, like, we call them growth, we call them whatever, which is awesome, but it is, it's a greedy time of your life, right? Like,

Speaker 5 I wonder what the definition, the actual definition of greed is. Yeah.
I'm going to look this up. Let's see.

Speaker 5 Definition of greed. It has a definite negative connotation in our world today.
Intense and selfish desire for something, especially money, power, or food.

Speaker 5 Well, there you go. All right.

Speaker 5 Money, power, or food. But for me, think about the lens of wrestling.
When I was wrestling, I was a selfish desire for I wanted to be a state champ. I wanted to be an all-American.

Speaker 5 I wanted to be a national champion. Why? Because I wanted my hand raised.
Like, that was all I thought about. So I dreamt about it.
Like, I couldn't, like, I'm a very obsessive person.

Speaker 5 That's why I don't gamble. Cause I was like, I put a quarter and I win.
I'm broke. It doesn't matter what I started.
It's gone. Right.
And I know that about myself.

Speaker 5 So, like, when I started wrestling and I got my hand raised the first time, I was like, that feels good. I want to feel that every day for the rest of my life.
And I just went blinders on.

Speaker 5 And that's all I did.

Speaker 5 That was my, I, you know, and I was like, and again, I would have thought it was as greedy, but by definition, it's like a singular focus on these things, like about yourself, right?

Speaker 5 And then now I'm in the phase of my life where I'm coaching wrestling, coaching my kids, and stuff like that. And it's like, it's different because now, like, there's nothing in it for you, right?

Speaker 5 It's seeing their hand raised and the light in their eyes go off. And it's just like, oh, like, that felt way better than my own.
But you don't know that till you're in that phase.

Speaker 5 Did having kids change that for you at all? Like,

Speaker 5 did it help solidify or give you a different perspective on that shift from greedy to i think maybe not so much solidify as much as like i'm experiencing it now in multiple parts of my life not just not just the business part right i mean a lot of part you think about like our success stories and our business are our children right the children of click funnels or whatever you want to say you know they're the people that have that have come off it so it's like i think i'm experiencing it now uh with them and it's it's been interesting and fun and yeah how long take you to finish the book I think about two months.

Speaker 5 Oh, wow.

Speaker 5 You read it way faster. I was like, dude, that's faster.
Well, okay. So it's one of those things.
It's funny because my mom was like, have you ever read the book? I'm like, what do you mean?

Speaker 5 You like, you made me read it in

Speaker 5 high school. Like, what?

Speaker 5 And I, oh, I went back and I was like, oh, I didn't actually read. Like, I knew the book.
And so I assumed I had read it. And then I realized it was 1,200 pages.

Speaker 5 And I was like, I don't think I've, I don't remember reading a 1,200-page book. Like, I feel like I would remember that.

Speaker 5 So I don't know if I'm going to go read it right now because Russell's going to be talking about. And that's exactly what happened.
So it was like, oh, I'm going to, like, we want to do this. Cool.

Speaker 5 And like, I. Like, I could have sat down and had the conversation without reading the book.
Like, you know what I mean? Like, because I knew the, like, I knew the concept of the premise.

Speaker 5 And so then I went through it and it was like every night two and a half meetings couldn't sleep i'd get up and like oh man it's three o'clock in the morning close the book you know go back in there so i want to kind of interject because you started on that i want to make sure we don't miss because i think it was you started reading really good there's something when i wrap it because it's like it's no blueprint my head now okay

Speaker 5 you start talking about how you agree on the left side of social helping people but not the the way that they do it is that how you said yeah yeah yeah okay so i agree with what they want to do i don't agree with how they want to do it okay so this is something that was powerful so after i read the book i was like geeking out and I'm like, who is this Ayn Rand?

Speaker 5 I want to see. So I started searching her and I found an interview she did on Donna Donna in 1980, like three months after her husband passed away.
And it was fascinating to interview.

Speaker 5 And if you guys know,

Speaker 5 she's atheist, does not believe in a God, all these things like that, right? She even made a statement about how

Speaker 5 part of the reason that she wrote the book was to prove that religion was fake and like to destroy all belief in any form of

Speaker 5 super damage. This is not the Bible for me.
This is just like a simulating book that just got my mind spinning.

Speaker 5 but one thing she said during the interview that was like so cool because he was like so based on this you believe that we should all be producers and greedy and keeping all our money and we should never we shouldn't help anybody and she's like no no no that's not what i said she's like i never said that she said what i did say is that it should not be the government coming to you with their guns saying give me your 50 of your taxes like that's the that's what's messed up right you think about this like if you give a gift like if someone comes to you and gives you a gun like hey give your give your uh your friend a gift like are you actually giving giving them a gift?

Speaker 5 No, you're not. And that's like, if you don't pay the taxes, they put you in jail.
Like, that's the thing. She said,

Speaker 5 people should go and support people on their own, right? This comes back to, this is the whole thing talking about before, like the natural man is

Speaker 5 an enemy to God and has been, you know, fall out. Let's yield to enticing the Holy Spirit.
So us yielding and saying, hey, I have all this money. I should go help other people with this.

Speaker 5 That's God saying.

Speaker 5 you should not be greedy use what you've been blessed with and help other people's lives right them coming to you with a gun saying pay your taxes you go to jail is not you giving a gift.

Speaker 5 Like it's them taking it from you and giving away. So like you're not a better person because you did it, right?

Speaker 5 So, um, and then we can get the whole depth of like, this is the government now who's the worst run organization in the history of all time, which only ran on that.

Speaker 5 But that's like, do you want to trust them with the money, right? And so I just want to share a practical example. So

Speaker 5 because people are like, well, you wouldn't give money if you didn't, you know, whatever. And I'm like, okay, right now I'm taxed more than 50%.
So more than half my income goes to Uncle Sam, right?

Speaker 5 And he's doing whatever the crap they do. Well, you just need some casual tactics.
Yeah. Shameless plug.

Speaker 5 Yeah. Anyway, I have no idea.
I don't do my tax.

Speaker 5 That's the tax bracket. So,

Speaker 5 but then you look at like, like, when you yield, enticing Holy Spirit.

Speaker 5 So there was a time when my friend Stu McLaren is like, hey, we're building schools in Kenya and this is a mission and we believe in it. Will you help? Right.

Speaker 5 It wasn't greedy rustling, I'm going to help and this is going to be awesome. Yeah.
I felt something. I was like, oh my gosh, that is a great cause.
Yeah. Here, let me, how can I support you? Right.

Speaker 5 In that process, you can see here's pictures of Stu and Amy in Kenya. We've been to Kenya four times now.
We've donated money. We've built schools.

Speaker 5 Like that is a gift versus like, give us money so we can go do something with it. Right.
And then a couple of years later, I heard about Operation Underground Railroad and I was like, oh my gosh.

Speaker 5 I felt the spirit saying, this is a good cause. You should serve.
You should do this thing. Right.
And I put time and energy and money into this thing.

Speaker 5 We raised multiple millions of dollars now to save children from sex slavery. Right.
And not everyone was willing to do that. Right.

Speaker 5 Like, again, there's a segment of people that will, it comes back to your

Speaker 5 natural man's enemy, God will be falling out of him and will be forever.

Speaker 5 Like a lot of people never get off the greed boat, but most people, as you start making more and more money, look at anybody, look at Bill Gates, look at Elon Musk, anyone's making much money.

Speaker 5 What do they do with their money?

Speaker 5 Eventually, they start giving to charity, start helping people, like all these things, because there's that transition point where you feel that you hear the voice, you hear God, whatever you want to call it.

Speaker 5 It's like, like, you should be serving more. And I think I know that if my tax went from 50% to 20% to 10%, or whatever that thing was, I would and could give so much more.
And everybody could.

Speaker 5 Right now, it's half the money goes to organizations that, what's happening with the money? Do we know? Do we see any ledger of what's happening? No, it's insane. Even

Speaker 5 Bill Mayer, who do you know Bill Mayer? I know who he is. I don't know.
Okay. I mean, like, stupid.
I mean, like, super left, right?

Speaker 5 I mean, like, definitely would not align with our political views or your political or my political views. But even him is like, I have no idea what my tax dollars are going to.

Speaker 5 Like, I have no idea where my millions of dollars that I pay in every, every is that scary? Is that crazy?

Speaker 5 Like only the government. It's crazy.
Okay. And then they look at like, sorry, this is a plug for OUR and Tim Ballard.
Like Tim Ballard, I know, does not take a salary.

Speaker 5 His payment for being CEO of Operations on Ground Road and risking his life day in and day out is $0 they pay him. He funds it himself.

Speaker 5 Like all of the money he makes is from his books, his speaking, other things he does externally to pay for himself because he doesn't want to take money from the organization saving kids.

Speaker 5 Whereas, can you say that about any of the government? Like, no, it's insane. It's anyway.
But yeah. So for me, it's like...
Somebody's going to mention that Trump takes $0 salary in there.

Speaker 5 That's not what we're talking about.

Speaker 5 But for me, it's like, that's my big thing is just like understanding that

Speaker 5 I think that there's this blend of left and right.

Speaker 5 Like, right, there's like, if we're not producing, like, the fact that I'm going to wake up every morning and kill myself, even though I have more money than I'm ever going to need, has, now we have 400 plus people who have full-time jobs here.

Speaker 5 Excuse me, full-time jobs here at ClickFunnels. There's 100 and what's the number? 144,000 people have active ClickFunnels accounts.

Speaker 5 uh each of those people if they have if they have one employee it's 144 000 jobs right they have two to three i mean it's you're looking at it's probably half a million to a million jobs have been created because of click funnels because we get up every day and we're, you know, we're chasing this thing.

Speaker 5 We're producing, producing, producing, right? And it's like, if you take away the incentives of that, like I'd have to left half my staff,

Speaker 5 which then things shrink, and everything starts disappearing really quickly. Where it's like, if they took that away, it's like, now we can go and how much more good can we do?

Speaker 5 And we did the OUR, we talked about OUR and showed the documented for Nock Live.

Speaker 5 And since then, I don't know, four or five dozen people who were in our community showed OER documentary at their events and made money.

Speaker 5 And it's like this ripple effect keeps growing, growing, growing versus the other side where it's just, it shrinks.

Speaker 5 Okay, so I want to get non-specifically political here, though, for a second

Speaker 5 with kind of with this. And I don't want to say play the devil's advocate.
I just want to understand like your thoughts on this. So the argument on

Speaker 5 the other side, if you will, right? The people that are more traditionally like higher tax bracket, like, you know, you should be taxed even higher, right?

Speaker 5 Like we want to take more of your money away because it's this. Basically, the thought process is like,

Speaker 5 listen you have donated your money to kenya and to operation underground railroad and like things like that but get like guess what there's probably like people here in your own community like in boise like for example right or like wherever these entrepreneurs are that like you have millions and millions of dollars like there's people that are homeless or there's people that can't afford medical you know like medical payments or there's people that are like genuinely need help and so like the argument is like okay like yeah like you've given some but like you have so much of it like you could do that and be taxed higher right like we could take even more of your money and like your life wouldn't change it at all and we're also like, I'm not talking about your business money, we're only talking about profit.

Speaker 5 Like, we're only gonna take like that part of it away. And so, like, the argument on the other side is:

Speaker 5 if collectively, and I'm just gonna make up a number here, let's just say there's like 10,000 entrepreneurs like you in America that have millions of dollars or billions of dollars.

Speaker 5 I know you don't have billions, but like billions of dollars, we could like take all that money and hypothetically we could solve a lot of these issues, right?

Speaker 5 We could talk tax the top 10 richest people or like whatever.

Speaker 5 Why doesn't that work? Like, or or A, I guess it's a two-part question: A, are you, are you a,

Speaker 5 A, why doesn't that work? And B, what is your solution for that, if any? Like, what's your perspective, like, your view of like how that would help? Yeah, well, I think. Or can you not help everybody?

Speaker 5 This is the fun part of politics, right? Because it's tough. And

Speaker 5 I'll preface this before we dive into the actual question, but like, it's tough because there's good on both sides and there's bad on both sides. Like, that's the hardest thing, right? And

Speaker 5 so that's, that's the hard thing is, is you argue both ways but um

Speaker 5 you know it's it's me as so let's say me as an entrepreneur because i only know experience in my own self right right i know i pay in taxes every single year i know how much goes away i know how much i make and it's tough because like um the more like the the less you make for the more you work the less incentivize you are to keep working right like if my take-home was 100 grand a year i'd be like well why am i killing myself right like i could I could work three hours a day and make that.

Speaker 5 So why would I keep doing this stuff?

Speaker 5 If there's no reward, then it's hard, right? It's like, what's the purpose of doing any of this stuff, right?

Speaker 5 And it'd be really easy to then shrink back and company shrinks, employees shrink, like everything shrinks because there's no incentive for us to risk everything, right?

Speaker 5 Like it's, it's a, it's a risk-reward thing. So that's a big part of it.
Like, how do you solve it? I don't know.

Speaker 5 I don't think the solution is the government coming with a gun and saying, give us half your money so we can go solve this problem.

Speaker 5 I think it's like, man, what are the things that you're interested in saving? What are the things that touches your heart? What are things that you're inspired to actually help? For me, it's Kenya.

Speaker 5 For me, it's this.

Speaker 5 For me, there's other things that we give money to that i don't talk about publicly um but there's things that like like what are the things i care about like let me focus there because everyone's got different different agendas right like i had um uh matt maddox someone who i you know caleb maddox is father he's super awesome guy came to me and he's like hey my mission is to uh save these kids off the streets and this stuff you know all these kind of things i was like that's amazing like can you help me i'm like like that's not my calling my calling are these things here that's your calling dude i respect it i support it like i'll help you with money or whatever i can do to help that's your calling like god gave you that like that was the thing that you were given.

Speaker 5 Yeah. That's the mantle you're in charge of.
And everyone's got a different mantle. So, like, your calling is to be different than mine.

Speaker 5 Like, like, people come all the time, like, oh, like, that charity's cool, but I would support this. Like, good.
I don't care who you support.

Speaker 5 Like, everyone's got different callings and they're all good. Like, so I think we should be able to say, like, what's the thing that speaks to our heart and thing that we're passionate about?

Speaker 5 And that's what we should focus our time and our energy and our money on.

Speaker 5 Not

Speaker 5 again, don't come with a gun saying, give me a 50% because I think it should go over here. Like,

Speaker 1 this episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?

Speaker 1 Well, with the name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills. Try it at Progressive.com.

Speaker 1 Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and Affiliates. Price and coverage match limited by state law.
Not available in all states.

Speaker 4 At blinds.com, it's not just about window treatments. It's about you, your style, your space, your way.

Speaker 4 Whether you DIY or want the pros to handle it all, you'll have the confidence of knowing it's done right.

Speaker 4 From free expert design help to our 100% satisfaction guarantee, everything we do is made to fit your life and your windows. Because at blinds.com, the only thing we treat better than Windows is you.

Speaker 4 Black Friday deals are going on all month long. Save up to 45% off site-wide, plus an additional 10% off every order right now at blinds.com.

Speaker 2 Rules and restrictions apply.

Speaker 5 That's so well, but what about the people, though?

Speaker 5 that

Speaker 5 like let's pretend and I have guys I love Elon Musk I'm going to use him purely as an example. Clearly, I have no idea what he does with his money, but let's pretend, right?

Speaker 5 So, Elon Musk makes all his money. Like, what if he wasn't charitable? Like, should the government or anybody be able to come in and be like, yo, you have so much money, right?

Speaker 5 Or Zuckerberg, like, you have so much money, right? Like, we're going to, you got, I don't know, he's worth $90 billion. Let's say he has $3 billion in liquid cash.
I'm just hypotheticals here, right?

Speaker 5 Like, you got $3 billion, like, literally sitting here.

Speaker 5 We're going to take that away and we're going to give you, like, you can have 500 million of it, but we're going to take 2.5 billion and I can give it to people that actually need it like do you think that there needs to be some um

Speaker 5 overriding law or power or something that's like yo you can't just hoard you got to like you gotta if you have more than enough like you gotta go and give it back or do you think that's a personal choice i think it's a personal choice um

Speaker 5 because think about how many how many jobs has he created like he's giving that stuff and this is the reward for the that's the risk and reward side of things right and like his three billion let's say like what's his next thing like he's not just gonna sit on it like like that's stupid for him for anybody right it's like he's going to go invest in the next thing he's going to create more jobs do more things to stimulate the economy in different ways right like he's going to go and start paypal they're going to start tesla they start sending rocket ships to the space like you know like a producer is going to produce because they want to produce like it's the art for them right and so like let them create art because the byproduct of art is jobs it is stimulation economy make all those things happening and so it's like for me like building funnels is my art.

Speaker 5 I couldn't care less about the revenue comes from it.

Speaker 5 Like, but I need the revenue to be able to hire the teams and the people and the things we we need to be able to continue to art, to pay Zuckerberg, buy the, to show my ads on the thing, you know, like all these things are, are, are part of it.

Speaker 5 And so I think, yeah, if he's sitting on three billion, it's just sitting there. Um, but producers don't typically do that.
They're reinvesting, they're doing stuff with it. So it creates more.

Speaker 5 I want you to come up with a story on the spot. Go, which you're pretty good at.
But like, I want you to talk about that. Producers produce.

Speaker 5 Like, I think that might be one of the, actually, I'm curious to know what you're talking about.

Speaker 5 Like, I feel like that is one of the most misunderstood thing about the ultra wealthy, the people that are like actually, not like, okay, I inherited $200 million because I'm a trust money baby, right?

Speaker 5 Like, but like the actual, the Elon Musk of the world, the Jeff Bezos of the world, the Russell Brunsons of the world, like, what ultimately drives you to go keep doing more?

Speaker 5 Like, you have all of the money. And I, and like, and I know.

Speaker 5 Like, I know we talked about like the, the, like, you want to contribute back for it, but like, there's a million different ways you can contribute. Like, why do you do the things that you do?

Speaker 5 And because I like, I feel like one of the misunderstood things is, and this is something that I don't know how to explain it to people that don't know. I told

Speaker 5 my fiancé, I was like,

Speaker 5 you gotta, you should, like, listen to Russell because I'm like, I, he thinks, like, I think like that, right? Like, you know what I mean?

Speaker 5 I'm like, you can't, if you don't understand me, like, maybe you could like see it from somebody else and like, know that I'm like, I'm not, I'm not weird.

Speaker 5 I mean, I am, but like, there's other people like me, you know what I mean? Like, they think like this. But it's like, how would you explain to somebody that like

Speaker 5 like, Elon Musk is going to do what Elon Musk does, right? He's Elon Musk, right? Like, Zuckerberg, like whoever, like these guys,

Speaker 5 right, right, like whoever, Russell Brunson, like, you're going to do what you do because that's who you are.

Speaker 5 Like, you build things and the result of, or like, because you need to build things, like, you need resources. And so you're like, man, if I want to go build this thing already, I need $100 million.

Speaker 5 I need $10 million. Come on, I'm just going to go make that money.
I'm going to go do it here. And like, you're basically just like organizing things, right?

Speaker 5 You're either creating or you're organizing. Like, how does that mentality work? Like, I don't think the average person understands that.

Speaker 5 I think that's one of the big misconceptions of, because this goes back to the greed thing. And the reason I really don't like the word greed is because, like,

Speaker 5 there is so much misconception about it. Although, I will say, the definition says that it's probably that, but it's like it is a negative word.
I get the connotation is super negative. But it's like,

Speaker 5 you don't exclusively do it because you're greedy. It's like you do it because you don't know how to do anything else.
Like, you know what I mean? Yeah. It's, it's.

Speaker 5 I'm sorry, sorry, Alex Jarfin.

Speaker 5 We can't turn it off and we don't understand why anybody would watch it. Like that, like that.
That's the thing. We think about it.
It's creation. Like, why was man put on this earth?

Speaker 5 Like, were we put on earth to like wake up, watch TV, go back to bed? Like, no, like, we have creative powers in our body. That's how husband and wife get together.

Speaker 5 We have children, like, we create, like, like, that's the, that's the mission on earth. Like, we're always creating, right? And it's like, um,

Speaker 5 you know, like any of us, like.

Speaker 5 you get married and it's like we need to go create something we need a house where we're going to live at and you create things to be able to get a job to be able to organize matter to be able to make oh we have a house now we can move into and and it's just like, that's the thing.

Speaker 5 I think that so many people, though,

Speaker 5 they become,

Speaker 5 I think the word that Garrett White uses, he uses the best, sedated, where like there's pain. And so because of the pain, they're sedated.

Speaker 5 So they just sit in this, this moment of, of they don't want the pain, right? It's because the pressure was too heavy for them at one point. It hurts so bad that they say, I have to stop, right?

Speaker 5 Versus what I talk about, like, like over the last six years, like I got destroyed and then increased capacity and destroyed. And like, and so there's two sets of people.

Speaker 5 There's the people that aren't producing they're sedating because they're afraid of the pain they're nervous the pain they're trying to hide from pain i get that like i there's been seasons of my life where i have felt pain and i just want to hide and i have right but then there's seasons of your life at least hopefully for most and i wish everybody could experience it because the the opposite where you're in the creation zone where you're creating and you're doing and it's it's it's hard it's a different it's both of them are hard they're different hards right one is there's so much fear there's so much like um just trying to get out of the pain and the other one is just like you create to create right like um you could ask my team, you're like, we build a funnel.

Speaker 5 And for me, it's just like, oh, look at this thing we created or create a product or an event or whatever. And it's like the creation of the thing and then sharing it with people.

Speaker 5 Like, that's, yeah, like, I don't know. And I think it was the same way, like, when I was wrestling, that was my art at the time.

Speaker 5 And it was just like, like, I didn't want to do anything besides wrestling. Like, we went to terms in terms of like, what's the next term? What's the next thing?

Speaker 5 We're just like, we kept doing that and doing that like my entire life because that was the art at the wild. And just you want to keep performing what you're doing.
Right.

Speaker 5 And I think that

Speaker 5 if you can get out of that sedation that most people live in which i say the majority of humans do and i think that's the issue is that like for you and i we create like entrepreneurs funnel hackers the free thinkers of the world like they go out there and they create because like that's what we do yeah but like i don't think that's how most of the world operates yeah they do they do initially right they're born they have that seed that seed of whatever we call it growth greed whatever right but something happens in life where they get they get the the pain and then they sedate because it's easier.

Speaker 5 I think it's one of the biggest problems. And I'm anti-drug, anti-everything that causes sedation, right?

Speaker 5 Because most of the world, I see this, especially like an entrepreneurial community, where people could be doing so much more, but instead they're sedating with drugs or alcohol or weed or whatever it is because it's like, let me take the pressure off myself.

Speaker 5 And I. man, what a tragedy.
Like you could be producing and changing some people's lives, but it's like, I need an outlet. And the outlet causes sedation and takes you out of your ability to produce.

Speaker 5 And I think the majority of people, like, that's what they do. Like, it drives me crazy.

Speaker 5 I see all the conversations on Facebook of like, you know, there's, there's entrepreneur events, people come together and they literally, there's, there's sessions, they talk about what mushrooms they use to like hallucinate.

Speaker 5 It just drives me nuts. I'm like, you guys are sedating to get out of this pain as opposed to stepping into pain and creating and changing people's lives.

Speaker 5 And so I'm very vocal, anti, all that kind of stuff. I think so many people, like, that's, that's what they slip back into.

Speaker 5 One of the greatest blessings of my religion that I believe is like, I don't have these tools to sedate that most people use.

Speaker 5 And so it's like, my outlet is creation, right? If my outlet was drinking, if my outlet was drugs, my outlet was these other things, like I wouldn't have been able to produce, but I don't.

Speaker 5 So my outlet's got to be what? What is it? Like production. Let's create something amazing.

Speaker 5 And I think that too many people let themselves off the hook and just like, oh, I could go create, or I'm going to watch TV, or I'm going to go eat, or I'm going to go.

Speaker 5 Like, if your outlet is something that sedates you, that's taking you out of your creative zone. I think most people slip that because it's easier, it's cheaper, it doesn't cause the pain.

Speaker 5 You know, Garrett White's whole mission, wake-up warriors, waking men up from that sedated state that most of our society is stuck into, which is why I relate to him so well. Because I like, I see it.

Speaker 5 I see it in people I love that I care about. It's like, you're sedate.
If we could break you out of that, you could get back to production and you can change the world. Yeah, I think it's interesting.

Speaker 5 So I have a coach who I think did that for me. I mean, I don't use Garrett, you know, Garrett White, which he has an intense man.
Oh, my word.

Speaker 5 Garrett, if you're listening, I would love to talk to you. Come on the show.

Speaker 5 But, you know, I'm always plugging. Hey, if I could ever get a guest, Elon Musk, if you're listening.
Anyway, but like, I have a coach, Katie Richardson. You know, Katie.

Speaker 5 Katie is outside of like my immediate family and like Leah, obviously, like top, top three people that changed my life, Katie Richards and Russell Brunson are two of those people that are in that top thing, right?

Speaker 5 And so Katie is someone that I work with like one-on-one. And

Speaker 5 we don't, I mean, like, I don't think I was ever sedated in the sense of like what you're talking about, but like the opposite of sedation is like being alive, right?

Speaker 5 And like, like really, truly, like, coming alive and like understanding like who you are and like what you are put on this earth here to do.

Speaker 5 And so like the thing that I struggled with for the, man, for the longest time, even like from the beginning of days of this entrepreneur is like right and wrong, right?

Speaker 5 I was like, I didn't want to do the wrong thing, right? I didn't want to kick anybody off because that would be bad, right?

Speaker 5 Like, oh man, like, you don't want to get into a fight because that's bad, right? I don't want to make too much money because that might be bad, right?

Speaker 5 I don't want to say the wrong thing because it might be bad, right? And so I like lived in this like universe, or that like this black and white of like, is it right or is it wrong? Right.

Speaker 5 Like what Katie came along and she's like, Josh, like, there is no right and wrong. Now, there is in the sense of like, there's moral right and wrong.

Speaker 5 And so, but like, I'm not going to go into the concept of like, you know, universal truth, but like, I do believe there's absolute truth.

Speaker 5 But, like, in the sense of like our everyday life, it's, it's not so much as like, is it the right thing or is it the wrong thing? It's like, is like, what are you going to choose to do?

Speaker 5 But, like, you can only know like what you're going to choose if like you're alive, if you're, if you know who you are, like, you know what you're put on this earth to do. And that's why it's funny.

Speaker 5 Um,

Speaker 5 you may, I think you may know this story.

Speaker 5 So, my brother dies, helicopter crash, beginning of 2019, kind of wrecks my whole life, life, ended up selling the company, sold the business to an investor, the business partner took over, and like Leah and I like went off, took off the wrong world.

Speaker 5 And it's supposed to be this like four month long trip where I was going to like disconnect and just like figure out life and everything like that.

Speaker 5 And like Christmas time, it's about a week before Christmas. And we're in the Philippines in the middle of absolutely freaking nowhere.

Speaker 5 Like the nearest airport, hospital, anything is like six hours away, like absolute middle of nowhere. And Leah gets a

Speaker 5 intestinal eating parasite. Like she gets super, super sick, like can't sit up, can't keep food down.
I'm like, oh my gosh, we're in the Philippines, the middle of nowhere.

Speaker 5 And so, like, we go to the emergency room and we get there, and it's like a card, like, I mean, it's like a ply piece of plywood with two-inch foam, and there's no, there's no doors on the bathroom, no toilet seat, there's ants crumpo, it's like terrible, right?

Speaker 5 And so, long story short, we end up having to cut our trip like two months early. We lose like tens of thousands in deposits, like getting her home and whatever.

Speaker 5 And like, I have no business at this point, right?

Speaker 5 We were supposed to be going for two months longer. I was supposed to fly home, like, I was supposed to come to Funnel Hacking Live.
That was going to be like our coming home, right?

Speaker 5 And I find myself in like the basement of my girlfriend's mom's house the night before christmas going like what am i doing with my life right like you know like how did i end up here right and so i go through the process of like okay i need a coach and i you know go through and i interview a bunch of different coaches i end up like choosing katie and i'm like all right katie like you're gonna solve all my business problems for me you're gonna make you're gonna help me make me all this money you're gonna help me build this million dollar business and everything like that right and so the very very first call i'll never forget the very first question and she's like all right vent like i know you need to i'm like

Speaker 5 right like just brain dumb, like Ven for like 20, 30 minutes straight. I'm like, what's the answer? She goes, Josh, who are you? I was like, really?

Speaker 5 Like, that's where we were going to start this whole conversation.

Speaker 5 I just made you 60 grand right here.

Speaker 5 And then, and like, looking back now, like that, and I do have a full circle with this.

Speaker 5 Looking back now,

Speaker 5 figuring out who I was. gave me my permission to go do what I was called to do, right? Without the fear of what anybody else thought.
And like, I'm not trying to intentionally piss anybody off.

Speaker 5 I don't want people to actually hate me, right? But I like, I'm so certain in what I'm doing and like knowing who I am that I know that I'm like, I know I'm a contributor to society.

Speaker 5 Like I know that I'm making the world better what I do because I believe that everybody like deep down inside it, like God has given them talents, right?

Speaker 5 And I believe that the thing that whatever it is that you're good at or that you like to do or whatever, like that's the talent that God gave you.

Speaker 5 And you have a choice on how you're going to go out and use that. And I believe that you should use that to serve him.
But like the problem is, is that I don't think,

Speaker 5 I think think like an overwhelming majority of the world has no idea who they are or what they're called to be.

Speaker 5 And because of that, the people like you or Elon or whoever, the producers of society that like know who they are, like what their talents are, like what they're called to do, and like things like that, like it's such, it's like a, I mean, you've seen my, my growth, right?

Speaker 5 Like you've watched me transition from this crazy, you know, little kid to like this. And it's like.

Speaker 5 that came by learning who I was and like how I was contributing, like what I was doing, what I was called here, what I was put here for.

Speaker 5 And so when you talk about like sedation, I feel like that's, that's the issue of they're sedated and so they don't even know who they are like they don't even know how to tap into it they don't know how to understand it and because of that they look at someone like you they look at someone like me and they go well you're preventing me like you're taking away my ability to go do something because like you're taking all the money right like you're taking all the opportunity or like you have a category on the king on the market so like i can't go and do it then so like to those people

Speaker 5 this concept of because you're successful, I can't be successful. Like, what is your response to that? Like, how do you interpret that? Yeah.

Speaker 5 Like, how do you make, help someone like shift to be like, just because I did it doesn't mean you can't. Yeah.

Speaker 5 It's interesting because like that's, it's, it's funny because for me, it's such a foreign thing to understand that. Like, and I see that so many times entrepreneurs where

Speaker 5 it's that, that, like, that, that mentality of like, there's, there's not enough money or not enough opportunities or resources, whatever.

Speaker 5 And you know this, I know this, like, man, there, the bigger problem I have is there are so many opportunities every single day that's drowned. Like, it's not there's not enough opportunities.

Speaker 5 There's so many. It's like, how do you make up that?

Speaker 5 and i think when people start understanding that like look look around like learn learn some basic skills right like the original dot-com seekers book i wrote because i'm like if anyone took these principles and looked at any business you could apply it and like boom like it just works like it's magic like there's not a business on this like adam's eye care i can see right out the window like i think dot-com seekers principles blow that company up overnight right and so like if you have these these tools like you could do anything you could sell like sell phones you can sell watches you can sell books you can sell what like you can sell podcasts like so it's just like i think when people start understanding that, like, it's just education, they don't understand it.

Speaker 5 I've had friends before, like, oh, like, life's tough right now, there's no opportunities. I'm just like, what? Like,

Speaker 5 there are so many opportunities, but you have to have the skill set that actually that it can produce it, right?

Speaker 5 And I think so, you know, a big frustration, obviously, I have, I think you have as well, is, and we talked about this a little tonight with my kids, you know, it's just like, a lot of things that we're equipped with are like school.

Speaker 5 Like the school system doesn't equip you to be able to capitalize on opportunities, right? It doesn't, unless you're like, I want to be a doctor. Cool.

Speaker 5 This is the process that that now you can capitalize on being a doctor or being a dentist or whatever that traditional path is to be able to like walk in and like make it rain somewhere.

Speaker 5 Like those skill sets aren't taught in school, right? And you think about in any business, there's a couple, there's a couple of personalities, right?

Speaker 5 There's like the entrepreneur who starts it, right? Then there's the managers who are managing the people. There's the technicians who are doing the thing.

Speaker 5 And there's the rain makers who come in and make money. And it's like, if you learn that skill set, like how do you become a rain maker?

Speaker 5 How do you go in and you can plug in any business or any opportunity and you can turn it into money? Like, then

Speaker 5 every door you walk past, there's opportunity. There's the infinite, every human you see, there's opportunity, right?

Speaker 5 But you just, people have to learn how to like take the talent and learn how to market the talent, right? Because God gives us all different things.

Speaker 5 Some people, like Caitlin Poland, God gave her a gift to be able to help women lose weight, right?

Speaker 5 But it wasn't until she learned how to market that that it was actually now, now the opportunity is huge.

Speaker 5 They've got, I don't know, 100 employees in their company, millions of women they've served across the world. It was like taking your

Speaker 5 God-given talent, learning how to make it ring, plugging those two things together, now unlimited opportunities, and so I think a lot of times, it's like we're given, and that's why I think, like, why I'm so loud about my mission, why I try to share so much.

Speaker 5 Because, like, man, I believe that God's given everybody calling, right? It says in scriptures, many are called, but fewer chosen.

Speaker 5 Like, everybody's called, everybody gets a calling, everybody gets that tap on the shoulder, everyone gets the opportunity.

Speaker 5 Doesn't matter where you're born, where you're like, everyone gets the opportunity, you're called, but most people don't do it or they don't know how to do it because they have this talent, this hobby, this thing.

Speaker 5 It's like, and then what happens? Gets the date, they hide, or they search. And if you search, you find the answer.

Speaker 5 And then it's like, like, oh my gosh, like, now I can take this thing and change the world.

Speaker 5 Do you, but like, do you think,

Speaker 5 do you think everybody has that talent, though? Like, do you, I, obviously, there's only one Russell Brown, but like,

Speaker 5 I have, I have discussions with my mom a lot, right? Like, I have a great relationship with my mom. And my mom always tells me, she's like, Josh, not everybody's you.

Speaker 5 And like, not every thinks like you. Not every has to drive like you.
Not everybody's confidence like you. Not every has the, and I'm like,

Speaker 5 but you don't have to. Like, like, you could, like, you can do the same things, just like in your own way.
Right. But like.

Speaker 5 And everyone's got a different like

Speaker 5 view of success too. Right.
Like when my first mentors taught me that, like, when I launched my first mastermind group, he pulled me aside.

Speaker 5 He's like, your mastermind group is going to fail if you try to put your version of success on all those people.

Speaker 5 And I was like, what do you mean? He's like, he's like, and it's funny because he was in the room. He's like, I can't say names because he has to know some.

Speaker 5 He's like, he's like, you see that guy right here? Do you know why he's in the room? I'm like, why? He's like, he wants to hear himself talk. That's why he's here.

Speaker 5 And if I try to like force him to do something, he's not going to do it. That guy right there, he's here because he wants to hang out with a group and get a network with people.

Speaker 5 And he's like, you, you're here because you want to celebrate his ideas, right?

Speaker 5 He's like, and so if you try to launch a mastermind and like your goal is to build a hundred million dollar company, you try to put that, your values on the people, you're going to make them all fail.

Speaker 5 And, and, and that was like this big aha for me. It's like everyone's got a different vision of success.

Speaker 5 So maybe your brother or someone or your sister or like a family member may not think like, think like you're BIQ, but it doesn't matter.

Speaker 5 Like, it doesn't mean they have to change a million people's lives to change the world. Like it could be their mom and they could be the best mom in the world and they change their kids' life.

Speaker 5 Like that's a a calling. And that's what I want, and that's what I want you to touch on.
Like, I want you to expand upon that because I feel like

Speaker 5 man, I hear so many arguments trying to figure out like which one's best here. It's like, but like, Josh, we need the plumbers of the world, yeah, right?

Speaker 5 Like, we need the people that'll come in and vacuum the carpet, like, we need the people that'll just do the mediocre tasks and that that are like are not important and that'll just kind of do those in and out and in and out.

Speaker 5 And, like,

Speaker 5 yeah, that like what, like,

Speaker 5 but because, like, I feel like, how do I say this?

Speaker 5 I believe that a majority of the people in this world are not living up to their true potential, right? Like, an over massive amount of like overwhelming majority are.

Speaker 5 I don't think anyone is, to be honest. I don't think I am.
Right. You know what I mean? Like, I don't think, so, yes, but yeah, 100%.

Speaker 5 You're living far more potential like the average person is, right?

Speaker 5 And how I look at it is I go, like, hey, listen, like, not everybody can do what you do or what I do or like whatever, but, but like,

Speaker 5 okay, how do I bring this around to make this more clear? I'm going to use it from a political aspect of things because I think that's something that we can all understand.

Speaker 5 Hey, poor people,

Speaker 5 victim mentality people, ooh, that's a, that's a controversial thing, but like, you know what I'm saying?

Speaker 5 But like, victim mentality people, or like poor people, like things that like, they don't think like that, or maybe they didn't have as good a schooling, or like, maybe they didn't have as good of like education, like whatever, like

Speaker 5 they

Speaker 5 don't have the same same understanding that like you do, right? So like, shouldn't we,

Speaker 5 should we help them see that like they can go and achieve more? Or like, should they, like, is their version of success? What am I trying to ask?

Speaker 5 The answer is, yes, we should. And that's what we're doing, right? Like,

Speaker 5 I heard some of the before they're like, well, Russell, you have a $50,000 or $100,000 mastermind group. Like, I can't afford that.
It's not fair. I'm like, yeah, but.

Speaker 5 like, I also do a podcast two to three times a week, every single time, every single week for six years.

Speaker 5 I've written three books you can get for 10 bucks, or you you can get them for free or you know like there's there's levels of it right and so like the thing is like there's there's value everywhere and if you pick it up it increases you know like you can and you actually apply it like i'm a big believer that god gives all of us um stewardship over things right like he'll give you an idea or give me an idea give anybody an idea or or or um desire like here's some desire for you you look at these kids who are struggling but they get desire to play basketball and then they become the michael jordan or whoever like the people right because god gives them desire um or they give them ideas or talents like i'm a big believer like in in my business life

Speaker 5 as I've been doing this journey now for 18 plus years is that

Speaker 5 I got ideas and a lot of ideas I didn't do anything with, right? But some of them I took, I got the idea.

Speaker 5 And

Speaker 5 I'm not naive enough to think like, oh, I came with this great idea. Like these are blessings from God, right? Like he's like, here's an idea.
Let's see if you're going to be a good steward with it.

Speaker 5 I get the idea. And if I do something with it, he's like, oh my gosh, Russell's a good steward of ideas.
Let me give you another idea.

Speaker 5 And if I don't do something with it, he's like, all right, let me give somebody else, right?

Speaker 5 Like, all this stuff is happening that would have happened whether I was like, somebody would have taken it but i was this good steward of the thing and so i got blessed with another one and another one and another one and i think that's a big part of it i think if people like i don't think that god i mean i i do think that he puts us all in different spots to start with okay that's 100

Speaker 5 he's giving us ideas or or desire things like that and he's watching you're gonna be good steward with it if you are i'll give you more and if you are i'm gonna give you that people can go from the worst to the worst and become the best in the world and people can start the best world and be horrible because what do you do with the things you're getting stewardship over so so what you're saying here which is actually a fascinating concept is that like i'm going to use the idea for click funnels for example like the idea for click funnels is wasn't yours per se right you know people are trying to build a funnel software when we built click funnels i'm sure a lot all my friends were everybody was so you have this idea that

Speaker 5 is essentially open for anybody like anybody could go and take advantage of this idea you just God you're saying like God put this idea in your head and he probably put this idea in 100 people's heads or 500 10 000 people's heads or whatever but you're like but i was the one that answered the calling to be like okay i'm actually going to take this idea and do something with it and so because of that it's not that you took it away from anybody else like anybody could have done it you're just the one that actually went out and just chose to go out and do it and bring it to reality yep 100 okay there's a i wish somebody shares me and i haven't read the book there's a book that tells the story of that there's an author who like had an idea for a book sat down started writing it and someone's gonna know i it's a famous book people would know this i guarantee someone on the chat knows this somebody comment below when you hear it what it is author's like write the book and then stops like runs on time forgets about it.

Speaker 5 And then, like, six years later, this new book comes out. He comes, you're trying to best selling book, buys the book, starts reading.
It's like, this is the book that I was supposed to write.

Speaker 5 It was like, oh my gosh, I didn't take stewardship of the idea. I stopped.
And so God gave somebody else. It's like, it's the same book, right? It's just, it's just, I didn't, I didn't finish it.

Speaker 5 And so I 100% believe that. And I think it could be an idea, it could be desire, it could be a million, a million things.
We all have these different gifts of the spirit, right, that are given to us.

Speaker 5 And they sit back and watch it. Let's see what you're going to do with it.

Speaker 5 I feel like that could give a lot of people permission to go out and do stuff too, right there. Like that, that viewpoint.

Speaker 5 Because like one of the things that I struggled with early on, which to a certain extent, I think I still struggle with a little bit, not nearly what I used to is like,

Speaker 5 like, why, like, why me? Like, not, not in a bad way of like, oh man, why do I like, but why do I get these cool opportunities? Like, you know what I mean? Like, I live a pretty great life.

Speaker 5 Like, you know what I'm saying? And I'm like,

Speaker 5 why do I get to have this conversation and not somebody else? Like, why am I the first person that sit down with Russell Brunson and talk anything related to politics ever? Right. Like, but it's like

Speaker 5 that concept of simply because i chose to go do it like i chose to be the person that was capable of like having this conversation right and be like and became that person i think that because of that like what you just said right there is like gives to give people permission like you're not taking away from anybody else and like you're not inherent like you're not inherently special i mean you are in your own way but like you're not it wasn't you're not the only person that could have built cliffhangers shockingly average you asked my wife asked my parents like Russell is shockingly average.

Speaker 5 And you're actually super awkward to meet for the first time. You know, the first time I met you, do you remember the first time? I think I actually told you this.
The first time I met you?

Speaker 5 Remind me what was. Okay.
The first time I met you was at Grant Cardone's 10x room, the very first one. All right.
So this is

Speaker 5 at the time,

Speaker 5 Grant had hired our team to do like Instagram stuff. And this was like super, super, I was like dead broke.
I couldn't afford to go to that conference like if I wanted to.

Speaker 5 But because we were doing his Instagram stuff, like he gave us like tickets. And we saw you like get off stage and we're like, dude, I bet you like run right now.
We could go like meet Russell.

Speaker 5 And so like we run down the stairs and sure enough, there you you are like coming down. And like, I walk up to him like, Russell, oh my gosh, like huge fan.
And you're like, hey,

Speaker 5 thanks.

Speaker 5 And we're like, oh, okay. We're like, can we get a picture? And you're like,

Speaker 5 yeah, I guess. And so like, I go.
And like, normally, like, when you go and like take a picture, like you put your arm around him, things like that. Like, you just literally just stood there.
Right.

Speaker 5 And I'm like, just like that. I'm like, oh, okay, I guess we're not doing that.
And so there's like this picture of me in like, oh, you have this shit shirt. I'll find it.
I'll box it to you.

Speaker 5 But it's like, we're sitting there. I'm like, I mean, this is this.
So, guys, Russell is shockingly average. Shockingly average, apparently.

Speaker 5 Like, back to the conversation, I remember what I was trying to ask. So, like,

Speaker 5 that was the very first time I met you. I was like, oh, man, I can be a millionaire too.
I just want to think before you, I just want to like,

Speaker 5 when I got started, this whole business, it was me, and then I hired two of my buddies to come work for me because, like, they were the only people that cared what I was talking about. Yeah.

Speaker 5 And we were all working on this business. And I remember one of my buddies pulled me aside one day.
He said, you know, the difference between me, between us two and you?

Speaker 5 I said, no, he said, the only difference is you're in momentum. You're moving forward, so these opportunities keep coming to you because you're moving, moving, moving, moving.

Speaker 5 He's like, We're sitting back here doing the thing, but there's no opportunities coming to us because we're not moving. I think we need to understand when you're moving in forward.

Speaker 5 Like, like, people are like, Oh, you're looking, you came with ClickFunnels. I'm like, Do you know how many funnels I launched before ClickFunnels?

Speaker 5 Over 150. This is not 150, like add, you know, create funnel in ClickFunnels.
Like, oh, that's a funnel.

Speaker 5 It was me coming with an idea, hiring a designer, writing a sales letter, putting the product together, putting the pages in front page, uploading through FTP, getting a shopping cart, connecting them 150 times.

Speaker 5 Took us three months on average to each one, okay. 150 times before we came up with ClickFunnels.

Speaker 5 Like, like, I was just moving forward over and over and over and over and over and over again while everyone else is sitting around waiting. Like, motion is the key.
Yeah, the opportunities come.

Speaker 5 This is what I'm talking about, being a good steward. Like, God gave me an idea for Zip Rander.
Do you remember Zip Rander? No one does, but that was the first idea.

Speaker 5 And I was like, oh my gosh, Zip Rander. And when I found a guy in Romania, I paid him 20 bucks to build the software.
I created, I got a thing, a header design, and a headline and a thing.

Speaker 5 And I launched it and I made like 400 bucks.

Speaker 5 and then next idea was like this thing called article spider you remember the article spider no one does i paid someone that a couple of bucks that did that i launched i made 1700 bucks and i was like oh my gosh foreign fortunes number three and then the next and the next and i can show you guys i i did this i wrote them all that i went back to the way back machine i found all of them thing after thing after thing after thing idea after idea took like the ideas pop in there i executed them tried tried and each one got better and better and better and better and eventually God's like, all right, you're capable.

Speaker 5 Like, you're a good steward. Here's click funnels.
Go with it. But if you were to give me that initially, initially, I don't know what to do.

Speaker 5 It's the momentum, it's the motion that makes you worthy of the calling. And if you're not in momentum, if you're not moving forward, you're never gonna get the call.

Speaker 5 Then you're called if you're chosen.