#127 | Matt Federico | Life & Entrepreneurship |

Welcome to episode #127 of Rizzology, where we dive deep into an engaging conversation with martial arts instructor Matt Federico. 

In today's episode, Matt and host Nick explore the intricate world of problem theory, touching on how life is a continuous journey of overcoming challenges and the ways these challenges evolve as we progress. We discuss the essence of entrepreneurship and how the mindset of creating solutions often leads to uncovering new and unique challenges. Matt shares his insights from his journey as a martial arts instructor, emphasizing the importance of resilience, identity, and the pursuit of personal growth.

We also delve into the value of mentors, the exploration of various interests, and the balance of time versus money in both personal and professional pursuits. This episode is a treasure trove of wisdom and lessons learned through experience, perfect for anyone looking to glean insights from those who have walked a similar path. Tune in as we explore the mindset needed to navigate life's challenges, and discover how to foster growth and success in any field.

00:00 "Embrace and Appreciate Your Problems"

05:49 "Appreciating Problem Stages"

14:31 ADHD and Entrepreneurial Focus

19:28 Business Management Missteps

24:05 Joe Rogan Podcast Journey

28:38 "Success Through Answering Children's Questions"

31:34 "Fun and Learning Through New Ventures"

39:54 Martial Arts: Mindset and Identity

41:51 Karate Studio: Young, Fearless Start

50:38 Hobby Distraction for Breakthrough

53:52 Bittersweet Reality of Pet Care

01:00:22 Embrace Adversity and Process

01:06:07 "Misery Loves Company"

01:12:28 Balancing Money and Life Satisfaction

01:13:14 Life Perspective on Money Worries

01:20:31 Frustration with Equal Pay

01:26:41 Mentor Accountability in Business

01:33:03 Accelerate Task Completion Mindset

01:36:06 Overcoming Excuses for Change

01:39:19 "Support and Subscribe"

Transcript

0:00

You know, and that was one of the most important things when I started setting up the space. It's like I just. And one of the problems that I still deal with is that the cameras that I use. Except for that camera. That camera stays. Yeah, your camera that stays in the studio. That's like a retired photography camera that I was using when I first started doing the photo video. But that camera is one of my main cameras that I use on jobs. So that's one of the problems that you kind of run into. You run into that issue of, like, okay, well, I don't want to. I would like to leave everything here. And that's like, the next step. I already know the cameras that I'm gonna populate in here, but I would like to populate three to four cameras that can just sit in one space, and, like, that's all they do. They just are there, and that's their primary function. So this way I don't have to worry about. I don't have to worry about. I shot different settings out in the field than I wanted to for the podcast. Yeah. Cause it's like color, temperature, it's the ISO. It's like all of these different settings that are just different based on the location. And here we have all the lights sculpted out already. So you want to just keep it the same every podcast for continuity. Now I get it. Yeah. We should start with problem Theory. Are we started? This is it. I told you, man. This is it. Let's start with problem Theory. Problem Theory. This is something that I bring that might to you. Just bring it into you. Yeah. This. No, you could bring it to you. Yeah. Oh, there we go. A little scissor on. This is something I feel like I've learned, especially owning a business, is that really your problems in life never go away, ever. And I think we were gonna start with entrepreneurs, but I really think the whole point is that everyone has problems in their life. Everyone. Right. Whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're not, whether you have a job, whether you're jobless, whatever it is. And I always like the idea that no matter what your problem is in life, it actually will just change your problems. Never go away. And. And the whole idea is when you solve one problem, you actually create new problems. So it's funny. Cause I come in here, I'm like, this space is incredible. I love the walls. I love the cameras. I love the lights. I love the fridge. I love the 3D printer over there. I love the artwork on the wall. And I see all I'm like, I love this stuff. And you're like, but I gotta move my camera around, you know, which is funny. But the funny part about it is one day, right, you'll solve that problem. You'll get your camera in, it will be there, and that then creates the space for your brain to discover your next problem, like, what it is. So I think one thing that I've learned that I actually really enjoy is that you have to learn to appreciate your level of problems, because everyone has problems, right? And it's like, this is why old people are so grouchy, because they've almost run out of problems, so they need to just find they're in the end game. Yeah, they're in the end game. They're like, well, my problems are now. I can't scratch my butt, you know, like, whatever it is. So it's like, you know, whatever problems you have, learning to, like, kind of enjoy and appreciate what problems you do have, you know, like, one of my problems today was being like, all right, am I going to have enough time to, like, go to the gym, get out, eat, come here, do this, and then, you know, get off to work on my. My. My project for my martial arts studio? And like, that. That's one of my problems. So I'm like, that's a great problem. Yeah. Doesn't it's funny? Cause you. You still worry and stress the same amount, regardless of your problem. You know what I mean? Like, it's not like our brains almost don't know the difference between a big problem and a small problem. They're just, like, stressed. So I always be like, I try to tell my wife all the time, enjoy your problems. She hates that, by the way. She doesn't like when I tell her to enjoy her, and no one really does. But I think the older you get, the more you realize that, like, your problems are just going to keep reoccurring and you have to learn to just, you know, how you handle them is really how you live your life. If you don't handle problems well. Like, kind of like we were saying before, like, if you have a friend who doesn't handle problems well, they can become very toxic. And then you don't want to spend time with them because they're just like. I safeguard your own space. Yeah. You know, like, they're like a negative Nancy. And you're like, I don't want to hear all this negative stuff. Vice versa, if you have someone who actually handles their problems really well, you're like, oh, man, I want to hang out with this person. They got great problems. Oh, man. I know. I gotta pay the taxes. That's$50,000 on my new building. And that's their problems. And you're like, I would kill for your problems. Well, yeah, they resurface in different areas as you upgrade in life, they just resurface as different things. One of the things that I say a lot is when I first started doing the production side of things, I couldn't wait until I had a dedicated video camera, and then I got that. And then it's like, I couldn't wait until I didn't have to edit in my bedroom anymore. And I had an office, and I got that. And then the office was so small because it was a starter office. And it was saying $700 a month that I was like, I can't wait until I have a larger office. And it's like. And it's been the same thing with my apartments. Just kind of just milestones that you. You go through in life. I was listening to Alex Hormozi, who I like listening to some of his stuff. Oh, yeah, I think he. He's very cool, very concise, and like, excellent speaker. Right to the point. He just. I feel like he has such great connectivity with people that when he speaks, you're just like, I get it, I get it. I. I think he's an excellent speaker. Yeah, he gets right to the point. It's not like a bait and switch. It's just like, I'm gonna tell you exactly what I'm gonna tell you. And, like, that's what the video is gonna be about or that's what the podcast. So I was listening to him and he was just saying, like, you know, a lot of people wish to be in the next phase, the next step. I can't wait to have the Lamborghini. I can't wait to have this and that. And you forget that. The problems that you have now that you're so tied up in mentally, that are just weighing you down. Those are easy compared to that next level problem. And you have to appreciate, like, the stages that you get in, because, you know, it's like, you think back to when we were all younger and, like, playing handball, playing handball and just hanging out and we're thinking about all of these things, and you forget that you had problems then and you had things that were going wrong on a daily basis or that you were stressed about. Like the hundred dollar at&t bill that I had back then. I was just like, oh, man. Well, I Gotta make sure I get my hours at Best buy and my 300. My $300 car payment. I was like, like, that's a lot. And then things have upgraded to like, my car payment now is $600 a month. And you're just kinda. And you're not really stressed about it anymore. Cause you're making the money that you need to make to cover that. But you still have, like, new levels. And it's just. You almost romanticize about the old problems that you had. Like, oh, man, I remember when I was in that relationship and the girl was stressing me out and this and that, and I was so stressed at the time. But it's nothing compared to, like, what I had to deal with as a married man. It's just. But we all want to go back, right? Yeah. Oh, I romanticize about the thought of going back to high school. I hated high school when I was there. So my wife Allie told me the other day. She's like. She said she saw something. I'm sure it was TikTok Instagram. I'm listening. I'm just gonna check something. Yeah. That we were supposed to. That'd make more sense if we lived our life in reverse. Right. So in reverse would be like, you're born and you're. You wake up in, you know, a retirement home. So you're in a retirement home, and people are taking care of you and they're wiping your butt, and you can't really walk. Fuck. You know, take me out. Take me out. No, but you're in a retirement home. Yeah. And then you actually go backwards. So then, you know, in a few years, you actually start getting healthier, that you make your way out of the retirement home. And then you actually, you know, you're retired, though. So now you get to go and do all these things. And then, you know, eventually you go back to work as you get younger because you're feeling better and better in shape. And then you work your way down. You work, you do all these things, and then you become a teenager, you get to go back to high school. But you have the brain you have as an old person, and you get to relive high school, then you go to middle school, then you go to elementary school, you get to do all these things. Your body feels amazing. And then you go all the way back down, you know, to, you know, the end. And the end is an orgasm. Right. So she told me this, and I was like, that sounds pretty great. Like, you know, you die and it's an orgasm. Like, that It's a reverse Benjamin Button. Oh, yeah, Reverse Benjamin Button. Oh, you should coin that. That's a good one. The reverse Benjamin Button. So, you know, we always, we always. Want to think about, like, oh, if I knew to buy bitcoin back instead of buying an Xbox game. You know, you jerk around like that, you're like, wow, fuck, that'd be awesome. You know, you always wish you had the knowledge that you have later in life to. In the earlier stages. But I guess that goes to think about, we wouldn't have the knowledge that we had in a later life. We didn't have the experiences that brought us there. Yeah, yeah, like, I mean, dude, dead ass. I would not be dead ass, by the way. That's a retro throwback. I would not be sitting here right now talking to you if my path didn't lead me down this way. So, like, joining BEVs in 2011. 20. Yeah, 2011, 2010. I joined BEVs. Joining there, becoming very interested in the bodybuilding and fitness world. Then the breakup that I went through, and then she didn't want me competing as a bodybuilder. She's like, I don't want girls looking at you that way. And then once we broke up, I said, guess I'm gonna compete as a bodybuilder. Cause I, you know, I'll show her like, you know, like, bullshit. But then getting into the competitor mindset and then over the next four to five years, just kind of being in the industry, meeting a lot of big name people in it and then going, I would like to buy a camera and like, start documenting some of the stuff that I, I'm around these people and this and that. And then that never turned into the YouTube series that I wanted it to like. That's how all of this came about. I didn't have any ambition to have a video career. I wanted to make YouTube videos. I wanted to like, I'm around Kai Green, I'm around all these different people that people wait hours in line to shake a hand. I'm around these people all day and we're friends. So what if I could just document and show and like, put up questions like, hey, you have a question for Kai? You have a question for this part? Why don't we, you know, let's facilitate this and make this into something where like, I'm kind of like a middleman, but looked at as, oh, he's around all these people, he knows some shit. Yeah. But then all the supplement companies and the athletes started hiring me for jobs, so. And that's how it kind of got here. And then the pot. Like you were asking before, how. How long have I doing the podcast then? Podcast with my buddy John, Podcast with my buddy Tyler at the time, like, all these things. And then it's creating the solo podcast where I can have reoccurring guests. I could have people that have never been on before, and if we can just sit down, shoot the shit. Oh, go through. But that's so. It's like, if that initial going to Bevs and joining never happened. Yeah. The domino effect. Who's to say that any of this would have happened? It's just kind of crazy when you think about it in, like, relation to every step that I've taken. Positive, negative, has brought. And same with you. Every step that you've taken has brought us both to this point in time of sitting and talking to each other. I love that. I actually even love the fact that sometimes, you know, if you're in such the same routine, you see the same stuff, you do the same things every day, you get a little bored, and. It'S like you, like, forget, though. Your brain, like, wipes out your memory of, like, what did I do last week? It's like, oh, it was the routine. So I forget, you know, it was like, even just. Even just being like, all right, where's this building? Where am I going? What's this brick wall? What? Knocking this door open? This. You know, going somewhere new is. Is just such a great thing, especially for me. I like exploring. I like finding different places. I like doing different things. I like different exposures. You know, I liked how you said. Because I feel like you made such a good business point, but I don't think you meant to. But you really did. Probably not. Where, like. No, no. Where, like, you were like, my vision was this, but the reality was this. Yeah. And I feel like that's so much of what happens, you know, when you own a business, which I think once I at some point should explain what I do. But anyway, so, you know, people think, oh, I'm gonna start a business and everyone's gonna buy this, and this is how it's gonna go. And then you start the business and you realize they don't buy what I want them to buy. They buy what they wanna buy. Yeah. So it's like, you know, But I think you have a great product. I think this is awesome. I love the fact that you are just such an easy guy to talk to. You're so personable. We came in here, we would even start filming and we're just like, like, talking over and over again, and I'm like, man, like, you know, this. This is what you're meant to do, you know, so. So I. I should say what I do. So I own a martial arts studio. It's called Busto's Martial Arts. And I started when I was seven years old. You know, I'll be 38 next month, so 30 plus years on the mats, it's like my thing. Sick. And I've always a lot of dedication. Oh, yeah. I'm not gonna remember this book, but it was. The guy who wrote Dilbert wrote this book. Dilbert, he wrote the comics, Right? I'll look it up. He wrote this book, and I really enjoyed it. One thing he said is, if you have a bunch of different skills and you put them together, that's what makes you, like, this unique success. So he had Scott Adams. Scott Adams. Do you know what book it is? No, never seen it. Look up the Scott Adams book. It was a great book. I see. Dilbert no write Scott Adams book. I'm sure. Oh, here we go. Books. The Dilbert Principle. Nope. Thriving. Is that the one? Nope. They're not showing me thriving and something. No. How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. That is it. It was a great book. And one thing I liked was he was like, I'm good at comics and I'm good at office jokes and, you know, let me put them together. And that's how Dilbert was born, you know, so it's like, you know, I. I love teaching. Like, I never realized how addicted I was to teaching. Like, even teachers would tell me when I was in high school, like, you're gonna grow up to be a teacher. And I'm like, I'm thinking a school teacher. I'm like, no, I'm not. Yeah, but, like, I love teaching stuff. It's like, I don't know, it's just my thing. I like teaching and I'm good at it. And then I'm, you know, I love martial arts. So when I put my two passions together, you know, I became really successful in it, and I love it. It's what I do, you know, all day long. So your passions are like bodybuilding? Yeah. I mean, I have a lot. That's one of my problems that I've had. We're going to talk about adhd. I have so many. I definitely want to hit that. Yeah, yeah. But to stay on topic is like, you know, you're great with people. So what do you call this? Podcasting? What's the general term of podcasting. Podcasting. You could call it an interview, but it's not an interview. Yeah, but you know, like, you're good at those things and when you put them together, it's magic, you know, that's how I see those things, you know? All right, let's talk about adhd. Because literally, me and you, I feel like all the business owners I meet have a sense or a version of like where they just need to jump to the next. And I always wonder, because I went to Stony Brook for psychology and I would love for someone to do a study of people's ability or how much ADHD you have and your ability to focus and then to your business. Because I know myself and you seem very similar to me in the fact that we see something and we can't leave it alone. We just need to. I want a 3D printer. I want to do this. My thing now is figuring out the most optimal way to do the live stream. That's my new thing now. And it's been quite the process of like figuring out not only the connections. Like I've been mapping out AV wiring. Like, I'm on the phone with my buddy last night, we're playing Halo and I'm just kind of like playing, but I'm not. Cuz I have my computer next to me and I have diagrams of AV mod. He's like, you playing? I'm like, oh, shit. And I'm like, I'm getting back. So I. I just think it runs just in that DNA code of people that are just wired differently. You just. Yeah, you obsess about things, but in a different way. You obsess about it not in a negative way. Like it's. It could be perceived as a negative way because you just. You do obsess about it, but it's not a. Luckily and thankfully it hasn't manifested ever for me in a substance type of a. I need X amount of caffeine a day or I need this and that. I mean, I'm sure for a lot of people it does. And that's dangerous. It does. It's just manifested into a. I have something on my mind. I know it would work because it's something that I want or it's something that I'm interested in that I have no previous knowledge of, like jiu jitsu. And you just become so infatuated with it that you wanna just keep learning and doing it. So I read something great that made me feel so good and it said that people who have you Know ADD or adhd. Have what's called the explorer gene. Have you heard of this? No. It's really cool. Actually made me. I, like, slept better that night once I heard it, so. So it was pretty simple. It was basically like, if you're that type of person where, like, you know, like I said, I like to enjoy, like, a new place. Like, just being somewhere that I felt like I haven't been. Been to Huntington. We come every Friday. We go to Hatch. We get breakfast here. Come on. But I've never walked up this staircase into this building, into this office. Yeah, you passed this building probably a million times. Yeah, exactly. I was like, there's a parking lot back here. So. So the explorer gene is basically saying that people like me and you were the reason that new lands were discovered. So, like, if we didn't look at something, be like, what's over there? All right, what I found here, what's over there? What's over there? And we didn't explore new lands. We wouldn't, you know, explore the globe. You wouldn't have new places. So I'm like, that made me feel pretty good. Like, I'm like, I don't have add. I have the explorer gene. I just need to find different stuff, you know? But I think as I get older, you know how people say, like, you're in tune with yourself? I'm way more aware of what my strengths are and what my weaknesses are. Like, I. I can tell you right now, I can't. My handwriting is terrible. And my organizational skills, such. Which AI has helped me so much with. With. I'll put something in there and it organizes it for me. I used to have a girl who worked for me named Sam, who was amazing at taking what I could put on paper and organizing it. Yeah. She literally changed my life with how she was just able. And some people are built like that. They could just see things and, like, put them in order for you. That's not my strength. I used to think I'm just an idiot, you know, like, oh, I'm just stupid. It's a different brain. It's a different brain. Brain, different brain. Because, you know, like, you have to. Play into your strengths. Yeah. Some. Some. You know, sometimes you're a genius in one things, and sometimes you're just an idiot in other stuff. That's one of the things that has been a problem for me with scaling because I have certain things that I'm not the best at or most proficient in. And that's where I want to hire people to, like, Raise that bar so I can. Let's get into it. So I can just continue to do things on the other side where I'm good at, you know, and that's really where it comes into play. But the problem is just getting to that point where you're ready to onboard. Oh, man. And keep it consistent. I'll tell you a mistake I made that. It was dumb. And now when I look back at it, I'm like, oh, man. Like, how did I think this was good when I was. I'm gonna say younger? This is probably three or four years ago. I was thinking, like, you. I was like, I want to be able to do so much. I was like, I'll just hire all these people, right, to do these things for me. Like, I'll hire someone to get my food, and I'll hire someone to, you know, pick up my supplies for work, and I'll hire someone for this. And, you know, that was my mindset delegating out. Yeah. I was like, I'm just going to delegate everything so I could just sit and focus on my business and nothing else. So you're not working in the business, you're working on the business. Yeah, right. Those words. So. So the funny part about that was what I didn't realize was that it wasn't the amount of time that I need to spend on my business, and I was actually doing it backwards. People who have their stuff together, people who know how to run their business do not need to hire people to go grocery shopping. They have enough time to grow grocery shopping. They have enough time to go to the gym, get their groceries, you know, to do all these things. And then they understand, all right, these are the magical things that I need to do, and if I do these things, my business will grow and get done. And I was trying to hire before. There was really something there, and I did it backwards. I didn't realize I was doing it backwards. I was just like, you know, my brain's like, all right, hire people. Have more time. Go. It didn't really make sense, you know, now it's a. It's a lesson. It's a lesson in entrepreneurship. Yeah. I thought I, you know, at some stage, you think you know it all, and then, you know, now I'm, you know, slowly starting to get to that point where it's like, I'm understanding. Like, I just need to focus for a small amount of time on very important tasks and get them done. And those other tasks that you sometimes you think are so important, they're not, you Feel like they're important because in your brain, everything's important. But at the end of the day, it's like, no. It's really a bunch of really small tasks that you have to really pinpoint and get on top of that. If you do that, your business will grow, even just like your business. In reality. No one really cares about a majority of all. Like, if your plant dies, no one cares. No, they're not going to be like, oh, this plant dies. I'm not listening anymore. This guy sucks. No one really cares. At the end of the day, the one thing they care about is this. Do I listen to this? Is this entertainment? Does this distract me from my everyday life? Am I enjoying this? Am I getting value out of it? When I hear Nick's voice, I'm like, oh, man. I connect with this guy. I feel good about my day. That's kind of what it is. Sometimes I feel like when I listen to audiobooks, it is like my therapy for the day. Unless you have a bad reader, you. Know, I mean, you hear something and it connects and you're just like, oh, man. Like that. That feels good, you know? Especially when it connects on a level where you're like, something you obsess about or something you think about all day. And then someone says something and you're like, oh, man. Like, Die with Zero. I think I said this before is a book that I started reading. And I think I started reading it because I was listening either to another book and they're like, I learned this from Die with Zero. I was like, what's Die with Zero? Let me listen to it. And it was actually really cool. It was about how basically that to be rich in life, you want to have all these experiences kind of. Jesse Itzler, I'm not sure if you follow him. He's one of my favorite people. Amazing guy. So he always values experiences over just accumulating items. Correct. Because they say, when you're 90, what are you going to have? What do you have left? The only thing you'll be able to really have is experiences. You're not going to be like, I'm 90. I'm going to go jet skiing. You're 90. But if you have accumulated all these life experiences, that's what's going to make you the wealthiest at the end of your life. And like, you know, this is just an example of something that I read and I was like. Like, it hit me and I was like, this is. This is great. I think the other thing that he said that I really Liked was, you know, this is time and money that we were talking about. But about, like, when you work, you know, you might think, oh, I'm working five hours, I'm working three hours. But really, he said, you're not working. You're trading your life energy for this. And, like, that was something that DiWizzero said. Like, this was something that changed his life. Oh, this is my life energy. So it's like, you know, what do you do? You sit down and you exchange life energy with people, and people listen to it, and, like, that's what you do, you know? Well, I mean, the main thing I do is the videos. Like, that's how I don't make money with the podcast yet. The main thing I do is the video and photo. I think this is the coolest thing. I'm very envious. I also am a talker. Yeah. At some point. I mean, listen, I have to explain to a lot of people that want to get into this. I've had plenty of clients that ask me for advice on podcasting and stuff like that. You know, I always use this. So anybody. I apologize to, anybody that has heard every episode and they listen to it, and it's the same thing over and over again. The biggest thing that I give the example of is Joe Rogan. Joe Rogan took. It took him about five to seven years before he started making money on his podcast. And that's after he was Joe Rogan. He was already Joe Rogan. So he already had a following between the ufc, between his comedy, between Fear Factor, all these different things, and, you know, you look at his progressionary stages of, like, where the podcast started, and it was like this messy room, and it was like webcams and shit like that. And then it just upgraded to, like, the next spot, and then it was the studio that everybody knows from California, where he started really popping off, and now his studio in Austin that everybody knows the images from there with the sign behind him and everything like that. So, you know, any. Anybody that wants to get into this type of thing, and they're expecting it to make them money. You can make money, and you can make a lot of money. However, it takes a very long time. And just like anything, it's. If you get a quick hit, it might be gone in a year. Oh, yeah. Or if you build this at a. At a really substantial, slow, but, like, steady rate, it could create something that has a much steeper, like a much sturdier foundation. I mean, you look at this like this hawk to a chick, right? She Comes on, she has her 15 seconds of fame because of a little quote that she made on a random street interview. Then she blows up. She's got guest appearances, her own podcast, which is like top ranked, and this and that. And then she has the crypto scam thing that she did. Whatever she did, if she knowingly or not, I can't comment on that, however. So she does all that, and now she's back down to, like, almost ground zero. And now she's, like, on a. She was gone for a month and a half, and now she's like, back on this campaign tour of like, let me. Let me try to get back into the limelight. It's just like, see how fast you rise and then you fall just as quickly. Do you know, man, every time you talk, you make my brain just go pop, pop, pop, pop, pop. Like all these things. Do you know? Have you ever heard the theory that if we took all the money in the world, right, and you just took it all, put it in a pile, and gave everyone a fair amount, like, everyone got the same exact amount. We start, boom. They say in five years, everyone would be back to exactly where they were. Oh, you mean like they'd spend all the money? No, just like, not that they'd spend it all, but like, if we took all the money in the world, right. Put in one thing, gave everyone an equal amount. They. And I don't know this for certain. I've heard it. I can't be like, oh, I have factual evidence. But they say five years, everyone would be exactly back where they were initially. Initially. Which is interesting. I don't. I don't find it, like, 100% factually true, but I think there's a lesson behind it, right. That it's like, I think money always has to do with your ability to translate worth to other people. Value. Yeah. But. But let break it down even further, right? If there was no such thing as money, right? Which it technically isn't because it's fake. Yeah. It doesn't actually mean anything anyway. Yeah. If you didn't have, let's say, bank accounts or whatever, and then you had to go out and do all these things, right. And buy stuff and get things, your brain would work totally differently. You'd be like, all right, well, what am I going to give this person so that they give me this back? What am I going to, you know. You look to barter. Yeah, exactly. So it's like when I have people who come to me because, you know, I'll do consulting mainly for People who I know and trust, you know, I rarely would take anyone who I don't know because consulting is very difficult because a lot of times it's more like first you're their therapist and then you teach them about business. Because there's a lot of people you could teach about business, but if they don't have the right mindset going into it, then it's really difficult to help them. So the first thing that I mainly try to teach people is that your ability to give people value is what makes you money. That's all it is. I gotta bring up my son. So I have an 8 year old son named Mason and you know, shouts to Mason, oh, he's the man. He's the. He is a little man. And I'll tell you, he's gonna make money when he grows up. And the reason being is that he has such a strong, attractive personality. Like, I am sometimes in awe of how well he can like just connect to people and talk to people. And you know, I'm like, he would be able to sell anything, he would be able to convince anyone to buy anything. And he would do it in a way where like, he would never sell someone something that he didn't think they actually needed. You know, he would do it in like, not seedy. It's not like, you know, dirt bag salesman, exactly. You know, And I mean, eight year olds, man, they ask great questions, you know, they, how do you make money? What do you do here? You know, I want to trade this, you know, and that's really a big part of it is just learning how to give people value. That's all it is. Like, I think sometimes people try to reinvent the wheel. They're like, I'm going to change the world. I want a Jeff Bezos where it's like, you don't need to reinvent the wheel to be successful. I think sometimes people are more, they're more obsessed with being the image of being like, oh man, I'm this huge entrepreneur, I've trained the world, I've changed the world. Versus just giving people what they naturally are asking for is sometimes the easiest way to really be successful at your business. I love teaching and that's what I do. And then I study it and learn how to make everything better. And I continually, you know, work on my product and at the end of the day, money comes in from that. But if I started with the first mindset of like, all right, I want to change everything. No, I just want to help the people that are in front of me. And that's what it is. That's why I believe in this so much. Because I'm like, you just do it. You just do it. You're like, this is what I do. You know, you never know when it's going to go. And that's the exciting part and the worrying part because you put in gotta. Talk about martial arts because we're literally talking about the scene. We'll talk about, we'll go on martial arts right after this. So that's the, that's like the, the exciting part and the worrying part because you have to have the belief meant, you know in your heart of hearts that it will work out for the best. But if it doesn't, you still had a great ride and had fun doing it and provided value to whoever it was. So the people that got to listen to it. You change people. I get messages all the time. Taught them something. Or the guest, this guest brought so much value because they liked xyz. That's really what this is all about. I just want to have good conversations with good people and just listen. Dude, I never expect, I've had three hour episodes. I never expect anybody to sit there in one go and listen to a three hour episode. But like some of my longest episodes are some of my most watched episodes. It was just the craziest thing. I did a three hour episode with Andre. Now Andre is a very big name in the fitness industry. Did a three hour episode with him last week. We just riffed for three hours, hung out, riff for three hours. That's got almost 400 views now in less than a week. So it's like these things I pro. Yeah, I posted on Friday. Oh no, Saturday. I'm sorry. So three and a half, four days. Oh yeah. So it's like the content game, the game of just like entertainment in a lot of ways as well. It just, it's constantly evolving. The space is very crowded. But like your son, everyone has their unique personalities and so that's what has to be translated through the camera, through the interviews, through the sit downs, through the extra con. I've been making a push to do other content except for just like the stuff I shoot for my clients. Get back to the basis of why I bought a camera. Start documenting. I'm getting ready for, I'm going to be getting ready for the tactical games. So that's, that's the, the shooting with CrossFit. Like so I'm going to be, I'm going to be doing that stuff in like Texas and Boise, Idaho. Is Another one, hey, it's life experience. Exactly. And I just want to more value than anything. I just want to have fun doing shit. Like, I've been very into that side of things and the fitness side has always been like a good part for me. So now it's like you get proficient with the shooting and you're having fun with it, and it's been, it's been an awesome new venture that I'm. That I'm stepping into. So kind of like how we started all this, it's just like the experiences, just consistently being a student and learning, you know, learning. I know you had mentors on your, on the list of things that you wanted to touch on topic wise. But like learning from other people, you know, paying, paying somebody, whether that's a nominal fee, whatever it might be, paying somebody that has gone through the trenches of where you're looking to go because it'll cut down your learning process in the time that it'll take you to figure everything out that they already know. They could have just taught you and you would have saved yourself money in the long run. Yeah, absolutely. You know, so sensei, right, is supposed to be like the one who knows the way, right? And I think like, everyone needs. And actually if you went to like, you know, China, Japan, I shouldn't mess this up. But let's say you went to China. Sensei could be like a guy who's a very skilled mechanic. He's the sensei there. So it's just someone who knows the way. So I just think it's so important to have mentors in your life. It's just so helpful. Sometimes they're just there to be like a post, like security. I have a trainer that I use named Aaron Lauter, and he does calisthenics training. He leaves me the best voice notes ever, you know, and sometimes it's just simple stuff like, you got this or hey, man, don't worry about the workout. It wasn't your best, but you know, next time you're gonna get out and like, it's all those little things that help so much, you know, I just think it's so important to have people in your life to kind of like help you along the way. And I think a lot of times people, they overthink this chapter. People want to help you. They want to. When you find someone who's done it before, they're excited to tell you about their story, their journey, how they got there. You have all these fitness guys on there. They all have these great stories. They love Sharing them. Who doesn't like telling people about the things they learned? I think a lot of times not enough people take the time to be like, why don't I reach out to some mentors? You know, I don't. I'm not afraid to fail in any way. I actually went on. I don't even know how I got there. I think it was, I went on like a college website because I wanted to look, find someone to help me with like marketing. And they were former people who were like CEOs or high level at the time of their career. Like, they were marketing CEOs. Then they retired, they become college professors or whatever. And you can reach out to them and for free, they'll mentor you. That's cool. So I actually met one of my mentors for free. Now I end up paying him to do my marketing, but he taught me so much about marketing. And like, it literally was because I was like, let me just try. Let me just see. Like, you can't be afraid to fall on your face from time to time. You can't be afraid to just fail. And even those failures are the learning experiences. Yeah. Or even like, like you said with doing this, you're like, I tried. This didn't work. Tried. This didn't work. Tried. This didn't work. Let me tell you, let me, let me tell you something, because you're gonna laugh. So doing all the live streaming stuff, figuring it all out. This is a pretty expensive. This, it's fun and it's just like eye opening on a lot of. A lot of levels. So, like, this is a pretty expensive mixer. I bought this mixer when I moved into this office because I wanted something a little bit more robust, something that could stay here. And I can just like leave it here because of. The other mixer that I bought was another very expensive mixer, but it was portable. It was for video. Okay. So. And sound and location sound. So I'm watching a. Literally right before you got here, I swear, watching a video on YouTube. And the guy says, so what you want to do is you want to send the signal out after all the mixing this way. And I went, wait a minute. So I walk over to the mixer, I look. So built into these mixers, there are noise gates which cut down room noise. There are compressors, there are EQ to make the voices, like male EQs, female EQs. If I have a female guest, I'll set it for a female eq. So this way the high end of her voice doesn't get lost. But a male's voice is deeper in bass, so it's. It. No, I think I have a pretty high pitched voice. Nah, nah, nah, nah. You good. You're Good. Nah. Your EQ's male. Your EQ's male. So basically what happens is I've been sending the signal to my SD card while it's recording before all of those extras are added, thinking that this is what's been. I've been editing is the final product of this mixer. Okay. And I realized that, like, oh, no, no, no. I have to. I have to add it to the end of it. So I. I have. I've only been recording before all of the effects. Now I put it for this podcast. It's after all the effects, bro, we're. Gonna sound the best. A year and a half, two years of sitting in this studio and. And I just. One fucking thing. And I just went, what? Are you kidding me? That's great. 1200 on a mixer. And I've been doing everything before. All of the. All the advantages of it. So I literally wrote the comment on there. I went. I have my YouTube account too, which has all my podcasts. I'm like, I have been recording all of my podcasts before all the effects. Your video helped me realize that I have to send the signal after I said, dude, you learn something new every day. This is. This is not that. I mastered this piece of equipment value. Right? I'm like, what? Pumped? Like, what? This is crazy. Oh, I love stuff. Like, so, yeah, so, like, you know, and I. I thought I. I thought I had set it up the correct way because there's so many panels and screens and connections that I was like, oh, yeah, I got all of it. Nope, didn't have it. That's great. I. I feel like this is what you live for, right? Yeah, I mean, it's like, it's exciting. Excited. Oh, I haven't been excited, truthfully. I haven't been excited about something like that since, like, I first started with the camera. And I was like, really learning new stuff. Every time I picked it up for. When I was here, I just couldn't believe it. I was like, wait a minute. It was like one of those. You go, wait, I'm going to sound great. Oh, you sound. You're going to sound perfect. All right, let's Martial arts. Yeah, wait, let me see if there's anything we did miss on here. Oh, man, there's. There's a. All right, let's hit. Let's hit martial Arts. I'm going to keep you at an Hour. I'm going to keep you at an hour because I know you got a busy schedule. I. I got here earlier than I thought. So let's see how we. We're at 40 minutes right now. Oh, then we're good? Yeah. Okay. Okay. All right. We'll make it an hour. All right. Let's talk martial arts. Because it's actually even funny how your podcast is like your martial art journey. You got to put in your five, seven years to get established, get started, to really get where you are. And it's funny because we were talking about attrition. I call it attrition. But basically, if someone stops or quits or reasons people don't continue training. And the funny part is, every reason someone stops, it has legitimate reasons. They're not just quitting just because I think one part of it is that every time you want to quit something, and this is obviously different than you're trying to quit smoking or quit alcohol or whatever it is, every time you want to quit something, you're basically fighting yourself. You're fighting your own momentum of, like, wow, this is the person I want to be, and this is the person I am. So it's like if in your mind, you're saying to yourself, like, I am a martial artist. I am a black belt. You can't quit who you are. You know what I mean? I am a podcaster. You can't. It's just who you are. So I think a lot of times, if you ask me, why do people quit? Yeah, there's a million reasons. Of course. I got injured. I'm gonna have a kid. We're moving. Or they didn't even get past the trial class, or they got the white belt, and then they never got a stripe. But the whole point is that the excuses are surface. And the reality is, it's. Your identity is what makes you not quit. If it's who you are, it's who you are. So. And that's the thing is, when I'm training people, a lot of it is me teaching them to be, like, you know, confident in themselves. I'm a person who follows through. I'm a person who's committed. I'm a person who, you know, I am a black belt. I am a martial arts. It always starts with the mindset, like, who you think you are, because you can't quit who you are. You know? So when someone quits, it's really in my head, I'm thinking, man, I didn't really get deep enough to teach them. Like, this is who you are, you know, you're a person who strives to succeed and do well. You know, and listen, I feel like anyone who's trained martial arts for a long period of time understands how ingrained it is in them. Like, you know, the point of martial arts, at least to me, is that when you're going through all these stages, it's such a mental battle. You know, you're constantly trying to prove to yourself like, hey, you know, I can achieve this level, I can achieve this level. And then it's learning that there's going to be times you fail, that you don't do well, that you don't get to that level. And it doesn't mean it's over. You just keep working at it. You have to keep doing it, you have to keep training, you have to keep trying, because it's going to teach you to not be afraid of failure. It's also going to teach you to be really confident in yourself so that when you do succeed and you get that confidence, you're like, oh, man, there's nothing that's going to stop me. I like that idea that when other people stop and you keep going, it's like a high wall that they couldn't get over and eventually you hurdled it and all those people are left in the dust. Stuff like that excites me. I'm like, I want to hurdle that next one. Yeah. If it's hard and people want to quit, that's actually even more of a reason for me to continue. Because I want to be the anomaly. I want to be the people that people like. I don't know how he did it. It's not how I did it, it's the fact that I just didn't consider ever quitting. Sometimes, you know, you overhear that adage that, like, it could be in martial arts, it could be in business that sometimes, like, you look at someone, they're like, they're stupid. Like, how did they, how did they, how did they do so well? And I think part of that goes to the fact that they, they never considered that they should stop. They're just like, I'm just going to keep going. Yeah, just keep hammering. Exactly. You know, I started my business when I was 24 years old. One of the things I look back on is I was young enough that I was so stupid to understand what I was doing that I'm like, I'm going to open a karate studio. What's the worst that can happen? I didn't really think about it. I just kind of did it. So it's like, you know, the martial art mindset, at least in my mind, is always so much of just, like, you have to identify what kind of person either you want to be right or what kind of person you're going to be. Right. And I don't want to say fake it till you make it, but, like, you want to keep telling yourself, like, I'm this type of person, because at the end of the day, once it becomes a part of your identity, it's what you do. Yeah. You know, I think that's. Have you read Atomic Habits? No. Oh, man. I'm behind on my books with you. My problem is I keep getting interested in other books. ADHD Brain. And I'll read a couple. I'll read like a chapter, and then I'll see another book that I like, and I'll buy the book, and then I'll read a couple of chapters. I'll be like, well, shit, I got to read that other book. I'm an audiobook guy, and when I hear stuff, you know, the good thing about being a teacher is when I hear stuff, I teach it. So I constantly get to. I have both. I do some audiobooks and I do some physical books. The audiobooks are obviously easier because I can walk the dog. I can listen to them this and that. I just don't know if it sinks as deep for me. At night, I get a little distracted, so I don't do it. But when I drive to work, you know, I got like. It's either a podcast or that or audiobook. Here, you want to hear my podcast or my things? I'm going to have to add more. All right. Right now I'm working with Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. Sick. My friend recommended this. I really like it. It's called Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss. And it's a hostage negotiator book. And I really do like it because in my brain, it's a little bit of sales because it's teaching pretty much how to win arguments in a way. Or if you're negotiating with a hostage, you're learning to really empathize with them and to be on their team and things like that. So that's a great book, Gary John Bishop. One of my favorite books. It's called Unfuck Yourself. Yep, I know that book. I'm a little obsessed with the accent. I don't know what it is. I have to listen. I have to hear the audio. Then, you know, it's funny. Cause when I listen to a section of his book. And then I think about something that he says. In my brain, I have the accent. You know, that was like the monk who sold his Ferrari. That's what I hear. That's a great book. I gotta add it. The monk who sold his Ferrari. There's an accent in the book that must be added. Yeah. I haven't read the Diary of a CEO, but someone told me to do it, so it's in my. It's in. It's that the dude that does the podcast too? Is that the same book? Is that the same guy Barlott? Yeah, I think so. And then I got. He's a British dude, too. I back your time. Dan Martell. Love the guy. Every time I listen to it, I feel great. But I also feel like an idiot because he's just. He says great things. Atomic habits. We talked about another one. I don't know if a lot of people read this, but I actually really like. It's called the Psychology of Money. I have that book. Great one. Yep. The Pivot Year by Brianna West. I really like that one too. Right. Thing right now is Ryan Holiday. Be useful. Arnold Schwarzenegger. Guy is just amazing at everything. Hands down, one of my idols. Just amazing. I'll be at the Arnold later this month. Just amazing. It's cool. I get to see him every day. 12 week year is a great one. Worthy human. Oh, don't believe everything you think. Don't sweat the small stuff. And it's all small stuff. The Comfort Crisis. If you haven't read the Comfort Crisis. I know the names of a lot of these books. I. They're just, I mean, you know. Oh, how to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big. Scott Adams. I'll put that on my tipping. Is the audiobook for that one good? I mean, I only do audiobook, but was it good? Was it? Or was it a bit? Was it a brutal? I mean, listen, some narrators are brutal. I feel like you got to get into certain ones depending what you're listening to and what you're reading. Audiobooks to me are like food, right? For your brain. So sometimes you're in the mood for Italian, sometimes you're in the mood for sushi. So I accept because, trust me, I know how you feel where you listen to something and then you're like, I don't want to listen that day. It's too much brain power. If something like the Psychology of Money. Oh, man, it was a great book, a great read. But there would be some days, especially when you're like, you know, I'm working on a new line of credit or, you know, I'm working on putting, you know, new windows in this house I bought. And like, it's all money. You know, thinking about money all day and you're sitting there thinking about the psychology of money. I'm like, I can't listen to this book right now. Like, I got to put on. Yeah, I got to put on something. Something else. I got to just pivot eggs. Exactly. I gotta get. I gotta. Is there, Is there a sushi making book? Sometimes I just gotta re. Listen to stuff because you miss things. You hear it. But that was Alive by Peter. By Peter Attia. What do you mean alive? That was a book that I. I had to re. Listen to a couple times because it just helps to affirm it into your brain. What's that saying? That you more often need to be reminded than you need to be told. And it's the same kind of thing. Oh, wait, let's see. So I mean, I gotta hit you with a call. You got to hit me with martial arts stuff. Well, I got to hit you with a couple of my, My books that are in my library right now. Oh, I'm ready. I'm ready. I'll download them as you say. What was the outlive by Peter Attia is great. What was the first one you just told me? Do the Monk who Sold His Ferrari. It's a great book. I mean, I would love to be Robin Sharma, I think so. Buy for one credit. There you go. Done. Big audible. You got to do it. Yeah, you got to do it. I hate when people say, oh, yeah, I'll do it. I'll get to it. I'm like, how long does it take? This is the good and bad. My wife will tell me something and I immediately go to do it. She's like, what are you doing? Action. And I'm like, I gotta do it. She's like, no, I was telling you so you remember to do it. I'm like, I'm not gonna remember to do it either. I'm gonna do it now or I'm gonna forget and it's not gonna be done. And then. Yeah, she hasn't usually like that either. All right, give me more. See, I mean, I downloaded the Creative act by Rick Rubin. Okay, what's that? It's Rick Rubin's the producer, like the famous guy in the music industry that produced a lot of the old school hip hop and whatnot. But he's just, he's brought a lot of mainstream artists To. I don't know off the top of my head, which ones. I think, Rundy, I could be wrong. Who did Rick Rubin bring? But it's a great book about. It's a very, like, abstract outlook on life, creativity, how, seasons. It's a very interesting book. I'm in. All right. Who did Rick Rubin. Called the. Who did Rick Rubin produce? The Creative Act. Rick Rubin, top hit. Let's see. Yeah. See how many stars. Beastie Boys, Run dmc, Public Enemy, LL Cool J, Adele, Lady Gaga, Kelly. I think I got one more credit left. You got one more book for me, A good one. I need to give you a good one. What do you want to know? Do you want. Do you want knowledge or do you want. Do you want knowledge of business and life, or do you want knowledge on health? I've listened. I listened to a book on interior design. I look. Listen to a book on storage. Because you know what? Sometimes. Sometimes I think people are too obsessed with being like, all right, I'm in real estate, so I'm gonna listen to all the books on real estate. But, like, what? I got it for you. I'm ready. Digital minimalism. Kyle. Newport. What's that? It's about being as minimal as possible in a technologically advanced world where it's everywhere and how to gain. He's really prominent in that. Love it. It's a great book. I have to reread it because when I first listened to it and I started applying those lessons, my brain felt clearer. But unfortunately, being an entrepreneur, you slip back into your old ways of, like, gotta reread it. Constantly being on the phone and answering everybody. I've turned off a lot of my notifications, but I still have that unfortunate impulse to, like, check the phone. I have two phones. I have this phone, and then I have my personal phone, which is just my mom, a couple of my friends, and my cousin, my immediate family. So when I'm checked out, and I don't want to have social media or anything like that, there's no social on the other phone. I think it's over there. I'll tell you. Oh, it's right there. I'll tell you something I did that I really liked. Have you ever heard of Darren Hardy? No. He's. I mean, I just. He's a excellent speaker. I've been to one of his seminars before, and one thing I think he liked that he said was, like, if we're playing a football game, right, it's fourth quarter ends and the game's over. Game's over. That's it. So, like, sometimes you have to treat, you know, your business brain, your entrepreneur brain, whatever you call it, you have to be like, quarter's ended, it's over, it's done, cut off. Now, I say that, and then we do it back into my ways. But one thing that I've done that kind of helped me break that cycle a little bit. It sounds weird, but having a little bit of a hobby, that kind of distracts your brain. Like, my dad was super handy growing up. And when I say super handy, I'm not saying, like, you know, he hung a picture frame. I'm telling, like, he put a skylight in her house and, like, went to the basement and, like, drilled into the foundation to find the pipe to put a shower and toilet and sink. And I'm like, dad, how did you know? Oh, well, it's a straight line from here, Mag, or straight out to the street. I just, you know, jackhammered it, and I figured I'd find the pipe. I'm like, you know what my wife would do to me if I was in the basement of her jackhammer jackhammering, saying, I think the pipes here, it's like stepbrothers. Do I hear a. Is that. Is that a drill? No, it's my toothbrush. She would have a conniption. So my dad was super handy. So one thing that I've done that kind of helped distract myself is I just was like, you know, I'm going to spend a little time being handy and, you know, just little stuff. Like the other day, you know, I was teaching my son how to spackle a wall. Little difference, Nothing crazy. Yeah. Not revolutionary, but enough. Where as a young man, he should know how to do these things. I'm like, I'm going to, you know, insulate the garage and Sheetrock it, you know, and like, call my dad up, stuff like that. And that's actually really helped me kind of turn off stuff. And then, believe it or not, when I get back to work, feel more creative, I feel more energetic. Sometimes when I'm doing things that are mindless, your brain gives you new ideas. Well, that's why they say, go take a walk without headphones, without your phones. It's so hard. I know it is. I know. Just go. Go out. You know, the technology brain or thought process in the back of your mind is always like, what if there's an emergency? What if I get a call? And then you just, you, okay, I'll take it, but I'll put it on do not disturb and it's just like, it's not the same. If you had just went out there and just experienced like the ambient noise, the cars going by, you know, this and that. I'm fortunate where, like, especially when the weather gets nice, you know, living in the village, I walk from the village all the way up to prime with the dog. That's all. Then I walk back, it starts to suck. When it gets a little too hot for him because he's in Akita. Yeah. So it's like he's dying of heat and he's just like, okay, I can't go that far with you right now. But had dogs in the list. Yeah, yeah. He was at the vet this morning, my buddy Mario. And it was a stressful morning for my guy. He has epilepsy. He has epilepsy. So it's like dealing with that since he was two. Now I'm dealing with. First off, he's £100, which his dad was £63. Oh, man, he's big. He's not fat. So it's like, I even asked my buddy Mario, who's my jiu Jitsu buddy. He's the vet. Yeah. I was like, dude, is he fat? And he goes, no, dude, he's lean. He looks great. I was like, okay, he's just growing and growing. But like, his new thing is he's on all these meds for the last, you know, year and a half. And he's been doing great, knock on wood. Problem is, like, now, I think it's because his weight's increased. He's looking for more food. He's vomiting midday because he's like, so empty stomach. Oh, man. So it's just. It's just like this whole other, like. You talk about problems. Yeah, it's just this whole other thing because it's stressful. This. His medicines every 12 hours. So it already kind of puts bookends of my day. It's

like 8:00am, 8:00pm it's like, you can't really do anything after 8: 53:47

00pm because now the dog expects you to be in with him. And then it's like before 8pm you

get everything done, but you have to be home by 7: 53:54

30 to give him the food and his medicine. And it drives you crazy. But it's like, you think on the other hand, and obviously I don't wish this, but you think on the other hand, when he's gone and you're just like, yeah, you're relieved in one way, but now you miss your buddy. So you're like, it's like other problems. So it's like, okay, yeah. You try to remind yourself when you're getting upset in the, in the, in the midst of like having to juggle the dog constantly, you just go, one day you're gonna miss him. Just like, enjoy. Yup. You know what I. They always say, like, the secrets to happiness is gratitude. Yeah. And that, that's a big part of it. Just being like, you know, grateful with your problem. You know, like, tough pill to swallow when you have a sick dog. You're like, tough pill as well. But it's here. If you had a tough child, like, yeah, what if not a tough child. What if you had a sick child? Now that's a whole other tough problem that you had to deal with. Oh, yeah, exactly. I think again, it goes back to like we said, like, how do you deal with these problems? You know, you said exactly what I'm thinking where you're like, well, what's the other options? Right. The other options is you don't have a dog. And you're like, I'd much rather have a sick dog than no dog. Yeah, absolutely. And like, you know, I have a four year old golden retriever. Awesome. She's amazing. Although, same thing. She ate something. She eats everything. Yeah. You know, whatever. She ate something, then she pooped on the kid's air track. Not poop. She like diarrhea. Oh, yeah. You know, and then I'm like, ah. You know, but then I'm like, you know what? He did that at 4am one time. But great problems, man. Like if you, you know, if you're lucky enough to have some family member in your house, pooping anywhere, it's a. Great problem compared to other problems in the world. Yeah, yeah, it's a great problem. You know, I would take those problems, you know, all day. You know, like, no one wants your dog to be sick. No one wants your kids pooping on the floor. But at the end of the day, you just got to appreciate those where you're at. Yeah. You just got to learn to appreciate it. It's funny, you brought up or in my head, you brought up two things. There's two things I'm working on. One was we were talking about audiobooks and I've actually been slacking on audiobooks because I wanted to get my real estate license. Okay. One of the inspirations was the fact that I've just, you hear these guys who are, you know, 80 years old, they served in the war, they were a lifeguard, they did this and they have all these things they've done in their life. I'm like, how do they do that? Then I'm like, they probably just started doing it. Yeah, they just started doing it. You know, like, you know, I used to teach a guy, and he was a skydiving instructor. Different seasons of life. Yeah. So I'm like, you know what? I just want to get my real estate license. I love learning about just anything. You know, I've bought a commercial building. I bought in a house. What else could I learn? So actually, I do that now, and I'm loving it. Some chapters are terribly boring, but some things I'm learning. And really I'm like, this is. This is great. It's awesome. Love it. The other thing that. That you said is my brain going everywhere was about, you know, enjoying your problems. This. And that is one of the other things I said to myself, is I wanted to write a book. Now, I've always said I wanted to write a book. Who doesn't say they don't want to write a book? But what really got me was I probably started writing a book, I don't know, maybe when I was 28, right. So maybe 10 years ago or so. And I finally found a bunch of chapters of it. And I looked at it, and I was like, I still didn't write. I was, like, mad at myself. Like, you know? Cause this is. That's like the. You watch Family Guy. No, I don't. That's like Stewie constantly nudging at Brian. He's like, finish that book. Huh? Huh? He keeps nudging at him. He's like, come on. Huh? You didn't finish that. That's how it feels. Yeah. It's hard to not get down on yourself when you don't do things. You know what I mean? I'm sure people feel like this, but with other areas of their life. Like, oh, I wanted to get this car. I wanted to join that martial arts. Martial arts studio. And I just never had the courage to go inside. Yeah. Or whatever it is. So I was. I'm not sure if there's other people like this. Maybe, you know, some people I am very motivated by when I get upset. I guess I don't know what it is, but, like, when someone upsets me, that's when I feel like I do my best work. Like you said with your breakup, you know, like, when you're like, you know, dude, you can't be a bodybuilder. And then you're just like, what? Sorry, K, what? But, like, dude, you're more motivated by when you're angry. 240 to 150 in a year, Bob. But. But you did that because. And I was away at college, bro. Like, I think back to that. Exactly what you're saying. I think back to that. I'm like, you get. He. How did I do that for? I was so dedicated. I just. You. No one could tell me anything different. Like, that was what I needed to do. So look at our brains jumping everywhere. But so. So anyway, so. So I actually was like, I buckled down and I wrote the book. I got 10 pages left, and it's really called 100 Pages to Happiness. Who knows if it'll work? It might not. But the reason I say that is because the theory is that each page is one anecdote, let's call it. Of how to become happy. And the one thing I do like about it is the fact that if that page doesn't reflect to you, you just flip it and you have. I know. 199 more different days. And it's funny because there were some days I was having bad days, and I read my own book, and I felt so much better, and I was like, wow, this is a great. This is a good book. This is a good book. It's a good book. Yeah. You know, but it's kind of same thing with your podcast. Like, no one might ever buy my book. Okay, fine, no one buys my book. But, like, I love writing it. Like, I love especially. And it worked out for you. Like, you enjoyed producing it. Yeah, and. Yeah, exactly. And like, especially, like, when you love the process of doing it and, like, you have to work on yourself a little bit and you, like, get it there. And, you know, now I'm at that stage where I'm like, even if no one reads it, my kids will have it. They'll remember it. They'll, you know, they'll look back on this. They'll be like, oh, yeah, dad wrote a book. Only five people bought it, and one was his mom. But you know what? They'll wrote a book. That's a big Gary Vaynerchuk thing, is enjoying the process. Enjoying the process, which I have to remind myself constantly, because the process hasn't always been smooth sailings. But that's also why I got that canvas. Oh, love it. Smooth seas never made a skilled sailor. I'm a quote geek. I love. I saw that. I saw that. And I was just. I told my mom was like, I got to put that in the office. And she was just like, well, is that wishing that, you know, that that could be like, double contextual. Like, I'm like, no. I'm like, mom. No, that's not what that means. I was like. I was like. It means that, you know, that's what makes you a skilled person is dealing with all the adversity that you have to deal with, all the trials and the, the tough days and all the shit, all the times you didn't want to do the work, but you had to put it in anyway. And that's. That's something that I have to constantly remind myself of. It's like you have to fall in love with the process and just enjoy. You have to enjoy the small office while you have it. You have to enjoy the podcast that you had no listeners and then all of a sudden you blew up. Like, and now it's a lot more stress to continually put out content as opposed to, like, yeah, I'll get out an episode a week whenever I get it out. Like, I'm very relaxed with my schedule. I try to do one a week at minimum. I try to do one a week. Sometimes I do two, sometimes I've done three, four. But I always try to just put out one a week. But then, let's say five to ten years from now, I have a huge following and they're requiring daily podcasts like Joe Rogan does. That's a new level of stress. Getting a guest for every single time that you, that you want to do an episode or like, you know, topics. I hope I make the cut. Oh, you always. I don't care how big I am, man. I tell people all the time. I've had people I told, I was like, come on the podcast, come hang out, and they just go, well, I'm not famous enough. I go, I don't need famous people. Famous people suck sometimes. Like, I don't need famous people. I just need real ass people to come hang out and just shoot the shit. Because just like this, we go on 40 different topic sprees because we can. It's not like we need to talk about xyz. We need to do this. We need to. And there's so many nuggets, so many good. Yeah, dude. Oh, man. So it's always a good time, man. So you're. You're just doing the, the karate right now? Because I know when we linked up last time you had get tanked. Oh, man. Hit me with the sore spot. So. So yeah, I just wanted to. I didn't know if it was still around. No, actually, yeah, listen, that was one of my ventures that I really loved. I was very passionate about it. It's actually a good point. Like we said, you know, I loved it. Didn't mean everyone else was going to be like, so into this and stuff like that. And it was. When it was good, it was great. You know, when we did like Flex on the Beach, I had a whole bunch of people doing it, but running the operation was a lot of work. So then after Covid, I just had too many other projects that I really wanted to work on to give my time. You know, I've just moved my studio. We were revamping stuff there. One of my other guys, Jesse, opens up another one in Pat Jog. We get that going. You know, my kids are getting older, so I want to be around for them more and do stuff. So I actually had some people who. They were like, you know what? We want to get this place, acquire the business. Yeah. So these people in Riverhead bought it kind of by the aquarium. Okay. And I help them get all set up because it's still my baby, you know? I loved it. It was cool, man. You had fun with it. It was sick. I mean, I put my heart and soul into it. I mean, I put, you know, I had people come down and, you know, we filmed for it, we did the promo, these videos for it. I mean, it was just. It was. You did it the right way. I loved it. I loved it. But unfortunately, you know, there just comes a breaking point where you're just like, okay, I have to move on to some other things, you know, and stuff like that. So, yeah, so I don't do that now. I guess my main projects I have right now is my martial arts studio, which I'm always. Right now I actually have an MMA fighter who's gonna come in to help rebuild my jiu jitsu, like the ground stuff. Sick. It's just like a two hour Thursday program that we're doing, just introducing. We're gonna do like that weapons tricking, which is like the flips and stuff. I'll come down for one of them. Oh, it's good. I'll come down for one of them. Yeah, you know. You know, I got a lot of talented students there who want to learn more. So, like, I'm revamping that. I'm sure I'm one of many people, but I wanted to. I formed an LLC because I want to work on creating an Amazon seller account. So I linked in with a new mentor. And listen, it might work out, it might not, but I'm loving the process of doing it with her right now I'm learning a lot about the process. So that's my other thing. I actually am looking into buying a small business. So I'm in the process of. I have two businesses that I have to start vetting and checking out and stuff like that. I'm very interested in doing that because I used an SBA loan to buy my martial arts studio business. Not my martial arts, my building that I put my martial arts in. That was a crazy time in my life, but it was such a high. It was such an experience that I'm like, no, I'm searching that again. So, like, I want to try to buy one of those with a dopamine hit. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I have a friend who was buying properties down south, so I bought a property. I'm fixing it up. Doing a lot. Man, you got your hand. You got your hands full. This is my brain. My wife wants to kill me half the time, but, like, it's just the process. I'm trying to finish up that book. I'm trying to finish up my real estate. What do you got, 10 pages left? 10 pages, bro. Get that done in a month. Hard it is to write 10 pages. When I gave you months. When I was a real estate course, I just extended 60 days because I didn't finish it. So I'm like, I only got, you know, four chapters left of that. It's a 77 hour course. I think I did like 60 hours. So I got like 17 hours left of that. I still got to run my studio. I'm still going to the gym, you know, I'm always working on. I'm still, you know, re insulating my garage, you know, like, this is my brain, this is my life. But. But I love it. I love it. Like, I love projects. I love tinkering away at stuff. Like, anything I can build, I do. And it's funny because, like, when I go to my martial arts or even seeing it live, you know, sometimes I don't even like to talk about my projects because it's like, you know, I don't want people to always know all the things that you're doing. Yeah. You know, or just sometimes, you know, and the reason I don't is because if they don't work out, they're like, hey, so what happened to that? And then I'm like, it didn't work out. But you know what? For all the things that don't work out, a lot of things do work out. Yeah. And then people are like, oh, yeah, you got lucky. I Didn't get lucky? No, no, I just. I worked my fucking ass off. Idiot. Who's willing to try all these things until I, you know, figure out what works. Well, it's funny. Everybody wants to. There's a lot of people on this planet that. It's not that they necessarily just want to rib you for the failures in life, but they almost want to, like, they never tried or took the leap. So they want to feel that, oh, yeah, it didn't work out right. And it's not necessarily because they just don't like you or they're trying to be nasty to you. They're just almost seeking that comfort of like, oh, it didn't work out for them and I never tried or it didn't work out for me when I tried. So, yeah, misery loves company type of situation. It's easier to pull people down and lift them up. It is. Because you know what? I think when. When someone does something that's, let's just use the words above you or whatever, it's much easier to pull them down and say, no, they cheated, they had help, blah, blah, blah, than it is to accept the fact that they have done something that you're unwilling to do. And that's what it all comes down to. And it's like your willingness to do stuff. And I think one thing that people get trapped into, which I really wanted to hit. How much time do we have? We've been going for an hour and 10 minutes. It goes by quick. Okay. No, it's cool. So one thing that you can end on this. I'm in no rush. Okay. So one thing that I think people get really trapped into is the. The time versus money. I think people have a lot of trouble with this. And the reason I say that is because I had so much trouble with this. I feel like I'm just starting now. And when I say now, I'd say within the last year. And Jesse Itzler is someone I'm going to have you look up because I think he's a genius, smart guy, love listening to his stuff. But it's always the time versus money. Because I think people always are confused and they think that you have to invest so much time. Everything's like, I'm putting in hours. Like people, you know, like how when you were a kid, I'd be like, nick,

what time did you stay up till? And you would be like, oh, 2: 1:08:02

00. And

I'd be like, I stayed up till 4: 1:08:06

00. In reality, we both

know we were in bed at like 10: 1:08:09

30. Yeah. Right. But, you know, you lie, jam jams on by nine. Yeah. You know, and you were like, oh, I was up till, you know, I didn't even sleep for the last three days. Like, you know, everyone's always trying to ward up it. You know, I feel like it's kind of the same thing where now people want to say, you know, I worked 80 hours. You know, I did this. You know, I'm hustling, I'm grinding. Giving myself little medals and accolades as they go. Yeah. We're like. I'm like, I don't want that. That's actually the complete opposite of what I. How efficient were you in those 80 hours? Yeah, I told you, I'm a big fan of Darren Hardy. And this one thing that always sticks in my mind that he says is that, you know, you came home from a crazy day, right. And your spouse or whoever you're home with goes, oh, all right, so what'd you do? I don't know. It was just. It was a crazy day. I had so many things. All right, so what'd you do? And you're like, I just ran around like a monkey, you know, like, you know, you didn't really get anything done. Now I am, you know, I just try to be very smart with what I do, you know, very time efficient. Time efficient? Yeah. I'm like, you know, to me, you know, and listen, I love my martial arts studio. I love teaching, you know, but I'm also not willing to just work as many hours as I used to all the time and put all my hours and energy into it because it's just draining. And I'm like, I'm not proud of that anymore. I'm more proud of when I go in, I'm rested, I fed, I teach my butt off when I teach. And then that's it. Today is technically my day off, and I'm working tomorrow. I'm working Thursday, and then I'm off Friday, and then I'm only going for an hour or two on Saturday. And reason being is because I'm working on all these projects. A lot of it is mental work on my studio, which I like stuff. But I'm not. I'm not grinding out my life. Like, you know what I mean? Like. Like what? This is the hustle. The whole. The. The wholesale. The hustle culture is wild. Yeah. And it's very interesting to see because there's a lot of people in my field that do the same thing. It's like, oh, made it to $60,000 a month with retainer clients. And it's just like, okay, but you didn't breathe, you didn't sleep. You barely slept. You're miserable. And I mean, for me, at my high point, I had eight retainer clients. That's a lot for one person to juggle content needs for all these businesses and people personalities, following up on invoices, planning. Oh, I get it, dude. It's running e businesses. You're running e businesses. You're literally sitting there like a meme with all the hats on, just sitting there, just like in the fire, like the dog. Everything's fine. And you're pocketing all this money, but it's like the quality, you're just, you're cutting corners because you can't sustain that type of energy output. It's impossible. It's impossible. You know, and that's something that I've really tried to be cognizant of as of late. I want to have a lot of money, and it's not even because I'm gluttonous to be rich. I just don't want to have to worry about like, oh, Whole Foods was 280 this week. Yeah, I don't want, I don't want to have to have that feeling. And I make great money, but I still have that feeling because I'm constantly checking in with pricing and like, okay, well, this insurance is due or this business expense. The psychology of this, bro. I just, I literally just talked to my mom this morning. We were just talking and she's just like, I forget that every January and February, all of my annual subscriptions are like, do I go? I'm getting hammered right now. Squarespace, my, my royalty free music sites and all this stuff. It's like 500 here, 800 here. You're like, what? And you just start to like, watch all of this money just exit. Yeah, you know, I, I know. You know Sam Schwartz. I'm very close with Sam too. Like, Sam, I used to talk about it all the time. It's just like every time money comes in, it goes right back out. Well, it's very hard for people to understand. You know, I totally get it. You know, my, my overhead is like close to a half million dollars. Yep. You know, not a month. No, annually. Like, annually. It's a lot, man. It's a big nut to swallow. Like when you're sitting there and you're like, oh, man, like, that's, that's your overhead. Yeah, that's the overhead. Before I put any money in my pocket, anything so, yeah, I totally get that. And, you know, so I think the funny part, you know, I'd love to just keep going back to the, the time and money and things like that is because I feel like it is so hard at some point to figure out, like, how much money do you need to start enjoying your life? And, you know, when you think about it, and I love this quote too, is that we spend the first half of our life, which is in theory some of the best years or a majority of the best years of life, to make enough money to enjoy the second half of your life, which is not necessarily the best years. And you don't know when that ends. So you might be thinking you're halfway through your life. Everybody has the assumption where you live to 100. And yeah, when you're six eighths through your life and you only have two eighths of your life yet left. So it's like, anyone who's worrying about money, let's just get right at it. Let's hit it square. Anyone who's sitting there and every day they wake up and they're worried about money, the one thing I would always advise them is you probably aren't as bad off as you think. A majority of us, you know, have a cell phone, have a roof over our heads. We have stuff. And like, you know, Nick, if you just all sudden stop making any money, I doubt even if I said, nick, you're not making money for the next year. Doubt you'd go hungry. I really doubt it. Like, you're not going to die, you know, and the fear is really that we're so programmed to think if we don't have money, we will die. I guarantee you. If I told you, all right, Nick, we're going to start right now for one year. You won't make any money. I bet you'd figure it out. You would figure out for an entire year. Easily. Maybe I shouldn't say easily. You would figure out now. It would be an adaptation that I'd have to get accustomed to and pivot. If you told me, all right, Matt, you don't get any money for the next year. Go. I'm sure I would start figuring it out. You know, I would start selling stuff. I would start canceling subscriptions. Oh, yeah. You know, and I would just be like, all right, I'm going to have to start now. Would my wife and kids be happy about it? No. But could I move in with my in laws? Yeah, I probably would. They let me move in. Yeah, I could probably do that. You Know. Or could my. Not that I would want this, but could my wife and kids move in with my in laws and then could I sleep at my karate studio for a year? Probably wouldn't be ideal, but yeah, you. Could make it happen. But I'm just saying, like, it wouldn't die, die, you know, I mean, I also probably wouldn't leave my wife and kids. My in laws let that happen either. I'm just saying that like a majority of times, I think we need to accept the fact that the fear of not having money. Right. Is not gonna kill us. Also the fear of the unknown, though, in life, in general. No, but people get worried about things that they don't. They don't anticipate or not planning for. Don't you know the Kung Fu Panda quote? Where? Talk to me. The Kung Fu Panda quote. If you're worried about things. What I said, do I have to look it up or you. No, no, I'm going to pull it out. I'll figure it out. But if you're worried about things in the past, right. You can't. They're in the past. If you're worried about things in the future, you can't control the future, right. You can only be present, right? In. What's that? That's it. You can't. You can't worry about things that happened, they happened. You can't worry about what could happen because you can't control it. You can only be present. I'm sure it's a lot. That's why they call it a present, because it's a gift. That's the quote. You know, it's like I think and listen, I'm the same way. You know, I parked my car at a baseball field, I went out to. To see a friend. I went back, I got home, I realized someone dinked my car. I was mad, like, really? Me and you both love cars. I was upset. Remember I got into the accident going to your shoot? What? Do you remember I got into the accident? Oh, my God. Yeah. I had a piece of wood hit my fender on my car. I was upset. But then when you break it down, and this is me kind of reflecting inward, what am I really upset about? I'm really upset about money. A lot of times stuff happens and we're like, upset, right? But like when you break it down, it's really. I'm pissed about money. It's the root of just, you know, having to shell out the unforeseen. Your fridge falls and breaks. You'd be upset, but you'd be upset because of the money. I think sometimes when you let go of the money fact, you know, and you're just like, it's okay, like, whatever, you know, it's fine. You know, I'm also a big everything kind of happens for a reason kind of person. I always try to remind myself of that, and I always do try to sit in that and really understand that it does. Yeah. I'll do this drill in my class which the kids really like, where I have them like, team positivity and team negativity. And they actually really love it because it's like, you know, I'll give them example. You know, I was driving my car, this is actually a true story. Hit a pothole and I cracked my wheel. Like it's a bad day. They're like, yeah. And then they're like, all right, so then you'll get a new tire. I'm like, all right, a new tire. But I actually got new rims for my car, which, you know, you're a guy. I had a Honda Civic, type r. Cracked my 20 inch wheels. Got some beautiful, nice 18 inch wheels. I probably would have never done it hadn't. Hadn't something bad happened. So, you know, again. And I know it's hard because I think a lot of people stress about money. And I get it. And I think it's also hard to be a person who doesn't stress about money. And then people who are like, oh, it's because you have money. That's true. But when I was a kid, I was pretty broke and I didn't stress about money. And even when I was working my way up in my studio, I didn't pay myself for 18 months. The crazy part is I didn't stress about money, which is so crazy to me because now I look back, I'm like, what an idiot. I was like, whatever. And I think the reason being was that I just knew in my heart that, like, if anything went wrong, I'd figure it out. I'd figure out. I think I stress more about money now than when I was theoretically a lot broker because of my, you know, having a family and kids. Well, cause you also know dependence. Yeah. You also know that the level that it's brought you and God forbid that it wasn't accessible to you and you didn't have the money for a while. You understand that the scale back that's required until you can get back to that status of that level, we're back to problems. Like you say, the higher you go, the, the further you Fall. Yeah. So it's like, yeah, you want a podcast with 10 million people, but then let's say you say the wrong thing. And now, now everyone's trying to cancel you. Yeah. You know, and it's like, you know, but listen, I'm not a negative person, so let's not even say, but, you know. Yeah, I just think, listen, if. If. If you're a person who sucks, this is at the end. We should put this at the beginning. But if you're a person who stresses about money, I think one thing you have to understand is it's just your brain trying to keep you alive. That's all it is. I think a lot of times he. Knows it's a resource. It's just our brain. The reason our brain does that and stresses about money is because it believes that if we don't have money, we won't be able to barter and get food and survive. But most of us are going to be able to figure it out, you know, and it's easy to say don't stress about money, but if it's affecting your quality of happiness, it's something you should work on in my book. Yeah, Always. Always. So always having sales jobs and then working retail, that was always a big thing for me because I always got my check every two weeks, and then I go off on my own to do the video stuff, and no check comes in in two weeks. And I went, huh. And then. I'll never forget that feeling, man. For a couple of months there, it was weird. I was like, oh, it's just, you don't get paid if you don't have jobs. Just, like, interesting. Like, this feels weird, but you know what? To flip the other side. So I taught at Bustlers Martial Arts in Plainview for 10 years before I did my own studio. So, like, I started at like, 15, and then, like, you know, 24, 25. Around then I started my studio. One thing that always bothered me, and I think if this reflects to you, I think this is how you know, if you're a business owner, I could be wrong. But this is. This is what did it for me. It frustrated me that if me and you did the same job, but I did the job better, we still got very similar pay. Even if I was paid a dollar or two more, to me, it wasn't equivalent to the amount of value I was bringing. And that always frustrated me. I was like, I literally, I can't not give 100. It's just who I am. When I do something, I gotta give 100 all day long. My son's the same way. It could be a silly. We're going up the stairs. He will not let me win. He's got to beat me. It's 100 all day long. That's just my house. So I feel like it's the same kind of thing where it's like it bothered me that someone else would do the same thing and we'd get very similar pay. And I think once I realized, like, if I'm doing it, I want to be paid based off me. The opposite of that. Like you said, it's like you don't get paid right away. You're the last to be paid, you know, but the upside of that is, you know, worth it, at least in my opinion. Yeah, worth it. I mean, you know, you get to scale a lot differently and do what you want as essentially. Let's see what we got. We did the values of coaches and mentors taking action while you're young. I'm not sure if we hit that too much, but I'm telling you, people just got to do stuff now. You just do shit. I saw you last week, I said, I want to be on your podcast, and here we are, like, a week later. You just got to do it. Like, do shit. Just got to hang out. Oh, that's why I got to order. All this live streaming gear after I get off. You could be great. Fuck the credit card stuff. I'll figure it out. Talk. You should do a line of credit. There's a lot of different ways to do it, especially if you're an established business. I'm a TD bank guy, and TD bank will give you 20%. You don't even need collateral. 20% of your gross sales. So let's say your gross sales are $500,000. Theoretically, if you can say I've been doing $500,000 for the last three years, they'll give you $100,000 line of credit. And the great thing about the line of credit is you could theoretically put the money. You could buy your stuff on your credit card, right? You got 30 days there, then pay. It with the line. Then pay it with the line. Then if you have any extra funds lying or whatever, you could just sink that money back into the line. So, like, when my real estate taxes are due, they're like 20 grand. Just leave my 20 grand in my HELOC account and it's paying for that. And then when I need to pay it, I could just pull it out and pay it. That's been the unfortunate Side of my business is that the finance side is not something that I enjoy, and it's not something that a lot of people enjoy. And it's not something that I'm good at because it's not something that I focus on because there's only so many hats you can wear. Yeah. So, yeah, I think the big thing with. When you're talking about business numbers and financing is not to over complicate things. I think sometimes it's very easy to make it overcomplicated. Right. If you were like, hey, Matt, I'm a guy who owns a business. What would you teach me about finances in two minutes? Know what your overhead is, right? Not for the month, but for the year. Because that's a big mistake people make. They go, oh, yeah, these are my expenses. And then like you said, your subscriptions are due every year. Yeah. So you sit down for one time and you figure out what your overhead is for the entire year. Well, ironically, I think I can cancel some subscriptions now because I figured this fucking thing out. And I've been using plug ins that cost almost $100 a month to get the sound where I need it, ironically. So you figure out for the year, you divide it by 12, right. Then vice versa. You have to then figure out, okay, this is my overhead, right? Divided by 12. There's always unexpected expenses. That's just part of being a business owner. And then obviously what you want your gross sales to be, right? And that's really the only two numbers you need to figure out. Overhead and gross sales that you need to. That's it. You don't need to reinvent the wheel now. I always like giving myself a little space. Like, if I want to do 80k this month, I really should be aiming for 90k. And if I fall short, I hit my goal. You know, a lot of people, they aim for their goal, they fall short and they're like, why didn't I make it? I'm like, you gotta. You have to start higher. And if you want. Aim for the moon. You wanna hit the stars. Yeah, exactly. Aim for the stars if you wanna hit the moon. Yeah. It's not that complicated. Figure out what your expenses are, Figure out what your sales are, and honestly talk about it. A lot of people get very. I don't know, maybe it was our parents generation. They don't wanna talk about money, right? And it's like, I've got. I've got exposing, I've got twofold. Unfortunate. I've got. My parents split up when I was 2 and money was always a battle between the two of them, so that was always a problem. And it was. Yeah, it sucked. It sucked. It was just like. That was like, mom would ask me to ask dad because she didn't want to. Yeah. And I told her. I told her that, too. I was like, yeah, I was kind of fucked up. Money's taboo, man. Yeah. People don't talk about it. Not that it put a bad taste in my mouth, because I don't want to sound super dramatic, but it definitely didn't keep it in the highest of lights for me, because it seemed as though that that resource was always, like, a little bit of a struggle to get. It wasn't just flowing for everybody. That's what. That's essentially. Not that it's flowing for everybody, but it wasn't a conversation for a lot of families, like it was for mine, where it was like, mom needs the money from dad. Dad's giving me shit. Why am I getting shit? And then you feel that between the two of them, and then that instantly or inherently gives you that feeling towards this resource. Yeah. Well, all right. So Spencer is my accountant. Yeah. He's literally like my best friend. Now, listen, sometimes he tells me things about my accounts. I'm like, oh, no, don't tell me. You know, he'll. He'll kind of put me in my place on certain things. I'm like, okay, don't. And then vice versa. You know, I'll do some things. And he'll be like, all right, great. That was a great move. You know, And I think he kind of holds me accountable for it, too, to make sure, like, hey, you got to know these numbers, or things like that. And I think if you own a business, there's got to be someone there either holding you accountable for your numbers, or you guys just talk about it more. As weird as that is. You know, my mentor from my martial arts studio, I talk numbers with him all the time. You know, I have a friend who owns another martial arts studio. I went over there to pick his brain. We just talk numbers. We just talk it. And it's. I think that's. It's as simple as that. Like, even if it's something you're not comfortable with, you got. Just get comfortable with. Because, you know, at the end of the day, you're the guy figuring out who's getting paid how much you're getting paid. I think it's really hard for business owners to always value themselves. You know, they're always like, oh, I can't charge this Much, because, you know, it's this, this, and this. We're used to giving the objections in our head prior to just like setting the standard, too. Yeah. I mean, think about it like this, right? If sometimes you think, okay, I need$100, right, $100 to cover whatever, then you start taking out all the things of that hundred dollars. You know, I got to pay this. I got to pay my insurance, I got to pay my car, I got to pay my electric. You know, I gotta pay for my equipment, I gotta pay for my drinks. I gotta pay for this. And then you have X amount left over. And then I say, well, what about retirement? And they're like, what? Like. Like we're almost just thinking about this. But like, other people, they get paid, right? They have their salary and then they have their pension or whatever they have there. So it's like, sometimes you have to think in those terms now that you need to make sure that you charge appropriately. I keep saying, darren Hardy, man, a million shout outs. He did this calculator that I loved. If you're a business owner, you should take whatever your projected gross sales are, divide that by 2000 hours, which is the average working. I would divide by less. But let's just keep it simple. 2000 hours is the average amount of hours annual that people work. 50 weeks, 40 hours, 2,000. Right. So I just love the idea is if let's say your business makes a million dollars a year gross, which is not an absurd amount, a million dollars gross, and you divide it by 2000, then your time is worth 500 an hour. I love that math. That's awesome. And people are like, well, how can you charge 500 an hour? And it's like, not that you're charging 500 an hour, but if you book a shoot with somebody and it's a $5,000 job, well, they're not. They're. They're paying you for the shoot. The actual shooting aspect, the production, pre production, the post production, the gear, the ability to know how to use all the gear and bring it. Yeah. I'm just saying it's a $5,000 job. It's like, that gives me 10 hours that I can work with to secure the shoot, do the shoot, produce it, and give it back, or a budget to work within it. You know, I think sometimes people don't understand the numbers. Like, a martial arts membership is like 20 $100 is like the base for like a year. Yeah, that's like the lowest low. I pay 200amonth at Sarah's. All right. So that's a$2400 annual revenue. Right. So it's like in order for them to. To. To pretty much do that, like, if I wanted to make $10,000 or whatever in a day, you know, I would need to figure out how do I sell 5 year in full memberships in a day. And let's say that took me five hours. Then I'd be making, quote, unquote,$2,000 an hour. Silly math, but you know what I mean? Sometimes I think that's so confusing for people. If you tell them you're worth 500 an hour, $1,000 an hour, $2,000 an hour, they can't understand it because it's not like someone's sitting there handing them$500 every hour they work. It has nothing to do with that. It's just the fact that if you work and you produce X amount in sales. That's what it is. That's what it is. And that could be so confusing for people. And they don't know that. They don't know their annual value. Right. And they're just like, oh, whatever, I'll do it for 50 bucks an hour. That's a lot of money. But your business is making$300,000 a year, and you're doing it for $50 an hour. You could be paying someone 25 an hour to do it. Yeah, that's where you could hire people. Yes. I got to get to. Yeah, I got to get to the. So more the back end stuff. Oh, man. Nick, we're going to get into the back end stuff. All right, so let's finish on something good. I'm going to let. Yeah, I'm going to let you pick the finishing one. Well, let's hit the excuses club. That was the only thing that I feel like maybe we jumped around a little bit, but I don't know. Why do you feel like a lot of people, I don't know, find excuses? I've been doing a lot of talking, too. No, I mean, you're my guest, so that's. Everybody hears me a lot. I mean, excuses can be twofold. It could be because they don't have the confidence that they can actually pull through on something that's, I think, hit it right there. Or, Or. Or it could just be because they just don't want to do it and they're lying to themselves to in the beginning. So it's like, I want. I really want to join Jiu Jitsu, but, you know, I just don't have enough time. And it's like you do, but you just don't want to put the commitment in. You don't want to get humbled on the mats. You don't want to, you don't want to be a white belt. Yeah. Because being a white belt sucks and it's hard. It really does. Like, being a blue belt sucks. A lot of times people think that you get this magical belt upgrade and now all of a sudden you're going to have all this mystical wisdom. I still get my ass kicked every day. You know, I just, I don't. I dole out a few more ass kicks than I did when I was a white belt, but I still get my ass kicked. The black belt still beat up on beat me up and I. Every time I roll with one of them, it's a learning experience. So there's a ton of excuses that you can do. It's just a matter of, you know, how bad do you want something? You know, I, I've. I. One of my things is always a procrastination. That's. That's always been something that I've had to battle through. It's just like, I know I have to get XYZ done, but like, this is just a little more comfortable right now. Like instead of sending out

a couple more emails in the, like it's 5:35, 5: 1:32:33

00. It's like instead of sending out a couple of more touch bases or putting the finishing touches on that edit, it's just like, fuck it, I'll get to it tomorrow morning and I'll just play a little Xbox and just like wind down a little bit. It's just like the procrastination is what kills me. It's a form of an excuse. It's just like, yo, it's in front of you. Get it done. One of the Alex Hormozi things that I saw that I really liked was he talks about, I forget who he learned this from, but we're. None of us are reinventing the wheel. We're all just recycling the information from others. Correct. So he said, as opposed to saying like end of week, like I can get this done end of week, say no instead, I'll get it done end of day. And if there's something that you can get done end of day, think about getting it done. Like end of hour type of scenario. So like compartmentalizing and like bringing everything in as opposed to just dragging it out and keeping things on your plate. I think for a long time, one of the things that I battled with, with my Business was like, you have X. You have, let's say, four clients that are your main people. You finish all the shoots, you finish all the edits for the month that you had to do for whatever they needed. And then there's a part of me that didn't want to not have something on my plate. So you stretch the length it takes to do something out because you don't want to feel like I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs, like I don't have anything to do. You almost want to. That last edit I could finish right now, but I, I want to just like keep this and then for a couple more days. But then, unfortunately, unforeseen circumstances as a business owner, a last minute shoot, books, or you have to pivot something. And now the day that you plan to edit, now you have a podcast, you have a vet appointment, you have this and you're just like, well, fuck, now I got to get. Now I had to edit till midnight the night before to get things done. Yep. So I think there's a lot of different variables that go into it. I think for me, an excuse can. Can be a form of procrastination. That's one of my excuses that I make. But excuse me, can. Can be seen in a lot of different ways for a lot of different people. Yeah, you know what you hit, Nick, man, you're just. I love how you, you give it like a lot. Just so many things. You hit my brain. But you're so right. You're so right. I think one trick I learned for kind of battling excuses is to just do a tiny, tiny bit of it. I think you've heard this maybe with like, even with people who write books, what they'll always do is they'll leave off like half a sentence. Or let's say you were working on putting up a piece of sheetrock and you know, you were too tired to really put all the screws in. You'd put in a screw halfway and leave it. And then later when you walk by and you see that screw halfway out, you're like, I got to put that in. And then you get into that mindset of just getting things done. Well, it's getting started, usually is the biggest thing, getting started into it. You know, even with people who do martial arts, sometimes the issue is not the class. It's actually the action of getting to the class. Like putting on your clothes. You know, that's why atomic habits I really love, because it's basically talks about shortening all those things to make it Easier to begin the habit, more actionable. Yeah. So, like, if you have an excuse to start something, like, like same thing. Like, like you want to start an Amazon business. Well, start looking up how to start an Amazon business. That's like the first step. Or like, oh, I want to sell stuff. Okay, so make an llc. I don't know how to make an llc. Well, go on Bloomberg and file for one. Okay. I filed for it. I might have done it wrong. Okay. The minute you get your letter that says you messed it up, rectify the issue. Yeah. So a lot of times it's just starting and doing it. But the second point was even better. The fact that people who say they want to do stuff and then they don't do it, you're right. They just actually don't want to do it. Because I think I've had that myself before. I was looking into a franchise last year and was very interested in doing it. And I think part of it was I really wanted to build something again, but at the end of the day, I ended up not doing it. And the reason being was because I really didn't want to give up all my time again. So, like, yes, I want to do it, absolutely, but I didn't want to give up my time, and I wasn't willing to do that. And you know what? That's my excuse or whatever. We all have them. But I think when you're trying to make massive change in your life, when you're like, I don't like the direction I'm in or I want to fix something or I don't have enough confidence for it, you have to learn to just get the excuses out of the way, get started. Just do something a little bit. I think that's one thing I actually would say I'm good at, is just starting stuff. I'm not great at finishing. You take the progression. You take the progression percentage just a little bit further, and then you feel better about it. Yeah, yeah. You know, like, it's like the dishes. The dishes are stacked up in the sink, and it's like, I don't feel like doing it. But you. You. You empty the dishwasher, and then you're like, all right, well, it's empty now. Now I could just throw everything in there. And then you feel a little bit better about getting it. And then once it's all done, you just go, ah, it's nice and clean now. Now I feel good. Oh, yeah. It was just that initial getting started pain point that you just didn't want to get Past. Oh, yeah, no, Nick, this was a pleasure, man. For sure. I actually just realized you have Blockbuster Video right up there. Is that from a movie? Nah, you know what? I just. I saw that as, like, the last blockbuster just sitting there as a relic in time, and I just liked it. That's sick. I was like, you know what? I fucks with that. I don't know. This is. This is 80s babies, or are you 90s baby? 90. 91. Oh, man, I'm in 87, but that's right. Best two. Best two, best childhood, toughest adulthood so far. That's what we had this group. Oh, man. No, that's cool, man. Yeah, I'm looking at them like that. I used to do a wide cam, so when people used to be able to see the wide camera, they used to see it. But, like, I just have the two on us right now. But it's. It's definitely. It's definitely a cool little pick, man. Oh, yeah. That's inspirational, man. Yeah. Hey, man, thank you so much. I had a pleasure. I appreciate. I'm gonna listen to the whole episode. Oh, for sure, dude. Like, there's different, like, cuts and edits that you, like. Listen, plug for your karate studio where people can find you. Yeah. Oh, Buster's Martial Arts. I'm in Ron Konkoma. Ron Konkoma. And you. You also have another studio, so the. Other one is owned by this guy named Jesse Molin. And yeah, he has one in Patchog. Okay. Yeah. So, like, I'm like, his mentor. I'm actually going to his place today. Check. It's awesome. Yeah, it's on one of my lists. So everybody, if you have any interest, please definitely follow up. See my man over at his studio. And I hope you guys enjoyed the episode. I. It was. I mean, a lot of gems. I'm. A lot of gems. I had so much fun to have. You come back. You come back. You come hang out. We'll get more topics. Oh, then next time, by the time you come back, it'll be live streaming, so we'll do. No, I'm expecting a camera here, right? That doesn't move. Well. Yeah, I need. I need four of them. So at 1200 a piece, it'll be. A slow financials after this. I got it. Everybody, please, like, share, subscribe, do all the things that, you know, people on YouTube and all these different content sites ask you to do. It helps me to continue sitting down with amazing people like Matt and conversing and giving you guys some gems. So on that note, I appreciate everybody for fucking with us. But for now, peace. Later.