236. Mindset Mastery with Michael Reardon w/ Michael Rearden

Michael Rearden shares his journey from growing up in the ghetto of Connecticut to founding Revan Concepts, a mindset and personal growth company revolutionizing the coaching industry through innovative approaches. He reveals how limiting beliefs form in childhood and strategies to break free from them to achieve greater success and fulfillment.

• Growing up in poverty created a powerful drive for change and early action
• Michael's mother worked multiple jobs to provide opportunities including private school education 
• Transitioned from teaching to coaching after realizing he wanted to make a broader impact
• Founded Revan Concepts in 2018 to fill educational gaps where traditional schooling falls short
• NASA study shows 94% of kindergarteners test at genius levels, dropping dramatically by third grade
• Breaking free from downward spirals requires attention and often external support from mentors
• Sometimes changing your environment completely is necessary for growth
• The "burn the bridges" approach works best for those who thrive under pressure
• Overcoming limiting beliefs starts with believing something is possible before achieving it
• Legacy message: "Never is just an option" - we always have the choice to progress or remain stagnant

Share this episode with a friend who is trying to better themselves or needs help with their mindset.

Chapters

• 0:00 Episode Introduction
• 1:18 Michael's Upbringing in Connecticut
• 3:13 From Teaching to Coaching Journey
• 5:55 Breaking Free from Downward Spirals
• 10:15 Choosing Your Circle Wisely
• 14:46 Overcoming Limiting Beliefs
• 20:57 Finding Focus as an Entrepreneur
• 31:13 Never Backwards: The Legacy Message
• 41:15 Episode Closing

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Yeah, it's Mindset Cafe. We all about that mindset. Gotta stay focused. Now go settle for the last. It's all in your head how you think you manifest. So get ready to rise, cause we about to be the best. Gotta switch it up. Gotta break the old habits. Get your mind right. Turn your dreams into habits. No negative vibes, only positive thoughts. What is up, guys?

Speaker 1: 0:22

Welcome to another episode of the Mindset Cafe podcast. It's your boy, devin, and today we are honored to have a special guest, michael Reardon. He is the founder and CEO of Raven Concepts, a mindset and personal growth company that is revolutionizing the coaching industry through its innovative subscription-based model. We'll dive into that. I'll let him explain some of that stuff, but because it always is nice to hear it from the person themselves versus just what I can see from the outside. But I think he's doing some amazing things and I think him being on the Mindset Cafe is going to give you guys some awesome knowledge.

Speaker 1: 0:55

So make sure you guys break out your notepads and take some notes, but without that further ado, michael, thank you so much for taking the time to hop on the Mindset Cafe, of course, and thank you so much for having me on today. So I mean, I want to dive into your backstory before we get into your current story, right? How did you? What was your bring up like, what was your childhood like? And you know, kind of bird's eye view that led you to where you are now.

Speaker 2: 1:18

Well, I grew up in the ghetto of Connecticut and Connecticut has a drastic wealth gap. You can go to Greenwich where you have some of the wealth like the wealthiest people in the world they're probably excluding Dubai and then you have, you know, cities like Bridgeport, stratford is going to be lower income families. So we grew up there in the ghetto. But I do appreciate that uh, upbringing because it really gave me a drive to want to change. Right, I could see the bad and I know some people who they grow up with, things where they. You know, maybe the silver spoon in their mouth or that concept of a privilege, um, you know, it's a wonderful thing to have, but I think when you really have no choice but to take action, it allows you to take action a lot sooner. So that was my upbringing and you know we had a hardworking mom, my brother and my sister, and you know she did her best to kind of shelter us from that ghetto, right? So, even though we were in the middle of all the drugs and the violence, and she sent us to private schools, but she had to work two to three jobs just to get that done and sometimes, you know, payments were late, things like that because she had to keep up with everything. So we fast forward now. You know high school.

Speaker 2: 2:35

Around that time I was going to a college prep school and it's like, okay, well, what am I going to do? Right, I mean, I have to make some money. So I went into accounting, business, finance, because I thought, well, my mom is not going to appreciate anything else but a job that's going to be making a little bit of money, or a job that has a little bit of status. And I can't tell you how many people they fall in line with what their parents' ideals are. And so college was my mom's ideal. If I had to do it again, college is a great thing, but I probably would have just went the entrepreneur route, because I would have did exactly what I'm doing today without all of the college student loans that I had to pay off. But it's different for everyone, right? College can be a great thing. If you want to be a lawyer or a doctor or something like that, you need that.

Speaker 2: 3:25

I went to college because I switched my major from business and accounting to teaching. So I became a teacher and I was teaching for quite some time. I was teaching music and special ed, and when I was at the end or the transition point from my teaching career to my coaching career, something happened. I started to pay attention to the people around me. I saw teachers that have been in the career 25 to 50 years and I saw what they had, and it wasn't that what they had wasn't good enough, it's just that I wanted more.

Speaker 2: 3:57

And there's this quote that I am favorable to and I know this is not going to be everyone's cup of tea, but it's crumbs are not for everyone and even though teachers make a huge impact on a child's life, I wanted to do something that was going to create a bigger impact in the world, not just in a classroom of 30 kids or a single town that I will be working in. I wanted to be international and so fast forward to the coaching. 2018 started Revan Concepts and the idea was to fill in the gaps where schools were falling short, because, as a teacher, you get to see the students that are coming and going and you can see when they're going, are they ready or if they're not ready, and I saw so many students who are not ready for the real world, and those same students, eventually, are going to be getting a consultation and maybe even signing up for coaching, you know, with me, because there's something within them, a lack, a limit, you know, a curiosity that they're hungry to learn more about.

Speaker 1: 5:03

I mean it is true, and I mean I love the quote and I do resonate with the quote and it makes sense. And you know, unfortunately, as it is not everyone's going to resonate with it, but I think it is an important quote. You know to, to note and know that just because someone's happy with the lifestyle doesn't mean you have to be happy with that lifestyle, right? And I think that it's awesome that you realize that your upbringing gave you strengths. Right, cause a lot of people have a certain kind of upbringing or in a or in a certain environment and think this is what I have to, this is what I am, right, and this is what is made for me. And the world is your play box, you know your sandbox, as long as you're willing to get a little dirty. And you know, start building that castle, right? So what started getting you into the mindset, the personal development, the? You know all those things. Why didn't you go into something of a different? You know industry.

Speaker 2: 6:02

Well, one of the things I started to see was the limits that I had mentioned prior. When you have a person that has been given the limits whether they be you're not good enough, right, you're going to be a garbage man or something like that. And I know teachers mean well. I would say I've worked with some amazing teachers throughout my career as a teacher and just you know, in general and life, knowing them, most of them have good hearts, but then some days they get tired because they're human. They have their own family issues. Maybe they just got a puppy and they're not getting any sleep.

Speaker 2: 6:34

There's a lot of problems going on in their life too, and some of the conversations that would happen in the teacher's room would be something like this oh, you know, this person's giving me such a hard time. I wish they would just quit. You know they're just going to be a failure and it's not that they really truly envisioned that for that student, it's just that they're just frustrated at the time. But if you know anything about the human mind, or you know just any bit of psychology, the subconscious mind is going to believe everything the conscious mind, or just from words, are going to say, and it's going to have a severe or maybe even a dramatic impact on your progression in life. So just having this teacher have this aura of energy, maybe they don't even say it to the student. The student can tell it's like oh, you know, like I guess I'm not going to be anything, or something like that. To tell is like oh, you know, like I guess I'm not going to be anything, or something like that. And I'm sure you're familiar with the study of NASA when they're trying to figure out you know who are geniuses and when you know and how do geniuses form.

Speaker 2: 7:35

And they developed this test and they followed these students, you know, all the way from, you know, kindergarten up into like fifth grade or something like that.

Speaker 2: 7:42

And what they noticed around third grade the marker for genius dropped off severely when they were doing the test, when they were kindergarteners. So there was 94% genius and then by third grade it was a fraction of that. So we have to ask ourselves what's happening in those two to three years of a child's development. And what it is is that they have been given limits. They have been told to sit down, raise your hand If you have to go to the bathroom, you know, wait in line or something along those lines and then you know, maybe down the road you get a little bit more freedom in college, but even that you know you have so many years of bondage that is hard to break free. So this is why so many people they lie in comfort, they stay in their comfort zones, and so one of the things I was interested in is helping people not only understand their comfort zones but to break free from them, because when they think about the good life, it's beyond the comfort zone, it's not within it.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Oh, no, definitely. And it's crazy that you mentioned that with like the, you know, up until that third grade like, because even my daughter I have a three year old and the amount that she picks up it's, it's insane, right, I was just at my assistant last graduation from UC Davis and up on the teleprompt screen thing there was, you know, you could see everyone getting their awards and so forth, and in the little corner there was a person doing the ASL, the sign language, and my daughter didn't ask about it, she didn't say anything about it. And then all of a sudden my sister-in-law was opening her graduation gifts and she was like reading the cards and my three-year-old just standing next to her and just doing sign movements and getting mad because we're all laughing, because we realized what she was doing and she was like be quiet. And then she kept doing just different movements of their hands in acting as the interpreter but she didn't say anything, it didn't acknowledge it and ask what it was and it was crazy that you know she had picked that up and like knew what it was.

Speaker 1: 9:36

So it is crazy that that drop off when you're kind of told to get in line and follow suit. You know it can. It can do a lot to a person, or even a lot to a kid, and you know kind of detriment their, their growth of genius. Some of the things that you talk about, right, is, you know, the downward spiral. The downward spiral, right? How can people start to identify if they're in one?

Speaker 2: 9:59

Well, one of the things you have to understand is you have to have a group of people who want to see you better than what you are, and parents typically do a good job, but then parents are also the factors that can make it very difficult. We can look at 2019, 2020 with the pandemic, and parents would previously think T-shirts were just glorified babysitters. Parents would previously think T-shirts were just glorified babysitters. And then all of a sudden now parents were kind of the forefront in their child's education and they have to deal with them for the whole school day and they're seeing how their children are acting. They're like whoa, this is tough, right, I know early on, you know you said you have a three-year-old. I have a three-year-old also and I have a newborn. She's five months at the time of this recording and when I look at favoritism, I say I enjoy him more. Not because I enjoy him more, it's just because he's more self-sufficient by himself. He can get his iPad, he can get his snacks, he knows the deal right, she doesn't know the deal yet and what happens is many people, they just don't know the deal yet and they have to be reminded, and one of the best things you can do is to get a mentor, to get a guide, to get a teacher that cares, a coach. Right, someone who's going to say, hey, I can see the potential within you. Because sometimes what happens is we might be lacking a little bit of confidence, we might not be as optimistic today, and, you know, pessimism is just reigning supreme. Our mind is naturally negative. So what's happening is many people, they are just going to spiral out before they say, okay, what's the better option? You know what is the fix? And there's. You know people wait until trauma or something bad happens in their life before they get coaching. Rightfully, so right, coaching can be expensive, but I always tell people, you know, when they get a consultation or they're, you know, signing up for coaching, and you know, one of the questions I say is well, where were you three months ago? Right, because three months ago is when we should have been doing the work, not today when everything is on fire, when you're in credit card debt, when you, you know you got your divorce paper served. There's a lot of problems that we just have to pay attention to. So one of the things that you can do or are like like right now, even if you don't get a coach is to pay attention. How do you pay attention? There's different methods. You have to figure out what works for you.

Speaker 2: 12:21

Meditation can, can can be a great asset for you. Working out, right, you are in that meditative state, right? I know you do a lot of gym stuff. So when people are in that state, they're not thinking about maybe, their bills or all this stuff. Maybe they want to talk to you about that stuff.

Speaker 2: 12:35

But if you're giving them a nice strong workout, they're thinking about survival, right, like if they're doing, you know, crossfit or something like that, they're not thinking about where they're going to eat after. They're just thinking about how am I going to make this? You know, like, get through this. And this is where the focus has to be, like, what can we do today? And so we have to look at the smallest step possible and we have to assure that we're going to do that step, not, oh, I might do it, I'll get to it later.

Speaker 2: 13:01

This mindset can't be there anymore. You have to just say if I want some change to happen in my life because I'm not satisfied with how I'm currently living, you have to be that change. You have to give yourself people or individuals that are going to help nurture that too. So again, teachers, coaches, parents and stuff like that are going to help nurture it. Coaches, parents and stuff like that are going to help nurture it. And if you are around toxic people or negative people, people you just get bad energy from, leave them right. You don't have to bring everyone with you. I know we live in this people pleasing world but at the end of the day, if you're not happy, does it really matter if someone else is happy at your expense?

Speaker 1: 13:43

Oh no, definitely I mean, and it's hard sometimes, like that self-reflection, is hard to be truthful with yourself, right, and realizing that you're in that downward spiral. But it is important and the first step is acknowledging it. Is it your circle, like you said? You know, because you should be around people that are lifting you up and trying to push you. You know whether it is a coach, whether it is, you know, a trainer, whether it is just your friends. If they're not trying to force you to be better, then maybe you're in the wrong circle, right? Very true. So I mean going into that. How do you, how do you let someone know that they're in the wrong circle, right? That's a tough conversation and you know to have sometimes, but it is necessary sometimes.

Speaker 2: 14:31

Well, I mean, you could be straight up with them and say hey, you don't belong here, right, you can kick them out, kind of like the Italian mafia. You could say, all right, you're done, buddy. Or you can just do what many people do today in our world. They do a lot of ghosting, right? They just say I'm just going to minimize my interactions with you and eventually you're going to understand that I don't want to be around you. That naturally occurs, and I think that's probably what most people are going to do. Is there a better option?

Speaker 2: 15:04

I don't necessarily think there's a wrong or right way to do, you know, getting rid of people who don't serve you or don't belong in your life. But you just have to be very clear on your expectations, and I think that's important. Your expectations should be paramount, not only for yourself but for others. I have expectations for my kids, I have expectations for my wife, and I give myself expectations too, and she has expectations for the kids and myself, and they're different, right? Because I understand that if I'm doing something incorrectly, that's causing some type of hardship or discrepancy in our relationship, and the relationship doesn't have to just be my family, it could be friends also.

Speaker 2: 15:44

I have to do the work to either fix myself, because I can't change anybody. So if I want to fix myself, to be in this relationship because I believe it's beneficial to me, then I'll do the work, but if I'm not seeing the benefit to it, then I'm. You know, I might try to keep it for a little bit, but at some point you're going to stop. You know, you're just going to stop caring and you can look at any aspect of your life where you have started something and you stopped this just because you just didn't care enough. One of the things that many people do, especially when they start a business or they start a career they're looking for, like a job switch. It's easy to look on Indeed, it's easy to give yourself this idea that you want something more, you want more money, you want more happiness, but it's more difficult to apply the changes that you need to do. Change is hard, it's challenging, but it's not impossible.

Speaker 1: 16:40

That is true, and I mean the Italian muffle is a good one. When you said that, immediately I thought of, like, like the mean girls quote you can't sit with us, you know, that's awesome. But no, it's true. I mean even myself personally, right, you know, obviously I have, you know, my friends from college and and everything like that, and we're still really good friends. But at the same time I don't want to go out and drink and I don't want to go out and do the random things that they do 99% of the time. And so they've learned.

Speaker 1: 17:09

If I answer pretty much like, oh yeah, maybe you know, that means I'm not coming, right, and then, and then it got to the point where you know that happens so often that they just don't invite me and it doesn't, it doesn't hurt my feelings. That that's kind of what I wanted anyways, right, and then we hang out for, you know, group events, birthdays, stuff like that, but not just every single weekend, right, so it's, the ghosting thing is a huge one, right. If you just tell someone like, hey, you're, you know you're not aligned with my goals, obviously it like, hey, you're, you know you're not aligned with my goals, obviously, it's kind of kind of straightforward and you might not get the response that you thought. You know, not, not a lot of people are going to be receptive to that, um, but I mean that Italian model and I like that, though. Do you want to know a hack? What's that?

Speaker 2: 17:51

A hack is to move away from your original place of birth. Most people they stay exactly where they are the same state, the same country or even the city. Right, they stay within five to 10 miles. Back in the 20s, 30s, 40s, around that time, they found their relationships within 10 miles from their radius of where they lived. Now we can go on dating sites and we could find people all over the world to marry right, but before it was very small right, we had a 10 mile radius to figure out that. And now our world is so vast and technology is a great thing, but it can also be a thing that can cause a person to look at their situation and say, well, look at what I have versus what someone else have. And then they start to play that comparison game, keeping up with the Joe like Joneses, and then they find themselves not happy.

Speaker 2: 18:47

So the hack is just to move away from all your possible distractions. Your friends from high school, your friends from college they're not here anymore. If you go to, let's say, you want to go to California and all your friends are in New York, I'm not saying that you can't visit your friends or talk to your friends anymore, but when you put yourself in a new environment, you have no option but to succeed or to fail. It is that clean. The failing part is going to be I guess I'll go back home and stay with my parents, or something along those lines. But you can always just say, okay, if I'm having a hard time right now, right, moving from one state to another, all right, let's look at those challenges.

Speaker 2: 19:25

What are those challenges Like? Do I feel lonely? Sometimes people feel lonely, especially women. They feel lonely when they leave their families for the first time. It's like, you know, like I miss my mom, I miss my dad, I miss my siblings or whatever things that they didn't even know they needed. They need that emotional attachment, so they have to create that, whether it be via zoom, you know, like WhatsApp groups or whatever. You have to create that and you have to give yourself this idea of I'm still attached to the people I love the most, because it doesn't matter the distance. If you are truly meant to be with someone, or someone's supposed to be in your circle or with you, you can spend 10, 20, 50 years apart and the moment you two reunite, it's like let's pick up where we left off.

Speaker 1: 20:13

And that's how you find who's truly meant to be in your circle. And that's how you find like who's truly meant to be in your circle, right, I mean one of my best friends, you know. He moved to Vegas that's where his mom moved and stuff and me and him can not talk for months, you know, and all of a sudden we hang out one time it's like nothing has changed, right, you know, it's like we pick up where we left off other people. It's like you see them and then you're like oh, so you know what are you doing now. You know how's life and and so forth, and then it's like okay, yeah, hey, there, all right, I don't know what just happened. All of a sudden, like I heard everything you said and I went to start responding and then I noticed, as I looked at my screen, the computer wasn't doing anything and then it just turned off. So I apologize.

Speaker 2: 21:24

Yep, so you could basically just go from where I said, if you want to make your editing easy, basically what you were talking about. Is this true because your friend moved to Vegas? Okay, perfect.

Speaker 1: 21:34

So, yeah, so, like my friend moving to Vegas, it was, you know, for him, you know, a huge change and he cut off a lot of the party stuff, a lot of the other things that weren't aligning with him and me and him could not talk for months, right, and all of a sudden we, you know, connect or we hang out and it's like nothing has changed.

Speaker 1: 21:54

You know, everything picks up right where left off, and then I have other friends that you know I haven't seen for a while, and then all of a sudden we hang out and it's that awkward, like almost, you know I forget what it's called when you just meet someone for the first time and you have to do those like warmup questions and it's like okay, those are the people that probably aren't necessary to your circle, right, but the hack almost that I would add to yours is that if you don't have the courage of essentially picking up and moving, like just change your phone number, right, and give your phone number to essentially the people that you want to, and then someone else, all of a sudden you might run into them and they're like I've been trying to text you, oh, my bad, I got a new phone number you know and then you can go from that you know um that's ghosting.

Speaker 1: 22:36

Yeah, that's ghosting on a whole nother level, right, you know so you don't have to block their number and then all of a sudden they find out. You block them, you just change your number and use that as an excuse.

Speaker 2: 22:46

You might as well just unfriend them from social media.

Speaker 1: 22:48

Yeah, I mean they'll get the hey, we're done. Yeah, they'll get the picture, yeah, so, yeah. So I mean, with that too, though, right, with moving, with changing number, with changing your friends circle and everything like that, right. One of the questions, that kind of lines I want to get your opinion on it, is the limiting beliefs people have right, because, from whether it's your bring up, whether it's your circle, right, sometimes limiting beliefs can be placed externally, but also can be placed internally. How do you start to get someone over a limiting belief?

Speaker 2: 23:16

Yeah, Well, one of the things you have to do is allow them to believe it's possible. Right, belief is the cure. I remember one time this is early like college I had a student and he I was a swim instructor at the time. He just learned how to swim, I just taught him how to swim and I wanted him to swim across the pool. I knew he can do it, but he didn't know he could do it. Right, he never did it before.

Speaker 2: 23:42

Right, so I say, okay, I want you to swim across the pool. He looks at me, goes, what are you crazy? And I was like, first of all, you're three who taught you this word, so, so, so I'm like, no, I'm not crazy, I'm like you're going to swim across this pool and you don't have a choice, right. And he's like okay, but he was, he was very fearful, he was timid, right, and this is a young man who was timid when I got him at two and I got him to be more brave he's a big brother now and he was ready to swim across the pool, but you know, his mind didn't know it was possible quite yet. So I coached him through it and I, you know, and we got him across the pool and you can tell, about halfway to 75% of the way, panic started to ensue and he started like, oh my God, I'm not going to make it. And I coached him through him I take your breath, get those arms up, get those feet moving, and I make sure that they don't touch me. They touch the wall right. So they did it on their own accord. They didn't need me. I'm there just as uh, you know, just as a audience member to see your greatness happen, right to unfold. And so he touches the wall and the mom loses it. Oh yeah, oh my god. And he's like, yes, I got it right, give him a high five. And then at that point that limit was gone. He never called me crazy again. He never said he couldn't swim across the pool, he just did it right Because he basically understood.

Speaker 2: 25:08

If I'm asking him something, it's that I know he's ready, and so, similar to how you have to have those people in your life that can say you're ready, I think is very important to have those, because I remember when I was doing my student teaching, you have cooperating teachers that you learn from to be a teacher and you are in there any between like eight and 14 weeks, depending on your major, et cetera. And my second cooperating teacher after I was done on my first at the high school level, I went to the elementary school level and he's a great guy, like phenomenal teacher, and I often compared myself to him. I said like I, like I'm not you like, like you do it so great, like it's so easy for you, but for me it's challenging. And he was able to see my weaknesses and we worked on those weaknesses and eventually we made them strengths. And toward the last week or probably the last day, I said you know, I think I need more time. He goes no, you don't, you're ready.

Speaker 2: 26:08

And it's very similar to that idea of that young boy now I'm an adult and he's saying you're ready, right, just because you can't see it yet doesn't mean that it's not possible. So when I went into schools and I was a teacher and there was no one else in the classroom, I just gave myself this idea that I was ready. Now you have to do the work in order for you to be ready. For example, let's say you want to be a public speaker. You can't not practice public speaking, you can't not work on your presentation and expect just to go on stage and be brilliant, right, you have to do the work, for whatever you want to do, whether it be career, a business you have to put into work the hours to gain experience, and once you develop or you start to attain more experience, you're going to get that confidence, and that confidence is going to lead to yourself believing that you can do something belief and then those limits that you have just kind of naturally fade away.

Speaker 1: 27:03

No, I think that's awesome and that's an awesome explanation of it. I mean, just like the little boy that was swimming across the pool, like, how many times do we get halfway with something and then start to panic, right, start to have self-doubt and then decide to turn back when you're pretty much at the halfway point? It's the same distance to the other side, but we already know what the other side has. So we go back to that side, right, and even even like more, so like what your example of you know, I'm not ready. You do this so well, you are X, you know I'm not that yet. And it's like, a lot of times we compare ourselves to someone that is already excellent or already, you know, has been doing it for years, and develop the skills you know to be that next level, and we compare them to what is supposed to be base level, right, and I'm not at that your level, so I'm not ready. It's like, look, my level isn't readiness, my level is past that, right, and you have to. You have to like kind of shift your mind, because a lot of entrepreneurs start to do this too.

Speaker 1: 28:08

From my, my experience of like talking to different entrepreneurs is you know, they'll compare themselves to the Andy Vercela's, the Elon Musk's, the you know, you know Bill Gates? It's like those are one of few entrepreneurs. You are an entrepreneur. Stop belittling your promotion of yourself. Entrepreneur is just a title and you think that you're not an entrepreneur. You're not a business owner because you're not at an Inc 500 level company, yet You're still a business owner on paper. So it's like what is the imposter syndrome? What is that self-doubting belief really?

Speaker 2: 28:46

Yeah, and we all start somewhere. Like people don't realize that you know Jeff Bezos was in his garage, you know selling books, right. Like they don't see that. And if you look at some of the old pictures, he's there, he has Honda and now he's on yachts and private planes and things like that. People, they see the end result, the goal, right. They don't see the journey. Many people, when it comes to looking at a winner, they don't look at the winner for all the losses that became their foundation. It's just wow. Look at all the money, look at all the confidence, look at all this great stuff that I wish I had right now.

Speaker 2: 29:24

We live in this society, or this world, where immediate gratification is the essential necessity of everyone's life. Or I want things now, I don't want it later. People who they start going to the gym, for example, they will stop after just a few months because they're not getting the results, because they want it immediately. And the same thing is true in businesses. The reason why 50% of businesses fail within the first couple of months, if not years, is because they're not seeing the results.

Speaker 2: 29:51

And if you ask any business owner, they basically say or good business owner. They say, don't worry about the profit, right. Worry about the progress, right. Worry about the change that you're going to be creating. Whether it be helping people get in shape, maybe giving the best clothes for people If you have a clothing store, the best beauty products If you have a beauty healthcare line or something along those lines with supplements, you get to choose your business right. But as long as you're helping people, it doesn't matter how many people you're helping, because it's only going to be at some point. It might be five, 10, 15 years down the road where you're going to say, wow, like look at how far we've come, right, because before you might've just been selling stuff to your family members, but now you're doing your whole community and eventually it's going to be the nation, maybe even the world after that?

Speaker 1: 30:35

No, a hundred percent. And, like you said, I tell people the same thing. It's like no one really sees the graveyard of mistakes and failures along the journey. They just see that tip of the iceberg and you're comparing your journey to someone's tip of their iceberg. It's like Elon Musk, for example, had PayPal, he had X, he had all these different things, and people just acknowledge him for the one thing, the biggest thing and people just acknowledge them for the one thing, the biggest thing. And it's like I think most business owners have a slew of things that didn't work out before they found the thing that worked out. And so just because you're not at that level yet doesn't mean you can't get there. You just need to keep going, build the skills and so forth, and sometimes it doesn't work out, and that's okay. You try again. You just step back up to the plate. No one bats a thousand, but you can't, you know, get a home run if you don't step up to the plate.

Speaker 2: 31:27

Very, true and this idea of you know, like burn the bridges or burn the ships or something like that, right, there's two types of people in this world people who like plans and people who don't like plans. Plan A people are like, hey, I have this one choice, this is what it's going to be, right, and they push until they get it. There's certain people who say I have plan A, b, c, d, right, and if something doesn't work, let me switch right. But then, if you think about it, right, if you do plan A for, let's say, a couple of years, you already took the beating for that plan A. So now you can either use that knowledge and that wisdom to help you with plan B or to keep on taking that beating, maybe for a little bit longer, to have plan A work. So it's just a different type of thinking.

Speaker 2: 32:10

And are you this type of person who just wants to plan A, or are you a person that likes to have a lot of contingencies? And I'm not saying that we're going to be reckless. I'm not saying we're going to go to the casino and we're going to put all our money down and we're going to just bet it on one hand a blackjack or something like that. Right, we're not being crazy. Right, we are going to be practical and we're going to do things in our own. I guess you can say experience, right, so we know we have like a level of experience for something, a knowledge base. Then we know we can do something.

Speaker 2: 32:44

If I ask someone to tie your shoe or like their shoe, they could probably say, yeah, not a problem. If I ask you know most people to go to their fridge and get a drink, they probably can do that. But if I ask you know my four-year-old or my four-month-old daughter to do that, she can't do that yet. Right. So you have to figure out what you can do and then you start there. But then again you have to give yourself the mindset which person are you? A person who likes to focus on one thing, or are you a person that likes to focus on many things? There's two types of entrepreneurs that I found when you know from working with them people who are just just hyper focused on one thing, and people who have a new LLC every single month. All right, those people have multiple plans a, b, c, d right, even though they want all the plans to work.

Speaker 1: 33:30

But then there's going to be people who are saying, hey, you know, like this is my one thing, right, I'm going to make sure this KFC works, or whatever right, and I think I mean there's a time and place, I think, and and obviously with I do agree, because with you know, launching the franchise company and bringing franchisees on, I that for me I'm the kind of person that needs to burn the boats, right, that's just. I work best under pressure. If I have contingencies, I will start to get complacent, you know, and for me I just know that that's just my mindset. But I also tell people that's not also for everyone. If someone has a normal nine to five and is looking to start a business, it's like, look, you can do that. You can do your nine to five and then, from five to nine, work on your business until it's making more money or makes enough sense that you can quit your nine to five. Then, you know, go for that.

Speaker 1: 34:24

For me, personally, I was like I couldn't do that because the whole time I'd be at the nine to five. I would just be thinking of the five to nine, right, like I get super hyper-focus, like you say, on one thing and that's all I could think about. You know, and that's not everyone, um, but to, to that it's like even someone that burns the bridges, or even the person that has all the different llcs. I think that there's a time and place to differentiate and have those contingencies, because if you have an llc, let's say, every other week, every month, it's like are you putting enough effort into the, into any of them, let alone one of them, to make it actually work? Or are you living life as, like, grass is always greener on the other side and then the other side and the other side?

Speaker 2: 35:09

Well, it goes to this Denzel Washington quote. He says don't mistake movement for progress. And many people think that if they do a lot of things then there must be doing something right? Right, because they're not having busy time or or or wasted time, they're not on their phone scrolling or something like that. So the fact that they're doing something productive doesn't mean that is going to be conducive to a thriving business down the road. Right? So for that, I encourage people to get a mentor in the area or the field where you're most passionate about passion. Right, the key is passion there is that you're most passionate about passion. Right, the key is passion there is that you're most passionate about right, not about the most money yet, but the most passion, because when you can do something you love, then you do other things that can make you money.

Speaker 2: 35:53

The passion part is what keeps you going. You could have plan B to make you side money. If you've got a fingerprinting business. You could have a trash company, a landscaping company. Right? Those things might not be your passions, but they are maybe helping you have the lifestyle that you would like, right? You want to go on more vacations. You want to drive a certain type of car, you want to live in a certain neighborhood. All of these things happen because of your other options, but you did have a main focus. So it's.

Speaker 2: 36:18

It's very similar to how maybe you know guys and I'm not saying you're this guy, I was this guy in high school, college you have, you know, different girlfriends, right, you have multiple girls, right, but you always have a main girl, right, and then eventually you get married. You just have one right, because you can't afford to have all of these distractions, because you have a family now and you have businesses now, probably. So you have to laser focus what truly matters now, right, because when you're 18, you don't really have too much on your plate, unless living circumstances and situations can kind of depict that differently for you. But for most of these people, they have the world, they're like all right, let me go out and party. And this is why, around 2021, they go and they go party and they go drink and they go do all these things right. And it's because they finally get a taste of being an adult and they don't necessarily know what an adult truly means buy alcohol or cigarettes or go to war or start a family or buy a home or rent a car, if you are 25 or older, you don't have to pay a surcharge for it. That is not what being an adult is. You have to define that.

Speaker 2: 37:35

It's very similar to how you define success, and if you get really clear and you do the work, you can do it today. Define things right. Just because my definition of success is me being financially fit and my family being protected and provided for for the next 20 years, hey, that's my success. But maybe that's not your success. Maybe you want to spend as much time with your friends and your loved ones and you live in a rundown neighborhood and that could be your success, right? So just because I look at your success different and you look at someone's success differently, it doesn't mean you're doing it wrong, but there is a way to do it correctly and you don't have to be inventing the wheel every single time you want to do something. Find someone who has done it, get a mentor, a guide. They're going to see all your blind spots before you even do it and you can mitigate so many hardships and traumas and challenges that you wouldn't even have to deal with if you just invested in your learning and your growth.

Speaker 1: 38:36

Oh, a hundred percent, and I agree with you. And, yep, I was. I was one of those guys, as unfortunate as it is. So I get you on that. I mean, as we wrap up, I'd like to ask one final question, and I love everything that we've talked about so far, so I'm really interested to get your take on this. Now, this is the legacy wall question. Now, before I ask you the question, it's not a tombstone right? So, even though I say that some people still try to give me the tombstone answer a tombstone right. So even though I say that some people still try to give me the tombstone answer, this is the one message that you'd leave for the up and coming generations that you've learned along your life's journey. What would your legacy wall message be?

Speaker 2: 39:14

Well, it goes into the business. The business that I created is Revin Concepts, and Revin is just never backwards, and so the idea is never is just an option, right? So you always have the option to push and progress or to stay stagnant and to not even look up ever again. Right, you can be a person who's forgotten in the, you know, in the stance of time, or you could be someone who's going to echo in the stands of time, right, we can think of greats George Washington, we could think of Abraham Lincoln, you know presidents that are on money, right? Money we use daily.

Speaker 2: 39:50

And you might ask well, you know, maybe I won't be a president that's on money, but you can be an author, you can be a person that has created impact in their life, and it's very similar to a person planting a tree, for example. You don't plant a tree to enjoy the shade, you plant a tree for your great great grandchildren to enjoy the shade. And that's the idea of what legacy is the work that you do is going to compound, maybe not in your time, but in your generation's time.

Speaker 1: 40:19

I love that and I love the name of the company too. I didn't even think about that. That's awesome, but no, honestly, that's an awesome legacy wall thing and never is just an option. That is boom, that's a mic drop right there. That's the first time. I've actually heard someone say that. I love that. Where can people connect with you, learn more about your company, learn more about what you got going on?

Speaker 2: 40:42

Easy enough Revenconceptscom I'm sure you're going to throw that down in the show notes so people don't have to worry about spelling and also at Reven Concepts. On all of our socials. We are everywhere where there's social media. You can tune in on YouTube, watch some of the clips or some of the podcasts that we have. Our podcast is Coaching in in session, if you want to hear a bit of mindset from a different end, and then also to tune into Devin's episode that we have on coaching in session, because he was dropping some bombs there too. So definitely tune into that episode, and I'm sure you're going to pop that link also right down below for people to tune in.

Speaker 1: 41:19

That is right. All those links will be down below, guys, Make sure you guys check out you know Revan concepts. Make sure you guys check out his show as well. It is an awesome show. And, of course, you know, check out my episode with them. Um, but you know, thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to to hop on the mindset cafe. We had an amazing conversation on your, your podcast, so it's always great to run it back and and switch the chairs around, so I do really appreciate it. Truly a pleasure. Thank you, David. Make sure you guys share this episode with a friend. Make sure you guys leave us that five-star review. It helps us get the message out to more people like yourself. But make sure you guys share this episode with a friend that is trying to better themselves. Maybe they need help with their mindset, but we appreciate you for tuning in, we appreciate you for continuing your growth journey and until next time, guys. See you guys later.

Speaker 1: 42:08

No negative vibes, only positive thoughts. Just in the game of life. My set calls the shots, Got my mind on the prize. I can't be distracted. I stay on my grind. No time to be slacky. I hustle harder, I go against the curve, Because I know my mind is rich to be collected.