"Everything's Fine" Is the Deadliest Mindset—Why Playing It Safe Kills Your Growth

You can work harder. Read more books. Follow better strategies. And still stay exactly where you are.

You make the same income. Hit the same limits. Wonder why nothing changes.

Most entrepreneurs blame the economy. Blame their market. Blame bad luck.

But Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs spent decades discovering the real culprit: your subconscious mind.

Your conscious mind thinks it's in charge. You make rational decisions. You follow logic. You execute strategy.

But 95% of your actual behavior? That's being controlled by beliefs you didn't choose, programming you didn't agree to, and patterns formed when you were a child listening to your parents say "money doesn't grow on trees" and "play it safe."

The question isn't whether you're smart enough or hard-working enough. The question is: what invisible ceiling is your subconscious keeping you under?

And more importantly—how do you reprogram it?

👤 WHO ARE MARK BRUCE & DWAYNE GIBBS?

Mark Bruce is an entrepreneur, investor, and mindset coach who spent decades building multiple successful businesses while studying the principles of success through Napoleon Hill's "Think and Grow Rich." After hitting his own plateaus and discovering the limitations of strategy alone, Mark partnered with Bob Proctor and invested heavily in understanding how paradigm shifts create wealth. He now teaches "Thinking Into Results"—a system that bridges the gap between knowing what to do and actually doing it.

Dwayne Gibbs is a serial entrepreneur, real estate investor, and consciousness coach with 30+ years of business experience. Growing up with a father who worked 20+ years at Coca-Cola only to be let go, Dwayne internalized the fear-based belief that security comes from corporate employment. This programmed him with scarcity mindset despite building multiple successful enterprises. His breakthrough came when he realized the disconnect: he could be financially successful but emotionally stuck, ambitious but unfulfilled, achieving goals but never feeling enough. This led him to study subconscious reprogramming, journaling practices, and faith-based consciousness work.

Together, Mark and Dwayne founded Huddle for Success—a coaching and mastermind program designed specifically for entrepreneurs who know they're capable of more but can't explain why they keep hitting invisible walls. They've helped hundreds of clients close the "knowing-doing gap" by working with the subconscious mind instead of just the conscious strategy.

Their framework: The subconscious controls 95% of your behavior. Most entrepreneurs spend 100% of their effort on the 5% (strategy, tactics, hard work). Until you reprogram the 95%, no amount of strategy will set you free.

🎯 5 KEY TAKEAWAYS

1. Your Subconscious Controls 95% of Your Success—And You're Ignoring It

Your conscious mind thinks it's in charge. You make decisions based on logic, strategy, and hard work. But 95% of your actual behavior is controlled by your subconscious mind—the beliefs you were programmed with as a child, the self-image you absorbed without realizing it, the paradigms passed down generationally. 

2. Self-Image Is Your Income Ceiling—You Can't Exceed It

Napoleon Hill discovered this studying 500 of the most successful people: they all had one thing in common—a strong self-image. You will never earn more than you believe you're worth. 

3. Your Programming Started Before You Could Think—And It Still Controls You

When you were a child, you heard things: "Money doesn't grow on trees." "Play it safe." "Work hard and everything will be okay." "Don't be greedy." Your young mind accepted these as absolute truth and stored them in your subconscious. 

4. The Daily Affirmation Formula That Actually Rewires Your Brain

Mark and Dwayne teach a specific, science-backed formula for affirmations that works because your subconscious can't distinguish between what's real and what you've repeated thousands of times. The formula: (1) State it in present tense as if already true: "I'm so happy and grateful now that I've earned $1M and my family is financially secure." (2) Say it out loud—there's something about hearing your own voice that makes your brain accept it faster. (3) Say it every morning and every night without fail. (4) Create a goal card—write it down, put it in your pocket, touch it constantly. This works because your subconscious is like a recording device. 

5. The Knowing-Doing Gap: Why You Know What to Do But Don't Do It

Most entrepreneurs know what they should do. They've read the books. Taken the courses. Understand the principles. But they don't actually do it. Mark and Dwayne call this the "knowing-doing gap," and it's where most people stay stuck. 

🎯 What to Expect
If you're hitting a ceiling you can't explain, feeling stuck despite hard work, or wondering why your results aren't matching your effort—a consultation with Mark or Dwayne will show you exactly where the block is. Most people discover it's not a strategy problem. It's a paradigm problem. And paradigms can be changed.

🌐 Connect on Social
LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram — Find them at Huddle for Success for ongoing teachings on wealth, mindset, and paradigm shifts.

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Transcript

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Your subconscious mind can't choose whether something's good or bad. It just has to accept everything that's fed it. If you feed a good thought and a positive idea to your subconscious mind, it will believe that that's the case. And if you do it long enough, it will happen.

SPEAKER_00 0:16

If you never made $100,000 a year, it's hard for people to believe that they can if they've never done.

SPEAKER_02 0:25

One of the things we teach people is there's a thing Bob used to call the knowing doing gap. Most people know what to do. They just don't always do it. That's right. It's the knowing doing gap.

SPEAKER_03 0:38

As an entrepreneur with a global team, one of my biggest challenges was managing international payments. I was stuck with high fees, slow transfers, and endless complications. Whether it was paying my team in the Philippines or buying products from Japan, I tried multiple banks and services like PayPal, but nothing seemed to work. Then I found WISE. The savings have been huge, and transfers that used to take days now happen in hours. It's fast, simple, and has become a vital part of my business strategy. If you're not using WISE for international payments, you're missing out on a game changer. Click on the link in the description to get started with WISE today. A lot of entrepreneurs can build success on the outside yet still feel unsettled or stuck on the inside. The real issue is that their mindset and subconscious patterns haven't caught up with their goals. Those patterns shape how we make decisions under pressure, what we believe we're capable of, and the limits we unconsciously accept, which is why people can work harder and still stay in the same place. What most people don't realize is that the subconscious mind drives the majority of our daily behavior, meaning willpower and motivation alone will always lose to deeply ingrained beliefs. Today's guests, Mark Bruce and Dwayne Gibbs, help high performers identify and rewire the limiting beliefs that quietly control results, even when the strategy and work ethic are solid. If you've hit a plateau in business or personal growth and can't explain why, this conversation will give you clarity on what's actually holding you back. I'm Linda Vaux, and this is Inspired by Success. Without further ado, let's welcome Dwayne and Mark to the show.

SPEAKER_00 2:14

Oh, that's fine. Welcome. Thank you. Thank you very much for the warm, warm introduction.

SPEAKER_03 2:21

It's great to have you guys both on, and I'm really, really eager to learn about the limiting belief part. And you guys talk about peridiums and limiting beliefs as well. For someone who's never thought of this stuff before, how would you explain this in plain language and why it matters more than just working harder? Because a lot of entrepreneurs they seem to be doing the same thing and they hit that ceiling and you know they work hard, but things get stuck. And I've been in that situation too. And I think definitely I'm learning about my subconsciousness and the beliefs that the the stories that we grow up with as well. But a lot a lot of entrepreneurs aren't aware of that. So can you please explain that and how how it works and how why we we stay stuck?

SPEAKER_02 3:06

Well, uh, I will tell you that one of the well, first of all, thank you again. Thank you again for having us on. But um one of the reasons that that that subconscious mind takes over is because that's where your paradigm, that's where your paradigm, your habits, and your beliefs live in your subconscious mind. Um you've got you've got a conscious mind, which is your thinking mind, and that that's attracted with you you can hear, see, smell, taste, and touch. You've got your five senses. They feed stuff in like a 20-lane highway. You're just bombarded with it. It's actually your subconscious mind that is what controls your body, controls your action, and operates on the belief system that was built sometimes generations back by habits. I mean, I can still hear my dad saying, turn off the lights when you leave the room. You know, money doesn't grow on trees. I I can hear him saying all those things, and all of those are inside of your paradigm. And while you don't pay a whole lot of attention to them, they are what they're what drive you to do, and you can only grow as you can only grow as high as your self-image. The the image that you see of yourself, you'll never you'll never exceed that. Um that comes right out of uh Napoleon Hill's Think and Grow Rich. There's a way to change that. Um Dwayne and I, we we work with clients all the time, and and that's one of the things we help them do is how to reprogram your subconscious mind. And it's it was talked about by Napoleon Hill. He interviewed you know the Wright brothers and and and Henry Ford and all of these very wealthy and successful people, and it's all about it's all about reprogramming the mind so that you realize that you can achieve anything that you want, as long as you don't limit limit your imagination, you cannot limit your imagination.

SPEAKER_00 5:00

So Wayne, you want to forget something or you want to add No, I I think just to add to that, you know, um people really need to decide what direction they want to go. I mean, so the talking about opening up your mind, there's a lot, there's a lot of people that I've talked to over the years that know they want change, they just don't know what it is. They can't they can't identify what that change looks like, but they want something different. And so I think what we do a really good job at is really slowing it down and breaking down the the steps of of what they're of what they are trying to accomplish. Um, and that goes that goes deep into so you know we find that that individuals um have an issue sometimes of can't explain it, and or they've been programmed their whole life of that they can't do it, or there's a barrier that stops them from doing it, or you know, it could be growing up as a parent. A parent may be very cautious and say, hey, don't do that, play it safe, everything's gonna be okay, and at the end of the day, it's really not. And so it stems way back, you know, as as as a child, and that's what we find out from from some people. And there's others that you know grew up in a in a household like Mark dig. Mark grew up where his dad was a coach, he was successful, you know, he encouraged him to be an entrepreneur, he encouraged him to go do business, and you know, people some people have that, but others don't. And so I I came from a background of where my dad, he was an accountant for Coca-Cola Company for 20-some years, and they let him go. But he always instilled in my sisters and and my head of go work for a company 30 years, 40 hours a week, and everything will be okay. Well, they let him go after 20 some years. And at the end of the day, I realized he wasn't okay. He had to now go out and figure out what was he gonna do for the second half of his life, and that's very stressful for people that have the mindset of, man, I have to start over. What's that look like? I'm fearful, and there are a lot of people that have dreams and and fantasize about I wish I could do this. And as kids, we're taught to go fantasize, go dream, think big. And the older we get, we're not we're not told that. We're told, hey, play safe, everything's gonna be okay, prices are going up. And then on top of that, you have a a huge growth in our country, such as AI, cell phone. I mean, heck, I don't even think people go to the bank anymore. You can if you have a check, you put it across your phone, it deposits in your account. Um, I mean, so it's just it's uh it's such a fast-paced life. And the older you get, the harder it is to adapt. But I think we do a really good job at at so to say peeling back the onion and getting to the core principles of where people are looking to get to and how we can help them and just slow it down.

SPEAKER_03 8:33

Yeah, that's really powerful because um that's interesting. The the story of your background and the safety and the fear thing. I think that's a common thing that um that people tend to have is that fear. And um, I read it somewhere that um there's the the fear, there's like seven types of fears. I I couldn't remember all of them. But fear of failure is one that I can relate to. Um there's a fear of losing things, like losing um losing everything when people become super successful, they they fear losing it. Um imposter fear of like being imposter, that's another one as well. But I guess all this stems from growing up and what you're told uh from the subconscious from the one to seven years old. Um but is there one belief you see over and over with entrepreneurs that quietly capture growth even when they're capable of more? Is it something that because they're doing it self-s like set self-sabotage and they're not aware of it?

SPEAKER_02 9:33

I think what happens a lot of times when when an entrepreneur is very successful, they'll they'll get to a they'll set a goal, they'll become successful, they'll hit that plateau, and you know, that's the picture they have of themselves. And then everything's okay, and then it's just okay. It stays the same. They lose clarity on what their next step is, and and it they almost become it can look like fear sometimes, but sometimes it's just boredom. They they've they've plateaued, they've plateaued to the level that they envision themselves. And as you said, you know, there is fear of losing money, and there is but so they don't want to rock the boat because everything is just okay. And you know, we like to help we like to help people gain clarity. We you know what is it Dwayne was Dwayne was working with somebody just the other day, and they said, Man, I'm 50 years old. I sure wish I'd had done all this stuff when I was 20. And Dwayne tell, I mean, you flipped it around on them, and what you told them was great. Why don't you yeah?

SPEAKER_00 10:38

So I so I was working with this lady, and she said um she was talking about how she wished things were different, and she would have done things different at a younger age. And I said, How old are you? And she said, I'm 56. And I said, Okay, what are you, you know, what are you talking about? She goes, Well, if I was 20 again, I would do this, this, this, and this. I would have a different career, I would save more, I would travel more, I would, I would have picked a a different place to live. And so she had a vision of exactly what she wanted, but now she's 30 years older. Okay. And I said, Okay, so imagine right now that you're 80 years of age, you're 80 years of age. What would you wish you could have done when you were 55? And the light bulb went off, and she says, I get it. And I said, What did you get? Because I wanted to see if she understood. And she goes, Well, you're telling me to look back and what I wanted to do when I was 20 if I if I could, and I'm 56 now, and I and you just spiraled me ahead to being 80 years of age, and you said, What would you do if you were 56? Well, you are 56, so whatever change you want to make, it's always time you can always reset that clock. So, you know, when you're 80 years old, and I were to say to her, hey, what's that what's that look like for you? Well, at 55, I would have I maybe I would have of a thing, I would have thought about retiring sooner, or I would have traveled more, I would have done things a little bit different, but now that I'm 80, I can't. Well, good news is you're 56 and you still can. You have 30 more years to change the outcome of the game. You have a you know the second half, so to say, of the game that you still can play and change. And I think people get so caught up in the moment that because again, we live in such a fast-paced life that people don't put themselves ahead and they look at where they've been in the past and they hinder themselves of why they cannot make progress forward. So when they feel like, oh gosh, I I tried this, I tried this business before, but it didn't work, or you know, I I have I know so many people that have successful podcasts, and I want to be very successful. But if I don't, what am I gonna do? And then you're fearful, and now you have all these things in your head that really stop you. But at the end of the day, you have so many things that are good. You have a good personality, you have a good concept for a podcast, you're very personal. Um, you look the part, you you're able to carry on conversations that gather people's willingness to learn and do. And so you real one really does have everything that they want. They just are programmed badly of thinking, well, I can't do it, or you know, I've tried in the past and it didn't work. And so unfortunately, as humans, we set ourselves up for failure, and then we also worry about success. A lot of people that I dealt with have said, Oh my goodness, what what if I do good at this? What's that next step look like? They they talk themselves out of it to where they're worrying about, hey, what's success look like? Because I really haven't experienced a high level of success, and there's so many roadblocks, and and it's it's just our programming, it's things that we go through life, it's things that we watch on social media, and it becomes very damaging.

SPEAKER_03 14:31

Yeah, that's pretty powerful. I mean, speaking of goals, for example, you know, I hear that I'm reading um I read a book that you have to set huge goals, audacious goals, and so that that way you can fully focus on it. And I know that um a lot of successful people they do set huge or audacious goals, but uh that's just an interesting thought that you mentioned that what happens when you do achieve that, you know. Do people like for me personally, I would continue to set even more bigger goals, so keep growing and growing. And I would have thought that's standard until but when is when is it that you stop, you know? Like do you just keep going? Because like Tony Robbins once said, if you're not growing, you're dying. So, you know, once you hit those goals, don't get get complacent, keep doing making bigger goals, you know. But how do we have to go?

SPEAKER_00 15:23

Yeah, so I mean that's that's a great part uh uh of of what you're saying, and that I I'll go back to what I initially was talking about fantasizing and dreaming. When when we're a kid, we're taught to do that, we're taught to fantasize, we're taught to dream, we're taught to think big, and we're we're taught, hey, don't let anybody stand in your way, and the sky's the limb, and we can go on and on and on with acronyms of of what really you know all that means. But at the end of the day, we don't do that as an adult, or we feel like it's so unreachable and it's so unmeasurable that we're never going to hit it. And that's true. The problem of it is it's great to have high dreams and high goals. But if you don't, if you don't, because we're again we're programmed and we're damaged when we the older we get, at 58 years of age, I can tell you that what I had to do years ago was I had to start doing many wins. I had to start looking at daily wins and weekly wins and monthly goals and six-month goals, because even though my long-term 10-year goal, five-year goal, three-year goal, one-year goal, six-month, three-month, one month, I would break it all the way down until it got to be a daily goal because I found myself, you know, being even being in the business for 30 plus years, I found myself getting off track. And I got off track because just because you do it, you're you're really good at giving advice and helping other people. But sometimes when it comes to you for your self-gratification and your building and your layering and everything, sometimes we're we're not too good at at taking our own advice sometimes. And so that becomes a problem.

SPEAKER_02 17:13

Yeah, I will tell you, I will say that you have to figure out why you want your goal. And and the best way to figure out why you want your goal is to is is you ask yourself a series of six or seven times, okay, this is what I think my goal is. I want to make X number of dollars. Why do I want to make those? Why do I want to make X number of dollars? And you come up with that answer. And when you get that answer, you say, okay, why does that all right? So I want that because I want to be able to buy a bigger house for my family. Okay, why is it important that you have a bigger house for your family? Well, because I want my kids to have what I didn't have, whatever the answer is. And then you ask yourself a fourth time, why is that important to you? And by the time you get to the sixth or seventh one, you'll probably figure out exactly why your goal is what your goal is. I the first time I did that, it was like, oh my gosh. Because you know, it's really easy for entrepreneurs to say, okay, I want to make X number of dollars, I want to have, I want my business to be successful, but they don't always attach the Y to it. And if you don't attach the Y, a bump in the road comes along and it's too easy to say, okay, well, I can adjust that down. But yeah, if the Y is strong enough and audacious enough, the goal will be achieved.

SPEAKER_00 18:29

I would ask people this. I I would ask people what do they want, but it can't be money. And and they stop and think, and they're like, What do you mean it can't be money? That's what I really want. No, money is a result, not is a result, not a cause. You have to do something to make money. So it's no different than building, you know, and running out your goals. What is it that you really want but can't be money? I get money can buy things, but also I know people that are very happy that don't have money, that they have a they a comfort in life. They have they have the understanding of I don't need to feel so anxious all the time. I'm not overwhelmed. I'm not saying money's not important. I'll be the first to tell you it is. I've made a lot of money, and there are times that I didn't make much money, but having more money definitely helps. But at the end of the day, you're able to do more things if you have the mindset, because then you'll find that the money will come. So that would be a question that I would add that we I ask everybody. What is it that you really want and it can't be money? And then they really dig into more of the root. What is it that I really want? Well, I really want to be able to be in a in a better career situation, you know, and I I want to be able to be more active in my community, or I want to be more, I want to have more biblical sense to where I can become, uh I can belong to a better church so I can give back more. So it really, it really just you really have to break it down and say, what is it that I really want? I mean, because at the end of the day, money's gonna, you know, enter into every situation. It's the necessary evil, but I believe that there's a lot of things that people really want. Peace, understanding, comfort, love. I mean, there's so many things that people want that money can't buy. People want good health. Okay, well, you can get up earlier, you can do a cardio workout, you can go walk, you can lift, and you can do everything in the confines of your house or outside, and that doesn't cost you anything, and now you have better health. What'd that cost you? Cost you zero. Cost you uh a way of life of getting up earlier, being healthier, eating better, spending less money, not eating processed foods, not going out to dinner and eating junk. So I can go on and on and on. So there's there's a lot of things that you can gain by by not having money.

SPEAKER_03 21:10

Do you think what's a common answer that most people give you? Because I would have thought for entrepreneurs it would be freedom and or peace of mind, but what do you think?

SPEAKER_00 21:19

You know what they want?

SPEAKER_03 21:20

What?

SPEAKER_00 21:21

They want time, they want more time. People want more time because they can't buy it. You can adjust your day to have more time. 24 hours in a day, I tell somebody you want more time during the day, get up earlier, go to bed later, read more. So there's a lot of there's a lot of things that you can do to add more time, but what's really important? Everybody at the end of the day, whether they own a business or they don't, everyone says once they hit age 55, they always say, I want more time.

SPEAKER_03 21:56

Wow, that's powerful. Do you think um Also I wanna know about the with the roadblocks that you know are always getting in our way of our programming and you know what what do you guys commonly see that are blocking entrepreneurs as well in order to get what they truly want? Time, freedom, peace, health.

SPEAKER_02 22:22

It varies from from person to person. But we've already talked about the biggest ones, you know, that's fear and self-image. A lot of times you can only rise as high as your self-image will allow says that you can. Um fear, I I I was thinking I saw a a I saw Will Smith do a thing on fear, and he he talked about how he was with his buddies and they were drinking, and they're like, hey, let's let's skydive tomorrow. And he's like, Yeah, let's go skydiving. And then he got home and he's like, uh-uh, we're gonna jump out of an airplane. And and so he talked about how he was up in the plane and how afraid he, you know, how he it was terrifying to get to the edge, and you realized you got to jump out of this plane, and this guy's strapped on the back. And it was hilarious the way Will Smith did it. But he said, on the other side of jumping out of that wind, out of that plane was the most amazing feeling in the world. So just on the other side of fear, in just about every case, is an amazing feeling. Um, the way you do that is by reprogramming your paradigm, by self- self-writing out your goal, writing out what it is that you want, writing out why it is that you want, saying it every morning, saying it every night. Your subconscious mind can't choose whether something's good or bad. It just has to accept everything that's fed it. So if you feed, if you feed a good thought and a positive idea to your subconscious mind, it will believe that that's the case. And if you do it long enough, it will happen. Um, when Napoleon Hill was writing Think and Grow Rich, Andrew Carnegie put him on the task to interview 500 people. And he's like, Well, you do this for 20 years without any compensation, and and you'll have success at the end of 20 years. But and Andrew or uh Napoleon Hill said, Absolutely, I'll do that. And he's like, But I I'm gonna need you to give me some help. So Andrew Carnegie gave him an affirmation. He's like, Napoleons say this every morning. Andrew Carnegie, I'm going to equal you at the three-quarter mile post and I'm gonna pass you at the grandstands. And and that was a horse racing analogy, but it was basically like Napoleon Hill saying, Andrew Carnegie, I'm gonna do just what you've done. Who he was the richest man in the world at the time, and I'm gonna far exceed you. And Napoleon Hill said, Now you know daggone well that's that that's not true, and it's never gonna happen. And Carnegie said, Well, if you believe that'll never happen, you're right. It will never happen. However, Andrew Carnegie made about a hundred millionaires in his lifetime. He made he he with his uh uh steel company, he helped about a hundred people become millionaires. Well, Napoleon Hill has helped thousands, probably hundreds of thousands of people with his 20 years worth of work in Think and Grow Rich to become millionaires. So he has far exceeded Andrew Carnegie. He eventually believed that it happened and it he convinced his subconscious mind. Uh he talks about it in the book. Uh after after about two weeks of saying it every morning and every night out loud when he really didn't believe it, he started to say, you know, this might actually work.

SPEAKER_03 25:40

Do you guys recommend doing daily affirmations because to rewire? Because you mentioned putting the goals in place, and but daily affirmations, is that something that you guys recommend that everyone should do?

SPEAKER_02 25:53

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 25:55

But when you, you know, you you know that you haven't got that thing, but you have to train your brain like you already have it as well. So what are your thoughts on that? And what do you guys do for daily affirmations? Is that morning and night you're just subconsciously training your brain to hit the goals that you want? Or can you go deeper into that? Before we get into the the book, I want to talk about the the daily affirmations and what we're doing.

SPEAKER_02 26:17

I'm so happy and grateful now that I am financially secure, I have X number of dollars, and my family has no more financial worries. That was one of that was one of my morning affirmations. You need to say it in a as if you already have it. I'm so happy and grateful now that. And you say it in the morning, you say it in the evening before you go to bed. I will tell you one of the mistakes I made when I first started doing that habit is I didn't say it out loud. There's something about saying it out loud that that makes your brain hear it better. Um uh the other thing that my that my mentor Bob Proctor recommends is is is having a goal card, taking a goal card and writing out your goal on the back of the goal card, putting it in your pocket, and and you read this is what you read in the morning, and you put it in your pocket and you carry it with you. So anytime you put your hand in your pocket, you're you feel it. You feel the card in there, and even if you can't take it out and read it then, just touching it makes you remember what your goal is.

SPEAKER_03 27:26

I remember having those cards because I remember reading in the book and then writing the like my top goals, and then at the back, ask it as is given, like seek me shall find like for that. And I I had multiple copies everywhere so that I could read it, one in the car, one in my beside my bed. Um that's good. I haven't I haven't done it for a while, but then yeah.

SPEAKER_02 27:47

You had them? You had them? I did. You had them, right?

SPEAKER_03 27:50

But I hit my goals, yeah. I did hit those goals, so I haven't written more goals yet. But I do I do now have like a sheet of paper that has my short-term goals and my long-term goals and the just the daily thing, weekly goals, and then I put it in a book because one of um uh the entrepreneurs that I follow, and he's so inspirational, he's an Australian founder. He built um a 600 $300 million brand or 600 million, but he just mentioned one thing is that he reads his goals every day. And so I put my goals in a piece of paper when I'm reading my book before bed, I read that. But sometimes I like I notice that I hit my goals, I always hit so that's why maybe I should be. I have audacious goals now because I always seem to hit my goals, but I've got to constantly rewrite them as well. Um, what are your thoughts on that? Do you guys write your goals all the time, change it up?

SPEAKER_02 28:41

Absolutely. The goal does not have to stay exactly the same all the time. It it's going see when you when you're traveling towards your goal, it's kind of like traveling on a mountain windy road. You know, you you might start out this way and get around the corner, and it's oh my gosh, I can see way much, I can see so much farther. I should have a bigger goal. Yeah, so changing goals as long as they don't get smaller is a good thing.

SPEAKER_03 29:10

Yeah. Duane, do you have anything to yeah?

SPEAKER_00 29:12

So I I do my goals um every three months. I readjust my goals and then I do something that's new to me over the past year and a half is I I um journal. And I've never did that before. And because I, you know, I wrote goals and you know stayed busy and with coaching people, so I felt like I was always in it, but journaling has really changed my life in a positive way. And I thought initially, oh, that's not for me, that's for women, that's you know, I don't want to do that, it's weird, and but I'll be honest with you, it has really changed my life for the positive, and being able to get things out of my head, you know, whether it's and so what I do, I I've really changed how I start my day. So I get up in the morning, I sometimes depending on how I get out of the bed, I may roll. It's crazy, but I may roll out and get off on the other side of the bed. So instead of getting off on the right side, I may roll over and get off on the left side. I just say that because it it changes things up for me. And then I I go get a cup of water, I make my coffee, I come into my office and I sit down and I listen to some scripture. Um, and then I belong to a couple uh podcasts that one my pastor has a has a podcast, and so I'll listen to that. And then I just sit in complete silence, complete quiet, and then I start journaling. And I do that for about it some days it could be 10 minutes, some days it could be 30 minutes, and it it really just depends. I try and gauge it too on what my day looks like every day. So I gotta get up a little bit earlier today because I have a big day tomorrow, but I make sure I do that routine every single day, and I find that um it helps a lot, it helps being able to get you know to put it down, and there are some days that I'll put goals in there, um, but I have a separate book for for all my goals, and um it it really helps getting it off my plate because my head goes so fast sometimes. I just I have so much in there. I it's you it's crazy to live in my head if somebody had to. I don't recommend it.

SPEAKER_03 31:43

Um I think entrepreneurs have a lot going on in their heads too.

SPEAKER_00 31:48

Yeah, yeah. Plus, I have dyslexia, and and I can tell you I don't I don't I don't recommend it, I just live with it, you know what I mean? And so um it's it really has helped me a lot, no question.

SPEAKER_03 32:04

Nice. I want to talk about the um Napoleon Heel book um and the science of success. Marky, you mentioned the book the the the book Think and Grow Rich, and you read it when you're your you were young, and then later in life with a different view and different results. Looking back now, what didn't you really understand for the first time? And you know, as Bob Proctor, I just discovered this, but Bob Proctor studied the same book every day for decades. So it's just fascinating because I'd get bored, but what was he seeing that most people completely miss?

SPEAKER_02 32:37

Um the first time I read it, I I got the big picture, you know, it positive attitude, you know, you if you think it, you can do it. And that's that's important. And and that that let me get to a certain level. It was it was in 2020 when the world shut down. I and I had three companies going at the time, and I was afraid all three of them were going to stop producing income. And it's like, oh my gosh, what am what am I gonna do? I need to I need to come up with something different. So I pulled Think and Grow Rich back out. And I was like, let me read it again. And and I read a part of the book that I didn't read the first, that I didn't remember the first time. It says, read this book three times and then go back and start to implement the book. It it it is a it is a plan on how to become successful. Um and that's what Bob Proctor studied. He studied it for, as you said, he studied it for 60 years. Well, I had read it three times, I was in the process of putting it together, and somehow I saw Bob Proctor advertise something on YouTube, and I started watching a five-day, he had a five-day masterclass on changing your paradigm. And I was like, well, I knew who Bob was. I didn't know that he had studied the book that long, and but I learned that over five days, and I was like, oh my gosh, if if he studied this book for for 50 years at the time, maybe I could learn something from him. So I became a I became a client of his. I went through one of his training programs, which is one of the most amazing thinking grow or thinking in thinking into results is the name of the program. And Dwayne and I utilize that as part of our mentoring coaching program with our clients because it is it's life-changing.

SPEAKER_03 34:28

Wow, that's pretty powerful. Are there any other books and um other mentors that you guys really recommend? I mean, there's so much in the self-development space, but as and sometimes some of it becomes very similar and repeated, but I think the originals like the one that um think and grow rich is just the concepts there are great. But are there any books and mentors that have also made a huge impact on your lives?

SPEAKER_02 34:55

Um a a shorter version of Think and Grow Rich is The Science of Getting Rich by uh Wallace D. Waddles. It's it's a it's a great preliminary book to Think and Grow Rich. It's only like a hundred pages long. Um I've given that to a number of my friends' kids. Um it's a it's a it's a great book.

SPEAKER_00 35:17

Great book. Great book.

SPEAKER_02 35:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 35:20

Oh yeah, I've got that on audio. I haven't actually listened to it yet, so I might uh get into that because I selected that one. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_02 35:26

It it is, and yes, they it they teach a lot of the same everything that Napoleon Hill wrote about it he interviewed 500 of the most successful people. He he took the success principles that he learned from all 500, and they're the same success principles for today. There nothing else, I mean technology changes. I mean, we've got more tools than they had back then, but uh the reality of how you're how you uh produce success, it it it's it it's all a mental, it's a mental game, completely mental game.

SPEAKER_00 36:04

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Can we dive deeper into that? Like, do you think there's rituals that successful people should usually do? And you know, you you mentioned Dwayne that's um you know you like to have scriptures, you have your faith. And um, I'm of a strong, like I have a faith in God as well. And yeah, do you think that there's certain rituals that successful people often do that's different from I know that working hard is one, but my having the right mindset, um, but faith. I don't know. What are your thoughts on that? What have you seen?

SPEAKER_00 36:36

Faith is the core of anything. My faith is strong, Mark's faith is strong, and so we, you know, Jesus Christ is my Lord and Savior, and so I I fall strongly on that. And so I I listen to it, I'm involved with it every single day, and um I find that it has changed my life of things I do, things I think, things I say because of my faith. I build on that all the time. And so if I didn't have faith, I believe that I can go way back and tell you all the times that I've really messed up and got off track and um fought against things that I didn't want to do because I felt like I had it. I could, oh, I got it, I got it, where I didn't have it. You know, I needed God all the time to be able to he's the creator, he's able to take everything, and I rely on on talking to him every day, and just it it has changed my life, and so I don't want to push it too much, but you know, I just to say that it's really changed my life, and um, I'm grateful for that. I believe that more people need to have God in their life. Just that's just my my opinion. Whether they do or don't, that's up to them. That's just what I believe in. I think that um people that are successful can handle rejection a lot easier, and I think that they're just wired, they're wired differently because they have experience, they've experienced some things that one that just wants to stay in their lane, everything be okay, and and it it isn't. They I just think that there's there's two types of people, and I believe that there are people that want to get out of that lane, they just they just can't, they just can't do it. They can't visually see themselves doing something for themselves. But at the end of the day, what I do find is every single person that has a nine to five job always says, I would do this differently if I worked for that company. I would I would really suggest that they do this. Or if it were me and it were my company, I would offer this. Well, you that means you have something in you to go do it for yourself. That means there's something churning in there in your heart, and and don't don't disregard that. No one's saying go quit your job tomorrow, but pursue pursue something that's important into your life. You know, I used to used to tell people there was a million years before us and a million years after us, and we're here for 80 years. We're here for a blip. We're here for a blip. And if you don't take advantage of it now, that's that's on you.

SPEAKER_03 40:03

Yeah, that's beautiful.

SPEAKER_02 40:04

Um Mark, do you have anything to say about the rituals that you you know that I I think what came to mind to me is is there's a chapter in Think and Grow Rich called Decision. And and and Bob used to Bob used to read this the chapter in decision, it's a long chapter. He used to read it out loud every day for a month. He and he and his partner Sandy Gallagher did that as but I never realized until I read it a few more times that decision is the opposite of procrastination. And a lot of people have a problem with procrastination, and it's because they weren't taught how to make a decision. Because once a decision is made, the next step forward is easy. You just have to decide to do something. People aren't successful by doing certain things, people become successful by doing things in a certain way. That's that's what Earl Nightingale said. You become successful by doing things in a certain way. Um and that's that happens once you make a decision. Um the other chapter that's really important is persistence, because you must be persistent in order to succeed. There are going to be bumps along the road. You're not gonna know if your goal is big enough, you're not gonna know how you're gonna get there, and you will run into roadblocks where you're going to have to make a detour. And if you're not persistent and you and you aren't true to your decision because you're why and you're why, that's that's the key. You've got to be persistent.

SPEAKER_03 41:41

I like that. That's powerful. And like, you know, you see people out there, they they read the books, they take the courses, and they know what they should be doing, and like they just still don't do it. Why does this happen? Do you think it's it's because of the decision this they just don't make the decision? It's the fear of failure. It's um yeah.

SPEAKER_02 42:02

I think some sometimes I heard Mel Robbins did she did a she did a TED talk, and it was it was on the the the most the terrible four-letter word that begins with F. And it's everything's fine. Everything's just fine. It's okay, it it's not great, but it's okay, and people are, you know, there's no risk if it's okay, and people are somewhat afraid of risk. You know, you get to a certain level of success, you get comfortable, and things become fine. And it's it's hard, it's hard to break out of that.

SPEAKER_03 42:41

Wow. So when when someone says I know what to do, and I just can't seem to follow through, what do you think that there's usually something going on underneath that?

SPEAKER_00 42:51

Yeah, I tell them to reach out to me and let me do a 45-minute consultation with them and talk about that, what that looks like to them. What are they struggling with? Because at the end of the day, it may just be a little tweak, or it may be something that they need to be held accountable for. You know, so many people aren't held accountable, and today everybody feels entitled. So, you know, there's a there's a big there's a big issue with that. And if you don't hold yourself accountable, there's no way that you can succeed. There's no way that you'll hit your goals, there's no way that you'll be successful if you if not. And so we tell people all the time, you have a question, there's something that doesn't settle right with you, you're not seeing clear, call, you know, get in contact with us. Let us give you a 45 minute consultation, and I would bet that we can at least scratch. I mean, it's kind of like a shot in the arm, you know. I I can fix it for a moment, but you know, until you want to belly up to the table and and really Put this on yourself with saying, hey, you know what? This really scratched the surface with me, and it makes sense. And I want to be able to, I like this. I like the way I felt. I like that you gave me a shot in the arm because I feel fixed. Well, no, you need to change some things, and that's what we kind of, you know, really do a good job at digging deep into what that looks like and and how we can help people.

SPEAKER_02 44:26

One of the things we teach people is there's a thing Bob used to call the knowing doing gap. Most people know what to do, they just don't always do it.

SPEAKER_01 44:35

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 44:36

It's the knowing doing gap. Um that and having somebody like Dwayne, I mean, Dwayne's helped me a lot. I've helped him a lot. And a lot of times it's just we we ask each other a different question that we hadn't thought of at the time. And that helps that helps gain clarity. And clarity is the key to to moving fast.

SPEAKER_00 44:58

You know, we with our students that we work with, we do a scorecard uh when they enter in working with us, and then we go through it every every quarter, every three months, and it has to deal with spirituality, it has to deal with uh your your relationship with your spouse, it has to do with work, it has to do with monetary commitment. So it has all these things that we have listed out, and then you rate yourself from from one to one to ten of where you fit, and then we score that every three months, and we go back and review it, and we show them the progress that they're making in these areas. And if they're maybe maybe uh halfway through the year, we look at an area to where, well, you're lagging a little bit in these couple areas, let's focus more on this area because you have great progression on these other areas, and so we try and really move the needle really hard so at the end of the year they can see that they've had great success, great progress to where they're now able to able to carry on, you know, for however long that they hopefully they'll continue that forever and ever and ever.

SPEAKER_03 46:15

I like that because yeah, there's multiple parts in people's some of people accountability.

SPEAKER_00 46:21

Accountability is huge.

SPEAKER_03 46:23

Yeah, I think that's spirituality, the health part, the wealth part, um, the family and relationships is just if you can be successful in those and be happy and fulfilled, that's I for me, that's what I I how I define success. But I want to talk about wealth because you know, as entrepreneurs, we we we love the wealth and the money as well, and we we need to make an impact for those around us. But um what's the biggest misunderstanding people have about wealth that keeps them stuck at the same level for years? Because I've been there and I I know, and then until somebody pushes me and says you can do more, and then pushes me to there's pressure, you know, to aim high. And so, you know, what are your thoughts on that? The misunderstanding that people have about wealth that keeps them stuck.

SPEAKER_02 47:10

I I think one of the one of the things we as entrepreneurs, we all hit plateaus. We set goals, we hit them, we're we we are you know, we're driven, we become successful, we hit that plateau. And it sometimes it's hard to see the next level. Um I've I've I've always been part of a mastermind group. I have other entrepreneurs. I mean, when my wife and I started it, we we were 25 years old, and it was us, and we had to do everything. And and so I've fortunately I've always had a mastermind group where I could go and ask somebody who was a step or two ahead of me what's the next step? What should I be looking for? Um, you know, I think everybody's heard you become like the five people you spend the most amount of time with. Well, try and get yourself a mastermind group of people that can that can push you and can lead you to that next level.

SPEAKER_03 48:04

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 48:05

Yeah, I would like what I would add to that is make sure you're not the smartest person in the room because you're never gonna learn. You know, and so I'm in my office here in North Carolina and I'm the only person in my office. So it it makes it tough to wear collaborating and ideas and all. So with Mark being in Maryland, we if we had to pay per minute wise for Zoom, we would be broke because we talked six, eight hours a day on Zoom just because of not only our business, but our clients and our vision and what we're planning on for next year already, and things that I mean, so third quarter our yeah, third quarter last year, we were already planning stuff for first and second quarter of this year. So constant collaboration, constant uh you know, thinking and and going through things, we don't always agree, but that's the beauty about about a partnership and a mastermind. And we I I would tell anybody, I would I would piggyback on what Mark said. If you're in a in a place to where you can get involved in a mastermind group, you don't have to be there face to face. Zoom, there's all kinds of meetings now. Thank goodness for Zoom and GoToMeeting and GoToWebinar, all those. So get yourself involved with that. And then I I'll say this as well if you've never made a hundred thousand dollars a year, it's hard for people to believe that they can if they've never done it. A lot of people have a rough time, they feel like when they go to their job, they're they're told how much they're gonna make an hour and what they're worth. And that's that's everybody is worth more. Every single person is worth more. It's what you choose to do with that. So, you know, there are people that I have talked to over the years. Oh my goodness, I $100,000 a year. Oh my goodness, I don't, I don't know what I would do if I made a hundred thousand dollars a year. Yes, somebody that's made a million dollars a year and they said, Hey, you're only gonna make a hundred thousand dollars this year, they tell you I'm uh I'm not gonna get out of bed. Not in a conceited way, but in a way of because they've been able to make high income. And so there people struggle with making more money because they've never made that amount of money before. And it's a fear for people.

SPEAKER_03 50:46

How do you start doing that? Like, do you just use visualization techniques?

SPEAKER_00 50:50

Because first of all, I think it starts on the whole goal setting, you know, starting small, having small wins. So it's not now that's not a shot in the arm. That's something that's not going to happen overnight. That's a whole mindset. That's that whole paradigm shift, that's a whole stinking thinking deal. You have to think differently, you have to do differently, you have to act differently, you have to be around different people, you have to be around engaging people, people that support you. You know, we call it as guys, foxhole brothers. You know, who can I call? Who can I be? Who can I talk to that knows more, that has more, that that will surround themselves around me, wrap their arms around me, and help me get to the other end of uh of the finish line. And so you need to find people like that in your life, surround yourself by people like that because they're there. And if you're if you're the smartest person in the group and you make more than everybody else in the group, but yet you want to make more and you want to be better and and you know, you raise the bar for yourself. I hate to say it, but you're probably around the wrong people.

unknown 52:04

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 52:05

Do you think it's a path like um there's all that mindset stuff too, but it's also the um the skills of strategy and building and a certain way of thinking there, um, in the logical sense too. Like that needs to be in place as well to be able to achieve those many big milestones that you've never hit before. What are your thoughts on that? You know, because there's so many principles at play, especially as an entrepreneur. You need to have good leadership skills, you need to be a problem solver, you need to hire the right people as well. So, you know, that plays a key part in it. But you know, can you elaborate and what give me your thoughts on that as well? Because there's so many different parts to it to become successful, to hit those huge milestones that you've never hit before.

SPEAKER_02 52:51

I I think a lot of it is all related to uh your view of your self-image, your personal self-image. We're we're told in school, you it when you're in school, if you're a B student and you get B's, well, you're told you're a B student and you start believing that. If you get D's, you get told you're a D student and you start believing you're a D student. It's the same thing with income. If you make a hundred thousand dollars a year, you're told you know, your boss tells you how much you're gonna make. That's how much you think you're worth. When you start thinking that I'm worth more than that, and there are ways to do it, you'll find the ways. The ways will show up. You can't do it all yourself.

SPEAKER_01 53:34

That's right.

SPEAKER_02 53:34

Team teams win. That's why Dwayne and I formed Huddle for Success, was so that we could be that mastermind group for people and help share new ideas. Dwayne taught me how to buy notes on real estate because I was a I was a frustrated landlord. I own rental properties, but I didn't like getting the call that said, Hey, my refrigerator's broke. I need a thousand dollar refrigerator. It's like, oh my gosh, well, there went all my profits. He taught me how he taught me there, there are lots of ways to create wealth, and they're out there if you start associating with the right people and convince yourself that I'm worthy, I'm worthy of earning more, I'm worthy of becoming a successful investor, successful building wealth for my family.

SPEAKER_00 54:24

Not only that, but you know, you're spiritual, and the Bible says that you should want more, you should want better, you should do better. And so, you know, you you should always try to evolve, have a have a healthy body, have a healthy mind, have a healthy financial position that that you and your family are in. Be secure at that. So if you do again, it always comes back to mindset. You know, I I'd like to share something with you real fast, and it is about mindset. Can I do that? And I know that I'm sure you're ready to wrap up. So I I read this yesterday, and I'm I'm glad that we're having this conversation because I want to share uh share this story with you that I read. So, Muhammad Ali, as we all know, he was probably one of the best boxers in the world. And so he fought a gentleman by the name of Sonny Liston for the heavyweight boxing championship in 1964. And so what happened was Muhammad Ali, he and he and Sonny were going at it, and in the sixth round, he went back to his corner and he said, He is the strongest guy that I've ever faced. I can't lift my arms, I can't do it anymore. I'm not gonna be able to go any further. And he looked at his at his uh trainer and he says, Listen, I'm not gonna go in anymore. And he goes, No, you are. You're gonna go in and you're gonna be the heavyweight boxing champ of the world. You're gonna go do it. It's gonna be tough, but you're gonna do it. So, so what happened was Muhammad Ali said, Okay, I'll do it. I'll try. I'm gonna listen to you. And he muscled himself to the top of the rope and he was ready to go in, and then next thing you know, they called the fight. Sonny didn't go in and finish the fight, he didn't go into the seventh round. And so then what happens is Muhammad Ali became the heavyweight champ. And only because he got up and he listened to somebody that believed in him and told him, don't quit, don't get up. Yeah, I mean, get up and and go do, and you're gonna be the best at who you are. And I'm gonna tell all your listeners, get up and be the best who you are, because you have no idea what the outcome is gonna be, but just get up and go do it.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

That's powerful, that's beautiful. Mark, do you do you guys or both of you, if you have any last pieces of advice, anything that you want to share with the audience, a key takeaway?

SPEAKER_02 57:05

I I I think your search for for how to help your listeners create wealth and change their mindset. That I mean, that's that's fantastic. Yeah, we really appreciate you inviting us on and letting us share a little bit because that's what that's what we like to do too. So, you know, just thank you for for doing what you do. We really I really appreciate it.

SPEAKER_03 57:29

Thank you. I found that you guys were so like had some great advice. So I really appreciate that too.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

Thanks so much.

SPEAKER_03 57:35

If anyone wants to find and connect with you, where do they go?

SPEAKER_00 57:39

So they can go to huddleforsuccess.com and they can schedule a 45-minute free consultation call if they like. Uh, we also wrote a book, it's called Playbook for Life. They can go in and download that free, or they can go to Amazon, purchase the book. I think it's $9.99. If they have Kindle Unlimited, they can download it for free, or they can pay four bucks uh, you know, to get it. So uh great book. It's it's we've had really great reviews for people that have read it, and uh it's a it's a quick mindful thought, is what it is. Just you know, getting the mindset a little bit differently, getting involved, getting engaged. And uh with that being said, appreciate you again for for having us on. We enjoyed it.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

Thanks, guys. Thank you.