Advice We'd Give Our 20-Year-Old Selves - Real Talk About Success, Money & Life

If we could sit down with our 20-year-old selves, this is exactly what we’d say. No fluff. No guru talk. Just 20 years of wins, losses, and hard-earned lessons boiled down into truth.

We break down what actually moves the needle in life and business, from mentorship, money, and mindset to relationships, focus, and freedom.

This episode is raw, direct, and packed with frameworks you can apply today, whether you’re 20 and just starting… or 40 and starting over.

Here’s what we cover:
• How to shortcut success by paying for proximity
• Why money will never fix your problems
• The power of focus and mastering the boring stuff
• How to protect your identity and stop bending to fit in
• The real cost of neglecting your health, marriage, or balance
• Financial habits that buy freedom, not stress
• The exact levers (force multipliers) that scale your life and business

This isn't a theory. This is 20 years of trench warfare condensed into one episode.

Dominate your life, not just survive it.

Want more real talk like this?

✅ Join our Weekly “Wednesday Warrior” Newsletter
Get strategies, mindset shifts, and tactical moves that help you win in business without losing your life.
Subscribe Now

💪 Want to be Mentored by Rachael and Mike?
Lock arms with us at REAL Brokerage

🔥 Want to Learn the Proven Processes of Becoming a Top Agent?
Check out our Buyer and Seller Fundamental courses where we share our systems, scripts, workflows and processes we have used to sell over $800M of real estate.  Only $47
Check Out the Course

Transcript

Mike Novak:
[0:33] What would we tell our 20-year-old self at this point now that we're 40 years old, right? We're
twice the same at this point. Into the 40s, you're about to turn 40 in, you know, three or four
months.
Rachael Novak:
[0:45] A couple months.
Mike Novak:
[0:46] But I've been there for a little bit now. And we have the benefit of hindsight now, right? And
lots of lessons learned. And a lot of people ask us, like, hey, you know, if you could go do the
server again, what would you do differently? And I think that that's a great question but I think a
better framework to that is like what would I tell myself maybe right yeah exactly and so let's just
like jump right into this and we'll share with you kind of like the things that we learned and I would
say like you know, just to give some additional context to this I became an entrepreneur at 18 years
old right like literally right out of school and it took me till I was 35 years old 17 years to kind of
figure it out like i definitely wouldn't say i have it figured out but i started to kind of understand the
formula right like it just took that long it's a long ass game to get to the level that people want to get
at they think like hey you know they look at instagram like man it's overnight success and it's just
not the way it is you know i mean it's it's decades well.
Rachael Novak:
[1:50] People see what you do what you have the lifestyle you've built and because you it is who
you are now like you've reached mastery level in in many things across different domains you
make it look easy and when when you and i when we've built all these skills and we've had all
these experiences and we have all this knowledge now we make this life look easy we make you
know real estate look easy we make fitness look easy we make it look easy what we do because
we've been doing it for so long what they don't see is that 17 years of struggle and all of these
things that we'll get into and all this advice that we would definitely give our 20 year old self.
Mike Novak:
[2:32] Right and and the problem with giving a 20 year old advice and i know this would be true for

me when i was 20 is i wasn't in a position to receive that advice exactly someone could have
literally told me all these things are like that's nice i'm gonna go figure it out yeah i got this right and
so like if you're one of those 20 year olds and you're listening to this, or you're, maybe you have a

20 year old in mind that you want to send this to, I would challenge you like really like be open-
minded to listening to some of this. Cause it could save you. A couple hundred thousand dollars.

You can save a couple of million dollars. You can shave 10 years off your trajectory, right? These
are like lessons from the trenches. So the first one, we'll just jump right in. Pay for proximity. People
often ask me, I know you could probably get this question too, Mike, what's the cheat code? When
people say, what's the cheat code? Like they're looking for, I think the shortcut. Is that what you
say? Like, how do I get from point A to point B as fast as possible? And I appreciate the spirit of this
question because it's usually from really driven people. Like they want to do a lot and they want to
do it quickly. And there are certain ways you can accelerate your path. Like I said, it takes a long
time to reach a high level of success, but there are certain things you can do. And this is like one of
the biggest, most important ones to speed up that trajectory is to have the right proximity to the
right people.
Rachael Novak:
[3:53] Absolutely. And I want to emphasize pay for proximity.
Mike Novak:
[3:59] Yes.
Rachael Novak:
[3:59] Because this This isn't about going and trying to glean and leech off people and do the pick
your brain got a minutes like I'm talking we're talking paying people like offering value offering
money offering something service to get next to people that are doing things even if that's time if
that's internship.
Mike Novak:
[4:21] Well, so that's exactly what I was going to say. There's two ways to access this. The first one
is to write the check, right? And that's what we did. The second one is to work for this person, right?
Rachael Novak:
[4:34] For free or very little.
Mike Novak:
[4:35] For very little, right? But know that you're going to get like this, like six figure or seven figure
experience.
Rachael Novak:
[4:42] Skill set and skill set, right?
Mike Novak:
[4:42] Like you're going to see the front lines of what do these people do every day that's built what
they've got. And that is like invaluable. I mean, Ed Milet has talked about this a lot. And he always

shares like, hey, if you can find the right mentor, go work for that person for whatever it takes for
two years.
Rachael Novak:
[4:56] Yep.
Mike Novak:
[4:57] Right. And so you can you can do it that way as well. And we've done that with people. Right.
Like we've had like the showing partners on our team where they've like Jen is a perfect example.
That's like she paid for proximity. Right. And she she paid that through her time.
Rachael Novak:
[5:10] Yeah. I mean, she's made a very low salary, but the skill sets that she now has, she can
personally generate multiple hundreds of thousands of dollars of income for herself. off of the skill
set she learned during that time.
Mike Novak:
[5:22] Right. I think when she saw like 27 homes her first year as a full-time real estate agent, like
that's unheard of. Yeah, exactly. We'll say prox, let's kind of shape this for people. Like we're talking
about mentorship. You know, if you can get somebody to mentor you, that's going to be probably
the best thing because a lot of mentors don't expect to be paid for it. They want to like pass along
and contribute back. Because every single person who has achieved something extraordinary
understands the opportunity they were given, and they want to pay that forward. I've yet to meet
somebody who doesn't have that mindset that's got abundance. Have you?
Rachael Novak:
[5:55] No, I have yet to meet somebody as well that doesn't have that mindset. However, the caveat
is that the mentorship is given, and it's given willingly and happily to recipients, to somebody who's
truly going to listen, truly going to take action. So if you're just asking people flippantly for
information or to do something for you and you haven't provided a lick of value to them, they're
going to be a lot less inclined to give you that mentorship.
Mike Novak:
[6:23] Yeah. I mean, mentorship usually comes from some kind of pre-established relationship
where, you know, this person knows who you are, you know who they are, and they start kind of
like guiding you. And I had a few mentors in business. You know, Brian Marquis was one, right?
Like learned a lot about like tactical, just like aggressive, like cutthroat business. from this guy. It
was invaluable, right? Like, I mean, those are things that you would never get in business school,
right? And I got a front seat to it working with this guy.
Rachael Novak:
[6:48] I mean, I still have mentors as well who I don't pay money to, but there are exchanges and
exchanges of value in different ways. You know, Zen is a perfect example who's become truly one
of my great, great friends, but she's also a mentor in a lot of ways where, you know, she's able to
tap into my network of people and she's gotten coaching clients from direct referrals from me, but
at At the same time, she still mentors me and there's a mutual exchange of value both ways.

Mike Novak:
[7:14] Yeah. So you don't have to pay for mentorship, but the mentor needs to see something in you
that they really believe in. Otherwise, they're just not going to be interested.
Rachael Novak:
[7:21] Yeah.
Mike Novak:
[7:21] And if they're not interested, you have to respect that. You know what I mean? Because
they're not going to give their time to everyone. You know what I mean? Like you said, they have to
feel like it's reciprocal. They have to feel like there's value in the opportunity for impact through the
time they're going to invest into you. You know, in the bodybuilding domain, Jay Cutler comes to
mind, right? Like Jay Cutler, everyone knows who that is. My coach, AJ Sims, got to literally have
him as a mentor for like five years. He like lived on Jay's couch and got mentored by Jay every
single day. Did he get paid for that time? No. Did he get like an opportunity that would later make
him a ton of money and open up doors he would never have asked to? Yes.
Rachael Novak:
[7:55] Exactly. He put his time in.
Mike Novak:
[7:57] Yeah. Mentorship is the first one. Masterminds would be the second one. Masterminds is
probably like the most overused term in the last five years, especially in real estate. So like when
we say the words mastermind, like what are we telling people? Like it's really like a progressive
room of like-minded people, right?
Rachael Novak:
[8:14] Yes, exactly. And there's different types of masterminds. Like there is more of like a
conference style mastermind. That's like a one to three day kind of event that you're paying to go
and be in a room and have proximity to people who are doing things, but it's going to be a quick hit.
It's going to be just a presentation style, right? Yeah, 24 to 72 hours presentation style mastermind.
And that's certainly a great opportunity for people. Those can vary from inexpensive to very
expensive, depending on who's running it and who's organizing it and where it is. And then there is
a mastermind, like an ongoing mastermind. So we've been part of one, Hatch Mastermind Comes
to Mind. We were part of that for many years and it was incredibly, it was an incredible time, an
incredible experience for us. We made a ton of great relationships. We learned a lot. We were able
to contribute a lot. And then now, for instance, now I run the wartime CEO mastermind. So it's for
women in any kind of leadership position whatsoever, whether they're entrepreneurs, whether
they're in real estate, whether, you know, they're even just leading their families. And it's every
single week. And there's a ton of proximity and lessons and challenges. And so there's, you know,
these ladies are paying for the proximity of conversation with other like-minded people, right? Other
like-minded women.
Mike Novak:
[9:23] Why is a free mastermind kind of a red flag to you?

Rachael Novak:
[9:27] Because there's not incentive from the top, from whoever's leading that mastermind to really
provide a significant amount of value or... Keep it going for any length of time.
Mike Novak:
[9:38] Right. So we've been part of, we're in, I'm not going to name the mastermind because it's
confidential, but we're in one that is not a paid one. There's an expectation of massive contribution,
which is really cool. And it's a very high level mastermind, but there's no like ringleader, right?
There's no one that organizes things. So it feels a little bit disorganized, you know? And I think the
other thing that is lacking is skin in the game. When there's not skin in the game in the form of
money involved, you're going to get less people showing up for these masterminds because they
don't, they haven't put any money into it. You know what I mean? Like, so when you put money into
something and you write that check, you now feel committed to not only show up, but to actually
implement what you're learning. And kind of like what you said on the hatch mastermind, like in my
perspective on masterminds is you will get out of them exactly what you put into them, right? If you
come there as a participant and you're just there like receiving information, you're not going to get a
great experience. But if you come there ready to learn, but also share, because there's probably a
couple of things that you do that other people can massively learn from, then that's where things
really get interesting. And that's where the hatch one got for a couple of years where it was like
really fun. Like you got people in the stream that all do some things very differently at a very, very
high level. And they're all an open book to share it.
Rachael Novak:
[10:48] That's exactly right. Yeah. It's great. Yeah. Okay. So we've got mentors, masterminds, and
then the next one would be coaches.
Mike Novak:
[10:54] Yep.
Rachael Novak:
[10:55] Paying for proximity in coaches. And this is in any domain. This is a life or mental coach.
This is a therapist or counselor. This is a fitness, health, nutrition coach. And then, of course, this is
a business coach. You know, there are people that specialize in every single area, every single
domain, every, We've talked about this before, so we won't go into it deeply, but when you're
looking for a coach and paying for the proximity of somebody else's experience and somebody
else's guidance, the number one thing that you need to look for is track record. Have they
accomplished what you are trying to accomplish? Right.
Mike Novak:
[11:32] And I like the idea of moving around coaches in the business space. I don't like it in the body
space. Like I like sticking with one person who like learns your body and everything else and they
have a great dynamic. But in the business space, there's different coaches, like you said, that
specialize in different things. Like, for instance, you can go find a coach that specializes in
multifamily investment properties and like master that part of your business, build it and get it
running. Awesome. And then move on to the next thing. Maybe the next thing is property

management. You will property management and you hire a coach just for that. Maybe you want to
build a mega team and you need like an awesome recruiting coach you hire like chep black or
something like that so there's like there's these people that specialize in different things and it's
totally okay to have that coach for like three to six months learn all of their systems have them help
you implement what they specialize in and then move on to the next person you know i mean and
like ask around there's some great coaches out there there's a lot of fucking bullshit coaches too
that have not been there and have not done it and they instead of selling houses, they just take real
estate agents money. But you can tell who those people are really fast. You know, go look them up
on Zillow, see if they've sold houses. Yeah, see what their track record is as a coach, right?
Rachael Novak:
[12:34] Exactly right. Yep. Yeah. You know, at the end of the day, like what you're looking for when
you're paying for proximity, whether you're paying with money, whether you're paying with your
time, whether you're paying with, you know, your like day to day experiences and kind of an
internship style, you're looking for people that have been where you want to go. Right. And so to
our 20 year old selves, maybe you don't know exactly where you want to go you don't know exactly
where the path leads quite yet but you do know that you have an interest in this particular area go
pay for the proximity for somebody who knows that area inside and out and learn everything you
can implement everything that they tell you that right there is the fast track to success right.
Mike Novak:
[13:10] Getting the roadmap.
Rachael Novak:
[13:10] Exactly and.
Mike Novak:
[13:11] Then holding your feet to the fire to actually do it.
Rachael Novak:
[13:13] Exactly number two, Love this one. Understand that money is not everything.
Mike Novak:
[13:20] Yeah. This is one that I don't think people understand until they actually like experience a
significant financial income level.
Rachael Novak:
[13:28] Exactly.
Mike Novak:
[13:28] Right. Like this isn't really something that people understand until they get to that point.
Rachael Novak:
[13:32] And you know what? You know, it's funny. There's going to be somebody listening to this that
says that's something the rich people say.

Mike Novak:
[13:37] Sure. Yeah, I could get that. But I would also challenge that person to, you know, find joy in
what they do without money, you know, because it's super possible. Money is awesome. It opens
up doors and opportunities, allows you really cool shit. Like I love being able to do awesome stuff
for people we love and care about because we can, but it certainly will not make you a happy
person.
Rachael Novak:
[14:01] Exactly.
Mike Novak:
[14:01] If you're already like frustrated and hate your life, it's just going to shine a brighter light on
that.
Rachael Novak:
[14:07] Yeah.
Mike Novak:
[14:08] It just magnifies it.
Rachael Novak:
[14:09] It's just going to say it magnifies who you already are.
Mike Novak:
[14:12] Right.
Rachael Novak:
[14:12] Right. So and and same with, you know, spending habits. Right. If you do not have good
spending habits, then no matter how much money you ever make, you will always struggle with
money.
Mike Novak:
[14:24] Yeah, no, we should definitely circle back to money habits here in just a minute because
there's a lot to learn there as well. And a lot of mistakes that we've made and I see other people
continue to make as well. But, you know, I, this is just a hard one for people to understand until
they get to this point. But if you can gain the perspective that money is not really the biggest, most
important thing, you're going to be a lot happier of a person, right? You're going to, you're going to
enjoy the journey and the progression to get from where you're at to where you want to go. the
money just becomes kind of a milestone at some point.
Rachael Novak:
[14:55] Yeah like it's.
Mike Novak:
[14:56] Super easy to measure it's very tangible but ultimately it doesn't really matter that much.

Rachael Novak:
[15:01] Yeah i think i think a way to you know kind of reframe that money is not everything is is
almost like there has to be there has to be gratitude in every season right because you and i have
lost everything twice so you're, either of us were in it for the money, we would have been screwed a
long time ago, right? We were in it for the life. We were in it for the happiness together. Like no
matter what we ever had, no matter what we ever have, we are a solid unit because we every day
find the good things that we look for reasons to be grateful in our life, regardless of the financial
landscape. Right.
Mike Novak:
[15:44] So find a way to experience gratitude daily and find joy daily without waiting to experience
those things until you have money.
Rachael Novak:
[15:53] Yeah, because that is what I think a 20-year-old, I mean, our 20-year-old selves, it was
always when I hit this much income, when I have that much money in the bank, then I'll be happy.
Then I can relax. Then I can chill out. Then I can go to my kids' birthday parties. Then I can take
time off. Like, don't wait for that. That's not what, that's not the end all be all of what's going to
make you happy in life. Yeah.
Mike Novak:
[16:18] Don't make a contingency on your happiness being a certain financial threshold because it's,
it's just not going to change when you get there.
Rachael Novak:
[16:25] Right.
Mike Novak:
[16:25] You know what I mean? All right. Next one, quality over quantity. This is a really big one and
it applies in a multitude of ways. As I kind of look back on the last 20 years of our life, you know,
and, and I look at friendships as kind of like the first component of this. A lot of people think that like
having lots of friends is like the place to be. It's never been like something that I've pursued. you
know like i've tried to go really deep on select friendships there was a period of time where i didn't
have like really any close friends for like 10 years because i was just really laser focused on what i
needed to do and then like in my mid-30s i started like really developing some awesome
relationships guys like cole mike roland chuck like people that really had a big impact on my life but
i don't need like 30 of these guys i want to i want to be like super honed in and close to, like, three
or four of those. You know what I'm saying?
Rachael Novak:
[17:16] That's exactly right. I think, and I think, like, as a 20s something, you kind of think, like, well,
I, well, a lot of people do, at least. I want... I want to have a network. I want a lot of people to like
me. And so I consider all of these people my friends. And the mistake that a lot of 20-year-olds
make or a lot of younger people make is not going deeper into the friendships with people who are
quality and really nurturing that relationship like on a deeper level.

Mike Novak:
[17:46] Right. And when you have like too many relationships or too many friendships, they end up
becoming pretty topical. Like they're not really deep and you can't show up in the way you want to
for that many people you just can't you know what i mean you're spread way too thin so i think like
having a couple of really like legit authentic friendships is really really important but i don't think that
it's something you need like dozens of to like feel great about yourself yeah.
Rachael Novak:
[18:10] Exactly yeah i mean this this isn't just with friendships but this is with partnerships you know
in business this is with obviously relationships like you know a lot of 20s people they get married
that's their person they're excited. But then over the years, they stop investing and really going
deeper in their marriage with that person, right? As you and I have experienced being together for
20, literally 20 years this year, we evolve. There are different versions of ourselves and each other
and different priorities we have and different interests we pick up. And as we evolve, we get to
know each other and we get to accept this new version and this, you know, relearn things as we
evolve and ascend as humans and the people that don't you know invest that time into their
relationship into their marriage that's when they get to the our age in the 40s and go i don't know
this person i don't like this person anymore right and that's where we're seeing a lot of divorce and
what is it over 50 percent of marriages ended in divorce because of this right where if it was just a
simple focus so 20s 20s mike and rach like obviously we did it right we did it right we're still good.
We're still hanging on. We're just great. But If you are listening to this and you are struggling in a
relationship, really take a hard look. Like, am I investing as much into my marriage and into the
relationship with my partner as I do some of my close friendships?
Mike Novak:
[19:31] Yeah. What about family? Like, I mean, we have a large extended family and the
relationships with that extended family have evolved and changed over the last 20 years. What
kind of guidance would you give to our younger selves on maybe some of those strained
relationships or how to evolve or maybe even distance some of them, too, you know, to be quite
honest?
Rachael Novak:
[19:52] Yeah, I mean, that's a tough one because I think that like a younger person, like in my 20s
and even early 30s, there was always like an obligation to maintain relationships with blood
relatives because they were blood relatives. And what we've learned in our late 30s and into our
40s is that a relationship is a relationship is a relationship. It really does not matter if that person is
blood-related or chosen family. It is, is there a reciprocal relationship where I'm investing and
they're investing? If it's constantly one-sided or there is a big, how do I explain, a big lack of
synergy when it comes to interests or opinions or even tolerances, our values, it's okay to distance
a little bit and not have as close of relationships, right? Right.
Rachael Novak:
[20:53] Tolerance and tolerating your family, I think, is very important. That landscape, and
especially in current culture, is really broken. People who have a really hard time having
disagreements and differing opinions and conversation, that becomes a huge splinter in a lot of

families or a lot of relationships. So if I were to say, you know, 20-something Rachel, like,
regardless of if they disagree or not with you, are they still a person of integrity that you enjoy and
that they enjoy you? If they are somebody whose values are so misaligned with yours that they
don't treat you well or they don't treat people well with differing opinions, it's okay to distance. It's
okay to step away from that relationship. It's okay to not nurture that relationship out of guilt or
obligation because they're blood relation.
Mike Novak:
[21:50] Yeah. As you know, like, I don't disagree with anything you just said, but like, I'm very black
and white on this one. Like to me, family gets no exceptions and values, right? Like they can be cut
out just as quick as a friend.
Rachael Novak:
[22:02] So, and that was something I always struggled with a little bit more.
Mike Novak:
[22:05] Right. Like I don't feel a sense of obligation just because we share the same blood that I'm
going to have you in my life, right? That is something that needs to be mutually beneficial and bring
value to each of us or it's not going to work out for me. You know what I mean? Yeah, that's a
powerful one because I think a lot of people feel obligated to... Stay attached to their family and you
know in a lot of ways you're an extension of your family and you're limited by them at the same
time right you know what i mean like what your parents became, is likely what you're to become
unless you change something right which is pretty crazy if you think about that because like
everyone's i mean i love my parents like they're the best people in the world i think the world of
them but do i want to do what they did no i don't like i have different aspirations. And so I have to
evolve into somebody different than who they were. And when you grow up in a household, you
tend to take on the characteristics of your parents.
Rachael Novak:
[22:55] Right?
Mike Novak:
[22:55] Because that's who's teaching you these values and these priorities, right? And even some
of these mindsets.
Rachael Novak:
[23:01] Well, and there's a lot of pressure a lot of times too, especially from family, right? Like if
you're changing, if you're evolving, if you're ascending as a person in your consciousness, in your
skill sets, in your financial landscape, if you're ascending further than some of your family ever has
or ever thought that they could or that they thought that you could. And there may there may be a
little bit of a crabs in the bucket effect, right, where they're there may be taking digs that you are
making little comments here and there and and not supporting or being excited for you in a way
because they don't know how to and that's OK. So instead of being upset, it's OK to just distance
sometimes or not have certain subjects come up in conversation if you are still in relation with that
person.

Mike Novak:
[23:42] So, yeah, there's a fine line to appreciate your family for what they are and not try to evolve
into something they're not.
Rachael Novak:
[23:47] Yeah, totally agree. Yep.
Mike Novak:
[23:49] Next one. Know who you are and don't bend on that.
Rachael Novak:
[23:53] This is a huge one for 20 somethings.
Mike Novak:
[23:55] Yeah. 20 year olds really struggle with this. It's an identity challenge, you know?
Rachael Novak:
[23:58] Yes, exactly. I mean, one of the best things that you and I ever did, and it wasn't until in our
30s we did this, was establish our non-negotiables, right? Establish the pillars in our life and then
our core values in our family and our business. And if you can do that early on, Craig Ballantyne,
who is a mentor of ours, he was a coach. We paid for proximity with Craig quite a bit. We still do.
We were just a mastermind of his in this last year.
Rachael Novak:
[24:26] One of his, one of the things that he talks about is creating a set of values and having rules
for your life, right? So some of his were like a rule is I don't swear. I don't drink alcohol. And those
are just rules that he's decided that that's who he is. That's what he wants to live by. That's a value.
That's a non-negotiable for him. And he doesn't bend on those, right? When it's a rule, you don't
bend. And in your 20s, if you're still kind of trying to figure out like what you want your priorities to
be if you're still trying to figure out who your friend your true friends are and you haven't personally
established your pillars your values your rules your identity yeah that is your identity and if you're
just kind of going with whatever and whoever and you change a little bit and chameleon yourself
depending on who you're with and don't really you're just kind of bending constantly you are not
going to be solid in your identity therefore you are not going to get very far because you don't know
who you are and what you stand for, And so one of the things that we've, I mean, we've become
probably more polarizing as we've gotten older because we are so rigid and non-negotiable in
exactly who we are. But that's how we prefer it.
Mike Novak:
[25:33] Why do you think, you know, 20-year-old people or 20-year-old Rachel maybe, not saying
this was the case, but just hypothetically, why do you think those people bend and mold who they
are based on the environment they find themselves in?
Rachael Novak:
[25:46] I think it has a lot to do with acceptance, right? Like everybody wants to be accepted.
Everybody wants community. Everybody wants to feel like they belong somewhere. And when

you're young and you've got this, experience with maybe your family or with friends from high
school or in college or in your early 20s, you're still kind of trying to figure out like who your people
are and what you stand for and what it is that you want. And one of the biggest mistakes that I think
that young people make is not establishing their personal values, like really reflecting and saying,
these are the five things that I am completely committed to staying and being and believing in. And
nobody's going to convince me otherwise. So if one of them is I don't drink during the week, right?
That was a rule of ours for a long time. I don't drink during the week. Okay, well, I know that if I'm
going to go to a networking event on a Thursday night or a Wednesday night and then go meet
other real estate agents or whatever, that I'm not going to drink. I'm going to have some sparkling
water and a wine glass and call it a day. Whereas if I didn't have that rule, if I didn't know who I
was, if I didn't set that identity pillar for myself, I would just drink and then feel like shit the next day
and it would be a whole cascade effect on if negativity in my life so i think back to your question it
has a lot to do with community it has a lot to do with acceptance and wanting to be accepted and
not really truly knowing themselves well enough to decide what they want right.
Mike Novak:
[27:14] And i asked that one partially from curiosity because i as you know when i was younger like i
just didn't give a shit i was like y'all can do whatever you're gonna do i'm gonna do what I'm going
to.
Rachael Novak:
[27:22] Do. Yeah. You've always had that conviction. It's very, very inspiring for sure.
Mike Novak:
[27:28] All right. Next one. Uh, focus and action are what pays you. This is huge. I think we should
start by kind of explaining the 80, 20 rule because the 80, 20 rule is talked about quite a bit, but I
think in some ways it's misunderstood. People think that having their hand in all these different
things is the path to massive wealth and like a financial windfall. And you and I have learned the
hard way. That's really just not the case, right? Massive wealth is found in the simplistic basic shit
done years in a row, right? Like literally like so boring, but it's just compounded over time. Like time
is this crazy component that people massively underestimate and it results in a compounded effect
of your daily action.
Rachael Novak:
[28:16] Yes, exactly.
Mike Novak:
[28:17] So if you can find like what are the two or three things that you need to do every single day
and make sure that you do those things, that you check those boxes, no matter what, every day,
five days a week, then eventually you get to where you want to go. But people struggle with this so
bad because they want to change shit. They want to chase the next shiny object.
Rachael Novak:
[28:36] They get bored.

Mike Novak:
[28:37] And that's where the 80-20 rule starts to come into play, right? About what you're spending
20% of your time on is generating 80% of your income. I'm going to say that again. What you're
spending 20% of your time on is generating 80% of your income. This is, like, super fucked up.
Why don't you spend 80% of your time on that stuff?
Rachael Novak:
[28:56] Exactly.
Mike Novak:
[28:57] Right? But people get bored. They can't handle the mundane. They can't handle doing the
same shit day in and day out. And they try to overcomplicate things to make it more interesting.
Rachael Novak:
[29:06] That's exactly right.
Mike Novak:
[29:07] It's a really weird, like, just thing, like, dynamic we've figured out over the last few years.
Rachael Novak:
[29:12] So why do you think that is? because like, you know, hypothetically speaking, they're, you
know, in your 20s, especially if you're trying to kind of figure it out on your own, which we were very
much school of hard knocks, right? We figured it out. We did pay for proximity in a lot of areas, but
there was a lot more that we could have probably done and paid for and learned faster. Why do
you think people switch it up? Why do you think people get bored? Why do they get distracted?
Why do they go chase shiny objects?
Mike Novak:
[29:41] It's this weird form of procrastination.
Rachael Novak:
[29:44] Right.
Mike Novak:
[29:44] Like they, they just want to procrastinate on it unintentionally. They want to do it. They're not
going to come into the office and say, I don't want to do the work, but they're finding like
distractions to keep them from doing the work basically is what it can be. And it happens to
everybody. It's just a matter that some are more aware of it and they're able to course correct and
say, Hey, I'm, I'm dicking around over here and I need to go refocus on the stuff that actually moves
the needle. Or maybe I need to do some like really careful reflecting and analysis on what does
move the needle, get very clear on that. That's like a lot of what coaches do is like, what actually
makes you money and what's not making money? How do you stop doing the shit that makes you
no money at work? And how do you like 10x the stuff that is actually driving the bottom line?
Rachael Novak:
[30:24] Yeah, exactly. Right.

Mike Novak:
[30:25] And that's just a matter of cutting through the noise and getting total clarity, but clarity comes
through reflecting on it.
Rachael Novak:
[30:29] Yeah, that's exactly right. Yeah. I mean, but, That's kind of the focus part, right? The action
part, like you're saying, is doing the things, not just thinking about it and planning for it and
reflecting on it. That's a part of it. But the action, right? If the action is what pays us, if the action is
what generates the revenue, if the action, just continually taking action, is what we need to do. Like
as in your 20s that's what you need to focus on like stop trying to make things perfect before you
just start trying stop trying to make the perfect plan and tell everybody about the plan instead of just
stacking proof that's what you need to do just go stack imperfect proof over and over and over and
that's what will pay you yeah.
Mike Novak:
[31:19] Just get going.
Rachael Novak:
[31:20] Exactly right next one do not neglect the other domains and of course if you follow us at all
in our warrior agent you know programs the warrior agent app we follow the the four domains is
what we kind of focus on balance body being in business and what a lot of people in their 20s will
do is they will only focus on one or two domains and completely disregard the others typically
business yes for the.
Mike Novak:
[31:50] Very driven people, you know, and it comes at their own detriment that they learn later on
like it did for me.
Rachael Novak:
[31:55] I would almost counter that because I think you're right. The driven people will focus on
business and neglect the other domains. But what I see more often, I was just having this
conversation with my mom actually this morning, is there's a lot of people in their 20s that will say
things like, oh, I've got time. So they actually neglect the business domain and they focus on the
balance domain, right? They want balance in their life. If you're a 22-year-old and you're bitching
about how you need more balance in your life, here's a wake-up call you're going to be broke at 40
right.
Mike Novak:
[32:28] Yeah i struggled to relate to that as.
Rachael Novak:
[32:30] You know like i worked i worked like there.
Mike Novak:
[32:32] Was periods of time where i worked eight months without a day off six months without a day
off.

Rachael Novak:
[32:36] Like i remember work.
Mike Novak:
[32:36] Weeks like that that was just like the balance was earned.
Rachael Novak:
[32:40] And that's what we chose right we chose that for sure but that's the whole point is like you
know yes there's going to be seasons and we talked we've talked about this a lot on the podcast
and otherwise but there's gonna be seasons where like I'm in a business focused season. Like this
is, this is the domain that I do need to focus on, but I will maintain my balance domain. I will
maintain date nights with my wife. I will maintain having 30 minutes of quality eye to eye connection
time with each of my kids, right? There's, you can still maintain the other domains. Don't, don't
neglect them, but it's okay to have seasons in each one.
Mike Novak:
[33:14] Yeah. And balance is going to evolve as you become more established, right? Like it's going

i i put in my my show notes like microdose it right like it starts really small it starts with like three-
day weekends and things like that or just being present with where you're at like not even extra

time off just being like more present with where you are um it starts like creating some phone
boundaries like late at night and getting off social media and shit like that lying in bed like it starts
with small things and then it scales up from there exactly.
Rachael Novak:
[33:41] I i do think that it was on my notes as well, that with the body domain, do not wait to become
financially successful to really maintain and focus on the body domain. Like, that is the one thing
that if I was to say to my 20 year old self, like, do not ever neglect the body domain. Because by
the time you're 40, it's you could do so much damage to your body. And you could do so much
damage to longevity of your life by not focusing on it, that you will look back and have big regrets.
And taking care of the body domain will help improve performance in all other domains.
Mike Novak:
[34:25] It'll enhance your capacity in all domains.
Rachael Novak:
[34:27] Exactly.
Mike Novak:
[34:28] And one of the things that I had to learn the hard way is that like going really deep on one
domain at the expense of the other three does not actually get you to the end result faster. It
actually just makes a lot more painful. Yeah. And so if you can understand that, like looking at all
four of them and kind of knowing which ones to throttle down and throttle back on, depending on
the season, like with what you were just talking about, but not completely neglect or take your eye
off the other ones. That's really where the magic is found because things like meaningful
friendships are going to work out. Those are things that are actually going to massively elevate

your business. You're going to show up as a different person in business when you've taken care of
those things.
Rachael Novak:
[35:04] Exactly.
Mike Novak:
[35:05] Yeah.
Rachael Novak:
[35:05] I mean, and nurturing your marriage, right? Like, well, we were just watching some
documentary or listening to some sort of podcast last night about bodybuilding and like the most
successful bodybuilders in this space. Every single one of them has a stable home and they invest
in their relationship and they continue to give back in their marriage. And there's something to be
said about that, right? Like if you're in business and you really want to go far in business, having a
stable home, having a solid relationship that you've nurtured and, you know, given into and
contributed to for a really long time, you will go so much further in business having that stability at
home. Because if you do not, and that's falling apart, that's a huge distraction that's pulling you
away. It's pulling your brain away, likely pulling your body away from business.
Mike Novak:
[35:51] Well, going out till one in the morning.
Rachael Novak:
[35:52] Yeah.
Mike Novak:
[35:53] Dicking around with your buddies.
Rachael Novak:
[35:54] Yeah, exactly.
Mike Novak:
[35:55] Drinking.
Rachael Novak:
[35:56] Cool.
Mike Novak:
[35:56] The next one, I told you we'd circle back to financials, stay out of debt and follow a
conservative financial game plan. So I think Rich Dad, Poor Dad might be the best like basic
financial book to read. I read it for the first time when I was 15 years old and it changed my entire
perspective on money. I still had to learn the language of money through like a series of hard
lessons. But some of the things that I've learned that I'll just share with you guys. I don't think credit
cards are like the devil, but I think that allowing your credit card balances to roll over every month is
the devil, right? Like, use them and use them smart.

Rachael Novak:
[36:27] Guys. You're paying 25% to 30% of that money every month if you do like that rollover.
Mike Novak:
[36:35] It's insane. Do not ever, like we talked about value, set a value for yourself that you will
never allow a credit card balance to rollover to credit interest. Use your credit cards like we use
ours, where you rack up points and whatever else, and they're super convenient, but have them
auto pay off every single month.
Rachael Novak:
[36:49] If you cannot afford to pay off the credit card each month, you should not be using the credit
card.
Mike Novak:
[36:54] Yeah. The next one, pay off your car as fast as you can. Like I'm a firm believer not having
car payments. We're both Tesla drivers, like, because there's no gas bill involved either. So like the
cars, the car expense part of our household is like nothing, which is pretty cool. Like we charge
them and that's it. No gas bill, no oil changes, no car payments. It's pretty awesome.
Rachael Novak:
[37:14] Well, and it's interesting because the trap that people fall into is, well, it's only 2% interest,
only 3% interest. Correct. It totally is. That's still more than what you'd need to pay.
Mike Novak:
[37:25] Right.
Rachael Novak:
[37:26] And it's still a burden every single month. It's still overhead that you're responsible for every
single month. Right. That's stressful.
Mike Novak:
[37:32] The progression after that, I, and this is going to be really controversial for people. It's just
my opinion. I understand people have different opinions on this, but it's to pay off your house. I
think getting house mortgage free is really, really important. You can still go take a line of credit
against your house. So you have that available for business opportunities, but not having a monthly
mortgage payment. Like I know a lot of real estate agents that have a 10 or a $15,000 a month
mortgage payment and they end up working paycheck to paycheck like one commission closing to
the next to make that damn payment it's so stupid right so i get that you can invest your money
elsewhere and whatever else but there's a certain amount of stability and peace that comes with
having a mortgage payment 100.
Rachael Novak:
[38:10] And and to that point this next point here live well below your means i mean you and i people
see our lives now and they're like oh well they're building a new house and they go on trips with
their kids and they drive Teslas, and they do all these things. Well, you didn't see the literal 15
years where we... And we still live below our means, but we lived so far below our means. We did

not drive nice cars. We did not, we don't buy designer clothing. We did not go shopping often. We
kept the budget for the groceries very, very limited every single month. We were very intentional
about living well below our means for a long, long time. And our kids never noticed. I know kids
never noticed that they wore secondhand clothes. that kids never noticed that they didn't have a
ton of toys or video games or consoles or shit. Like we live well below our means intentionally so
that we could put away the money, pay off the debt and not have the stress of that overhead every
single month looming over us like a black cloud.
Mike Novak:
[39:14] Right. Dave Ramsey has this famous saying, live like no one else so you can live like no one
else. Right. Like sacrifice so you can experience delayed gratification of complete financial
freedom.
Rachael Novak:
[39:25] Exactly. And I think, you know, again, this comes, that kind of circles back to having, like
knowing your own identity, having your personal rules, your values, you know, what you want to do.
Because if you haven't established who you are, what you want, and you don't haven't solidified
your identity, either as a couple, as a family, or as an individual when you're young, then you're
going to be kind of a keeping up with the Joneses kind of situation, which a lot of people fall into
they'll go and they'll buy boats or they'll buy rvs or they'll buy nice trucks or they'll buy this designer
purses or bags or clothes or shoes to keep up or to be trendy or to be relevant and are you are you
really is that really important is that is that as important as being financially stable in your 40s and
50s is it like ask yourself that and if if it's not then you need to probably revisit where you're
spending your money yeah.
Mike Novak:
[40:16] And the last one on the financial side is invest 25% of your earnings into some kind of
investment account and just be like hands off on it.
Rachael Novak:
[40:22] Don't touch it.
Mike Novak:
[40:23] Yep, don't touch it.
Rachael Novak:
[40:24] Let it accrue.
Mike Novak:
[40:25] The last thing that we'll just leave with you guys because this one's getting pretty long is to
really understand the force multipliers. Like these are the levers that move the needle big time. And
I think for real estate agents, because it's a lot of our audience, it's leverage in the form of an
assistant. Like you need that as fast as you can possibly afford it. Like if you've got 90 days of
savings in the bank, And you're on an upward trajectory with your production, go hire an assistant
today, because that's going to buy back your time and allow you to do higher income producing
activities, sell more and work less, which is what we're all about. Right. The other like big leverage

piece is the personal leverage. Maybe you can speak about that for just a minute, but figuring out
what to hand off in your personal life to others that you just don't need to do. And that's going to
allow you to live a better life. That's going to allow you to actually relax. You're not working. And
that's going to allow you to focus your energy on your work as well. Yeah.
Rachael Novak:
[41:14] So, you know, I think we've done podcasts on this and talked about personal leverage and
professional leverage before. But the biggest one, you know, depending on the season you're in,
your kids ages, the biggest one for sure is, you know, a nanny or some sort of like house helper
with your kids, right? Like caretaking of kids is the biggest expense outside of mortgages for most
families with young kids. So that's definitely one that's a huge piece of leverage. Our kids are now a
little bit older. So, you know, lucky us, we've got teenagers who can take care of themselves and
don't need babysitters and nannies anymore. So it's now a house manager. So somebody who's
taking care of the laundry and the food prep and cleaning up and, you know, doing housework and
cleaning the house and that kind of thing so that, you know, I'm not coming home after a 7, 8, 10
hour day and having to do the laundry and having to make all our proteins.
Mike Novak:
[42:06] Those are what stay-at-home moms frequently do. And it's like a full-time job.
Rachael Novak:
[42:09] It absolutely is.
Mike Novak:
[42:11] People are just very slow to realize this for some reason.
Rachael Novak:
[42:13] Yes, exactly. Especially for the women, the moms out there, I resonate big time with thinking
that not only can I work and make sure that my kids are taken care of, but I can also do all the
house things. And that's how you literally sprint into burnout as fast as possible. So definitely the
force multiplier in this situation to be able to work, to be able to prioritize things that you need to is
getting that home leverage.
Mike Novak:
[42:40] For guys, landscaper. If I see you mowing your lawn, we got some conversation.
Rachael Novak:
[42:47] Unless you just love it and it's like your hobby.
Mike Novak:
[42:50] No, go sell more houses.
Rachael Novak:
[42:51] Do your thing.
Mike Novak:
[42:51] Go sell more houses or go to the gym. Stop cutting the damn lawn. And then like, get the

right team around you as the other force multiplier. And so this would include the right CPA, the
right tax attorney, the right actual like i want to call like a litigation attorney like a business attorney
these are like key relationships that you need to establish it took us a really long time to find the
right cpa like i think we went through like five of them um we we lucked out on the attorney side of
things like we have a fantastic attorney i'm having a relationship with them but you need those
people in your corner to guide you and same thing with the financial advisor yeah i was gonna say
um you know, The right financial advisor, I really think, can lead you down the right path of
achieving whatever your financial goal is. We set a goal on when we want to be able to walk away
from our business if we wanted to. Not that we would, but we just said, hey, on this date, at this
time, we want to walk away. What do we need to have? And he got us total clarity, figured out
everything we needed to do. Our job was simply make sure we fund the account. His job is to make
sure that the account makes money.
Rachael Novak:
[43:53] And having him there to make decisions like hey we're going to trade in this car and buy this
car and pay it off like what do you think of that decision being able to bounce those kinds of things
off of him and have him be like that makes total sense because you're making more money in this
account than you would pay the interest so pay off that car absolutely even though it's a, like a
short-term cash crunch it's gonna be a long long-term better for you all right so being able to
bounce things off people is very very important so.
Mike Novak:
[44:19] We went pretty long today but There is, I think, a lot of great lessons in here, and there's
kind of like a framework that if you listen to this, you can really get a lot from it. And even if you're
not like in your 20s, but maybe you're in your 30s or 40s, and you're trying to start over, you're
trying to figure out like how to really get going to where you want to be, this could be a framework
for you that you really pursue. So if you want to get in touch with us, you can go on to
meetthenobacs.com. We are part of real brokerage and so we sponsor and mentor agents across
the entire country we also have a master class that you can purchase for i think it's 497 dollars and
learn all of our frameworks for buyers and sellers it's like 50 modules and there are 58 modules in a
workbook so check those out and we will see you guys next week see you then.