Discipline over motivation

Discipline Before Success

• Marco Oliveira • Season 1 • Episode 1

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Marco launches his new podcast "Lionheart Discipline" with a passionate mission: teaching genuine discipline as the foundation for all success. Unlike the countless social media "gurus" promising overnight wealth for a small fee, Marco doesn't dangle Ferraris or mansions as bait. Instead, he offers something more valuable—the fundamental mindset that precedes lasting success.

Drawing from his personal journey from minimum wage jobs and $12,000 in debt to business ownership and financial security, Marco shares hard-earned wisdom about what true discipline looks like. His refreshingly honest approach cuts through the noise with a simple truth: what separates successful people isn't motivation (which is fleeting) but disciplined action, especially when you don't feel like doing the work.

The podcast tackles a powerful insight that few discuss: "If you're terrible with money when you don't have much, you'll be terrible when you have lots." This explains why lottery winners go broke while entrepreneurs who lose everything often rebuild their wealth quickly. Your habits today determine your relationship with success tomorrow.

What makes Marco's approach unique is his perspective on wealth. Rather than chasing Instagram-worthy luxury, he measures success by providing for family, creating security, and enjoying life's real pleasures. His definition of "rich" isn't about impressing others but creating genuine freedom and stability.

Perhaps most valuable is Marco's emphasis on what happens after your workday ends. While most people collapse in front of the TV after their 9-to-5, the disciplined few use those precious evening hours to build their future. This isn't glamorous—it's exhausting, consistent work that compounds over time. But as Marco proves through his own story, this discipline ultimately creates the freedom to design the life you want.

Ready to build true discipline that transforms every aspect of your life? Subscribe now and join Marco for regular episodes focused on developing the mindset and habits that precede lasting success. Have questions or topics you'd like covered? Reach out anytime—Marco personally responds to messages from listeners seeking genuine guidance.

Speaker 1:

What's up y'all? My name is Marco and I'm starting a new podcast called Lionheart Discipline. This show is going to be strictly on teaching you the true meaning of discipline. Okay, it's not going to teach you about this flashy life I mean, I'm sure we'll touch base on that stuff for when you get there but I want to focus this show on your life before all of that. Okay, you need to truly train yourself before getting there. To even get there, you'll never get there if you're not disciplined in your own life, no matter what stage you're in. You know, not working, working poor, not poor you need to have discipline to really get to your goals, and that will never happen if you're not disciplined. So I don't want to have this podcast showing you guys all my cars, my houses, my money, this and that. I don't want it to be like that. I want people really to truly learn what discipline is and how to get there. Eventually. I'll be honest, you can make extremely good money from what I'm going to teach you and explain to you guys. I'm not saying you can't, I just don't want that to be what you guys are seeing right now.

Speaker 1:

Okay, discipline's a lot of things. It's not just getting money, getting rich or building discipline to get that stuff. Like no, you, it's better for your own life, for your family, for yourself. You know, it's true. Like it's. It's really good for you to be disciplined. It betters your life in many ways that you won't learn until you're actually, you know, disciplined. Let's be honest.

Speaker 1:

Okay, there's all these people on Instagram these days social media. Every time I turn on my Instagram, I started this page and every time I turn on my Instagram page now all I see is these what do you call them Gurus? They call them gurus. Everybody's a coach these days. Everybody's going to teach you how to make thousands of dollars, hundreds of thousands of dollars, $30,000, whatever it is. But if you spend $50 or $100, buy my package or whatever the hell it is and I'll be honest, I tried it just to see what it is it's a bunch of baloney. Okay, they say they're going to teach you, but they don't teach you anything. Half of them, you don't even actually talk to them. Okay, it's, it's people they've hired. Okay, and they try, and most of the time it's all automated. Okay, the videos are just done. They expect you to watch it, learn it and you're basically on your own. That's what you're buying.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to give you the truth right now. If there's a guru whatever you want to call them making hundreds of thousands of dollars, you think they really need to your course or spend the time trying to get you to spend that $50? No, why would they want to do that? Why would they have that stress of trying to get your $50? They're advertising that they're making hundreds of thousands or whatever, a million dollars a year doing their business. Why do they need your $50 so bad? Why do they need that? And they will sit there messaging you for so long to get that $50.

Speaker 1:

But if you are making that much money, why do you need to bust people's balls for that? Now I get it. There's a difference. It's like you're trying to get a client, customer or whatever. That's fine, but that's for like a little, maybe upper scale money.

Speaker 1:

You know, trying to get a client, I had, I think, three gurus. I followed them. They were messaging me nonstop and their course was like $67, $97. And one was even, I think, $30. And they're all saying they're millionaires. What are you busting my chops for if you're making millions of dollars?

Speaker 1:

So the moral of the story is that if they're really making that much money, they ain't gonna be coming to you desperately, like that they're gonna put their focus on their other business, making more, trying to scale and make more money than what they're really, uh, what they're really making. It just doesn't make sense to me, like, uh, like, and a lot of. I feel sorry for a lot of people because they're sold this, this fantasy, to them. They show them the cars and all this stuff online, like it's. You know, I'm, I was there, I was there before, you know, and there's a lot of people falling for it, you know. So it's sad, like that's why I really want to start this page, because you know, like, I don't want to show all that. You know, if you really want to be here and listen, you'll be here and listen. I'll put some pictures, maybe a few videos or whatever to make it interesting. But I really want to talk about how to get there before that.

Speaker 1:

Okay, because, like I said, you need discipline before all that fame, or not even fame of that money, you know, because they'll tell you one thing All right, if you're terrible without money, meaning sorry, if you're terrible without sorry, how should I say this, if you're terrible with your money when you don't have much money. You will be terrible when you have lots of money. You will be in the same position, and it is what it is. It's like that, saying you know, most rich people these days, if they be, if they go broke, they'll be rich in maybe another year or so they'll make their money back. Why? Because they're smart with their money. They know what to do with their money, so they'll get that money back. If you don't know what to do with your money right now, you won't know what to do with your money when you have more. Okay, it doesn't matter how much money you make. You can make $5,000 and not know how to spend it. If you start making $10,000, you still won't know how to spend it and you'll spend it the same way. Okay, it's very important you know what to do before you get there, before you get to your goals.

Speaker 1:

Now I'm just going to give you guys a quick story. Well, my story, okay, just quick run through. Okay, I started working jobs like regular people, worked minimum wage, got in serious debt, making $14 an hour, was going nowhere. I live with my parents and guys don't think there's anything wrong with that. All right, like you could live with your parents, save up. There's nothing wrong with that, especially how the economy is. If you have your parents and they have a home or they're renting their home. Take advantage, save your money so you're able to invest your money, or just save it so when you do want to buy something, you have it. Take advantage. A lot of people don't do that and that's what I didn't do. I didn't take advantage of living with my mom. I didn't save anything. I partied, I spent my money. It was dumb.

Speaker 1:

And then, you know, I moved out with my first girlfriend with no savings, like it just put me in a hole that you know was very far to come out of, you know. So I first got a guy in debt my first time, for maybe, you know, I think it was like $12,000, you know, and I was very young, so it was very stupid. I was still working a minimum wage job, so it was very tough to get out of, you know, and I wasn't even driving at the time. And I finally decided one day, like you know what, like I can't get a car, I can't do any of this without paying all this loans off. So first, like, this was my first moment of discipline in my life where I finally, like you know what I'm done. I saved as much as I could. I'm done. I saved as much as I could.

Speaker 1:

If there was a nickel, a dime, didn't matter where I had a jar, I put that shit in the jar and that was it. Every day I counted. I had a whole book not a book but a page with a chart on it and I wrote five cents, 10 cents, 25 cents, 50 cents, $1, $2, $5, $10, $20, $50, $100. And anything that went into that jar I'd put a tick beside it. I counted every single coin, every bill that I put in there, everything. It didn't matter what it was, it was a nickel, 10 cents. I counted all of that shit.

Speaker 1:

That's how focused I was to getting out of debt and buying my first car. I was so dedicated to that I forgot how it was years ago. So, like I, honestly, I forgot how long it took me. But I honestly, I remember looking at my debt and I was like, oh, I'm never going to get out of debt and, to be honest, I think like I could have paid that. I think it was like 10 grand. I think I paid it in, like I I'd say a year and a half or so, maybe around there.

Speaker 1:

And keep in mind, guys, I was still working the minimum wage job. I didn't start making more money to take myself out of debt. So like it truly, like I said before, it's truly how you take care of your money. You could succeed. Okay, now, honestly, like I'll be real, like it's not me, it doesn't mean you're gonna go get everything on a better way job. It's very tough these days, but can you. You can still get a lot. Get everything on a minimum wage job. It's very tough these days, but can you. You can still get a lot of things off a minimum wage job if you do it properly, okay. So, like I said, handle your money properly, do it properly and you'll get to where you want to go, or you'll get to your goals, I should say.

Speaker 1:

Then I finally ended up getting into construction, which is, you know, I also didn't have much education. I didn't graduate high school, so I joined construction. It was very tough, cold summer, like winter and summer. It was very tough, okay. So, but I started making. Well, I was still making minimum wage money. They didn't want to pay me much, I still had to earn my stripes there. It was terrible, you know, I eventually started making what a lot of the other guys were making and I started making more money. Okay, but, like I said, you know, when you start making more money, if you don't know how to take care of your money, it doesn't matter how much money you make. You know I was starting to fall into my old habits. You know I uh, sorry, you know what I did end up getting a car at the um a little short around when I joined construction, because it was too hard to go from job site to job site. So I ended up getting a car. I financed the car. So and that's another thing Don't feel like you have to go buy the most expensive car and put all your money into it. You know, just lease it or finance it, do whatever you got to do. I needed a car desperately, so that's what I got.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, like I said, I started getting into my old spending again. You know I wasn't really taking care of my money. So I think maybe like five, six years later, I started getting in debt again. Um, so I had to get myself back on track, you know. You know I wasn't as serious as the chart that I had, but I managed all my spending. You know, I looked where my money was going every month. I knew where every single dollar was going. I knew what, how much money I had left at the end of the month or at the end of the week, and that's how it had to be. You know some people may laugh at it of the week and that's how it had to be. You know Some people may laugh at it, but you know you need to do it. Okay, the world is a funny place. For the last while. You know you have to. If you don't watch your money, it's going to go. It's going to go. So, yeah, that's a little bit of my story.

Speaker 1:

Okay, I also had my first child and I was really getting tired of working for somebody. You know, construction was terrible. It was lousy. I would never wish that upon my son unless he really had to. Like me, I generally loved construction, but that's not what I wanted to do anymore. I wanted to start something of my own, do something of my own.

Speaker 1:

So I ended up starting my first business. It was a cleaning business and, to be honest, I tried to do it a different way. I didn't want to do the cleaning because I couldn't quit my job. I had to still work when I started my first company. So what did I do? I started a cleaning company. I found cleaners online. I figured out I was getting a lot of applications for cleaners online. I figured out like I was getting a lot of applications for cleaners. But okay, long story short, I don't want to get too much in the make. Well, we'll touch base on this on another episode.

Speaker 1:

But what I did was I hired cleaners, found them online and, trust me, I went through a lot and I started searching for jobs. You know people. You need cleaning advertising. You know it was Facebook Marketplace, it was Instagram, it was Gigi, it was whatever. Like I just kept posting everywhere you need cleaners, you need a job, you need cleaners, you need cleaners. And eventually people started. And I also you know I went to stores. I used to pass by laundromats on the way if I'd seen a business that looked like they used cleaning service. But I asked I didn't care. What's the worst that could happen? They said no, okay, sure, fine, bye, take care, okay.

Speaker 1:

So I started making good money because places were starting to say yes finally and I got a lot of no's some people started saying yes. So what I would do is I'd send those cleaners, I'd take a little percentage of. It wasn't much, I couldn't quit my job off of it, but it was. It was helping. You know, a couple hundred bucks in the beginning, a week extra on top of my pay was really good. Then, over time it was starting to get to 500 to 1,000 a week, to three, four grand a month, keep in mind. I didn't stop searching for clients, like always. So I started making good money on top of my job. I still never quit. I worked on this after work, a lot steady. It was a lot of tired nights to do, but it ended up paying off.

Speaker 1:

After a year gone by, I started going for bigger clients new condo cleaning contracts you know it's property management, you know full condos that were built already and I was able to finally land my first two, which was paying me really good money. And when I started having this steady money I was able to quit my job. You know I got in good with these builders. You know I got good with the property management that referred me to other corporations. So just off of this business. I was making money and I wasn't even cleaning myself. That was the good part. I didn't even do the cleaning myself. I was just a third party. I was basically a dispatch. So that was my first business that was actually able to take me out of my nine to five. I was able to buy my first house. I bought a new car for myself, took care of let my wife stay home with the kid, raise our child because, because you know, we didn't want another, we didn't want a babysitter to raise our child. So that was really good. So that had me set off pretty good.

Speaker 1:

I'm not going to get going on my second business right now. I don't want to go into too much detail on myself right now. I want my journey to go as I create these episodes. I want to reflect on myself towards you guys, to help you guys understand what I went through. I don't want to just go through everything right now and then you know and keep going on and on about it in the other episodes, so you'll learn more about me as we go. I want this. That's what I want this to be. I want you guys to you know how do I say it relate to me in these episodes and learn more from me and about me on these episodes. You know, I don't I don't want to just say everything right now, then you guys hear it over and over again. So as these episodes go, you'll learn more about me and you'll learn for yourself. You know, we'll become more relatable. You know, and like, I'll just touch base on Like.

Speaker 1:

I don't want you guys to think that, oh, what am I taking out of this guy, this guy. Guys, I own a home, okay. I own a cottage. I own two cars. I bought my mom a house Okay. She's retired, she never has to worry about anything anymore. My wife's the same, she doesn't have to work. Child's, the my child's well taken care of. We go on vacations. I try. We go once a year, minimal. The last two years we've gone actually twice. We try to keep it once for sure. And in the summer we do a lot of things, okay. So I don't want you guys to think that why am I taking advice from this guy? You know he doesn't know if I can, he's not rich, he's not bitten.

Speaker 1:

Guys, define your rich, okay. What's rich? Having money to go party, is that what you want? Do people have to have a Bugatti, a Ferrari, a Lamborghini. If that's your rich, that's fine. My rich is having a house, having a cottage, being able to give my mom her own house, own house, okay, having my, our cars, my family's well taken care of. We vacation, we have a nice little cottage, spring, you know, in our own country, which is canada, okay, which is very expensive right now, if you guys hear what's going on. But that's my rich, okay, we're pretty well off. Okay, like, look, I don't have a fucking Ferrari, I don't have a fucking Bugatti. No, okay, I have a nice SUV for the family, suburban. I don't know if you guys know much of what that is, but it's a great SUV. I also have my GMC Sierra truck, and that's what I want. That's what I want. That's what I want. I just want simple things like that. I don't want to be flashy and I don't want to go broke buying all these things, okay. So define your rich Guys.

Speaker 1:

This is just the starting. You can make it higher than me, you can make it the same as me. It's all up to you. But, like I said, it all starts with discipline. Has to be your discipline first, okay, and that's what I'm here to teach you the first, the basics of discipline, getting and I'm always going to stress this Okay, what I'm showing you guys here is the first steps before you reach your success, the first steps.

Speaker 1:

I'm starting you guys out. I have to start you guys out Because if you don't do it right in the beginning, you won't do it right in the middle. Okay, step one comes before step two. Like I said, stop following these gurus on there. They ain't going to fucking teach you how to be rich in 30 days. It doesn't work. Now, don't get me wrong, some people get lucky, but no, I'm sorry, it just doesn't happen most of the time, especially for people. If you're looking for it, it ain't going to happen. Don't get me wrong, some people get it, but I'll tell you it's the truth. Don't get me wrong, some people get it, but I'll tell you it's the truth.

Speaker 1:

So look, discipline. I'm going to tell you right now what is going to better you in your life. Okay, one, it's going to better your mentality. Okay, that's the most important thing is bettering your mentality. Okay, discipline is all in your mind. It's doing things you don't want to do in the moment and just getting it done. That's discipline. Okay, it's like I'm like me. Okay, I went to work full time, came home, help with help with the baby. Eventually, well, like, like, I mean back in the day now I'm talking about the last couple years, but I was dead tired, still dead tired to this day. Also, if you think owning a business or whatever, you think that, oh, it's less work. No, it's still a lot of work. In fact, it's a lot more work. Okay, but the difference is that you truly appreciate it because it's something you built. That's what it is. You built that, so you have so much more appreciation for it. But anyways, back to the what I was saying.

Speaker 1:

Your mentality and discipline is you working your full-time job. Coming home, you don't want to work on something else. You want to watch TV and play games? Okay, you don't want to work on something else. You want to watch tv and play games? Okay, you don't want to do the other. Extra discipline will fight that voice in your head. Okay, and you will do the work. Okay, you, and you won't even have to convince yourself to do it. Okay, you know you're going home. I'm fucking doing this, this, this, this. I'll watch maybe a little bit of TV later, and that's it. Don't cancel out all the fun. Okay, just know your limits. Okay, when I go home, I'm doing that. I'm doing this for the next few hours.

Speaker 1:

Okay, money comes from nine to five. Your dreams or your wealth, money, whatever you want to say, is going to come. What happens after work? You really want to stop working. That nine to five it's what you do when you go home. That's what's going to take you out of your nine to five is what you do at home after You're just watching TV and playing games and stuff like that.

Speaker 1:

And look, I know, when you have kids, I know it's hard. Find that time. Spend two, three hours a day. You know when the kid goes to sleep. Spend two hours a day just doing some work. You know, slowly, any progress is progress. Okay, Keep it up, keep going. I know it's tough, but you can do it. So that's your mentality. You know it's. Get your mentality right.

Speaker 1:

Okay, that's very important in discipline is your mind. You have to get that right. Your health, of course. It'll also help your health. You know eating properly and you know that's very important. No-transcript to that gym. I'm going 45 minutes. I'm running, lifting weights, whatever the hell you do, I'm doing it. People don't notice that, but exercising is almost the number one form of true discipline. And how often you go to the gym, if you do it every day, if that's your plan, or you do it every other day, if that's what you want, that's true discipline. Going to the gym is not just about working out, gaining muscles. That's not what it's all about. It's actually for your mind. Going back to the mind Going to the gym every day, an hour, 30 minutes, doesn't matter. That's true discipline in your mind.

Speaker 1:

Discipline also gives you purpose, purpose in life. It literally changes how you feel. It changes how you go about your day. Okay, when you start becoming more disciplined, your eyes start opening up. You want more purpose in your life. You look, if you love your nine-to-five, sure, you still need discipline for it.

Speaker 1:

Okay, but it actually gives you purpose in your life. When you have everything down to a t, you have your schedule, your routine. You follow that shit every day. People need routines. Okay, if you have to write it down, even your phone, just put it on your phone, your notes, your calendar, what you're doing every day. If you do that every single day, I give it, by week three you won't even need it anymore, it will be on autopilot. You won't look at that shit anymore, you're just going to do it. And it also gets you ready for your future goals. These little things, like I said before, these little things really get you ready for your life goals.

Speaker 1:

Okay, if you build your discipline right now for these little things, you will have that discipline when you want to do bigger things and you need it. Okay, it'll prepare you. You know, because just going over these obstacles whatever your life obstacles are right now, how tough your life is right now, it will get hard. Listen, when I was working my nine to five, I had less problems Like I still had problems, but it wasn't as serious. As you know, I own my own business. I have employees that I got to pay, I have accounting to do, trying to find new clients to keep my workers busy. There's a lot more stress and work going on when you start going further in your life and your goals. When you start accomplishing more and you want to do more, you get more problems. Okay, but if you're disciplined, you'll learn how to deal with those issues. Okay, that's how it is.

Speaker 1:

Okay, learn your goals and discipline Not your goals. Learn your discipline right now, okay, and then you can use it to your future tasks, your future goals, your dreams, and work on that, and it'll be a lot easier. People just want to start on their goals and dreams right now. I'm going to do it right now, tomorrow, not motivated to do it Yesterday, not disciplined to do it. That's the difference between motivation and discipline. Are you motivated to do it? Not today? Not motivated to do it today? That's what motivation is. One day you're motivated, one day you're not. You could be motivated for like three days. Yeah, the fourth day, fifth day, you're not motivated.

Speaker 1:

Guess what stays with you more than a week? Discipline. If you give it two weeks, I guarantee that discipline will be embedded in your mind Embedded. It's going to wash that You'll never need motivation At the end of the day. You look at all these successful people. You think they're all motivated every day. No, what keeps them going is discipline. That's what really keeps them going is the discipline, okay. So motivation, throw that shit in the garbage or recycling, whatever you want, because you need discipline, not motivation. Simple as that. There's a big difference on that too. People always ask how do I stay motivated? You ain't going to stay motivated. That won't happen. You do not stay motivated. There's days you do not want to do that shit. Your discipline is going to make you do that shit, alright, so I really appreciate you guys If you're still listening. I appreciate you guys.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to end this episode like this Going forward, I'm going to try to release an episode on specific topics. Right, this episode I was kind of like all over the place, but maybe every couple of days, two days, I want to release an episode about certain things. You know, if you guys ever want to suggest things to talk about, I can definitely touch base on it. You know, I'm going to go over a lot of things. You know, like I said, this episode is kind of all over the place, just trying to introduce myself and what a little bit of what we go through. But uh, yeah, next couple of days I'll have a specific topic on how to be disciplined, how to get you over that slump, or whatever it is that we're talking about, and I'm going to keep it different.

Speaker 1:

I'll keep it honest, real talks, okay, um, I hope you guys enjoyed this one episode. It's my first time doing an episode, so bear with me. Um, yeah, I think, uh, I think that's it. And if you guys feel honestly, guys feel free. If you ever want to message me or DM, whatever, feel free, I'll answer, I'll respond or whatever you guys want. Okay, if you have suggestions, you know you need help with something shoot me a DM, I'll respond to you guys. No problem, it ain't an issue for me. I really want to truly help people get to where they want to be in their lives and the right way of doing it all. Right, and don't forget to follow or hit that subscribe button. You know this is going to be a great thing. I got going here and stay tuned for lionhearted discipline podcast. Thanks, guys, we'll see you soon.