Better Men, Better Leaders (LIVE Episode) (EP 143)

What if the world’s version of success is keeping you from the life you actually want? We gather a banker, a doctor, an engineer, and a founder to unpack a different playbook—one that prizes character, family systems, and time freedom over titles, toys, and empty status. The conversation moves fast and stays real: your job can fund your dreams without defining you, wealth is more about security than flex, and the highest ROI is building communication, leadership, and influence that pay off at work and at home.

We trade highlight reels for habits. You’ll hear how weekly family “board meetings,” simple mottos, and kids’ affirmations create a shared direction. We talk about fatherhood as both rock and soft heart, the power of being last to let go in a hug, and why love often looks like doing the dishes with intention. On money, the advice is practical and doable: if you’ve got a few hundred dollars a month, invest in skills, start a lean side business, and let patience do the compounding. Security beats status, and time freedom beats toys every time.

You’ll also get a candid riff on being misunderstood, parsing signal from noise, and designing a “greatest day” through small right decisions made on repeat. It’s not about a miracle moment; it’s the slow burn that builds a life you’re proud of. If you’re ready to redraw your map—shifting from performing for the crowd to building for your people—this one will stick.

If this resonates, share it with a friend, hit follow, and leave a short review with the choice you’re making this week to buy back time. Your next chapter starts with one clear decision today.

Chapters

• 0:00 Meet Mason And The Panel
• 2:22 Redefining Success Beyond Titles
• 5:42 Early Achievement And Family Choices
• 9:27 Values, Identity, And The Games We Play
• 13:47 Purpose Over Pleasure
• 17:32 What Would Shock Our 20-Year-Old Selves
• 22:52 Status vs Security In Wealth
• 26:17 The Job As Angel Investor To Your Dreams
• 30:22 Fatherhood: Strong Backbone, Soft Heart
• 35:12 Marriage, Hard Things, And Growth
• 39:27 Family Vision, Rituals, And Affirmations
• 44:37 Solitude, Self-Love, And Readiness
• 48:02 Small Dollars, Big Leverage: Where To Invest
• 52:17 Skills Over Hacks: Communication And Influence
• 56:47 Corporate Lessons: Emotional Stability And Options
• 1:01:17 Legacy Is What You Leave Within
• 1:05:32 Being Misunderstood And Trusting Your Path
• 1:08:37 Craig Takes The Mic: Signal Over Noise
• 1:13:52 Liking Yourself And Seeking Counterviews
• 1:18:57 Funerals, Kindness, And Saying It Now

Transcript

SPEAKER_02: 0:07

have actually an individual running a sort of a a podcast style interview with a a few others. Um and this person, Mason Eddie, is, you know, had had a lot of success in his career, has been able to he he coaches a lot of people, you know, came from a a supply chain background. But in our community has has impacted so many lives. You know, he he's given his wife the opportunity to be able to really customize their life, you know, stay at home. I think he's gonna do that probably on his own too as well pretty soon here. You know, be able to really have a lot of flexibility and choice. Um so really excited to hear from from Mason if you have anything else to share. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00: 0:47

So I've worked personally, I've had an opportunity to work with Mason over the last several years. And for me, one of the things that's kept me in a room like this and getting around other men is just the high character quality of decisions, the way they treat women, the way they carry themselves. And Mason just embodies that. And I think if you understand who Mason is as a man, I credit a lot of the the relationship I have with my spouse today with the the finances stuff to people like that in my life who I got to look up to to set an example. So please everybody get on your feet and let's bring up Masonetti.

SPEAKER_03: 1:20

Thanks brother. Hey appreciate you Devin you forgot to mention my golf game what the heck you forgot to mention that I we should have won the the golf tournament uh this week but we didn't so hey uh I appreciate the welcome and uh we're excited um if you're if you're on the panel I am so blessed to have an opportunity to to talk about you guys and uh we're gonna bring them on up here in a second but I just want you all to know that what we're gonna share and the questions I'm gonna ask these these guys I'm gonna get at the at the logical side I'm gonna get at the head but we're also gonna get at the heart of what we do and who we are okay so it's not gonna be just a head game it's gonna be a hard game and it it's meant to pull some things out of out of these men that honestly it you know I I almost didn't even send them any preparation for this. So they're gonna speak 99% just from their experiences in life. So it should be uh pretty raw pretty real so let me start out with introducing I, you know, the the first gentleman that's gonna be coming up here and and you know I don't I don't know if you guys know statistically but statistically if you're if you're in the corporate world and you're working in you know like the banking industry as an example that's that's where this gentleman comes from in terms of his career background to become a senior vice president director level the average age of that is mid-40s to to mid-50s. Okay this gentleman worked has worked for a top 50 bank in the nation and at 29 into his kind of approaching 30 he he started to reach that level in his corporate career so we're gonna we're gonna have him discuss a little bit of that background he's the father of three now uh just had number three like a couple weeks ago that's that's three so he's got two girls and a and a little boy and his wife stepped out of her her career when she was in her in her early 30s as a physician's assistant and one of the most humble uh successful people that I've been around in my life and uh we've been in business now for is it 14 years together and we've only argued never which is pretty unreal pretty weird weird actually we we really don't disagree on much other than the fact that Michael and I operate very differently. So please give give a warm welcome to Michael Boepry and Michael loves this he loves the this is a little uncomfortable sometimes yeah you want to grab a mic I don't know if apologize for that okay next one I'm gonna bring up is is has a background his him and his wife were both eye doctors by by trade. His wife left her career in her 30s they uh they actually have three little girls now they have twins twin girls and uh an older girl all toddlers uh their life is amazing and you know one of the one of the best qualities and kind of characteristics of of this man is he spoke life into me for the last 14 years of my life um he's somebody that's guided me mentored me coached me so please give a warm welcome to Dr. Eddie Kutnik all right now the guy for those that don't know where we are in Madison Wisconsin the reason I moved to Madison Wisconsin actually all these guys that are in Madison is one of them but this guy I I moved to right next door to and incredible incredible person. In fact I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for him he opened the door to me in one of the lowest moments of my life to this community and uh has absolutely transformed the way I live has a background in engineering actually had his got his PE in his his mid to late 20s in engineering. So we got a banker we got a doctor and we're gonna have an engineer and but what's most important is that's not how these men define their lives. Retired left his wife left her career in her 30s. So all of these men, their wives have left their careers as a function of the work they've done and maybe that's a goal you have maybe that's not a goal you have but it's something that we I think is pretty special. And so please give a warm welcome to Kyle Wills I didn't mention it. I didn't mention it but he he he he won the tournament the golf tournament so we'll give him that okay hard to hard to admit that so a couple things that I just want to set the stage with is it's it's just so special to be in relationship with you guys and for you guys to model. And I think it's pretty rare my dad told me who comes from a traditional business background told me the one thing you want to make sure if you go into business is don't go into a partnership with people. Literally this is his messaging because in a traditional business sense it makes it a risk right you got 7030 ownership or whatever it is and uh the one reason the one reason I'm successful is because I went into a partnership with you guys. And uh it's it's amazing. So what I'd like to start out with is first and foremost is just have a discussion around what do you think the world calls success today or will call success that you guys kind of completely reject or you kind of look past in terms of what success is defined as so just as a quick disclaimer I'm gonna speak a lot about what I believe today.

SPEAKER_06: 6:53

You don't have to share my beliefs I'm not saying that I'm right you're wrong. I'm just gonna speak from the heart uh what I personally believe. One of the things that I I I do struggle with what society says successful men look like is that successful men are just good at everything. Just good at everything. As a man you should succeed in everything and you know I'm it's like I'm gonna I'm gonna just be so good at Scrabble or I'm gonna be so good at I don't know whatever hunting. Fantasy football fantasy football and it's like it's this point of pride to be good at things. And I just I don't understand this at all. I've always felt like just don't get good at things that don't matter I am absolutely not the best Scrabble player I for sure then I'm not the best hunter and I'm sorry Kyle I'm not the best golfer. Neither am I well unfortunately just sorry so you don't have to be good at everything in life my personal belief I just wanted to get good at the things that mattered the most I wanted to be a really good dad I wanted to be a really good husband I wanted to be a really good eye doctor and I wanted to be a really good business owner and builder of leaders that's it and I just like I don't feel this desire to be the best at all these other things or to get better at all these other things.

SPEAKER_01: 8:21

That's not to say that you can't enjoy them like you can still play Scrabble and if you're good at Scrabble by all by all means good for you bully for you Scrabble it's awesome but uh you can still enjoy things and not be great at them anyway what I would say is one of the problems I think when you look at the world today is at every moment you could look at your phone or look at something or someone is projecting what they think should be success for you. That's like any any social media any ESPN sports center any anything you look at today there's billions of dollars being poured behind it to get you to think and do and operate in one way and essentially they're saying this is what success looks like this is what you should want this is what you should value. And I think one of the greatest things about me getting into this environment and creating a relationship with you guys is you taught Michael to be like Michael what do you want? Like what are your values Michael you need to define that and get real none of this BS like oh you're in your 20s you got time to figure it out well guess what the world is trying to figure it out for you like you have to stand up at some point and put some stakes in the ground of what do you care about? Right? Like you don't have to want to be a great father. Like that's okay if you don't want to have kids and want but like I did and I reflected on that and you challenged me and said how do I start to set up my life to do that and give my wife uh the the options to create the family dynamic that we wanted. So you know one of my like all time favorite quotes is I think James Clear talks about this is one of the most dangerous things you can do in life is take advice from people who are playing a different game than you are. And you just I think you just have to be aware that everywhere we look are people playing games that you don't want to play and they're trying to give you their advice and if you're not astute about it, if you don't have a grounded group of people you can like I think have some trust and relationship with I just see guys float and they want to do something never different every week. And so the world is telling them what success is and and I think that's a huge huge problem.

SPEAKER_04: 10:15

The only thing I'd add is I think these days both for men and women there's a lot of push in society for your personal satisfaction your personal enjoyment. And while not all of those things are bad some of them are anybody ever notice sometimes the stuff that like feels really good also like maybe hits at your self-image a little bit it's stuff that you shouldn't be doing. Right? And I think rather than pursuing like enjoyment or that personal satisfaction sometimes sometimes you have to pursue purpose sometimes you have to pursue responsibility. Mike you just spoke about this last night right and sometimes it's doing those things that are harder that don't make you feel the best but it's the right thing at that point. And then I think there's also a lot of societal kind of pressure for doing certain things at certain ages.

SPEAKER_06: 11:05

And I think what's really cool about this room and I know folks online maybe can't see this, but there's people in this room that are 18, 19 years old and there's individuals in their 60s and everywhere in between and the commonality in this room right now is people have a desire to grow and better themselves so a question kind of to get to know you guys a little bit more is if you were if your 20 year old self walked into this room right now, what would confuse them or him the most about your current life so my 20 year old self thought that success was just like this dictatorial just like leader just very much like corporate I don't know but you get the idea right and my 20 year old self I think if they saw me in the way that I lived they'd be like oh I guess he kind of settled down a little bit just in terms of like I I just I've I feel just like I feel very secure and just like who I am and like I don't I don't feel the need to do all this like be this dictator at all. I don't think that that's what success looks like. I believe that success is the number of people that are better off because of you lived. I believe success is the way that people look at you they look up to you and why they look up to you and the people that you've brought along with you. It's your legacy. And so I think my 20 year old self wouldn't get that because in like in 20 year olds like success looks like you know it's all the cars and the houses and the girls and I love girls. I've got three of them now. I think my my 20 year old self would just be like oh this is this is just not what I thought it looked like but I also believe Mason that my 20 year old self would be proud of the man that I am today. And I'm by no means perfect but I am a product of following good people and become a man of value.

SPEAKER_03: 12:55

What does it mean to be proud of yourself to you that's a deep question.

SPEAKER_06: 13:04

I don't know that I have a super deep answer. I think it's just like it's understanding that you are you are allowed to be a work in progress you don't need to be perfect to be proud of yourself all that you need to know is that you're on the right track that you're there's tension you're making progress you're living life in alignment you've surrounded yourself with the right people you're on the right journey you know I believe happiness Michael's earlier earlier point about just like people getting squirrely and like looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places I believe happiness lies in the journey. That's true. But I believe happiness lies in the journey as long as you know that your journey is getting you to where you want to go I believe that when you see a lot of as men just like all this running around and looking for fulfillment in all the wrong places it's because we start to realize that the the journey that we're on is not getting us to where we want to go. And so we start looking for fulfillment in the wrong places. And that's what leads us down dark paths. And so to answer your question, Mason, why would I be proud of myself not because of who I am from a perfection standpoint, but because of who I'm becoming and because of who I've surrounded with.

SPEAKER_03: 14:14

That's really good. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_04: 14:16

Any other thoughts I mean I think my my 20 year old self first off would wonder why'd you cut the hair so for context I had an afro when I was 20. What are you doing Kyle Yeah I mean I think just at that point I just put a lot of value in things that ultimately didn't matter overall into my betterment as an individual I think I was like really tied up I mean how many guys do you know that have a worse day off because their sports team lost I'm not saying don't follow sports you guys like please like I'm competitive right that's okay but really this game that like you have no bearing on is affecting your attitude if you really like how do you feel about Chelsea I mean it's kind of annoying but I'm over it like whatever. You're right. He's talking about soccer yeah Mason's team beat my team today with a late goal. So it's like annoying but it's not gonna like change this day for me. I'm still gonna have a freaking fantastic day. Tomorrow's still gonna happen how it is it's not affecting me whatsoever. So I think like that's one area where like wow like I was like gung ho like I was uh man I was gonna play professional soccer and I was gonna do some of these things at that age or maybe not 20 but like 18. And I think just like finding really where I was comfortable and where I could stretch myself at the same time and become somebody more excellent.

SPEAKER_03: 15:52

I want to pivot here a little bit to you know kind of the the entrepreneurial journey and a little bit more about like wealth development and kind of getting into that that quadrant of thinking what would you say what part of the American dream that we're we're sold or told is the most dangerous not sure the American dream's being sold as much anymore by a lot of people out there he here's a few thoughts that I just have on wealth mindset.

SPEAKER_04: 16:24

There's this idea called bot status have you guys ever heard heard of this before this is this is a really good concept it's it's when you're looking to go and make a big purchase ask yourself would I still buy this if I couldn't show it to anybody if you couldn't show it to anybody would I still buy this right like cars are a big one I think for a lot of guys I'm not a car guy but I think a lot of guys would resonate with that like would I buy this if I couldn't show any like Todora just bought his dream car not because he wanted to show it off not because he wanted to tell everybody about it because like that was his goal for the last 10-15 years and it meant something to him and it was less about the car it was probably more about the accomplishment of hitting a point that he wanted to hit and it was like that reward and it was that like satisfaction. Does that make sense? So I think like you know when it comes to wealth it's obviously not accumulating things and that's like I get that's like surface level and and not super deep right but I think it's more about security than status. I think society talks about status. I think true wealth is security and knowing like like I share this a lot with folks that we bring through an evaluation process one of the things I'm most proud of is that anything happens to my wife and I, we have a trust set up in our daughter's name that'll pay her six figure income for the rest of her life when she becomes of age. And like I'm really really proud of that. I'm really proud of the things that my wife has done to create that and I think what happens sometimes generationally is we're all like sort of starting over in a lot of ways. Or these days not even starting over at zero either you're starting over a hundred thousand dollars in debt thought I'd get some more smirks out of that but guess not you guys all just paid your college off right away. Good job.

SPEAKER_01: 18:19

Any other any other thoughts otherwise I can pivot go ahead so I mean I'll I'll say this from a perspective that I do believe like America's one of the greatest countries in the world and that like we have so much opportunity here but here here's a little bit of my historian background right Michael was your goody two shoes go to school get good grades like get a job go get the advanced degree get promoted in the more job like that was what I was taught and that was the path I was down and I was just like well how do you succeed how do I capture the American dream I just do that better than everyone else I do the same thing everyone else is doing just better. So I'm gonna get the better grades. I'm gonna get the best I can I'm gonna give it my all in these areas and that's how Michael's going to live a successful fulfilling life get to the American dream. And I think what I've learned in this environment is if you just keep doing what everyone else is doing, man, why do why do a lot of people feel or may say right now the American dream is not going well it's like maybe that formula is not the formula that for you to create a life that's valuable or you would define successful. Like the world does change and I think perspectives change but I still it comes back to I think why the United States of America is so great and and what we need to talk about is like you get to define your value system here. Like you can define like what is important and meaningful to you how do you want to live your life and then you have the freedom to go attack it. But here's the what I think people miss it's not like this get on the conveyor belt, do what everyone else does and it will happen for you. You have to go create it for yourself.

SPEAKER_03: 19:49

You have to go grab it. You have to reverse engineer it you have to figure out what it is and you have to come back to the where you are and say what is going to get me there.

SPEAKER_06: 19:56

Right. 100% Yeah Mason I believe with respect to the American dream that a lot of us have been told that you know you should do what you love. Do what you love. Hey when you love what you do you never work a day in your life get a job that you love and you know I I certainly appreciate my career. I've worked really hard to achieve what I've achieved in my career. And I do happen to get a lot of fulfillment out of it. But let's be very clear I do not do what I do at my job because it fulfills me I do what I do at my job because it provides a lifestyle for my family and it provides the capital that I can use to grow assets so I can create the lifestyle that I ultimately want for my family. It is the angel investor of my own entrepreneurial journey so I don't have my whole self-image wrapped around my job it's amazing how sometimes you ask people like well you know tell me about yourself and they're like I am engineer and you ask them like oh what else what do you do for fun? They're like like there's nothing that's just it's everything tell me about you it's like I am my job. There's nothing else that you are passionate about that you're moving toward where you move like what's going on like you know what is your where are you going in life? Sometimes we just have our entire self-image wrapped around our job and that is an American thing. And I think that it's a misstep I think that we need to root ourselves in other places. We need to root ourselves in the relationships that we have the path that we're on and the legacy that we're building that's phenomenal.

SPEAKER_03: 21:46

I'm gonna pivot off of that because I think it's it's pretty on point. What are some things that pop culture culture rarely shows us about being a man who is great a great husband a great father a great leader what are some things that culture is not showcasing right now that you guys believe is important for men to know the deep questions I think that like a lot of uh being a successful father figure is like you know it's like tough right it's like the tough love.

SPEAKER_06: 22:21

And I, you know, you for sure there is so much importance with you there's something that as a father that you bring to your household that is stability. There's a certain maternal nature that the mother can bring to the household that you just in many instances just won't be able to provide in the same capacity. But steadfastness trustworthiness you are the rock you are the pillar however and you are you are like the one that in a storm everyone can count on however that doesn't mean that you are without emotion or that you are in any way cold I believe that a good father has a real soft heart and maybe this is because I've got all girls but I think you it's so important for your children to know that they have your attention that they have your love and our family we are really big huggers there's something so powerful about a hug. And I'm not talking about like a little side hug you know I mean like a real hug there is actually a neurochemical release there is oxytocin that happens the love hormone happens from a good solid hug and when you when we we hug all the time we hug when we're tired we hug when we're first first thing of the day we always have a good morning hug. Last thing at night there's a good morning hug and it tells your child and not just your child this could be your spouse this could be anybody anybody important in your life that it's appropriate for you to hug uh it tells them I'm here I see you and I'm here for you and I'm not going anywhere. And here's the important thing with a really here with especially with a kid with a hug actually exclusively with a kid is you do not let go of that hug until they let go because it says I'm here for you until I'm as long as you need me and they're a kid depending how like you can okay it's not like it's gonna be a five minute hug. Okay. Usually these things last a second or two not very long. But there is power in knowing that they are the you are the last one to let go.

SPEAKER_01: 24:38

So you gotta have a soft heart and you gotta be a rock it's not about like being this like cold like a tough love no blood no tears so I I think I feel like I see two things in the world today. You go on social media you see all these like examples of men who are fit who are strong who are successful in business and all that and you see all this and they want to make it seem so incredibly easy or it's not that big of a deal or you can do it too you can get there. And so there's this element of like you know you should be a good man and it's not that hard right but then there's this other like your coworkers in your office who like complain about their kids complain about their marriage and they have this like fixed man up with my kids last night God they're so hard to deal with right oh yeah with the old lady you know so you have like these two dichotomies that neither are are accurate or correct. And again I so I when I got around these men and I I started a business venture of my own I started to explore entrepreneurship in this environment I was like four or five months before I got engaged to my wife and then we got married so and and now we have three kids. So we've gone through marriage we've gone through kids in this environment what I've just observed is my emotional stability to know that having a great marriage is hard and you're going to mess it up. And that's not a complain about it and oh it sucks thing. It's like how awesome is it that I can work on this and I don't have to have the pressure to be perfect but it is going to be hard. When I raise kids it's like you're like there's some days that you're just like oh but I'm not complaining I've learned not to complain about it and be like oh fixed minded about it. But I also know that it's reasonable to understand I'm not gonna be the perfect parent. I'm gonna have all these scenarios where it's like that didn't go well like what do we do now? I'm like let's talk to people who have kids or like let's read a book about it. So so this environment I just has taught me as a man that it's you're gonna stuff's gonna be hard. The good things in life are hard but you can grow into it and like that's the part of the journey. Don't be bitter about it. Don't be like frustrated about it. Lean into that and there's so much joy and so much fulfillment I think in like doing those big things that you value and being up for the hard be up for like hey this is going to be difficult. But I don't have to be a total like jerk or like bitter guy about it, you know? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 27:06

And and sometimes we're giving extreme examples when it comes to this but I think one thing you know society goes out and teaches and something I've heard a lot because just to give folks who are here for the first time some context like all of us build businesses with our wives. And do you want to know what's the most common response when I say that oh wow how do you do that? Not like oh that's amazing you get to build something together. It's like how do you handle that? Right when we when we went into real estate venture with with my brother in law and sister in law oh man it's really hard owning property with family. I don't know not really other than the hot tub tiff I think we've been all right right we're all right it's all good right so why am I saying that I I think one thing that we need to create more of a semblance of is is like family and shared vision and shared goals something that I've heard from men in this environment that have coached and mentored me is to have that family vision have that family motto have family board meetings on a on a weekly basis like with my wife we sit down on a weekly basis and talk about what we both care about. We talk about what our goal is going forward. We talk about what our schedule is and then we involve our daughter in it my daughter's sick so she's like not in the in-depth conversations when it comes like that but maybe about once a month we'll like pull her in because we want to we want to create a family business and legacy. I was sharing this with with with some of the men who have kids out there and if you're single and you're like oh boy this guy's really going on a roll with kids but sorry that's point of our life okay that's actually probably what my 20 year old would be man you guys talk a lot about kids that's probably what I decided but like from this environment we learn the power of affirmation what you speak that actually starts to reprogram your mind okay you've heard that there's a lot of books that talk about this right we teach our daughter affirmation it's a yearly ritual that like around December beginning of January she loves art so we make it little like artsy craftsy she gets to design it and stuff like that. And then we she has her affirmations on our bathroom wall that she reads every single night after she brushes her teeth and goes to bed. And it's I'm a good listener I'm a good leader I love people I love learning she's said that to herself every single night for the last 250 days and then well whatever it is I don't know how many days have been this year and we'll revise it next year. But here's the thing like Lauren and I also do that we lead by example and I think that's maybe to the kind of family dynamic is I think too many times out there it's like well I need like my release and I need my enjoyment and it's like yeah we also need that. Lauren's a very Social person. My wife, if you don't know, that's who Lauren is, right? She's a very social person. She likes people. Okay. So her having her release to go out on a neighborhood walk with her friend, who is also an entrepreneur, and they support one another and they can get around. I mean, Justin, you know, Lauren's like friends with everybody. Right? That that but that doesn't come at like the cost or anything of our family. We're still moving forward in the same direction. I think like that's one thing a lot more individuals and men need to lead from is like, hey, what's this family about? Not like what's I, what am I about?

SPEAKER_06: 30:43

One other quick thing just regarding relationships, Mason, that I think a society a lot of society teaches us a lot is that if you're single, it's like, oh my gosh, you must be so lonely. Like, don't you just want to be in a relationship so you can be happy? And I really think that if you want you being in a relationship will not make you happy. If you can't find happiness yourself, then you're gonna be unhappy in a relationship. It's not her responsibility to make you happy, nor is it your responsibility to make her happy. If you want, if if you're feeling unworthy of love, or if you're struggling with love in your life, you have to learn how to love yourself first in order for any b for you to allow anybody else to love you and to be able to feel that love. So if you are single, that's not a bad thing. There's actually two words to describe the state of being alone. One is loneliness, the other one is solitude. Both times you are alone. But how many times in your life have you just wanted a little bit of solitude? My God, sometimes I just need to lock myself at the bathroom for 15, 20 minutes so I can have a little solitude. Okay. So you might just need a little bit of alone time, a little bit of solitude, and that's a good thing. You can be happy and you should be happy, and you deserve to be happy. And if you try to put that on other people, you're gonna struggle.

SPEAKER_03: 32:08

Excellent. Good stuff. I want to kind of pivot and start to land the plane here a little bit. So, one of the things that I think, you know, there generally people are struggling a little bit with this society right now is the economy and the the rise in, you know, incomes versus how much housing's costing and everything like that. And I would love for you guys to just riff on, kind of go into a little bit of hey, if I have an extra two, three, four hundred dollars a month potentially left over laying around, how do I take that money and invest it wisely? And maybe you have a lot more than that, but what would you do with two to three, four hundred dollars laying around, invest it wisely to set yourselves up? And by the way, just to qualify this, all of these men are either part partially retired or fully retired, and their wives have left their careers. Okay. And they're able to do that with kids. So it's not, and they they live in nice places, you know, like so. I'm saying that not to boast. I'm saying that there's there's some there's gonna be some value behind what they're thinking in terms of how to think about money and investments. And would love to just have you guys go back and forth on some of that stuff.

SPEAKER_04: 33:12

I mean, with just a couple hundred dollars, I would be investing in yourself for sure. How do you how do you increase your value in the marketplace so you can command more value and then create more blessings, create more income to then create more blessing, right? I certainly wouldn't try to be the next, you know, acorn super investor and try to like play the stock and beat the stock market. Like, I don't think you're gonna do that. Right. I think if you invest in yourself, that's the best investment that you can make. And then I think, I mean, if you have debt, there's a lot of folks who have debt. I would set a game plan for how you're gonna pay that off. Because I think for a lot of men, like that actually binds us and that stresses us out more than anything, especially if you're a little bit more task-driven, right? If you're somebody like myself, like you don't want to have financial issues. So figure out how you can like lessen that burden because when that starts to lower, now you have an ease about yourself and you can go out and actually like give more to others, I think. Just caught my phone. That was pretty smooth. That was quick of you. Yeah. Yes.

SPEAKER_06: 34:25

You know, if you've only got a couple hundred bucks a month, I think the important thing is to realize that that's actually a big deal. It's a lot of money, and you can do a lot of things with that. I recommend that you write down the term compound interest. And you can go ahead and just Google that. And what happens if I put$200 per month away, starting at age whatever in compound interest? And it your your your head'll spin. I think the problem is that everyone's looking for a quick hit. They're looking for something that they're gonna hit it big. And I think that when you look at the wealthy people, that what will be required of you if you want to build wealth is patience. Patience. You gotta play the long game. Everyone loves to talk about these mega billionaires, right? Warren Buffett. Did you know that Warren 99% of Warren Buffett's wealth was accumulated after his 60th birthday? Did you know that 99% of Warren Buffett's wealth was accumulated after his 60th birthday. Patience, my friends. So what I would do with 200 bucks a month, Mason, is I would invest it into myself. And to be frank, I would start a business. That's what we did. Yeah. Is start some kind of business, something you can do on the side. There's a lot of things that you can do these days for just like a few hundred bucks a month, where you can scale something up over the years that you can create long-term lifestyle changing income. But it's gonna take years.

SPEAKER_03: 35:50

Yeah, I was just gonna say that the problem with just putting that money into investments is in order to access that money, then you have to take away from the asset. You have to pull out of the asset. So if you put it two,$300 into building a business that you can scale, you create cash flow that pays you every month, and then you can take that money and produce. And that's how all of us have done it, right? So it's it's it's a little bit of a psychological warfare you have to play with yourself and you have to understand that the problem with that investment, though, is it doesn't produce cash flow right away. Versus when I put the$200 into a Roth IRA or whatever, which we're not saying you shouldn't do or whatever investment portfolio, it's like I can see it. But when you invest it into books or starting a business, it goes away. And you're like, oh shoot. Now we could go on a whole tangent on the tax benefits, the write-offs, the like the just that you can probably get back in tax benefits if you were to, if you were to be smart about it and understood the tax system.

SPEAKER_01: 36:48

I do think, Mason, that when you say start a business, sometimes people get confused about that and they're looking for the quick hit of like, what business can I start for$200 that I push a button and it works? And people buy stuff online from me and the money comes in. So so what I learned in this environment, what I think was so unique about the businesses we built is for me, for Michael to build a successful business, it didn't take a lot of money. It took me building skills of communication, of leadership, of influence. So I talked to anyone who's got a fancy tech startup idea. How many people are advanced technology people out there can code, can do are brilliant people. But if they have terrible communication skills and they can't influence a soul, I don't care what your idea is. So, and and Michael, at 23 years old, when I started this environment, like I wasn't thinking this way. But when I look back on my journey, thank goodness I started a business that allowed me to get better in my communication influence, like communication skills, that arena, it made me a better human being so that I could then go build the asset. And and when I think about investing into yourself or investing into a business, it's a business that can do that, that can work on you, that can make you better. But people don't want to do that because that's the hard part. Be great to have a business that can press a button. So true.

SPEAKER_03: 38:02

Can we just real quick take a moment because we got some time? Can you riff on the idea? So you work your corporate climb, right? I talked about coming in and how you got interviewed by the HR department of what you accredited your success to in terms of your corporate climb at such a young age. Because the this HR department's like, would you like how did you do this? Like, what did the bank that I work he worked at do to help you get here? And your awkward answer to that question. Yeah. So navigated that.

SPEAKER_01: 38:28

She was the head of her like talent development like team and department. So they run all the leadership things and all this other stuff. And they have different programs. And I've actually never really subscribed to any of their programs. I've tried to find creative ways that I don't have to because it's just like extra work. You know, I'm like, I don't want to do that. But I also had this environment here, right? So we were in a conversation, and she's like, wow, you've really progressed really well. We'd love to understand like, what did you do? What really helped you? What of our resources were really helpful for you? And I just was honest with her. I said, hey, everything I've learned that's helped me advance my career here, I've actually learned outside of the bank. And then I realized it was a little harsh because like she's the head of leadership and development, like at the bank. And I was like, uh, it was maybe a little, I wasn't that friendly. I smoothed it over. It was okay. But but the reality is, is again, it was my ability to communicate and influence with my peers. It was my emotional stability. If you're in a corporate environment, the average person has terrible emotional stability. They get an email and it fires them up. And they were, and I'm always like, you realize if a problem comes through your email, you have a job and that's why they pay you. If you never have any problems in your job, your job ain't lasting very long with AI, friends, is gone. So thank God that you get an email that there's a problem you need to solve, or someone didn't do their job that you need to help fix or do, because that's what you get paid to do. And I had emotional stability around that. And then I didn't have all my eggs in one basket. I had other streams of income. So the stress at my job just wasn't as high. I was like, be fine, you know? So I think that like I learned all those things outside of my job environment, but I applied it, and that's why I grew. It wasn't my banking knowledge. People could swim laps around me in my banking knowledge, but it was all those other things.

SPEAKER_03: 40:13

Yeah, you might have a comment on that. But I just wanted to say one way to view if you're maybe on the opposite side of that, which I had to do because I I like boss, like the word boss just makes me a little bit sick to my stomach. I kind of get nauseous. So the way I've thought about my jobs is quite a bit differently, where I saw it, hey, this is my training grounds, paid training for me to go learn how to build wealth in my life. It's paid training, it's my funding, and I use that as a tool. You kind of hit on that a little bit, but I use that as a tool to then go create the life that I really want. And my identity is now separated pretty drastically from that. And my identity can become now more tied to who I want to become. And I wanted to just say this kind of in that line, is I think one of the best things I've learned from this community is that legacy for me was all about passing on money, resources, you know, assets to my kids. That's what I thought about legacy prior to coming into this room. Versus legacy is not just what we do there, it's what we leave within people. But in order to leave a lot within our families and our generations to come and the impact we want to have, we have to be very present and we have to put systems in our life that allow us to buy back our life so that we can actually be present and be active. So, wealth development, what I've found is so much most all of us men, I would say at the beginning, we're chasing, well, maybe no, maybe minus Michael, we're chasing some form of income, is maybe even you. That was it was an income-driven, but now we chase time and we chase the return on our time, is the biggest reason. And our identity isn't tied into what we do in business, right? Would you guys agree with that? Like we're not tied to the e-commerce or whatever space we're in, it's not tied to that, it's more tied to that. So, any thoughts on that? And one other thought you want to riff on if you have any additional and just to land the plane. In in the game of getting past this, you know, any age, when do you feel the most misunderstood in your journey or anything you want to talk about being feeling misunderstood by society or people or family around you? And how'd you how'd you handle that? I'd love to end with that.

SPEAKER_06: 42:20

I can definitely speak to that because I had, I was, I would I came into this environment very young. When I first started offering a partnership and started getting coached by Kyle and Craig and all these guys, and I was 19, 20 years old. And at that point in my life, you know, I was just used to a lot of approval. You know, when I said that I want to go to the University of Wisconsin, it was like, oh wow, you know, a lot of applause. You know, when I said that I wanted to be an eye doctor, I was like, oh wow, you know, a lot of applause. I wanted to, you know, pursue a residency fellowship in ocular surface disease and go on to consult for amniotic memory companies and everything. So a lot of, oh wow, a lot of applause. When I said that I wanted to pursue coaching and mentorship to learn how to be a business owner and an entrepreneur and start a side business outside of my academia, there was not a lot of applause. There was a lot of concerned looks. Just look, I just want what's best for you. I'm just I'm just looking, I'm just concerned. And that was tough for me. It was tough for me to learn how to re-root myself and to understand that not everyone was gonna get get understand my my journey. But at some point in my journey, I had to realize you can just let them let them have their opinions, let them have their thoughts, but let me live my life on my own terms and let me trust myself and my own experiences. Let me stop taking other people's opinions as my own, and let me start to form my own values from my own experiences.

SPEAKER_04: 43:47

Yeah, something I want to wrap up with. I read in a book recently. How many of you guys are are familiar with the Apollo 13 story? What happened, right? They had like a malfunction in the space shuttle or whatever, whatever you're I'm not gonna get all the terms right. So if you guys are like aeronautical engineers, I'm gonna really piss you off right now. Okay. But basically, they had to like use the lunar landing equipment or whatever and get back into the atmosphere. And the computers were down, so they had to manually operate this. Okay. And what Houston, what whatever the you know, folks back in at NASA were telling them is you need to like hit a certain direction, okay, a certain, you know, angle, and you need to focus there and you need to continue to go straight. And what they did was they focused the earth in the one window there. And it was just, it was just right there. They knew that's where they had to go, and they you know, you guys know the rest of the story. Why do I bring this up? He's talking about this idea of this like life's razor. And what's gonna happen to all you guys, you're gonna get bombarded by a lot. You guys notice that? You you know how like they're the numbers behind how many things you get bombarded with on social media and your sphere of influence and all this stuff. You need like this North Star, you need that that razor's edge, kinda. Right? What's that called? Devin, I mispronounced it. Is that yeah, right? Razor's edge, okay. And the CEO of Netflix, his name's Mark Randolph, okay. His razor's edge, he noticed that he was becoming a workaholic as he built his companies, right? His razor's edge is I never miss a Tuesday dinner. One line. What does that say about him? What does that say about his values? What does that say to his wife? What does that say to his family? Who does he attract? Right? And then when he's brought up to decisions in his life, that question that he asks himself is what would a man that doesn't miss a Tuesday dinner do in this scenario? And I've been like stewing on this for like weeks and weeks trying to figure out like, okay, like what can this like razor's edge be? And at this point, it's I wanna be the the person that my daughter looks forward to marrying. And who is that and how does he make decisions? Okay, and I think for like any now, if you're a single guy again, like you're God, here Kyle goes talking about kids again, right? Dang it, and I've only got one, these guys have more than me, right? But what's that for you? Like, really think about that. And it just like simplifies and it takes out the noise because you're gonna continue. People are are there's professionals out there trying to grab your attention, right? Craig's Craig's been on this stint a while talking about the YouTube reels. You guys ever notice that you make this like uh this thought in your mind, like, oh, I'm gonna just go on there for five minutes. How good of a job do you do only staying on there for five minutes? They're really good at grabbing your attention, right? And that's everywhere. So you've got to figure out being focused.

SPEAKER_03: 47:05

So good. Can we give these gentlemen a round of applause? Thank you. Awesome. All right, nice job. Yeah, I will. All right, we're not we're not done yet. We get an opportunity, you know. How many, and you don't have to raise your hand, but you can think about this. I kind of know how many people would raise their hand, so it's kind of pointless. Would like to have the opportunity by building wealth, by working on yourself, to be become financially free, be able to leave chasing money in your 30s, and then do that systematically. Spend, it's been, I think we're going on a decade now for you, Craig-ish. Is that nine years of that? Okay. So you did end in the 30s, 30s, nine years into that now. And then here's the here's the pivotal point. You're you're like, yeah, I'd love that. But what if you systematically did it where you could help all of these men here plus many others create the same results? And it's it's one thing to go chase financial freedom. It's a whole nother impact walk, calling, whatever you want to put a phrase on it, to say, I'm gonna go chase financial freedom, but my dream is bigger than that. I'm gonna help as many possible people create that. And the reason this room exists is because of this man right here. He's absolutely transformed the way I live, transformed the way I think, my marriage, the relationships, my kids, generations to come as a result of this man, and many, many men, not just in this room, around the world, are seeking after learning from this guy. So please get on your feet, give a huge welcome to Mr. Craig Klickner.

SPEAKER_07: 48:43

Thank you. All right, thank you, gentlemen. Thank you. I appreciate it. Have a seat. Y'all have heard me all weekend, and I've been trying to get out of this talk for like the last three hours. I'm like, what can I say to Kyle? So I don't I don't have to do any more sharing because you all have heard from me. And now the tricky part with this is you've given me a small space to walk because of this camera, and I gotta be appropriate. I can't say any non-words, I can't say any bad words. You're like really handcuffing me here, and I'm gonna give you all everything I got, okay? So, quick show of audience members who has felt like this has been a worthwhile investment of your time this weekend. Okay, so I've got a 98% hit rate, and the 2% just are sleeping. So it's not my fault, okay? Well, maybe that's also that was the last panel's fault. And Kyle, Kyle's like strutting his stuff like he's this big golf. He lives one golf tournament. You can tell he's never won a golf tournament before by the way he's behaving. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's living it up all he can. I get it, I get it, I get it. Okay. So, man, I'm gonna tone it down. If any of you were at my home last night, because we had 30, 40 guys over to the house last night. I cranked it up a little bit. I lost my voice. I threw a chair or two. I actually yelled at people, and people, I was like a little worried. I was like, uh, and even Mason, I think, was like, ah, yeah, that might have been a lot, Craig. But then people are coming up to me today, like, that was awesome, man. Way to tell the truth, blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm like, okay, if that's what you all want, I'll give you the truth as I see it. But you got to come and qualify to be on the team, earn a partnership, and qualify, do some work to like get that talk. This is a little more trimmed down, a little more stable. Because right now I'm between many of you, your dinner, and playing a bunch of sports all night at a biggest indoor soccer arena, I think, in southern Wisconsin. So I understand that I am your roadblock to joy and happiness and pleasure. So I'm gonna wrap this up real tight, okay? You're like awesome. Okay, I heard an awesome. Yes, preach, Craig, preach, be done now. Those of you online, I I'm gonna give you the best I got for about 10-15 minutes here. And I think what I got is good, and this is where it starts. I was listening to a podcast today. I'm in the shower. That's when all the best decisions happen for most good thinkers, right? Okay. And the guy that's being interviewed, it's one of the famous podcasts, anyways. I'm sure it'll come out. Some of you'll run across this content. And I've thought had this thought before, but the way the guy articulated it was really powerful. It's really important you get to a space where you can say to yourself, I like me. I like me. Now, these couple things are not, I'm not like that part about me. This, I kind of messed that up, or I'm still messing it up, and I got some work to do, but I want everyone in here, I want anyone online to get to a space where you can say, as a composite, as a whole, and this is the phrase they used, I'm a pretty good dude. And I I mean, listening to this panel up here, these are just such high-caliber human beings. Like, I mean, it's a privilege to be in any sort of state where I have the opportunity to be around them, let alone attempt to lead in any fashion. They're a little like kind of normal and tame for me, but other than that, they're like pretty good dudes. Uh I had somebody come up to me at the break, I'm not sure who it was, and they're like, Man, I really like your mind. I'm like, ah, you must be insane too. He's like, Yeah, man, let's do this. Like, okay. But that's what it takes, is a little bit what what I want you all to be able to do is good sense making for yourself. And and right now, there is so much political this, political that, spiritual this, spiritual that, work out this, work out that. And some of it's great, some of it's marginal, some of it's pretty bad. But you gotta learn how to parse the signal through the noise. What is true, what is real, because here's what happens right now. You get on that YouTube feeb and you get in an echo chamber. And I'm I'm telling you all, I was in Silicon Valley last week's public speaking, and I'm in Seattle public speaking. I don't know what I'm doing this weekend. If you call public speaking, cool, that's what I'm doing. Everywhere I go, people are handing me a mic. Say, speak, Craig, speak, Craig, speak. Here's I think one of the reasons people ask me to speak, and I'm usually trying to say, stop making me speak. Because I figured out how to parse a little bit of the signal from the noise. And so I don't care what's in your YouTube feed, if it's coming from me right now, if something doesn't register properly, I want you to flag it. Doesn't mean it's not true, but I want you to fact check that. I want you to get a counter opinion and be able to then stand on solid ground. It's called epistemology in the game of philosophy. You can oh, I got one head. There's always one dorky philosophy guy in the crowd, man. All fired up, man. You've gotten a full day today. You and Noah, man. You had the bad breakup, Noah. Oh my god, you guys are like, okay, all right, this guy's in, you're locked in for life. Okay. But can you just think for yourself? Because I can manipulate any stats to twist so that I sound like a superhero or that I sound like a real bum because of the way that I spin it. And it's just really important that everybody learns this and also that you seek counter opinions. And I just want to ask you all, when's the last time you asked somebody you just disagreed with, you didn't like, hey, I I don't I don't identify with your like political views. Can you man can you just actually walk me through how you got there? Hey man, I'm Christian, you're Muslim. Can you just I'd love to authentically understand how how your religion and your spiritual walk has impacted you? I think the world's a better place. I think we're better men, I think we're better fathers, I think we're better stewards of the world because we're authentically seeking perspective. And I think most people who know me, I got one of the best compliments I've ever had recently from a young lady who happened to marry Kyle Wills, who also happens to be my sister. And I said, Man, Lauren, you're so open-minded. And she goes, I'm open-minded. She goes, You're the most open-minded person I know. And I I don't know that I am, even that she knows or that I know. But I do think that I'm willing to say, hey, what are the facts? What do we know? And how do we best proceed? And not be so attached to my silly, stupid little opinion that may or may not even be true. Oh, but this is the way it is. Really? And and I this is this is I um this is the tangent that I wasn't planning to go on. So let me rein it back in. This is my uh for those of you online who don't know me, I was diagnosed with ADHD four years ago, but I've been I've been a true like flag bearer for my whole life, okay? It's just four years ago they finally realized it because I I present in a very atypical way. I want you all to be able to say, I like me. And it's really important. And maybe you're not there right now. I'm sure some of you might feel that way. I don't know that I like me. And it's okay, but realize where you're at is a result of consequences and circumstances of other things, other things that happen in your life. And I don't think anyone here makes too many intentionally evil choices. You ever meet somebody in your life? Yeah, they're pretty evil. That ever, like, they're a good kid, but it's the they're a good kid, but right? Yeah, they're a good dude, but they talk too much, right? They're a good person, but so here's how you learn how to like yourself, or like yourself more, or even go so far as to shall I dare to say love yourself. You hang out with people you like, and you just pull from them, you just steal like crazy. You just you're just a stealer of things you like from people, and you just observe, and you're like, wow, I like how Paul served our country and Paul got his degree, and Paul is a great dad, and Paul was faded away from our environment for a little while, and now you're here back with integrity because you realize what you missed and how powerful it is, and I respect that. That's awesome. I like that in you. That's a great quality, and now I'm gonna emulate it. Y'all with us? This is how we do it. Same way if you want to love yourself, do the same thing. What are qualities you love in other people? Okay, so speaking of that, I'm gonna pivot hard shift, quick pivot. We're doing a lot of pivots. Pivot left, pivot right. Ready? Funeral, I'm at three weeks ago. I didn't know the guy well. He happened to be about nine years younger than me, which happens to be the age I think of all these guys up here. And I'm gonna not be emotional. So I'm gonna actually per this is something I'm working on. I'm going to divorce myself temporarily from my emotions so that I can communicate with effectiveness. I don't normally like to do this, but it's gonna help my effectiveness. Happened pretty quick. It's about two weeks done. Not totally out of nowhere, but kind of sort of out of nowhere. And you start to unpack it, and good dude, had some health issues, maybe I made a few behavioral choices that weren't optimal. And I'm at this funeral, and I've been to a lot of funerals, not a lot, a lot, like more than most, but I've been to a lot of funerals, and when people are 80 and 90 and 70 and 65, it's sad. But when it's a 36-year-old with a three-year-old running around, it's pretty intense. And his dad's up there, and his mom and his sisters, and his brothers, and his wife, and everybody at this stinking funeral said the same things about this guy, which just really annoyed me. Because they're like, he was just the kindest, nicest person, and he never said anything bad about people. And I'm like, I knew this guy not well. I knew him, but I didn't know him super well. And I said, Dang, I know that guy. You're right. He's never said anything bad. I never ever heard negative come out of this guy's mouth. Now, why does it go down that way? I don't know. But the way his friend shared, the way his family shared, the way that people communicated, it was really beautiful thing to watch. And I wish he was there. And for those of you that hold certain spiritual beliefs, you might believe he was. I'll leave that to you and your maker as you see fit. But here's what I realized a lot of those people never said that to him when he was alive. And so much of our story and our song and the things that are meaningful never get said because we always think we can do. It later, and I'm telling you, I'm not young anymore. I don't really feel like I'm old. You guys feel like I'm old? Somebody tell say no. Say no. You're not old, Craig. David, are we old? David's a month older than me. He's old. I'm fine. Okay. Don't ask me in a month. Check yourself. But there's some song in me left. Y'all with me? There's a little bit to be done. There's a little bit to do. And here's what I need that I often don't want to need. This is so annoying. I just don't want to need this, but I need people to hold me accountable. But I want to be held accountable by people that I respect, that I like, and that I love, and that I'm on the journey with, not somebody because they sign a paycheck. And I'm not against if you need a job, I had one for 15 years. It was a great tool until I got a better tool, which was owning my own company. And I built it on the side. And since leaving nine years ago, my wife and I have gotten to write a book. We got published by McGraw Hill. We've been able to be angel investors. We've done commercial real estate. I bought a lake house with my brother-in-law. That's gone swimmingly with no sarcasm. Pun intended? Oh, because the lake and you swim in it. Yeah. You don't have to be the sharpest to build a good business. So here's here's where I want to keep this. You have the opportunity tonight, and I'm going to say tomorrow, to have the greatest day of your life. Tomorrow can be the greatest day of your life. Some of you have heard me on this tangent. I apologize if you've heard me before, but maybe you need to hear it again. That was me editing. Did you hear that? Maybe you need to hear it again. Did you hear that? I did not swear. I'm cool. Michael, I'm dial I'm dialed in right now, man. It's really hard to paint in the lines. You see this box I gotta work with? It's I'm like really deep breaths. Okay. Here's how you have the greatest day of your life. You do something super extraordinary, so amazing, it's unforgettable, and you never get to replicate it again. No. You go through your day so skillfully that every single moment you do what you know is the right thing to do. And when I say the right thing, that doesn't mean not having fun. That doesn't mean not beating Kyle in pickleball really badly. Since I can't beat him in golf, apparently anymore. It it doesn't mean not relaxing. But I'm telling you, there is a little on this shoulder and a little angel on this shoulder. And like most situations, we know eat the cookie or the broccoli. And we know which one. And guess what? Sometimes I eat the cookie and it's awesome. And I love baked goods and chocolate and sugar with an ADHD, or is how I self-medicated for 40 some years, unknown. I survived off sugar. Do not take that away from me. Okay. But sometimes I have the second cookie, and that's when I made the wrong decision. Not for the society, not for the Ten Commandments, not for what Muhammad said in the desert. Like none of that. Just because I know internally I should have had one cookie and switched back to the broccoli. Y'all with me? And here's what I think is messes up so many people. They feel so much guilt. Oh man, I'm almost stood there. I'm doing good. I'm doing good. Hang with me. So much guilt for all the mistakes that they've made and all the times they just listen to the wrong one on the shoulder. But it's not about that. It's about getting so in tune that with every moment you can actually be present enough that you bring your absolute best. And you can put your head on the pillow at night. Ryan Schlick said this beautifully yesterday. And he said, Man, I just want to go to bed at night and say I was proud of myself. Which who what how how would you feel if you could just put your head on the pillow? Try this for one day. One day I challenge everybody to have the greatest day of your life. Not because of all the crazy, amazing things that you do, but because you just listen to your inner voice and you made the good decisions and you were a good man and you made all the right ones, and you can go, I did the best I possibly could. Because guess what? The rest is not in your control, bro. And here's what most people do they go home and they say, I'm gonna do all this work, I'm gonna build a business, I'm gonna mow the lawn. I never said that. Though someone will mow my lawn, I'm gonna do whatever. You but then you don't do those things, and you kind of watch a little bit of the ESPN or a little bit of the YouTube Shorts, or just a little bit of the the uh whatever, or the videos, and then it turns into a little bit more, and then you feel a little guilty, and then you come out of your office and the house isn't clean, and the kids aren't doing the right things, and now you're outsourcing your anger and your your insecurity onto other people, and so then our whole life becomes this like, I don't feel good inside, so let me just like project it outward. Y'all know what I'm talking about? And then and then our wives are like, What, dude? You just went in there, didn't you do some work? I'm sure you killed it, and you're like, Yeah, and now here's what I learned from Dr. Justin McNeil, who's such an amazing communicator. Our standards are here, our reality is here in the way we behave. Guess what, folks? The gap is always gonna be there if you have a high standard. You're always striving for the gap. But the question is, can we just can we just work on it? And you know how you work on it? Guts, courage, doing the hard things that you don't want to do, like me speaking right now when I really wanted to tap out so badly. I'm telling you right now, there is so much joy in that. There is so much joy. I I caught a fever. We're in we're in uh Silicon Valley. My wife and I, they asked us to speak in in the Bay Area. We're like, no, thanks, no thanks. Then someone else asked us, like, no, thanks, no thanks. I'm like, wait a second, Carrie, we've never been to the Redwood Forest. We should go see the Redwood Forest. She's like, Yeah, we should. You want to bring the kids? I'm like, I don't know, you want to bring the kids? Nope, okay, nope, okay, great. They're 11 and 8, they're fine, they're with grandma and grandpa. So we fly out to Silicon Valley. The day before we land, I'm like, hey, honey, I come up the stairs, I'm like, we should go to Napa Valley. We've never been there, it's gorgeous, yada, yada. Really, so I don't have to do eight-hour hikes with my wife. She likes to climb mountains, and these hikes are just like epic people. Like, at least make it fun, but it's just one foot in front of the other for eight hours. Beautiful view. I can see that on Google Maps, yo. What do you mean? Like, drive to the top, look out the drive down, go ahead, relax. Anyways, okay. So I okay, don't tell my wife this, but I'm like, oh god, I can't do these eight-hour hikes. She wanted to go to, she tried to switch it from the Redwood Forest to Yosemite. You know what that means to me? Hikes. Hike all day. She'll leave in the morning at the crack of before dawn, whatever that is, and come back when you're just done, and then she sleeps and wants to do it again the next day. I'm like, is this prison? Like what? One thing I learned from someone who has really amazing relationships, though, is and and this is uh this is a quick tip. I don't like this set activity, thing, the dishes, taking out the garbage. But I love you, and you love this, so therefore I will love you by loving this. I we show our love by doing sometimes the things we don't want to do. It's so beautiful, you guys. So I do the dishes now in our home. And we had a okay, this is a real thing for me because it was like 25 years, right? And I'm like, I hate the dishes. Everyone who's ever a roommate with me, any of you in here? Nope. Okay, you're lucky, okay. Dishes would pile up, the smell gets weird. I just looked the other way, somehow, immaculate disconception, the dishes are gonna be clean. I don't know it works, okay? But never my whole life, we got this most amazing thing, a pear from Columbia, and we had her for a year, and then we did another year, but then COVID hits, so we get her for more time. I didn't do the dishes for like three years, I didn't clean my kitchen, it was amazing. But now she left, and we have dishes, so I'm like, I'm gonna do the dishes, I'm gonna step up. I don't love doing dishes, but I have learned to love doing the dishes. And I will meditate now while doing the dishes, and when you can do that, you won life. You literally won life. It's unbelievable. And I can actually do the dishes joyfully. If anybody wants to talk some tips, man, I'm all about it. Not every time. Sometimes I get a little grumpy, sometimes I'm like, throw it around. Why didn't you? Peanut butter, kids in peanut butter. I told her the trick so many times. You wipe the knife on the bread and then you put it on the counter. Nobody listens. Peanut butter for four hours. Oh, oatmeal is the worst. Is that like it's like petrified oatmeal? Okay, back to center. Deep breath. All right. People online are like, who did you invite me to hear? That's the part of the problem. But okay. I I just want you all to know that my wife really appreciates the dishes done, and I love my wife. And by doing the dishes, I'm actually conveying love in action as an action word, not a romantic random feeling you get when you're engaged or you're on the second date. I believe that's what real men know how to do. They know how to skillfully love their wives, skillfully love their children. Now, back to my thing, there was a funeral, okay, guy, kindness. So everybody's saying how kind this guy is, and I'm like, gosh darn it, he was really kind. Man, I never heard I never heard a negative thing out of this. Why the world would choose to take someone out that is so good with a three-year-old? I don't have the answer to. But when I thought about it, I was like, I don't think at my funeral a bunch of people are gonna stand up and say he was really kind. I don't think that's my leading attribute. And I was talking to Cora about this, she's like, yeah, Craig, no. She's like, but don't worry, me neither, Craig. And I was like, okay, cool. This is David, David Phipps' wife and friend of ours. If you got taken, would the people you really love know it? Would they know it because of the way you communicated and the way you lived your life? And if not, there's some room, baby. And guess what? We've all got it. So stop using that as an excuse to feel guilty. Guilt should just be like a ping that is actually reverb of signal saying, hey, I could have done better, and then we move on. That's all guilt is, folks. We don't wallow in the guilt, we just use it as an antenna. It's like a little, it's like a little ping. Oh, anybody feel guilt once in a while about something? Like, oh, ah, a little guilt there. Then you just move on. Hey, that's a signal I can do it better next time. Y'all with me? Okay. Let me let me oh, I'm out of time. Holy cow. Thank goodness I served my 20 minutes. Okay. By the way, I asked Kyle Wills this a couple weeks ago. I got kind of intense with him on the phone. I don't think Kyle was prepared for this. And I was like, Kyle, if you could do any kind of work you wanted, I asked you this, I asked a couple people this recently. Any kind of work. And you just got you just made a quarter million dollars a year, just doing whatever you wanted, like, but you had to do some kind of work. You couldn't make more, you couldn't make less. What would you do? And Kyle's like, oh, I don't know. And he said, I'd probably, he actually said this, and I think he meant it. He said, I'd probably project manage something. And I was like, you dork. Holy cow, dude. I thought you were cooler than this. But he didn't mean project manage like an IT project. I think he meant like own something, like drive it, like like take it something and make it bigger, build a business, right? And I'm telling you all this with everything I've got. We smoked it today. We did something called a miracle morning. Many of you may have heard about it. What do we do? We worked out as a group, 170, 180 guys. Then what do we do? Yeah, we did yoga. Vince made a stretch. Oh, but that's kind of wimpy. Dude, Vince knocks people out for fun. He put me on with a candidate the other day, a potential partner. And the guy's literally like, yeah, Vince is really good. And I was like, Oh, really? Because I don't know. I've never fought Vince, nor will I ever. Not even on my radar. He's like, you should fight him sometime. I'm like, you should hell up. But, anyways, don't give the man any ideas. Vince leads us in some stretching. Then we come back, we do 20 minutes of meditation, then we read, we have reflection, then we do some productivity to run our business. Because guys, do we feel good when we're productive? Yeah. Yeah. Do we feel amazing when we're like, dude, my wife just asked me to take out the garbage. She said I could be her knight in shining armor if I took out the garbage. We will take the garbage with gusto all the way. And we'll be proud of it. And we'll be like, honey, I shining armor, night. Let's go, baby. Where's the bedroom? Just kidding. Actually, we don't need that. The kids are gone. They're at school. Okay. I don't have a job. Honey, you got any appointments? You got any appointments? No? Oh. Anyways. We had then we had some ladies, one being my wife, Mason's wife, amazing women, come in and teach us how to be better and how to be in our relationships. I mean, we're gonna go to an indoor sports arena tonight. What else did we do? Oh, we got a bunch of training. We did a communication skills workshop led by Michael Beaupre himself. Dude, I've been in this business for 20 plus years. This is the best day I've ever seen us do. Oh, but it wasn't that great. That's fine. Come back next year, we'll be better, I promise you. Who is here three years ago when we're like, yeah, I guess we should do this men's leadership thing? And none of us wanted to do it. Eddie, you didn't want to do it. You were like, oh, I'm telling Eddie, oh, you're making me mad right now. Eddie didn't want to do it. Thank God for Mason Eddie, who's always ready to pull the trigger on anything, even if it's not aimed anywhere with any purpose. Let's go, correct? And he's like, let's just do it, man. And I, Kyle, you and I were like, ah, and I got I got little Eddie over here and little Mason over here, and I'm trying to, and then I we just like fine, let's just do it. We just threw this random thing together and everybody had a blast. And that was two or three years ago. We're so much better right now. If you think we do not want you to be a part of our culture, we want you to be a part of our culture and contribute to it. Leadership is laying all over the floor in this space, folks. You can come in, we want your input, we want your advice. Jeff, you're an audio sound engineer professional. Oh my God, we have work for you, bro. He comes up to me, he's like, Craig, you gotta let me help. You gotta let me help. I'm like, dude, it's your first meeting. Just sit still, take a deep breath, and there's Tador. Go make your case. I'm like, trust, dude, you got more work than you can handle, okay? We're so bad at it. Anyways, okay. I think we did good today, though. Can we give Tador a round of applause? Thank you. I need to be done. I need to be done. I think what most men are looking for, I can't remember where I shared this, is someone they can look up to who can challenge them to be better, that they respect enough that they'll actually listen to them. I think we all want that. When you're the four-year-old on the playground and you see the six-year-old, or whether you're the middle schooler looking up at the high schoolers, or whether you're somebody my age looking at the Greg Bollegs who he shared, who have five amazing grandchildren, three amazing daughters, and was all-world sports everything MVP superstar. We all want that. That's what this environment has given me, and it's allowed me to be better. And without the judgment, because we're all gonna stumble. Stop using your stumbling as an excuse to not be amazing in the way that you can be. Because you are all super amazing. Trust me, man. You just don't know how to do it yet. You just need a model, and sometimes you need it for more than one or two months because it's not a microwave fix. It's a burn, it's a slow burn to the rise to the top, it's a slow burn. And if you're on for the journey, dude, it's gonna be the best adventure of your life. It has been for my wife and I. My schedule on Monday is wide open. I have a board meeting at 9 a.m. I think David, Boudreau, and I have a call at noon, which usually one of us forget because he's got work and I'm busy playing pickleball or something. And I think Ethan from Minnesota booked me for a 6:30. That's my Monday. It's an empty canvas. Anyone remember summers, endless summers? You wake up and the only thing you gotta do is like take out the garbage and you're like pissy about it. Teenager, party whole day, right? You can create that in your life, you can manifest it, but you ain't gonna manifest it hanging around people that have never done it, don't know people who have done it, and just have ideas on how to do it. You gotta get around people who have authentically done it. That's what we did. That's what we did. This ball's in your hands, folks. The ball's in your hands. Great speaking with you all online. I forgot about you. I was mostly focused on these folks. Come join us in future years, see how you can get access to the people and the leaders that we have. It's been a tremendous ride. There's nothing I would trade it for. Last point here's what I could do. If I could do anything I wanted, making a quarter million dollars a year. Here's what I would do. I would do exactly what I did this weekend. I'm not even exaggerating. I would do exactly this. And I just don't think there's many people on the planet that can say that. And so I do like me. And I am a flawed dumpster fire. All the way to the core of the earth. That's why I built my own business. None of y'all can fire me. Can we call it a day? I think we've earned some sports. I think we've earned some non feeling sharing. I think y'all have earned it. Give yourselves a round of applause, man. We love y'all. Godspeed.