Why Persistence, Grit, and Desire Will Get You Anything You Want in Life With Dan Lok | TNE058

Today's guest has inspired millions across the world from Europe to Asia, to the USA. We're joined by Dan Lok, the king of closing.

Dan's a business mogul and owns an empire with pieces in many industries from media to business, finance. Learn more about Dan’s journey from his struggles as a second generation immigrant in Canada and how he persevered to help his family overcome financial incapacities to becoming one of the best in closing, earning his title “The King of Closing”. Learn about how Dan managed to become successful by learning high-income skills and meeting the right mentor at the age of 27.  So join us while we dive deep into what made Dan the man he is today. 

Show Notes:

11:00 - The marketplace is all about what value you can bring to the table.

14:28 - You need the right attention from the right audience

16:30 - Aside from having skills, you need to learn how to promote yourself

19:30 - Having the right mentor will set you off the correct path

28:00 - When your mentor gives you advice, execute it

30:55 - Wealth triangle model

Omar's (Host) Social Media:
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Facebook Group - NOMADABLES - Accountability & Growth Community for Remote Workers- Perfect to meet fellow online entrepreneurs, remote workers, and digital nomads.
YouTube - Omar Mo
LinkedIn - Omar Mo Nomads Cast
Twitter - @nomadables
Pintrest - @nomadables
Clubhouse - @pods
WEBSITE: https://www.nomadables.com/

Transcript

Episode 58- Why Persistence, Grit, and Desire Will Get You Anything You Want in Life With Dan Lok 

Intro-

Imagine moving to a new country where you don't speak a word of the local language. It's just you and your mother in this strange new world with just a few dollars to your name. And because you don't know the local language, you're bullied and beaten up by the locals at your school, and this really festers inside of you.

And then one day you catch your mother crying. It's the first time you've seen the strongest figure in your life, really choke up like that. It turns out the money in the family won't last for much longer. And then you decide you've had it. You decided you're not going to let the world push you around.

Like you're a nobody. And you tell yourself, you know what, I'm going to do this. I'm going to make it. And you do. And on that journey, you inspire millions along the way. 

Today's guest has inspired millions across the world from Europe to Asia, to the USA. We're joined by Dan Lok, the king of closing.

Dan's a business mogul and owns an empire with pieces in many industries from media to business, finance. So join us while we dive deep into what made Dan the man he is today. 

Remember nomad fam, we've got some incredibly value filled episodes planned out for you. So please hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Your review helps this podcast become more visible and ultimately inspire more people just like you. Here we go. My name's Omar Mo and this is the nomadic executive. 

You're listening to the nomadic executive posted by Omar from nomadables.com. Join Omar as he sits down and speaks with leading online entrepreneurs, remote workers and digital nomads about everything from business strategy to travel and lifestyle design.

Together, we're here to help you achieve a life of happiness, health, and freedom. And now here's your host, Omar Mo. 

Omar:

All right. Dan Lok, king of closing. Absolute pleasure to have you on today. Thank you so much for coming on today, Dan Lok. 

Dan:

Oh, my, the pleasure is mine and I'm happy to be here and always like to share my stories and my lessons. Some hard earned lessons that I've learned.

Omar:

You know, one of the biggest things that stood out to me right from. Right off the bat. And that kind of separated you in my head from every other quote, unquote influencer or people that I look up to in the space. 

Dan:

Yes.

Omar: 

It was the fact that even at this stage, when you're as successful as you are, you're still doing things like teasing people, busting balls. You're still very raw, very authentic, very genuine. And it seems like at least from, from my understanding that you're the same person that you were all those years ago as well on the inside. Whereas I've seen, and I've interviewed a lot of other bigger info, a lot of other big influencers, no one as big as you yet, but they've all kind of changed from that initial aspect of when I first had that, when I first learned about them, you know, something I really, really respect about you, for sure.

Dan: 

Thank you. Thank you. Well, if you talk to my wife, Jenny, I think she would tell you, we've been together for so many years, I'm kind of the same guy, maybe a little bit more gray hair, but kinda the same guy. 

Omar:

Right. I think wives also have a way to keep people in check don't they? But you weren't always like that were you? Like when you were young and I read about your story quite extensively. When you were young, I mean, being an Asian-American coming to Canada, coming to Vancouver out of all places, starting out from nearly nothing and trying to learn English and everything right off the bat in school, getting bullied, like what really, I guess, set off that spark for that initial bit of grit and resilience for you to really start this down this path that you're on. 

Dan: 

It's one incident I'll never forget incident because I immigrated to Canada,  when I was 14 years old. And when I was 16 years old, then my mom and dad got divorced. I'm the only child in my family. Right. So then at that time, my mum and me were living in, in Vancouver just on like, basically my mom was taking care of me and the raising me up. Right. And then one day I came home and I hear my mom was talking with someone in the, in the bedroom. Door closed. And I can hear her kind of like crying. And I knocked on the door. I said, Hey, mom is everything okay. And she opened the door and she's like, Oh, everything is okay. It's fine. I'm just, you know, so what's going on, tell me what Mom what's going on.

And then she told me that actually my dad went bankrupt in Hong Kong. And so basically mom, me we're on our own that she couldn't, he couldn't send us allowance anymore. And that was, that was the spark because I saw my mom's face and I remember. That cause my mom is a housewife. She's never worked a day in her life, so she doesn't know how to create income.

So she's worried like how I'm going to feed this child and we're going to school and you know, my son and it's just a lot of concerns. And I saw the look on her face and she looked very hopeless. And I said to myself, I said, I don't want to see that on my mom's face ever again. That's how I got into like business entrepreneurship and became very, very driven, not motivated, but very, very driven.

Omar:

You felt like you had to do whatever it took at that point.

Dan:

Whatever it takes. I don't care what it takes. This is when I got into business, I had to pick up the phone and cold call people and I had to hustle and do all that. None of that bothered me. Whenever I can visualize my mom's face. None of those spots, none of those things bother me.

Omar:

Think back to that point for a second for me, right? So when that reality hit, when that set and every, I believe every entrepreneur, some degree, especially the most successful ones have like a chip on their shoulder where something just flipped and made them realize that I have to do this no matter what it takes. For you for that one specific moment, I mean, you were at a point where you were 12, 13? 

Dan:

Yes. That one was 16 half. Yeah. Say 17 years old. Almost 17. 

Omar:

Right around there. And you had no idea what direction to take naturally. I mean, you say that you started cold calling and I read your story. You mowed lawns. I mean, you did everything in there.

Dan:

Everything, any side hustle, whatever it takes. 

Omar:

But in that first moment you had no idea what direction it takes. So what was your, I guess, First few steps. What made you, like, I know you got to, I got to start driving, but I don't know where I'm going to drive.  What did you do? 

Dan:

I just know I needed money. I need, I need it. I need a food money, like, so my, we wouldn't get kicked out of house so we could pay the rent. And that was it. And funny thing is Omar, before that I was never interested in money. Like going, growing up as a young kid, I don't think about money. 

In fact before that, cause I was doing martial art. My big dream in life was to open up a, like a martial arts school,a dojo and just teach students. That was my dream to be the next Bruce Lee  kind of thing. Right? Like huge Bruce Lee fan. So money never interested me. But then at that moment, I became obsessed with it because I know I couldn't survive. I couldn't take care of my mum without, so it kind of went to the extremist.

Okay. I need to be money focused. And I was money focused for a number of years until later on. I shifted in life of actually that's not my priority at all. 

Omar:

Ah, so it became more of a value shift. 

Dan:

Yeah. Yeah. But, but it was, it was driven by survival first. That was, that was the switch.

Omar:

 The survival instinct.

Dan:

Yeah.

Omar:

I can, 100% resonate with that. I think that's what really stood out to me. I was never about money when I was younger. I was the guy that was just like, Oh, I want to be traveled. And free-spirited, and you know what? I don't need any money to live the way that I want to live. Then there came a moment.

I was in New Zealand at that time with my ex-girlfriend at that time. And we were in a camper van. We're doing the whole camper van thing, traveling around the country. And there was one night when it was really, really cold. We hadn't had a job for maybe two months and we were freezing under like five blankets.

And I just couldn't figure out how to make money. And I realized right then at that point, even though her and I aren't together anymore, it made me realize that I never want to be in that position again. So just like you. That went from one extreme to the other. So I, 100% completely understand where you're coming from.

Now. You, you trudged on. You, you did so many different things. And finally, you met this guy named Alan. 

Dan:

Yes.

Omar:

And with Alan, he finally gave you that breaking chance. 

Dan:

Yes.

Omar:

Right. And you visited him every single day after that point and...

Dan:

Stalking him basically. 

Omar:

Exactly. Which is awesome to me, you know, because you would do whatever it takes and that right there is showing it.

And that's awesome, he gave you a break. So what did he do for you exactly? Like, I think. This is a fantastic way to bring my audience value because everyone's looking for that person to help them somewhere along the journey. 

Dan:

So with all these side hustles I was doing, I was fixing computers. I was doing delivery. I was mowing lawns and all these things trying to make a living. And I thought these are businesses. I thought these are business ideas. They weren't actually great business ideas and  none of them worked that well. I made a little bit of money here and there, like a couple of bucks. It's not a lot. Nothing to pay the bills with. And I couldn't figure out why. Because I felt like I'm, I'm hustling, I'm working hard, like long hours every day. Haven't taken a single day off, like what is going on? I couldn't even get to a place where I can provide some security for my mom and I didn't get it. And I was like, most people read, think and grow rich back and forth many times.

And I read many of these books, right? Motivational books and success books and, and it's good. I mean, they setting goals and doing all those things and that's good, but I still, my life was kind of the same. Right. I felt stuck. More motivated maybe, but still I felt like nothing's happening until I met Alan and Alan was the first one who taught me his skill set.

I call that nowadays in everything I teach are high income skills, which is a skill that you can offer to the marketplace in exchange of money. Right. And he taught me the skill of copywriting, which is how to use words, written words, you know, your landing page, your email, your sales page. At the, at that time direct mail. That's what he was, he was doing like full-page ads, newspaper ads. And when he gave me that gave me that skill, then my life changed. Because now I actually have something I could offer to the marketplace. So for y'all for anyone that's watching this, you're listening to this, the marketplace doesn't give a shit.

The marketplace doesn't care how hard you work. It doesn't care about your backstory, your sobbing story. It doesn't care if you have a victim mentality, it doesn't care to know that the marketplace only cares about one thing. And one thing only, and that's value. So, if you want to make more money, you want to generate more income, you have to ask yourself what value are you bringing to the marketplace? No. Good. You can watch a thousand videos, listen to 100 podcasts. If you have not developed a skill set  or some kind of things that you can offer the marketplace in exchange of money, money will always be a problem, right? Like, what is the difference just before this coming in?The studio and, and start this interview. Now, back in the days, I couldn't even get a job, try to make minimum wage. It was very difficult for me, but at a time, minimum wage was like eight, nine bucks. Whatever. I couldn't get a job. I couldn't even get someone to pay me nine bucks an hour when I was young.

Okay. Coming before coming to the studio, I just finished a one-on-one consulting, which we charged $10,000 US per hour. What's the difference? 

Omar:

Massive. 

Dan:

The same Dan Lok. Why is he the same Dan Lok? Probably not. Right, but because why would someone pay me 10 K an hour? Because the value I bring to that one hour, right?

So what has changed over the years? I have increased my value that increased my capabilities so I can deliver more value to the marketplace. And money follows value. 

Omar:

Naturally correlates. More value you have the more money you make. So we're sitting right there talking about Alan. And he gave you this high income skill and it's, it blows my mind.

That you came from no English practically at a younger age to writing sales copy for people. Complete opposite side. And not only that you become an excellent storyteller, I've watched your seminars. I've watched your YouTube videos. You just really know how to tell a fantastic story. Tell me that transition.

Tell me how it went. 

Dan:

And Omar, like I said, the marketplace doesn't care if I am an immigrant. The marketplace doesn't care if English is not my first language, right? The marketplace only cares about value. So when Alan taught me, it really gave me the skill of copywriting. And that's when I learned about marketing and really how to communicate with people, how do you take what you offer and how can you make people understand and to collate the value that people would say, Hey, yeah, I want some of that.

Right. And it doesn't matter what this is, that we're in is the same. And that's how I learned more about closing because copywriting, as far as I'm concerned, it's closing in print. Okay. Closing is getting someone to say yes. In person in print onstage offstage, online, offline to be sustained. It's the same but their ability to be able to communicate your value and get people to say, yes, it doesn't matter what you do.

You could be closing a small deal, like a few thousand dollar deal. You can close, you know, a multi million dollar deal. It's the same thing. Nothing happens in business until you know how to make a sale. And I think a lot of people in the beginning, anyone that's getting started, they spend way too much time working on the thing and they don't spend enough time working on the thing that sells the thing.

The thing that sells is the thing that makes all the difference that matters because nothing is more common than talented people. Nothing is more common than a, a great product. You've got a great product, but no one knows about it. Who cares? Especially now with social media, there's so much noise. Right. And people talk about, always about getting attention, man.

Like, did you go to get attention? I don't think that's accurate. I think you need to get the right attention from the right audience. There's a big difference. Right. Cause like, if right now you go out there and you run around naked  you got to get some attention. Right. The police would give you some attention.

Right. But it's not the right attention that we want. So, and I think people lose sight of, because it's easy. I see people now they're driven by the vanity metrics. Right? How many followers, how many views, how many downloads? I'm like, yeah, that's cool. But how does that help your business? I think that's.

Omar:

Right. And what you're essentially differentiating is between what's actually causing the financial aspect to go up rather than the vanity metrics or the attention that you're getting. And how can you convert that from the attention to business. And that's where closing. Yeah, absolutely. So you bridged that gap, but naturally when you were first starting, I mean, when you met, after you met Alan and you got into copywriting, and then you slowly got into closing and all this and built the empire that you've built out, I'm sure you struggled along the way quite a bit as well.Right? 

Dan:

Just do it today. It's just different problems. 

Omar:

Make sense. Different problems. I want to cover that in a bit, for sure. I mean, these are problems that I'm sure people like, especially my audience at this level, a lot of my audience caters to more beginning aspiring and almost mid-level people that are joining.

So could you talk a little bit about your struggles? Like, I guess, for example, the first time when you actually went down this journey after you met Alan and he started copywriting and that was your first high income skill, what is the first, I guess thing that kind of stands out? 

Dan:

 I'll share a story with you. How I. What inspired me to learn closing. Okay. So I was doing copywriting, trying to get clients and doing whatever I could to get clients, to hire me, to write for them. Right. And although I'm writing copy, but then I'm also learning how need, how to promote myself. So at the time I had a website and people would go to the page and the, we will, they'll fill out a form and we'll get on a phone to talk to people.

And the one time I got a prospect. Well, on the phone he's asking me, Hey, you know, I'm looking for a copywriter, you know, tell me what you do. And I was explaining what I do and stuff like that. And a few minutes into the conversation he said stop. I said, excuse me, I said stop? He said with the few minutes of the conversations we have, you already made multiple grammatical errors. I think you're full of shit and he hung up on me. 

Omar:

Wow. What a condescending guy. 

Dan:

Okay. And I was like, what? I was shocked and a few minutes later, I kind of like, just tried to.

Omar:

Recuperate. 

Dan:

Yeah. It'd be recuperate but also trying to like, understand what is going on. Right. And, and suddenly I couldn't help it. And I was crying. I was like, I felt insulted,  put down, but also a lot of insecurities came up because I knew my English wasn't good. You don't need to tell me that. Right. And I was like, I was just trying to make a, living a young guy, trying to support my mom and my mom kind of heard the conversation in the living room. I was like, and then that's when I made a commitment. I said, again, I don't want this to happen again. I'm going to get so fucking good at closing that this doesn't happen again. In fact, that's also, when I made a commitment that said, someday I will get so good at closing. People would come and hear me just speak. 

Omar:

That's a very instilled amount of power, right? 

Dan:

Yeah. 

Omar:

Psychologically speaking. And I don't want to get too deep, but I think there's a lot of people that I work with that struggle with catering that inner sense of like, I know I can do this. Yeah. If you had to give, like, I guess one piece of advice to somebody that doesn't have that inner, I know I can do this, you know, and this is something I always try to help people with and they always fall short of the words coming from somebody as successful as you are, what would you tell them? 

Dan:

One time I was having lunch with Alan, at Oliver garden, and I would pick him up from his home and we would have lunch. And then we're driving back. And when I was driving him back after the lunch and I was asking him, he said, Alan, I'm thinking of changing  my name. That was in copywriting. I was learning from him right at the time, but just still getting started. And I said, cause at the time my name was Daniel, Daniel Lok. I said I'm thinking of shortening it, just like Dan, Dan Lok and an Alan sitting in the passenger seat. He was like, he did this gestures, like. Yeah. I could see that, see their Lok life.

I could see that someday a banner, maybe you're speaking to a lot of people. Yeah. I like it. It's punchy, memorable. And I was like driving, like what? I was just thinking. It's like a little bit easier to pronounce. But he saw something in me that I couldn't even see myself. He saw me on a banner, the name, right?

Never underestimate the power of having someone believe in you more than you believe in yourself. When someone believes in you more than you believe in yourself, such as someone you respect like a mentor that has way more power. Because quite frankly, most of us. The way that we were brought up, we, we weren't brought up in an environment that nurture self-esteem for most of us, for most of us.

And so for us to kind of, to have to battle with that and say, Hey, I believe in myself and all that. Well, let's face it. You don't believe it. Right. It's you're faking it versus someone say, I believe in you. That has tremendous power. So he saw something in me. He believed in me more than I believed in myself.

I didn't believe it. He asked me to increase my price way before I was comfortable increasing my price. I was charging a few hundred bucks he said that you should double it. I said, what? Should double it. I never thought about doubling it, but because he said it made me believe I'm worth that much. And I doubled and I doubled again.Right. So he taught me self worth. Could I have gotten there myself? I don't think so. I don't think so. There's a lot of Omar a lot of what I do and you see, hear me from my videos. Any, any content that I do, the theme is always finding a mentor because the secret to my success is not because I'm so brilliant. It's because I worked so hard. It's because I have some great mentors in my life. That's the shortcut to me. I don't know about other people but to me. That's what works for me. 

Omar:

Did you stop with Alan too? Or did you have more mentor? 

Dan:

No. So after Alan's, that's my first mentor, right? The second mentor I have a, you might have seen him is now called a trillion dollar man. Dan Pena. Right? Dan Penn has been my mentor for 12, 13 years. 

Omar:

I make sure anytime I need a good morning kicking my ass. I make sure to listen to him. 

Dan:

So I call him big Dan. So Mr. Pena has been my mentor for 10, 12 years and then pump, you know, people, some people like him, some people don't like him. But what I always remember is he, I was okay. I was a, nobody. I got to tell the story because it needs, I need to share the story in order to, under to, for you to understand. So some people, they, they love Dan and some people don't like him cause he's unique let's just put it this way, right? Not for everybody. But I've known him for now. I think more, I think God, it's gotta be 14 years now if we're thinking about a long time and I'm on his like war fame on his cause I've been to the castle multiple times, he lives in a castle for those who don't know right in Scotland.

So with him, when I was nobody. But didn't nobody a doofus kid, what it was called. Right. And at the time I read a book that he, he wrote and I called the castle because I say, I want to connect with him. The book resonated deeply with me. So I called the castle. Of course, when you call the castle, you've got a gatekeeper, right.

So I called a castle and I got a gatekeeper. I said, Hey, you know, this is Dan Lok and from Vancouver. Can I talk to Mr. Pena. No. Right. He is busy. Call some strangers, right? I called back the next day. I said Hey, this is Dan Lok calling from Vancouver. Can I  talk to Mr. Pena. No, no, he's busy. He doesn't talk to people on his own right?

Come back the next day. I said this is Dan Lok. I know who you are. You called yesterday. What the hell do you want now?  I want to talk to him. No. Anyway, I call 13 days consecutively. Every single day. And then I call again, I say this is Dan Lok. What do you want? I said, I just, I just want to talk to Mr. Pena. Silence and then the gatekeeper was finally like, Fine I'll put you through.

And then and, and after I got through, and then he was laughing on the phone, he was like, no, first he answers like. It's typical. Dan is like, Dan Pena, what the fuck do you want? That's how he answered the phone. And I said this, Dan, I was very nervous, nervous, excited, nervous at the same time. But I was, I said, like I said, this Dan Lok, I don't even know what I want.

I'm a young entrepreneur I'm getting started. I was just so inspired. I just. I don't even know what I want. I just want to thank you or whatever it might be. It was didn't know what to say. And then he said, well, tell you what kid, calls everybody kid. He said kid, next week I'll be in Los Angeles. We'll do have breakfast.

We'll have breakfast. Goodbye set up time with my assistant. That was it. 

Omar:

Real Dan Pena style right there. 

Dan:

And I was like, okay. What should I do? Should I go, should I not go? Should I get on a plane? And I did. I bought the ticket. We remember, I think it was at Ritz Carlton in LA, one other nice hotel. I  was waiting at the lobby with my oversized suit at the time.

No, not fit, red tie, tried to look like him, red tie. And he came down and then I remember the escalator, he came down and then we had breakfast and we spent like two, three hours together. He gave me two, three hours a time. There's nothing, no value I could provide to him. Zero. But he did that. And from then on, we formed a relationship and his, Dan has been mentoring me for a long time.

So I really don't, I don't care what people see, people say and stuff like that. I know what Dan did for me. He believed in me. He helped me when I was nobody. 

Omar:

Something you mentioned there, I think really, really resonates with a lot of people in my audience. And that was that you came in from a place of not having any value really to give Dan Pena but here he was and, he picked you up.

Dan:

Yeah.

Omar:

And I know for, even for myself, for sure, like if I was to look for a mentor and I have had some great mentors already in my life, but if I was looking for high caliber mentors, I always think from the aspect of what am I going to offer that person? Yes. So coming from that like with your head space there, you're saying that Dan Pena gave you a chance.

If someone were to resonate with that, how would you tell them to go about it? 

Dan:

It's way better when you have something, don't go to your mentor with the attitude of like entitlement, like, Oh, you're successful. I'm not, you should help me. That's a big no-no. That's ,don't do that. And don't go in with like, they owe you something.

They don't always shit. Right. You got to go in with, and I don't care what it is, how small it is. Even with Alan, I was helping him licking the stems, putting the envelope, taking it to the post office. I was helping out. Right. With Mr. Pena, I couldn't. Right. But I, I do what I could, but I couldn't, he seems just way more successful.

But even now, like with the new mentors I have, his name is Dwayne. And also my mentor, James. I mean, these are like highly successful guys. Right? So Dwayne's a billionaire. And I always look for what, how can I, what can I bring to the relationship even, they don't really need anything from me if I want to look for how, I don't want to be a burden.

Omar:

Of course.

Dan:

But I want to be a joy to work with. And when you are getting advice from your mentor, execute it. If they take that time and they tell you to do something. You don't fucking do it. Then it's, you're wasting their time and they know you're not coachable. Then why would they even spend time with you? Right? Because chances are they don't need nothing from you.

Omar:

I see why so many people call you Sifu.

Dan:

Yeah, exactly right. Nothing makes me happier when I see them execute. Right. Because it's a validation that my methodology works, right. A mentor nothing's happier than, Hey, seeing you grow, seeing you do your thing, and then you, you're growing, you're progressing that's this is awesome.

Right? Because a mentor always sees a student. It's like, Hey, you really remind me when I was young. I did that. Right. Don't make that mistake again, do this instead. So we love to see that. So I know I love to see that. And so over the years, having mentors, learning different things from them while I develop my skillsets, and that's the biggest key. To me that is surely the biggest key, having skillsets that the marketplace values be it... 

Now I like skill sets, I call them high-income skills, but basically they're skills that generate revenue. Because the closer you ought to revenue, the easier it is to charge a premium price because they essentially you're selling your, not just your service or your skill. You are selling money at a discount, right? No one buys words on a piece of paper.

People buy the words. What the worst can do you write it? Why would someone pay 200 bucks an email? Because the email would make them 2000, $20,000. Well, that's an easy relationship, right? For anyone that's getting started, like, okay. Yeah. I mean, I learned copywriting. I can do that. 

At the time I was early, I was 27 years old.I was making 10,000 a month as a copywriter. Now it's not a lot of money today, but back then, 20 somewhat years old, 10 K a month, I'm like this is amazing. Right. I didn't have a degree, a flunked English twice when I was in high school. Like, and now I have like 20, 20 somewhat years old being able to make a living, be able to support my, being able to support my mom and pay off some of the debt that I had accumulated back then.

I mean, it's good. Could I have done it without a high-income skill? I don't think so. I would be Micky working at McDonald's if I follow the traditional path. Right. So what I tell young people, that's what I tell them. 

Omar:

That's the first stage in your wealth triangle too, right? 

Dan:

Yes. Yes.

Omar:

And actually having a scalable business that's online and then from there investing. 

Dan:

That's right.

Omar:

But different stages. Of course. 

Dan:

And that's why with the wealth triangle, it is to say it like the wealth triangle is so profound because it's so simple and you will know exactly where you're at. Your getting started. You want to get to your first hundred K using your high-income skills and then you want to start that scalable business.

And then with a scalable business, you want to then transition into investments. This is the same model that would get you to 1 million, 10 million, a hundred million. That's what you know is a good model. It doesn't change. 

It doesn't change. 

Omar:

It's amazing. And it's something that I see many entrepreneurs hire higher level entrepreneurs always take in one way or another. That wealth triangle.

Dan:

This is exactly the same. They might have different skillsets. They might have different types of businesses. They might not even touch investments, but pretty much it's this, this circle, right? This cycle of it. 

Omar:

And I love how transparent you are with it too. You know, you're not beating around the Bush.

You're telling people how it is. 

Dan:

That's what it is. If someone say, Oh, I'm ha I have a job making 30 K a year. Should I start a business? I say, you're out of your mind. You shouldn't start your business because that tells me you don't have any skillsets. Then chances of that business succeeding is slim to none.

In fact, chances of that business failing is very high. Instead if you have a high, some kind of high-income skills, let's say if you know, copywriting or, you know, digital marketing, or you know, closing, well, guess what those skills are, the foundational skills for a successful business. 

So when you are doing that already think about this, let's say Omar, you, you say, you know, digital marketing. You know how to drive traffic. That's the high-income skill and you're doing it for other businesses. They're paying you 50,000 a month and you're making 15 K a month. This here are three clients and making 50 K that's pretty good. Right? What are your chances and probabilities of success? If you say, Hey, I've been doing this for a few years.

Maybe now I can do a launch, a scalable e-com business. You're not a dry traffic. You understand conversion. You've learned it from your clients. Now to do your own thing. So you see how your success rate is much higher, right? Yeah. There you go. Versus, Oh man, I don't know anything about you call them. I should just buy a course and I'm going to start at e-comm thing.

Well then chances are you're going to fail.

Omar:

Well, it's something that you see very prevailing in our day and age.

Dan:

All the time. And it's like, it's, it's sad because people put down courses. I see this online. I see this on Reddit. Right. So going to school, spending a hundred, $150,000, getting into debt, getting a piece of paper that really has no guarantee of you making a dime from it might even get you the job that you want, but spending $2,000 course that's that's like that's, that's not smart.

It's like, like people don't get it. 

Omar:

It makes sense. 

Dan:

People just don't get it. 

Omar:

I mean, you're looking back now in all the years that you've done all this, you know, like I mean everyone's made mistakes, like, Oh, I can even say I bought a drop shipping course about two or three years ago. I remember that Idiocracy but you're looking back at your success and I do want to segment this into the final bit of the podcast.

Yeah. How do you feel about it all? You know what I mean? Like looking back at like 14 years old, going from where you were to where you are now, like, how does it feel to you? And I know you're a man that's constantly growing, you know, and you've barely begun to scratch the surface. In my opinion, 

Dan:

I look nothing but gratitude, really nothing but gratitude because if you'd asked me when I was younger, would I see myself doing what I'm doing today?

Right. No. Do I know that I would be able to be a mentor to so many people? Not in a million years. Could I have imagined someone would interview me on a podcast, like hello? Right. Like it just, it's not. It wasn't what I was thinking. It wasn't even my reality. So looking back now, I'm able to do this, that I am in a position where I have to influence.

So that's why I take it very seriously. The influence that I have, that if I could grow and I could be able to, I don't even want to say impact. I want to say if I can help someone kind of like who I was many years ago, if I can impact them in some way, give them push in some way, give them a hard moment in some way. I think that's pretty good. 

So, so I'm very grateful. I can, I'm able to do what I do because there are a lot of people I know that maybe they make more money. They have more success, quote, unquote, financial success. Well, I think I'm able to do what I love to do. I've got great people on the team that I love working with.

I'm doing what I like to do. And I get to just live the life that I want to live. And it's just great. Like, I don't know. There's no complaining, right. I just, I have no complaint.  Yeah. It's not even, Oh, I want to enter the zero. That's nice. But it's just the day-to-day of the experience that I have.

Like, wow. Like I can, like in the studio, I've like three full-sized Ironman. You must do this. I could do stuff like that. Like just like I can do stuff like that. Yeah. And it's great. So gratitude looking back. Nothing but gratitude, but also responsibility. 

Omar:

Definitely when you have impact at that scale, responsibility and at the same time gratitude, because mind my words, but you've made life your bitch. So that tells us.

Dan:

That's right. It's like, it's good. Like, life is good. I'm healthy, you know, a great wife, you know, and it's like, nothing could complain really nothing. 

Omar:

Cool. I want to touch one or two last questions here real quick. If you have a little bit of time. Yes. One, so side left field here, you've been doing martial arts for quite some time, and this is something funny, right?

So this has never happened to me before in an interview, but I'll be speaking to you and you stand so still at points, whether your hands over here or you're standing like this, that I think you're frozen. And then I think that just comes from martial arts that you're able to stand so still.

Dan:

Center, center, center.

Omar:

How, how other ways besides being able to stand stiller then a statue has martial arts impacted your life and your business? 

Dan:

Tremendously. I would say a lot of my business philosophies came from martial art philosophies. I'll give you some examples, cause I want to make it real. When I teach  closing, right. And I'll teach my students. Okay. When you close, when you get an objection. Now a lot of people, they would teach you traditional sales. They would teach you, well, you know, when someone gives an objection, you kind of like you fight back. You, you, you, you just like fight force with force. Well, but in, in martial art, at least in Asian martial art, you don't do that.

You're more of kind of flow, right? So instead of someone throws a punch, like I'm going to like hit you back, but he's like, how do I flow and, and do that and be like, more like Bruce Lee said, be like water. So I had the objection where someone said, well, it's too expensive, so, well, you, you know, you should pay for it. It's totally worth it. That's fighting force with force, right. Instead of, Hey, it's so expensive. Why do you think it's so expensive? Why do you think people pay this much? Well, I guess it must be good. Like I like to do that. So a lot of my closing philosophies come from martial art a lot, actually a lot.

So why, because I incorporate a lot of martial philosophies in business and that's how this, the word Sifu came about  because Sifu in Martial and means like mentor, right? It's a martial art term. And because I used so so many martial metaphors, my students started calling me Sifu. That's how I became this, this whole thing.

Right. And the way I see it, the ying and yang, soft and hard, force versus power attributes. I'll give you one example. Let's say a simple line. I was training my sales team yesterday, a simple line. It's a simple line of what can I do for you? Right. People will look for, well, what's a script. Give me a script.Dan gave me the closing script. I said, this script is meaningless. If you don't know how to deliver it, it's not the technique. It's the attributes behind the technique. Right? 

All the, all, any amateur boxer versus the greatest boxer in the world, they have four punches, jab, hook, upper cut,, and like cross. That's it. Right. But Holly's still four punches. Mike Tyson throws four punches.  And Kit throws four punches. It makes no difference. What makes them a world champion is the attributes behind the techniques, speed, power, or distance judging, reflexes, flexibility, all of the above. Same thing with closing, I could deliver one line with five different tonality, actually a hundred different tonalities, and has totally different meaning. Example, I'll just demonstrate very quickly.

Omar:

Sure. 

Dan:

If I want to be very. So Omar you tell me the feeling that you're getting. Okay, I'm going to do it three different times. First, first one. Hey, what can I do for you? 

Omar:

Enthusiastic, excited. A little bit high energy. 

Dan:

Okay. Second one. What can I do for you? 

Omar:

Bored? Probably doesn't want to talk to me. 

Dan:

Right? What can I do for you?

Omar:

Nervous, scared a little bit. 

Dan:

So it's the same script, but why this have different triggers, different reactions from people it's not the technique, not the script. It's the attributes behind a technique. 

Omar:

But how do you put the emotions behind it when it's in text form? I'm sure there's some ways to differentiate them.

Dan:

Yes. So in text form, now you're using the words of what I call power words, right? It's one thing to say is good or it's amazing. Spectacular, right? You see, it's just one little word change, right? You can have something simple, like let's say we're writing the article, you know, five ways to do blank. I could just add five little known ways to do blank or five ways or five unusual ways to do blank.

Just adding one word. And it gives a totally different texture. 

Omar:

And it has a feeling connotation to it too. All right. That's right. 

Dan:

That's right. Very powerful. They're very powerful when you know how to do these things. So you look at social media. Why my social media, people look at, Oh, Dan Lok kind of just came out of nowhere.

I've been doing marketing and closing for a long time. It's just because when I applied the skills to social media, you can see skyrocket because everything I do, you look at title of a video, everything it's copywriting. Closing. So it's interesting and people engage and you, you have all the, if you actually look at my video on YouTube and some of my students do it, if you look at the transcripts, you'll see the way I speak, I'm writing copy.

Omar:

Right. 

Dan:

I don't just talk whatever.

Omar:

I've noticed that.

Dan:

Yeah. So everything is, it has a meaning towards it. So because I do that and it works. And that's why the subscribers grew. That's why the brand grew and the revenue grew and all that. It's not just, Oh, I'm using YouTube, but like I'm a, not a YouTuber.

Omar:

Makes sense. It's crazy. Communication is the center of really everything right?

Dan:

It's the center. It's truly the center. Yeah. There's no relationship between getting pay and being good at what you're doing getting paid. There's a huge relationship between being able, being good at what you do and being able to close and getting paid. 

Omar:

Makes a ton of sense. 

Dan: 

So you can never get too good at communication. Communication equals wealth and closing equals income. That's what I always say. 

Omar:

God, you must be so fucking bored. 

Dan:

Luckily, I'm not alone. I'm with my boyfriend and we've been meeting some cool people. Yeah, it isn't so crazy. And people are more relaxed, which is really good as well. 

Omar:

That's perfect because this last question I have for you here, I wonder if it's going to be the same answer. And this is an interesting question that I ask everybody that comes on my podcast.

Yes. So prepare to be slightly baffled, but imagine you had a billboard in space. And this has even more impact than where you are right now, over the internet, just everyone on planet earth. Every time they looked up, they saw the billboard every morning, just like the sun rose, they looked up and they saw it. And you could put a few lines on that billboard. What would you put? 

Dan:

Wow. So the whole world will see it?

Omar:

Whole world every single day.

Dan:

Hmm. There's so many. I want to put, I'm trying to think of one.

Don't be yourself. Be better.

That's what I would put it. 

Omar:

Damn. That's powerful. Don't be yourself. Be better. I love it. I'm going to let my audience ponder on that one. Thank you so much for coming on today, Dan. That was absolutely profound. 

Outro-

I really enjoyed that episode and Dan's a great guy. It's quite funny, actually. So we were recording this episode on the day that Texas was completely losing its shit because of all the snow.

And at some point during the middle of the interview, our power decided to go off for about 20 minutes. But Dan was an absolutely great sport about it. And right after our power came back on, I hopped back in the interview and we finished up. If you want to see some pretty dope clips from the interview, feel free to check out my Instagram @nomadables.

I hope you were able to gain some new drive and inspiration. If you truly never give up and just stay persistent and as full of grit as possible, you can really achieve anything you set your mind to. I always have and always will believe this to be true. Catch you next week, nomad fam.

Remember nomad fam we've got some incredibly value filled episodes planned out for you. So please hit that subscribe button and leave a review. Your review helps this podcast become more visible and ultimately inspire more people just like you. 

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