Brad Lea's Comeback Story

00:00:09 Speaker 1: All right, Welcome back, everybody. We're here for another episode of Comeback Stories. Today's guests is Brad Lee, a high school dropout who built Lightspeed VT into a multimillion dollar global tech company from scratch. As its founder and CEO. His vision led light led to Lightspeed VT becoming the world's leading interactive training system. Brad also hosts the top rated podcast Dropping Bombs and is the author of the Real Deal. And Brad is one of the most efficient and effective communicators I think I've ever witnessed. And it's just a gift to have you here, man. I think I always try to surround myself with people when they have something that I want. And the way you communicate, and I've just been following you on social media for a while and I super inspired by this. So we're grateful to have you. Well, dude, I'm honored to be here. I didn't know that was such a communicator, but I'll take it. It's a It's efficient, man, It's inspiring for sure. You know. I think what it is is I keep shit kind of simple. Right. There's a lot of people that like to use ten dollar words. Sounds smart, you know, and I know a lot of ten dollar words. But most people don't know what they mean, you know, so I just try to say what I think and keep it real. And plus I dropped out of high school. Remember that's when whenever I hear that, I always think to myself, dude, that was not an accomplishment. That was not an accomplishment. I don't think it was in the bio that I got, but I threw it in there. Since we're talking comeback stories, I thought it was a comeback story in its own right yea, yeah, well, I you know, as far as comeback stories, I could definitely say. You know, I have a couple, but I have like many, you know, I tried a lot of businesses before Lightspeed took off, and a lot of people don't realize, but I own like five RV dealerships. I own several companies, several multimillion dollar companies that I started from scratch. Right Speed was the first one, and it's kind of the one that got me, you know, going, And once you're going, it's a lot easier. You know, it's not as hard as as as it is when you're when you're broke, we want to go way back, So can you tell us a little bit about what growing up for you was, Like, I don't know who I'm talking to? Am I talking to you? Talking to both? Do I do? I look at the cam head on a swivel. You know, growing up in a in a small town in Oregon, it's called Cottage Grove, Oregon. Blue collar family. Really um good family. You know, I'm not the guy that that looks back and sees how broke we were, although you know, there were a couple of times where, like, you know, for Christmas, we didn't have any money to buy toys, so my dad would just cut a hole in my pocket so I'd have something to play with, literally, and it's like everyone's like, dude, are you okay? Are you okay? We lived in a house on a hill surrounded by nicer houses. You never see that anymore. This house that my dad eventually built into a nice house, the actual entire house became the sunken living room in our new house. So my dad started to be a little bit entrepreneurial. I forget how old I was, maybe twelve. He started to be an entrepreneurial, built a bar, pizza parlor, then started a new little local newspaper and kind of started getting real successful. Actually that's when we built a house up. But then someone drank at the tavern that we owned and went out and got killed on a motorcycle, and so the family sued us and my dad's brother, my uncle, they were partners, and my uncle just canceled the insurance like a month before so they could save money and make money. So it literally wiped him out. And then my dad just freaking went back to blue collar mindset and never tried it again, stayed day down the whole time. And uh, you know, I think I might have got my entrepreneurial spirit from that, but I just grew up in a normal, you know, blue collar town. My dad worked at the mill until he got into the entrepreneur stuff, and then as soon as he was done with that, he went back to the mill. My grandpa was a logger, um kicked ass in sports as a kid, but had no real parenting. A round a four or four or forty. Okay, you know what I'm saying. So you people, is that faster than you? Same thing a dude. And I'll tell you one time I was telling somebody that and somebody said bullshit, and I said, no, I tell I'm telling you. He goes, well, that means you could beat my boy over here. And so some dude was standing there and I said, well, let's go out in the street and race. And so I went out in the street and beat him and they could not believe it. Yeah, jeans on, But dude, I'm telling you. I mean it's it's in the records, I'm sure. But I didn't have any parenting. Really. My dad kind of made sure that we didn't die, right, He didn't. He didn't have you know, the arm around the shoulder, given us lessons anything like that. So I was kind of like raised on my own. We'd leave the house and you know, don't come home till dark, and didn't really get much mentorship. And came home one time and my dad told me to mow the lawn for a couple days in a row, and I just kept not doing it, and so he kicked me out for not mowing the lawn. At sixteen, that's when I decided to quit school. And that was that, no house, no school, And now I'm an adult at sixteen years old, running around trying to you know, figure it out. At two years old, you were sent to an orphanage when your parents got divorced. Right, obviously, I'm sure you don't remember most of that, but I know most of our programming comes from age zero to seven. So what was the effect? How do you reflect on that now, and how does that that kind of shape where you're at today. You know, I don't really remember too much about it. I was just told that at two years old. I was two years old. I have a younger brother who was a baby, and then my older brothers and sisters. My mom sent all of us except the baby. She kept the baby, all of us to a foster home. And then we were getting shipped out to different homes. And then my grandmother, who's Spanish, they're they're very in the family, told my dad hed better get his ass over and get his kids. So my dad, fortunately, right the day before we were getting shipped out to different houses, my dad came and got us. So we went and lived with my dad. So I almost got shipped out to foster homes. Thankfully, I was only in one for like five days from what I'm told, But I don't really remember it, you know, I remember a good childhood, you know, going outside, playing in the woods, you know, not like today, not like today's kids, different ballgame today. Do you have an early memory of pain or something that kind of just sticks with you to this day. You know, it's funny because a lot of times. You know, one time I was homeless on the beach in California and I didn't really have any place to go, so I just crash on the beach. And I was telling the story and the guy said to me, you know, what did it feel like to hit rock bottom? And I said, I've never hit rock bottom. And they said and they said, what do you mean, man? You said you were homeless on the beach. And to me, it's like it's all perspective, Like, dude, that's not that's not rock bottom. Homeless on a beach. I mean, people pay to live on the beach. I was just staying there for free. Number one. There's there's waves crashing, It's California, the weather was great. I was there by choice. I don't consider that rock bottom because of that. When I look back and try to think about all the hard times and the and the and the things that I've went through, I don't really see them from the same perspective as other people would. So when people ask me questions like that. I can't ever come up with anything that was that was terrible. You know, it was always pretty easy. It's Darren and I both come from the world of recovery, so we had rock bottoms as a byproduct of our addictions. M addictions. Mine was pills. I mean, I did a lot of birds. My drugger choice was like opious painkillers. But I mean I was drinking and smoking weed, like saything that could take me to a different place. I was with it. Dude, I got hooked on crack one night or one week for a week at hook Yeah sure, Oh dude, Well it wasn't an instant hook. That's what's crazy. As I was, I was living in California, and I was driving to my apartment, and like, right here was the ghetto and right here was my apartment. So I'd take a left here and there's always some dude sitting there and he'd always go like this. I didn't necessarily know what that meant, but I just go like that. And so then you know, next time I went by, he did it again. So I just kind of slowed down. He rolled up to the window and he said, what's up. I said, what's going on? He said, fricking do you need anything? I said no. He said, well here and he reaches over and he hands me this rock. Cocaine or crack is what it was. It's supposedly different, but anyway, long story short, I went up and smoked it and it didn't really do anything. And I heard about it, but I didn't really, you know, do much, so I didn't do anything. Next day, I rolled by, saw me again and he said, what's up. I said nothing, He goes anything. I said no, he goes here, and he kept handing me a little rock of crack, and I'm like, shit, I'll smoke it. So I worked out. So I went up the second time and smoked it, and dude, that was it. For like three to five days, I was just smoking crack, constantly selling everything I had, getting rid of my gold chains, furniture, like anything, and everything I could I could sell for money I got. I sold sometimes to him to get more crack. After about three days of smoking this ship, my lungs. My lungs felt like they were gonna burst, Like it literally felt like an elephant was sitting on my chest and I could barely breathe. I was in my room all by myself, and I could and I couldn't. I couldn't breathe. I was just like, if I breathed, it was it would hurt really bad. So I just get, you know, tried to stay alive by smoking or bye bye, by breathing real small, you know, bits of air, and uh got up the next day and realized, dude, I got to get the hell out of here. And so I packed my shit and moved back to Oregon, left never, never, never to see Kalo again. I don't think I've ever heard anybody that's got hooked for just three to five days. Usually it's and and I think from a pills standpoint, like there and I, pills were my main drug of choice. I did a lot of other drugs also, but you know, when they're pills in there coming from a doctor, and you can still breathe fine, and in fact, you probably think you can breathe better when you're on these pills. But for you, it was nice to uh have that intervention with your your body telling you know, and then the awareness to actually leave where most people that are in addiction it's a three to five year run, not a three to five. There's no choice there. You has got you by a hook. I learned quick. I didn't. I didn't. I didn't need anymore to learn. I got the hell out of there quick. Never touched it again. Had a few people say, hey, you want I'm like, dude, that ship will get you. You gotta be you gotta be a freaking, you know, crazy individual if you think you're gonna get away with crack, like you can't smoke crack and win period. And I and you used to be hooked too, Yeah damn, I mean I was, yeah starting I was fifteen. Uh got stopped. I would I didn't say. I chose to stop. I got stopped at twenty five. Life stopped me. God stop me. I od to my jeep. Wow, yeah damn, no wonder this is called comeback story. Shit, I don't qualify to be on this. Yeah, you smoke crack, you qualify. Yeah that's hooked on crack for a week. But I think that's Darren. I started this podcast because we just believe everybody has a comeback story within them. We know everybody loves a comeback story also, But one of our missions was just to to reach as many people as possible because there's a lot of people sitting out there thinking they're all alone and nobody understands. That's what I thought at my rock bottom. And I know a lot of people that struggle with mental health or or any other form of addiction that they think that they're alone. And so when when we can share our stories and share share the realness and the rawness, like even just the crack story, that little that little story, I know there's people out there that are listening that are going to be like I can relate to that right right where they didn't hit a rock bottom. I don't. You don't have to hit rock bottom. And I tell people that maybe that are struggling with addiction, you don't have to get to the bottom where I was, where I also overdosed once. And you know, but a lot of times people can get in the way, our parents can enable us and make our bottoms even deeper. But um no, I love, I love, I love the realness. For sure. Yeah, you probably get to a point it doesn't have to be rock bottom, but you get to a point where it's like consistently thinking like there's got to be more to life. I'm sure, like there's got to be more than this, Like I'm like, we we get high because we think there's more life. I think that will give it to us, but in reality, there's no way it can give to us, and in the end ends up taking from us. So it's like, you know, I know you probably had that thought when you're spoken Cracker five days and moving back to Oregon, Like when did you get into a spirit of wanting to be in business or have your own vision for entrepreneurship? Like when did that start to come into fruition? You know, I was about thirty years old, so ever since I was little, like you know, six seven years old, we lived in this little shitty house, like I was telling you, and everybody around us was rich, and I felt like really ashamed that we were the broke folks, and so I would lie to all my friends. I'd lie to the neighborhood kids, tell them we were rich. We were just sitting here for whatever reason. I can't even remember, but I used to tell people my dad owned Disneyland, and like just lie period just to fit in. And it didn't work. It backfired. And so when we moved to Eugene, which is a little town north of that, I just decided to start, you know, keeping it real, telling the truth and not not pretending, because I mean I was alienated, dude, I had I had parents that told their kids, I mean the six, seven, eight, nine years old, you can't play with that kid, mainly because I was just so full of shit. I would just lie if no matter what. And so when I moved, I just you know, because of that ridicule and that feeling of being an outcast, I said, I'm just gonna start telling the truth and keeping it real, and if people don't like it, well then I guess I shouldn't be around these people. And so I moved to Eugene, started keeping it real, and the next thing, you know, I was popular. Plus I grew I used to be a runt, I grew a little bit, started getting you know, into the girls and all that, and and I had influence because I kept it real, and so I knew that just you know, being cool and keeping it real and being authentic was was a good thing. And I started to gain influence. But I was using the influence unethically. Let's just say. I mean I got seven kids from four women's so that's part of my how I used influence, but it didn't really start creating impact. It was just influence, and without impact, it's kind of you know, it could be used poorly. So so, until I was about thirty years old, all I wanted to do was get rich. All I wanted to do was make money. All I was focused on was me. I just wanted to get paid, no matter what. If I sold you something, I didn't care if you liked it or if you needed it. I just wanted the commission. And about thirty years old, there was a kid in the back of the dealership that I was working at. Good dude, good wife, good kids, just a real solid dude, right, something that I knew I wanted to be, but I wasn't. I was up more out for me. This guy impressed me so much, but he was minimum wage guy. So I said, dude, why don't you come out front. Let me show you how to sell and make some money. So I showed him how to sell close deals. All of a sudden, he went from minimum wage to fifteen to any grand a month. And I watched the impact that that had with that dude, and that dude took the money and started doing good things with it, you know, and I just inspired me and I thought, man, that feels good helping this dude. I want to help other people. And I realized I've got the ability to help other people. You learn to sell clothes persuade being influential. So I just quit my job, started a training company and tried to go help other people make money. And as soon as I helped, as soon as I focused on helping other people rather than myself, that's when the money started coming. I couldn't get the money no matter what I did because I was focused on me. And when you stop focusing on you and you start focusing on helping other people. It sounds cliche, but it's true. If you focus on helping other people, whatever that is, you know, money takes care of itself. So it was about thirty years old as when I quit, and I quit just because I wanted to go help other people. I didn't say I want to be entrepreneurial. I just said, man, I want to go help other people do this. I can start a business doing. So I quit my job and started it and it went out on the road and basically realized it wasn't working like I thought when I worked at a company I could grab people out of a burger king or a shoe store and just turn them into a salesperson just like this, show them how to make great money. But when I went out on the road, it wasn't working, and I'm like, dude, what the hell's the difference. So I figured out there were four things I was doing before that I forgot to do moving forward. And the four things when it comes to training, like real training, Number one you need good content. Number two you need repetition, Number three you need practice, and then four you need accountability like you take athletes, you take freaking you know, military, anybody that's actually training. You know, those four things are included. But when I worked for this company and I was doing it like NonStop, I didn't realize that I was going I was giving them good content, I was, you know, practicing with them, I was giving them repetition, I was holding people accountable, and I just didn't realized I was doing those things. But when I went out on the road, I was only given good content. Then I'd move on, so I'd go around give good content. But it wasn't working. It wasn't sticking. Nobody's life was changing, and I thought, man, I got to fix this. So I discovered those four things and that's when I invented lightspeed VT. I said, I got to build a system. There was nothing online. Most people don't realize this, but I started the online training space. Like when I started, there was no online training systems zero. So I had to build one. And so I found the right people to build one just for myself. And so now I've got this training system that's online, and this is way too early for it. Everybody was like, that's never gonna work. That's never gonna work. And long story short, it worked right now. I was doing millions of dollars. I've got all the biggest clients using it, and you know, Fortune five hundred companies using it, and it's the best training system on earth. But it all started with wanting to help other people. That's the program that me and Donnie work and continue to work to get get sober and stay sober. The ultimate destination, the ultimate place to get to, is to be of service to other people. Like I realized that now. You know, there's no accomplishment I've had in football or in any kind of making of money that feels better than being able to be of service through my foundation or just through sharing my story. Like that's that's the feeling we've been chasing all along, through whatever the money, the success, Like that's the feeling that we want and to get there is such a gratifying thing. And you see how your business blossoms from just to get to that place. And you know, I want to ask you, like what were you talked about? You had a couple of comeback stories, you had a couple of rock bottoms, Like what were some of those low moments? Like what was those experiences, the emotions, the thoughts going through those times and what did you learn from that? Well? Like, you know, I got divorced a couple of times, you know, been to jail for a period of time, crash the couple businesses, you know, just all around. To me, it's just normal life, right Like you know, people call it a comeback, but it's like it's just part of life. It was for me anyway. You know. I call them beaver Cleaver families where where they're all you know, nice little families and you know the dads you know, considerate and caring and tells you he loves you, and you know, teaches you shit and you know, I didn't have any of that, so to me, it's just you know, you go out and learn on your own. So I had to learn the hard way. That's the book I wrote just released not too long ago, called The Hard Way, and it's just lessons I learned the hard way, so you don't have to and it's just a compilation of all the things that that I learned. Now the crazy part is everyone's gonna learn those same lessons. The question is is how much is it going to cost you to learn it? You know, like keeping it real, you know, being authentic. There's so many people worried about everybody else that that that that they're really screwing themselves. In order to be unstoppable in life, all you need are three things to master. Number one, your mindset. Number two, your skill set. Number three your habits. If you got the right mindset, you can you can get through anything. Number one. Number two, you got the right skill sets and whatever you're trying to achieve in you know, there's certain skill sets that lend themselves to different you know, industries and professions. And then your habits, like what are your habits every single day? And if you dial those three in dude, You're unstoppable. You can do anything. So I just learned along along the way a lot of hard times. But again, you know, I came down met this guy. He's driving a Mercedes, living a life, rent and beach houses. Everything's kill or girls everywhere. You know. Dude's bawling and I'm like, man, and I'm broke of course, and I'm like, dude, this is this Dude's cool. He says, hey, you know you want me to teach you how to do it? And I'm like, well, yeah, you know, he's got a business license on the wall and everything. So I'm like, absolutely, dude, I'll freaking do that. So we opened a business. We start after about three days, Dude, all we were doing was calling people asking for donations, and I'm like, well, this is stupid, and plus I tried it and I couldn't get anyone to donate. Well, I said, I, you know this ain't working for me. Bro, I don't know how you guys are doing this. I quit, went back to the car business. Four years later, I get a knock on the door, freaking FBI says, are you Bradley? I'm like, yeah, were you the president of this company? I'm like, yeah, they're like, come with us. So I literally freaking went down to the FBI and sat there and talk to them, and they're they're like, well, who are these people? What were you guys doing. I'm like, I didn't do anything. I worked there, two days, We made phone calls. That was it. You don't know anything else. No, I don't know anything else. Okay, we'll let you know. Two days later, I get a knock at the door, same FBI guys. They say, turned around, you're under arrest. I said for what they said while wire fraud. I'm like, for what? So anyway, long story short, they fucking threw my ass in jail and I had to stay there for fifteen months and I didn't do a damn thing. So literally, now, I mean, that's a that's a rock bottom I guess people would think. But again, you know, quite rightly when I think back, dude, it was fifteen months of reprieve. I didn't have any freaking bills to pay. I didn't have any freaking nonsense to deal with. Perspective, Yeah, it's all perspective, man, And I'm telling you, like a lot of people think I'm just saying it, but I don't think that was a rock bottom. I don't think being homeless was rock bottom. I don't think the crack was a rock bottom. I just think it's a part of life to learn an experience to ultimately realize. But going back, I'd be an idiot if I didn't take someone else's experience and learn from that. Like, you don't have to be the one that gets your ass kicked to learn. You can learn from someone else getting their ass kicked, you know what I mean. And so fortunately that's what I'm trying to do with that book. I'm like, dude, read this book and you will have a thousand time better life if you just understand these things now, because most people they're going to learn them. The question is is what's it going to cost them to learn these? Are? These are like, you know, life lessons that you know, I bet you a lot of you know, good dads and good parents would have taught you know the fact that the fact that you know, people are so worried about other people's opinions that they don't take action, they don't believe in themselves, they have zero confidence. You know, you got to have confidence in this world. Yeah, And going that route. It requires people to get uncomfortable. And it's like as people, I feel like, as human beings naturally we want we don't want to be uncomfortable. We want to chase pleasure and you know, being safe and having security. Whereas going that route of really working on yourself, really trying to find who you are, what your purpose is, it's an uncomfortable process. It's very uncomfortable for me. But I look back now and see like the greatest things that have happened in my life and that have come from you know, me going down that path is the uncomfortability of it because it required me to change. I can't change in my comfort zone. Yeah, well, you know why I believe. Here's what I believe. I believe you're never going to outperform your own self image. So you have to increase your self image somehow, some way, and doing the work does that. You did the work, dude, and that built yourself image and that's why you you grew. And I can tell you most people want to build their net worth, and I say, dude, to build your net worth, you have to build your self worth. You're never going to outperform your own self image, so you have to build the value in yourself, and now how do you do that? Well, there's one way, put in the fucking work. And most people don't want to put in the work they are they don't want to be uncomfortable, they don't want to change, when in reality, that in and of itself is how you do it. So it's almost like saying, you know, I don't want you know, I want to make a cake, but I don't like eggs and sugar. Well, dude, that's part of the formula. That's like, that's like failing. You know, people don't want to fail. I would say, why don't you do that? Well, no, if I what if I lost? What if I failed? What if I look stupid? To me, my perspective was always what if I stay the same? Like that was more scary than failing. What's the worst that can happen? Go get a job. Shit, anybody can get a job. So when I started my company, Everyone's like, are you nuts? I was. I was down on child support, I was down on my car payment. I was down like any normal sane person wouldn't have done it. And I thought, well, worst case scenario, I'll just get my job back because I can get a job anywhere. Why Because I could sell, I could close, I could persuade. That's all you really need to do is work on the skill sets. And there's there's some basic skill sets that if anybody possesses, they're they're gonna be, you know, capable of making a living anytime they want to. I love that you're bringing this up, because I too believe that there's no habit, there's no therapy session. There's routines that can outperform a belief system, which is kind of the same thing as a self image, where our belief system is how we relate to the world, how we see the world, how we see ourselves in the world. So until that old belief system gets uprooted, like the story that you're telling yourself or how you see yourself in the world, nothing can outperform that. So it's about a lot of times doing the work to chip away, to dig it out and heal yourself or whatever the bullshit story you've been telling yourself. I can even in your story. I mean, how easily it would have been to play the victim getting thrown in jail for something that you didn't do. And I'm sure there was maybe some small waves of that, but even it's all connecting now with at the beginning you talked about I talked about you being a communicator, and you said, I keep it simple, but it's really you're just being honest, You're being real. And I think it all traces back to the Disneyland lie where you kind of got exiled from your friends because you're being fake. That's right, And so to attach that proper meaning, I mean, you've had so many nuggets and like going back and bringing up some of the stuff that you said already. The other one was perspective, where people in athletics or in high performers will talk about the level of your performance is based on the level of your preparation, but I think it's actually the your perspective is what shapes your performance, and you're a living example of that. Just how your your perspective on all your rock bottoms are, Like, man, wasn't that bad? Or most people would be like, well, power of the choice, Like I don't think people really realize how much power we have in choosing. In every little moment or every little event that happens to us, we always have a choice. Like it's not about really things happen to us and that's just life. But our response to it is like, you know, that's what we can control. There's not much we can control in this world. And you know that can be anxiety inducing and scary. But you know, if you take a different perspective on it, those control nobles your mindset, your skill set, your habits, Like, no matter what somebody does to you, you can control those three things. Yes you can. And let me tell you something. You're you're hitting a big point with it all boils down to a choice. Literally, your whole entire life is comprised of choices. So you see some bum on the streets, and I'm say, you don't call them a bum, they're homeless. Look whatever you want to call them. You see somebody on the street, they've made some bad choices. Now again, there's bleeding hearts to go. Oh you don't know that. Look, I'm not talking about every last situation on earth. I'm talking about you can tell a man's ability to make choices by looking at their life. You see someone rich and successful, dude, they're making some good choices. That's all there is to it. At the end of the day, you see someone down and out in Beverly Hills. They're not making good choices. Something they're not. Their choicemaker is broke. But it boils down to choices. That's how simple it is. But but perspective, My perspective used to be, you know, like everybody else's cynical and you know, poor me, and I'm blaming this person and I'm blaming that person, and I start to realize that, dude, I'm the one responsible, period, Like I'm the one that gets to choose. Nobody chooses shit for me. So what am I doing about all of this? So you can choose to move, You can choose to freaking quit hanging out with losers. You can choose to, you know, cut out the bullshit. Like I don't understand how people hang around friends that put them down and don't believe in them. And it's like, look, if you if you plant corn in the ground, what's coming up corn? Well, your mind is soil and whatever you allow to be planted in there will come up. That's just how nature works. So you have to guard your mind. But the perspective, I put a sign on my wall that said, congratulations, you get another day, bitch. Every day I would wake up and I would look at that sign and I would realize something. Now, let me ask you guys something if I both you know, get if I just gave you both ten million cash, would you be excited? Yes? Or no? Pumped up, enthusiastic? Maybe not you so much because you got a big ass contract. But but back when you back when you had no money, would that change your life? Would you be enthusiastic, pumped up, excited? Nothing could rain on your parade? Right? Absolutely? Okay. Now let me ask you a question. If I gave you ten million dollars but you couldn't wake up the next day, would you take it? Absolutely not? Okay, So we all realize that waking up, just waking up is worth more than ten million dollars, But we don't wake up with that same enthusiasm. Isn't that crazy? Like, dude, think about it. You wake up as soon as your eyes open. There doesn't need to be freaking you know, super bowls and freaking dancing unicorns for it to be a good day. It's a freaking good day the second you open your eyes and realize you get another one, and you already admitted you wouldn't even take ten million not to have it. So you wake up you realize that's why I put the sign, because I had to remember, dude, I get another day. And so that that started to shift my perspective to opportunity and enthusiasm and optimism because when i'd wake up, boom, it's so easy to think about car payments and you know, all the problems that life throw at you. But again, that's another thing. People don't understand. Problems that life's throwing at you is what makes you stronger. So it's like you're you're you're trying to avoid the very thing that's make that's going to make you a badass. So like you don't run from the problems, you solve problems, you get good at it. But that that mindset shift is a trick that I give people. I call it a million dollar morning. Normally I say a million, but since you're in the room, I had to throw it to ten get you somewhat excited. But but you know, people, I can see lightbulbs coming on on people's head when I say that, because like they've never thought of that. It's like, he's that's the truth. Man, I wouldn't take a million dollars not to wake up, which means just waking up is worth more than a million dollars. I should get out a bit excited, enthusiast and ready to tackle the world. I don't, you know, have to take my kids to school. I get to take my kids to school. I don't have to go find a job. I get to go find a job. You know what I mean. My car at one point I would park it four blocks away so the repo dude couldn't find it because I was always like consistently sixty to ninety days down, Like I'd always pay it right before they got ahold of it. But you know, I needed my car, and I needed the money that I was making a little bit. You know, same thing with child support. I would get like two or three payments down and then boom, catch it up and then two or three payments down. And my wife was making a bunch of money. My ex wife at the time, she was making a bunch of money. She didn't need the money. She was just wanting mine because you know, I owed it. So it wasn't like I was a deadbeat dad. Like if I had the money, i'd give the money. But I didn't have the money. I needed gas to go out and knock on doors. I needed gas to start my business, knowing full well that one day I'm gonna be able to buy them anything they want. You know what I'm saying. And what's the worst thing that could happen, Dude, I go get a job again. So the perspective of most people is I don't want to try because if I fail, I'm going to look stupid. I would shift the perspective to where I think you look more stupid staying the same. That's the difference between a fixed mindset and a growth mindset, really leaning saying into it being okay with failure, knowing actually there is no failure because if you're learning and growing from it and taking the lesson, even if it doesn't turn out the way you want, there's always growth in those opportunities. But in a fixed mindset, people don't want to look bad. They care what other people think, and so they don't accept the challenges and then they stay stuck. I mean you're either expanding or contracting right all the time. Yeah, And then you go back to what you were saying, the belief system. Okay, the reason the reason you have what you have is because you do what you do right? Would you agree you got what you got because you did what you did right? Now? Why did you what you did? It's because you believe what you believed for whatever reason, because it doesn't have to be true for you to believe it. But your belief system is why you do what you do. Choose what you choose, Act like you act, think like you think. It's your belief system. There's only one way to change beliefs. Do you know what that is? Man, I'd say it's habits or the work and hope. There's only one way to change beliefs, and that is to get new information. If you get no new information, you'll never ever ever change your belief system. And once I realized that, I started reading books, listen to podcasts, listening to audibles. Every day I'm consuming information. Why Because, Dude, that information, this information that someone's listening to right now is changing somebody's beliefs may not be everybody's. Then there's people that are going to fight it. Ah, this guy's full of shit and blah blah blah. Dude, new information is required to change your beliefs. Your beliefs must change in order to change your results. So if you want to change what you're getting, you got to change what you're doing. You want to change what you're doing, you got to change your beliefs. You want to change your beliefs, you have to get new information. Now, go ask the majority of people who reads books every day, every day? Who reads books? Do you read books every day? Yeah? Do you see success? Look at that. I don't know anybody that doesn't understand. You know, I never read books for forty three years. It's the craziest thing. I'm so pissed. People always say, what would you do if you could do it over? Dude, I'd go back and be a bookworm. Everyone could make fun of me. I wouldn't care. I'd be reading every book there is on self help, every book there is on mindset, every book there is on laws of attraction, every book there is on human behavior, human psychology. I would just be reading and reading and reading, and right now, I guarantee I'd be a multi billionaire in a much better place. It just took me a long time to realize it. But anybody listening to this podcast right now, I'm telling you, right now, you want to change what you're getting, you got to change what you're doing. And in order to do that, you have to change your beliefs. And the only way to do that is to get new information. So if I were you, I would be hungry every day to get new information. What are your habits, routines, morning routines, rituals look like today? To keep these perspectives and to stay dialed in, Well, I'm tightening them up because, believe it or not, I've made you know, money, but i've you know, in other words, I need to level up. I'm leveling up right now. So my morning routine, which I'm now making a little bit more strict, but it's going to be the same routine as you know. I wake up and instantly I'm grateful that I get another day. Then I'll go into the health. I'll go elevate the heart rate. You know, I'll eat right at least once, no matter what. So I'm going to elevate the heart rate. I'm gonna exercise. Why well, because dude, if your health goes, you'll you'd give all your money just to get your health back. So health is more than more important than wealth. So most people are neglecting that. So I'm focusing on it. Every day because ironically, what you focus on grows and what you ignore or dies. So you want to focus on health. So every day I get up, I do you know, forty five minutes to an hour minimum and focus on exercise, work out, you know, eat. Right, then, I understand one thing in life relationships. Relationships are the new currency. So I focus on relationships by identifying five people every single day that I'm just going to shoot a little text, a little message, a little video, an email, doesn't matter, send them flowers, whatever it is I want to do for these people, just to let them know I miss them, I care about them, I appreciate them, whatever the case may be. Because how many times do people call you and they need something? Most of the time? Right, And it's not it's not a bad thing. It's like, you know, I'm thinking to myself, you know, oh so and so's got a truck. Maybe I'll call him, Hey, Hey, can I use your truck? I need to move? You know, how can we only call when you need something? We all do well. I don't want to be that guy. I want to call you for no reason, and I want to make sure that you know when I do call you. You know, you're you'll pick up the phone. I call people, they pick up the phone. Why I'm never asking for anything? You know, I'm I'm I'm. I'm focused every day on five sometimes ten, but five people every day who I'm going to text. So that's just relationship building. And the reason why relationships or the new currency is because you realize right now, if you knew twice as many people as you currently know, like personally, you would have more than you have right now. They say money doesn't grow on trees. We heard that where does it grow? It grows in other people's pockets. So if you want more money, dude, you got to meet more people. And then it goes back to why don't you introduce yourself? I always ask people, how can you don't go in there and introduce yourself? Oh dude, you know, I don't want to look like a see again now you're worried about what you're gonna look like to somebody, Just go introduce yourself. And the reason why people can't is because they need to introduce themselves to themselves first. The most important relationship you can have is the one you have with yourself, and most people don't develop that relationship dude. So so I did the work. I did the work to develop that relationship. Now I don't really care what room I'm in. I'll walk up and introduce myself to anybody. Why because I know I can help anybody. I can help anybody. I can help Elon Musk, I can help you. I can help anybody. I have the ability to help anybody. Right, I never used to believe that. You know, I had that imposter syndrome for a while. But anyway, where was I going with that? Because there was something habits, routines, rituals. No, you're in helmet. See that's what That's what happens when I babble. You're not bad when you're bringing fire man and you're talking relationships, and I think, well the relationship, oh my morning. Habits. So so I focus on relationships because the more relationships you have, the better off you are. Relationships is the source of every single dollar you've ever received. Think about a dollar that you've received it wasn't from a relationship. Try and think of one. How long is this podcast will wait? Because you can't. Every single dollar you've ever gotten has come from a relationship. So if you realize, because I don't like to, you know, complicate shit. If money comes from relationships, why am I not making more relationships every day? Why am I not intentionally introducing myself to people? You never know who you're going to introduce yourself too. You never know your next business partner, you never know your next freaking opportunity, and you're never going to do it setting at home thinking you know, people sunk, People are always out trying to screw me. People just want to use me like that's just some cynical bullshit. So I focus on relationships because I know how important those are, and then I'll move on to money. You know, I focus on money. Most people say, you know, money is not that important, dude, Money's damn important. You know how many NFL people get big bucks and end up broke because no one taught them about money. Money is important, dude. You can make a big difference with money. So I focus on money. Every day, I write down five things that are going to drive revenue today, and I don't go to bed until I do them. So every single day I'm focused on how am I getting my money today? And most people don't do that, and that's why they don't have much because they're not focused on it. They're neglecting it because they feel guilty because someone else told them, dude, it ain't about money. It's not about money. Why are you so concerned with money? Well, I don't know about you, but dude, money's nice. I've had none, and I've had some. And let me tell you something. If you're a dick with money, you're a bigger dick. Broke money doesn't make you a dick. You're either a dick already or not. Money. Money amplifies who you are. I think. But I focus on making money, and then the last thing I do is I seek new information. This is before I even walk out of my door. I wake up, I work out, I make sure I get my greens and my you know nutrition. I'll freaking write down five ten people and it rotates. I'll write down five ten people who I'm going to shoot a text or an email or mainly a video. Then I write down freaking five things that are going to drive revenue that day. And then I freaking read ten to twenty pages of a book or listen to a book, and sometimes more. But that's every single day. What about Sundays? On Sundays too. Every single day. There's no day that I don't do that. So there's my morning routine with that. I call it the million dollar morning only because you wake up and realize it's worth more than a million dollars that you woke up. That mediately shifts you into an enthusiastic perspective. Now it's like, dude, I get to work out. I don't have to work out, like I get to get on that treadmill I used to hate already. You know, I'll come back here in nine weeks, Dude, I'll be shredded. Dude, shredded. Never been shredded my whole life. But it's time to elevate. Dude. I've been at the same level for so long, man, and I'm sitting here talking to people and giving them, you know, bombs, and here here, here's how you fix your life. And I looked at myself one day and I'm like, dude, how am I sitting here telling people they got to do this? And they got to do the work and they got and I'm not doing the work right. That's exciting for the world because you can only take your people as far as you're willing to go. So if you level it up. See if I had a bomb, here, I drop the bomb. That's a bomb right there, right. I appreciate the fresh energy that's you're bringing because I feel like a lot of times people feel like success is the destination, like they're the CEO of light Speed VT. Like once I get there, I'm cool and like I'm kicking my feet up, like we're here now. But I hear you with a still a hunger, still a perspective of humility. That's like I know that I don't know a whole lot. You know, I know enough, but I really at the end of the day, I don't know much. So I'm here to learn. I'm eager to still seek out the knowledge. Like I'm still you know that guy that you know just got done spoken crack. I'm trying to find my way or I'm just trying to bust my way through a door, knocking on doors, you know, hide it from the report man. Like it still sounds like that sense of urgency is still there, and I feel like people need to hear that when they envision success, because it's like success, I get what I got, I get what I was looking for. I'm done, but it's like, what can I do next? What can I still do? And I appreciate you bringing that perspective. Well, I think it's I think it's a normal part. Like if you ask somebody what success looks like to them, and then three years later ask again, it'll be different. You know, you're always going to move the bar, and you should if you ask me. And that's another thing. You ask people what success looks like a lot of them can't tell you. Like, just randomly ask somebody, dude, what a success look like to you, and nine times out of ten you're going to see them look up and they're gonna start thinking about it. Now, imagine if I said, hey, go into a room full of a thousand people and find somebody. What would be the first question I tell you to go in that room find someone for me? What would you say to me? I don't know, what do they look like? Okay? Who am I looking for? Like? Can you describe them? You know, we wouldn't even just walk in the room and start blindly looking. So when it comes to our success, why don't we take it time to sit down and figure out exactly what it looks like? Because most people think there's some sort of key to success, and it's more of a combination, you know what I mean. It's a combination, and everyone has their own. See I could say, oh, man, this guy's successful and that guy's successful. Have I ever sat down and thought, what do I think success looks like? Because a lot of times we reach these pinnacles in financial and we still end up committing suicide or were depressed or were just not happy. And we got all the money in the world. There's people with money that are unhappy. Well that's because they thought money was what they were looking for and when they get there, they realize it isn't. So take the time right now and just figure out what success looks like to you, only you. I know a guy that goes out and gets laid almost every other night and he calls me and brags about it. To him, that's a success to me. That's dangerous, especially in Vegas, you know. So at the end of the day, it's like, dude, whatever you think success looks like is what you need to focus on so you can determine whether you're moving towards it or away from it. Because because if like, let's say I want to get apps. Okay, it's five guys moving towards her away obviously. I mean everything becomes obvious now. It's like everybody wants to complicate shit. It's like real easy, how I want to make money? Okay? Should I go hang out? Should I go freaking smoke weed and play some Xbox? Is that moving me towards her away? Making money? And guess what You'll start to see that, dude, life isn't that freaking difficult, but yet we're told it is. Life's hard. Life isn't hard unless you make it hard. And that's why when people ask me, you know, tell me about your your downfalls, Like I don't really think them think of him like that. I need to go back and do that though, because it makes a much better story. I can tell you that. You ever hear those people that are you know, they they use their stories to to, like, you know, magnify their their result. Like, man, you know I could. I dropped out of school and my dad didn't love men. I freaking went to jail and I was hooked on crack and look, I still made it. But at the end of the day, when I look back, I don't I don't think of it like that. I just think, you know that was unfortunate. Like man, I learned from that. Next then I learned from that you lose friends, lose marriages, and I got divorced when I never only wanted to get married once ended up getting a divorce. Why, well, I made a mistake on picking my partner, partner my wife. I just like you know, I made a mistake. You know, most people didn't want to admit that. They want to blame the wife. It was me. I was the problem. It's it's you every time. Should just so, just so people understand that it is always you. Because when you said you can't control things, I believe you can control things because you can control how you react, which means you can control the situation. I said one time we were in a nightclub. I get hate for this from from alpha dudes. And you know, I think I'm kind of an alpha dude, but I get hate from you know, tough guys all the time because I say, man, I was in this nightclub and we're walking by and some dudes slap my chicks ass, and I said, and you know, if someone slaps your chicks ass, dude, you gotta do something right. You gotta fight. And everyone's like, yeah, of course, And then I know you fucking don't. You do not have to fight. You do not have to punch the person. I guarantee you do not have to make that choice. Now a lot of people would make that choice. But what if you had a crystal ball and you knew if you punch that person, he's gonna fall down, bust his head, manslaughter, You're in prison for twelve years. Now, who's slapping your girl's ass? Or you're gonna break your hand? And there's there's no there's no good outcome. But but when you look at it, it's a choice. You made a choice, and now you live with the outcome. I'm stopping at the bar on the way home. I just want to get a drink. I get a drink, then I have two. My friend shows up. I have three. It's just three drinks. I can drive home. I'm not drunk. We've all done that, right, even that raider the other day. Uh, who was that guy? What was that guy's name? I don't know. Fiery car crash, drunk driving drunk. See, dude, he made a bad choice. That dude's a good dude, made a bad fucking choice. A bad choice ruined his whole fucking life or whole darned life. But I mean, that's what I'm talking about. It's like, dude, he made the choice. I know people that ended up in prison because they got in a car crash and somebody died and now they're in prison and they're blaming other things when in reality, dude, you could have took an uber. You could have said no, you could have went home. You could have chose to work out. You could have chose to quit hanging out with the people that liked the party. If if you're you know, you know, in that danger zone. So and again I'm not preaching. All I'm trying to say is for people listening, it boils down to you. You. You are the responsible party and the story. And when you take that accountability and you realize that you need to stop looking outside to fix things, you need to look inside to fix things, man, we're gonna have to have you back. Yeah. This is like flown by And you know, I love the towel, will just wrap it up really quick. But I love the idea of success that you're talking about because I think so many people measure their success against somebody else's definition of success, Right, and so of course they're unhappy they're chasing something that isn't even them. But yeah, a lot of nuggets. I wish I was taking notes the whole time, but all lots of heat. Be excited to hear this one when it releases, and take some notes. And we're gonna have to have you back again, man, because you're just dropping fire and bomb after bomb. Well, and I knew it would be that way. Well, I appreciate it. I'll come back anytime I'm local. Yes, Sarah my man. All Right, we're gonna we're gonna wrap it up. We appreciate your man, Thank you for for your realness. It resonates and it's inspiring and I definitely want more of what you have. Good real deal, for sure. Appreciate you. All Right, we're out,