Imagine going into a shift saying bring it. And I wanna go through this exercise with you, and I do it I've been doing it for 15 years, and it always changes. And I'm gonna go through it fairly quick here, but I want you to feel this. And I'd love for you to take this exercise and use it forever. Because it gets you a check-in the moment when we need to be more persuasive, when we need to be more aggressive, when we need to be more bold, when we know what we're fighting for. Because I promise you all hit those bumps, watch out for bad advice. I know I know that sounds like, duh, thanks for that. But bad advice is the most costly advice in the world.

Right? It's your broke friend telling you how to get rich. It's your single friend what to telling you what to do with your relationship. That's extreme. But you have people in your life who you think they think are protecting you, but they're actually implementing just enough self doubt that it's holding you back from your next level. Just so you know, self doubt is not an awesome game. It's cumulative. You watch the news, damn, life's going to hell in a hand basket. You talk to your friend that tells you you're a dreamer.

You do 2 or 3 things, and all of a sudden it's just enough to play a little bit small. And when you play a little bit small, as Tony says, and I love it is the only way you take the island is you gotta burn the boats. So just be careful with the wrong advice, with the wrong influence. Learn from those who've already been there. It's the fastest way to the end result. Don't try to learn it on your own. Trial and error is the most overrated way to learn anything in the world. We all go through those phases, and then you realize you could cut a check for speed.

Stay plugged in, get the education, but then boldly move forward. And if you don't build that muscle, if you don't get used to being more bold, more courageous, as things shift more, and if we follow people smarter than me, if the economy shifts, if we go to a recession, that is not the time to sit and stand still. That's what most people do. They they wait to see how things are gonna be. When a recession happens, I have to be honest, in 2,007 to 2,009, when most of my competitors went out business, it was the most growth I had ever had in my entire career, because we just approached it in a different way. I feel blessed and fortunate for all the success I've been able to achieve, and the businesses I've started, and the partnerships I've developed, but we all start in similar places. And we all start with a desire. We're either moving away from something painful, like what I'm doing sucks and I hate it and I need to do this, or we're moving towards something a little more a little more pleasurable.

That's it. Everybody in this room is either moving away from pain or moving towards pleasure. That's all of us. Right? And my story is simply, simply this. As a kid I wanted more. When I was 25, I was having really good success. I was either a millionaire by then or on my way. I had already retired my mom.

I had houses. I was doing well, but I was kind of doing it in a hosed up way. Anybody, if you're really honest, feel like you've had some success in your life, but it's kinda not healthy, or you know there's another level, or you're meant for more, or you're designed for more. Well, me, it happened to be, he's now my partner and dear friend, I watched a Tony Robbins infomercial in the middle of the night and it was the first time I ever cut a check for information. And it it it shifted me. I learned that life happened for me, that I could use my ugly past as fuel, not an anchor. And I learned all these subtle little nuances, and it was so profound and it shifted my life so much that not only not only did I change the way I think, changed the way I look at things, I loved it so much that I decided to go in that business. So not only was in real estate, that's why 27, 29 years old I decided to go in the self education industry, and help other people, and write books, and do all that cool stuff.

But the reason I'm sharing that and why it's so important to you guys is one tiny shift that you can learn from somebody or one little breakthrough that someone else finds that you implement in your business and things change in a moment. And that's what happened to my life. And since then I've gone on to write multiple books and do really cool shit and start over 14 companies, and I I feel blessed, you know, along that journey. But in this journey of life, this is a lesson and I want to go through 3 quick lessons here. In this journey of life, there is where we started. Right? And this is where you are. Right? Where you are. No one can read that, but that's what it says.

And if you think of this journey of where you were at some point, and this is where you are today, in this journey we'd love to say it was a nice straight 45 degree Oh, God. That's so bad. We'd love to say this was straight 45 degree angle. But if we're honest, right? It's like, oh, I got out of school. I got this horrible job. I freaking hate it. I'm finally gonna start my own thing. Oh, I finally got some momentum.

Oh shit, the world turned sideways. I think I No, I really got it. No no, here comes COVID. We can't. Right? That's life. I'm in love. I'm not sure. I'm married.

Oh shit, I got a divorce. Like, you go through these ebbs and flows, but the end of the day, you go from where you were to where you are. Makes sense. But the fact of the matter is you're in this room because of a place where you want to go. What business map do you have today? Do you even have one? Because here's the thing. If you have the same business map or the same plan today as you had a year ago or 6 months ago, you're already being left behind. Things are changing. But here's the cool part.

When things change, if you're out in front, if you're learning from other people, if you're a part of something bigger, you get to innovate. We're going to go over that next. You get to create. Wayne Gretzky said when he was asked, the great hockey player, why is he so good? He said, Most people skate to where the puck is. I skate to where I think the puck is going. At times like this, we have to see through walls. We have to predict the future because what got you here will not take you there. The the strategies that got you out of Egypt, I promise do not take you to the promised land.

Your best thinking got you here in this room today. You need new thinking to take you where you want to be tomorrow. That's just a fact. I've been through the 99 crash. I was in real estate. I've been through the 2007, 2007 crash. I was in real estate. I prospered both times.

99, probably got lucky as hell. 2008, I was a little more prepared. Next time, bring it. Imagine going into a shift saying bring it. And I want to go through this exercise with you right now that has nothing to do with real estate, but it was the biggest transformative things I'd ever done in my life. And I do it I've been doing it for 15 years. I do it 4 times a year and it always changes. And I'm gonna go through it fairly quick here, but I want you to feel this.

And I'd love for you to take this exercise and use it forever. Because it gets you in check-in the moment when we need to be more persuasive, when we need to be more aggressive, when we need to be more bold, when we know what we're fighting for. Cause I promise you all hit those bumps. Where are you right now? This is sorry for this horrible tiny chart. But let this says, where are you? Where are you? Why are you in this chair? Why did you cut a check to come here? All change. If you're going to write one thing down about this, all change starts with being honest. So we have to be honest. You know, if you're gonna have GPS on your phone, you could have a destination, but you need your starting point.

So take a moment and think through where are you? What drove you to be in this room today? Why are you here? Not totally happy with how your business is going? Know there's another level for you, you want to find it? Moving away from pain, moving towards pleasure, somewhere in the middle, you know you're meant for more. You're here for a reason. All change starts with being honest. Number 2, and I wrote it up here is, where is it that you want to go? And if this sounds like this is like personal development 101, just trust me on this one. And trust me to do it a whole bunch in your life. Because most people don't know where they want to go even though you think you do. You know what you don't want. Most people are trying to avoid the potholes, but they don't have their end result.

I'm gonna give you a cool example that I thought was really powerful in my life. I had a partner in one of the businesses we I started. His His name is Ethan. He's got 8 children. Amazing. Just in that. And he's he's a a great man, a great father, great business person. And he goes away.

He goes on a church group with, the the young boys of the group of the church from 17 to 18 year old, 15 to 18 year old, and they're going white water rafting in Colorado. And he gets there and it rained for 2 days, and he said, they're a nervous wreck. There's like 5 dads. There's 20 boys. They're all going to go white water rafting. He's like, I I don't know white water. I guess it's a 1 through a 5 if anybody's done it, and there were fives. Said the waters was just so rough.

He's like, we can't do this. We're responsible for these kids. And he said, this instructor came out with gray hair and he goes, dads calm down. Boys listen to me. And I want you to hear this. This this story changed everything for me, because it gave me a story. It gave me a framework, and we all need a framework to get ourselves back in state. He said, you see this finger, boys? This is the positive point.

He said, when we get in that raft, whenever I point, I just want you guys to paddle your guts out towards where I'm pointing. He said, you know what I did wrong in the first 10 years of being a a, you know, a guide on the river? He said, I'd see that rock, or I'd see the down tree, or I'd see that really big rapid, and I'd go, hey, everybody. Don't hit that tree. And he said, the whole boat would go, no. We can't look at that tree. And they'd go right to it, and we'd flip over. He said, I'm a slow learner. After 10 years, I realized I'm never going to point out what's wrong because there's always shit going wrong.

I'm going to figure out where we want to go, the positive point, and I'm going to point at it, and you boys paddle your guts out. Dads, we're not going to flip over once. And he said, that's how he navigated the river. Hey, guys. This way. If you think about that in life, how often are you pointing out what's wrong? Your husband or your wife that doesn't support you at the level you you don't, instead of trying to sell or you just, I can't believe this, or pointing out I can't get the leads, or there's too many buyers, there's too many sellers, there's too many people trying to get in my space in my area. We're pointing at all the things that are wrong rather than pointing out what could be right. Pointing towards where they teach NASCAR drivers.

If you get even an inch away from the wall, just pick your clearing and get the hit the gas and go towards your clearing. But we have to remember that when we get in those moments, when we watch the news, when our friends tell us our we're crazy, we have to know where it is we wanna go. If you and I are in an elevator later tonight, and you get in the car, and we get in there, and we got 5 floors. And I say, where do you wanna go? You should be able to share that because write this down. The biggest sales job you have to do in your life, the biggest sales job you have to do in your life is on you. Because the world is designed to tell you to give up, quit, and go do what everybody else does. Get your ass back on the path. So who do you have to sell the most? You.

And how do you sell yourself by having a compelling future? And here's how I've done it. You guys can do your own, but I know this. In today's crazy world, there is so much going on. There's more in our phones, in our back pocket going on than our grandparents had in a whole decade of their life. So how do you get out of the cloud? How do you set goals? Be honest. Is setting goals hard sometimes when shit's going sideways? You just wanna like you hit your pillow at the end of your night, and you're just like, oh my god, I'm just glad that I made it here. And just wanna go to sleep. So how do you set real goals? Here's my trick.

Pretend it's a year from now. We're back here celebrating. It was the best year of your life. What would have had to happen for it to be the best year of your life? What is the money you're making, the impact you're having? How do you look when you look in the mirror? You walk in a room and everybody's like, damn, she looks good. What is going on in your life? And just start writing it down. Best year of your life, I'm making this. I'm doing this. I got my body back in shape.

I'm taking time for me. I have a personal trainer. I have someone cooking for me. I got my health back. I'm being the dad I've been designed to be. I'm not missing any more of that shit. I'm not taking text messages while I'm playing with my son anymore. It's all about him.

I don't know what it is for you. We all got something we're fighting for. But you need to design where it is you wanna go, and you know how often you gotta set yourself on it? Every day if you need to.