← The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
The Level Up Podcast w/ Paul Alex
From Selling Software to Inspiring Millions Worldwide ft. Scott Clary
01:14:51
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- [00:00]
A
You say you'll never join the Navy, never climb Mount Fuji on a port visit, or break the sound barrier. Joining the Navy sounds crazy. Saying never actually is. Learn why@navy.com America's Navy forged by the sea.
- [00:15]
B
Welcome to the Level up podcast. I'm your host, Paul Alex. I went from being a cop to an eight figure entrepreneur that helps average people like you and me make money every single day. Day. I created this podcast to help you get motivated and to crush your goals. Let's win together. Remember, I have your six. Get ready to level up right now. Hey, guys, and welcome back to the Level podcast. This is Paul Alex and we have another phenomenal guest, guys. Okay, so today's guest went from cold calling in corporate sales, my man, cuz. As you guys know, I did six years in corporate sales. Love sales. And he went to interviewing billionaires, Navy Seals, celebrities and top entrepreneurs all over the world, guys. All while building one of the most respected business podcasts in the world. He's the host of the Success Story podcast with over 50 million downloads. My man. A former SaaS executive who scaled global sales teams and now helps thousands of people grow their personal brands, master storytelling, and close high ticket deals. If you ever want to learn how to sell scale or storyteller your way to success, this one's for you. Let's level up with Scott Clary.
- [01:20]
A
Thank you, man. I appreciate you.
- [01:22]
B
Dude, it's long time coming, man.
- [01:25]
A
I mean, you're literally down the street 100%.
- [01:27]
B
That's just the way it goes.
- [01:28]
A
I love this city. I love this city. Everybody moved down here after Covid. It's been great.
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B
Yeah.
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A
And absolutely phenomenal.
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B
It's. It reminds me of how LA used to be probably like a decade ago, dude. You know, that was the city that, you know, you turn 18, if you want to be in the entertainment business, you would go straight to LA to be discovered right now. Miami. It's like that's.
- [01:48]
A
Everybody's moved down here, dude.
- [01:50]
B
Everybody.
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A
And it's such. Listen, proximity is everything. Proximity really is everything. I don't even think I knew what I was getting myself into in a good way when I moved down from Toronto. But like, life is radically changed. Yeah, absolutely. Just phenomenal. Because everybody listen. We all know why people moved during COVID because they were all sick of being locked down and whatnot. And you can have your opinions about whether or not that was good or bad. But listen, people who were successful, they all kind of moved down to either Vegas or Miami. And if you want to be around a Whole bunch of successful people. Like, you got to find yourself in that city too. And I always thought, like, would the podcast have been as successful if I stayed in Toronto or. And not really. I don't think so. It could have been successful, but not.
- [02:33]
B
As quickly, do you think, because of the environment?
- [02:36]
A
I think the environment is also huge. Because it motivates you? Yes, New York also motivates me. New York also motivates me. But the. It's just being around people that are ambitious, that are building things that not just force you to think different, but just force you to say, okay, I'm successful. But there's, there's other levels to this game.
- [02:55]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [02:56]
A
Like, there's no end to it, which is a good and bad thing. It's just a good and bad thing. You do have to respect, like, how far you've come. And I think you do have to. You know, sometimes people, what they end up doing is they. They only look at people that are more successful than them and they forget how phenomenal they actually are, which is also not healthy. But know that you can be okay with what you've accomplished and still be aspiring for more. And I think being in a city like Miami or in New York does that.
- [03:22]
B
Oh, dude, you're speaking to the choir.
- [03:23]
A
Dude.
- [03:26]
B
Yesterday I went to go get a haircut after like, you know, flying back and forth from everywhere. And my barber's like, hey, you know, I just got to give you your kudos.
- [03:35]
A
And.
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B
And I was like, why? She's like, because we just threw a in person mastermind in LA, in a penthouse. We had a little bit over 250 people. Nothing too crazy. But she's like, I didn't realize how many people knew you. And I was like, what do you mean? She's like, dude, like, I was at the event and you're speaking on stage and everybody was locked in and I was just like, wow. Like, I just thought you were just, you know, regular customer. And I was just like, dude, I'm not, I'm not, I'm not. I'm no one. And it goes back to what you're saying, dude. Yeah, you gotta be proud of what you have done and accomplished. But it's hard. It's hard in environments like New York, Miami, you know, in Vegas. Why? Because there's so many different levels, dude. But I think for people like us, okay, people that want to keep going, that have that addiction to success, we're chasing our greater version, dude. You know, I always think about the future, you know, I just before the podcast, talking about, like, how I'm going to have a baby boy in the next couple months, I'm already thinking like, okay, dude, I want him to do this by the age of five. I'm already talking to my younger sister who has my nephew Mateo, and I'm like, okay, we're gonna put them in a cage so they could start being little fighters, stuff like that, dude, you know? But it's just like, you're already envisioning that. And before you execute, you have to have that vision for yourself. Right?
- [04:55]
A
A thousand percent. And you know what? I think that when people look at. That's a. First of all, two, two thoughts. It's very important, especially people who are listening to this show, to have that vision for themselves outside of just work.
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B
Yes.
- [05:09]
A
So have that vision for your family, have that vision for your mental health, physical health, spiritual health. Because I see people on the other side of a big exit, sold their company for nine and sometimes didn't sell for a billion, but are worth billions at this point in their career. And there are sort of two versions of that person, right? There's somebody who has exited, who has more money than God, will never have to work again. Obviously, when you start selling your company, north of a hundred, and they have ex wives that hate them, kids that hate them, they're overweight, they're depressed, and they can't even talk about it because they're just gonna get ripped apart because everyone's like, fuck you, you're worth X amount of dollars. You don't have to talk about how shitty your life is. But they don't know how they got to that point and let everything else in their life fall apart. So the lesson is, and the other person is somebody who is successful, had an exit, is in good shape, good health, good relationships, and basically, what's the words, like life maxing or whatever. I think it's like a younger generation that has like verbiage for this shit, but it's just basically making sure that you level up across all areas of your life. And I think that the lesson is don't be the person who achieved financial success and let everything else fall by the wayside. Like as you're pursuing your main thing, your business, you're building a business, or you're just in your career, whatever, it doesn't really matter what you want to do is what you want to do. Just make sure that you don't do that and let everything else just die off. Because there'll be a point where you wake up and you're like, how did I let all my relationships die? How do I let my, you know, my spirituality, whatever that means for you, die off? How did I let my physical health and mental health die off? And I think that that's just very sad. And I think that's where regret and midlife crisis comes from.
- [06:52]
B
Absolutely.
- [06:53]
A
So earlier than later, make sure that yes, you have to make money, you have to be successful, but let all the other things hold space in your life.
- [07:04]
B
Yeah, I mean, I've talked to so many entrepreneurs and I know you have as well, man. And some entrepreneurs, they'll tell you there is no balance in business. If you want to go ahead and grow a seven, eight, nine figure business, you, you gotta go all in, sleepless nights and all that jazz, right? The Hustle. But this is just comes from my personal experience, man. You know, like I shared with you, Scott, before the show is last year, dude. Greatest financial year of my life. Yeah, but everything else went to shit, bro. You know, I was. And you guys know this, my listeners, I'm very transparent with like social media. I am who I am on social media, dude. I don't try to sugarcoat anything, but I was on depression pills, dude. I was on Prozac right, since like freaking 2020, dude. And I feel like it was just a patch. It was liter, literally, like like a band Aid, a bigger problem. And last year when I had, you know, a bad experience with a business partner, when I had an employee take over $200,000 for one of my portfolio companies, when I had bad things just happen to me, especially when I have like such a big heart, dude, just giving out to like my employees and my co workers and just people around me, dude, I was like zoned out. I was not myself. So like you were saying, dude, you have to be successful in all aspects of life.
- [08:19]
A
So a couple things. First of all, there are seasons of life. And you have to understand that like there's seasons for Hustle and there's seasons for obsessing over something. I agree. I also think that too many people don't focus on like the things that actually move the needle in their business. So they just work to stay busy and they don't actually work to move the needle, which means that they feel like they have to do all this bullshit which really isn't actually contributing to their success. And, and the last thought is Mark Randolph, who's the co founder of Netflix, when he was building Netflix, every Tuesday at 5 o' clock, he would shut off from the company, turn off his phone and go on date night with his wife.
- [08:50]
B
Smart.
- [08:51]
A
That's how important it was. So I don't think too many people here can say they're building something bigger than Netflix. If you are, good for you. But I'm just saying that there are people that have figured it out. So a lot of people think their circumstances unique or they think that they've, you know, their business is something that's never been done before. The reality is it isn't. So I'm just saying that check yourself, kill the ego. And yeah, you have to work hard, but know that there's other people that have figured out how to move that business forward without sacrificing everything else.
- [09:21]
B
Work Smarter, not harder.
- [09:22]
A
100%.
- [09:22]
B
I love that. Life by design, guys got to be successful in all aspects of life. So, Scott, let's go ahead and get into your story, dude. As you know, the level of podcast is about self help. It's about going from rags to riches to tell, like, the honest, transparent truth of who are you and what built you up before the success. Right. So with that being said, before all this success, what was your lowest point in life?
- [09:47]
A
Lowest point in life.
- [09:48]
B
Yeah, man.
- [09:48]
A
So I'll tell you a little bit about my story, but I want to frame it as not a low point in terms of financial, but a low point in terms of realization that if I was going to go on the path that I was sort of set up to go on, it wouldn't achieve the outcome that I wanted it to have. And I think that. Let me tell you about, like, my family and whatnot. So I didn't have, like, a tough upbringing. I actually came from, like, a relatively comfortable family, like good parents. My dad worked for government, my mom worked for university. So, like, very stable jobs, as stable as you can possibly get. Now, what I realized about stable and safe and secure jobs very early on is if I was going to pursue the same kind of career that my dad had or same kind of career as my mom had. What sucks in 2025 is you're not going to have the same quality of life. That was a very low point for me because that was the only. That was the only version of life that I knew.
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B
Yeah.
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A
So a lot of people that are trying to get a job, they go to, you know, they do everything right. They go to school, they go to university or college, they get their job, they're making 60, 70 grand a year. What does that give you in 2025, really? What kind of life does that give you for Context, My dad. And my dad started off as a cop as well. He bought his first house, cash, when he was about 25 years old. Detached home. Like detached. Not a condo, detached home, cash. In Toronto at the time. And I mean, for people that don't understand that Toronto is not as bad as New York, but it's like, not far off. It's very difficult to live in Toronto. Like, the cost of living is very high. So to buy a home, detached. A detached home in Toronto is insane. Nobody does that who is my age or younger. People can barely buy a condo. So the life that your parents lived and that your grandparents lived, where salary bought X kind of life, they had pensions, they had all these benefits. That doesn't exist for people anymore. And on top of that, now there's a compounded problem because companies aren't loyal to employees the same way they were. We saw this during COVID and forget companies not being loyal to employees. Now we have disruptive tech that is taking your job as well. This is what AI is all about, right? Everyone's stressed about losing your job to AI. So quality of life sucks. Making the same amount of money as what our parents did, it's not going to give us, like, the life that we want. And now everything's coming for our jobs. So very early on I realized, okay, I got to figure out a way out of this shit. I got to escape the matrix. I got to find a new way to build a career, to build a life. And I think that was probably my lowest point because I didn't have a rule book or a guide for it. It was just, okay, I just can't do what I know. So I have to figure out something else. And I threw myself into. Well, first, working for private companies, working around people that were entrepreneurial, understanding what entrepreneurship even meant, understanding what equity meant, understanding what acquisition, exit, raising money. All this stuff that was very foreign to me. And like most people here, they're interested in their. In their personal development because they listen to podcasts like this. I was just doing that before I even even knew what a podcast was. I was throwing myself into every situation I could find that would be completely different from what I grow up or grew up knowing and would just teach me whatever I needed to learn to be my version of successful. That was very different from my parents.
- [13:08]
B
I love that, man. I love that. And that comes with a lot of, you know, life experience, like what you have.
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A
Yeah.
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B
At what age did you experience this, man? Because.
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A
When I was 19. 20.
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B
19.
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A
2019. I was just doing the math. I was just doing the math. So if I wanted to buy a home, well, okay, I was going to school for. I was pre law. I was, okay, if I go back to law school, like, what am I actually making right out of law school? Or if I don't go to law, then what am I making in corporate America? 70, 80 grand. Okay, what kind of home can I buy in corporate America for 70, 80 grand per year? Well, nothing really. So that's not going to work. And also my dad had a pension. And how my dad's pension worked is this doesn't exist for most people anymore. But you would have known this because you're a cop. I think cops will get good pensions, but I don't think outside of that you get pensions. I don't know what it is. But I'll tell you what my dad was before, dude, my dad's was his five best years of his career, he would make 70% of that. Okay? So you make 100 grand and you retire at 55 or 60. As long as you put in your minimum years, you would make 70 grand until you die. And I'm doing the math and I'm like, that doesn't exist anymore. So even if I work a job making 70 or 80 grand, if I retire at 85, I have to have this bucket of cash saved to hopefully last me until I die. And that's my pension. And I'm like, well, that doesn't seem like a very good life. So all these thoughts are just. I think I'm probably just stressing out about what am I going to do with my life? Which is a question that everybody has, but it's less about what am I going to do with my life and how am I going to like, survive financially.
- [14:44]
B
Right?
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A
And that is something that I couldn't answer. And I'm like, well, then what the fuck am I doing? Yeah, what the, what am I going to go into? Where am I going to work? Who am I going to work for if I can't survive financially? I don't see that the system that my parents bought into and the game that they're playing is a system that I want to play.
- [15:00]
B
Right?
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A
And that was. That was it. And that was sort of like this, you know, through the looking glass, go down the rabbit hole, trying to figure out how to structure my life.
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B
It was an outdated system.
- [15:10]
A
It was a very much outdated system.
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B
I love that. Because you're very aware at the age.
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A
Of 19 and 20 because you just do math. Yeah, you do Math. And you realize that, wow, wow, life is not going to work out the way that it did for the people that, you know, I learned from.
- [15:24]
B
And was this something that your parents taught you? Is this something that you had a mentor? Did you have, like a friend? Did you have a girlfriend at that time that told you that made you think like this? Were you around the right environment?
- [15:36]
A
Because I, I believe people.
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B
People.
- [15:38]
A
No, I wasn't, I wasn't. Well, I found the more, the more I tried to upskill myself and the more I tried to put myself into uncomfortable environments that I didn't understand, the more I found people that could teach me. So when I first started my career, I started in corporate America, I worked for a very big telecom company. And yes, there was some mentorship and some guidance there, but they're only going to teach you what they know.
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B
Right?
- [16:06]
A
Right. So they worked 30 years in corporate America. They're going to teach you how to play the, the game in corporate America. It's fine, but it's not going to. For a lot of people, that's not going to be the out that they're looking for. The out is not work. 30 years and hopefully the company doesn't fire you one day.
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B
Right.
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A
So then I worked in a smaller company, a startup, and I say startup, it was 10 years old, but it started to compare to this big, huge behemoth. Right. And I was very fortunate because there was a founder of that company who, while I was working there, he exited to private equity. But because you're so close to a founder and you're working in a startup environment, you learn about every piece of the business.
- [16:43]
B
Yes, you do.
- [16:43]
A
And you learn about how that transaction took place and how he exited that company for X multiple and how much money he pocketed after 11 years of building this from scratch. And also, he was a. He was a great mentor, not just to me, but to everybody in the company because he also realized that pensions weren't going away, so he was teaching us how to invest.
- [17:00]
B
Wow.
- [17:00]
A
So. So he would have, like, lunch and learns where he'd be like, okay, so this is how you actually put money into the S&P 500, which I didn't know how to do because nobody in my family really invests aggressively.
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B
That's awesome.
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A
Which, it's incredible. And I wish more people did that for people on their team, because I think that we take all these things for granted. Now we know how to invest. Now we know where to put our money. Now we know how to buy real estate. Now we know how to, you know, put money into whether or not it's high risk or low risk or blue chip or whatever, or crypto or whatever you want to do. But a lot of people don't know this, so they don't come from a family that invests aggressively and people that have great pensions, I mean, their life was secure, their life was comfortable. So they never had to learn how to get, you know, a four, like a four door house, hack, multiplex, live in one, rent out the other three. They never had to learn that game. But these are all great wealth building strategies. So whether or not you're learning how to build a business, be an entrepreneur and make money, or learning how to invest that money and build wealth, I was fortunate to stumble into somebody that was teaching me both. And I think that's probably one of the first major inflection points that changed my life just from being around somebody that was pure entrepreneur through and through. Yeah. And. And that was sort of more useful than any formal education I ever got. So.
- [18:17]
B
So was it that time in your life, was it that company, was it that owner that dramatically changed your life to go to the direction where you're headed to?
- [18:25]
A
Yes, yes, yes, it was. It was. Because after that, then I was like, in my mind, I don't really ever need to work for anybody ever again if I can make money myself.
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B
Wow, that's amazing, man. Yeah, see, I didn't learn that till about 20, 29, 28, 29, where I.
- [18:42]
A
Was about like 23, 24 when I learned that, dude. But it's just who you're exposed to. It was. That was pure luck.
- [18:47]
B
So. So, you know, in the very beginning of the pod, you know, I always, I always ask my guests about environment because I truly believe environment is everything, dude. To me, it's just like even making the move from Canada to Miami. Which you did.
- [19:01]
A
Yeah.
- [19:01]
B
And being here in Miami just pushes you, dude.
- [19:03]
A
Yeah.
- [19:04]
B
Even the weather, man. Anytime I go back to California, where my wife's out right now because we're having a baby, dude. Like I told my wife, I'm like, I feel depressed down here, dude. And I was just like, you know why? Everybody's in hooded sweaters. Yeah, right. Everybody's like, looks like they have a stick up their ass. I mean, it's just what it is. I mean, not to get into politics, but the politics.
- [19:24]
A
Yeah.
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B
And just everything. The environment is complete. Not for entrepreneurs that want to just push it to the limit. Dude, you come to Miami, man, you got the music, it's live. It's green.
- [19:35]
A
Yeah, it's true.
- [19:35]
B
You know, everybody's.
- [19:36]
A
Everybody's pushing, everybody's hustling.
- [19:38]
B
You get to meet people like you.
- [19:39]
A
Yeah.
- [19:39]
B
You know, you're over there, probably the coffee shop dude, talking about like, oh, yeah, dude, I just got $50 million. You're like, what?
- [19:44]
A
Who is this guy?
- [19:45]
B
I got a note. This guy, Right.
- [19:47]
A
No, I love it. That's why proximity is everything.
- [19:49]
B
It is.
- [19:49]
A
And yes, some people, if you're starting out in your career, maybe it's difficult to move to a major city, but I think that's one of the best hacks you can ever have.
- [19:58]
B
Oh, absolutely.
- [19:58]
A
I think, listen, I was lucky. I was very lucky that I applied for a job in an entrepreneurial environment. I didn't understand how that was going to change my life. Now, you know, hindsight's 20 20. I would tell everybody, if you're not going to build something yourself, then find a way to work around entrepreneurs. 100% think differently, and they're just going to change your entire lens.
- [20:21]
B
Oh, yeah.
- [20:22]
A
But I mean, if you want to increase the likelihood of being around entrepreneurs, whether or not it's you working for a company or just going to a coffee shop and running into somebody. Yeah, for sure. I mean, I grew up, so I was born in Toronto, but I was raised in Ottawa. Ottawa's sort of small town government. Ottawa's like Washington. Yes, it's all government. Nothing wrong with that. But you're not going to run into somebody who's exited a company for whatever amount.
- [20:47]
B
You're not going to see the 20 Lamborghinis like you do down here.
- [20:50]
A
Well, I have another issue with the flex and hyperbole. I also don't think that's great.
- [20:56]
B
Yes, yes.
- [20:57]
A
I also don't think that's great because that's. That is. That is playing the comparison game. That's. You know, when we started, we were talking about how people have to be content with what they've accomplished.
- [21:08]
B
Yes.
- [21:09]
A
And if you live in a city like Miami, you have to realize it's a lot of too.
- [21:13]
B
You're right.
- [21:14]
A
So you have to filter that out because I don't want you to be inspired or think that you're less than because you don't have a Lambo, even though that Lambo is rented and the person's sharing, you know, their condo with their best friend and all their money's going into their car.
- [21:27]
B
I was just talking about this with my staff the other day. They're like, oh, man, you see this kitty stuff. 21 years old, he's driving an $800,000 limo. I'm like, yeah. But little do you know, last year I went on a pod and I saw him sharing, you know, condo with, like, five other people.
- [21:40]
A
Yeah.
- [21:40]
B
And they're like, no way. I was like, yeah, dude. You know, it can be good and bad.
- [21:44]
A
It can be good and bad.
- [21:45]
B
Just. Just. Just to be neutral here. It could be good and bad because it can inspire you.
- [21:49]
A
Yeah.
- [21:49]
B
To push you to go. Be able to afford that the right way. Right. Or it can be bad and you can compare yourself.
- [21:55]
A
Yes.
- [21:56]
B
To somebody that does have that and then feel bad about yourself.
- [21:58]
A
Which is. Which is the bad. Which is a horrible thing. And I think the bad takeaway, the wrong takeaway.
- [22:03]
B
You know, social media does that in itself. That's why I've. I haven't been a fan of social media, dude. Like, I haven't. I haven't been on social media since, man, for 80 years, since my space days. And then in 2020, you know, finally, after not being on social media for that long, decided to go on Facebook out of all the social media platforms. Right. And then, you know, down the rabbit hole.
- [22:23]
A
Yeah.
- [22:24]
B
You know, I'll get marketed by Russell Brunson.
- [22:27]
A
Yeah, yeah. Click.
- [22:28]
B
Read the book. And I'm like, okay, let me try. Right, so let's get into small wins real quick. Okay, so after working for that great founder, you're teaching all these life skills, dude. You got the best mentorship and you're getting paid for it. Do you remember your first small win? Like your first real.
- [22:47]
A
Yes.
- [22:48]
B
Or your first win? Like, of like. Yes. This. I'm going down the right path.
- [22:55]
A
There's been a lot of wins. There's been a lot of losses.
- [22:58]
B
Obviously, I'm just very first, man. That. Aha. Like, dude, if I can go ahead and get this small win, and I feel like this. I know I can scale. I know I'm going well.
- [23:09]
A
I think. Yeah, I don't. I don't. I think it was before that. I think it was before that. I have a lot of. I mean, probably to a fault sometimes. I have a ton of self confidence. I think that even when I was starting in my career, I was in sales and like, when I. When I. When I believe in, you know, when I believe in myself, as cliche and trite as that is. And I sort of bet on myself. I've succeeded at not everything, but I've succeeded a lot more than I failed.
- [23:41]
B
Right.
- [23:41]
A
So, like, the first small win was. I don't know when I'm working in sales, when I'm. When did I start in sales? Like 2019, whatever it was. And just assuming that, well, if I can learn the product better and I can learn the skills of how to sell and I can learn how to address customer pain points better than anyone else, I don't have to put in two or three years before I make president's club or before I exceed everybody else. And the team's been doing it for 20 years. Like, I don't, I don't believe that there has to be a set amount of time before you're successful.
- [24:18]
B
Yes.
- [24:19]
A
And I think that, I think that that comes from a ton of self belief and just being comfortable betting on yourself repeatedly.
- [24:27]
B
It was your parents that drove that belief inside of you, man. I know your dad was a cop. Usually cops are decisive, they take action.
- [24:34]
A
Yeah, they gave me, I mean like I was very, very fortunate growing up that I had parents that basically told me that I could do anything.
- [24:41]
B
I love that dude.
- [24:42]
A
Yeah, I was very, very fortunate. I know that some people don't have that privilege and I think that. Listen a lot, a lot, there's sort of a lot to unpack there. But for people that have kids, like understand that your words have real power. And a lot of our world view as kids is really just influenced by what we're told when we're young. And I'm not going to say that if you were not given that opportunity that it's easy to work yourself out of that because yeah, that's what leads to a lot of like childhood trauma and a lot of imposter syndrome and all these different things that really hold people back. But if you had the luxury of having parents that, you know, told you you could accomplish and do anything, lean into that like and, and lean into that superpower. Because if you try enough and you put enough energy and effort towards a thing, you will find a way to figure it out. But a lot of us just self sabotage. So yeah, I would say that this sort of delusional self belief, which I think is what's required to be successful at anything, you have to be delusional. You have to be delusional in the best way possible. Delusional self belief is something that was sort of a superpower in everything that I've done. So you ask for small wins. I mean there's a lot of stuff that hasn't worked. But I mean I've killed it in sales, I've built businesses, I've built a huge personal brand I mean, most of the stuff that I've tried, if I've chosen to stay in that game and play that game, I found a way to become successful. There are times when you want to kill something if it's not working out. But if you put unlimited energy and time and effort towards something, you'll figure.
- [26:14]
B
It out, you can make it.
- [26:15]
A
So I've had multiple wins just because of the fact that I bet on myself, I trust myself, I'll figure it out. And then you just put all of your energy and your soul into this thing and then, I mean, whatever you want to. Any point in my career that's led to a win, small or big.
- [26:29]
B
But see guys, and for the listeners and the viewers watching this right now, you know, Scott's perspective on self belief is huge. It is, it is huge, man. Because you know, in my career now of being exposed to all the United States and internationally, I was only exposed to people in California, man. But then once I expand into the online world, start getting clients from everywhere, dude, I started talking to more and more people and what I started realizing, okay, is that people's first roadblock is self belief thousand percent. Do you ever talk to someone who's just like, oh yeah, dude, I'm doing this, I'm doing a little bit of that, I'm doing a little bit of this, but nothing's working out. Yeah, nothing I do works out. And I usually go like this, maybe it's you. And they're like, what? They're like, I want to work with one of your companies. I was like, well, tell me about what have you done before? What are you doing now? They're like, well, everything I try, man, just doesn't work out. I was like, it's, it's probably you, it's probably you, it's probably you. And self belief is very important, man. I think, you know, having the head and having that reinforcement, right, dude, Having the dad as a cop that says you could do anything, dude, that's powerful.
- [27:37]
A
He also scared the out of me and I never wanted to do any drugs or anything because I was, which is great.
- [27:43]
B
That's the way he looks.
- [27:45]
A
I remember he told me, he told me, he's like, Scott.
- [27:47]
B
Support for this podcast and the following message comes from America's Navy. The Navy offers new graduates hands on training and experience in careers like computer science, aviation and medicine. Plus education and sign on bonuses. Parents, help your grads start their career.
- [28:04]
A
Today@Navy.Com they've trained me to detect if you smoked any kind of weed for up to two months after you smoke.
- [28:11]
B
It, I'm gonna use that.
- [28:12]
A
And I was like, oh, shit. Like I was the kid for, for Christmas, he'd take me into the office, he'd do a polygraph, he'd do a lie detector. He thought it was funny, right? They like hooked me up to the whole machine and everything. So, like, yeah, he scared the shit of me. He was a good dad. He's very good.
- [28:25]
B
That's awesome.
- [28:26]
A
That's, that's, that's this whole self belief thing. One more thought on this, quickly. Yeah. If you don't have self belief, you asked me, like, what was a small win? So like when you get a job and you apply and you get an interview, that's a small win?
- [28:40]
B
It is, right?
- [28:41]
A
When you, when you close your first deal in a company, that's a small win.
- [28:45]
B
It is.
- [28:46]
A
People don't pay attention to those things.
- [28:48]
B
They don't.
- [28:49]
A
I mean, you win multiple times repeatedly, every single day. But because we're humans and we focus on the negative, we. The time we were fired, the time we were dumped or all that shit is what we remember. That's what goes to the forefront of our conscious, right? So we have to pay attention to the small wins. However you want to track them, it's very important. You could track them on a notes app. You could, you know, put together some sort of, I don't know, whatever. You can scroll through your Instagram every single week and see how fucking awesome your week was. Like, doesn't matter to me how you remember your wins, but pay attention to them because tracking your small wins every single day gives you the confidence to take on the next thing. Because you're like, wow, everything I've taken on this week I've been successful at. Why would the next thing be any different? Which is not the default mode of thinking. The default mode of thinking. If we haven't done a lot of cool shit in our life, which is actually, that's a lie, because we've all done a lot of cool shit. But the default mode of thinking we take on a big task or something scary is who am I to do this thing? Why? Why? Why do I deserve the right to be successful at building this business?
- [29:48]
B
Correct.
- [29:48]
A
Which is incorrect. That's incorrect. You've all won. You've all won. The imposter syndrome and the self sabotage. Because if you look at your resume, you look at your history, you will have unlimited wins. But you just forget them very quickly. You just have to remember them. That's what drives the Next one and the next one and the next one.
- [30:05]
B
It's you versus you, man.
- [30:06]
A
That's it.
- [30:06]
B
That's it.
- [30:07]
A
All the cliche bullshit.
- [30:09]
B
Yeah.
- [30:09]
A
Is accurate and true, but we just don't listen to it. We don't, we don't listen to it. Everyone's going to say it's you versus you. That's so cliche. How many times do you self sabotage in a day?
- [30:19]
B
No, dude, nonstop. Yeah, Non stop.
- [30:21]
A
So if it is you versus you, then if you truly believe that as corny and stupid as you think that sounds, then why are you self sabotaging? Why are you saying that you can't do X, Y and Z? Because I can guarantee you there's somebody that had a worse situation than you that came from a true rag story that built something bigger than you ever even thought possible. So what did they have that was different than you? Well, they had a little bit of self belief and they put a lot of time and energy and effort into it, but that was really it. They manufactured that. You're going to say, well, they're lucky. They manufacture their own luck by trying to build this thing repeatedly for the last 15 years. There's a, there's a Mark Andreessen quote, Andreessen Horowitz, a very famous venture capitalist, and I'm going to paraphrase, but the quote goes something like this. If you put enough energy and time and effort into anything in the world, you will start to find that the world is very malleable and it bends to your will. So if you put enough energy and time and effort towards any business, I don't give a shit what it is, it will be difficult, it'll probably take you longer and cost you more than you thought possible than you ever thought it would. But you will find a way to make it happen. Too many people just don't find a way to make it happen because they give up too early because of self belief issues, because of self doubt, because of imposter syndrome, whatever. But that, that's what I'm talking about when we're talking about self belief and that, you know, whatever you want to call X factor, what you know makes somebody successful, what has made all the people on my show successful, it is that amount of self belief because that's what allows you to put all that energy and effort towards whatever it is you want to build.
- [31:54]
B
Dude, Solution driven, my man. Always Lucian driven. Always got to work or it's got to happen, right? I love that. I love that. Love the energy, dude. So let me ask you this question, man. You had a supportive family.
- [32:09]
A
Yeah.
- [32:10]
B
You were in a great environment.
- [32:12]
A
Yeah.
- [32:12]
B
Seems like, you know, you got hired by winning companies with great mentors.
- [32:17]
A
Right.
- [32:18]
B
Did you ever have haters growing up? Dude, it's the level up, dude.
- [32:24]
A
I think I have more haters. I think I have more haters now than I did growing up.
- [32:27]
B
But we're talking about in the beginning of the journey, dude, because that's most people's limiting beliefs comes from negativity. So it comes from people saying, dude, you can't do it. You're not better than me. I had that happen to me when I was in law enforcement, dude, police academy. I was like, dude, I want to be a detective. When they ask everybody like, hey, what do you guys want to do when you guys are out of academy? I'm like, dude, I want to be in our college detective. Yeah, dude, everybody was like, you. Yeah, right. And it was because I was more on the introverted side before becoming a cop. But then within two years, I got picked up. I basically got voluntold to go into investigations and then went into this badass task force, dude, Cartel planes. Like, it was insane. It was great. It built me up to be a leader, though. And then it transformed my mind that I am capable of doing anything in life. So for you, did you have anyone? And I could talk about anyone in your life, whether it was friends, maybe a spouse, dude, anybody in the beginning.
- [33:25]
A
So I think that. I think that a lot of haters that, at the time, I didn't know they were haters. They just didn't want me to do better than them.
- [33:35]
B
There you go.
- [33:36]
A
A lot of people that I worked with, a lot of people that, you know, thinking back, there are people that started their careers with best intentions, but then 20 years later, they're still in the same spot.
- [33:48]
B
Yeah.
- [33:49]
A
And they never took the risk. They never took the chance. They never did what they want to do. They never did what they wanted to do. And jaded. Yeah. Just a lot of, like, passive aggressive. Because they see you and they see you pushing and they see you pushing hard. Maybe. Maybe you probably remind them of them when they started.
- [34:12]
B
Yeah, the glow.
- [34:13]
A
Yeah. Just put so much energy towards it. And it's always about, like, you know, pace yourself. Like, slow down. Like, you. Like, this isn't required. You're going to. You don't have to be pushing this hard.
- [34:22]
B
Like, require a certain amount of years.
- [34:24]
A
Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And I think that I didn't realize they were haters. I thought they were trying to be like, helpful at the time. Bullshit. Yeah, because in your mind you're like, well, these people kind of are looking out for me. They want to make sure I don't burn out. They want.
- [34:36]
B
No, dude, they were hating on, you.
- [34:37]
A
Know they were hating. But you don't see that. You don't see that because it's not, it's not like they're telling you you're a piece of shit. No, they're just upset that you're new to the game, you're coming in, you're beating the records, you're, you're putting in more energy, you're the keener, whatever that means. And, and you move faster than them because when you first start, they're like, oh, you know, great new guy, he's, he's such a nice guy. But then obviously, like, you start, if you are an ambitious person, you start being successful and then, you know, you start getting promotions even in the company. And then they're like, well, what the fuck? Like, I've been here a lot longer than you. Why am I not getting, why am I not moving from like small business sales to mid sized business sales? Why are you getting that option? And I mean, you just, I think that you have to understand that you cannot let people influence you or, or hold you down if they are not living the life that you want to live. And I think that's very important. And you know, when you first asked me, they, they didn't even pop up in my head because they weren't explicitly hating, but they were, they were trying to get me to play the same game that they were comfortable with. And I think that because they wanted to feel like, they didn't want to feel less than. They didn't want to feel like, you know, their lack of progress or their lack of, their lack of ambition was like, you know, just in their face. Which is probably how it felt when somebody just comes in and just like rips through their records, closes more deals than them. You know, who's candidly very young and sometimes half their age.
- [36:16]
B
Yeah, so it happens all the time, dude.
- [36:18]
A
Yeah. And I think that this is something where, you know, that was in a corporate environment, but where we're at like with building a business, there will be friends, sometimes there'll be family members. Thankfully I didn't have that issue, but there'll be friends, family members, peers. That again, aren't telling you, like you're, they're not obviously hating on you, but they're definitely saying like, play it safe, you know, why are you, you know, why are you pushing so hard?
- [36:47]
B
Yep.
- [36:48]
A
Yeah. And I think that that's a good sign that those people don't have to be cut out completely, but definitely limited.
- [36:54]
B
Love them from afar, my friend. Yeah, love them from afar. And you know exactly what those people are doing. The passive aggressiveness, the forcing of the idea of staying average and taking away your glow, dude. Especially you being young in the game, probably beating records, getting promoted faster. I went through the exact same thing in police work. I went through the exact same thing in corporate America, I went through the exact same thing. And my family, dude. And I had to love my family from afar sometimes. I love my family, dude. I'm a big family guy. But at the end of the day, there was times where my mom was like, dude, why do you move around so much? Why, why are you gonna leave being a cop?
- [37:29]
A
Yeah.
- [37:30]
B
Why are you gonna go ahead and do this? It may not work out for you.
- [37:33]
A
So it's, it's, it's that it's like, well intentioned.
- [37:36]
B
It's well intentioned, but at the same time, it's because they don't know any better, dude, how are you supposed to get advice from somebody who didn't live the life that you wanted?
- [37:44]
A
I know, but that's the most nefarious because you don't even realize that it's putting a ceiling on your progress.
- [37:48]
B
It is. And a lot of people deal with that, dude. And when I talk to clients, when I have these mentees, when I talk to people just on socials, and they're like, dude, that will never work out for me. And I asked why? Because my family never did any better. Anything better than just being a gas station owner or possibly, you know, being in the medical field or, you know, working, you know, wherever.
- [38:09]
A
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
- [38:10]
B
So at the end of the day, you know, what I tell people is, you know, going back to who you are and the self belief that you need to have in yourself, that everyone is special. Yeah, everyone is truly special. But you got to have that belief. You got to bring that better version of yourself out, dude.
- [38:25]
A
Yeah, but this is why all the. These, these are why the cliches are so true, right? Like, it's like you become the average of the five people you spend the most time around. And these are all real. These are all very real. So even like with my podcast now, I'm very fortunate. We do the same thing for a living, right? I mean, like, well, you do a couple different things, but you have a podcast and you sit down with Some really cool people. Like my worldview, my intelligence, like my ambition. Forget just moving to Miami, being in one on one conversations with these people, it's just taking it to a whole other level.
- [38:56]
B
100%.
- [38:57]
A
So whether or not people listening, not everyone's going to start a podcast. I feel like everybody tries to at some point, but like, not everybody has to start a podcast. You can if you want, but if you aren't, you know, if you aren't going to do your own show, you know, you can, you can, you can have these people influence you without sitting across from them. I mean, like what, you know, the, the content that you expose yourself to on the regular will change your life. It will truly Change your life.
- [39:21]
B
100.
- [39:21]
A
And that's why, you know, I, I also hate social media. I think it's super toxic. But you can use it for good. But know that it is rigged against you. But if you can be laser focused and use it for good, it will absolutely change your life. You don't need to seek out mentors in a traditional way. Those are good. But I mean, I have 10 mentors that have never even heard my name or know I exist just because I studied them nonstop. I mean, we're in a very fortunate time where there's no more excuses. You have access to any information, any single person ever.
- [39:51]
B
Yeah.
- [39:51]
A
Could teach you anything you want, but 100%, man.
- [39:53]
B
And I think it's just exposing the rest of America and the world. You know, I have a lot of friends. I'm 37 years old, but I got into the online game around 3231, dude. Back in 20, 2020. And for a lot of my peers, they actually saw the transition, dude. They saw the transition of me starting these small, simple businesses like ATMs, credit card machines, and all that jazz. And they were like, that's great, bro. But once they saw me in the online space and they saw like the mass amount of people that actually look at my content, they see the podcast now, they're like, dude, like this dude's actually like ranking, like, what the hell's going on? And. But they saw from the beginning that the one thing that they said that they missed, because I talked to everybody still, you know, I have a big heart, dude.
- [40:35]
A
I don't, I don't burn bridges as you should.
- [40:37]
B
I don't burn bridges, bro. In life, your network is really your network.
- [40:40]
A
Yeah.
- [40:41]
B
So when I talk to them, they go ahead, dude. I just didn't have that belief in myself and it was because of the environment. So I think once you guys that are listening right now or anyone watching this, once you change your environment, I think everything else will just come into play. You meet better people, you get more ideas, then growth comes into play too. Right.
- [41:06]
A
There's nothing wrong with having this little personal board of advisors in your life 100%. And again, it's not just business.
- [41:11]
B
Yes.
- [41:12]
A
Like have people listen. If you want to be in a successful relationship, you should find people that are in successful relationship.
- [41:18]
B
Yes.
- [41:19]
A
Right. No one's going to help your relationship if they're going and spending, you know, $50,000 at Live with their buddies and they're all single every single week, weekend. Like it's fun, but it's not going to help you with your wife and your kids. Okay. So you have to expose yourself to people that are living the life that you want. So if you want somebody who's been successful at business, somebody who's lost X amount of weight and looks real good, somebody who is, has a super healthy relationship with their, their wife or their husband and their kids, like build a little personal advisory board of people that you, first of all, you have a lot of value too. It's not just a one way transaction where you're just taking value from them because you're giving them value in whatever it is that you know. And you built this little personal advisory board. And I think that's one of the more powerful ways to just make sure that you're always exposed to the right ideas that are, you know, aligned with your path.
- [42:08]
B
There's a saying that my, one of my good mentors always says. And it, it really moves the needle with me every single day. And what he always says is work and live life by design every day.
- [42:23]
A
I love this.
- [42:24]
B
And to that, dude, is because that's what pushes me to be the greater version of myself. Even though I've hit certain plateaus in my life, dude. And I remember just like five, six years ago, I was just like, okay, I just want to be able to cover my bills. I just want to be able to go ahead and maybe live in a penthouse for the first time in my life. Right. With like the ocean view in San Diego. But once I slowly but surely started accomplishing all these goals now I was like, dude, I have a process. I have a process. So small wins is everything. And reflecting on that and knowing when you're winning, dude, I think it's big, man.
- [43:02]
A
You mentioned like life by design.
- [43:04]
B
Yeah.
- [43:04]
A
Another important, another important idea. It can be called life by design or sort of architecting the life that you want is make sure that the life that you're building is actually the life that you want.
- [43:15]
B
Yes.
- [43:15]
A
So a lot of people are, you know, they're trying to build a business. They're trying to start something from scratch. And it's hard. It's very hard. And you start to realize, like, I didn't want to put 80, 100 hours of my week towards this thing because maybe I value. Maybe I'm at the point in my life where I have kids.
- [43:31]
B
Correct.
- [43:32]
A
And if I'm trying to build a business while I just had a newborn, maybe that's not the smartest play. So I think that architecting your life is very important. There's a lot of different ways to make money in this world. There is a lot of different ways. I know people that are traveling three weeks out of the year. We were talking about how much you travel. I would say that that life is not optimized and architected perfectly. I moved down from. I moved down from Toronto to Miami. I have a place in Miami, and my studio is in the guest house in my backyard.
- [44:01]
B
Yeah, smart. Smart, man.
- [44:02]
A
That is architecting a life so that I don't have to drive in traffic. I don't have to rent a commercial space. I don't have to fly to another city. Could I fly to another city and interview people? Of course. There's a lot of things, man. Yes, convenience, but that's all part of it.
- [44:15]
B
Yeah.
- [44:15]
A
That's so that I have more time with. With Gina, with my better half. That's so if I have kids, I don't want to be flying and traveling around and dealing with an hour commute. This is all architected on purpose.
- [44:25]
B
100.
- [44:26]
A
But you have to, like, I guess, you know, you asked me before, like, when I was very young, why was I thinking about all these things about, you know, money. I'm always looking into the future. Yeah, I'm always looking into the future. When I was 18, 19, I was looking into the future. When I moved down to Miami, I was looking into the future. When I was building out my podcast and when I was setting my, you know, studio up, I was looking into the future. Like, I'm always looking at what is the life that I want to live in five or 10 years, because I think that a lot of people just. Just focus on the present, and then they build a life they don't even want to, which is also very sad.
- [45:00]
B
You're right, dude. I. I was one of those people, dude. I was. The way I grew up, you know, a single, single mother household. She worked very hard. I was a. What do you call, latchkey kid. I literally was at home watching movies, dude. That's where the creative part comes for me. Like, watching all these great movies of morals and you see, like, the Leave it a Beaver family. I'm like, dude, I want, like, a fan. I want a life like that. Right. But then, like, I didn't have the real people around me to teach me, you know, and if, you know, your parent comes from a hard environment, like another country, like Peru, and all they know is to work hard, how are they supposed to teach you the fundamentals? So it wasn't until, you know, I actually got on my shelves, started getting some life experience, and then eventually you learn. But that's when. That's when you start making adult decisions, right? Yeah, you start making decisions. Okay, do I want to go the path of, yes, there's going to be risk, yes, I'm going to be uncomfortable, yes, people are going to talk shit about me, but at the end of the day, this is for me. This is for me to build my life, just like you built your life, man. And to go back with the podcast room I got you, dude. I just got. Just leased two offices in Puerto Rico, literally like maybe a quarter of a mile away from my. My place. And we're going to build out the podcast room over there and all that jazz. But still, I got a lot of my guys here in Miami. And this is what I call this month, guys, because me and Scott, we were talking, and I traveled to probably, like five different states, and there's just this month. But the reason for that is because I'm a big, big believer in self education.
- [46:33]
A
Yes.
- [46:34]
B
So I. All my mentors that I learned from, they're all from different states, dude. You know, I got Andy, who's in Scottsdale. I got some mentors back in California. I had mentors when I was at the police. Right. Which I wouldn't have been promoted very fast, especially being in the police for only seven years multiple times, if it wasn't for them.
- [46:49]
A
Yeah, right.
- [46:50]
B
Life experience. But to go back to that point in your life, Scott, when you were 23, you had a great mentor, you had a great job. When did the transition happen where you started going towards this path?
- [47:02]
A
So when that company was acquired, I was like, wow, it's not just about, you know, learning new skills and being entrepreneurial. It's about ownership.
- [47:12]
B
Yeah.
- [47:13]
A
It's about owning something that I can call my own. And I think that That's. Ever since then, I've been trying to build different things and some have been successful, some haven't. But that was sort of okay, I'm never going to work for anybody again. I'm just going to build. I'm just going to build. And you know, you made a point. And I mean, that led to. I was doing consulting for a bit. I tried to start several companies over my life that have not been successful. I was a CRO and I joined a small company, helped them get acquired. That was what I did right before COVID Nice. What else? And then I started the podcast. I've done supplement companies, I've tried to do masterminds, I've tried to do coaching consulting. I've tried to do my own VC angel investments, not VC angel investments. I've tried to do my own business acquisitions. Again, some of this stuff has worked, some hasn't. But the point is, I'm like, you know what? I'm going to try a whole bunch of shit and just figure something out, and whatever works out, that's what I'm going to go with. And ironically, the podcast, when I started my podcast, it was actually meant to be a little bit of like a future proofing vehicle. So I didn't know what I wanted to turn it into, but I knew that if I had an audience, everything I would try and build would be a little bit easier. Because you have an audience you can sell into already.
- [48:28]
B
Correct.
- [48:29]
A
So this is the Gary Vee model. Now it's everybody's model. Like, this is the hormones. Andy is your model. Like, everybody builds the audience, you build trust with the audience. And then if you want to be a coach consultant, you want to start a company, you want to. Even if you want to go work for a company, like you have this online resume of great content that you can. I mean, look at, look at Sharon, who is now the president of acquisition.com founded by the Hermosis. Right? He's a multiple serial exited entrepreneur, super successful guy. And then he built an online presence and now he is working. I mean, he probably never has to work again, but he got a job because of his success. And you know, he could have had that success quietly and nobody would have ever known who he is or what he does. Right? So building the podcast was really just building a personal brand and an online resume that would allow me to do anything in the future, just a little bit easier. And then really it just turned into a business in and of itself. But that's been the past about six and A half years.
- [49:29]
B
Yeah.
- [49:30]
A
And I also want to make one point about risk because you mentioned, are you making the choice in your life to choose something that's riskier or. And you know, I moved from working for people to being entrepreneurial. I think that because I've exposed myself to so many things that have and haven't worked out, I would say that being an entrepreneur is the least risky thing that I've ever done.
- [49:50]
B
Yeah.
- [49:51]
A
Because now the skill sets that I've had, like, the skill sets that I have. If the podcast was shut down tomorrow, I'd find a way to make money in the six hours after I found out that my channel was shut down. Like, it's really not that hard to make money if you understand, okay, supply and demand, how to identify a customer, how to solve a pain point. So being an entrepreneur is actually the least risky thing because then you're. You're not just highly employable. You can make money in any way possible if you really need to. And I think that is very different than somebody who has worked in a company for 30 years and gets laid off and is never upskilled over those 30 years. They're stressed out because they don't know any other skills. They don't know how to make money from nothing. So what do they do? They start to apply for a thousand jobs and then they realize this is what happened during COVID You got laid off during COVID Then you realize that a lot of the jobs that you could be doing were now replaced with AI. So now you're applying to hundreds of positions and nobody's calling you back. And also on top of that, people are now using AI to generate resumes. So recruiters are being flooded with all these bullshit AI resumes. So now the job market's hard. So then what do you do? Yeah, what do you do now? Now 30 years into your career, now you have to learn how to make money without working for a company. That, to me, is a riskier life to live.
- [51:09]
B
So I love your point that you just made. So I always actually talk about this and people always ask me like, so what happens if your business goes out of business? And my mom was telling me that when I became full time Entrepreneur Back in 20, for maybe the first two years, what happens if your business goes out of business? Like, every time I go visit, I.
- [51:27]
A
Think my parents still ask me that.
- [51:28]
B
Yeah, yeah. They're like, what's going to happen? Right. Is everything okay? Now she's just like, so where are we going to travel to next? Right. I just took my, my wife, my, my mom and her friend to, to Paris for their birthday and it was cool. It was a cool trip. Like, that's to me, dude. That's what fulfills me is giving back to my family and to others, dude. To be honest, I don't need anything, dude. I can live in rv, a small rv, just give me my computer.
- [51:53]
A
Cool.
- [51:53]
B
I'm good, right?
- [51:54]
A
I feel you.
- [51:54]
B
That's what makes me happy. But to go back to your point, dude, as a beginning entrepreneur, as a nine to fiver, I mean this from my perspective, just to go back on your point, is that in the very beginning, when all you know is the 9 to 5 grind, when all you know is you're around people that want to force. Being average, force you to, I guess, live the old school American dream, right?
- [52:19]
A
The white paper fence, the nine to five jobs. Exactly.
- [52:22]
B
Security, right? A paycheck, pension, insurance, health insurance, which crazy story. And I could go into that another day, but, you know, was one of the, the common objections my mom had when I told her I was leaving the police force, she's like, but what about insurance? I was like, mom, I could pay for that. Like, that's not a big deal. But to go to that, I believe it's very hard for a beginner 9 to Fiverr who's starting their first business, unless they've seen that level of security, like cash flow coming in. And then after the fact, you have that epiphany. Once you have that level of success, right, you have that level of success saying, dude, now that I've built one successful business or idea concept, whether it's a podcast, whether it's a business, whether it's whatever it is that you're doing, but it's to that level of success where you're like, financially okay, it's covering your bills for at least like, let's say six months, a year, then they can finally breathe. And then they could probably say, okay, I know the process, I know the system, where if this was to go bye, bye, I could build again.
- [53:22]
A
Yeah.
- [53:23]
B
And I always tell my wife this. She's like. And she never doubts me. That's the one thing I love about my wife. She's my best friend, dude.
- [53:29]
A
And the whole other conversation, why that's important.
- [53:32]
B
Yeah, it's huge. It's huge. It can make you and break you as an entrepreneur. But she always says, hey, babe, do you still think you're going to be doing what you're doing now? Like when we're like in our 70s and 80s, wearing our wheelchairs, holding hands. And I'm like, babe, to be honest, I'm going to be that guy, a wheelchair. I'm going to be like a Mr. Miyagi with like my cigar in my mouth and just like going ahead, mentoring like 20 year olds to be CEOs and founders.
- [53:56]
A
I love it.
- [53:57]
B
Like, that's what I want to do my entire life. Like, I love mentoring, I love nurturing, and I got that trait when I was in law enforcement, dude. I was teaching police officers how to become detectives. And I was a young detective teaching like 30 year olds, 40 year olds.
- [54:10]
A
50 year olds to be detectives.
- [54:11]
B
And they were like, dude, what do I do next? I was like, dude, you've been a cop for like 15 years. How don't you know? Right? But to take your point, I think a person can gain the skills that you just said they can. Knowing how to build a system the right way after their first venture goes well, I think a nine to fiver, and that's the main reason why I created the podcast, was to help them destroy that limiting belief that they can't do it, dude. And I think in the entrepreneurship world, and you know, this is small world, dude, we know a couple people in the same realm. I think it's so hard because there's not entrepreneurs. And you could correct me if I'm wrong, there's not many successful entrepreneurs, especially to have a humongous following that came from that 9 to 5 grind is usually like, they were ultra successful already from the get go, dude. Like, I come into the space and the reason why I know my audience so well. Okay. Is because they're like, dude, I read your book.
- [55:11]
A
Yeah.
- [55:11]
B
Or I read. Or I saw the passion, if you will. Omar. Right. One of the podcast where you talked about working your entire life and then you got into deep depression during COVID and used all that pain to build something.
- [55:28]
A
Yeah.
- [55:29]
B
And I was like, yeah. And they're like, this is the reason why I want to do business with you. Right? And I think that's powerful, dude. I think it's humongous powerful because now they have the belief because someone just like them was highly relatable, come from the same background, and. And it puts that belief in them to be successful and it transforms lives, dude. So at a sense, I think for a beginner nine to fiver, it's a little bit risky. I mean, to me, I was.
- [55:55]
A
I'll tell you why it's not risky. Okay? I'll tell you, I'll make a Point. I'll make my argument.
- [55:59]
B
No.
- [55:59]
A
Absolutely no. Because this is something that I think a couple ideas. So I think that first, you're right. It is hard to leave a 9 to 5 because it's, it's like golden handcuffs. Right? It's safe and secure. Yeah, but, and, and you're not struggling day to day. So you're comfortable. You're comfortable. You can afford your rent.
- [56:22]
B
Yes.
- [56:23]
A
You can afford food, you can afford a vacation. But hopefully no medical issues. Hopefully, you know, hopefully you don't get let go. You're not really thinking about retirement yet because again, you're kind of living like paycheck to semi paycheck and life's good. But people are, are pushing back families, they're pushing back marriage, they're pushing back having kids, they're pushing back their first house. Like, why? Because you don't make enough money. So everyone's kind of stressed out and depressed, but like, whatever. I got a job now, so it's sort of comfortable and I don't want to screw it up. Yeah, that's sort of the reality for most people that are nine to fivers. So you're right. So somebody who has escaped the 9 to 5 and turned into an entrepreneur, that's very rare. It's very difficult for people to do that. I think also the reason why it's difficult is because we have sold a version of entrepreneurship that I think is bullshit. So we sold the version of entrepreneurship that is like, quit your job, go raise money from an angel or a vc. Like, find a way to make it work, live off your savings, and then you're going to raise your, you know, seed round and your series day. Then it's going to turn into a unicorn and you're going to be a billionaire, going to be the next Mark Zuckerberg. That's also not entrepreneurship. It doesn't have to be entrepreneurship. Why not just work your nine to five, figure out something you're good at and then do that in your five to nine.
- [57:40]
B
I love that.
- [57:41]
A
That's it. It's so simple. You don't have to stress about money, you don't have to stress about quitting your job. Just fuck around less after work. And people are going to say, Scott, like, taking care of my kids is not fucking around. I know that it's not fucking around. I'm saying that there is very few people and there's always extenuating edge cases for sure, where people are working two jobs just to make ends meet. But there are very few people who, for Their entire waking life have no leisure or downtime.
- [58:08]
B
Yeah.
- [58:08]
A
So they're gonna say, well, I need leisure. Okay. But there's a season of your life where maybe you don't. There's a season of your life where you can figure out the skill that you've worked so hard to sort of master in your job, and you can find a way to sell that skill, or you can find a way. I mean, I know that you do a lot of investment into, like, passive income. You can find a way to take some of that money and maybe don't go on that trip and invest into something that eventually, over time, will generate passive income. That's another version of wealth building that you can also partake in. But if you don't feel comfortable investing, you can just monetize your skill set. There's. There's upwork, there's fiverr, there's toptal. If you're a salesperson, you know, many.
- [58:42]
B
People need closers, 100% dude, every day.
- [58:45]
A
And all these skills that you can monetize, whether or not it's social media management or something that's a little bit more lucrative, in my opinion, which is sales. You can learn these by just listening to people on YouTube. That's really it. If you're dedicated and you find somebody on YouTube and you can find enough information to at least do that skill, eventually you'll need some mentors and eventually you'll need to want to learn upskill a little bit more. But to escape the 9 to 5, free education is really all you need right now. Yeah, that's all you need. And then when you work your 9 to 5, you're funding your life, you're. You're building your business or you're jumping on upwork or fiverr or toptal, and you're five to nine or on the weekends, you're starting to make some money. You build a system, you find a way to secure more clients, and then once you build that system and find a way to secure more clients, and now all of a sudden, you have a little bit of extra income coming in from your side hustle. Then you hire an EA from the Philippines for like 6 bucks an hour to help sort of buy back some of your time. All of a sudden you're turning it into a business. And then over time, you keep going down this journey, you're going to find you're making so much money from your side hustle that you can just quit your 9 to 5. That is the least risky way to escape the 9 to 5. Yeah, but. But for some reason, again, I think that. I think that what happens is people look at where they're at now and they look at the end result of somebody who has built a massive business and they're like, fuck. Like the journey is too scary. But just break it down. Don't go all in. Don't stress yourself out. De risk the whole entrepreneurial process and you'll find a way to get there.
- [60:15]
B
Dude, I resonate with everything that you say so much because I myself, as a nine to fiver back in 2020, had to do what I call the process of six months of hell. Six months of hell looks like this. I wake up at five, I go ahead and I jump on the computer. I'm learning marketing, sales. I am learning how to be a creative. I'm learning how to do videos. Stupid. I'm learning how to do copywriting. I'm learning everything because I'm a big believer that if you're a founder or CEO, you have to know every aspect of your company. That way, when somebody comes in, you can teach them, you can nurture them, you can become a lead. Leading by example.
- [60:54]
A
Right.
- [60:54]
B
So I did all that and then on top of that gym for one hour.
- [60:58]
A
Yeah.
- [61:00]
B
Work my detective job, come home by 11, crash out, probably get solid four or five hours of sleep and do it over again for six months. Did it suck? Absolutely. Were there days? I didn't want to do it? Absolutely. But there was days, dude, I'm not going to lie. It was the adrenaline rush for me, a thousand percent. I'm addicted to what makes me feel good. And I usually take that addiction towards good stuff.
- [61:26]
A
Right.
- [61:26]
B
Work, you know, getting that fulfillment of being able to take care of my family, you know, pouring into people that I do business with and having them win and change their life. That's what really makes me feel good, dude. And that's why I continue to do this. But I agree with you. You guys can make it happen. You guys can do it, but you gotta bunker down to a specific vehicle.
- [61:48]
A
Yeah.
- [61:49]
B
Something that, number one, you're very knowledgeable about. Or you can learn the skill. Because I believe skills are assets. Assets that won't go away because at the end of the day, you can make more money if something was to go wrong with your original vehicle. Right?
- [62:02]
A
Yeah.
- [62:02]
B
Yeah.
- [62:03]
A
But also, dude, it's like you just mentioned, like, oh, it was. It was shitty for six months.
- [62:06]
B
Yeah.
- [62:07]
A
It was horrible. Well, yeah, but life is long.
- [62:09]
B
It is.
- [62:10]
A
And you know what the beautiful thing is? To live most people's wildest dreams. You only have to win once.
- [62:16]
B
Boom. Yep.
- [62:18]
A
That's it.
- [62:18]
B
That's it.
- [62:19]
A
That's it. One win is more money than most people know what to do with.
- [62:23]
B
Yeah.
- [62:24]
A
So six months, that will lead to one win. Like, you're kidding yourself if you don't think you can commit to anything for six months.
- [62:30]
B
See that? But. But this is the. Also the issue. This is also the issue with social media, because social media makes it seem like you could do everything in a couple months, and which is not true. You know, a lot of the people that you go on social media, they have already built or they've gone through the trials and errors before, and then when they start marketing themselves, like, oh, yeah, you could also do this too, within a couple months. You know, that's the bad side of social media.
- [62:52]
A
Yeah, I agree.
- [62:52]
B
But at the end of the day, man, let's jump into your podcast. So your podcast, you started it out. Where did you get the concept from?
- [63:01]
A
So the podcast, when I first started, really, the goal was again, to future proof myself. I didn't know. I didn't know where it was going to go or what I was going to do with it, but I did know that if I have a brand and I have people that know who I am, it's going to be a lot easier to build anything in the future. The reason why I started the podcast was because it was something I enjoyed. And I think that if you're going to build anything, you do have to enjoy it. I could have done any kind of content, right? I could have done TikTok dances. I could have done anything. I could have done memes on Instagram. But for me, it was creating a type of content that I enjoyed. I like having conversations with people. I like learning. It seemed like the obvious choice and. And it didn't. Didn't make me feel like it was a job. That was, I think, the most important. I think that for all content creators, I think you should do something that you actually enjoy creating because it'll. Because content's tough. Content's not like a business. So a business, I could have a product, and if I'm great at marketing, I could be making a sale. Like next week, I could launch a pro. I mean, this is what people do with the affiliate offers. They don't even know where they. They can sell something next week. Right. If you are going to use a podcast and that's going to be your main business, meaning your main business is sponsors or advertisers or, you know, eventually you're going to build up enough trust where you can take the audience and turn them into some sort of like paid community. Something like that takes a while. So I think that you have to become, I think that you have to be comfortable creating the content so that you can stay in the game when it's still crickets, which is every creator when they first start out. So whether or not you like writing, substack, medium, beehive, whatever you like, commenting on world events, go to Twitter, you like dancing, go to TikTok, you like, it doesn't really matter to me. But just like what you do. So you can stay in the game for three or four years and that's what's going to make you a success, that will make you a successful creator. And that was, that was podcasting for me. Like I, I didn't, I didn't need to make money off of it. I just enjoyed it. And also when I first started, what makes good content, at least in my opinion, is you are creating content that is teaching you. Five years ago, that's the best content for me. So when I first started, a lot of the content was speaking about sales and marketing. Then as I evolved, I realized that it takes more than just tactical knowledge to be successful. So then I started bringing in people that would speak about mindset topics and, and you know, mental models and personal and physical health and how to manage relationships when you're sort of like a high performing, give your business everything kind of person. Well, how do you make sure that your, your spouse doesn't hate you while you're still building your company? Yeah, and these are all topics that I cared about that I wished that somebody had taught me about when I was on my journey. So then I have these conversations I'm teaching me five years ago. And I think that's a great way to create. To create, to create content. Excuse me. No, but that's, that's why I started the show. And then strategically I'm a marketer, so having some long form pillar content is really important if you want to show up everywhere because when you're first starting out, you don't usually you will not have the bandwidth or the resources to create TikTok, Twitter, newsletter, Instagram separately. It's a lot of effort. You have like pillar content, long form audio video. You can, of course, you know this, you can take the long form audio video, you can chop it up into short form social clips, you can transcribe it, turn it into a newsletter, can go everywhere. So it sort of checked all the boxes. It's something I enjoyed doing. It was easy to, you know, turn it into a content machine and I could stick with it for as long as I wanted to because it didn't feel like work to me. And on top of that, because it's an interview style show, you get access some of the coolest people on earth. Yeah, that's also a nice little like, bonus.
- [66:40]
B
No, absolutely, man. And I'm a big believer your network is your net worth, man. You know, people that I've met and it's gonna about to be five and a half years now in the digital marketing space for me. Yeah, I mean, they changed my life. Just my views, dude. Like, the way that I am. I feel like I am still learning every single day, but then also every year, dude, I transform. I transform, dude. And this is at the age of 37, guys, you know, I'm getting there. So. So at the end, you're young.
- [67:07]
A
You're young, man.
- [67:08]
B
Dude, like, people, I see all these kids all the time, you know, I got like a lot of my employees, they're like from like 19 to like 25, dude. Who's like the oldest, like executive that works for me and they're like, yeah, man, you know, if I don't hit this goal by the next six months, what am I doing with my life? And I'm like, bro, I wasn't even nowhere near where you guys are at at your age. You know, I was still thinking day.
- [67:31]
A
To day, I was looking, some of them have nice. They have nice watches.
- [67:33]
B
Oh, dude. Yeah.
- [67:34]
A
I didn't know they were that young. I didn't have a watch like that when I was like 20, 21, dude.
- [67:38]
B
I got a bone stock. So this watch that I have, bone stock is like when I made one of my first goals in Andrew.
- [67:45]
A
I think we have the same watch.
- [67:46]
B
Yeah, dude. It's nice and simple. It's classy. You know, you can wear with anywhere, dude. But man, I don't know, dude. Kids nowadays dropping $100,000 on a watch. I'm like, that's not me, dude.
- [67:55]
A
No, that's not me. No.
- [67:57]
B
You know, but. All right, all right. I need to ask you this, man, because I think it's very important. The audience needs to hear this, especially from you, dude. Somebody who's ultra successful has the right mindset. Dude. You have a killer mindset. I love your mindset.
- [68:10]
A
I appreciate you. Thank you.
- [68:11]
B
What's your mission now behind everything that you're building with success stories, dude.
- [68:16]
A
Yeah. So I think that one thing that I've learned. And when you're telling me your story about mentoring young cops and turning them into detectives and helping them sort of on their career path, that's something that really resonated with me. I get a ton of fulfillment from sort of using my platform and hopefully helping somebody who's a little bit earlier on in their journey. That, to me, is the best gift. I mean, this is why I did it before it made me any money, because I really, really, really enjoyed it. I mean, taking. You know, taking it back to when I was super young, one of my first jobs ever was coaching tennis. I just enjoy coaching. I think that. I think that if you have. If you have the ability to do it, I think that it's just a good thing to do as a human, to help somebody sort of overcome some obstacles in their life and sort of give back a little bit.
- [69:07]
B
Absolutely.
- [69:07]
A
Not to sound too corny, but I really believe that it is one of the most fulfilling things you can do. And if you can find a way to tie it to making money, I think it's even better. But I think that this is. This is what. This is what I enjoy doing. This is why I focus so much on the show, because I've also found that the more value I give, the more I bring on people that have built incredible companies, and I can sort of tap into what makes them tick and tap into the lessons that they've learned. And hopefully that lesson from a founder of Netflix or a founder of Reebok or somebody who sold their company for half a billion dollars, hopefully that helps somebody earlier on in their career. Yeah, it's a great feeling, for sure. But also, it just. I found the more value you put out, the more it comes back to you in one way or another. I mean, the more I put into the podcast, of course, it resonates more. It grows. Revenue comes with that, and it opens the door to so many opportunities that I never would have thought possible. So that's sort of where my energy is right now. And I think that I've really thought about what I want to do in the future. And even if I do build a business that's not the podcast in the future, I don't think I want to kill it because I've always loved mentoring in some capacity. I've done. I've worked, like, pro bono with. With a couple different, like, startup incubators, and it does two things. It. Like I said, it's very fulfilling. But also the other side of mentoring is. It is one of the best ways for you to upskill yourself. Because when you have a conversation about something or even when you're trying to take some wisdom and disseminate it or teach it to somebody, you start to realize your own gaps in knowledge.
- [70:51]
B
Yeah.
- [70:52]
A
And it's like, it's a very uncomfortable but important feeling when you're trying to teach something. You're like, you know what? I don't think I know that thing as well as I thought I did. So that's a signal that I know where to spend some more time and attention, energy to focus and upskill myself. So selfishly, the podcast makes me better. But also at the same time, I think it's a great way to just hopefully somebody who's earlier on their career, they don't have to struggle as much because they learned something from some of the content I put out so that they don't have to reinvent the wheel.
- [71:23]
B
Absolutely. And guys, that's what I call the level up. So, Scott, what do you have for the audience as far as some words of motivation? What would you tell the old you, the 23 year old back in the day before you got all the success with the podcast and meeting all these high level individuals and the life that you're living? Life by design, dude.
- [71:44]
A
Yeah.
- [71:45]
B
What would you tell the old you?
- [71:47]
A
Trust yourself. Trust yourself to figure it out. If someone else has figured it out, you can too find a way to stay in the game longer than anyone else because you'll find a way to win that game if you stay in it. Really? It's really, it's all on you. It's all on you whether you succeed or fail and just have absolute, absolute delusional self confidence as well as obsession with the thing that you're trying to build. And I really don't see how that is not a winning combo.
- [72:18]
B
Yeah.
- [72:18]
A
So, I mean, that's something that I would tell my younger self and it's something that I still tell myself every single day when I try and take something on. It's. It's a difficult mindset, but I think that if you can adopt that mindset, I really don't believe that there's anything that you can't accomplish.
- [72:34]
B
Boom. I love it, dude. And that's what we call the level up. Guys, guys, if you love this interview, okay, you love what you're hearing, make sure to check out Scott on his socials and make sure to check out the Success story podcast 50 million downloads for a reason. Guys. He has gone ahead and interviewed the best of the best in every niche and industry. Scott where can they find you on the socials brother?
- [72:57]
A
It's all. It's all at Scott Declary and then Success Story Podcast is wherever you get your podcast.
- [73:02]
B
Boom.
- [73:02]
A
Thank you man.
- [73:03]
B
Love it guys. That is the level of podcast with Paul Alex. We are currently ranked number one in business podcasts on Apple. Podcast guys ranked number 15 in all categories on Apple Podcasts as well. Make sure to leave a five star review on Spotify and everywhere where this is broadcasted guys. We'll catch you on the next one. Thanks for listening up to the Level up podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, make sure to share with a family, friend and everyone you know who's ready to level up. Leave a five star review on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and wherever you tune in. It really helps spreading the word. And don't forget to check out officialpaulalex.com for more episodes and resources to kickstart your journey. Let's Level up together. You say you'll never join the Navy.
- [73:44]
A
That living on a submarine would be too hard.
- [73:47]
B
You take never power a whole ship with nuclear energy, never bring a patient.
- [73:53]
A
Back to life or play the national anthem for a sold out crowd.
- [74:01]
B
Joining the Navy sounds crazy. Saying never actually is. Start your journey@navy.com America's Navy forged by the sea.