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Foreign.
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Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to a special edition of the Money Mondays where we cover three core topics. How to make money, how to invest money, how to give it away to charity. It is very rare that I don't do this podcast inside of my RV motorhome. It's also very rare that I bring on a guest for a second time. This guest you're going to see on every single year because he's been the CEO of my company for five, six, seven, eight years now, ever since 2018-19 range. So without further ado, I'm going to have Mr. Joey Carson give you a quick two minute bio so we get straight to the money.
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A two minute bio. Good luck. Wow. Well, maybe I'll try to condense it to under two minutes. A 30 year career in television and film, mostly television, going back to the late 80s, early 90s on the studio side, then as an independent producer in the early 2000s, early to mid teens. And I've had two tech companies and I've punched in a few times as a turnaround CEO for a few companies. So just keeping it at the high level there.
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B
So as you guys know, these episodes are between 32 and 36 minutes for your listening pleasure because we have a 93% listen through rate compared to most podcasts that are just too long, too boring and too much interpersonal talk. We are very straightforward here. So I want you guys to be able to listen to this podcast and it's not just for you. You can share it with your friends, family and followers and also with people from your past, present and future. So it's very important that as you're listening to this, you might think about things that are useful to someone else in your life. All right, Joey Carson, you were just kind of casually going through your 30 year career. Let's talk real. Talk to us about Buna Murray. The Real World, Road Rules, Simple Life with Paris Hilton. These are major shows that I grew up on and so many hundreds of millions of other people grew up on. Talk to us about that time in your life when you were the CEO of Buena Murray Productions.
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It was probably the funnest time in my career I had prior to that, I was the head of production and finance at 20th Television at Fox and I left to go join Briana Murray. I had actually worked with them before they had come to Fox and we worked with them to do a pilot and we got along very well and they were just great. And then I had heard later that they were looking for somebody like me or somebody to take the company to the next level. And we had a mutual friend in their. Their agent was. This legendary Hollywood agent, was their agent. He was also friendly with me and actually one of my biggest mentors. And so we had a few meetings and they told me that they wanted to grow beyond, you know, where they were, because at that time it. They had really just had real world and road rules. And so I left my big cushy studio job to go over there, which was really the. I always tell people I kind of did my entrepreneur career in reverse because I worked in the corporate side for 10, 15 years. So that was really the first foray into like being an entrepreneur, so to speak. And the motivation was at the time, you know, I had a lot of responsibility at Fox and I worked on a lot of great projects there, but I wasn't running the entire business, right. I wasn't in charge of sales or distribution or marketing or those sort of things, even though I was, you know, responsible for a lot. And I always had this thought in the back of my mind, I really would like to see if I can run an entire company. And so they trusted me and I went over there and it was. It was interesting at first because there, there were. It at that time, there was kind of like a. Just a couple of shows going on. There wasn't like this unified. There was in various degrees of the company. So what. One of the things, one of the goals I had was I wanted to turn it into a studio. And so I tried to, and I think successfully, with the help of the people there, you know, brought some kind of the best practices that we had on network broadcast television and films and things like that. And so we worked together and created kind of like a functional processes across the entire company. The other thing that I wanted to do was I wanted to make sure that when I went in there that I didn't bring in people from the outside, because when I got there, there was tons of talented people, from creative executives to producers, casting people, editors, camera people, like all of this. And, you know, they had actually effectively invented the way reality, reality television works. So I thought, you know, how can we work together to kind of put this so it can scale? Like, let's think beyond just having a couple of shows. What if we have a show on every network, let's have a cable show, let's have a network primetime show, let's have a daytime syndicated show, let's do documentaries, right? All of that sort of thing. So took a little while, you know, people, it's always, you know, when you step into a company like that, a lot of people are like, well, who's this guy? What's he going to do? And am I going to lose my job? And that. But the truth is, I went in there with the intention of never, ever having, wanting to bring in someone from the outside. So I was able to create departments, and the people that rose to those positions were kind of already doing them anyway. And so we started to function as a kind of as a team. And then on the development side, we put a process in place kind of that we followed at the studios, where we would just generate new ideas, take more outside meetings, all of that sort of thing. And then we just started to really, just by following that formula, start cranking out a lot of things that were ultimately very, very successful.
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So someone that's listening or watching right now, they're at an interesting juncture in their career. They're running a company, but they're not the CEO or they're not the president. So they're kind of capped. They're like number three or four or five at a company. They're not sure if they're going to get to number one or two. And they want to potentially go make the jump like you did. Going from Fox to being a Murray. How do they decide? Like, when you make a huge jump, like you had a cushy job, you're making good money, household name corporation you're working with at Fox, like, how do you decide to make that leap to a different company and leave behind the guaranteed income?
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That's a great question. And I faced exactly that. Like, I could have stayed in that Fox job for. And people do people stay in those jobs for 20 years. But I've always had the personal. I don't know what you want to call it, but I always want to feel like I have unlimited upside potential. It's almost like when you buy a lottery ticket like the day before, until they actually call the numbers, you start visualizing, okay, I'm going to do this. So. And I like the feeling of knowing that there's unlimited upside. So on the other side of that, anytime I found myself in my career kind of bumping up this against, like you just mentioned, like, there's no way out. I get really, like, a lot of people like the safety that drives me nuts. Like, I like the uncertainty because, again, anything can happen. So, in fact, each time in my career, when I made a move and Buna Murray is a great example, I took actually a backward step. Like when I Left my Fox job to go do that. People thought I was insane. They were like, what are you doing? Like, you, you know, you work so hard to get. Yeah, you're in charge of all this. You're doing this. You're meeting with, you know, famous people all the time. And. But that wasn't it for me. I really. It was really more of like a personal challenge. Like, you know, how can I. And I really wasn't thinking about the money. Actually, when I first went over there was making less money and all the other things around that than I was at Fox. So. But it was really more like, can I do this? And then again, in the back of my mind, it's if, if I'm successful, then it's just going to pay off. It's, you know, by doing the work, the results will come later. So that's how. So for me, when I've talked to people before, I talk to a lot of young people or mentor other CEOs and things like that. To me, it's always like, one of the fundamental questions is, are you growing? Are you growing as a person? Are you growing with your skill set? Are there. Are you stagnating? Right? Like, are you. Because I'll give you an example. Like in Buna Murray, we were doing all these shows. We kept doing more and more, but I, way back early on, always had an interest in digital media. And this is way before the social media world we know today. And. And so I actually created a separate division in there specifically to just do digital programming that would go on the phone. And that was in 2004. That was three years before the iPhone. And so. And then also putting. Putting shows on the Internet, as we used to say, right? Before YouTube, before any of that sort of thing. And you're just kind of pushing the boundaries. And so I would make these little bets, these little tests, and. And they paid off, like, in a big way. And it just ended up that. It's not like I'm some genius that came up with this. It's just I saw an opportunity there. It made sense to me. And there's actually been articles written about that, how I did that in other magazines. But. So again, but that was really more like going in a new direction, right? So. Because it's really easy to get. To me, complacency is the biggest enemy of everything.
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So someone out there has this vision. They're like, you know what? I know how my boss and my company could make more money by doing this. Like what you did by bringing to the mobile phone or bringing in sponsorship deals for the real world or different things that we're doing.
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Yep.
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But they're scared to go talk to their boss. They don't want to get fired. How can they bring up this idea that they have that's there to help? They're there to make more money for the company and for the CEO. How can they walk into that boss's office and say, here's the idea, without hurting their ego?
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Yeah, that's another great question. Well, I think a lot of it true, that feeling will depend on what kind of leader the company is. Right. So if you have somebody that's more of a micromanager, wants to control everything, that conversation might be a little bit harder to have. I always try to have an environment where, like, we're a team. Right. So I want to hear the other ideas. I want, I want to be challenged on. Like, I'm not the smartest guy around, so. But if you're sitting there and you have an idea or you see an opportunity that you think everybody up here is missing, I think it's. And I actually did that many times. In fact, I did that at Buena Murray when I was talking about the phone. I said, I think we should try to do this. And to their credit, they said, okay, yeah, like, let's do that. But so I think if you're going to make a move like that with your boss, have it really well thought out, like, like have all the data, have, you know, do all your market research, this sort of thing to support your idea. Because you always want to go in with a solution. Right. You don't want to go in with a problem or complaining about this. Like, you want to go in and say, and in this case it's more than a solution. It's like, here's an area of opportunity that I think we're missing. Or for us, you know, our business is here. All we have to do is step over here a little bit and then. And all of, like, I did that at Buena Murray where we were doing all this unscripted stuff. And I said, well, we're basically documentary people, right? So why aren't we making documentary films? Like, we're, we're basically documentarians, like, let's do that. So that was just a one step over to do that. So I think that helps in a scenario, but I think just being armed with the facts and being enthusiastic about it. And also I think if you have a few other people that are on your team, like, maybe it's a small Group of people or you and somebody else. So you're not just going in by yourself. I think that helps as well.
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B
So they got this idea, they walked in, the boss says, yes, but they've never had a mentor before. And I heard you mention that you were mentoring people. Why is it important for someone to either have a mentor or be a mentor? Why is that part important? To, like, learn things before they go talk to the boss, before they really hone in on that thing that they want to do? Why should they get some mentor advice?
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A
Well, this, I think, is one of the most important topics in anyone's career. And I'm glad you brought it up because I was really lucky that I had phenomenal mentors throughout my career. Like industry legends. If I named them off, you would know who they are. And. But I didn't start off that way. Early in my career, I was very much a solo, go ahead, guy. Like, I'm going to do it myself. I don't need any help. I don't want it to even appear like I'm doing this because I'm trying to kiss this guy's ass. We, or be in this little clique of people over here because, you know, especially in corporate environments, a lot of it's like that, right? There's, you know, people that are just, you know, trying to play the political game rather than. And I was always about results. So for a long time in my career, I was. And I think I probably could have gotten further, faster, even though I did pretty well, because I had that closed off mindset. Once I opened myself up to that allowed myself to be coached effectively, the entire world opened up, like, more than you can ever imagine. And I relied on. It's almost like I had a kitchen cabinet of these older executives that had been around for decades. And if I had a problem, I would call them up. So there's some things that I had to deal with in my career which were making national news at the time, in real time, that were like, it was scary. And the way I navigated through that was by leaning on my mentors to give me the advice. What do you think I should do? Here's the situation, blah, blah, blah. And they would, they would help steer me through that. And so the older and now, interestingly enough, I'm one of the old guys that, you know, talks to a lot of younger people. But what I've come to understand is that this one issue right here is probably this. To me, it's the greatest determinant of someone's Success. And it is, are you coachable? If you're not coachable, nothing can be done. And we, and we all know people like that, that they have to be the smartest person in the room. It's like. Or if they listen to something, it's yeah, yeah, okay, but. And, and they, they think that they know more than everybody else. I think a lot of that comes from insecurity.
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B
And.
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I think it's just insecurity, quite frankly. So to me, that's the number one question. Are you coachable? Because a lot of people say that, like we, you, you and I see that a lot. How many times has a business owner come into us that we're talking to or whatever, and they have a phenomenally successful business, 100, 200 million dollar business. And they'll say, oh, I, they'll say to me like, oh, I'd love to have a guy like you come in. Like, that would be great because I, or I want to bring in an operator, right? And then I'm really going to scale the business. And the first thing I say to those guys is, it's actually, it's not about me or a guy like me, it's about you. Because it's one thing to say it and it's another thing to do it. And they all say it. They all say, I really want to do this. I really want to grow the company. I'm really ready to delegate. Which by the way, is a skill that has to be learned and executed. But none of them ever do it. In my experience, that's the number one problem I see with business owners is this iron grip they keep on companies. And again, they're doing great. They're making $200 million a year. But a company making 200 billion, they could be a billion dollar company or a two billion dollar company. And they're the number one thing that's standing in the way because they can't let. Because they're not coachable. Right? So to me, it's a, it's a limiting factor.
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So around eight years ago, you know, you're working with a household name in the TV space, working with some companies, why decide to accept the role to be the CEO of Elevator Studio, an agency doing mostly influencer marketing? Why step into that role?
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Because of you. But honestly, I, when, when you and I first met and everybody thought we already knew each other from the. But we didn't. And you know, I think the first time we met, we had lunch or something, it's been so long, I can't Remember? But we talked and. And I had a lot of. It was that sort of meeting, like, you were asking me a lot of questions, like, what's your story here? And I was asking you a lot of questions about the business. What. What's going on here? But so beyond your, you know, just personality and the way you operated and your intellect, I saw you reminded me a lot of, like, in my past when I'd worked with, like, a great director or a producer, right. That, you know, had a good command of things. And it was very analogous to the Bunny Murray situation in that you were doing something that you were the first guy to do when nobody else has done, which was the influencer marketing. Right. Like, you saw that. You're like, huh, I'll get some brands. We'll pay here. We'll get these influencers.
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B
Influencer didn't exist back then. 2011.
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Exactly. So you saw that opportunity and you created that whole thing. And back when we first got together, that was still kind of, you know, on the upswing. And so I thought. And then I saw. And this is the credit to you in the sense that. And you were also doing the speaking thing, but not at the scale you're doing it now. Right. If you remember, back then, it was very limited. And so in my mind, I thought, well, number one, this will be fun because you and I get along great. Number two, we have. If my skill set is out here and yours is out here, there's a big overlap in the middle.
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B
So.
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Which I think is really good. So, like, you don't have to explain things to me, and I don't have to explain things to you. But at the same time, it's like the best use of you is not back at the office. Right. The best use of and highest use of you is being out there doing what you do. Right. And I'm at the was and still am at the point I don't need to be out there doing. That's not the best use of my time. I could do it. I used to do it a lot, but that's not the best thing for me. And I always remember a great piece of advice I got from Dr. Phil once. And again, this is where a mentor comes in, right? And it was back earlier in my career when I was doing all these things or whatever. And he said to me, he said, you know, you're doing too many things. Like, you shouldn't be doing that. And then the quote was, only do what only you can do and delegate the rest. And then he gave the Example, he said, for example, I'm Dr. Phil. I'm the only one that can walk on the stage and tape the show because I'm Dr. Phil. Right. He goes, so I focus on that and everything around that. And then I have a great. You know. Yeah. All the producers and writers. And I thought that was a. Just a great visual analogy of that. And it really shifted the way that I approached business and things. And so by the time you and I met and got together, that's when I thought that quote came into my mind. Because I can't be you. I don't want to be you, but I can allow you or give you the ability to be you by just staying back at home and doing whatever it is I need to do. So, to me, when we first got together, I just saw all this potential, not only for the company, but, like, for you as well. And then I think that's borne out over the years. Like, it's. You know, I remember when you were, you know, not speaking a fraction of what you are now. So. And. And also making the. It's not like you're just going out and getting speeches or whatever, you know, like you're actually out there delivering information and making great relationships and context and doing a lot of business development.
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B
All right, so there's Elevator Studio here as the social media agency for 17 years now. There's Elevator Syndicate, 1100 investors. There's Elevator Mortgage, there's Elevator Funding. Soon there's going to be Elevator Credit. There's Elevator Nights. There's all these different visions of Elevator Studio and all these subsidiary companies. How are you managing and orchestrating all the moving parts?
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A
It's a good question. Well, you have to remember, I'm used to doing things like that. So back in the day, when we were doing television, whether it was at Fox or Vietnam, Murray, there's. I always had, like, 10 television shows going on simultaneously.
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B
Simultaneously.
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A
Simultaneously, like all over the world. Right. So there'd be two shows going in Canada and then another one in Mexico and then something in Miami, whatever it was.
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Travel, production, permits, budgeting.
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A
Right. So in each, like, you got to think of a television show or a film is like, that's a. That's a company. Sure. That's like 250 people. And, you know, the budgets can be anywhere from 10 million to 50 million or even higher. Right.
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B
So for a few months.
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Yeah. For short periods of time. And everything has to be on time, on schedule, on budget, all that stuff. And then obviously, I can't be everywhere. So I was Always very instrumental in the, in the very beginning.
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B
Easy. Then.
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Well, there's certainly not, you know, thousands of people running around, so. And again, a lot of this is generated by you and your ideas, right? So you're the one that has these ideas or sees these opportunities. So for me it's, it's actually just a simple matter of just being in the background to support that. It's so yes, compared to doing something like that where there's, you know, thousands of employees running around all over the place with real time problems and, you know, weather and different governments and things like that to deal with.
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B
By the way, if you guys want to see any of those things. Elevator mortgage, elevatormortgage.com if you need a mortgage or refinancing for commercial properties, your own individual homes, etc. Investment properties. Elevator credit is coming very, very soon. Elevator funding is for business loans. We've done $28 million of loans to businesses anywhere from 10, 20 grand, as high as $500,000 for a loan. You can answer you within 24 hours at elevatorfunding.com Elevator Syndicate is free to join, but you have to be an accredited investor and really someone that's going to be a mover and shaker to help companies. We've raised $56 million for food and beverage brands, consumer products. That's elevatorsyndicate.com Again, you have to be a credit investor. And then we send out updates once a month and you can optionally invest into companies. What else? We got Elevator Nights. That's for free. We've thrown that event 57 times around the country, totally free, 300 to 1,000 guests. That's elevator Nights. You can see us on Instagram for elevator Nights. Those events are pop ups. We only announce it about three or four days in advance because they're free and there'll be too many people. And then Elevator Studio is our main agency. We've spent tens and tens of millions of dollars with influencers for brands, products and mobile apps. We literally invented influencer marketing back in 2011, doing campaign deals with celebrities, rappers, models and everyone in between. And we're still doing that to this day, paying influencers for brands, products and mobile apps. So that's our ecosystem in our world. So you can check out some of those websites. Joey, you start to make money, someone out there is listening. All right, they're making money. They go from 80 grand, 120 grand. They start making a quarter million dollars. They're really saving up. They bought an investment property, but now they're getting Bombarded people are pitching them. Invest in my clothing brand, invest in my music company, invest in my production company, invest in my pillow company, invest in my this, my that. How can someone decide if they're going to invest into real estate, stock market, cash flowing business, their buddy's new idea. How do they decide and weed those things out?
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A
Well, I probably have a somewhat different approach to that. I like how you talked about the increase in your salary over time. I remember thinking early in my career, if I could just make 50 grand on set and then I'm making 50 grand and I'm like, this is it, right? So like okay, 100. Once I can make 100, then I'm going to be fine. Then I get to 100. I'm like, what?
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B
Just a Wednesday?
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So then I said, okay, 250, like for sure. And I get to that number and I'm like, what is going on? So but in terms of my own personal investing style, I remember the first half of my career I was a corporate guy. So it was all like 401k stuff. And then I had separate like brokerages account accounts that I did. I didn't start investing into, into real estate, which was like outside of just regular stock portfolio. The other things that I have are like real estate holdings that came much later when I had more disposable income. Like so to me the earlier are. And you are in your career, I think just building a regular. Even if it's something as basic as mutual fund or something like that. Maybe play around with, you know, we didn't have the crypto back there, bitcoin back then. I remember when I was in college, I was a finance major because at that time I thought I was gonna. And Wall street, the movie was really big. So I thought I was gonna go to New York. And yeah, and we, everybody did because of the Charlie Sheen and Berkshire Hathaway stock was $500.
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B
Oh my God.
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A
And I didn't have enough money to buy. I just wanted to buy one share of it and I didn't have enough money to do it. But I'll never forget that it was like in the late 80s. But so to me, I think it's it also you're. I mean, you talk about this a lot. It's like your personal risk tolerance. You know, I like the way you break down. And I'm sure your audience has heard it many times. I think that's a great rule to follow. The. Until you have a certain level of disposable income, it's going to be hard to take like that extra little piece and like invest in startup things. To me, I think investing in any kind of startup or even early stage company, you really, to me you should be like, meet all the criteria of being an accredited investor and what that entails. But that doesn't mean you can, you know, it's have your own little portfolio. And I remember one of the first like stock things I did was I bought some AOL stock. It was like $10 and it went to 70.
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B
You're a genius.
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A
Yeah. And I was like, oh. And I thought that was easy.
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B
Yeah, right.
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A
Yeah. And so I had a few of those early on that were good and I was smart enough to like, you know, pull it out of there. So I think. And again, that was kind of like I really didn't have the money to do that at the time, but I did it. So I think the earlier you are. But to me, like start saving early because you never know what's going to happen in your career and you just need to start building that wealth. It's really, I look at when you have a family or you're married, have kids, or just in general, you're really building a company, right? You're like, you're the CEO of you, right? And so like, so what does that balance sheet look like? And is that, is that the company of you making money? Is it growing? Is it doing new things? So I kind of approach it that way.
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B
So when someone pitches me a company, my rule is that it has to get approved by what I call the four horsemen. One of the four horsemen is sitting right here. I called the CEO, the second one is the accountant, third one is the lawyer, and the fourth one is an advisor. That advisor is interchangeable. The CEO, the lawyer and the accountant are the same three guys over and over and over. But the advisor can be different because it could be a beverage company. So I might go to someone from food and beverage space. It could be a music deal. Well, I'm not going to ask the food and beverage guy. I want to ask somebody in the music space. It could be someone's making fancy tables with plants inside of them. Okay, I'm going to ask someone that's been in furniture space. I want to ask the advisor to be that. So the four horsemen help me approve deals because I might get excited by your pitch. But I need the facts and fundamentals from the CEO, the lawyer, the accountant and the advisor. So find who those four horsemen are for you. Alright? Joey, we talked about making money. We talked about investing money. Let's talk about the charity side. For a company or brand, why is it important for their employees, their customers, their vendors, their clients to see them do some type of charity or philanthropy work?
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A
Well, I think it's really important on a personal level. I think people have the wrong impression maybe in that. Or sometimes people think that their motives might not be good, like they're just doing it for optics. Like, we need to have a charity so we look like we care. You know, it's kind of like, I remember that Seinfeld episode where, you know, one of the. One of the guys is like, let's throw some money at a charity, right? So. But I think it's good on a personal level because I actually fundamentally think, and this is the way I've always run companies, to me, it's like, how can I help? Like, even when I come into a company, I didn't come in to be a boss. I came in to help. So to me, how, number one, how can I help? I think so on a personal level. And I think it's just like you were like, almost like you invest because when you're giving money to a charity, you're effectively investing it, right? So to me, it wants to be something that I understand, something that. And by that, maybe I have personal experience with it or I know the people and I believe in the mission, right? So it's like I care about it and I want to see it grow and prosperity just as I would if I was investing in a business. On a corporate side, it's a little bit different, and I think it's harder to do. And unless it's. It's almost like with the toy drive, like that's, you know, elevator quote unquote charity or model citizen fund that you have. But it's really like this standalone thing that goes down there. But to me, it's like that's just a universally good thing, like, just fundamentally. So when I look at giving and things like that, I'm not into, you know, corporate activism or just. Or giving money to push a certain. I don't want anything that's pushing an agenda other than helping people. Right. And. And that the charity is making a difference. So I also want to make sure that I'm close enough to the charity that I know. There was even a recent quote from Elon was talking about. He says, very hard to give money to charities effectively because you don't know what's going on. So to me, they don't have to be some gigantic organization. And There's a lot of good. And I also like local charities, just historically, because maybe they're feeling.
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B
Touch it.
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A
Yeah, yeah, right. And, you know, maybe they're providing whatever soccer balls for the kids or whatever it is. So to me, you don't have to give some gigantic amount. And it doesn't have to be some national thing. To me, the closer it is to home and the more familiar I am with it, the better it is.
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B
So there's only one question I ask on every single episode, and I've never gotten the same answer before. And although I asked you last time, I'm going to ask you again because there's new listeners.
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A
Oh.
- [32:34]
B
At some point, I'll be sad. Hopefully I won't even be here. At some point, Joey Carson passes away, what percentage of your net worth do you leave to those girls, to those daughters?
- [32:47]
A
All of it.
- [32:49]
B
I love it.
- [32:50]
A
Yeah, all of it. Because they've grown up with me. They've been a part of my world the whole time. And I trust that I've raised them well enough to make their own decisions. And they're not that they're just blindly following me, but I've raised solid human beings that have their own convictions and moral compass, and then they'll do the right thing with it so they get everything.
- [33:18]
B
So that's an important caveat. You've heard this me ask this question 250 times now, right? And sometimes people have hesitation because they don't trust in their daughters or sons to be a good steward of capital. Or they might be their age, they might be too young, they might be at a turning point, and it might hurt their lives, it might hurt their careers, it might hurt how they live their life if all of a sudden they got millions of dollars. Might change, not might. It will change the trajectory of their life, and they may not be ready for it. What Joey's mentioning is he trusts in his daughters and he trusts in how he raised them, and he trusts in what they would do with it because they've been watching him in his business world for all these years. So when I ask these questions, think about the response and look how quick he was to answer it with conviction, because he believes. And his daughters and their vision for life and the age that they're at. Right. If they were four years old, he probably gave a different answer. Now that they're at this turning point in their careers and becoming into women, he had that clear instant answer. So just keep in mind when I ask those questions, Joey Carson, grand finale for the people that are listening out there. We are in a world of turmoil already in the first few weeks of January of 2026. We're seeing a lot of division across social media. We're seeing a lot of division on television. We're seeing a lot of division in foreign countries and American policy and what Americans think foreigners shouldn't do. Ah, there's just so much going on coming at our brains. What would you say to people that are just glued to their television and to their phones as they're seeing all this chaos? What can they do to protect themselves and make better decisions so they don't lose all their friends and family members from all these arguments?
- [34:55]
A
Well, I think it's. I like to be the observer and not let myself get drawn into things. I mean, obviously I have opinions on everything, but that doesn't mean I need to share those opinions and that doesn't mean I need to argue about those opinions, and that doesn't mean I need to get sucked into some argument that's just going to drain my energy. So what I try to do is, and what I've been done these last couple of years is just kind of like scan everything and see what's going on and then see how I feel about it. And because think about it, what am I going to do? Right? Think of. And everybody's always trying to change somebody. Think of how hard it is to change yourself, right? It's just to go to the gym, to change your diet, to lose weight, to gain weight, to be more disciplined in anything. It's very hard to change yourself. And so why am I going to. So that's enough to worry about right there. Why do I need to. And by the way, if I do, first of all, I don't feel the need that I need to convince you of anything. But if I do, what is my goal in that? Like, so. Because you're pretty much not going to change your mind, right? And so it's really a futile effort. It's like if you're of a certain religion, it'd be like me trying to convince you to convert to my religion, right?
- [36:33]
B
You become Muslim or Catholic, right?
- [36:35]
A
Like, you're raised Jewish or whatever, and I'm raised Catholic. So how am I going to convince you to throw away your basically what you've built your life on and come over here and be a Catholic, right? It's like. And by the way, to me, even to try to do that shows a certain that I would have disrespect for you. You know what I mean? To me it's be disrespectful to like try to change your religion or, or change your opinion on anything. Right? So if you want to think whatever you think, that's fine. Like it's not my job to try to convince you. We just have a different. Maybe we have the same opinion on a lot and we only disagree on a couple things, but why should that get in the way of anything? And why should, why should I have any energy in that?
- [37:19]
B
Sure.
- [37:19]
A
It's like pointless. So I, you know, to me it's definitely rough. So I guess your question really was like, how do you stay out of that? It's like, that's how I stay out of it. Like.
- [37:33]
B
And you don't engage in the discourse?
- [37:35]
A
No, because again, where is that? Again? Another thing I learned from one of my mentors all the time was that he would ask the question. He would say, what is the point? And if you can't answer the question definitively of like what is the point? Then you don't know what the point is and you don't know what you're arguing over. So to me, I don't really have a point.
- [38:02]
B
So as you guys know, Money Monday's have been running ad free for over two and a half years, going on to three years. Because I want you to listen to this nice and easy and smooth. That's why we keep this 93% listen to rate. I do have some corporate sponsors that are part of my ecosystem because I actually use them. So when you hear me talk about a company called Fan Basis, it's because Fan Basis manages my entire world. My back end, my merchant processing, etc. That's fanbasis.com but I don't do affiliate links or codes. That's just a company for you to research because I literally use it. When you hear me talk about GoHighLevel, that's a multi billion dollar company. GoHighLevel runs my operations. When I talk about Ray and Devin and Shannon, my entire staff and team in the back end, they're all using GoHighLevel because it actually runs my world ecosystem. So again, I'm not sending out affiliate codes for these things. It's for you to research the companies like GoHighLevel, like fan bases that are part of my ecosystem because you've watched me interact with it. If you've ever been in part of my coaching or courses or live events or come to one of my shows or elevator nights, et cetera, or man in the Arena Tour, you've gone to anything like that. You've been interacting with those companies in the back end because they're very functional and useful. I appreciate you guys listening. Make sure to share this with your friends, family and followers. It's important for us for you to forward this video, repost the clips, et cetera. Because when you do that, we can spread the word about money. We need to be able to have these discussions about money because so many of us grew up thinking it's rude to talk about money. This podcast has proven by staying in the top 50 to 100 of all the podcasts in the world that people want to talk about money. They want to be blunt about it. Credit cards, FICO scores. Should I get a loan? A lease? Should I rent? Should I buy? What if my friend borrowed 400 bucks? How do I get it back? Like, we need to be able to talk about money because it's part of our daily lives. So enjoy yourselves. Listen to this podcast, share with your friends, and we'll see you guys next Monday here@themoney Mondays.com.