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There was massive, colossal third party hack this week. Zoom and a considerable security problem tied into a problem they're having in France right now. If you use Zoom on a Mac, listen up. Congress that requires the federal government to remove some of these security cameras. I will tell you why it's almost impossible to remove these things. Apple this week made some changes to the Mac books. They discontinued the MacBook itself. I am planning a Security Summer for my listeners.  I will have some free courses.  I will also introduce you to some of the software that I use for my clients and how you can use it too.  Also, I have some limited opportunities for businesses who have had enough with their security issues to work with me and my team and put their security problems to rest once and for all.   So watch out for announcements on those. For more tech tips, news, and updates visit - CraigPeterson.com --- Transcript:  Below is a rush transcript of this segment; it might contain errors. Airing date: 07/13/2019 A massive, colossal third party hack this week. Zoom security problem. Congress that requires removal of Chinese made security cameras. Apple changes their Mac books.    ---- Hey, everybody, welcome. Craig Peterson here, hope you're having a great day. There is a ton to cover today. I'm going to kind of talk a fair amount about something I think is essential. Everybody we've got had a massive, colossal hack this week. But you weren't hacked. But your business wasn't hacked. But there was a third party breach. And this is going to affect many companies in a significant way. So we're going to tell you how to avoid having that happen to you in the future. Exactly what's going on there. Today, we also going to talk about Zoom and a considerable security problem tied into a problem they're having in France right now. If you use Zoom on a Mac, listen up. There is a huge battle going on right now behind the scenes. That's what happened in France to not zoom, but they did the Bank of China. Man, we talked about them before. There was a bill passed in Congress that requires the federal government to remove some of these security cameras. I will tell you why it's almost impossible to remove these things. If you have security cameras, man, oh, man, we have seen those be a huge problem. It's called a launch point for attacks. It's just crazy. So we'll talk a little bit about that. Apple this week made some changes to the Mac books. They discontinued the MacBook itself. So they now have some very cool MacBook Air models and some MacBook Pro models. A lot of people ask me, and this is probably the biggest question I get from people when it's talking about Apple. Especially for those who have not used this platform before. Is it worth it? Well, I think it is, is frankly, they cost a little bit more, upfront. But when you add up the prices, the cost, they're cheaper, they're a lot cheaper, I typically expect a MacBook Pro to last me eight years, maybe 10 we've had in the last 10 or 11 years before, but an eight-year life versus your average laptop, which is two or three years over on the windows side. So I do think it's worth it. Plus, the machines tend to work a lot better, they're smoother, they are less likely to be attacked, and they have a more secure operating system. Although I have to hand it to Microsoft's new CEO, he is pulling up the socks over there, Microsoft on many, many fronts. While I am not an investor, I can say it's finally a company I would consider investing in as they've done some fantastic things. Apple has made some changes with these Macbooks that they announced this week. And that's an excellent thing. But the 12 inch MacBook is gone. Now. Remember, when they introduced the MacBook years ago, those little plastic ones, which I liked, I had one used one that was quite cute. I think you might like them. There has been a lot in the news over the last few weeks about Amazon listening in. And obviously, you don't want anybody listening to conversations. And you probably already know my opinion on this. But here's the bottom line for those that haven't heard it before. Yes, the Amazon devices, the Google devices, etc. Yes, they can listen, and they have to. But I know with Amazon with their echoes, they've got the hardware setup in such a way that if they're turning on the microphone to send data to record, that little light bar has to come on, they haven't checked it lately, I probably should. But the hardware was designed so that if it's captured audio that light bars on so other than listening for its name, you know, the wakeup word that you would use, it's not capturing anything, it's not sending it up to the cloud. And we've seen court cases a murder cases where they subpoenaed the records, and they wanted to listen in on the conversation that happened just before the murder. And of course, it was not recording it. So there was no conversation that they could playback. And there's nothing they could use in the court case. Now, if you're very, very paranoid, and I know a lot of people that are, and I am on the Paranoid side by myself, you probably don't want to have one of these things. Now I do have them because I want to understand how it works. I found them to be convenient. I use it, frankly, kind of sparingly. But that's what's happening with the Amazon Echo devices, these personal assistants. Now, Google has hit the news just this week, revealing that Google was sharing recordings of people's commands with third parties. Now, in this case, the third parties were developers, software developers, and frankly, you've got to expect them to have access to your, you know, recordings, right? You hopefully aren't thinking that if you ask Alexa or Amazon, Google Home, whatever it is, if you ask them a question, hopefully, you do not think that it's never recorded and never kept because they are. And Amazon keeps the recordings of your voice forever. And unless you go in and manually delete them, and there's some you can't delete, etc. So don't ask stupid questions that you might regret later on. So Google's getting the heat now because some of these Google Home device recordings ended up in the hands of third-party contractors subcontractors to Google now is that much different than having them in the hands of Google employees? Hard to say, I guess you could certainly argue that, once it's out of Google's hands, they don't have access to or control over the data. And because of that, a could be a bad thing, right. And I get that I do get that because hopefully, Google has perfect security. And for everything we've seen, they probably do have some excellent security. But who knows about the subcontractors. Now, that's the bottom line there. So it was disclosed that I think it was like 1000 or so I'm sure the numbers will change over time. But some of these recordings are in the hands of contractors. And so I think the media is frankly, blowing it up here. I'm not going to blow this one up. Because, again, I think if you're asking the electronic assistant to do something for you, you do not have a reasonable expectation of privacy. You know, there's some expectation of privacy. But how often are these devices hacked and everything right? It's just, and it's a constant thing. So you know, don't expect your data to be kept safe. Next up, we talked about deep fakes before. And I saw this, and I was so disappointed. Did you see Star Wars Rogue One, this isn't 2016 Rogue One, A Star Wars story, I thought the story was rather good. It didn't have a whole ton of tie ins. You know, there's like, there's not a fork that I can see that they're planning on running with off of Rogue One. Maybe they are, frankly, you know, early rebellion type things. But in that movie, there was a terrible version of a young Carrie Fisher, Princess Leia. And that actress, there was an actress obviously, that they used her face. And they tried to make it look like Carrie Fisher, and they did a terrible job. But Today, even this was back in 2016. Today, you can do a better job than they the Lucas Films did. Right now with your reasonably high-end home computer. And the question again has come up in this age where we have deep fakes, where we've got Mark Zuckerberg faked online, we've got porn, which they have faked where they're putting some famous actresses face on someone else's body in a porn shoot. How can you tell what's real? And I have talked before about how this could be a huge problem. When it comes to politics. Think about the things that you could have a politician say because it's not the politician that saying that you look at some of the things President Trump says and you kind of roll your eyes. Why would you even say something like that? Right? And you know, this is separate from his policies. But if you have a deep thing that comes out that looks like the person that sounds like something they might say, how can you tell if it's real? And then let's move on to the next step. Remember, Ronald Reagan with the open mic, a lot different than President Obama's open mic where he said, you know, tell Vlad, I'll have more flexibility after the election, right, when he was cooperating with the Russians, and they were colluding together. So, you know, not the President Obama thing, but the open mic with President Reagan, where he was saying, Hey, listen, the bottom line, well, I'm trying to remember the exact quote, but the missiles on Moscow will start falling in five minutes or something like that, I can't remember what it was. And it freaked out the Russians. And some people attribute that to kind of the death nail for the great Soviet Empire. Big all of a sudden now, you know, they couldn't feed their people, they didn't have items on the shelves, it was a socialist system. And as usual, it was failing. And they now figured they had to escalate the arms race and do so much more, because of what President Reagan said. So now fast forward to now, maybe next year and election year, what will happen if they deep fake President Trump saying something that is going to get Iran all up in arms, right, as though there's not enough tension already? Or maybe Russia or China or you name it? How about just one of our good trading partners, Great Britain, or Canada or Mexico? What's going to happen, then? There's, I think, the biggest potential problem with deep fakes because what that means is we are potentially going to see wars started, maybe not between the US and other countries, but maybe between smaller countries, maybe between politicians, right? We already know politicians are out there saying things that are just outrages, taking stuff completely out of context. And even worse, fabricating stuff. So what happens when they can do this and make it look like their opponent set it? Huge, right, huge deal? Well, now the Actors Guild and the actors are starting to get a little bit concerned, because of the potential of these virtual acting stars. Look at what Disney has done lately with Dumbo and the Lion King, where they're pulling the real world in with CGI along with animation. And so much of it is just so seamless. It's amazing. Not that you can't tell that Dumbo isn't a real elephant. Or some of these other characters are actors aren't real, but that's going to change, and that's going to change very, very quickly. So it's going to get to the point where they could hire an actor or actress to act in something. And it's just an, a, b, or c actor. It could be almost anybody off of the street. Now they have to be able to do a little bit of acting; obviously, their facial expressions have to be good, and they have to match. But let's look at the voiceover industry that used to be in cartoons. We had Mel Blanc who was doing all of those things for Warner Brothers, but in cartoons and voiceovers for commercials. You had professional voiceover actors who did a great job. And then it changed a little bit, and Robin Williams was upset because one of the things he did not want to happen has happened he did the voice of the genie in a Latin your remember that I'm sure he did a great job. He improvised the line. Robin Williams had expressed at the time that he did not want the whole voiceover community to be hurt by this he didn't want it to switch to having brand name actors doing voiceovers, you know, doing the comedy sketches basically in the middle of movies. And of course, that's what ended up happening. That the community now has moved from just a straight-up professional voice actor to now, we have regular actors doing commercials and voiceovers, etc. Some of you know it's one thing if they're they're the face of a brand it's another if it's just a straight-up voiceover. So what's going to happen here with the next step, the next evolution in this which will be having voiceover type talent, having an instant? Is it going to be the reverse right? Instead of paying an actress like Carrie Fisher who's passed now button, you know A, B or an A actor to do a scene, they can now come up with a new creative face. That is just the most beautiful face ever most handsome face has the exact attributes they want. Maybe it's the evilness looking face, and, and create that character that they can use throughout a series like Avengers. Look at we've lost Tony Stark now, in from the Avengers series. And according to what I've been reading, they lost the actor. There are two or three actors that are gone now. Because they wanted too much money to do new movies. And I get it from the actor's standpoint. And you know, you don't want to be typecast, etc. You help build that brand. But when the brand is 100% copyrightable, where they created the face, they created the voice with the work of, let's say, a voice actor or someone else. And they now absolutely own it, then what's going to happen? Very interesting. I think that if you're a waitress, I mean, an actress in Los Angeles, in Hollywood, you might want to think twice about this. Now, we see right now a resurgence of need for actors, actresses, because we have everybody producing content, which is, by the way, going to drive up the cost, you thought streaming was going to save you money over the cable TV, not so much. Because what's going to happen here shortly is as CBS, NBC, and Netflix and Hulu, and Disney and even Comcast compete for the eyeballs, they're going to be creating more content. And that means they're going to be raising their prices. So instead of just subscribing to maybe Netflix and Hulu. Now you're going to have Netflix, Hulu, HBO, NBC CBS, ABC, Fox and each one of those is going to be 10 or 20 bucks a month. So the costs are going to go way, way up. So that's the next evolution in that. But ultimately, within ten years, this technology is going to be cheap. And I don't think we're going to need the actors anywhere near what we need Today. The salaries that they are demanding 10's of millions of dollars to do one movie and these days are going to end. You might even remember, Industrial Light and Magic ILM, and they came out of nowhere from the Star Wars universe. And now they're in every major motion picture. You're going to get studios, like an ILM, that develop a character with a backstory and stuff. The primary thing is a character with some flaws one we can love, one that we like listen to and watch. There will be a voice and video, you know, an entire visual presentation and the whole world will change. It's going to change in a big way. Okay, so next up of with let's get into the big news of this week. You're listening, of course to Craig Peterson, make sure you get the weekly updates I had I just got in a shout out again to Sue hopefully you're listening. Today I met with Sue this week, she had sent in a request we did a cyber health assessment, and we're doing some more stuff for her now. We're doing a deeper dive, and we found some stuff that is not only questionable but negative. So shout out to her. We also had a comment this week. And I want to thank James for this one. And this is where he said hey, thanks, Craig. If I hadn't been on your email list, I would not have known about this vulnerability, and he patched it because, of course, I gave instructions on it. So if you want to know more if you want to make sure that you can get the right patches at the right time make sure you visit my website Craig Peterson calm and are right there on the top of I think pretty much every page now. You are going to find a sign up to sign up for my email list. I believe me I don't scam you spam you anything else. Not like one of these marketers is sending you two pieces of email a day. I keep it minimal, absolutely minimal. So Craig Peterson calm. Okay, next up. So this last week, it came out that there was a breach of a US-based cloud solution provider. Now here's how this affects you and your business. This company, called PCM, is generating 2.2 billion dollars in revenue. They've got more than 2000 customers; each of them is a business. It is an article from Security Affairs. The sources say PCs discovered the intrusion in mid-May 2019. Those sources say the attacker stole administrative can credentials that PCM uses to manage client accounts within Office 365 a cloud-based filed an email sharing service run by Microsoft now that came originally from Krebs. Krebs on security is a great site, by-the-way, you should check it out. Krebs is speculating that the intruders could be the same that hack the Indian IT outsourcing giant Wipro this year. It is fascinating because again, this is further proof that outsourcing your IT outsourcing your cloud management does not make you safe. Very, very big deal. Now, I have to tie something else into this because I think that these two may be related. Microsoft Corp. Now, of course, this is the company that makes office 365. We use Office 365 for a lot of our clients. It depends on their size and specific requirements, and we also host email servers for some of our clients. We use Office 365, before other of our clients, and Microsoft themselves even says, Hey, listen, we're not guaranteeing you any security, we're not guaranteeing you any good filtering for your emails, we're not guaranteeing that your data will be safe if you put it on the Microsoft Cloud. We're not even guaranteeing that your data will be there next week. Because we don't back it up for you, you have to do all of this. So most businesses that I've talked to aren't aware of any of these things. There are huge deficiencies in the O365. But what's Microsoft going to do? Well, especially at the price points they sell it for, they there isn't a margin in it for them. To fix this, Microsoft uses companies like mine and many other companies, not like mine, to resell their office 365. And what Microsoft's thinking was or is, is that we have Mainstream, we have Craig company, authorized to sell, install, help their clients use Office 365 features, right, and so now people using Microsoft Teams, and they're using the Microsoft email and outlook and they've got word and you know, whole office suite and everything. And it's a wonderful thing. But I am as the provider, and I am now the master administrator for my clients. And as a Master administrator, I can create new users for them, and I can take them off, I can add specific licenses. If someone wants to use this particular Microsoft product, but other people don't need it. And they pay by the month and based on what the usages. I can reset the passwords, and I can check the security logs, right? I can do all of this stuff is basically a super administrator for their service, then this is great for Microsoft because now that if someone calls them up and tries to scam them saying, Yeah, I'm on the CEO of IBM, and I want access to my account, I lost my password, reset it for me What? Okay, what do you change it to, right? So someone calling Microsoft, it's going to be hard to validate who they are. But somebody's calling Mainstream. I know who the customers are, right? My people know, we know their voices because we were a small company. We're a family company, yet we have other people that are members of my family. But we're a small company that cares about and works with the clients. So a client calls me and says, Hi, I'm president of x, y, z Corp. We know if they are not right, we know what they do. Typically, we're not going to give away figures out their store to someone that is faking it. So from Microsoft standpoint, it's great because they don't get those calls, they don't have the liability that goes along with it that we have, which is why we provide a million dollars worth of insurance underwritten by Lloyds of London, I think that's an important thing for security for businesses. So if they do get hacked, or something happens, you know, there is coverage, and then we also have that kind of coverage. But anyhow, Microsoft doesn't want all that liability, and they would need a million-dollar, they probably need 100 million dollars. they probably self insure they have plenty of cash. It is a fascinating business model. Now, a lot of people out there a lot of businesses who were brake fixed shops have said oh, well, you know, we can make more money, recurring monthly revenue or a monthly recurring revenue by selling office 365. Because we'll earn $5 a month, per account, you know, five bucks a month. Are you kidding me? That's, it's hardly worth billing for $5 a month if you're a small company. The collections of follow up, you have to make a phone call because I didn't pay it. But you have the check processing fee from your bank all of this stuff. How's it? How's it worth it? It's not. So what you have to do is you have to bundle it as a service offering so they can call if they have problems and we take care of things. But these other companies, unlike Mainstream, who are out there not I'm not saying every company like this. But these different companies, what do they know about security? What do they know about the in-depth stuff? Right? I've been doing it now I hate to admit this, but for 45 years? Me personally, okay, then when you add in all of the time from all the people working with me, and we're well past the century mark. So there's a huge difference. But how do you know? So a lot of people, we just lost a client. Because of this, though, they'll go out. And they will say how much for we need 500 email boxes are 50 email boxes, how much do you want to charge how much you charge for that. And so we'll quote it, but we don't just quote as email box, because we know we're going to have to do support, we're going to have to back up those email boxes, we're probably going to want to run their email through our high-end filter, before we send it to Microsoft, because Microsoft's email filters are nowhere near as useful. We're going to want to do all of this stuff. And backup restore, we're going to have to account maintenance and everything. And so they say, oh, wow, well, this guy wants like a 10th of what you want, and you know, the answer is, yeah, they're not doing anything near what we're doing. And you're going to get stung. And in fact, this client did this once before, and another product and they got hurt, badly. Okay, so you've, you've got to watch that it is a huge deal that you do not want to get involved with, you know, it's just crazy. So now, this is how this all ties in this breach at PCM. They lost all the administrative credentials for their 2000 business clients. Now, Microsoft will require multifactor authentication for their cloud solution providers. And these are the guys that help companies manage their office 365 accounts to see what's going on here. It sounds like PCM, a $2.2 billion-dollar company was not keeping their clients record safe. That is huge. Now we use multifactor authentication for everything we possibly can we go further than that. And we use these little keys that are encryption keys that we have to put into the devices to even be able to log in. If you remove that key, that physical key, the system shuts off, all access is blocked. At Mainstream, we keep all of our client confidential stuff highly encrypted digital containers and only decrypt a record when we need it for the client. Microsoft requires that all its cloud solution providers, meet those same standards. Today's show can be found at Craig Peterson dot com. The sponsor of today's show is Craig Peterson's Security Summer Summit. Make sure you attend the summit. Make sure you sign up for the list — and this absolutely free summit. You can find out tons of stuff security summer, go to Craig Peterson dot com, sign up for my emails, and we will talk with you guys later in the week. Take care, everybody. Bye-bye. ---  Related articles: Apple has a problem with Zoom and so should you  New MacBooks Coming Did You Turn of Tracking? Guess What?  Apps are Still Tracking You. Chinese Ministry of State Security Attacks Major Companies Internal Networks Hollywood on the Skids with Virtual Stars Worried About Privacy? Steve Wozniak says Delete Facebook Got Chinese Security Cameras? Just Try to Remove them. ---  More stories and tech updates at: www.craigpeterson.com Don't miss an episode from Craig. Subscribe and give us a rating: www.craigpeterson.com/itunes Follow me on Twitter for the latest in tech at: www.twitter.com/craigpeterson For questions, call or text: 855-385-5553

It is better to give than to receive.  We've all heard that often overused saying from the Bible, but in this interview you'll hear how Beau Miracle, from http://miracle-realty.com/ has a business model that is based on giving back to his community as much as possible.  His amazing story is one of near bankruptcy to victory in business.  You are going to love this episode. ------ Automated Transcript Below: Dean Soto 0:00 Hey, this is Dean Soto founder of freedom in five minutes.com and we're here again with another freedom in five minutes podcast episode. Today's topic is this home and community miracles that and more coming up All right, cool. We got another podcast episode just one is going to be literally miraculous. And there's a reason why we're using the word miracle. And that's because I am joined with Mr. Bo miracle from from miracle real it real team. He's actually from a lot of different things which we'll talk and talk and touch on in just a little bit. But I'm excited for this show. Because there's going to be a lot of amazing content of a lot of amazing stuff. And yeah, I'm just decided to get into it. So So Bo was actually born near where I live. I live up in prey there opposite of Barry area. He's in Madeira was born there, join the Marine Corps actually had a tour in Iraq in 2003 made his way back to Madera and took over in that. I believe it's a family business right? Beau Miracle 1:25 Yep. Yeah. 41 years. Unknown Speaker 1:27 Wow. 41 years that is crazy. So took over the family business, and has just done a whole lot of stuff including owning a CrossFit gym. And he has, he has a son who is at St. Cal Poly San Luis Obispo and it's just all over with a bunch of different groups and, and so on in the local in the local area. Absolutely love what he is doing and how to get them on. So boat. Thank you so much for being on. Beau Miracle 1:57 Well, thank you for having me. I super appreciate it. Dean Soto 2:00 So, so yeah. So when I was looking at some of the interviews that you had done, one of the things that struck me as I started doing more and more research about what you do is just how, how, how all over you are in the community. And that's a really big thing that I'd love to love to hear your story about how you got here, and then kind of go into I want to go into the fact that you're really out there building and helping the community as well as all of your other businesses which we're going to talk on. So how did you how did you get from, you know, born in Madeira, go into the Marine Corps and to where you are at now as the owner of miracle Realty. Beau Miracle 2:51 Well, it wasn't an easy road, but I definitely needed some change. So I moved to Michigan and shortly after that, I had joined more Court. I couldn't keep a job. I wasn't good employee, I guess. And so I definitely needed some structure. And so my cousin, actually, Richie, he was actually going to go into the Marines already. And he was already basically enlisted at that point to go. And it convinced me to go in. And so I wasn't trying to be GI Joe or anything, but he definitely had to go talk to the recruiter. And they kind of motivated me a little bit. I know, I was signing the papers and going to boot camp within three months, and then did a little tour in Iraq in 2003. When it first kicked off. It was a hell of an experience. Thank you for people to have made it back. And thank you, and then. So anyhow, then I started selling cars in Michigan, and I was doing pretty good at it. And the market kind of changed for the worst. And I was in need of some change again, so I decided to move back to my good old hometown, Madeira. And I got back here in 2009. I had to go through some learning curves when I first got back. And, you know, I was kind of dabbling in some things I shouldn't have been doing, decided to change again. So I started going back to school to get my real estate license and get my degree. That's taking advantage of the GI Bill. And I got my real estate license February 9, no February 11 2011. And my clan at that time was to go and work for my father who was the broker at the time of miracle realty here in Madeira. Originally founded through my uncle, who started in Clovis, actually, but narrow realty here in Madeira was the only one still around my other uncle retired. And anyways, short story long. Nine days later, my dad passed away Oh geez, and so trying to kind of My my plan of attack, I guess you can say. And I was put in a position to where I wasn't really sure what to do, who's kind of like my main mentor. And so I was kind of confused. And so I reached out to a few people that I knew that that he had known and that well, they said, you have any money? I said, No. They said, You got any experience? I said, No. They said, Well, I suggest you go and work for another company until you get that experience and build some capital, and then maybe come back and entertain the fact of taking over America realty again, or restarting it rather. And so I just didn't sit well with me it was a family legacy that that my song is created. And so I said f it. And that's what I did. I decided to just kind of, you know, go after it. I didn't know what I was doing. We were in the middle of a recession. Short Sale Foreclosure boom. And so Unknown Speaker 6:00 That's kind of what started it. And then, you know, I wasn't a broker at the time, so I had to have a broker. He was retired guy to do my dad. And he decided to partner up with me and so I can get my broker's license which I did two years later. And that's kind of what what got me into it. Wow, that is awesome. That's that's that is a crazy crazy story. I love that I'm sorry for your loss man. With your with your dad. Especially right after whenever you done that that's that's crazy. But the fact that you just you just went went for went for it and and are now doing what you what you did like that's, that's that is awesome. Unknown Speaker 6:42 What so when you first when you first got into the to the position you are now then what were some of the things that were that kind of oh crap. I didn't expect this type stuff when it came to actually owning the business outright. Unknown Speaker 7:02 Well, I would say probably a oh crap moment every day for like two for like two years. It was crazy. I mean, you know, when when you take over a business or you had to restart the business because it was basically it was a sole proprietorship. So when I read took it over and had to reestablish it that, you know, you don't have inventory, you don't have money. And if you're not selling anything, you don't get commissions. And this is a commission only type of business. So, for me, it was every day. I mean, I didn't know what the hell I was doing. I didn't know who to ask. I was I was a little scorned by the fact of those people that I had reached out to they've been in the industry for a long time. So I felt like that was going to be the answer to all my questions was just like, you shouldn't be doing it. You know, blah, blah, blah. So, anyhow, every day, I mean, turn the lights on keeping the lights on, getting a business license, having to go through the big process. Unknown Speaker 8:00 Success and always being an employee versus an employer. And then I didn't really have employees. And I mean, I don't want to take up too much of your show my drama, but there's this drama after drama with me taking over whether it was family drama, or just the fact that we were in what was my first experience in real estate was the recession. So, you know, a transaction will take six months to close, if not longer. That was just me and a few others. I tend to kept it real intimate and small, because I really didn't have confidence. And so Unknown Speaker 8:37 at that point, it just kind of really made me question what I was doing and if I should have listened to those those voices that that I spoke to, asking me to not go through the business, but Unknown Speaker 8:50 it was a struggle every day for sure. Wow. Yeah, that Unknown Speaker 8:54 that's, that's really honest, though. A lot of people would be like, Oh, yeah, there was like some It was hot. It was hot. Unknown Speaker 9:01 At some points or whatever, but the fact that you're like, holy crap, like, right, there's pretty much every single day. There were something. That's, uh, that's pretty rare to actually have someone say that So, I mean, kudos to you. That's, that's awesome. Unknown Speaker 9:18 Yeah, I mean, I want I want to know more about this. So, so when you started gaining confidence because one thing that I noticed about your business in particular, is that right now there is from from the stuff that you put out, on on, on your Facebook page and, and, and so on. Unknown Speaker 9:42 There's a lot of confidence there. Now, you have your brand, you have your shirt, your your branded shirts, hats, Unknown Speaker 9:50 you're in the community, you're doing that stuff. When did it start to click like that? Where you were starting to Unknown Speaker 10:00 Be able to start building your building your team as well. When did it start to kind of click and not be kind of the, the Holy crap, you know, things are on fire all the time. Unknown Speaker 10:12 Well, I'm gonna give you another honest an aha moment. So probably about a year and a half into me taking over. I had went through a series of series of things that just were just crazy, but then I got sued, and I got sued for a number that I couldn't even write an IOU about. And so it was like $5 million, or something crazy like that. And so Unknown Speaker 10:39 I'm grateful that I had to go through the experience. I just wish it would have been different. But I was faced with the with the with the thing in front of me that was about to take everything away that I had just started and tried to really start creating. And I was already scared. I was scared. From the moment that I started. I dared me Unknown Speaker 11:00 For the lawsuit, and then when I was going through the lawsuit, I was really humbled. And that's kind of where the CrossFit came into play because I was teaching classes at the local CrossFit gym for free because I knew the owner of the gyms that he has your locally and he let me kind of coach for free and it just gave me kind of like that good feel that I wanted by doing that. So anyways, after after going through that lawsuit, I at that point realized, what's the worst that can happen. And so a wise man once told me that someone might be able to to take everything that I that I have away from me, but they can never take my ability to do it all over again. So so that's that's kind of what just resonated with me at that point. As I was like, You know what, you know, we live in California, we're going to be facing things. And you know, for a guy that didn't have 20 bucks in his back pocket that was getting sued for five Unknown Speaker 12:00 million dollars. I couldn't afford an attorney representing myself and having to take all the people that were close to me into the lawsuit as well, because we were all kind of participating in that, whether we liked it or not. And so Unknown Speaker 12:14 it was just a real humbling humbling thing. And I mean, when you're faced with losing everything that you don't have, you kind of realize it doesn't really matter, right? Because there's so much more out there for us that we can be grateful for. And so that's what blew my confidence that at that point, I kind of made a like the personal goal, I guess you can say that. I'm going to expose myself to my community. I'm going to put myself out there, I'm going to overcome adversity and I'm going to I'm going to do what I needed to do. And at that point, I was like, you know, I need to brand myself that's what I need to do. I need to be miracle Realty. So every time you see Bo miracle, like you don't question that I'm part of miracle realty or I'm the real estate guy in Madeira. And so with with with that, Unknown Speaker 13:00 branding, I kind of got some really, really good people to buy into that. And we created a culture from that. And, you know, we went from one or two agents and maybe an office manager, property manager to, you know, almost 12 real estate agents. Not all full time, but I got 12 realtors, and then I got a property manager who's awesome. And then I got an office assistant. So we've just really grown and not and not just the fact that we've grown but what we do in return for our community is I mean, it's just amazing and we just so much for the community and, and I and I spend my wheels trying to dedicate my time as much as possible to, to 10 what you were saying like whether it's their Chamber of Commerce and being on the board of directors or Madeira Association of Realtors or participating in the Fresno Association of Realtors or running our own personal community events like the disabled veterans golf tournament that we just got done. And we're super successful with I mean, just just being out there and you know, Unknown Speaker 14:00 You can't keep anything unless you give it away and that's like my philosophy. I mean, I don't try to make more money I try to do more so I can give more back man i Unknown Speaker 14:11 that is awesome that is absolutely awesome because one thanks for being so real and upfront on that because that is that's actually something that I struggle with just personally with my business I always I'm always had for years and it wasn't only till recently that I've that it's gotten better as I always think, Oh crap, everything's going to come crashing down I'm gonna lose all my money I'm going to lose whatever but to have it where were you were literally faced with that like, I'm not I'm not even faced with that. And I'm and I'm worried about Oh, am I going to be able to feed my family or whatever. You are literally faced with someone trying to take it all from you. And came to the realization that you know what, I'm just you know, I there's so much to be grateful for and Unknown Speaker 15:00 I'm going to just start giving, giving, giving, giving. And that's that's that is one of the things that really struck me with your business. I mean, there's I mean, that in reality, real real estate brokers realtors are theirs they're everywhere right and Unknown Speaker 15:20 one of the but but but to see your golf tournament to see when you're doing stuff with the the Grizzlies over here you're doing all like just a whole bunch of different things that you're doing for the community that is that is that totally struck me and that's it. That's actually amazing how how that cut that culture is formed off of that potential loss of everything. Unknown Speaker 15:44 It just truly did and I mean, you know, they say like law of attraction if you're into that or whatever. I'm a big universe and energy guy but you know, for me, you know, I struggled through through a lot of things through my little journey and Unknown Speaker 16:00 And now where I'm at today, I'm just surrounded by such amazing people that, you know, I don't know why they believe in me and so much that they, they do. But my point is, as I'm as successful as I am, because of the people that are part of my team, I mean, I just have great people. I mean, they just, they bought in, you know, every time someone tries to come to my office, I always tell them, you know, go talk to other offices, and then come back to me, you know, because I really just want to not be by it. You know, I don't want to be that person. That's miracle realty is the best company, even though I love miracle Realty. And to me, it is the best company, but I want them to learn that to themselves. And, and because of what we do. I don't recruit. And I mean, I've been told by people that I should, but you know, I don't want to I don't want to overly saturate our culture because I think that if you get the wrong people, and they don't vibe, you kind of lose that family oriented aspect to what we do, because let's face it, I mean, we're, we're we're with our people. Unknown Speaker 17:00 More than one with our family. Yep. Right so so these are our families so I mean if we're not vitamin I mean it's okay to agree to disagree and sometimes you know just like any dysfunctional family we have our we have our disagreements and whatnot and maybe even our little stats but the reality of it is is is I'm just truly blessed with the people that are in my life and not just in my businesses but you know just all around I just the the people that support miracle Realty and cross it Madeira and other various things I'm part of, I mean, just awesome. And Madeira is one of those towns that kind of like, like cheers, where everybody knows your name. If you really, if you really make a positive impact in this town, this town will will will pay you back threefold. Wow, that's I love that. I love that my aunt my aunt is she lives in Madeira. And I love I love that area. Like it's it's always been really really, really nice. Unknown Speaker 17:56 But yeah, like that. That's definitely a thing. That is it. Unknown Speaker 18:00 characteristic is, is you're giving back to the town because in Unknown Speaker 18:06 to me a lot of people could say, well it's just a small town like what is that going to? Was that you know really going to do for your business or whatever but you can you can tell like you actually care about everyone in the community and that it's it's it's awesome. Unknown Speaker 18:23 How does help so how did so you have miracle Realty and you have other things going on such as cross the CrossFit thing the so let me so that is CrossFit Madeira? How did that come about? I know you that you do CrossFit, but how did that come about? And how does that play into everything else that you're doing as well? Unknown Speaker 18:48 So I've always kind of been into fitness and that was my like, my thing, right? That was my outlet. I had a really good friend that I've known since second grade. She actually just got his PhD. Unknown Speaker 19:00 But he kind of started me on my little fitness journey when I first started kind of redirecting my life a little bit. And so point being is I lost about 60 pounds. And I didn't just lose 60 pounds a month from a certain weight, certain body fat percentage. And so anyways, I was really on this mission statement of just like really aging, who I was because there's three things I wanted to do right before my dad passed, and because I didn't know he's going to pass but I wanted to get my personal training certificate, which I did. I wanted to get my bail bond license, which I did and then I got my real estate license. Well, Unknown Speaker 19:34 of course, being kind of a fitness enthusiast. Everybody always wants to own their own gym. But at the time, what would happen what happened was the gym owner that owned the what's called a Globo gym, like your traditional gyms here in Madeira. He actually he was a very successful entrepreneur here, and he had several gyms and then he ventured into the CrossFit. And so, anyhow, I became good friends with him. Unknown Speaker 20:00 Because I trained at his gym and, and different relationships that were established there. Unknown Speaker 20:05 He started CrossFit at his actual main location in Madeira. And then Unknown Speaker 20:13 I, I was kind of getting complacent in my own fitness. And then one day I did CrossFit and it sucked so bad, because it was so hard, just me off. And that competitive edge and me just kept going back and, and really what was pushing me was just certain things about my body that, you know, my shoulder was kind of giving me a hard time and I wasn't able to do certain list but I was doing because I was a wannabe bodybuilder. Yeah, and so I just started doing the CrossFit thing. And then because of who I am, in my nature, I was like, You know what, I'm gonna get certified also in CrossFit and, and so I did. Unknown Speaker 20:50 And so that was right around the time, and I was actually going to that lawsuit. And so an opportunity had arose because there's some falling out because he had opened up Unknown Speaker 21:00 Another location, which eventually took over, but anyways, I was I was going to the gym or about 530 I was I was teaching classes because they needed someone to fill in and I just gotten certified. So I voluntarily started teaching classes for free. And it was it was because I just loved it. I loved I loved helping people change their lives. I mean, there's, there's always a gratifying feeling when you give someone the keys to their home that they're going to make memories in. But another feeling that when you take somebody that's actually spiritually emotionally and physically broken, and you take do this little fitness journey, Unknown Speaker 21:38 I mean, I've seen relationships restored, I've seen you know, people, their mental strength, their physical strength and their spiritual strength, come back to light. And so, my point was, was I wanted that lawsuit. That was my outlet. That was really what I just that that social element of what most people would go to the bar or do whatever Unknown Speaker 22:00 That was my bar literally, you know, and, and I had people that I talked to. And so long story short Unknown Speaker 22:09 Two years later, the my friend decided to start liquidating his gyms because he was going to sell all five of his gyms and so he he asked me if I wanted to buy their from him. And, you know, I already had a business and I was already pretty busy with that. But, you know, I was like, I looked at the gym and I was like, well, I just don't see myself not doing it. Even though I know it's going to be hard to it's a completely different industry. I wasn't educated on it again. I mean, yeah, I taught some classes, but we're talking about running a business here. And so it wasn't making money. Unknown Speaker 22:50 And there was some things that I needed to overcome within the city to fulfill some conditional use permit. And so it was just a big, it was a big burden at first Unknown Speaker 23:00 Be honest, because it just on paper, it didn't make sense. Even my accountant was like a stupid like, you know, like, Why would you do this? And I said, You know, I said it'll, it'll work. it'll eventually work. I'll make it work. Yeah, I've been in this position before. And so Unknown Speaker 23:19 we're not we're not making it rich or anything. But I will tell you that we've, we've stayed so consistent ever since I took over about now it's been about almost three and a half years. Unknown Speaker 23:30 And since doing that, it's actually shown promise because I'm in real estate, and I'm involved in the community. So usually, if your trainer is your real estate guy, you're going to have automatic instill trust in that person because you already know him. So that became a social network. For me that just skyrocketed my business. I have a lot of people that I actually do train at my gym and then also, that they've either having to manage their property or help them sell or buy homes. So Unknown Speaker 24:01 I kind of just made that work for me. And so now I just kind of cross reference industry and kind of brought real estate to CrossFit. And now you know, phone miracle is miracle Realty and CrossFit Madeira. I love it, man. What? Okay, so one thing I definitely noticed about you, one thing that I definitely noticed about you is that, you know, I'm always reaching out to people who I find interesting to come on to the podcast, and and who I think would would provide a lot of value. A lot of people in fact, I would right before this recording this podcast, I was talking with somebody who, you know, they wanted to have a pre phone interview, they wanted to find out a lot more about what was going on and a lot of people are hesitant to, to say yes to things and when you when when I reached out to you, it was like, bam, you just you were you you you you Unknown Speaker 25:00 You said you would be on the podcast I gave you the the the, the the page to schedule on the podcast and literally within less than an hour, we were already scheduled for you to come on. And most people don't take action like that. And you did you It seems to me like you are that that's a big part of who you are. And maybe I'm wrong of just doing stuff just doing it, you're going to figure it out. Is that has that always been the case? with with with how you kind of like how you're kind of mode of operation? Unknown Speaker 25:39 Um, well, that's a good question. I would definitely say I haven't always been that way. No, not at all. You know, in the first two, two or so years of my business when I first started, I was scared of everything. And I would say no to me. I didn't I didn't even know how to tell people I owned. Miracle real jack almost felt bad or guilty. Unknown Speaker 26:00 I felt like I was doing my dad in service because she was so great at it and I here I was sucking, you know, so Unknown Speaker 26:08 and so, I again, when I, when I kind of had that aha moment, to the lawsuit and whatnot, I kind of I kind of again, made it like a personal thing, like, you know, life's too short to not just take on opportunities, right? Like, they may not all be the things that I want to do, but some way or somehow it's always going to be if I have a good feeling about it, it'll just work out. Yeah. Right. And then I mean, that's when when you reached out I was like, How the hell did this guy even like search do that make sure you weren't Spam Unknown Speaker 26:43 is like legitimate? You know, I didn't know anybody watched that one so that I that I do, but I go on there about twice or three times a year that they're pretty persistent on getting me on there. But yeah, Unknown Speaker 26:54 you know, I researched I saw that, you know, you were pretty reputable and I liked that. Unknown Speaker 27:00 And so I again, I mean, that's that's all I had to do just to make sure that I have a good feeling because I know it would work that it would work out. Unknown Speaker 27:07 I love that man. That is so cool. I'm glad. I'm glad. Glad that you saw that was reputable. Unknown Speaker 27:13 No, it's totally understandable, though. I mean, if someone's reaching out, he's like, hey, couldn't be on my show that you've never heard of. Unknown Speaker 27:23 Tell me a little bit about about your show. If you don't mind. I know it's a spotlight on me. But just Unknown Speaker 27:29 Oh man, this is this is actually the first time that's ever happened, by the way. So So yeah, that says freedom in five minutes show. So I own a company. And its brand is freedom in five minutes. And we have what are called Virtual systems architects. And they are people who can show a video how to do something in five minutes and they document everything step by step by step into a standard operating procedure Unknown Speaker 27:58 and the Unknown Speaker 28:00 That's the business The show is based around but it's really based around even though right now we're talking right now getting the story and everything like that it's really based around the idea which is what I'm going to ask you in just in just a minute it have a five minute things I've noticed that just like with you what you were talking about with the lawsuit and the the decision that you made to just that like that, that there's there's so much more important much more important things in life things to be grateful for that there's always I've noticed that whenever I've had something really big happen, it's been that five minute or less decision where I'm like, no, it's going to be this way. The and so, so I try and get people who come on the show to share their the thing, the one thing or one or it could be the more but one thing that Unknown Speaker 29:00 Took them really, you know, five minutes, like five minutes or less to make this powerful mindset shift that has affected them for the rest of their lives. So that's what the show is about. And it's also to, to hear from other business owners how they've scaled, and then how people can actually reach out to you and to do business with you and so on. So that's, that's the gist of the show. Unknown Speaker 29:25 Awesome. Yeah. Unknown Speaker 29:28 But thanks for asking, man, that was the first time I've ever had a guest to do that. And I appreciate it. Unknown Speaker 29:32 The usually it's before or it's after, you know, so that's cool. Unknown Speaker 29:39 So, so yeah. So the going to what the kind of the foundation of the show is, you know, what's that one thing where it could be with any of your businesses but something where you know, I you just made a decision, what could be something with your staff, it could be something where you decided to delegate something that Unknown Speaker 30:00 You that or whatever but something that you, you're like, I'm, I'm just going to do this and you It didn't really take that long to to make the decision about you just said I'm just going to do this and it ended up being being something that has transformed your business transform your life What would you say that one thing would be? Unknown Speaker 30:23 I think that just deciding to, to say yeah, I mean to get out there I mean, I get I stopped so reserved for so long. When I first started, I was just like, what am I gonna catch my next break? You know, I just felt like I was I was an employee of the business and and a wise person once told me, you'll never be rich when you own business, but you should be able to comfortably pay your bills. And I wasn't comfortably paying my bills either. So. Unknown Speaker 30:54 So, I mean, I was just full of stress. And I mean, I was dealing with problems and Unknown Speaker 31:00 I just was like, you know, in order to do this, I need to get people to buy into what I believe in. And I think that if I can, if I can stay consistent because to me, everything is consistency. Like no matter what, just as long as you show up every day, you put one foot in front of the other. That's the first freaking step, you know. And so with my businesses is when I, when I made the shift was when I was like, You know what, like, I'm ready to grow this thing. And when I when I meant grow it, it wasn't so I could be rich. It was so that way I can get a team to get a team of people that believed in the vision and the culture that I created, that I wanted to be so impactful in our community, just like when people think of miracle Realty. I don't even know what they know what we sell real estate, you know, like that, because we're just out there. You know, we're all the community events and that's like a prerequisite of being at miracle Realty. Unknown Speaker 32:00 At CrossFit, for that matters, like if you're going to be part of my team, you have to dedicate and volunteer time to go to these events. Because we do a lot of events and to me that that's, that's where it's at is just being involved. And, and when you're when you're fortunate enough to be in a town like Madeira, where, you know, it's just under 70,000 population, and it's a one of those small niche town. It's not quite like a Hanford or, you know, not big, but it's just big enough to again, that you if you just stay involved, whether it's sponsoring the local baseball, soccer, schools, you know, the athletes, you know, when my son was wrestling for Maduro, South, just whatever I could do to participate. I mean that that, honestly, just like what you asked earlier, like, like, why did I say yes, well, because, I mean, again, every opportunity is going to be an opportunity if it's in alignment with my assignment. Yeah, right. And then Unknown Speaker 33:00 And I learned, I learned that I learned that little, quote or verbiage motivational seminar I went to not too long ago. And that really clicked with me. Because if it's in alignment with my assignment, I don't ever want to say what is, yeah, or don't want to be sort of could have or would have, right. So again, if I if I, if I find balance with it, as long as it meets in with my alignment to my assignment, then everything else will work out. Unknown Speaker 33:28 Everything will work out, you know, and again, to me, with businesses, anybody can go look on paper and see if the numbers make sense. But I never have taken a business over and looked at it like that. Yeah, I just look at it as Okay, this is my opportunity. And I'm, I'm one person and I can I can spread the word and I can get people to buy into the product or the culture. And again, you know, for me in America Unknown Speaker 34:00 has been around for 41 years but I guarantee you in the last five years miracle realty has put itself back on the map here in Missouri. Or you can you can tell man you can tell by just how all your literally all over Madeira. Unknown Speaker 34:17 It's, it's it's awesome. Like you can tell just from the community building that you've that you've done that that's that is definitely a case and I think it's absolutely amazing man. Unknown Speaker 34:30 So how can people so what are the things you're doing now? And how can people reach out to you? If they're in the Madeira area they want they want to buy a home or if they want to do CrossFit or how can they just reach out to you in general and what are you up to? Unknown Speaker 34:47 Okay, that's good question. So Unknown Speaker 34:50 I'm pretty easy to get ahold of like you said you know, social media, whatever. The biggest thing about what we do is we don't just service Madeira we do service potential Valley awesome. Unknown Speaker 35:00 We do property. We do property management also for investment homes and whatnot. So we have about 100 doors where we maintain and manage from about the upwards of Clovis down to chuck Schiller. Unknown Speaker 35:12 But you know, whether it's for the real estate aspect, you know, miracle realty or miracle hyphen, realty.com, or cross it madeira.com or any of my new ventures, which I just started a new ventures called miracle meals. And it's kind of like those healthy fit meals. So my brother's a chef by trade. And so we partnered up with a local restaurant here in Madeira. And we we cook those meals and those those meals are 600 calories or less with all the right Unknown Speaker 35:43 ingredients, I guess you can say for all those paleo keto, Unknown Speaker 35:47 healthy, juiciest, and then I have another joint venture with a friend of mine, and we do investment homes so we buy the flip houses. That's great. Dan Yeah, so But I mean, they can either get a hold of me through the Unknown Speaker 36:00 website social media you know Bo miracles pretty easy to find or my office number is 559-674-0091. But yeah, typically a social media on on either IG or Facebook, it's pretty easy to get ahold of me someone's trying to reach out. I love it. I love it so so miracle dash realty.com CrossFit madeira.com Miracle meals madeira.com as well. I love I love the miracle meals idea, man. that's a that's a that's a really cool little gig going on. Unknown Speaker 36:39 Makes it easy, especially when I was doing Quito, actually, not too long ago for a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament that I was that I was going to be doing. And I'm like that would that would have been super helpful. Unknown Speaker 36:52 Yeah, so but I'm going to be doing it again. So I'll probably end up reaching out to you. So you do you did Unknown Speaker 37:00 Yeah, yeah, I just been I've only been doing it so I'm, I'm a, I'm a member of a business organization called warrior, wake up warrior. And, and so you set these 90 day targets. And my 90 day target was to do to do a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu tournament because I hadn't done other than combatants in in the army. I didn't do really any type of jujitsu at all, but I had always wanted to. And so I'm like, I'm just gonna do a tournament and we'll see what happens and it ended up being pretty cool. Well, I won third place by default, because someone didn't show Unknown Speaker 37:38 what it was Unknown Speaker 37:40 that goes back to my theory about all you gotta do so. Yeah, exactly. You Unknown Speaker 37:47 know, cuz it's funny. Because my, my coach, he's like, Oh, you know, cuz they move the upper bracket. I was supposed to be 180 to 200 bracket and they put me in 200 and above. So that Unknown Speaker 38:00 I was going against four to 50. And I was like 197. And he's like, you know, we can go get a refund, we can go, we can go and you know, just let him know not to you know that we didn't want to move up or bracket and stuff and I'm like now let's do it. Let's see what happens is not going to do this I'll spend all this time and not do it and ended up winning, winning getting third place because of just showing up in the bracket where in the in that in that bracket where I was supposed to just get completely hammered, which I did, but it was awesome. Unknown Speaker 38:35 It's all about it's all about the experience. And I was gonna say because at my CrossFit gym, he's a partner of mine. He he does when they're mixed martial arts out across it but they're a little just class and stuff so it's pretty cool dang see I'm gonna have to get them to stop by then guys. It's not it's not in Madeira is not too far from from where I'm at. So I'm gonna have to stop by and, and see because that's that's that's great man. That's all Unknown Speaker 39:00 Good, that's always great Unknown Speaker 39:03 to know because I actually want to get into probably one of my probably not this next 90 days, but 90 days after that I want to actually do a mixed martial arts match. So we'll see what happens with that so but Unknown Speaker 39:19 it's awesome so well thanks so much for being being on the show man. I appreciate you appreciate your time. I know you're all over the place doing some amazing stuff. But But I just wanted I wanted you to be on because I thought you know, you do you have just some really amazing stuff going on. Especially the giving side of things which we don't really get to talk about and something that personally I've been lacking and I've been feeling like called to be more out there. So you're, you're kind of like Unknown Speaker 39:50 an archetype for me when I when I see you out there like that. So it's just really cool. I'm glad that you were able to be on the show, man. Unknown Speaker 39:59 I appreciate you having Unknown Speaker 40:00 And how do we advertise your show or or the broadcast that we did today? Oh, just let people know about freedom in five minutes. Austin I end up showing you a Unknown Speaker 40:14 I'll sharing a link to your actual episode so you can share that around or whatever but but yeah, man Unknown Speaker 40:20 just yeah, I appreciate and appreciate you and you're going to give other guests a run for their money with how how giving, giving your arm because it's it's really cool. It's it's a really different feel man so I appreciate it. So. So that is the end of the episode guys. If you want to reach out to Bo he is obviously I mean literally one of the I mean, we only live we've only talked for the last 40 minutes, which even on the show, normally we go about 25 minutes. So that's how interesting you are man. Unknown Speaker 41:00 If you want to get in touch with Bo he's super super nice if you can't tell, I've only known him this this long and I'm like, Oh man, I like this guy so much. Unknown Speaker 41:09 So if you want to check him out, go to miracle dash Realty. com CrossFit madeira.com and miracle meals madeira.com You can also check them out on Instagram and Facebook, just search for miracle realty in Madeira, miracle miracle realty Madeira and Google and he'll pop right up. So all that being said, Guys, it was great being on this episode and we will see you on the next freedom in five minutes episode.

Boom, what's going on, everyone? Steve Larsen from Sales Funnel Radio.   I am excited for this episode. Well, to be honest, I'm actually freaked out. This is my 2019 goal.   I've spent the last four years learning from the most brilliant marketers today. And now I've left my nine to five to take the plunge and build my million-dollar business.   The real question is: how will I do it without VC funding or debt, completely from scratch? This podcast is here to give you the answer.   Join me and follow along as I learn, apply, and share marketing strategies to grow my online business using only today's best internet sales funnels.   My name is Steve Larsen, and welcome to Sales Funnel Radio.   What's up everyone?   Hey, so every single year I do this, and it's the scariest thing I do every single year. This is my fifth year in a row of doing this.   If you wanna see the past goals I've made year by year, you actually can find them on the youtube channel. You go to salesfunnelradio.tv,  and it'll take you to the actual youtube channel. If you want to check it out there - you can see the playlist of my previous years' goals.   Well, every single year I do this. And I remember the first time I ever did this. I was in this place of desperation. I was going into the army. In fact, you can see I have a shaved head. There's almost no fat on my body for some of those videos in there.   I remember sitting back and just thinking, “I'm tired.” guys. I'm tired of not having what I wanna have. I need to start doing things that are more drastic. And that's kind of what I was going through in my head at that time.   So I grabbed my computer, and I literally had traded funnels for the computer I was using. Actually no, not at that time. I don't even know that I really knew what a funnel was when I made that first video.   When I think back about it. I was taking a lot of traffic courses. Yeah, okay, that's what it was! Wait a second, so at the time what was going on, I was probably at business try, let's see, that was around number eight or nine, maybe ten.   I was a traffic driver for Paul Mitchell.  I’d had my first thousand dollar day, and it blew my mind. I was like "Holy Crap!" I was working with another guy at the time, we split the check, but still, $500 in a single day for me, I had never done that. And I was super blown away, guys. That was nuts. Absolutely insane for me.   We were living on a grand a month, basically, I believe. Something like that, anyways. It was hardly any money. And I was tired of it.   We’d been married for three years by that time and I was sick of being poor.   You can actually hear me in the very first thing say that: "I'm tired of being poor. "I'm tired of not having the things I'd like to have. "I'm tired of not having a lifestyle."   And honestly the biggest internal reason? I was tired of feeling like I couldn't provide for my family. I was sick of all of it.   I was like, I need to start doing bigger things. I need to start doing big, drastic things in my life that are the big disruptive activities that literally catapult me to new levels.   So the new goal that I made, the huge big goal that I made that very first video, five years ago, again you can see it, and you can see the progression year by year, which is crazy. I never thought I was starting a thing by doing this. But you can see, the big goal, I wanted to just do an extra thousand dollars a month.   I was like, “If I could just do,” and I didn't know how. I was like , “If I could just do a thousand dollars a month that would radically transform our lives.”   ...I mean, we would eat a little bit better. We would eat more. We could actually eat in general. I was just sick of it. I gotta be honest with you guys.   Looking back on what's happened in the last five years, first of all, is ridiculous. I didn't really figure out the game for the first two years doing these videos.   Then two years ago I was like, “Oh snap, the pattern's everywhere”... and then this last year, I decided to actually test the pattern, and I left my job. Scary, scary, scary stuff.   But when I think about it and the things that have propelled me, I actually wrote this on my window. It says Play Angry. I'm not an angry guy, but when I remember back to what life was like before I started doing this stuff…   I worked my face off, guys. I worked so freaking hard. I know the reason why stuff has happened really well in the last, especially two years. It's 'cause I worked really freakin' hard.   I only took two days for Christmas, and that's not necessarily a badge of honor. I actually wanna change that, and that's part of what I want to talk about for my goal for this upcoming year, but I work hard. I work really hard. I just get after it.   Nine times out of ten, I have no idea what the plan totally is. I'm just taking action. I'm just doing stuff.   So as I look back at the things that have really kept me moving forward, like, “Yes, there's this strategy, that strategy... Remember to do this before that...” That's great, and it's helpful.   But 80% of it is just me remembering the crap that I was going through and what life was like without having known or doing the things that I'm doing now - which sucked. I mean, “Oh my gosh, life was hard.”   ...So I'm excited for this. I'm not gonna lie, I'm actually nervous about this. I hate posting these videos. It's one of the reasons I do it: I hate it. It freaks me out. I don't want to tell you all my goal.   I don't wanna account for every previous year every single January. I hate New Year's resolutions, I think they're stupid. Why am I gonna do that once a year?   At the end of every single month I think through the goal, what I'm doing next month, I make sure that all the things and activities I'm doing are heading me to that target more closely. I'm not doing that once a year, that's stupid. So, anyway, I guess an effort for me to accept a little more of that resolution thing is to do this.   If you guys have never seen me do one of these episodes, or declare my goal publicly - what I do is I account for the last year.   It's not to throw mud in anyone's face. It literally is so you can go back and watch:   Year #1: Here’s Stephen when he had no money and was completely broke.   Year #2:  Still broke. He still hasn’t figured it out.   Year #3: Still broke, but it’s a lot more breakeven.   Year #4: Wow, lotta cash coming. Oh, my gosh.   Year #5: Stephen left his job... Holy smokes, why? What did he learn?   I'm trying to be super freakishly transparent in a way that’s not that popular anymore. It's not me saying, "Woe is me. Look how weak and vulnerable I am." No, no, no, no. Not at all. That’s NOT the point.   I'm trying to do is document everything I'm doing on the way so that you can see my journey.   Being broke was one of the most painful things I've ever been through in my life. And it almost had nothing to do with the money. It had everything to do with my feelings of inability. It wrecked my brain, guys.   It sucked, I don't want to feel like that. That's something that I'm really afraid of. I'm open to talk about that...   So I worked my face off, and after applying a few of these patterns, things really started to work. And then things really started working.   Anyway, so at the beginning of this I always go through and account for last year, and then tell you what my goal is going to be this next year, fiscally.   There's really only two, maybe three goals that I ever set. EVER. Anyway, so I'm gonna go through the fiscal goal for this upcoming year, and then my plan to get it. Which I'm really pumped about.   There's something that I, this episode is a little bit different than the previous ones that I've done where I just kind of say the goal. I want to tell you what I'm trying to do and... there's a gap, guys. There's a hole…   Literally two days ago, I realized that it was starting to appear in me. And I think I know how to fix it, but I'm freaked out about this one area, and I'm gonna solve it. It's just been really challenging.   So anyways, I'm excited about this though…   'Kay, so here it is, okay?   # January 1st, 2018, I left my job. And just to be clear, I had NO team. I had NO additional revenue at all. I had absolutely zero. I didn't have a product. I wasn't running any funnels, I didn't have a script.   Guys, I left with nothing.   I'm actually shocked how much hate mail I got by leaving ClickFunnels. Which is stupid, by the way. That's my choice, no one else's.   But when I left ClickFunnels, the reason I did it was because I had been coaching so many people in the Two Comma Club coaching program at ClickFunnels, that I started seeing these patterns of what was making somebody successful and what wasn't.   There were these holes and these gaps. And I was learning how to do is fill in those holes. Regardless of the product, the price point, or the industry that anyone was in, I was able to go through and figure out, "oh my gosh, this is how you fix it!"   I’d create my own framework and drop it in front of them, and BOOM!   I helped create a lot of millionaires in that program. Literally. A lot of hundred-thousandaires, which is still really good, and tons of people made money for the first time in their life on the internet.   I started getting better and better, and better, and better, better.   I'd already been doing the Two Comma Club coaching program for over a year at least, probably almost a year and a half by the time I left ClickFunnels.   So there were two reasons why I left ClickFunnels:   Number one:  I just knew in my bones I'm an entrepreneur. I just know that, and I'm trying to be more true to myself. I'm trying to find me. And I know that I'm an entrepreneur.   So the longer I stayed at ClickFunnels, regardless of how amazing it is over there and regardless of how dumb it looked for me to leave, and how cushy and amazing and plush and secure that job was... it wasn't me. So I left.   I had to grow some balls and just do it.   So number one, I had to get out of there.   That was one of the hardest decisions I've ever made in my life. Okay, literally. And it still hurts. It’s hard that I only live like three miles away from ClickFunnels, 'Cause I just wanna go in sometimes, and be like "What's up? You all are awesome! Hey, can I just hang out for a bit?"   I tried really hard not to be that kid that just won't leave. You know what I mean?   So I just didn't show up for the first three months. 'Cause I didn't want to be like "What's up guys, how you doing? Hey, remember I said I left, but I'm not leaving. How are ya?  So I left... and really made sure I left.   Number Two: The second reason was that I’d become very confident in the frameworks I was producing. When I was coaching, I knew that if people just did it, they would make money - eventually.   There might be some in-between things that they need to fix, which usually had to do with their personality and NOT my framework. But eventually, it would work.   A lot of good marketers do this, guys. You gotta think about this, right? I started asking myself the question…   I remember this was June 2017, and I started asking myself the question: “What is something huge, like really big, like the biggest thing I can think to have to go through to prove that I know this stuff?”   Straight up, I don't know, what's the word, prowess.  I was trying to, not as a "look at me," but it was to prove to myself and others that I wasn't just building funnels in the corner.   I knew there was more. I knew there was more. And I knew that my frameworks worked. So I started asking myself the question: “What's something that's so big that it would be hard for people to not notice me?” You know what I mean?   Again, it's not like an out of a "look at me!" mentality. But it represented so much - because of all the crap I had gone through. And all the stuff that had gone on in my life up until that point.   I was like, “I need a crucible.”There needs to be this big event. What's the craziest thing I could fathom going through to prove to myself that I could do it? Almost like going full circle and healing parts of me that weren't healed about what I had gone through. You know what I mean?   ...And then especially, “How can I prove to myself that what I am teaching?” I know it works!   If I go to the gym and I'm like "Hey, I wanna lose weight," I will never hire someone who's overweight, right? I don't want to be a hypocrite and be the guy who's teaching stuff that he hasn't done…   And that really got in my head, and it started giving me a complex. I knew that what I was teaching worked because I was seeing other people do it. But I hadn't done it. And to me that's freaking blasphemy. It's like, it's so stupid.   I'm never gonna hire somebody who's broke to teach me how to make money...   I follow the principle of the guy who has the biggest cheese. Sausage number one man. Right, who's the guy, who's the lady, who's the person out there who has done it so much, right, and they can teach it so well because they are speaking from experience?   I wanted to be that kind of person. I wanted to prove that my frameworks work.   So I thought to myself, "Self, what if you left your job with no assets, no income, no funnel?”  Like, this is freaking extreme! I know it is. And I'm not recommending that anybody do that.   For me, and where I was, that was the right answer.  I was like "That's insane." And I went back and forth for a few months like, "Are you kidding? That's stupid, dude! Why would you do that? You're gonna leave?" And like, “Yeah, but it's the ultimate, it does work."   How do I know?   Because I jumped out of a moving airplane with no parachute and built it on the way down.   Again, scary, risky, risky like crazy. That's risky.   And so anyways, I'm super proud. I obviously wish I had made more this year. Who doesn't wish that? But I'm really proud that it worked. And that I knew the frameworks and the models and the formulas to make the game work so well that I could do that.   And again, not like a beat on the chest, “Look how great I am!” But you see what I'm saying?   It was really important for me to prove to myself that I could do that, and for whatever reason, me and my personal development and growth needed that.   So anyways, what I'm gonna do really fast is I wanna walk through what happened last year,  what I'm gonna do next year, and how I'm gonna do it.   ...And then there's something that's kind of freaking me out a little bit and I'm trying to figure out how to solve it. And I think I have the answer but I'm not quite sure.   Anyways, let me pull in my whiteboard here. My trusty whiteboard. Okay, check this out. Here it is. Let me just make sure there's no glare. Let me look over here at the camera. Alright…   So last year from January 1st to December 29th at 9pm mountain time... (I held off a little bit to record this episode 'cause I was trying to flet December end out)... I did $850,000. Well, $850,353, and 87 cents - which is cool.   Last year, if you watched the video for 2018's goal, I was like "I'm gonna go make a million bucks." And like, I saw that and I was like, “Crap!” You know. I was like, “Yeah! No!” Like, “Yes! No!” Superbad. I was like, “NO!” … because of THAT.   So I'm super stoked, I did 850 grand out of the gate:   No team No funnel No product No system   The only thing I had been doing was publishing = big lesson in that.   I had done 100 episodes of Sales Funnel Radio at the exact date that I left ClickFunnels, I believe. The show hadn't even done 100,000 downloads when I left ClickFunnels; we're now at 250,000 downloads of Sales Funnel Radio. Last I checked, but it's growing by almost 2,000 a day now. Which is awesome. So that's cool, right? That's me accounting, being totally open and really vulnerable.   When I left ClickFunnels, I followed my own formula and made 200 grand really fast out of the gate. And then, I got freaked out, guys.   January and February what happened was, there was a lot of cash that came in. And I’d built funnels for revenue, but I hadn't built systems for a business. So I was the business. And it was hell, I'm not gonna lie, guys. It was so nuts.   March came around, which was Funnel Hacking Live, and I turned off pretty much every revenue stream because I was like, "Shut it down, shut it down! I need to go set up this stuff.  I gotta go put these things together.”   So I started putting together all these systems and all this stuff like, support. And then Coulton moved down. And I started putting all these people together because I couldn't handle the speed that the revenue was coming in.   I couldn't fulfill fast enough which is scary because the people were like "Oh, it's a scam!" And “It's not a scam, I just can't keep up.”   Trey Lewellen went through a similar thing when he sold that many flashlights. You know what I mean? Crazy, crazy, crazy.   So I slowed everything down…  and a lot of March and April was a lot of more biz building which was exciting, but it freaked me out, guys. I was trying to keep it cool but man, I was so scared because there wasn't a lot of revenue coming in.   At the beginning where it was like 40, 50, 60 grand a month, somewhere like that, it was like like 10, 15 grand, and I was like "We're gonna die in a gutter. Maybe this was a stupid mistake!" You know, "What have I done?"   So, I was so scared, but I knew the process and I just kept true to it and kept blocking out the noise. And when I turned everything back on, we were back up to 50 grand, 70 grand, and then, five months in a row of hundred, hundred, hundred.  I was like, “Holy Crap!”   Last month in December we didn't hit the hundred. It's funny man, people go on holidays and everything just kind of shut down. It was totally a slow season, I didn't know that. But I'm so stoked though.   And then what also happened, is we were pulling in so much money there that again, I had to stop things and slow things down.   A lot of December for me has been business building and systems building. So I've been building these things that’ll make it so that I can move faster in 2019.   So here's the sting, guys. Here's the sting…   I did 850 grand, collected. Check this out. Man, I was so pissed off when I saw this.   I was just quickly running through my accounts receivable,and we're getting another big chunk of cash again either today or tomorrow. Okay.   Check this out:   Collected = $850,000. To Collect, (meaning the business is there, we're just collecting it still) = $156,000   Man, that's a million dollars!   That's six grand over a million bucks. No, no, no no no!   I was so mad when I saw that. I ran downstairs to my wife and I was like "Look,  that + that  = that’s over a million! What! Like why didn’t I set up more systems?”   Anyway, it was super cool, BUT like, a massive slap in the face.   When I tell you guys the market will always tell you what to do - it just did! I was like "No!" The market's saying: “Stephen, you don't have the systems in place yet to collect enough of the money upfront in some areas of things that you provide.”   There's some really high-end stuff that I go and I do. I just get so excited about doing the thing I didn't have everything set up  - which is stupid.   ...but how would I have known unless I looked. Unless I listened to the market. Unless I was willing to fail... you know what I mean?   So was it a failure? “No, but Yeah.”   By the numbers, yeah. Was it really? No.   Did I do something really risky? Yeah. Did it work? Barely. You know what I mean?   So I'm excited guys, I can't describe to you the feeling of accomplishment that I have with this.   If you guys have been following me at all, I mean there's been many, many moments where, I'm not gonna lie, a little man-tear happened, okay. It flexed on the way out so it's still manly, it's cool.   ...But there was a little bit of a tear there and I was like "Man, you're crazy, Stephen. In fact, you killed Stephen. You're Steve now." A lot of you guys are asking me what you can call me; you can call me, whatever....   But anyway, this journey, this year has been of insane growth in many areas. I've learned:   What did work   What didn't work   Where I should tweak stuff   Where I need to go next   I know what to go build next.   ...And I know, because of pain. I couldn't have foreseen some of the things that I need to go fix, which is why I needed to leave ClickFunnels. You see what I'm saying?   I would NOT have known, "Hey look, when you move into this area watch out for this and this and that."   I wanna be the ultimate litmus test for what I'm teaching people.   So, risky? Totally. oh my gosh, yeah, yeah. Not that risky though, because of what I do and what I did. Don't compare yourself to me if you're like "I'm NOT willing to leave my job."  Yeah, then don't. I'm not telling you to, okay? But what I'm so stoked about was, “That would've been a million dollars. No! Dang it!”   ...Because I, technically, have two businesses, I didn't get a Two Comma Club award this year for my stuff, but both of them, we got the stuff to make 'em work really well, you know? It's freaking close.   Anyway, so I'm being open with you guys about what happened, and what didn't.   I’m trying to be the ultimate guinea pig on a lot of the stuff and test guru's material out.   And Russell Brunson's is the closest material that I've ever found where it's like ready out of the box, you know? It's not that way for other guru's stuff.   I want to be long-term. I want to have the reputation like that for my material. Not like, "Yeah, when you go to that person's stuff, it's great and it's really helpful, but you still need X, Y, and Z to actually use it."   I don't want that. I don't want that. That's why I made OfferMind and I made that event because it was me going through and showing the framework.   I have a very framework, systems-focused brain. And I love going in and pulling those things out and showing:   Look, this is how I did it   This is when it worked   This is when it didn't work.   ...and being that kind of person.   So anyways, going forward, my goal for next year - which is scaring the crap out of me. Which solves half my problem I'm gonna get to in just a moment here. My goal for next year, though?   If you watch the pattern, a lot of what I've done for these goals is the first year was $1,000 a month. Then it was $3,000 a month. Then I think is was $5,000 and then $10,000.   This last year was a million bucks - which is $82,000 a month.   This year, though…   Man, I'm telling you guys, I don't totally know all of the path on how to get there, but I see enough of it that I think it's gonna work. It’s scaring me to death. Ready? Here we go. You can see that, right? Yeah, okay. Four million dollars.   I've tripled the goal almost every time.   And that's where I've gone from one to three, you know. Then this to that. Four million, though, that's the goal! Gosh dang it, that's really freaky to say to you guys.   I know the systems that are gonna be in place. I gotta have more of them. A lot of what I need to set up in order to actually make that happen.   I gotta have a better phone sales system. I'm noticing that that's a big issue of mine. I don't have that many closers. And there's not much of a system and a script set up for that stuff.   This year for me has been a lot about the methodology I use and I teach that you need to enter into and design a new ocean with a single product.   Once the idea has been proven then you go and you can develop all the things inside of the value ladder to go explode it and expand it and actually plant your stake there.   Okay, so for this year…   I’ve  accidentally kind of become the category king in two different categories. One of them was purposeful; the other was completely accidental.   The business I lead with, my major, major passion, is Offer Creation. Just since OfferMind, collectively, those who attended, they've made hundreds and hundreds of thousands of dollars. A lot of money.   I know this stuff works.   It's NOT one person is just killing it, that's a lot of people. And a lot of people who have never made money ever.   I continually get a lot of people that are like, "Man, I made my first 10 grand ever. 10, 30, 30, 30!" And I'm like, "Yeah! What's up?”   Pretty sure you guys made more money collectively than I did - which is awesome and I've very proud about that, actually.   I made more money doing the thing than teaching the thing. That's also very important to me as well. I focused on that a lot of this year.   So what I'm pumped about, you guys, is that I have gone in and I've developed these two businesses.   I have a front end business and I have a back end business:   #1: I teach offers, and I help people create their offers. I build off a lot of 'em, and a lot of people are in need for that. That's one of the major missing loops I was seeing in what I was coaching in the Two Comma Club coaching program.   And so I was like, “I'm gonna go be the offer guy.” And because of Russell Brunson and Myron Golden and Alex Charfen, and a lot of guys that I was being super vulnerable and open with…   They were like "Stephen, dude, you geek out about offers more than anybody we've ever seen in our entire life; go be that guy. There isn't a guy for that. Go be that guy."  I was like, sweet. So I'm the offer guy.   I've proved out the idea into that market.   How did I do that? By OfferMind.   Now that I've got that, I have a product up here. There's actually gonna be a second one up at the top. And then there's a whole bunch of cool front ends.   So on top of all these, proving the idea in front of the market, that's a lot of what this year was about. It's not so much about cashing out. It was about me proving out the systems and the things that I was teaching -  that they work.   If you look at Alex Hormozi, Brandon and Kaelin Poulin. If you look at, a lot of those people that blew up and made 10 million really quick, it's because the year prior, they actually went in and proved out their systems. And then scaled hard with a sales closer team and a phone team, which is what I'm gonna do.   A lot more sales positions, a lot more money up front scenarios, so I don't have this happen again.   The very one at the bottom says: An Assistant. I don't even have an assistant. It's literally two of us that are full time. I have two content teams  and now, we're building an internal funnel-building team. Which is really exciting.   For me to increase my speed, I cannot be the only one building my funnels anymore.   So anyways, guys whatwhat I'm trying to say when I'm teaching you guys right here is like, there's a lot of entrepreneurs that fail at this part of it. This is where they die.   They will remain the solopreneur; they cannot build the team.   They don't know how to scale, they don't know how to put the systems in place. I am excited to crack that code. I will will win at it, and I'm really, really pumped about that.   Now the thing that's freaking me out, just so you guys know: major growth in my life has come from scenarios that I don't know how to solve but walk forward anyway.   I didn't know how to build a funnel the first time I told someone I'd build one. Was it lying? No, because I knew it was possible, and I knew I'd figure it out. So I youtubed like crazy, you guys.   I remember the first time I asked ClickFunnel support how to change background color inside the editor. Okay, seriously, you guys are way further ahead than I was when I started, okay?   I got to the Funnel Hacking Live event the first time with no money. I had to bootstrap my way there. That's a crazy move. That's a big bold move.   I created the original Two Comma Coaching Program and ran the FHAT Event, which is crazy. A lot of successful people came from that event. For me to say yes to that was a scary thing.   I had to replace Russell Brunson on stage for three straight days, That freaked the crap out of me. Yeah, I was excited but I was scared to be totally honest with you.   Leaving my job! WHAT? Okay, that's nuts.   And so what I've noticed is that I suck at willingly manifesting personal growth. I'm not good at it. Almost no one really is. 'Cause when we start feeling pain the natural inclination and all of our justifications say "Back off, Stephen, why you gonna feel that pain?"   What propels me forward, and what I've been trying to figure out is what the next absolutely freaky goal is? What’s the experience?   I have a hard time willing those kind of experiences into my life, anyone does.   Like, basic training. Man, I couldn't get out of that. Right, I couldn't get out of, and I did those things for that reason.   I did door to door sales because it scared the crap out of me, and I knew I'd learn like crazy in the middle of that environment.   I'm trying to find the next environment. You see what I'm saying?   My  goal is four million dollars. I know I'm gonna hit that. It's a goal, it's scary 'cause I've never hit it, but I know I'm going to. I know that this next year I'll probably have at least three Two Comma Club Awards.   ...cause I got a lot of products that are in the hopper and they're all gonna tie together and reference each other, it's gonna be awesome.   BUT the thing that I'm trying to figure out is: How can I architect freaky big things and environments I can't get out of? And I don't know how else to do that except for a big goal that feels freaky to me that I've never done before.   And is it bigger than other people's? No. Some peoples are bigger than mine, I totally get that. But I'm on a journey and a comparison of me versus me. And to me, that scares the crap out of me.   I gotta build crap I've never built. I gotta build stuff I've never done. And I gotta push forward that way.   Anyways, what I'm saying is, the thing that I'm trying to figure out... Guys, this sounds so opposite. Completely opposite than what a rational individual would do.   I did not have an option when I left ClickFunnels, other than to make money work through funnels - because my back was against the wall, and I knew that. And that's one of the reasons I was doing it.   I could learn at a really slow pace by studying others, which is good to do for a while. I could learn at a really slow pace by consuming tons of content, which is really good to do for a while, until you're trying to figure out what you want to do   BUT, then, I don't know another way except burning the boats.I voluntarily try to find ways to put my back against the wall and cut all options out.   For the last five, six years there's been a lot of scenarios like that. Bam, bam, bam.   I'm 30 years old, I don't want there to be too much comfort in what I do. My goal could freak me out, but I know I'm gonna hit it. I know I'm gonna hit it. So, what can I orchestrate in my life to make it where I don't have an option but to move forward?   ...And that's the thing I've been trying to solve and it's really been freaking me out. I don't know how to solve that right yet. Because I don't wanna get comfy.   I'm not saying I'm not gonna go experience and have fun times doing a few things, you know what I mean? I'm gonna enjoy life, and I am a happy guy, but when it comes to personal growth and business and moving forward, frankly, I want to be big. And I know that…   Hopefully you guys know what you want? Don't be apologetic about it.   ...But how can I orchestrate the next ridiculous scenario in my life where I don't have an option? Where I will figure it out, out of desperation.   Which sounds crazy. Almost a masochist, I promise I'm not. But you see what I'm saying?   I have never learned more about myself than in those scenarios. I've never learned to love me more than in those scenarios. I've never learned to fill in the blanks faster, with more aggression, applied aggression, good aggression, right, than in those scenarios.   So like, man, I left the job, right? And everyone talks about that, and okay, done.   I'm trying to figure out what the next freaky thing is? And I can't.   I think there's a combination of some physical aspect, so I've been saying like, “Man, sometime I'm gonna try and choke out Russell Brunson in jiu jitsu.” Which is freaking scary 'cause that dude's like, all-American killer. That's cool, but my back's not against the wall.   There's no scenario yet where my back's against the wall. My back's not against the wall yet for this years goal, which freaks me out.   Most entrepreneurs just glide into the night when they hit some kind of a phase like this and I don't wanna be that way.   That's the real thing. That actually freaks me out more than the four million. I know how to hit that. I know the processes and the systems. I know exactly what I'm building. I'm almost done with my high-ticket thing that I've been building and putting together, and it's so awesome and there's nothing like it, and it comes from this perspective that has been very unique for me - because not many people do the stupid move I did by leaving my job.   Which is ultimately awesome, but you know what I mean?   Anyway, I'm really pumped about it, but I know I'm gonna hit that goal. I know exactly what my products are gonna be in my value ladder. I've got people building that stuff for me now.   My internal funnel-building team that I dream-lined out; I've already approached them, and they already said yes. Now I'm just gonna run through the process of it.   I'm gonna treat it just like I do my content team, so I'm gonna babysit it the first few funnel-builds to really document the system, and then keep moving forward. You know what I mean?   But like besides that, where's my next level of:  "Oh crap Stephen, can you do this” coming from? And that, my friends, has been one of the greatest accellerents to anything that I've done ever.   So I'm really pumped about it, but also scared to death 'cause I don't actually know the answers yet. I'll figure it out, and I'm gonna keep looking for it. It's exciting, exciting stuff. So anyways guys, that's my goal. I collected $850,000   I still have $156,000 too collect   I'm gonna do four million this next year.   Honestly ,I feel like I'll do four million this next year running at the pace that I am, but anyway. I know I think at least we'll do three; four is the stretch. Which again, freaks me out, but I see where to go for it. I'm pumped about it.   Watch how I'm launching my stuff moving forward to watch how I'm doing that. It's a balance between what I'm doing publicly and behind the scenes in my actual company. It's this next piece, though: How can I orchestrate a little bit more fear for me personally?   To be freaked out for the sake of: let's put your back against the wall and see what you're made of, Larsen? You know what I mean?   Anyway, so I'm psyched about this, guys. Thanks so much for sticking with me. It's a little bit of a longer episode, but I just want you to know that's my goal.   I challenge each one of you guys to post your goal publicly.   It’ll freak you out; it usually scares people. And a lot of the audience that is following you, that you might not even know about, even if you don't feel like you have a following, someone's watching you, they'll follow up with you. A lot of you guys did with me. They were like, "Stephen, you gotta hit the goal, man!" I'm like "I know, and I think I'm going to!" And I thought I was, and then I didn't freaking collect on some of it - “Dang it. Dang it man! Gosh!”   Anyway, whatever…   Thanks for following the journey. Appreciate it.   Again:   I challenge all of you guys to go in and post your goal, whether on the comments of this post or somewhere, but get open and real with what you want. Get unapologetic about it, and move forward. Because no one wants what you want more than you do. Stop waiting for permission.   Alright guys, see you later, bye!   Aw, yeah!  Hey, obviously a funnel's already dead if you can't even get anyone to opt in, right?   So I spent four hours teaching an audience how to get high opt-ins; when they work, when they don't work. If you want access to that members area where you can watch those replays, just go to freeoptincourse.com to create your free members account now.  

Following popular acclaim of their Xanatha… What? Okay, okay, no fake news? Let’s start again. Following no real negative criticism of their Xanathar’s review, Martin and Paul return to the ...

I guess that large adult bully really did some serious damage to Ben’s brain, because he’s… arguably the best character for this episode? What? Okay. This week we’re talking about S01E11, “Just Say No”! It’s… fine! I guess! Besides everything with Adrian’s dad and everything with Ricky and everything with Alice and everything with Jack, […]

I guess that large adult bully really did some serious damage to Ben’s brain, because he’s… arguably the best character for this episode? What? Okay. This week we’re talking about S01E11, “Just Say No”! It’s… fine! I guess! Besides everything with Adrian’s dad and everything with Ricky and everything with Alice and everything with Jack, it’s fine. Gricky becomes canon, Adrian’s dad becomes Ruben, and Lauren just keeps getting worse. This week, Ricky learns how to do a cartwheel. Hold on to your promise rings!Sam – https://positive-stress.tumblr.com/ Jordan – https://twitter.com/BradypusRexAlso we’re on Patreon now!!!! https://www.patreon.com/juergenit

What we're trying to do is figure out what leads us to the edge of happiness cliff that point at which we have a maximum productivity, maximum happiness without going over the edge - Amy Blankson There is no doubt that technology in the 20th century has brought advances unimaginable in previous eras. In the US gross domestic product per capita quintupled from 1950 to 2016. Things that were once luxu­ries have become affordable commodities. However, with such advances, computers and all that comes with them, internet, games, email, etc., are now in our pockets, purses or strapped to bodies. They are extensions of ourselves. Tech companies pay big money to UX designers and engineers to create devices and apps that grab and keep your attention. They high want high engagement metrics. They need you to spend time in an app or a video and to come back, over and over. So we all know it impacts our productivity but what about our happiness? What is the impact of a world of screens and notifications on our cognitive behavior and development? What about our relationships? Enter Amy Blankson, my guest on this episode. Amy has become the world’s leading expert on the connection between happiness and technology. Amy is an alum of both Harvard and Yale and has worked with organizations like NASA, Google, the US Army, and the Xprize Foundation to help improve well-being in a Digital Era. Amy states the problem in terms of discernment. “There’s this pain point about technology and happiness with technology specifically draining happiness because people feel overwhelmed. They don’t know what to do with all the information… and how to evaluate what’s actually good for them.” There is now a condition called Nomophobia, as in no-mo(bile) phone-phobia. It’s a fear of being without your smartphone. Seriously, a phobia and 40% of Americans “suffer” from it. One in five young adults admits to using a smartphone during sex. What? Okay, I'll cop to using the phone in the bathroom, so I need help. We are in uncharted territory. Amy says that we absolutely need to look at our relationship with technology very carefully but what she came away with from her research was surprising to me; that time on the screen is not necessarily a bad thing. Time on the screen is not necessarily bad. What is bad is the unintentional non-thoughtful use of the technology - Amy Blankson In fact, she goes further stating that technology can actually increase happiness - IF you use it wisely There’s the rub. Using it wisely On this episode we discuss what she learned writing her new book, The Future of Happiness. Amy talks about how we can mitigate the dispiriting effects tech can have and rather leverage it to increase our happiness. She's done the research and has the data on what you can do in the midst of work / life to harness it to serve your real needs in relation to happiness: social connection, meaning, and well-being. Amy answers LOT of questions I had like... Is there an inverse relationship between personal happiness and tech innovation How should we use Facebook, or should we abandon it? Would we be happier without tech? What is the impact of distraction on our well-being? How do I manage all my apps to minimize distraction? What about wearables? What do we teach our kids regarding appropriate tech boundaries - what exactly IS appropriate? Are there specific apps that can helps us become happier and healthier? Oh, and you have got to hear her answer my Timescape question. Give it a listen. For resources discussed in this episode go here.   

 has a podcast called . I met him at the here in LA. He co-produces the show. We talked, he mentioned, in passing, that he's re-reading ALL of the Spiderman issues ever written. What? Okay. Get over here. So, we talked and it was great.  Afterwards, he was talking to Andy and he MENTIONED that he KNOWS the Transformers AT Universal's Theme Park. He will return. This was fun. Enjoy.  DONATE folks… I’m working over here.  or Credits:Audio leveling by Music is by Website design by : who has his own Apps are available with the bonus contest:  or