May 28, 2025 • 33 mins
What if your retirement didn’t have to be a gamble? In this powerful episode of the Super Entrepreneurs Podcast, we welcome Mark Willis—a certified financial planner, three-time #1 bestselling author, and host of the globally ranked Not Your Average Financial Podcast—to share unconventional wisdom that challenges traditional wealth-building strategies.
Mark explains why market risk isn't the only (or best) way to grow wealth and introduces financial contracts as a tool for building predictable and sustainable financial futures. We get into mindset, energy, and how internal beliefs shape our external results—making this episode as much about personal growth as it is about financial empowerment.
Chapter Stamps:
01:37 The Importance of Relationships
03:11 Mindset and Self-Image
12:18 Alternative Wealth Building Strategies
16:26 Facing Financial Realities
17:41 Discovering Risk-Free Strategies
19:26 The Power of Contracts
21:24 Becoming Your Own Money Guru
30:24 Aligning Actions with Beliefs
Pullout Quotes:
- “Reality is the undefeated champion. It doesn’t matter what you believe—truth always wins.”
- “Confidence is a currency just like money. When you walk in your power, the world gets out of your way.”
- “There are no failures, only experiences—and our reactions to them.”
- “Don’t let someone else become the guru of your money. You are your own financial expert.”
- “You can write a contract with your future self—and that contract can change everything.”
Social:
Website: https://lakegrowth.com/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marklakegrowth/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lakegrowth
Disclaimer:
Please be aware that the opinions and perspectives conveyed in this podcast are solely those of our guests and do not necessarily represent the views, ideologies, or principles of Super Entrepreneurs Podcast, its associated entities, or any organizations they represent or are affiliated with. We provide a platform for discussion and exploration, and the content of each episode is understood to be independent expressions from our guests, rather than a reflection of the beliefs held by the podcast or its hosts.
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Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Jim Carrey, the comedian.
He writes himself a check for $10 million.
Yeah.
And he visualized it.
He wrote it to himself, but hedidn't just put that check on
his mirror and forget about it.
Afterward, he went out.
He became it.
He became it.
(00:36):
Welcome back to SuperEntrepreneurs Podcast.
I'm your host, Shahid Durrani.
The show we where we dive into theminds of high performing entrepreneurs,
innovators world class leaders.
If you're someone who's alwayslooking to grow, push your
limits, think and do bigger.
You're in the right place today wehave with us Mark Willis, a certified
(01:00):
financial planner and the founderof Lake Growth Financial Services.
Also, the host of the Globallyranked not your average financial
podcast at top 1.5% and a threetime number one bestselling author.
Mark specializes in helping individualsand business owners grow their
(01:23):
wealth in a safe and predictable way.
So I am grateful to have youon the show, mark and welcome.
Thank you Shahid.
So glad to be here.
Yeah, it's great to have you man.
It's great to have you.
I know we were chatting beforewe started recording, those brief
discussions are super important as well,
that's right.
Yeah.
(01:43):
Sometimes it's the green room chatthat makes all the difference,
the moments before we go live.
'cause that's, honestly, that'swhere we get to know each other a
bit and as both business owners andpeople trying to serve our audience.
So thank you again for having mein your living room, so to speak.
And be able to serve in whateverway we can do that today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
I know we were talking aboutrelationships, how important they
(02:06):
are, you are a podcaster yourself,and you probably agree that it's the
best form of relationship building.
Not that we build it with every singleguest or every single person, but
it's a great way to align energies.
I feel.
A
hundred percent.
Yeah.
We really do live in the future wherewe can do this across boundaries, across
(02:26):
internets, across territories, whatever.
And we're here talking to people inpeople's ears, on people's screens.
Yeah, whatever.
And changing, possibly changingthe trajectory of their lives in
small but maybe significant ways.
So it's very humbling.
And I take the task with great humility.
It, and it's, but it's alsoso much fun that we could do
something like this so much.
(02:47):
This is something our grandparentscouldn't have even imagined.
No.
Or even our parents really as kids.
So it's something we reallydo live in the future.
Yeah.
My mom still doesn't get it.
What do you like?
Just having fun.
I go yeah.
Just having fun.
That's right.
Yeah.
'cause you're not working like.
Try say all day.
You're not a hard worker.
Yeah.
You're just being lazy.
(03:08):
Now you got older.
I go no.
I'm just having fun.
And literally that's the secret,that people don't really realize is
that when we shift our life to havingmore fun, it changes the trajectory
of our results, because now why?
Because we're vibing higher.
We're more enthusiastic,we're happier, we're jolly.
We have that joy in our step, andthat attracts other human beings as
(03:30):
well that wanna do business with you.
There's a big aspect that is missing,and unfortunately this happens
because everybody is conditionedto live from the outside in, right?
That's just the way we weretaught, and when we do that.
Every other bump we take it personal,for example, or there's a lot of mindset
stuff going on that we look at it ata negative with a negative eye, right?
(03:52):
But if we start shifting, and themore we play that game of finding
good and being happy and joyful,the more it becomes a habit.
And that's what's beautiful about it.
A hundred percent.
I don't believe there are any failures.
There are no failures.
I just think there are experiencesand then our reactions to them agree.
I think all of us are, none of usmake it outta this world alive.
(04:12):
So we're all gonna stub our toe andpossibly break a leg, literally and
a lot worse in our business lifeand in our physical and emotional
and relational spiritual life.
And the question is notwhat happened to you.
It's what's our.
Interpretation of what happenedto us, what's our reaction
to what happened to us?
And what is our agreement wemade with our past selves as
(04:35):
a result of that experience?
Yeah.
How many of us said, oh,I'm just unlucky with money.
Or, oh, I'll always be poor,or, Hey, money is only for
those evil rich guys, yeah.
It's so false statement.
And when we so false, when we havethat agreement, then even if we're
successful yesterday, we're gonnafind a way to lose the money today.
(04:57):
Yeah.
I don't know if you've ever seen anybodywho's had that experience, Shahid,
but it, it is remarkable how we bringourselves up or we lo drag ourselves
back down to what we believe we deserve.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it was a famous I'mnot sure who said this code.
Or even if I'm saying it verbatim,but they were saying about how we
(05:19):
We act and be, and what we do on adaily basis is a direct reflection.
Of what we see ourselves to be.
In, in a way, it's more of on the lines ofa self image, how we see ourselves right.
On a daily, right moment to moment basis.
And then that's how we interact with life.
(05:41):
For example, when you say something froma goodness of your heart or you want to
help someone, they can only hear you.
Based on what their belief system is.
What they expect.
That's right.
So that's right.
That's the only world, and that'sthe only version of you they see.
And I don't know if you experiencedthis, but this happens a lot,
especially if you're in sales.
(06:02):
You might really, from yourheart know that this thing
is gonna help someone, but.
Because you have this passion about it.
Because that person mightthink that, oh, this guy's just
trying to sell me something,
they might lose that opportunity,that gem because of that program.
Yeah.
That conditioning,
yeah.
There's another I forget if it,I forget who said this, but the
(06:25):
statement is Never explain yourself.
Never explain yourself.
Your friends won't need it.
And your enemies won't believe you anyway.
Yeah.
So just be yourself, truly.
Just live it.
The most powerful person inthe world is the person who
sees himself in his own power.
Yeah.
And if you explain yourself, you'rediminishing your power and you're trying
(06:46):
to defend what you're trying to do infront of people who will either not need
it in the first place as your friend.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I already trust you sir. I don'tneed you to explain yourself.
Or two, the enemy who's nevergonna believe you anyway.
So why waste your poweron people like that?
Yeah.
So just take your power back and keep it.
Just walk in your own power.
PE the world will get outta your wayif you're walking in your own power.
(07:07):
And I don't just mean that in a.Esoteric woowoo kind of sense.
I mean that truly, confidence is felt.
It's a currency.
Just like money.
Yeah.
Just like time, just like attention.
Why do we pay attentionif it's not a currency?
And when people are watchingsomeone who's truly confident and
who they really are, they will pay.
(07:28):
Attention.
Yeah.
If yeah.
They'll invest their time with you.
These are financial phrases, but it'srelated to the currencies of life,
time, energy, attention, and money.
Those four currencies are truly the fourthat we all have to deal with in our life.
And when we explain ourselvesaway we're really just pouring
money down the financial currency.
(07:48):
It might be time or our attention orour energy down the financial drain.
Yeah.
And for my entire career, it was abig hurdle for me because it really
mattered what other people thought of me.
Like it was right.
Yeah.
It was so bad that I would justlook at people in their eyes, what
I see, so are they agreeing with me?
Are they disagreeing?
(08:09):
Am I saying the right thing?
That kind of stuff.
I stutter I lose mythought, all that stuff.
I don't get jumpy anymore.
Recent being is that.
Like you mentioned, I'm in my power.
And when I'm in my power, it doesn'treally matter what anybody thinks of me.
Love it.
I'm just love gonna do what I do andI'm gonna add value as much as I can.
(08:30):
IF up, if I screw up, that's I'm human.
You know it's gonna happen.
But my intentions arepure, my is goodness.
So when you start livingfrom that goodness, we start
vibing with that energy.
You start attractingbetter opportunities too.
I know you mentioned woo, it maybe inthe seventies, but now the amount of
research that's being done into this realmof energy, vibrations, and frequencies
(08:53):
that will blow your mind, yeah.
And to remain ignorant about it.
That's very easy.
Yeah.
But to go in and start listening to thiscontent, these research papers that are
out there just look at what's happening.
Even CIA did a report on it.
I'm not sure if that's real or not, butthey were talking about a lot of facts.
But there's other aspects ofmany different researches,
(09:16):
especially scientists.
They are looking at the connectivitybetween the DNA, if it's out of the
body, in the body kind of thing.
Many different other types of researchthat makes you wonder that what we
think life is a lot more complex than wecould ever imagine through our senses.
That's
right.
Said, that's right.
You've probably heard ofPlato's Allegory of the Cave.
Yes.
(09:36):
Yes, of course.
Yeah.
I think for those that aren't familiar,I'll briefly mention it's a, a.
Bunch of people tied to a wallbasically, and all they can see,
they've grown up in this cave and allthey can see are shadows on the wall.
One man somehow escapes from thischained experience and is carried
up to the sunlight where he cansee the entire world as it is.
And of course, he immediatelyfreaks out, can't understand it.
(09:57):
Finally becomes aware of his truth,which is we're all tied to this wall.
Then he is carried back down to his.
Comrades in chains.
And they won't believe him.
They won't believe him.
And you're right.
Why?
Why does it in what world do we believethat we've got it all figured out at
this stage in all of human existence?
When we look back at a thousand years ago,people who had wildly incorrect beliefs.
(10:22):
How is it we think todaywe have it all figured out.
That's very arrogant of us.
Yeah.
It's just yeah.
So much research is coming out.
Different levels.
Yeah.
That we, there's so much more to life thanwhat we can, see with our five senses.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's
levels of awareness,individually and collective.
As we progress, as our cautiousnessexpands, are learning more and more.
And many of the things we'reprobably not supposed to know, and
(10:44):
we probably will never know with our.
We're just not meant to knowthat's how beautiful it is.
But what we're meant to know,we're finding out, and the problems
as we go are being solved inscience, as they call 'em problems.
But really they're just lessonsand learning of how everything in
nature is at the end of the day.
(11:04):
Connected.
It's all one.
And that aspect of doing good forothers, they don't understand it.
For example, I'm part of communities andI say I wanna add value in your life.
I wanna help you with the mindset stuff.
I'm sorry, but there you'reexperiencing a lot of frustrations
and you get very agitated.
I pointed out, I know it'sbad, but I do it sometimes.
I don't hold back.
(11:25):
It's not good, you're not supposed to.
Get in someone's thing, but I care.
I care.
So I just, sometimes I don't hold it back.
Sometimes I become politicaland I hold it, so I just flow.
It just comes out and they realizesometimes you just need someone to
mention that, wait a minute, I am, I.
Frustrated a lot.
Like, why, I do have, I have multiplecars, I have a big house everything.
(11:48):
Why am I feeling this way?
So that awareness that we start Yeah.
Experiencing internally our ownself-awareness, then collective
self-awareness and by transforming inthat and living more from the inside.
We start experiencing lifeas it meant to be business.
All this is gonna happen regardless,but if we come with a strong internal
(12:10):
world, nothing derails us anymore.
There's this power, like you mentioned,that we take back a hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's beautiful.
I love this stuff, but I want to askyou about a lot of traditional advisors,
they might recommend stocks and bonds,
you are more in the alternativestrategies for wealth building.
(12:31):
Can you speak about that, howit's beneficial to go in that
direction rather than traditional?
I think it goes right in line withwhat we're talking about here.
Okay.
Abraham Lincoln said how many legs doesa dog have if you call his tail a leg?
Give up.
How many legs does a dog haveif you call his tail a leg?
(12:52):
Give up Five.
Five.
That's what I would'vesaid, but actually four.
Yeah.
Four.
Saying his tail is a leg.
Doesn't make it a leg.
No, it doesn't
make That's true.
Okay.
That's the humor of Abraham Lincoln.
Gotta love it.
Anyway, I love that quote, andthe reason why I love it is.
Truth is the undefeatedchampion of all time.
Truth, reality is undefeatedand it always will be.
(13:14):
So whatever I think or believeback to the idea of agreements and
interpretation of my experiences.
What doesn't matter is my interpretation.
What matters is reality.
Yeah.
Even if I don't see it properly.
Yeah.
Response.
And what does this have todo with finance and stocks?
So think back to the last 30 years.
Of investor behavior.
(13:35):
As a certified financial planner,I should be out here telling you to
invest your money for 30 years in thestock market and you'll get, you'll
fall off a horse and get 12% a year.
And it's just gonna happen magically.
But I had to face reality and I guessI came into this business with the
advantage of being right at the startof the 2008 and nine financial crash.
(13:56):
Several years ago.
And so it helped me pull back the curtainson what really goes on when people
put their money into the stock market.
All your traditional financialadvisors are going to tell you,
interpret your losses as acceptable.
Interpret the abuse you receivefrom the market as normal.
(14:16):
How many legs does a dog have?
It's four.
But even if your financial advisorsays it's five, no, it's still four.
It's still four.
Good point.
So Delbar, which is athird party research firm.
They're outta Boston area.
They are third party, meaning theydon't care what you do with your money.
They're not, they don'thave a dog in the fight.
(14:37):
They looked at real investor returnsand they do this every single year and
they looked over the last 30 years ofmarkets and we've had an incredible
bull market these last 30 years.
And there's reasons whywe could say that the.
Return of the s and p 500 overthe last 30 years was 10%.
(14:59):
So everyone says you should get 10%if you buy an index fund, which is a
typical buy, everything kind of indexfund, passive investing, that's the
comment that most financial advisorswould tell you, but the real investor
return, are you ready for this?
Over 30 years was only 3.6%.
Oh.
(15:20):
So what's the difference?
Interesting there.
Why?
Why is there such a big differencebetween what we are told we can get
and what we're actually getting?
It's like when you go throughthe drive-through and you see the
pictures of the Big Mac and youorder your sandwich and it looks
depressing when you get the actual.
Sandwich in the package, right?
(15:41):
It what is given to you ismuch less than advertised.
To go from, 10% down to 3.5% isdeflating at best and scary at worst.
According to the US CensusBureau and according to A RP the
average retiree will outlive hisor her savings by over a decade.
That's scary.
(16:02):
In fact, more retirees fear runningout of money than even dying.
Yeah.
So you know, this is not just,getting a de, sad looking Big
Mac in your sandwich pack here.
Yeah.
This is life or death for a lot of folksand a lot of folks our age pretty soon
are gonna be getting the phone call frommom and dad saying, Hey, I'm sorry son.
(16:22):
I'm sorry daughter, but you'regonna have to help support me now.
I'm outta money.
Yeah.
I can't live on my own anymore.
So first, and I gotta retire with you.
So first you scared us with a deaththreat that we're all gonna die.
Are you
about that?
Oh, you're killing big Macs for us.
Come on.
What's going on?
No, I'm just joking.
(16:43):
Yeah.
I'm sorry to give you thedowner news but hey, I know the
good stuff is coming, right?
That.
So you punch 'em
in the gut and then that's right.
Yeah.
Honest truth, again,reality is undefeated.
Yeah.
The dog only has four legs,no matter what we think.
Yeah.
Facts are facts.
Yeah.
My my hope is that bywaking up to reality.
Like I had to hear those phone callswhen my CPAI was working for A CPA
(17:07):
at the time of 2000 eight oh nine.
She was making those phone calls toher clients and saying, I'm sorry
Mr. Client, but I just lost you.
50% at 40%, 60% of your life savings,and you're 64 years old and you can't
retire like you thought you could.
That was, to me, the mostterrifying thing I could ever
expect to do to another person.
(17:29):
Besides physically harming themfinancially, taking away their
money through market volatilityseemed like a crime to me.
And I had no intention of goingdown that road with my career.
And so it wasn't until Ifound some strategies that
had no risk of market loss.
Sure.
Sure.
That I said, you know what,I gotta do that instead.
So that's why I got into thisweird alternative being a not
(17:52):
so average as a financial plan.
And our podcast is called not youraverage financial podcast for this reason.
Yeah.
So give us an idea of a strategy.
Okay.
Alright.
There's obviously a thousands out thereand none is perfect for everybody.
And as a certified financial planner,my job is I gotta work for, yeah.
I gotta work for, as afiduciary for my clients.
Yeah, of course.
So I can only recommendsomething that's in.
(18:14):
In their best interest.
Yes.
But there are a number ofstrategies out there that help
you meet your goals without takinga bunch of unnecessary risk.
The biggest thing I've been mostlyinterested lately in, and this kind
of goes back to the universe we weretalking about, so I'll start at the top
of the ladder and I'll work our way down.
How about that?
Top of the ladder, esoteric.
Then we'll come down to strategies.
What is about the universe?
(18:35):
Is so scary for most people.
We've talked about some scary stuff.
I'd say there are two laws in thefinancial universe and the physical
universe that destroy us all,and that's entropy and gravity.
Yeah.
If you think about it, entropy,tears, everything apart.
Gravity pulls us back down.
Okay.
And those in some ways are good for us.
It'd be not good if our bodiestried to grow without gravity, it's
(18:58):
good for our bodies to have sometension against that sort of thing.
And I and I find, okay, what is it thatnature has discovered that protects it
from being ripped to shreds by this?
Terrifying universe, where entropy is allaround us, destruction, fires, everything.
It, destroys everything,explosions, supernovas, whatever.
(19:19):
What is it that life has figured outthat protects it against this this
inevitable law of a destruction and death?
And I believe it's the contract.
I know this sounds weird, so hang withme for a second, but think about what DNA
is, DNA, it's the core contract with life.
If you have life, you have DNA accordingto all known forms of life Anyway.
(19:42):
DNA is what?
It's a code.
It's wrapped up tightlybound, written language.
It's God's language.
That keeps us alive, if you will.
Yeah.
And it's there.
It's that DNA if the DNA falls apart,we're gone, cancer, whatever, it kills us.
So you must have a contractto fight against entropy.
(20:03):
Volatility, gravity.
Okay, so what does thishave to do with money?
Here's my idea.
There's something called a contract.
We've had a contract in.
In life, since humans have been ableto interact with each other, we've
had a contract with each other.
It starts with a handshake, butpretty soon we write something down.
(20:23):
There are ways to havecontracts in money, too.
Financial contracts are a thing.
Can you imagine writing acontract with your future self?
Imagine yourself future sh future mark,future sh being able to say, all right.
70-year-old, 80-year-oldmark, 80-year-old Shahid.
What is your net worth?
Okay, it's $50 million, 10 million,whatever your number might be, and
(20:45):
then you shake on it, and then youhave a contract with your future self.
By the time you're X number of yearsold, you know exactly on a guaranteed
contractual basis that you're gonnabe worth X, whatever that number is.
Jim Carrey had the samething happen to him.
Jim Carrey, the comedian.
He writes himself a check for $10 million.
Yeah.
And he visualized it.
(21:06):
He wrote it to himself, but hedidn't just put that check on
his mirror and forget about it.
Afterward, he went out.
He became it.
He became it.
That's right.
He had to make friendships.
He had to make co realcontracts with real people.
Yeah.
Paying him real dollars to get to that.
What was it, $10 millioncheck, that he wrote himself.
Yeah.
Similarly, you can write a chi,you can write a contract with your
(21:27):
future self through financial statefinancial products that exist.
And have existed for hundredsand really thousands of years.
One example, and then I'llhush and get your feedback.
So we've gone from the universe andDNA down to something very tangible.
No, it's good.
I wanna get your thoughts on this.
So I was walking through amuseum outside of Chicago.
I lived near Chicagoland here, and I wasin downtown Chicago and there was this.
(21:50):
There's this cool museum andI'm a nerd for like ancient
Middle Eastern archeology.
That's kinda of one of my hobbies.
Don't ask me why to Egypt.
Just Egypt.
Yeah.
Egypt Mesopotamia, Babylon,Israel, that sort of thing.
Old, ancient stuff fromthousands of years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the Ancient Oriental Institutein Chicago is a cool one.
It's the largest collection of archeologyin that region, in the Western hemisphere.
(22:13):
So I said, I gotta gocheck this place out.
I'm walking through the halls.
I wasn't looking for anything inparticular, just checking out things
with my buddy and I noticed thislong, 20 foot long parchment paper
written in this weird language.
So I go check it out and it's anannuity contract from 300 bc. Okay.
So what the heck is an annuity?
(22:34):
It's an insurance contract.
It's a contract for income.
It's basically whoever this guy was,he was getting a paycheck guaranteed
to him for the rest of his life.
Now if you're a business owner, wouldn'tit be cool if at some point in your
future, let's say age 60 or 65, youhad a contract with yourself that said,
you know what, when you're 65, ShaheedISS gonna get 10 grand a month or a
(22:58):
hundred grand a month, or whatever, ona guaranteed contractual basis, getting
that mailbox money as long as you live.
What would that changeas a business owner?
About your mental state,about your spiritual state.
To know that part of your life is takencare of, future you is happy with you.
How would that help youget outta bed today?
How would that make you feel to have thatkind of a resolve that no matter what
(23:21):
happens with this client this afternoonon the call, you got, your check is coming
to you when you're X number of years old.
I just think that would changeeverything for a lot of business owners.
Yeah, no, I agree.
It is very similar to what we teach. At the end of the day, we need to
become what you desire to have first.
It is beautiful in a way,
it's for us to discover that truth, why weexperience a lot of trouble in our life.
(23:44):
They're like nudges for us to realize thisbeautiful fact that we can have anything.
We just gotta become it first, wegotta be in that energy and everything
is energy, vibrations, and frequency.
So when we.
A top rated show or whatever thatgoal is, and we are in that energy.
We feel it to be within.
(24:05):
We feel it to be true.
We have that faith, thatcomplete faith that is done, man.
Like I asked where I have so much faith.
I have so much love that it isdone and there's so much faith that
doesn't matter what happens on theoutside ups and downs, you just.
Aware of those upside downs, butyou're not getting emotionally
pulled into 'em anymore.
This requires training,what we're talking about.
(24:27):
It's not like something you could justwatch YouTube videos and figure out.
And another thing I, it comesto mind about this fact is that.
Majority of the gurus, for example,the leaders, which I have utmost
respect for, but they have theseproducts and services that they're
selling to help elevate people's lives.
Very small percentagethat do anything with it.
(24:48):
Even if they finish that program, ofcourse that's a big celebration that it
was finished, it was completed, but atthe end of the day, they're not really.
Understanding what that leader didbecause if you really look, read
between the lines, you will know.
You will see that there's a majorshift in that person's energy for
(25:09):
the results that they're producing.
There's some kind of belief system I.That is creating those results for them.
Yes, the tool is great.
The ideas concept is great.
They're selling that to help someone getresults as well, but they're missing the
crucial component of that individual'senergy that's not incorporated.
Yeah, they'll add some mindsetstuff into the equation hoping
(25:30):
that's gonna achieve it, but.
The deep down stuff thatoperates this body automatically.
Majority of what we do is automatic.
When we don't focus on that,when we don't shift on that, we
could be running and chasing andpushing on the outside all we want.
We're just gonna end up going in circlesthat like I have my most of my life.
(25:53):
And that realization is to bringthat energy and be in that energy.
Now you start being.
Doing and then.
Having.
Instead of, doing, having and being, thatwas an old model that unfortunately causes
a lot of chaos, a lot of unhealthy bodiesdepression, medications, doctor visits
(26:17):
.A lot of people on all sorts of types of medicine to.
Keep themselves happier, but these areall self-inflicted in a way, even though
it might have happened from the outside.
But really it's our emotions, our thoughtsabout the situation that's causing it.
We are doing the harm to ourselves,not knowing that we can step back
(26:38):
a little bit, keep create a gap,and just be aware of that situation
because it's going to happen.
These bad things do happen, right?
Unfortunately,
again, it comes down tohow do we interpret what
happens and what would we do?
How do we respond tomorrow?
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
It's in our response and ourinterpretation of the past and
our response to the future.
There's two, two.
(26:58):
Twins could go through theexact same childhood, abusive
childhood, let's say, God forbid.
One might decide to become a victimand take up alcohol, the other
might decide to become a victor andbecome a successful entrepreneur.
It's all in the interpretation.
Yeah.
Oh and I would agree withyou, it's self identity.
Yeah, I agree with you on that big time.
Your identity is a big one.
(27:19):
That's awesome.
There's a Simpsons clip thatalways cracks me up when I see it.
Marge is walking through the house andshe sees Homer on the couch drinking
vodka and mayonnaise or something.
And some awful drink.
I. And she says, Homer, that's awful.
What about future Homer?
What about him?
And Homer looks at her and he says,oh, future Homer sucks to be that guy.
(27:44):
Takes another swig.
I don't want any of my clients to.
Hate upon their future self.
Let's be kind to our future self.
Yeah.
And there's even in the present moment,in the present moment, there's even
studies where if you show a persona picture of an older version of
themselves, like AI enhanced, olderversion, gray hair, whatever that
(28:04):
you'll actually save more for retirementjust by looking at that picture.
Wow.
Isn't that interesting?
Yeah.
That's interesting.
And I would say as to as far as thegurus go, you mentioned gurus, I have
found in this arena, the financialarena, there are plenty of gurus and
there's plenty in the self health,self-help and improvement space as well.
Yes.
Yeah.
Money gurus are plenty.
(28:26):
Let me just tell you man.
Yeah.
But no, for here's the secret.
They been on our show, many of them.
Yeah.
I'm sure they have.
Here's the secret.
I always tell folks, I'm gonnabe your last money guru, okay?
Because there are plenty out there.
I'll be your last money guru,and here's what I mean by that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So everyone looks for the man or womanwho can take them to the top of the
(28:49):
mountain to get them that big, cryptowin or that stock win or that perfect
secret, only the rich know about it.
Financial strategy.
Who's gonna be able to figure outthe secret key that unlocks the stock
market's, 50% or more, rate of return?
The truth is, there is no wizard ofOz. There is no guru except yourself.
(29:12):
You are your money guru.
I agree.
And nobody should care moreabout your money than you do.
And as soon as you talk to somebodyabout your money and they start
believing it's theirs, they're gonnafind a way to take it from you.
This is why this is accordingto the Department of Labor,
a 1% fee on your money.
That's what's the big deal?
(29:32):
I'll pay my financial guru 1%.
He does a good job for me.
I'll make 10%.
He makes one great.
A 1% fee on your money over35 years is 27% of your entire
nest egg just vaporize to fees.
And then we throw another20 or 40% to tax, man.
So what are you left with after all that?
The government and your money gurutook your money and you're left
(29:55):
with a less than stellar retirement.
So the truth is, there is noWizard of Oz. There's no one
behind that curtain with a secret.
Secret investment you are, thatgives you access, absolutely.
Become your own.
I agree.
Become your own money guru.
Don't rely on thingsthat you can't control.
Find things that yeah, you'reable to take within yourself.
(30:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
Wonderfully said my friend.
This is great.
It's been a great episode.
We could talk about this stuffforever, it was great speaking to you
about this to, it's a different anglefor people to look at and, from the
entire conversation energy matters.
What, how we feel, how we think, how wefeel, how we act defines the effects that
(30:41):
we achieve, the results that we achieve.
And by elevating our lifeinternally, we start, I.
Making decisions, doingthings from that place.
And that's what I also say, that, there'stons and tons of strategies out there.
Everybody's talking about, email marketingor lead gen, whatever the strategies
(31:02):
they're working on to elevate their life.
The what I always recommend, yougotta work on what's driving those
strategies into results first.
We need to work on what makes thingswork better for you in the long term.
What's your energy towards your actions?
How are you feeling?
How are you thinking, feelingand acting in each moment, which
(31:26):
defines the results over time.
And when we focus onthat we start stepping.
In a more ease and flowrather than conflict,
yeah, that's right.
Figure out if you're acting againstyour beliefs, and this could be so
practical and I'll be very brief'cause I know our time is short.
Yeah.
But when people tell me, Hey Mark, Ithink taxes are gonna go up in the,
(31:48):
in this country over my lifetime.
They're not being a politicalanimal at that moment.
They're just saying, Hey Iknow that over a lifetime my
taxes are likely gonna go up.
And then they tell me, oh,mark I'm putting so much money
into my tax deferred 401k.
Now, what does the word defer mean?
It just means push off untillater and at the same time
(32:09):
they're saying taxes are going up.
I'm deferring my problem to a later date.
It's like deferring a root canal.
So we act against ourbeliefs all the time.
And I do this too.
I want a six pack of abs,but I also love ice cream.
It's, it happens to all of us.
Yeah.
But you're right.
When we can step more into whatwe believe it's easier, it flows.
(32:31):
We're in alignment with ourenergy and everything works.
Easier when we're not fightingagainst our own beliefs.
So I totally agree.
Find what works and drillinto that and just double,
triple, quadruple down on that.
And so many of your listenersI know are doing that already,
which is why you've got such agreat audience and a great show.
Thank you.
(32:51):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
No, we appreciate your time toge today,and sharing your wisdom, these ideas
that could amplify someone's lifeout there, that's the exciting part.
So if anyone out there isfinding value in this, definitely
engage with the content as well.
Don't hold back and share.
(33:13):
What Mark is saying and whatwe're talking about here.
So I appreciate you guysand I appreciate you, mark.
Keep in touch.
Jim Carrey, the comedian.
He writes himself a check for $10 million.
Yeah.
And he visualized it.
He wrote it to himself, but hedidn't just put that check on
his mirror and forget about it.
Afterward, he went out.
He became it.
He became it.
(00:36):
Welcome back to SuperEntrepreneurs Podcast.
I'm your host, Shahid Durrani.
The show we where we dive into theminds of high performing entrepreneurs,
innovators world class leaders.
If you're someone who's alwayslooking to grow, push your
limits, think and do bigger.
You're in the right place today wehave with us Mark Willis, a certified
(01:00):
financial planner and the founderof Lake Growth Financial Services.
Also, the host of the Globallyranked not your average financial
podcast at top 1.5% and a threetime number one bestselling author.
Mark specializes in helping individualsand business owners grow their
(01:23):
wealth in a safe and predictable way.
So I am grateful to have youon the show, mark and welcome.
Thank you Shahid.
So glad to be here.
Yeah, it's great to have you man.
It's great to have you.
I know we were chatting beforewe started recording, those brief
discussions are super important as well,
that's right.
Yeah.
(01:43):
Sometimes it's the green room chatthat makes all the difference,
the moments before we go live.
'cause that's, honestly, that'swhere we get to know each other a
bit and as both business owners andpeople trying to serve our audience.
So thank you again for having mein your living room, so to speak.
And be able to serve in whateverway we can do that today.
Yeah.
Yeah.
My pleasure.
My pleasure.
I know we were talking aboutrelationships, how important they
(02:06):
are, you are a podcaster yourself,and you probably agree that it's the
best form of relationship building.
Not that we build it with every singleguest or every single person, but
it's a great way to align energies.
I feel.
A
hundred percent.
Yeah.
We really do live in the future wherewe can do this across boundaries, across
(02:26):
internets, across territories, whatever.
And we're here talking to people inpeople's ears, on people's screens.
Yeah, whatever.
And changing, possibly changingthe trajectory of their lives in
small but maybe significant ways.
So it's very humbling.
And I take the task with great humility.
It, and it's, but it's alsoso much fun that we could do
something like this so much.
(02:47):
This is something our grandparentscouldn't have even imagined.
No.
Or even our parents really as kids.
So it's something we reallydo live in the future.
Yeah.
My mom still doesn't get it.
What do you like?
Just having fun.
I go yeah.
Just having fun.
That's right.
Yeah.
'cause you're not working like.
Try say all day.
You're not a hard worker.
Yeah.
You're just being lazy.
(03:08):
Now you got older.
I go no.
I'm just having fun.
And literally that's the secret,that people don't really realize is
that when we shift our life to havingmore fun, it changes the trajectory
of our results, because now why?
Because we're vibing higher.
We're more enthusiastic,we're happier, we're jolly.
We have that joy in our step, andthat attracts other human beings as
(03:30):
well that wanna do business with you.
There's a big aspect that is missing,and unfortunately this happens
because everybody is conditionedto live from the outside in, right?
That's just the way we weretaught, and when we do that.
Every other bump we take it personal,for example, or there's a lot of mindset
stuff going on that we look at it ata negative with a negative eye, right?
(03:52):
But if we start shifting, and themore we play that game of finding
good and being happy and joyful,the more it becomes a habit.
And that's what's beautiful about it.
A hundred percent.
I don't believe there are any failures.
There are no failures.
I just think there are experiencesand then our reactions to them agree.
I think all of us are, none of usmake it outta this world alive.
(04:12):
So we're all gonna stub our toe andpossibly break a leg, literally and
a lot worse in our business lifeand in our physical and emotional
and relational spiritual life.
And the question is notwhat happened to you.
It's what's our.
Interpretation of what happenedto us, what's our reaction
to what happened to us?
And what is our agreement wemade with our past selves as
(04:35):
a result of that experience?
Yeah.
How many of us said, oh,I'm just unlucky with money.
Or, oh, I'll always be poor,or, Hey, money is only for
those evil rich guys, yeah.
It's so false statement.
And when we so false, when we havethat agreement, then even if we're
successful yesterday, we're gonnafind a way to lose the money today.
(04:57):
Yeah.
I don't know if you've ever seen anybodywho's had that experience, Shahid,
but it, it is remarkable how we bringourselves up or we lo drag ourselves
back down to what we believe we deserve.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's, it was a famous I'mnot sure who said this code.
Or even if I'm saying it verbatim,but they were saying about how we
(05:19):
We act and be, and what we do on adaily basis is a direct reflection.
Of what we see ourselves to be.
In, in a way, it's more of on the lines ofa self image, how we see ourselves right.
On a daily, right moment to moment basis.
And then that's how we interact with life.
(05:41):
For example, when you say something froma goodness of your heart or you want to
help someone, they can only hear you.
Based on what their belief system is.
What they expect.
That's right.
So that's right.
That's the only world, and that'sthe only version of you they see.
And I don't know if you experiencedthis, but this happens a lot,
especially if you're in sales.
(06:02):
You might really, from yourheart know that this thing
is gonna help someone, but.
Because you have this passion about it.
Because that person mightthink that, oh, this guy's just
trying to sell me something,
they might lose that opportunity,that gem because of that program.
Yeah.
That conditioning,
yeah.
There's another I forget if it,I forget who said this, but the
(06:25):
statement is Never explain yourself.
Never explain yourself.
Your friends won't need it.
And your enemies won't believe you anyway.
Yeah.
So just be yourself, truly.
Just live it.
The most powerful person inthe world is the person who
sees himself in his own power.
Yeah.
And if you explain yourself, you'rediminishing your power and you're trying
(06:46):
to defend what you're trying to do infront of people who will either not need
it in the first place as your friend.
Yeah.
Yeah,
I already trust you sir. I don'tneed you to explain yourself.
Or two, the enemy who's nevergonna believe you anyway.
So why waste your poweron people like that?
Yeah.
So just take your power back and keep it.
Just walk in your own power.
PE the world will get outta your wayif you're walking in your own power.
(07:07):
And I don't just mean that in a.Esoteric woowoo kind of sense.
I mean that truly, confidence is felt.
It's a currency.
Just like money.
Yeah.
Just like time, just like attention.
Why do we pay attentionif it's not a currency?
And when people are watchingsomeone who's truly confident and
who they really are, they will pay.
(07:28):
Attention.
Yeah.
If yeah.
They'll invest their time with you.
These are financial phrases, but it'srelated to the currencies of life,
time, energy, attention, and money.
Those four currencies are truly the fourthat we all have to deal with in our life.
And when we explain ourselvesaway we're really just pouring
money down the financial currency.
(07:48):
It might be time or our attention orour energy down the financial drain.
Yeah.
And for my entire career, it was abig hurdle for me because it really
mattered what other people thought of me.
Like it was right.
Yeah.
It was so bad that I would justlook at people in their eyes, what
I see, so are they agreeing with me?
Are they disagreeing?
(08:09):
Am I saying the right thing?
That kind of stuff.
I stutter I lose mythought, all that stuff.
I don't get jumpy anymore.
Recent being is that.
Like you mentioned, I'm in my power.
And when I'm in my power, it doesn'treally matter what anybody thinks of me.
Love it.
I'm just love gonna do what I do andI'm gonna add value as much as I can.
(08:30):
IF up, if I screw up, that's I'm human.
You know it's gonna happen.
But my intentions arepure, my is goodness.
So when you start livingfrom that goodness, we start
vibing with that energy.
You start attractingbetter opportunities too.
I know you mentioned woo, it maybe inthe seventies, but now the amount of
research that's being done into this realmof energy, vibrations, and frequencies
(08:53):
that will blow your mind, yeah.
And to remain ignorant about it.
That's very easy.
Yeah.
But to go in and start listening to thiscontent, these research papers that are
out there just look at what's happening.
Even CIA did a report on it.
I'm not sure if that's real or not, butthey were talking about a lot of facts.
But there's other aspects ofmany different researches,
(09:16):
especially scientists.
They are looking at the connectivitybetween the DNA, if it's out of the
body, in the body kind of thing.
Many different other types of researchthat makes you wonder that what we
think life is a lot more complex than wecould ever imagine through our senses.
That's
right.
Said, that's right.
You've probably heard ofPlato's Allegory of the Cave.
Yes.
(09:36):
Yes, of course.
Yeah.
I think for those that aren't familiar,I'll briefly mention it's a, a.
Bunch of people tied to a wallbasically, and all they can see,
they've grown up in this cave and allthey can see are shadows on the wall.
One man somehow escapes from thischained experience and is carried
up to the sunlight where he cansee the entire world as it is.
And of course, he immediatelyfreaks out, can't understand it.
(09:57):
Finally becomes aware of his truth,which is we're all tied to this wall.
Then he is carried back down to his.
Comrades in chains.
And they won't believe him.
They won't believe him.
And you're right.
Why?
Why does it in what world do we believethat we've got it all figured out at
this stage in all of human existence?
When we look back at a thousand years ago,people who had wildly incorrect beliefs.
(10:22):
How is it we think todaywe have it all figured out.
That's very arrogant of us.
Yeah.
It's just yeah.
So much research is coming out.
Different levels.
Yeah.
That we, there's so much more to life thanwhat we can, see with our five senses.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And there's
levels of awareness,individually and collective.
As we progress, as our cautiousnessexpands, are learning more and more.
And many of the things we'reprobably not supposed to know, and
(10:44):
we probably will never know with our.
We're just not meant to knowthat's how beautiful it is.
But what we're meant to know,we're finding out, and the problems
as we go are being solved inscience, as they call 'em problems.
But really they're just lessonsand learning of how everything in
nature is at the end of the day.
(11:04):
Connected.
It's all one.
And that aspect of doing good forothers, they don't understand it.
For example, I'm part of communities andI say I wanna add value in your life.
I wanna help you with the mindset stuff.
I'm sorry, but there you'reexperiencing a lot of frustrations
and you get very agitated.
I pointed out, I know it'sbad, but I do it sometimes.
I don't hold back.
(11:25):
It's not good, you're not supposed to.
Get in someone's thing, but I care.
I care.
So I just, sometimes I don't hold it back.
Sometimes I become politicaland I hold it, so I just flow.
It just comes out and they realizesometimes you just need someone to
mention that, wait a minute, I am, I.
Frustrated a lot.
Like, why, I do have, I have multiplecars, I have a big house everything.
(11:48):
Why am I feeling this way?
So that awareness that we start Yeah.
Experiencing internally our ownself-awareness, then collective
self-awareness and by transforming inthat and living more from the inside.
We start experiencing lifeas it meant to be business.
All this is gonna happen regardless,but if we come with a strong internal
(12:10):
world, nothing derails us anymore.
There's this power, like you mentioned,that we take back a hundred percent.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's beautiful.
I love this stuff, but I want to askyou about a lot of traditional advisors,
they might recommend stocks and bonds,
you are more in the alternativestrategies for wealth building.
(12:31):
Can you speak about that, howit's beneficial to go in that
direction rather than traditional?
I think it goes right in line withwhat we're talking about here.
Okay.
Abraham Lincoln said how many legs doesa dog have if you call his tail a leg?
Give up.
How many legs does a dog haveif you call his tail a leg?
(12:52):
Give up Five.
Five.
That's what I would'vesaid, but actually four.
Yeah.
Four.
Saying his tail is a leg.
Doesn't make it a leg.
No, it doesn't
make That's true.
Okay.
That's the humor of Abraham Lincoln.
Gotta love it.
Anyway, I love that quote, andthe reason why I love it is.
Truth is the undefeatedchampion of all time.
Truth, reality is undefeatedand it always will be.
(13:14):
So whatever I think or believeback to the idea of agreements and
interpretation of my experiences.
What doesn't matter is my interpretation.
What matters is reality.
Yeah.
Even if I don't see it properly.
Yeah.
Response.
And what does this have todo with finance and stocks?
So think back to the last 30 years.
Of investor behavior.
(13:35):
As a certified financial planner,I should be out here telling you to
invest your money for 30 years in thestock market and you'll get, you'll
fall off a horse and get 12% a year.
And it's just gonna happen magically.
But I had to face reality and I guessI came into this business with the
advantage of being right at the startof the 2008 and nine financial crash.
(13:56):
Several years ago.
And so it helped me pull back the curtainson what really goes on when people
put their money into the stock market.
All your traditional financialadvisors are going to tell you,
interpret your losses as acceptable.
Interpret the abuse you receivefrom the market as normal.
(14:16):
How many legs does a dog have?
It's four.
But even if your financial advisorsays it's five, no, it's still four.
It's still four.
Good point.
So Delbar, which is athird party research firm.
They're outta Boston area.
They are third party, meaning theydon't care what you do with your money.
They're not, they don'thave a dog in the fight.
(14:37):
They looked at real investor returnsand they do this every single year and
they looked over the last 30 years ofmarkets and we've had an incredible
bull market these last 30 years.
And there's reasons whywe could say that the.
Return of the s and p 500 overthe last 30 years was 10%.
(14:59):
So everyone says you should get 10%if you buy an index fund, which is a
typical buy, everything kind of indexfund, passive investing, that's the
comment that most financial advisorswould tell you, but the real investor
return, are you ready for this?
Over 30 years was only 3.6%.
Oh.
(15:20):
So what's the difference?
Interesting there.
Why?
Why is there such a big differencebetween what we are told we can get
and what we're actually getting?
It's like when you go throughthe drive-through and you see the
pictures of the Big Mac and youorder your sandwich and it looks
depressing when you get the actual.
Sandwich in the package, right?
(15:41):
It what is given to you ismuch less than advertised.
To go from, 10% down to 3.5% isdeflating at best and scary at worst.
According to the US CensusBureau and according to A RP the
average retiree will outlive hisor her savings by over a decade.
That's scary.
(16:02):
In fact, more retirees fear runningout of money than even dying.
Yeah.
So you know, this is not just,getting a de, sad looking Big
Mac in your sandwich pack here.
Yeah.
This is life or death for a lot of folksand a lot of folks our age pretty soon
are gonna be getting the phone call frommom and dad saying, Hey, I'm sorry son.
(16:22):
I'm sorry daughter, but you'regonna have to help support me now.
I'm outta money.
Yeah.
I can't live on my own anymore.
So first, and I gotta retire with you.
So first you scared us with a deaththreat that we're all gonna die.
Are you
about that?
Oh, you're killing big Macs for us.
Come on.
What's going on?
No, I'm just joking.
(16:43):
Yeah.
I'm sorry to give you thedowner news but hey, I know the
good stuff is coming, right?
That.
So you punch 'em
in the gut and then that's right.
Yeah.
Honest truth, again,reality is undefeated.
Yeah.
The dog only has four legs,no matter what we think.
Yeah.
Facts are facts.
Yeah.
My my hope is that bywaking up to reality.
Like I had to hear those phone callswhen my CPAI was working for A CPA
(17:07):
at the time of 2000 eight oh nine.
She was making those phone calls toher clients and saying, I'm sorry
Mr. Client, but I just lost you.
50% at 40%, 60% of your life savings,and you're 64 years old and you can't
retire like you thought you could.
That was, to me, the mostterrifying thing I could ever
expect to do to another person.
(17:29):
Besides physically harming themfinancially, taking away their
money through market volatilityseemed like a crime to me.
And I had no intention of goingdown that road with my career.
And so it wasn't until Ifound some strategies that
had no risk of market loss.
Sure.
Sure.
That I said, you know what,I gotta do that instead.
So that's why I got into thisweird alternative being a not
(17:52):
so average as a financial plan.
And our podcast is called not youraverage financial podcast for this reason.
Yeah.
So give us an idea of a strategy.
Okay.
Alright.
There's obviously a thousands out thereand none is perfect for everybody.
And as a certified financial planner,my job is I gotta work for, yeah.
I gotta work for, as afiduciary for my clients.
Yeah, of course.
So I can only recommendsomething that's in.
(18:14):
In their best interest.
Yes.
But there are a number ofstrategies out there that help
you meet your goals without takinga bunch of unnecessary risk.
The biggest thing I've been mostlyinterested lately in, and this kind
of goes back to the universe we weretalking about, so I'll start at the top
of the ladder and I'll work our way down.
How about that?
Top of the ladder, esoteric.
Then we'll come down to strategies.
What is about the universe?
(18:35):
Is so scary for most people.
We've talked about some scary stuff.
I'd say there are two laws in thefinancial universe and the physical
universe that destroy us all,and that's entropy and gravity.
Yeah.
If you think about it, entropy,tears, everything apart.
Gravity pulls us back down.
Okay.
And those in some ways are good for us.
It'd be not good if our bodiestried to grow without gravity, it's
(18:58):
good for our bodies to have sometension against that sort of thing.
And I and I find, okay, what is it thatnature has discovered that protects it
from being ripped to shreds by this?
Terrifying universe, where entropy is allaround us, destruction, fires, everything.
It, destroys everything,explosions, supernovas, whatever.
(19:19):
What is it that life has figured outthat protects it against this this
inevitable law of a destruction and death?
And I believe it's the contract.
I know this sounds weird, so hang withme for a second, but think about what DNA
is, DNA, it's the core contract with life.
If you have life, you have DNA accordingto all known forms of life Anyway.
(19:42):
DNA is what?
It's a code.
It's wrapped up tightlybound, written language.
It's God's language.
That keeps us alive, if you will.
Yeah.
And it's there.
It's that DNA if the DNA falls apart,we're gone, cancer, whatever, it kills us.
So you must have a contractto fight against entropy.
(20:03):
Volatility, gravity.
Okay, so what does thishave to do with money?
Here's my idea.
There's something called a contract.
We've had a contract in.
In life, since humans have been ableto interact with each other, we've
had a contract with each other.
It starts with a handshake, butpretty soon we write something down.
(20:23):
There are ways to havecontracts in money, too.
Financial contracts are a thing.
Can you imagine writing acontract with your future self?
Imagine yourself future sh future mark,future sh being able to say, all right.
70-year-old, 80-year-oldmark, 80-year-old Shahid.
What is your net worth?
Okay, it's $50 million, 10 million,whatever your number might be, and
(20:45):
then you shake on it, and then youhave a contract with your future self.
By the time you're X number of yearsold, you know exactly on a guaranteed
contractual basis that you're gonnabe worth X, whatever that number is.
Jim Carrey had the samething happen to him.
Jim Carrey, the comedian.
He writes himself a check for $10 million.
Yeah.
And he visualized it.
(21:06):
He wrote it to himself, but hedidn't just put that check on
his mirror and forget about it.
Afterward, he went out.
He became it.
He became it.
That's right.
He had to make friendships.
He had to make co realcontracts with real people.
Yeah.
Paying him real dollars to get to that.
What was it, $10 millioncheck, that he wrote himself.
Yeah.
Similarly, you can write a chi,you can write a contract with your
(21:27):
future self through financial statefinancial products that exist.
And have existed for hundredsand really thousands of years.
One example, and then I'llhush and get your feedback.
So we've gone from the universe andDNA down to something very tangible.
No, it's good.
I wanna get your thoughts on this.
So I was walking through amuseum outside of Chicago.
I lived near Chicagoland here, and I wasin downtown Chicago and there was this.
(21:50):
There's this cool museum andI'm a nerd for like ancient
Middle Eastern archeology.
That's kinda of one of my hobbies.
Don't ask me why to Egypt.
Just Egypt.
Yeah.
Egypt Mesopotamia, Babylon,Israel, that sort of thing.
Old, ancient stuff fromthousands of years ago.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And the Ancient Oriental Institutein Chicago is a cool one.
It's the largest collection of archeologyin that region, in the Western hemisphere.
(22:13):
So I said, I gotta gocheck this place out.
I'm walking through the halls.
I wasn't looking for anything inparticular, just checking out things
with my buddy and I noticed thislong, 20 foot long parchment paper
written in this weird language.
So I go check it out and it's anannuity contract from 300 bc. Okay.
So what the heck is an annuity?
(22:34):
It's an insurance contract.
It's a contract for income.
It's basically whoever this guy was,he was getting a paycheck guaranteed
to him for the rest of his life.
Now if you're a business owner, wouldn'tit be cool if at some point in your
future, let's say age 60 or 65, youhad a contract with yourself that said,
you know what, when you're 65, ShaheedISS gonna get 10 grand a month or a
(22:58):
hundred grand a month, or whatever, ona guaranteed contractual basis, getting
that mailbox money as long as you live.
What would that changeas a business owner?
About your mental state,about your spiritual state.
To know that part of your life is takencare of, future you is happy with you.
How would that help youget outta bed today?
How would that make you feel to have thatkind of a resolve that no matter what
(23:21):
happens with this client this afternoonon the call, you got, your check is coming
to you when you're X number of years old.
I just think that would changeeverything for a lot of business owners.
Yeah, no, I agree.
It is very similar to what we teach. At the end of the day, we need to
become what you desire to have first.
It is beautiful in a way,
it's for us to discover that truth, why weexperience a lot of trouble in our life.
(23:44):
They're like nudges for us to realize thisbeautiful fact that we can have anything.
We just gotta become it first, wegotta be in that energy and everything
is energy, vibrations, and frequency.
So when we.
A top rated show or whatever thatgoal is, and we are in that energy.
We feel it to be within.
(24:05):
We feel it to be true.
We have that faith, thatcomplete faith that is done, man.
Like I asked where I have so much faith.
I have so much love that it isdone and there's so much faith that
doesn't matter what happens on theoutside ups and downs, you just.
Aware of those upside downs, butyou're not getting emotionally
pulled into 'em anymore.
This requires training,what we're talking about.
(24:27):
It's not like something you could justwatch YouTube videos and figure out.
And another thing I, it comesto mind about this fact is that.
Majority of the gurus, for example,the leaders, which I have utmost
respect for, but they have theseproducts and services that they're
selling to help elevate people's lives.
Very small percentagethat do anything with it.
(24:48):
Even if they finish that program, ofcourse that's a big celebration that it
was finished, it was completed, but atthe end of the day, they're not really.
Understanding what that leader didbecause if you really look, read
between the lines, you will know.
You will see that there's a majorshift in that person's energy for
(25:09):
the results that they're producing.
There's some kind of belief system I.That is creating those results for them.
Yes, the tool is great.
The ideas concept is great.
They're selling that to help someone getresults as well, but they're missing the
crucial component of that individual'senergy that's not incorporated.
Yeah, they'll add some mindsetstuff into the equation hoping
(25:30):
that's gonna achieve it, but.
The deep down stuff thatoperates this body automatically.
Majority of what we do is automatic.
When we don't focus on that,when we don't shift on that, we
could be running and chasing andpushing on the outside all we want.
We're just gonna end up going in circlesthat like I have my most of my life.
(25:53):
And that realization is to bringthat energy and be in that energy.
Now you start being.
Doing and then.
Having.
Instead of, doing, having and being, thatwas an old model that unfortunately causes
a lot of chaos, a lot of unhealthy bodiesdepression, medications, doctor visits
(26:17):
.A lot of people on all sorts of types of medicine to.
Keep themselves happier, but these areall self-inflicted in a way, even though
it might have happened from the outside.
But really it's our emotions, our thoughtsabout the situation that's causing it.
We are doing the harm to ourselves,not knowing that we can step back
(26:38):
a little bit, keep create a gap,and just be aware of that situation
because it's going to happen.
These bad things do happen, right?
Unfortunately,
again, it comes down tohow do we interpret what
happens and what would we do?
How do we respond tomorrow?
Yeah.
That's right.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That's right.
It's in our response and ourinterpretation of the past and
our response to the future.
There's two, two.
(26:58):
Twins could go through theexact same childhood, abusive
childhood, let's say, God forbid.
One might decide to become a victimand take up alcohol, the other
might decide to become a victor andbecome a successful entrepreneur.
It's all in the interpretation.
Yeah.
Oh and I would agree withyou, it's self identity.
Yeah, I agree with you on that big time.
Your identity is a big one.
(27:19):
That's awesome.
There's a Simpsons clip thatalways cracks me up when I see it.
Marge is walking through the house andshe sees Homer on the couch drinking
vodka and mayonnaise or something.
And some awful drink.
I. And she says, Homer, that's awful.
What about future Homer?
What about him?
And Homer looks at her and he says,oh, future Homer sucks to be that guy.
(27:44):
Takes another swig.
I don't want any of my clients to.
Hate upon their future self.
Let's be kind to our future self.
Yeah.
And there's even in the present moment,in the present moment, there's even
studies where if you show a persona picture of an older version of
themselves, like AI enhanced, olderversion, gray hair, whatever that
(28:04):
you'll actually save more for retirementjust by looking at that picture.
Wow.
Isn't that interesting?
Yeah.
That's interesting.
And I would say as to as far as thegurus go, you mentioned gurus, I have
found in this arena, the financialarena, there are plenty of gurus and
there's plenty in the self health,self-help and improvement space as well.
Yes.
Yeah.
Money gurus are plenty.
(28:26):
Let me just tell you man.
Yeah.
But no, for here's the secret.
They been on our show, many of them.
Yeah.
I'm sure they have.
Here's the secret.
I always tell folks, I'm gonnabe your last money guru, okay?
Because there are plenty out there.
I'll be your last money guru,and here's what I mean by that.
Yeah.
Yeah.
So everyone looks for the man or womanwho can take them to the top of the
(28:49):
mountain to get them that big, cryptowin or that stock win or that perfect
secret, only the rich know about it.
Financial strategy.
Who's gonna be able to figure outthe secret key that unlocks the stock
market's, 50% or more, rate of return?
The truth is, there is no wizard ofOz. There is no guru except yourself.
(29:12):
You are your money guru.
I agree.
And nobody should care moreabout your money than you do.
And as soon as you talk to somebodyabout your money and they start
believing it's theirs, they're gonnafind a way to take it from you.
This is why this is accordingto the Department of Labor,
a 1% fee on your money.
That's what's the big deal?
(29:32):
I'll pay my financial guru 1%.
He does a good job for me.
I'll make 10%.
He makes one great.
A 1% fee on your money over35 years is 27% of your entire
nest egg just vaporize to fees.
And then we throw another20 or 40% to tax, man.
So what are you left with after all that?
The government and your money gurutook your money and you're left
(29:55):
with a less than stellar retirement.
So the truth is, there is noWizard of Oz. There's no one
behind that curtain with a secret.
Secret investment you are, thatgives you access, absolutely.
Become your own.
I agree.
Become your own money guru.
Don't rely on thingsthat you can't control.
Find things that yeah, you'reable to take within yourself.
(30:19):
Yeah.
Yeah.
No.
Wonderfully said my friend.
This is great.
It's been a great episode.
We could talk about this stuffforever, it was great speaking to you
about this to, it's a different anglefor people to look at and, from the
entire conversation energy matters.
What, how we feel, how we think, how wefeel, how we act defines the effects that
(30:41):
we achieve, the results that we achieve.
And by elevating our lifeinternally, we start, I.
Making decisions, doingthings from that place.
And that's what I also say, that, there'stons and tons of strategies out there.
Everybody's talking about, email marketingor lead gen, whatever the strategies
(31:02):
they're working on to elevate their life.
The what I always recommend, yougotta work on what's driving those
strategies into results first.
We need to work on what makes thingswork better for you in the long term.
What's your energy towards your actions?
How are you feeling?
How are you thinking, feelingand acting in each moment, which
(31:26):
defines the results over time.
And when we focus onthat we start stepping.
In a more ease and flowrather than conflict,
yeah, that's right.
Figure out if you're acting againstyour beliefs, and this could be so
practical and I'll be very brief'cause I know our time is short.
Yeah.
But when people tell me, Hey Mark, Ithink taxes are gonna go up in the,
(31:48):
in this country over my lifetime.
They're not being a politicalanimal at that moment.
They're just saying, Hey Iknow that over a lifetime my
taxes are likely gonna go up.
And then they tell me, oh,mark I'm putting so much money
into my tax deferred 401k.
Now, what does the word defer mean?
It just means push off untillater and at the same time
(32:09):
they're saying taxes are going up.
I'm deferring my problem to a later date.
It's like deferring a root canal.
So we act against ourbeliefs all the time.
And I do this too.
I want a six pack of abs,but I also love ice cream.
It's, it happens to all of us.
Yeah.
But you're right.
When we can step more into whatwe believe it's easier, it flows.
(32:31):
We're in alignment with ourenergy and everything works.
Easier when we're not fightingagainst our own beliefs.
So I totally agree.
Find what works and drillinto that and just double,
triple, quadruple down on that.
And so many of your listenersI know are doing that already,
which is why you've got such agreat audience and a great show.
Thank you.
(32:51):
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
No, we appreciate your time toge today,and sharing your wisdom, these ideas
that could amplify someone's lifeout there, that's the exciting part.
So if anyone out there isfinding value in this, definitely
engage with the content as well.
Don't hold back and share.
(33:13):
What Mark is saying and whatwe're talking about here.
So I appreciate you guysand I appreciate you, mark.
Keep in touch.
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