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- Now you are almost like letting go, reinventing yourself.
- Yes.
- Reinventing your business model,
which I've done multiple times in my career
where you have to let go of something
that's kind of working.
- Yeah, it was seven figures every year, like clock work.
It was a seven figure job.
I turned it into more, it was a job.
I knew how to do it every year but it wasn't going up.
It was plateaued.
- So to let go of that, like a business, seven figure,
to say I'm gonna do something,
it's kind of still in the same fitness industry,
but a completely different business model.
- Yeah.
- A different offer to the marketplace.
- Yeah.
- Talk to me a little bit about that transition.
How did you deal with that?
- Well, I didn't deal with it well at first
because when I made the pivot,
I was also trying to grow this clothing company.
- Oh my goodness.
- That I know nothing about,
I was also trying to launch a supplement,
I still had my fitness stuff.
So no I didn't cut the tie.
- Okay, you were doing multiple things there.
- So I'm making all this money now
from my fitness business coaching program,
bleeding it back into these other things
that weren't working.
Thank God I had mentors that kept saying,
you've gotta give singularity a focus.
The fitness has gotta go.
The supplement's gotta...
You know, find someone to run it for you
or you just gotta stop investing into it.
The clothing line, just stop that completely.
- Yeah, like that's not your thing.
- No and I'm like, oh my God, so I'm a problem here.
So it took probably about a year.
Like I'm all in now.
I don't even know how much money my...
The clothing company's done.
The supplement sells itself.
Fitness business, I don't know
what's even coming in with that.
Everything is focused now on growing one thing.
- One thing, yeah.
Which is the mastermind for fitness professionals.
- Yes, this is all I want to do,
but it wasn't easy because what was also happening
is you're not just fighting.
It's not about money here.
This is so beyond money, guys.
It's your identity.
- Yeah.
- And you gained a status as a seven figure earner
and what happens, the challenge was
what if I lose this identity and I was playing not to lose.
- Yes.
- I wasn't playing to win and still wrestle with that today
and I think you've probably kind of caught on to that
maybe as we talked today, but it's an identity thing,
so why do I have this identity and these metrics?
Why can't I find a sense of peace in my life
unless I'm at this number
and this is kind of what I'm wrestling through
and I'm having real conversations with my wife.
I'm like, if I start to make the decisions
I need to make for this and the girl,
if we've gotta liquidate the gym, liquidate the house,
go to a smaller town, would you mind?
She's like, "I don't care."
I'm like, huh, so why am I so scared?
And I think a lot of people would maybe able to
relate to this not losing some form of identity
that is filling some void, some insecurity in their life.
- Yeah, that's actually, let's talk a little bit about that
because I do see entrepreneurs and including myself,
my older self where identity you wrapped around about,
oh, like seven figure entrepreneur, I'm a mini entrepreneur,
like a lot of this stuff, like status.
- Sure.
- Where how the world sees me and then this and that
and what I realize is,
as an entrepreneur, like compared to
the organization I have today compared to before,
now the skills, of course the skills I have today,
they are more, I have most skillsets,
there's no doubt in my mind, but a big shift in my mindset
is before I was growing the company for me
that my identity is tied to that,
so I'm very attached to any fluctuation in terms of revenue,
oh making less money, oh this.
Like, it's a lot of that panic kind of energy
that I bring to the business
and I wonder how come I cannot find good people, right?
Or I cannot grow as fast as I want,
even though I'm hustling, I'm working hard, right?
Like there's something that you just feel like
this is not going very smoothly,
you're not in the flow, right?
It's very, very interesting
and versus when I let go of the need to control.
It's very interesting.
- Right.
- When I let go the need to control,
then things just happen.
- Right, interesting.
So what you've just said here
is something that I've heard other leaders talk about
and what they say is you can have either control or growth,
but you can't have both.
- Correct.
- So how do you let go of the control?
I know you're interviewing me, but I wanna know for you,
how do you let go of the control?
- Because I came to the conclusion is we have no control.
Like, what control do we have really?
We think we have, right?
Anyone, health, right?
Something could happen in terms of,
you can get into an accident
or suddenly you get hit by this disease
or you get sick, we have very little control.
- Right. - Right?
Like if you think about how, like how,
'cause human beings we got a lot of securities,
but if you really think about it,
we actually don't have much control.
- It's hilarious when you say that
because if you think of all these people
that eat so healthy and workout a million days a year,
yet they still get sick.
- Yeah and they...
- They don't eat gluten, they don't eat this...
- Yeah, and then they get sick and then they get diagnosed
with some life-threatening disease
and then when you realize
well actually, you have very little control.
And same thing with your business.
And then in my mind, I'm thinking okay today,
what's the worst, worst, worst, worst, worst case scenario?
Right?
Like, rock bottom, I'm thinking you know what?
I have my investments, I have my assets,
I have all this stuff,
worst case I could lose all the business stuff,
I still, I'm okay, right?
It's not like I'm living on the street.
- Sure.
- But I'm okay, I've got my assets,
I've got my properties, got all this stuff, I'm like yeah.
So am I okay with that?
- Yeah.
- It's like when you go into a fight,
you know, worst case, I'm gonna be hurt this much.
I'm not gonna die, but I'm gonna be hurt this much.
I'm gonna get my bleeding nose and bruise.
That's gonna be the worst case scenario.
Okay, if I know my worst case scenario,
then I actually don't have a lot of fear
because I can live with that.
- Gotcha.
- Now I could just, okay let's focus on...
It's very interesting when I shift my focus
into not being in a business for me, right?
Which you still focus on building the business, right?
- Sure.
- When you focus on not being in business for yourself,
but for a bigger purpose,
you will not believe the help, the opportunities.
Money is a funny thing.
- You're talking about purpose and service.
- Purpose and service and a bigger purpose, your mission
that money comes to you faster, easier.
Opportunities just knock on your door
that you cannot even chase or aim for.
Like there is no way you could.
Like, the things that are happening in terms of
in my career in the last couple years,
you cannot, I cannot even create it.
I will not dare to say, oh 'cause I created.
No, just recently some opportunities come into my lap.
Like, it's not something I could market for
or things it's not that let go.
- Yeah, it's hard for people to wrap their mind around that.
- Yeah, it's like entrepreneurs,
I think we overestimate about our abilities.
- Right.
- That's me, I make it happen, I get shit done and all that.
No, here's my belief and I'll still go back to the question.
If you asked me 10 years ago, you asked me,
"Hey Dan, think about your percentage.
"What percentage is hard work, what percentage is luck?"
I will tell you freaking 99% hard work, 1% is luck.
I would give you that answer.
My business is successful because I worked my ass off right?
I'm good at what I do, right?
- Yeah.
- You ask me today, I'll give you a very different answer.
I would probably tell you
1/3 it's my skill,
1/3 it's luck
and 1/3 it's my people.
- Wow.
- So my part it's actually much smaller
and my skillset is being able to
exercise my talents, my creativity, my exercise
because I have the right thing, the right timing
and then as well as I have the right people on my team
to be able to do that.
So my contributing factor has become less and less and less.
That's what I would say.
- You really do create a team.
You really do become something bigger than yourself.
- Much bigger and then
that attracts more people to be a bigger team.
So that's the way that I see.