WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:06.240 The easiest cue that we can use to change who we are, to change character traits that we find undesirable 2 00:00:06.240 --> 00:00:12.640 is to simply ask ourselves when we're confronted with the decision, what would this type of person do? 3 00:00:12.640 --> 00:00:14.240 And then act in accordance to that. 4 00:00:17.440 --> 00:00:20.800 Welcome to the game where we talk about how to sell more stuff to more people in more ways 5 00:00:20.800 --> 00:00:25.120 and build businesses worth owning. I'm trying to build a billion dollar thing with acquisition.com. 6 00:00:25.120 --> 00:00:28.080 I always wish pesos, musk and buffet had documented their journey, 7 00:00:28.080 --> 00:00:30.240 so I'm doing it for the rest of us. Please share and enjoy. 8 00:00:32.640 --> 00:00:38.000 The hardest respect to earn is one's own. And I get questions all the time in terms of like, 9 00:00:38.560 --> 00:00:42.080 how do you create these businesses, how do you sell stuff, how do you live your life, 10 00:00:42.080 --> 00:00:47.920 all of those kinds of things. And I was talking to a good friend who'd come back into my life 11 00:00:47.920 --> 00:00:54.400 briefly that we'd known for many years. And we actually started at the same time together. And 12 00:00:55.040 --> 00:01:00.160 ironically, there was a there was a period of time, not ironically, that he did significantly 13 00:01:00.160 --> 00:01:04.720 better than me. And then just from a financial perspective. And then I ended up passing him. And 14 00:01:04.720 --> 00:01:10.320 we met back up a few years later. And he was a little bit down. And the conversation that we had 15 00:01:10.320 --> 00:01:15.360 was really enlightening for me and the conversations we had since. And so I wanted to share that with you. 16 00:01:15.920 --> 00:01:19.520 And the main purpose for this as I'm getting to it is to 17 00:01:20.320 --> 00:01:27.280 underline how do you actually do this stuff that creates the wealth, the empire, the status, 18 00:01:27.280 --> 00:01:32.400 all that stuff. And I think that this is where people get really tripped up. And the reason I say 19 00:01:32.400 --> 00:01:38.640 that is there's kind of three elements to the the goal, right? So you have the external result 20 00:01:38.640 --> 00:01:42.880 that you're looking for, which might be make more money, get a six pack, whatever. You've got the 21 00:01:42.880 --> 00:01:48.720 processes, behaviors, activities that result in that goal, right? Being achieved, which 22 00:01:48.720 --> 00:01:54.960 would be like doing the work. And then the third aspect is being the type of person who does those 23 00:01:54.960 --> 00:02:01.200 things. So basically identifying with those types of behaviors or being the type of person who does 24 00:02:01.200 --> 00:02:06.080 those types of activities, which then creates the reward, right? And so I think James Cleary 25 00:02:06.080 --> 00:02:09.920 talks about this in his book, Atomic Habits. But there's a lot of behavior psychologists who've 26 00:02:09.920 --> 00:02:14.560 touched on this point. And you probably have heard B do have at some point in your personal 27 00:02:14.560 --> 00:02:19.680 development journey. And if you haven't, welcome to the game. And so one of the things, and this is 28 00:02:19.680 --> 00:02:26.240 what I wanted to give to you in this is a keystone habit that has served me very well. And it's only 29 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:31.120 been in retrospect explaining it to someone else that I kind of had more clarity on it, which is why 30 00:02:31.120 --> 00:02:36.640 I'm sharing it with you, which is when I have something that I want that I do not have. So I have 31 00:02:36.640 --> 00:02:40.160 a desire, which means I've made a contract with myself to be unhappy until I get what I want, 32 00:02:40.160 --> 00:02:45.200 right? And so I have this thing that I want externally. And I think I've had enough experience with 33 00:02:45.200 --> 00:02:49.120 this to know that simply writing down the goal means nothing. And so I think this is contrary to 34 00:02:49.120 --> 00:02:53.840 common belief or practice, which is like people write down their goals are more likely to succeed. 35 00:02:53.840 --> 00:02:57.360 Sure. I mean, having a direction is more likely to achieve than not having a direction. So I'm 36 00:02:57.360 --> 00:03:02.160 not going to disagree with that. But here's an interesting statement that may hit you, which is that 37 00:03:02.160 --> 00:03:06.960 winners and losers have the same goals, right? Everybody in Olympics has the same goal. Everybody 38 00:03:06.960 --> 00:03:10.800 who's in business has the same goal, right? They want to increase how much money they're making. 39 00:03:10.800 --> 00:03:14.640 You sell more products, get more customers, etc. So the goals are actually not that unique. And so 40 00:03:14.640 --> 00:03:18.160 the fact that we're writing them down, sure, it's a first step because we have to have a direction 41 00:03:18.160 --> 00:03:22.640 in terms of what do we try to accomplish? Sure. But I think that what you'll see that is different 42 00:03:22.640 --> 00:03:25.840 because if you look at two people with the same goals and one person achieves them and the other 43 00:03:25.840 --> 00:03:30.720 person hasn't, then it can't be having the goal that is the main driver of success, right? Right. 44 00:03:31.360 --> 00:03:34.800 And so then you, you know, do you dive a step underneath of that and you look at what are the 45 00:03:34.800 --> 00:03:38.560 behaviors that created that goal? And now we get much closer to the things that are actually driving 46 00:03:38.560 --> 00:03:44.720 the progress. What gets more interesting, at least to me, is if we know the activities that are 47 00:03:44.720 --> 00:03:48.480 going to generate the result we want. So maybe it's we want to get more customers, which means we 48 00:03:48.480 --> 00:03:52.000 need to advertise more. And I use advertised by the definition of what the word actually means, 49 00:03:52.000 --> 00:03:56.080 which is to make known. And so if we do activities that make our products and services known, 50 00:03:56.080 --> 00:04:00.320 like doing more private communications, which would be 101 reach outs, 101 cold calls, 51 00:04:00.320 --> 00:04:05.760 101 DMs, 101 emails, et cetera, prospecting, or one to many, so public communication, 52 00:04:05.760 --> 00:04:11.120 which would be broadcasting across different platforms for media, right? So you have radio, 53 00:04:11.120 --> 00:04:16.320 you have you have you could have an email list, you could have actually that would be an example of 54 00:04:16.320 --> 00:04:19.840 a high version of scale of the original. So I apologize there, but like making posts on social media, 55 00:04:19.840 --> 00:04:23.280 things that are public forum where people can find out about it, right? If you do more of those 56 00:04:23.280 --> 00:04:27.440 things, more people find out. And that would be the activity that's associated with getting more 57 00:04:27.440 --> 00:04:31.920 customers, right? But the thing is is that people will know what that activity is, right? They 58 00:04:31.920 --> 00:04:36.880 will know that inherently they should be doing more of it. And yet they don't. And so that is kind 59 00:04:36.880 --> 00:04:42.400 of the purpose that I wanted to drill down in this short video today is why not? And what is the 60 00:04:42.400 --> 00:04:48.000 way that we can try and correct that or fix that? And so I wanted to give you the simplest single 61 00:04:48.000 --> 00:04:56.800 hack that I have used inadvertently and seen a tremendous amount of success. And that is asking 62 00:04:56.800 --> 00:05:04.240 myself the question, what would a person who does this type of thing do in this instance? And so 63 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:07.920 the one that I'll tell you that I've repeated a lot to myself over the years, probably over the 64 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:15.280 last five or 10 years has been the repeated chorus of what would a wise man do? And I think it's 65 00:05:15.280 --> 00:05:21.680 because I did not consider myself to be very wise. And I acted many ways that were unwise earlier 66 00:05:21.680 --> 00:05:27.200 on in my life. And I still continue to do so. But I try to do less of it, right? And I think that 67 00:05:27.200 --> 00:05:32.560 and I'll borrow this again from James Kerr's book, but like your identity is much more of a weighing 68 00:05:32.560 --> 00:05:36.560 system. Actually, this is not from his book, but like it's much more of a voting system where you 69 00:05:36.560 --> 00:05:40.160 you cast votes in either direction based on your activities of what type of person you want to 70 00:05:40.160 --> 00:05:46.480 become. And I think the simplest distillation of that concept is simply asking the question, 71 00:05:47.120 --> 00:05:52.560 what would this type of person do? And so if you can use that as the refrain that you come 72 00:05:52.560 --> 00:05:57.600 back to over and over again, the chorus of your day that gets repeated over and over again, 73 00:05:57.600 --> 00:06:02.880 I think it's much easier than trying to remember the 50 point checklist of all the activities 74 00:06:02.880 --> 00:06:09.520 that you need to do to achieve the goal, right? And so in the the friend that came back in my life, 75 00:06:09.520 --> 00:06:14.640 we were having this conversation, you know, I just distilled it down to like, what would a billionaire 76 00:06:15.520 --> 00:06:18.640 do? And so when we're confronted with these crossroads, right, you wake up in the morning, 77 00:06:18.640 --> 00:06:21.280 and you're like, I don't know what I should start on. It's like, what would a billionaire do? 78 00:06:21.280 --> 00:06:26.880 And so basically, what you can do is have a certain refrain or chorus that you ask yourself, 79 00:06:26.880 --> 00:06:30.960 what would this type of person do? And that type of person, when you ask that question, 80 00:06:30.960 --> 00:06:35.600 is who you will eventually become as you continue to cast votes that reinforce the stories that we 81 00:06:35.600 --> 00:06:41.440 tell ourselves about who we are? And those are the things that create long lasting, deep change. 82 00:06:41.440 --> 00:06:47.040 And what's more about this is that these changes when they become internal, when they become 83 00:06:47.040 --> 00:06:53.600 ingrained in our behavior, they become effortless, but it takes time. And so I think that the mental 84 00:06:53.600 --> 00:06:59.440 cue that I have given myself, inadvertently over the years, I don't have a lot of courses that 85 00:06:59.440 --> 00:07:04.400 I refrain to or that I come back to over and over again. And so I tweeted about one and I got 86 00:07:04.400 --> 00:07:08.480 shared a zillion times with is, what would someone 10 times smarter than me do in this situation? 87 00:07:08.480 --> 00:07:12.480 Right? And a different way of saying that is what would a billionaire do. And word in whatever 88 00:07:12.480 --> 00:07:18.960 way that resonates with you, right? But I think rather than having that big checklist, you can put 89 00:07:18.960 --> 00:07:24.640 just a little post it on your computer or wherever you work that's a reminder to yourself that 90 00:07:25.760 --> 00:07:27.680 this is the type of person I want to become. 91 00:07:29.920 --> 00:07:34.480 Real quick guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. 92 00:07:34.480 --> 00:07:37.680 And so the only ask that I can ever have are you guys that you help me spread the words, 93 00:07:37.680 --> 00:07:42.240 we can not more entrepreneurs, make more money, feed their families, make better products and have 94 00:07:42.240 --> 00:07:46.720 better experiences for their employees and customers. And the only way we do that is if you can 95 00:07:46.720 --> 00:07:51.280 rate and review and share this podcast. So the single thing that I have to do is you can just leave 96 00:07:51.280 --> 00:07:55.520 review, take 10 seconds or one type of the thug that it means the absolute world to me and more 97 00:07:55.520 --> 00:07:57.680 importantly, it may change the world for someone else. 98 00:07:59.360 --> 00:08:03.840 And in order to become this type of person, I need to do these things because those actions 99 00:08:03.840 --> 00:08:07.760 will reinforce the thoughts that I say about myself because the whole concept behind 100 00:08:07.760 --> 00:08:12.160 affirmations that I do not like, right, which is IMA, you know, I'm a lion, I'm a tiger, I'm a 101 00:08:12.160 --> 00:08:17.760 whatever, right? Is that just saying them doesn't make them true unless you're a crazy person. 102 00:08:17.760 --> 00:08:21.680 And most of us are not crazy, I think, right? There's plenty of crazy. You don't be wrong, 103 00:08:21.680 --> 00:08:28.160 but you're probably least semi-same, right? And so if we have this degree of sanity that's 104 00:08:28.160 --> 00:08:32.240 on our side, then what we have to do is create something else, which is evidence, right? We have 105 00:08:32.240 --> 00:08:36.800 to give ourselves evidence that we are this type of person in order to become that. But how do 106 00:08:36.800 --> 00:08:40.320 you have evidence that you are going to be this person when you have none? Well, it starts with 107 00:08:40.320 --> 00:08:46.000 activity. It starts with doing the stuff. And so once we know who we want to become, then that 108 00:08:46.000 --> 00:08:49.760 can direct the types of activities that will be in accordance with that. And the reason I like this 109 00:08:49.760 --> 00:08:54.720 better too is that if we're trying to reinforce an identity or an identity trait about ourselves, 110 00:08:55.280 --> 00:08:59.840 and I just learned this and this is a really good habit, I think, that I've picked up over the 111 00:08:59.840 --> 00:09:08.080 years, but breaking down the etymology of words is really, really cool. And I think really teaches us 112 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:12.800 a lot about the words we say and words matter a lot because they are the things that encapsulate 113 00:09:12.800 --> 00:09:17.040 thoughts. And so if you change the way you speak, the change the way you think, right? And so a 114 00:09:17.040 --> 00:09:20.560 classic one, which is like, I didn't really like the word philosopher because I thought it sounded 115 00:09:20.560 --> 00:09:24.640 really fluffy, but when I found out the etymology behind the word, which is Phile, which is to love or 116 00:09:25.440 --> 00:09:29.200 like, and then Sophos, which is knowledge or wisdom, it's lover of wisdom. And I was like, well, 117 00:09:29.200 --> 00:09:33.840 shoot, I am a lover of wisdom. And so now I actually have a very positive association with the word 118 00:09:33.840 --> 00:09:40.400 philosophy or philosopher. And to the same degree, identity comes from, like, I don't know, remember 119 00:09:40.400 --> 00:09:44.400 the actual Latin word, but entity is being, right? Like just beingness and it's, you know, 120 00:09:44.400 --> 00:09:49.440 the soft and identical, which is repeated. So repeated beingness is what your identity is. So 121 00:09:49.520 --> 00:09:54.800 your actions, what you do literally becomes who you are, which means that we can actively change 122 00:09:54.800 --> 00:09:59.760 who we are by changing what we do. But it is a reinforcing, secular path of like, I'm this type of 123 00:09:59.760 --> 00:10:03.040 person. And therefore I do these things. And because they do these types of things, I am this type 124 00:10:03.040 --> 00:10:07.040 of person, right? And so it's the chicken or the egg. But at some point, we need to take action 125 00:10:07.040 --> 00:10:13.200 in order to do that. And so I think the simple and easiest cue that we can use to change who we 126 00:10:13.200 --> 00:10:18.560 are to change character traits that we find undesirable is to simply ask ourselves when we're confronted 127 00:10:18.560 --> 00:10:24.480 with the decision, what would this type of person do? And then act in accordance to that. 128 00:10:24.480 --> 00:10:29.360 And I find it much simpler than having the lists and having the daily routines and the things 129 00:10:29.360 --> 00:10:34.720 like that. Because if you are this type of person, you will do the types of things that that type 130 00:10:34.720 --> 00:10:40.080 of person would do. And that also comes down to the many decisions we haven't accounted for yet. 131 00:10:40.080 --> 00:10:44.240 You're going to be confronted with situations that you have not predicted. In fact, the vast 132 00:10:44.240 --> 00:10:48.080 majority of us don't predict things well. In general, it's because there's far more variables 133 00:10:48.080 --> 00:10:53.920 than we can possibly comprehend. And so I think it's much more useful for us to think about 134 00:10:53.920 --> 00:10:59.600 ourselves in terms of if I were to encompass all of the things that I would like to be, right? And 135 00:10:59.600 --> 00:11:05.360 that's why I think the what would Jesus do was such a powerful statement in the Christian community 136 00:11:05.360 --> 00:11:08.720 over on candidly people outside of the Christian community could use that same exact thing, 137 00:11:08.720 --> 00:11:13.360 which what would Jesus do in this instance and probably get the right activity and become more 138 00:11:13.440 --> 00:11:17.520 like Jesus, right? Which is the entire goal of the Christian faith. And this is not this is not 139 00:11:17.520 --> 00:11:23.600 a religious, that's not my point here. But it's more so that what we repeatedly choose to ask ourselves 140 00:11:23.600 --> 00:11:28.080 which creates our identity, which then creates the tasks that we do in the activities we spend our 141 00:11:28.080 --> 00:11:33.360 time on reinforces the story that we tell ourselves about who we are, right? Or what type of person 142 00:11:33.360 --> 00:11:38.160 we are. And so what I shared with this individualist has said, you know, what do you want to become? 143 00:11:38.160 --> 00:11:42.640 And if it's like a billionaire, it's like, cool, then what would a billionaire do? And always asking 144 00:11:42.720 --> 00:11:46.480 ourselves that question. And the reason that this was important when I was talking to this individual, 145 00:11:46.480 --> 00:11:50.400 I'll reach the texts that I had that I had said to him because they got shared all over Instagram 146 00:11:50.400 --> 00:11:55.440 when I when I tweeted them or whatever. Is that after he left, I said, here's a thought for you. 147 00:11:55.440 --> 00:11:59.920 So I was just like thinking about the conversation we had and he had felt kind of shitty. And what's 148 00:11:59.920 --> 00:12:05.920 interesting about this is like, as an aside, as you level up in your life, and this is just an 149 00:12:05.920 --> 00:12:10.480 observation that I've had is that like you will simply change who you compare yourself to. And I think 150 00:12:10.480 --> 00:12:15.040 Jordan Peterson talks about this in some talk he had, but I find it very true, which is you, 151 00:12:15.040 --> 00:12:19.520 you just change who you compare yourself to. And so you always find a way to make yourself feel 152 00:12:19.520 --> 00:12:22.720 terrible. And even if you're the best in the world at stuff, you'll just look at people who are 153 00:12:22.720 --> 00:12:27.360 better at other things than you and compare yourself to them to make yourself feel bad, right? And so 154 00:12:27.360 --> 00:12:31.200 this is what I said to him and I'll share it with you. I said, every winner and every loser have 155 00:12:31.200 --> 00:12:36.240 the same goals. What separates them are the activities they commit to committing to the activities. 156 00:12:36.320 --> 00:12:41.120 That is the goal. So commit to the activities. That is the goal. So when you make a lot of money 157 00:12:41.120 --> 00:12:46.320 one month, you've achieved, I'll say that again, when you make a lot of money one month, 158 00:12:46.320 --> 00:12:53.040 you've achieved nothing because the goal is the activities. And then later I said, do me a favor 159 00:12:53.040 --> 00:12:57.440 instead of writing down your goals, just write down what would a billionaire who lost it all do? 160 00:12:58.080 --> 00:13:03.120 Or what would a billionaire do to keep it simple? Or whatever version of yourself you want to be, 161 00:13:03.120 --> 00:13:07.280 the doing and the outcomes will happen as a result of the main internal identity shift, 162 00:13:07.280 --> 00:13:11.280 which you can reinforce many times a day by asking yourself that question at each crossroad. 163 00:13:11.280 --> 00:13:16.640 And so I think that was relatively, you know, I think it's a good point to end off on, which is 164 00:13:16.640 --> 00:13:21.360 the only tactical aspect I have for you is to simply write down what type of person do I wish 165 00:13:21.360 --> 00:13:28.000 to become and then make that the chorus that you recite to yourself when you're at your crossroads, 166 00:13:28.000 --> 00:13:31.920 when you're at your decision points that are going to create who you are on a repeated basis 167 00:13:31.920 --> 00:13:36.800 every single day. And I think going back to that refrain will be all encompassing in terms of 168 00:13:36.800 --> 00:13:41.520 what would Jesus do, applies to a zillion scenarios, but everyone, at least in the Christian faith, 169 00:13:41.520 --> 00:13:46.160 and I use it because it's a very simple catch-all, would want to become more Christ-like, right? 170 00:13:46.160 --> 00:13:52.560 And so whatever the Christ version is for you, we can steal from that concept and continually 171 00:13:52.560 --> 00:14:08.000 reinforce it by asking ourselves those questions.