I wanna talk to you about money. Money's an uncomfortable topic for so many reasons and for so many people which is really frustrating, especially as young entrepreneur. Cause nobody would ever talk to me about it. And if you're not raised with or in or around money financial literacy is hard to pick up by osmosis. You have to be very intentional with it. I believe very strongly that getting good at the game of money is the most important game an entrepreneur can be good at. It's the most important thing you can learn. Everything else falls into place when you're good with money. You could have bad business ideas and still be successful because you're good with money. Cuz even bad business ideas yield some level of result, and after a certain number of at bats, you'll land in the right space. I'd rather be good with money and bad at ideas than good at ideas and bad with money. We've all seen those people. They're related to some of them. Getting good at the game of money is the most important thing you can learn. I've noticed too about outstanding successes is most of the great successes I've had access to personally. Most of the people that I've seen really take off didn't do so until after they achieved financial freedom. very often we think that financial freedom comes from great success. But what I think is great success is allowed through financial freedom. And financial freedom doesn't mean billions of dollars. It's not yacht money. It's never have to worry money. it's statistically, if you're in North America, it's 75 K US a month. Excuse me, 75 K US a year is what they say. Once you're making 75 grand a year more money doesn't make you happier. I don't know if that's true or not. You don't even have to have that number in your head, but what's the amount of money that you would need to have in order to never worry again? incidentally, this is where things get a little bit awkward. People shouldn't talk about things they don't know. And so I'm not saying this to posture. I'm saying this because I want to offer some authority in the space. I have achieved financial freedom. To a tune that puts me in the top 1% of the world, both in terms of income and net worth and never have to worry about money again. You wouldn't know it though if you hung out with me. I drive a Hyundai, my house is nice, but it's, modest for my tax bracket. And that's part of the point. When I was a young man I started my business when I was 19, going on 20. And it was pretty successful, almost right away. It had nothing to do with me. It was an amazing economy. I started my business right when, I mean, people were buying everything. it was unbelievable. I'm making more money than I should have been making at the time. No idea what to do with it. I bought the house on the hill. I had an idiot's car. I always picked up the check no matter who we were with or how many people were there. I was wearing really expensive clothes. I was getting my hair cut. I got my hair cut back then I was getting my hair cut at a place in the mall. It was Tony and Guy. I'm getting my hair cut. I don't know if y'all know Tony and Guy. I don't know how big they are or if they're franchise or not. But it was like 150 bucks by the time I was done getting my hair cut. So stupid. And then the economy collapsed around me and my whole world disintegrated. And I learned very quickly, like, that's not my house, that's the bank's house. they were quick to remind me of that when I stopped making payments houses were closed on, car was repossessed, lost everything. Had to lay off everybody that worked for me in a day. Horrible, horrible experience. And think about the disadvantage I put them in. Too, because I wasn't responsible again as a young man. This happened when I was 22, so I had two years of being just a douche bag. And what was shocking to me is how many other people were like that. I live in Scottsdale, Arizona, it's beautiful. I love it. But there's a lot of, what we call 30,000 millionaires. With 30 grand, you can make yourself look like you're a millionaire. And I saw so many people just evaporate. I was one of them. And I'm trolling Costco on an expired Costco card, eating the free tryouts on the weekends. That's how I'm eating, and I have no. No prospect for the future, and it was the best thing that's ever happened to me ever because it taught me how important money is. It's a tool. It's not the root of all evil. it's not something to be coveted or, chased as a means or an end to itself, any more than any other tool, right? Like, you don't wanna hoard nails, but you need nails to build a house. Money is the tool that entrepreneurs use, and there are two types of money. Here's the advice that I'm gonna give you. There's two types of money. isn't my advice incidentally. This is just the best advice that I've ever been given, and I wish I knew where I got it, or I'd properly attribute it. The first type of money is money that your time buys you. I call this slave money. You might not like that moniker. I think that's exactly what it is, by the way. I think it's literal slavery. It's indentured servitude. The money your time buys you the time for money. Trade is a horrible trade. It's horrible trade, but we all have to do it in the beginning unless you're born into money. So your slave money, the money your time buys you, it's bought with your life force it's bought at, a dear, dear, dear Price. You are not allowed to use this for anything other than the absolute necessities of life. think of that, the song It was the Disney movie, Robinhood the Burn Necessities. You can only use your slave money for the absolute necessities, this by the way, means making really hard choices. My wife and I had one car for a couple of years. That's tough, especially living in a city that's not walkable. We lived in this little teeny tiny shoebox apartment on the second floor in Phoenix, Arizona where the. Temperature gets 125 degrees. Not having a garage is a really big deal. You know, you get out into the car and it's literally, and people are baking cookies in their dash. They do it on TikTok all the time. It's so fun to watch. Those are the sacrifices that we made. Decade old car. It's paid off. So little shoebox apartment. I owned it. Free and clear. The money that your time buys, you. You can only spend on the bare necessities. Now, live in a safe place. Obviously. Make sure you're in a good school district for your kiddos. Eat organic food. Do the things that aren't gonna cost you long term, but don't keep up with the Joneses. The money that your time buys you, your slave money can only buy the bare necessities and, things that make you money. Things that make you money. when you get your slave money, I'm gonna cover the bare necessities and then I'm gonna go buy other things that make me money. Which by the way, in the very beginning is your own business. Invest in your own business, invest in advertising, invest in really good hires, really good people. Invest in other businesses. If you want to invest in real estate you'd be shocked at how easy you can get into a single family home as a rental and how easy that is for a bank to underwrite. Now, be careful about speculating. That's not what I'm saying to do, but buy things that make you money and what you'll find is you end up putting yourself in a position. I'm in this little shoebox apartment that's paid off. I got this little 10 year old Hyundai, it was paid off. Now I didn't look nearly as cool as my friends, you know, and I had some friends that were flying high man, they're running agencies about my size and they're living in great big houses, and they've got, the Mercedes and they're going on these crazy opulent trips. But I could hire people they couldn't afford to hire, you know, Hey, I think this guy's gonna be really good, but he's gonna take a little bit longer to train. I've got it. No big deal. I could turn down projects that I didn't wanna work on. I could turn down clients that were mean, or, just didn't wanna work with, I could make investments in myself and in my people that other people couldn't make because I, got really good at the game of money. And then over time, the things that I invested in, Other businesses, my own business, real estate. I never made money in the stock market. All I ever did was lose money that started making me more money than my time made me. And that flip y'all like, it's so funny cuz you hear all these people like, oh, money doesn't buy happiness. Those people don't know what they're talking about. Money buys time. Buys time with my kids. How is that Not happiness. Buy his options. It buys freedom. It buys the ability to do things for other people. I've been gifted with the ability to do things for folks that have been life changing for me and for them. So I'm not, sitting here espousing all the virtues of money. I'm espousing virtues. That can be amplified by money. Having money just shows you who somebody is. You know, if they're a douche bag, they'll be more of a douche bag. If they're a good person, they'll be more of a good person. Get good at the game of money. There's two types of money. There's your slave money. It's money your time buys you. It's precious. Your time is precious. Invest it. Then there's your freedom money. And here's the thing, I'm not wealth shaming. You want a Mercedes. The money your money buys you, you can do whatever you want with that. You can get one Mercedes for every day of the week and two on Tuesday, each in a different coat. Whatever you want. I don't care. The money your time buys, you cost you your life. The money your money buys you. That's a game now. That's a game you can get really good at. And the money your money buys you. It amplifies, it quantifies, Einstein is, quoted with saying something like compound interest is the eighth one of the world or whatever. it's unbelievable when you actually experience, I think it's Matthew's law to those who have much more will be given get good at the game of money no matter where you are. Like, this is a game that everybody can play. It takes a little humility. It takes not. Wanting to keep up with the Jones's or pick up the check or, I mean, maybe you sack your lunch. But if you do that, you don't have to do that for very long. You know, I mean, 10 years isn't very long. It's an unbelievable payoff with unbelievable opportunities. Anyway, now I'm evangelizing and preaching a little bit. I hope this is helpful. rooting for you. I'll see you tomorrow.