What I Learned in 2025 (part 1)

Count money, man.

Count money, man.

Stacked riches.

I'm trying to told him I'm a beast, but...

What's up, gang?

Welcome back to another episode of The Grindcast.

Get ready.

It's a new day, and I want to cover today what I learned, re-learned, got reminded of in

2025.

And so I think it's critical for us to always go back and reflect and know specific

order.

Just a reminder, I think our health is what's most important.

And I think when I look at other people around me that got some different setbacks in their

life dealt to them due to health, or even myself, if I got sick a couple times throughout

the year, and I'm just coming off of being sick for a few days, nothing too crazy, but

every time that happens, I remind myself of like, man, imagine if you felt like this

every day, like for the year, or for six months.

How grateful should you be just to have your health?

Because if you don't have your health, there's so many other things that you prioritize

that wouldn't even be possible if it's not for keeping your health under control.

And I think the older that we get, the more focused that you need to have, and the more

attention that you need to pay to those things.

Things that you used to be able to get away with, you can't get away with anymore.

And so just, you know, our health, being grateful for our health, but just paying attention

to areas of your life, get your blood work done, get yourself checked out, you know, all

the stuff that you need to do for your health.

Health is your wealth.

Next thing would be, you know, you really don't find out who your friends are, you know,

when the chips are up, you really find more of who your friends are when the chips are

down.

And so there's going to be a lot of people that surprise you, you know, when the chips

are down, that aren't in your corner that you thought would be in your corner.

At least if you can't be in your corner, kids, you at least be neutral.

There's just people that switch up on you as soon as the chips are down a little bit.

But then on the other side, you're also going to get opportunities to see people that are

in your corner that you didn't even think would be in your corner.

You get to see what people are made of and what people think about you that don't have

to do things like that when the chips are down.

Next thing would be that, you know, it's God works His best miracles if you stay in

faith.

And I think the toughest time to stay in faith in in prayer is when it makes no sense

to like you've been asking, you've been believing in for six months nothing happened or for

three months nothing happened.

You've been going through hell for 12 months straight.

How do I still believe?

How do I still keep myself in the spirit of putting my faith in God and just man every time.

You know, it's like all the time I just get reminded all the time.

Years and years have been almost 10 years since I got this tattoo on my arm that says,

for those of you that don't know me, you know, on my left forearm I got real big no weapon.

And you know, that tattoo came from, you know, I'm 42 so I was early 30s and I was going

through some adversity and I had it.

And at that time of my life it was a huge, you know, adversity.

And now I realize how insignificant it really was and how comical it really was and what

level that I've been able to go to mentally because if this were me today, I don't think

it would bother me very much.

But I had, you know, somebody that had left our organization and made it his mission to

just hate on me personally every day of the year for like, you know, 365 days and it was

upsetting to me to the point where, you know, I wanted at 32 to act like I would have acted

at 20.

And that, that fight that I had in my mind for that period of time was, was difficult of

my flesh wanting to act in a way that my spirit was telling me not to act was a constant

fight and battle and argument.

And so what I learned to do is I started it.

I wanted to do things that only my friends that knew me when I was 15 years old would understand

and appreciate other people would just think I'm bullshit.

But the things that I wanted to do were things that I would have done at 16, you know, 18,

20 years old and at 32 with a wife and a business, you know, I couldn't act like that.

And so it was tough.

So what I did, I started hitting my knees and I started praying, you know, this scripture

that no weapon formed against us will prosper in every tongue that rises against us and

judgment would be condemned.

This is the promise to the servants of the Lord, Isaiah 54, 17.

And I prayed it every day that I wouldn't take matters in the morn hands and that I would

give it to God.

And man, by the end of that year, I could just tell you I'm not going to go too much in

depth but that person was no longer an issue by the end of the year and I didn't even have

to do anything about it.

And so I said, man, you know, this is such a moment for me because it was so difficult.

I want to get this tattoo on my arm that reminds me, you know, that when things get difficult

or if I'm attacked, instead of me going back to trying to attack back physically, I got

to learn to trust in God.

I got to learn to trust in prayer.

I got to learn to hit my knees and look up.

And so I wanted to put it on myself as a reminder that if I just lift everything up to God,

everything can end up being okay.

And so, you know, I got the same kind of a reminder, you know, over this past year because

I had, you know, a season of life that was turbulent, you know, some challenges, you

know, be it a lot of them unfair.

And man, I was in prayer for a long time and sometimes the more I prayed the worse it

got.

But by the end of the year, you know, I look at, and it just miracle to me, miracles that

don't even happen to people happen to me in a positive way.

As soon as they did, I knew exactly where it came from.

This was not luck at a draw.

This was not like, this is so normal.

This is God did that to me when I was telling you at 32, it was so loud what had happened

that I knew it was God talking to me.

This was another one of those moments.

This was another one of those years.

We had our best year in business that we've ever had since I've been in business and just

winning year all the way around over the last six months, especially, and I know exactly

where those blessings came from.

It's not because I'm great or our team is great, even though I think our team is really

special and great.

I just know I felt the presence of God.

And so I just want to tell you, you know, what I needed reminded of is that God works

His best miracles when you stand faith, especially when it makes no sense to.

First thing would be, I would rather pay one great person double and have less people

than have many people that are decent.

And so this goes in the business of sales to all the way around to my thought process

with other things, also.

It's just man quality people.

Sometimes people think you need to spread out and you got to diversify all these different

people.

And it's the same thing when you're first making money.

You know, you hear all these people saying, you know, you got to have 17 different streams

of income or you got to have five streams of income.

In my experience, you need one fat stream of income.

And that's is the way to get a couple of other streams of income, but you first got a

master having one stream of income.

And I think some of these poor people never get one great stream of income because they're

so focused on getting four streams of income because that's with some fool on social media

told them to do that they never get the big stream of income to make the other streams

of income in the first place.

And so my thought is very similar in the business building phase.

You know, I don't necessarily have to over diversify into a gazillion people as much as

I just got to have a couple really great people and let the process come as it may.

Same thing with staff, same things with other things.

Next thing would be liquidity is king.

Real estate is good.

I like real estate.

But man, the longer I'm around, the more I realize, you know, there's only so much you

can do when all your money is tied up into bricks and in real estate, you know, there's

times where your net worth could look really good on paper because you got all this real

estate.

But if you need some quick, you know, cash, you need a million dollars cash or half a

million cash, it's not always as easy depending on what's going on in the market or what the

situation is.

And so I just re remind you that man, cash is king.

Liquidity is king.

You know, make sure that, you know, if you're investing in the things, that's great.

But just stack some cash.

Next thing would be the high road is the hard road, but yields the best results from

God.

The high road is the hard road, but it yields the best results from God.

And I hope to never fail here, but I'm human.

And man, sometimes it's so hard for me to take the high road because these people, people

on the low road, they get some temporary attention.

And man, if I had a 24 hour pass where I could just take the low road for 24 hours, I wouldn't

sleep.

I wouldn't go to sleep.

I wouldn't eat nothing.

I would just let it rip, you know, for 24 hours and man, I would be good at it too.

And I just, I know I can't do that, right?

And so I just want to encourage you that I've had to encourage myself to, but I've seen

the results from it.

The high road yields the best results from God.

And you can get results from man, you can get results from yourself, you can get results

from your business, but I'm telling you, there ain't no results that you get when

heaven opens this door and just starts flooding down blessings on you because you stuck to

the high road when it was super, super, super difficult.

The more difficult the journey to stay on the high road in my experience, the bigger the

blessing coming back the other way.

And so if you're in a situation where you got to take some high road stuff right now, man,

just pray, talk to God about it, stay strong, keep grinding, use it as motivation, and let's

just see what happens.

Give it 12 months, let's see what happens.

Things, next thing, things that are worth it are difficult.

And so whatever you could think of in your life, like, if you're like, man, I really would

like to, you know, this would be really worth it.

Like what things are special that you would like to have?

Oh, I'd like to do this for my parents or I'd like to get married or I'd like to have children

or I'd like to win this contest or I'd like to get in really good shape.

I'd really, I'd like to be financially free or I'd like to, whatever these things are

that are great, understand that the things that are worth it are also extremely difficult.

And so it's a season when you go through these difficulties.

If you're paying the price to do something that's worth it, things often come in seasons.

And so you'll have a season of harvest, you'll have a season to reap, you'll have a

season where at summertime you'll have a season where it's winter time.

And if you could weather the storm in those seasons, that's how you grow.

And so you got to go through just like a seed.

You got to be able to go through getting planted.

You got to go through getting water rained on, shit on.

You got to begin, you got to go through and then all of a sudden, oh, sun comes out and

you blow up and you explode.

So just understand the things that you're chasing sometimes are difficult.

If not, they wouldn't be worth it, the things that are worth it are a challenge.

And the things that are a challenge, they come in seasons, it's not always going to be

that way.

So we just need to weather the storm and that's going to be the way that you grow.

Next thing up, control yourself, not others.

You can't control other people.

You can only control your response.

You can only control yourself.

So the best thing to be able to do if you could think on a challenge that you have right

now, what in this challenge that you have right now, could you control within yourself?

What things, your attitude, your delivery, your working on yourself, what are the things

that I want her to do this or him to do this or she to do this or them to do this or whatever.

I just want you to challenge yourself to find what is it about you that you can work

on?

What you do to work on yourself and oftentimes what happens is when you work on yourself

on the inside, the things that you wanted to happen to those people, sometimes, oftentimes,

most of the time, ends up happening because you started to change some things within yourself.

Next thing, cut people faster when they show you the signs.

Man, I can't tell you, you know, I'm still making mistakes.

You know, and this isn't all just particularly this year.

This is just...

things I'm just thinking of over years but you know people will show you signs of

themself and oftentimes you think you could change people of oh no you know this

person's gonna change because I'm gonna teach a mind-body spirit or you know

whatever it is but there's there's just some things culturally in a person

of who they are that are never gonna change and your gut instinct is gonna

tell you this you can't ignore your gut your gut is saying this to you you

know what I'm talking about too times where you your gut has told you one thing

and you ignored it on purpose and then where did that end up getting you

and so I want you to just focus on people in your life or in your business

that when they show you signs in the beginning let's not drag this on six

months let's not drag this on a year let's not drag this on five years let's

not because the longer it goes the more intertwined it gets the worse that it is

and I think that the challenge is cutting that person oh man this girl you know

is is is so hot you know and I'm dating her and but I know she ain't like that's

where you got to do it or this guy is so good looking he's so handsome I want to

overlook you know these 20% of things that are horrible in his character you

know hoping that these things are gonna change you know same thing goes for

talented people in your business oh this person does this well or this person

could do this or whatever so I'm gonna overlook these bad traits that I see in

this person because of these good things and that what you get in good comes

back on you and so just less and learned cut the people faster when you see

the signs in your life in your business whatever it is when they show you the

signs and your gut is talking to you trust and believe in that gut and just we

don't have to be mean about it but we got to just part ways next one is no one is

bigger than the team man if you're in a team atmosphere team environment and

you're trying to win championships nobody could be bigger than the team in

the team culture and if you're thinking well that's not true you know because

this is the most talented person on the team and we can't play without hurt or

him then I would go back and tell you you just got to watch who you even bring

into your team and who is who it is that you're drafting and do a really good

job before it gets to that point because if if if the best player on your team

also is a really good person then you really got a chance and if the best

player on your team is not really the things that you want to instill it's

going to be very difficult for you to instill those things on your team make no

mistakes there's some sports there's some things where like you can't be the

guy or gal that's in here you know singing cum bia and just telling jokes and

making everybody feel good all the time you know what I mean like that that

ain't your job sometimes the role of the player may be to challenge other people

it may be to get into it with other people it may be to cut some people it may

be to get some people fired up it may be to ruffle some people's feathers but it

all got to be for the greater good of the team of I'm doing this to make our team

better I'm doing this to make the environment not I'm doing this for myself it's

the people that are selfish that they do it for themselves and you know it ain't

about the team that's when there's challenges and so just if you're gonna do

something big you're gonna win championships you're gonna need a culture of

team and try to not let somebody get to where it's like man they're bigger than

the sum of of of everybody else especially if they're bad for your culture if

they're good for your culture then great but if they're not bad if they're not

good for your culture you're better off getting rid of that situation right now

next up be very careful who you trust and what level of trust that you give them

and so there's certain levels of trust that you can have you know like I trust you

and I don't trust you like that or like there's certain levels of love you can have

you know like I say a lot you know I love you there I mean there is levels of love

there's people that I that I love you know that I that I do I love I love

them I care about them but I don't love them as much as I love my daughter I don't

love them as much as I love my mother I don't love them but I love them right it's

so same thing for trust is that there's certain people that you trust them but you

you can't trust them with the next level you can't trust them with the next level

things a lot of times that is also good instinct but it's also proven you know

over time and so I'm just going to tell you be very careful who you trust what levels

of trust that you put in those people next thing be grateful for what you have because

things can change in a moment you know people take for granted sometimes the situation

that they're in be it their health their finances you know they're happiness their joy whatever

their safety just be grateful find opportunities throughout the year throughout

the day throughout the week to remind yourself to be grateful and I get upset just like

everybody else I get down like everybody else I think the key is not in like in

2026 it's no question are you gonna get knocked down at some point I mean

something's gonna happen you're gonna have a bad week you're gonna have a bad day

you're gonna have a bad moment you're gonna need a standing eight count you're

gonna but the key is you can't stay down I think the difference is people the people

that win at the levels the way that they're supposed to win them they get down but they

get up faster it's like yeah I don't stay down I get up boom I got knocked down I pop

right back up right man I got knocked hard it took you 10 seconds to get up it only took

me four seconds to get up it's like how fast can you bounce back because you're human

so shits can happen pain is gonna happen things are gonna happen but it's about how

fast can we bounce back up a lot of times the fastest and the best way to bounce back up

is reminding yourself of what you got to be grateful for versus reminding yourself

of what you don't got to be grateful for all right I think we're gonna cut it here because

there's so much you know to cover from some of the lessons from 2025 that we're gonna

split it we're gonna split this message into two and so what I will say is just thank

you for those of you that have joined us in part one if there's anybody that you think

we can help if it impacted you at all do us a favor and hit the share button make sure

that you're sharing it with with with others out there and as always just know that we're

appreciative and grateful for you joining us on another episode of the Grand Cascast

get ready it's a new day.