The Grind-Cast Quarantine Edition / Special Guest – Marcus Smith

Count money, man.

My stack grits is fine.

I told him, I'm a beast, but what's up gang?

Welcome to the grind cast.

Simon Areas here.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

What's up gang?

Welcome to another episode of the grind cast.

Get ready.

It's a new day.

And I got my man, Marcus Smith, the Godfather of my daughter.

And I'm the Godfather of his.

And this is the man that called my resume when I was in college.

I was playing college football.

I had no idea what I was going to do with my life.

And out of the blue, I get a phone call from Marcus Smith.

And as you start to hear from Marcus Smith, I'm excited for you to get some of the knowledge

of wisdom that I've been able to get from Marcus.

But you'll be able to hear this.

I heard this deep voice over the phone when I first talked to him.

I still remember it like it was yesterday.

But my dude's got this deep voice.

And as they say, Marcus Smith, he's talking football with me.

Don't think, and I'ma come in and I'ma meet this dude.

He's gonna be about six, five black, big hands balled.

Maybe play with the ground.

And I walk in and it's my dude Marcus.

And he's five, eight and white with a deep voice.

And he's a savage.

Not what I expected.

But Marcus has changed the game in our business.

And it was one of the most influential people in changing my life in business.

He's promoted more people than anybody else in the company to not only corporate positions,

but other leadership positions.

And they just crushed our business in the insurance industry.

And so let me first start out in Marcus.

I know we've went through it a slew of times, but maybe people that don't know you,

and you give them a little bit of background on your story, your background,

your story in the company, your story growing up as a person and how you got to where you are today.

What's up Simon?

So you know the deal, man, we both ate these babies.

So we grew up with Mike Tyson, Mike Jordan, Michael Jackson, Rambo, all of them still

own rocky movies and stuff like that.

So I grew up in a household, my dad, he worked at Ford Motor Company in Brook Park for

30 years, little suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.

And my dad's main thing was we had a gym at our house.

So he was big time in the weightlifting and bodybuilding and powerlifting.

And we had our own home gym where people had memberships.

It was in our basements so they'd come in, walk in through the back of the house down in the

basement.

So as a little kid, all I can remember is walking down there and being around a bunch of

meatheads, you know, a bunch of power lifters and bodybuilders and there's always music playing

and stuff like that.

And I'm the youngest of three, Simon.

So I got two older brothers, my older brother Derek and my older brother, Kevin.

And so I'm the youngest of three and my brother, Kevin's five years older than me and my

brother Derek was seven years older than me.

So I was getting beat up on and everything growing up.

So whether I played basketball, football, baseball, whatever ball we could play, I was

getting beat up on.

Or if it was wrestling or boxing, you know, my two older brothers were savages.

So I was always just, you know, getting punched on, you know, being the little brother.

And so I grew up in a, you know, country town called Chatham, just a one-row township and

you know, playing a lot of ball.

My dad loved guns.

We shot a lot of guns.

And that's pretty much, you know, was the upbringing as a kid, you know, if that makes sense

at all.

And then moved the Brunswick, Ohio, which is a larger suburb.

So I went from country living to a suburb when I was in fourth grade.

That was a culture shock for me because I was so used to, you know, living on acres and

having farms next to me.

And now the sudden, you know, you look next door and you got houses on top of you everywhere.

So you went from being able to kind of ride four-leaders and shoot guns and do whatever you

want to kind of look and you got to look over your shoulder and see what you're going to do

next in the suburbs versus the country.

Yeah, do you feel, you know, comfortable talking about, you know, I remember here in the

story about when your dad went to prison, you know, I think, you know, I don't like to

pull up negative memories, but I think to make people understand some of what you grew

through in your family went through, I think tells a lot about you as a person, as a character

and people can relate to you because right now we're doing this podcast and I see you

over there sitting in the pool room.

So, you know, those of you that can't see, you know, Marcus, that's his pool room.

He has an indoor, you know, swimming pool in basketball court right next to it in a gym,

all indoors.

And so I think people that just see you now or meet you now, they're thinking, oh, this

guy must have just, you know, had everything given to him or had an easy life maybe had

to, you know, parents that had a bunch of money and, you know, so I think to understand

where you came from and I know so much of your mental toughness and the way that you see

things and your work ethic came from your dad.

You know, I hear so much about how he taught you to push, how he taught you to think

and all of that stuff and that no doubt the discipline and the motivation came from him,

but there was also some adversity in that.

Well, you know, a few things, Simon is that, you know, number one, my mom taught me a

tongue.

You know, my mom was like the glue and the strength to keep things together when everything

was falling apart.

When you talk about things being handed to me, those that know me that grew up with me,

know that I've had a job since I've been in fourth grade.

Like first real paying jobs since fourth grade, when I moved the bronze week, there's

just little bar that my mom worked at as a waitress and my brother worked at as a chef

and they plugged me in as the cleaner.

So on Sundays, I walked up to this bar called Buddy's.

Now it's called Hermann's and Hermann was, you know, my brother's best friend and one of

my best friends growing up, so he bought this place out, but I was cleaning the toilets,

cleaning urinals.

This is where I found out, you know, I would think that the guy's bathroom was going

to be more disgusting than the girls dog.

I would have thought the house on it, you know, for sure.

I found out that the girls bathroom was a little bit more disgusting than the boys.

I couldn't believe it.

So I'm in fourth grade.

I'm like that all the way around the world.

I want to, I got to ask some people, is that just bronze week thing?

That could be a bronze turkey thing, you know.

It could be a turkey thing, but I bet you if we went in the young style and maybe you

like that in young style.

I could see the yo for sure.

And if some of these gritty and dry, the slimey place is like turkey and the yo.

So, you know, so long story short, I was cleaning toilets, cleaning urinals, mopping floors,

cleaning dishes, and this is on a Sunday after the big weekend push on Fridays and Saturdays.

So it's like all that slime and crime on the floor.

I'm polishing brass.

So I'm doing all these things in fourth grade, learning how to make dough.

And but the reason we moved the bronze week was because of what you just brought up is

my dad.

What had happened is him and my oldest brother that passed as well.

Derek, they shut up this guy's house in Medina, Ohio.

There's a car wash on Pearl Road in Medina, it's still there today, Simon.

And the owner of that place in the 80s, you know, 1988, 1989.

You know, my dad and my brother, they were salty.

You know, my mom had an affair and long story short, man, you know, my dad was not happy about it.

It took my brother with him and blew up this guy's house.

You know, we grew up, I told you we had four withers and guns.

Like my earliest memories were being in the gun shop.

That's what it's called, the gun shop.

The time Pearl Road is still today, you know, in Medina, Ohio.

And as a kid, I was sucking my thumb.

And my dad was like, if you quit sucking your thumb, I'll get you a 22.

And I'm like done deal.

That was like the first goal that mentally, I had to overcome something that I really wanted to do.

Like feeling wise, like I really wanted to put my thumb in the mouth.

There's like an habit, but I wanted the gun a little bit more.

So I remember being there as a kid, even though he wasn't a gnome that I suck my thumb.

I'm like, man, man.

I'm not going to do it.

And I remember just quitting at five years old and getting that 22.

I knew how to take it apart, clean it, shoot it.

We had a range in our backyard.

And my long story short, yeah, pops and brother shot up homies house.

And it was all over the news, man.

Channel three, five, eight, 19.

Like, so I remember 11 o'clock at night, I met my cousin Tim's house.

You know, they took me in while this is going on.

My dad barricaded himself for like, you know, a full day in the house.

And we had the safe fools of hundreds of guns.

And I just remember seeing it all over the news.

And so going to school as a kid, different things would happen.

Well, I get off the school bus and there'd be a SWAT team at the house.

There'd be the 911 units at the house.

My dad had just trying to commit suicide.

Like different things would happen throughout the childhood that I remember.

Well, I'd have to go visit them in hospitals.

Just different things like on Christmas, no one, he ain't going to be here

because of this circumstance and this situation.

And, you know, I remember, I think it was Thanksgiving.

Somebody brought over food for us.

And it wasn't because we needed it.

You know, my mom, again, she would be working, hustling, holding things together.

And Ford is such a rock solid company.

They kept and hold onto my dad through all that crap.

So he came out of prison and had a same job.

My mom and dad stayed together.

That's the thing that I'm most proud of Simon is that my mom and dad stayed together

through it all.

They renewed their vows.

So I've seen that good, bad and ugly wedding thing that you say.

It's through, you know, for the good, the bad and all that.

But I got to see somebody actually do it.

You know, it gets on the other side of trust restored, faith restored,

you know, and a good marriage and things like that.

But I remember my mom taking me to see my dad when he was in prison when I was eight

years old.

And when my dad went in there, he had a full head of hair, right?

And like no tats.

He had like one tattoo.

That's it.

And when I went in there to see him, his head was shaved on.

And he was sleet and tats.

So I'm eight years old looking at my dad, like where'd he go?

You know, like where'd he go, dog?

But just to say, dad, you know, and he got a tooth infection in prison.

And then you know, Dennis, up in the joint, so my dad took a pen, right?

And popped out his two front teeth to get the teeth out, you know, get the infection

out, right?

So my dad had pigs, but his forearms and flames.

And that represented cops.

He called cops pigs.

So he had pigs and copped him with some flames, all tented up.

So that was how I was living with my brothers and my mom is basically a body builder that

could hammer cases of alcohol and pump some steroids and squat a lot, that's a lot,

that's scrapped a lot and, you know, type deal.

So it was, it prepares you for the real world.

I don't look at it as negativity.

I look at it as a blessing, you know, to be able to handle whatever's thrown your way

type deal.

Like when you have the coronavirus, those that grew up with me knew my dad, Wayne Smith,

you know, I was more scared some days of that than the coronavirus is ever going to scare

me.

Is that make sense?

You know, just like, I know your story, are you in snooving on the floor while there's

gunshots coming through the crib.

So the virus ain't going to scare you more than what you've already lived through the dirt

in the yo.

No doubt.

No doubt.

Well, speaking of that, what do you think, you know, your success in this business has

been ridiculous, man.

You know, almost, you know, people get uncomfortable talking about it, but I'm not.

You know, I'm going to say, you know, for you to be able to make millions upon millions

upon millions of dollars, you know, over your, what do you got now, Marcus?

19 years in.

Yeah.

Years in a game, you know, the, what things from the transition of coming into American

income transpired, how did that happen?

And how much do you think the adversity that you went through as a kid played a part in

you being able to make it through the adversity that it takes in business?

Because I think any that you talk to, you know, one thing that you and I both know, if

we meet somebody that's had a lot of success, you know, in business somewhere, especially

as an entrepreneurial type figure, we already know they probably went through some similar

things.

Everybody had to go through adversity.

I think the thing that stops people is they break mentally and they don't make it through

those adversities.

I don't know because they haven't grown up or what, but how much do you think that played

a part if any?

Well, here's the good news is I've talked to people and heard people give testimonies

like Matt Parks, who's like, I haven't really been through anything.

Everything was normal.

Everything was great growing up, you know what it means?

So you may have some people like that in your own deal that so the good news is you, you

know, that's the good news because I don't really want anybody to go through that.

It was painful, you know, so if you cannot go through that, that's the better route.

Amen.

You know, but for me, it helped me, like if there was a cancellation in the business, it hurt

me.

If an agent quit me, it hurt me.

If somebody's disloyal and stabs you in the back that you grew up.

with it hurt you. You know, haters, even though it motivates us, you still want everybody

to like you. You don't want people to hate you and hate on you. And so I think that a

lot of it's not just the childhood adversity that helped. It was me being blessed with this

competitive spirit on the inside. Like my dad, like I said, already had a gym working

at Ford, but had a home gym and it all kinds of other side hustles, if that makes sense.

Like he was running, doing dirt with the hell's angels, you know, for them, not with them

but for them, if that makes sense. So he was associated with the different little hustles

and things like that. Playing sports helped me, I think equally as much as the adversity.

So I remember playing soccer and basketball and baseball and football and all these sports

and I loved beating people. Like I loved going out on the soccer field or the baseball field

or the football field. Like it made me lose sleep. And you were probably the same exact

way when you had a game. It's like that was the highlight of the day. Like if my baseball

game got rained out and I looked outside and was raining, I had hoped all day long that

somehow the sun was going to come out and we were going to be able to play our baseball

game. You know, it's like I never wanted sports to be canceled. So sports, the competitive

spirit that my brother installed in the me of just beating me and everything. Constantly

us playing sports, my whole childhood, my brother, Kevin. My dad with bodybuilding and

weight lifting seeing him compete on stage as a child and watching him win and at big trophies

and in the competitive spirit. You know, my uncle Kevin, you know, the kind of freak that

he is and my cousin Tim and I have just this bloodline of competitors. My cousin Wayne Newton

is an entertainment, right? And lost that Mr. Las Vegas. I had this competitive bloodline.

So it's not just the adversity helped me, but sports teaches you how to lose. You don't

win every game. Nobody's undefeated. Like to rim up those bars, probably the closest thing

to it. Sports can create adversity. You get you get hurt. You get injured. You take a loss.

You know, you got to compete. You lose your job. You lose a game. You don't mean all

that stuff creates adversity. Yeah, like me and you aren't six foot four, bro. You know,

we ain't got 50 inch verticals. We don't run four to 40s. But what you can't judge is

another man's heart and another man's mind. You don't know what's going on in here and

in here. So we have instinct and we have will. We have different strengths that somebody

that's six, four doesn't. So I know you were teeing off and spanking up on the bronze

James in high school beating their team in football on your way to your championship.

So there you didn't maybe have his natural physical because he's all statewide out. But

you put him on the football field with you and you're going to attack them. You know what

I mean? So the adversity helped me when there's a cancellation, when there's an agent that

quit, when there's backstabbing, when there's disloyalty, when tough times like this come in

the world or whatever. And the media wants you to panic or put fear in you or whatever.

It's like, you know what? I've already gone through some of this in life with my upbringing,

family being on the news. You feel me being the bad apple of the town.

In your first few years, I don't know how early into American income, but you lost your

dad. When I, yeah. When what part of that was when you started with our company, did

you lose your dad and your brother? So when I started with American, when I started

with the company, but right out of the gates, my dad was my mentor, my partner. So he was

the one that I roleplayed my presentation with. He's the one that I would vent to when I

failed my exam, when I had some type of failures or like vent top frustrations, pots, this

who I could bounce stuff off of, and he'd be able to set me straight. And so right out

of the gates, as I was roleplaying my presentation with my dad and my mom, for my dad was the one

that was highlighting, hey, you missed this word. Hey, you missed this word. He made me, he

made, he want to always want to perfection. And so he was already sick with Lou Gehrig's

disease as I started with the company right out of the gates. And so he passed away in 2003,

and I started in 2001, but he was already sick while I was, why I started with the company.

And then I lost my brother, you know, five months after I lost my father. And so, you know,

it was kind of like I was, you know, in the beginning stages of the company still, but

I became an SGA early in my career like you did. So, you know, it was very early. I was 24

like you were. So even though that happened early, I was like, you know, like when I was

going through, I had to go through as a kid. I still had to go to school. So it wasn't like,

you get this pause button in life of some crap happens. So like I remember going to school

in second grade and third grade when my family's all of the news, when the whole town, I'm famous

for all the wrong reasons. You know what I mean? Like everybody knows my family, but it's for the

wrong reasons, you know. And so that stuff helped me as when business came down the road that I

experienced it as a kid. So now I'm experiencing it in business. So I had to go to school and perform.

You got to go to sports and perform. So American income life, this business globe life, you know,

who mourn, buffet loves and the Dallas Cowboys love. The company we represent, I think it's so cool

that the Dallas Cowboys and Warren Buffett are part of it, but it's our sport. So before it was

football, baseball, basketball, but now business is our sport. And so this just like when crap was

hitting the fan at home when I was seven years old, I'd go outside whether it was raining, sunny,

or snowing, and go bounce the basketball and play. Go take the football and play. Go get on the

floor with our gun shoot and play. Or AIL, globe life is our sport. So when crap happens, I'm like,

let's go play. Let's go have fun. This isn't my best trip all now. This is my football now. That makes

sense. So that adversity wouldn't happen to Dan and brother. I'm like, I gotta deal with it, but guess

what? Let me go get my mind off it and play my sport. You know how many talented people have we

seen being in our business and having a good family or even something smaller. They have a

girlfriend that broke up with over something like that and they completely derail. What mental

toughness tips or what advice would you give for somebody that is in business and in the beginning

stages in business, it's already mentally challenging. It's already physically challenging. There's

a lot of work going in. And then you get hit with something emotionally on top of the amount of

grind that's going on to something physically. You know what, what were your or what are now

advice be to people that are going through stuff like that, building a business?

I like the analogy that you always would give people which was like the calluses.

You know like through weightlifting and bodybuilding, my dad would always teach me the same thing about

these calluses. You know what it mean? And so you gotta get strength somewhere somehow

if you haven't had it from your own personal life up until this point. And a lot of people just

use that stuff to give in versus like allowing it to like I think it derails all of us. Like I

don't think me and you are any different. Like if we're in love and we break up, like you know I

went through a divorce. I mean you were there with me. You in that form, you in that both

when I went through a divorce. Like that was painful but all my brother had to tell me his dude

and he was bad as losing. And all I had to tell myself it ain't as bad as losing my pops and my

brother. So that happened. So it's like I lost dad, lost brother, go through a divorce.

Those are some big blows that any of those can take out some blows that we know. You know what I mean?

And so the good news is is that faith for me, you asked what would I say now? It's like for me is

faith. My relationship that I have with Jesus, my relationship that I have with God,

which my dad taught me about mind body spirit. And I feel like he had the body and the mind

down. And I feel like he was really trying to get the spirit down. But then I got to meet Jim

Sarace Armetzor who was a pastor, you know, an ordained minister. And so that's like his main

thing is God and Jesus. So I was able to learn some business acumen and some God and Jesus from Jim.

So faith for me is what I would suggest to people along with exercise, nutrition, good books,

good podcasts, good audio books. Anything that could shift your mind to think a little bit different.

Like one of my favorite books that you know I probably had you read when you were 22.

Vasu read when he was 22 is as a man's think is, you know, that huge James Allen book.

I remember giving that thing to my brother, Calvinist, it's little books that are quick reads that

can just shift your mind to be like, oh my gosh, I got this. So from what you eat,

what you read is another thing what you eat for your mind. You know, all these things can just

shift you quickly. That's why my dad would teach me about mind body spirit when we were working out.

As a teenager about attitude and perspective and outlook. Your outlook, I was talking to Marcus

Miranelli, I was telling you yesterday. And you know, Steve Amiasa just had coached in the owner

of Strong Style. And we were talking about the importance of outlook and how important outlook is

to outcome. And I think that that's the main thing is when you're going through something,

you can use it so that you can teach somebody else how to go through it later.

Or you can just, you know, build a tent and camp out under it for a long time or a short time.

What I've tried to learn from the time I'm 25, the 28 to 30 is just trying to bridge that gap

of having a self-pity party for myself. So in my dad died, I felt really bad. But I'm like,

you know what, I'm really glad now. He's no longer suffering from this terrible disease

that that Lou Gehr exists. He's in a better place than having this rock and roll.

When my brother passed, I'm like, oh man, this one's things a lot worse because he's 30 years old,

his whole life's in front of him. He's got a seven year old son. He's married. Man,

this is no good. So that one, I was under the tent a little longer. But then I had to wake up and say,

I got to live the rest of my life and make it the best of my life for him.

So at that point, I was like, save, save, save, save everything, right?

Once he passed, I'm like, man, let me go buy a whip. You know, life could be over tomorrow.

Let me go do this. Life could be over tomorrow. He taught me how to save, but also how to spend a little

because you never know what tomorrow even comes, right? So the advice would be to use these things,

but not camp out under them for a long amount of time, trying to shorten the bridge,

shorten that gap of let me not feel too bad about this. Let me look at the positive side.

So I'm like, I'm going to live the best life for my brother now. I'm going to step up for his son.

I'm going to change the direction for my family. Find positives and try to be the light in dark times.

Mention your relationship with God and how that has helped you.

You would think a lot of the people that I come in contact with when they start to lose loved ones

or lose a brother or stuff like that is when their faith goes down. Their faith and price goes down.

How has that still been a part of your life? How has your faith grown over time?

How has that grown? How did that happen? How did you not lose your faith?

What I like to sign then is that first is that I didn't really believe in God growing up.

I didn't even believe in it. You know what I mean? So I had all that stuff going on like I told you.

So when I'm five years old and shooting guns and eight years old and this stuff happened and we move,

I'm like I'm not going to church and praying and thinking God is something that's real.

I'm like if so he would have he would have changed this if that makes sense. What I didn't realize is

how real the devil is. You know Satan is you know he's as real as God is if that makes sense.

So what was your question on God? Like how did he lose faith in it?

Yeah I lose the faith. So I didn't lose the faith because I didn't get faith in it really until I was like

19 years old. So once I got it there was enough for him that I saw like personal experience-wise

that I had personal like encounters with God where I would pray certain things that only he could do,

that only he could deliver, that nobody else could do, that I'm like all right this is real.

So let me but I don't believe it yet. Let me test him one more time.

All right I'm a test him in this area and I'll test him and then he provoked to me again.

So when it came time to my dad dying, when my brother dying,

again I may have gotten hit when my faith takes a hit where I'm

down a little bit but I don't lose belief and put the blame on God.

So I didn't blame God for my dad getting a disease.

And I didn't blame God for my brother having a heroin

over and up.

But I can blame Satan for all the bad that's happened to me.

From the time I was a kid, five years old enough,

any evil, any destruction in my family, any tear,

is from Satan.

It's not my mom, it's not my dad.

They both did the best they possibly could with the cards

they were dealt because my dad's dad died

when he was nine years old.

So now my dad is the man of the house with five other siblings.

He had to drop out of school in ninth grade to provide

and make everything happen for his family.

My mom's mom sucked.

I don't even call her my grandma.

You know what I mean?

Like, he sucked towards my mom.

I always tell you I adopt boot.

I adopt Chuck.

He's when I think of grandparents,

those are the kind of people I think of as grandparents

because that's not what I got to observe with my mom

and with my dad.

Does that make sense?

So my faith in it is, I don't blame God for the bad.

I blame Satan for the bad and I blame God for the good.

So anything that good came out of the bad is from God.

But thank you God for his grace and mercy

for using all this for my good.

Using all this for my mom,

always was a positive light through stuff.

When I saw her be positive way more than negative

through whatever circumstance that hit her,

and I mean, she got hit left and right, man.

She lost her husband.

She lost her son.

You know, my brother, Tevin was a knucklehead to deal with.

You know, you know, how easy I am to deal with.

She'd been calling me a lawyer.

It's not been six years old.

You know what I mean?

Like he's gonna be a lawyer.

He's gonna be a lawyer.

You know what I mean?

So my poor mom, you feel me?

So that's what I would say, man, is that I learned

that the good comes from God when I read His word.

It was a light and there's so much good in it.

Why I think somehow people think it's a lot of bad

in the Bible, but they call it the good news.

I've never heard anybody call the Bible the bad news,

but I've heard him call it the good news.

So that'd be my answer on that.

I want to switch gears a little bit and start to

cool some things out of you to add value to the people

that are listening from a business perspective even more

now that we've got some of your story down.

You know, Marcus is, you know, somebody that,

you know, I told you all that,

it should be for this company to call the man

and we could even call that a little bit

with that experience was like,

how many of you got so close so fast?

With, you know, the tangent and the run that we went on

over a couple of years period.

But, you know, Marcus is somebody right now

that not only does he have a nice house

and he's owned every nice car out there,

but he's a single dad.

He has his daughter that lives with him,

my goddaughter, Adrienne,

and he's been a single dad for over a decade.

You know, and building a business

and going through everything else as well.

So, successful loyal as a friend,

decent business, unbelievable father man.

So you put it all together and meant people

and you develop more successful people

in this company than anyone.

What do you think separates people?

What separates, you know, the people that you've seen

come into this company that make it and don't make it?

What are the qualities that separate the greats?

So, number one, it's that competitive spirit.

Where there's a will, there's a way, right?

We've heard that for so long.

And so like once somebody believes something in their mind,

that they can accomplish something and do something,

I don't believe anything can stop that human being

in that individual.

And my father drilled this into me,

that your mind is the most powerful weapon and tool

that you'll ever have.

He would often tell me that the average human being

only uses like 10% of their brain.

And he'd often teach me how to tap in

to more than 10% of my brain.

What was good is by the time he was teaching me this stuff,

like I was a sponge.

So it's like, I didn't know he was gonna die five years later.

You know what I mean?

But before this already, soccer, baseball, basketball, football,

what separates that elite performer in sports

is no different than what separates

the elite performer in business.

That's why I started talking about business athletes

years ago.

Because I started drawing the parallels

of what makes somebody unique.

And it's that competitive spirit to want to win,

that you hate losing so much.

You hate losing more than you love winning.

Like that's number one.

You hate losing more than you love winning.

You just like, you can't understand losing.

You've seen us, we were playing basketball in that men's league, right?

Point against 18 year olds, 19 year olds.

I think we were down by like 20.

It's like, we got this.

We're gonna come back in.

We fought back in, you know, different things.

It's playing football, being down

when the patrons are down 28, 3.

What makes Tom Brady different?

And it's not just 28, 3 and half time.

Okay, they were down 28, 3.

With like 3 and a half minutes left in the third quarter.

And they have it ain't over.

It's not over.

It's not over yet.

It's not over.

Like we, they don't win until we give up.

And so when I seen this stuff happen as a kid,

like with my father, I'm like,

well, I'm never giving up on life.

Like, I don't know what he's thinking.

So I learned the negative from him.

Seen a ton of positives from my mom,

but then seeing my dad transform and change

later on to teach me all these positives, right?

In sports, what makes Simon ariest

do what he does on the football field?

What makes Simon ariest do what he does in Jiu-Jitsu

or Muay Thai or kickboxing or boxing

compared to somebody else?

It's in here, man.

It's in here and in here.

It's the head of the heart that I want this more than you do.

And I'm willing to do more than you are.

Longer than you're willing to do it.

For as long as I have to do it,

until I get exactly what I told myself I wanted.

So if I say I want to championship in the football field,

I'm gonna get it.

If I want to championship in basketball, I'm gonna get it.

If I get a championship in the business,

I'm gonna get it.

What separates them?

It's that competitive spirit that does not allow them

to rest or break their focus

until they seize that crown that they determined

was the crown.

Right for me and you, maybe the first level was

when we got through 100 grand a week.

Like that was the first thing that said, okay, right?

Then we're like, well let's go to two,

let's go to three, let's go to four, let's go to five.

And that's where our hustle mentality grown up,

street hustle mentality of keep doubling up.

So it's like what separates the people in the business world?

It's a few of those factors.

It's the athlete, like Michael, magic, bird.

They could drop 60 on you tonight and go tomorrow

and drop 40 on you, 50 on you if they wanted to.

Reset that button, like last night don't mean nothing.

I'm trying to get a championship.

Nothing will stop in those guys from getting championships.

Don't matter who drafted them.

What do you think, what do you think stops the people

that got the talent in the business

but they never reached those pinnacle levels?

Because they don't want, they're okay with income

and lifestyle stuff more than winning

and losing and challenging themselves.

So not everybody wants to challenge themselves.

It's very uncomfortable to say okay.

Like imagine if you and I stopped at 100 grand a week,

we'd still be considered elite, right?

What stops these people is that they stop competing.

They don't have this will to want to get better.

Like even if I wasn't improving in production,

I'm improving in another avenue of the business

that brings in revenue somehow.

I'm competing, although I've seen people

that are really competitive

but still not do what it takes or what it requires.

They're not willing to.

Level.

But for example, the broad James, Michael Jordan, Tom Brady,

they don't have an off season.

They take a week or two of vacation off forever,

but they're in the lab Simon.

They're identifying their weaknesses.

They're looking at do I need to improve my left hand?

Do I need to improve my jump shot?

Do I need to improve my three step drop?

Do I need to improve my mechanics?

They're constantly improving two things.

They're mindset and their skillset and their heart.

So a lot of these athletes,

like it's no different in the business.

I'd do a line in the same a long time ago

and I'm like, why do some people become great

and others don't?

And the answer to that is the ones that have the discipline,

that's one of your favorite words is discipline.

The key is one of the keys.

The ones that want to choose to say,

I'm going to improve my mind by reading books,

listening to podcasts,

talking to the people that are doing bigger and better

than I am and absorb the information and apply it.

That's number one.

Number two, and by healthy.

Because if I'm healthy, I'm going to be able to work longer

and stronger if there's 365 days out of the year

and my sleep's right, my nutrition's right,

my exercise is right.

I'm not going to get sick as often as somebody

that doesn't sleep right, doesn't eat right,

doesn't exercise right.

I'm going to have more energy, more confidence.

My immune system will be stronger to fight off things

that it tries to hit me with.

And then for me, if me and you are in Jiu-Jitsu,

we're UFC fighters, right?

And me and you are in a fight today.

And let's say you have faith and I don't.

Well, if you knock me out,

I don't have anywhere else to go.

If I knock you out, you got one other gear to go to,

which is your faith.

So if talent equals skill sets, equal,

everything else is equal, I'm going to bet on my faith.

The worst thing that can happen,

if I didn't believe, is all join what the unbelievers join.

You feel me?

That's the worst thing.

But the best thing that can happen is I go where I believe.

So faith can get me through different things

that somebody else maybe that don't have faith.

So I believe the faith investment is the best investment

I've made, it's empowered me.

It's made me think I can do all things

through Christ's strength, it's me.

So it gives me this, I don't want to call it cockiness

or arrogance, it's a confidence in Christ

that made me that I can, whatever I put my mind to

and heart to, I really can't accomplish.

So I have to go to the lab side

I have probably 100 weaknesses that I've identified.

Some of them, it's easier to correct than others.

Like, you know, so I'm constantly writing down errors

of like man, my delivery sucks, my tone sucks,

I got pride issues, I got ego issues,

I got arrogance issues,

things that the Bible's already pointed out to me

or maybe you pointed out to me

or Jim Saracus pointed out to me

or somebody that loves me has pointed out to me.

And I could, but that doesn't mean

that my jump shot becomes great

in one off season or two off seasons.

It becomes great when it becomes great.

The key is, am I willing to work at it, study at it,

practice it and accept it and own it

and want to get better at it.

So the people that have the talent

and don't become what they can become

is because they choose not to become what they can become.

So you know, one of Jim's lines I think is,

could you imagine living a life

that you could have should have would have had

versus what you're currently doing, right?

And so I think that's that line in the sand

and those key areas.

And we talk about mind-body spirit

and also that competitive drive though

of do you want to become the best at what you do?

What are, what are, what are, what are,

are people's like blind spots, you know,

like things that people don't see.

Leaders, you know, what are, what are some common things

if you can think about like, you know,

what would a leader's blind spot be?

You know, people that you've developed

or that you're working with, like things that most people

don't see, like you're, you know, when you're driving.

This distribution of credit, how you distribute credit,

how you recognize people, you know,

from the time I've grown off, I've seen politics

and favoritism, you know, I'm sure you have to Simon, right?

When you're playing, me and you aren't tall.

So we're not gonna be the guy said,

they actually stick out on sports right away

when it comes to things.

So you'll get, I've seen politics play out in sports.

I've seen politics play out in business.

It's like sometimes the best kids don't get to play.

Sometimes the best kids don't get drafted.

And so it's like distribution of credit goes into the,

that as well. And what I mean by that is, let's say me and you are a math teacher. And

you're in, we got two classrooms and you got a bunch of C students and I got a bunch

of A students. But let's say your C students are maximizing their abilities, man. And they're

doing the best they can. But my A student sits just like, comes naturally too much easy

to them. Which class is really the winners? So the A students may get all the credit and

all the recognition when the C student is the one that's really busing their rear. And

in football games, it's like the linemen. Like good running backs, good quarterbacks,

always take care of their line. You know, like I have, you know, Babsam Flippa, Nat D.

Like that's our, that's our offensive line. That's our center. That's our guard. That's

our, that's our, that's our, that's our left tackle, right? And a lot of times in the business

and people don't treat them like that. Not saying not all people treat them like that.

I know you do. But I know several times in the career, I've had ideas when I'm like,

man, let's do this for best. Let's do that for best. And I know how you take care of

Nat D and your people. And so I think how you take care of your credit giving means a lot

in business for sure. And other blind sides, man, are, are money. It's the one thing I've

seen stick out to me over and over and over. It's a couple of things. People will come in

and work with you. Simon and, and whatever they were making before, let's say it was 50,

60, 70 grand a year. And how they come and working with you and they're making 200 grand

a year. And their bank saving statements three years from today may not be significantly

better than when they first started. So somebody will quadruple their income but not quadruple

their savings. Like, they'll quadruple buying cars, buying clothes, buying jewelry, buying

all kinds of things. Instead of saving, like, you know, I saw you live in a condo, right?

You saw me live in a condo. We held our water for a long time. So people like you say

they see whatever, but they didn't see what we did in 2008 when the recession and depression

hit in 2009. You know what I mean? They didn't see all the stuff we waited for, delayed gratification.

And maybe all the people around us making more money than us. And we're just sitting back,

feeding everybody as much as we can, making sure they're full, not worried about our own plate being

full. And nobody ever sees those things. So they always think whatever they think. You know what

I mean? And so I think the blind side is people don't save enough money from what they make. So my

grandma always taught me it's not what you make. It's what you keep. She always would say,

save for a rainy day. That rainy day is when the government says, yeah, you can't go to work

to no more. Nobody knew this was a possibility. This ain't never happened where the government says,

how many people thought they were business owners to find out they weren't really business owners?

That the government can shut you down and lock you down at any moment in time. It's made me change

the way I'm thinking and planning for my future with how I have things set up in life. Because I'm

like these cats, who's to say they can't just put a freeze on something and take everything that you

have built. So the blind side is the government dog. That's the big blind side is like you don't want

to get behind with Uncle Sam. Think about how many movie stars, actors, actresses that the federal

government or athletes have taken down and taken out from the IRS. That internal revenue system

is that's a blind side like like no other dog. No doubt. No doubt. And divorces, man. Like you better be real,

you better be real careful with who you marry. Like otherwise that's a real blind side is relationships.

I've seen relationships kill more people off than anything else. Amen. Trunks brother.

And wrapping up, I didn't start with this in the beginning. I wanted to make something.

Maybe from your perspective, from your point of view, I think people hear a lot from my point of view

what it was like for me to do this amount of time that we spent together and what happened

in the business and how much that I attribute my success to you and Jim Sirace.

But they haven't really heard from you as much on what it was like to coach me. What was it like?

How does that look like your mind? Boke over to phone to the time that how do you think transpire from there?

Two words. Coaches dream. Coaches dream. You don't hear that often from coaches like y'all.

Here's a coach's dream because it's so rare to find individuals that have unbelievable attitude,

unbelievable effort, unbelievable talent, unbelievable competitive spirit,

and want to be a team first player in all regards, all the time, to help out anybody

and everybody on the team. So to me, it was always such a pleasure because you have deep loyalty.

Your loyalty is through the roof. I contribute that. I'm sure to boo to your mom.

You know what I mean? It's through the family that I've met. I see it through them.

Their sisters and how tight they are. So your loyalty and commitment was unmatched to becoming the best

by being the best student, by being what we call coachable. That's able coachable, able to be coached.

To me, whether I was folding towels or washing dishes, recleaning urinals, whatever it was,

I always wanted to be the best. So if somebody came in and inspected my work,

they didn't find any dirt left behind. So if I mop the floor, clean dishes,

I was always trying to be like squeaky clean. You ain't got to inspect my work. I did my work.

And anytime that I would walk by you, training somebody in any capacity, coaching them,

leading them, helping them become successful, I'm always like man, he's the best student. He's

the most coachable. He's the easiest to work with because not only does he want to do everything

we coach, but he does it at such a high level. So you're the best copycat that we've had.

And I try to be the best copycat. You know, that's what we have in common. It's that we don't

claim to be the smartest. We don't claim to be the most talented. But I will research. I have to

study and you know me Simon. I annoy you and I annoy probably everybody that we work with

because I'm a very slow learner. So people think I'm a fast learner. I'm really not. It takes me

a very long time to understand something. But once I understand it, then I got it. Like it's done.

So it gets concrete, cemented in me. And I think you're quicker. And that you pick up things and

you grasp things a lot quicker and you're able to copy them a lot quicker. So I think man,

in a nutshell, just a coach's dream. Still to this day, dog, there ain't been no one to walk

through the doors since 2005 of your pedigree of respect, gratitude, appreciation.

Like you know, you know me, man, like I'm not the easiest to get along with. But you know for a fact

when it comes to loyalty and wanting what's right, not only for everybody, but let's say Jim Sirace

or you or anybody, I'm always like, dude, I'll give up whatever. It's never about a dollar

or anything like that. I'm a more, I want it to be right. Well, I think most people think we got

to be right. And I think you're like that. You always just wanted to have it right. You didn't care

about who got credit, or this or that. You just wanted to be right and help the team win at all

causes, man. And so from your loyalty to your gratitude, to your coachability, to your work ethic,

to, I mean, just if we were drafting quarterbacks, your Joe Montana, you know, your Patrick Mahomes,

your, all those dudes wrapped up into one, bro. I appreciate you. I didn't realize how uncomfortable

it was going to be for me to hear you give me some compliments, because I know you don't give those

out too, too often. So I'm like, huh? What was that? It was hard for me to not smile. But anyway,

we got to do this again. I think we just found a way for me and you to do some more podcasts

together because you don't have to leave the casa. So I think you can call them a zoom cast. We

call them a zoom cast. You don't need to call it a podcast. The all gets a zoom cast or a live cast.

We probably can throw this stuff off Facebook and just do live casts for our cast money business.

We have a gatherer. You know what I'm saying? That's been virtual since 2017. And you know, we've had

a ton of success stories with those guys and girls. Very proud of them and the business we've

been helping run with those with those fine gentlemen and ladies. Absolutely. You know, I think

the best is yet to come for you. The best is yet to come for both of us. I'm excited. We're,

you know, what do you mark? It's 38, 39. In my mind, I'm 22. That's the problem.

You know what's going to happen when you when you 40 dog, you're going to be mad at me. I'm

going to come over there and throw you a birthday party. I told you we're going to have to go to

the Bahamas or somewhere from my 40 and that's you know, they left these travel bands. You know, me,

I don't mind if we don't travel. I've been practicing social distancing for years. That's what

introverts do. You know, you've been on this quarantine thing and social distancing for a while. All

you was missing was the mast, dog. Ain't nothing changed for you, brother. You've been prepared for this.

Yeah, man. Introverted. That's it. I appreciate you, Marcus. And congratulations on all your success.

Not only in what you've accomplished in this business, but just as a friend and as a father and

everything that you do, your loyalty is matched in the way that I see you with which your daughter

gives me a conflict to aspire to be like in all the way that the way that you treat people

and the sickening results that you get and the people that you've developed and the people that

that we could put on a stage, you know, when we get our company together at the highest levels

at convention or whatever and all the people that stand on a stage that you've impacted their life

in so many ways, mentally, physically, spiritually, financially, at such a young age, man.

I know I'm grateful for you and I know I speak on behalf of all of us. We're all grateful

for what you've done for all of us, bro. And I'm happy you picked up the phone and called my ass

and called my resume, brother, and changed my life. So I appreciate you, big dog. Thanks for

coming on the grind, Kaz. Let's get it. You love you brother. Count money, man.

Money, man. That gritches. I'm trying to talk, trying to talk to my beast, but